UN: Hearse very well might be a new band to many people out there. I was wondering if you could possibly let us in on how the band came together. From what I read in the bio it seems like it was just three friends getting together to play music. It´s very uncommon these days to see a band have the same line-up album to album. You guys have never had a line-up change, so obviously you guys get along.

Max: Well, Johan lives pretty far from Stockholm, where me and Mattias live, which means we don´t have to see his ugly face that often. Perhaps that´s why, he he! Nah, just kidding. (Love ya Johan!) I guess we´re grown up people that know how to solve the problems that come up. Mattias and I got to know eachother while working at the same school. Every break we discussed old heroes like Kiss and Alice Cooper. He wasn´t at all into extreme metal, so when I was up for starting a new band I thought it´d be interesting to have a guitarist that comes from a different musical background. I knew he was a terrific acoustic guitarist, but to be honest I had no idea that he was such a shredder! So that sure was a nice surprise! Johan and I go way back. We started our first band together back in like ´84-´85. So when he left Arch Enemy it felt quite natural asking him to join. Was about time we got together again making some noise!

Then I guess being just three in the band also makes it easier to get along. Well, not if you look at my old heroes Motörhead and Venom, he he! But for us! This band is pretty much based upon friendship.

UN: Do you think it´s the members of the bands eclectic taste in music that helps give Hearse a varied sound? I was looking over all of the members favorite albums and there is a lot of variety, and quite a few surprises. You have elements that remain constant from track to track, but there is a lot of variety, and even a few surprises like classical guitar interludes.

Max: Yep, I´m pretty sure that our pretty varied taste when it comes to music has left tracks in our music. And then I guess we´ve got a pretty loose attitude to our music. I mean we never think in terms like “Is this metal enough?” or anything like that. Guess it was the same thing even with our old death metal bands back in the early 90´s. Me and Johan come from the punk scene of the 80´s and then got into the death metal scene in the late 80´s, but there has always been music from other genres too along the way. And I guess that keeps your mind pretty fresh. I don´t really see the point in just listening to one type of music. Doesn´t seem very evolving to me.

UN: Do you think that people need an open mind to tackle the music of Hearse? The song Play Without Rules has almost too fitting of a title. I love the organ solo, which flows right into a blistering fast part with a fast guitar solo. You just don´t hear things like that in metal. Do you think that metal has become a bit too safe? There seems to be very few bands that are willing to take chances. Look at the 70´s, every band was taking chances, and sure some of it didn´t work, but when it did they created some of the most timeless music ever.

Max: I´m sure a lot of of people won´t understand what the hell we are doing. To us it´s quite natural mixing in a lot of elements in our music. As I mentioned it was the same thing back in our old band Furbowl back in the early 90´s. I never saw the point in trying to follow a “death metal concept”. That wasn´t really what we were out for. But on the other hand I guess that´s nothing I really think about when I make music. I just don´t follow any certain rules or anything like that. This is just the way it turns out when we make music. Of course I love a lot of “straight-ahead-no-originality-at-all death metal bands” too, but it´s not the way I want us to sound.

About the 70´s you´re so right about that. A lot of the music from that time is totally freaked out and I guess that´s what I love about music from that time. Then the 70´s is the time when I began listening to music which means the 70´s music is a bit special to me. I love a lot of music from that time like Kiss, Alice Cooper, Sabbath, Angel, Rush, Zeppelin, Yes, Uriah Heep, Purple, Cheap Trick, Sweet etc.

UN: Things seemed to come together pretty quickly for you guys, you recorded the demo and were signed to Hammerheart. Were you guys pleased that labels were showing interest in the band so early in your career? Then again, you guys aren´t new to the music scene, so it´s not like this is your first band.

Max: It´s always a terrible time in a band´s carieer looking for a deal. Or I guess that´s not really the truth. This could also be a fantastic time, especially when you´re young. Anyway this time I just wanted a record out so we could get something going. So I sure was happy when Hammerheart wanted to release the album. Then it turned out that the label manager also saw mine and Johan´s old band Furbowl at a gig in Holland ten years ago and that he was really into Furbowl, so that was pretty much it! Hammerheart or Karmageddon media as it´s called now has been pretty good to us and I´m very satisfied with their work so far.

UN: Were you guys at all worried when you heard Hammerheart was closing down? Did they make all of the bands know right away that they were still signed to Karmageddon? I´m sure none of the bands would have wanted to be forgotten or left in limbo.

Max: I got an e-mail from the label manager just like a week after we had recorded “Armageddon Mon Amour”. When I read the first sentencies I sure got worried. But then the e-mail said that they were reforming the company and that we were still on. So there really was no difference. Would have felt pretty awful standing there with a new album recorded and no label to release it. Well, hopefully their new cooperation with Plastic Head in England will turn out great.

UN: Would you say that there has been a progression from Dominion Reptilian to the new album? Did you guys explore anything on this new album that you didn´t on the first album?

Max: Looking back at the first album now is a bit painful actually. What the hell were we doing, he he? Especially the production ain´t that bloody impressive. I sure love Venom and their crappy production suits them just fine, but I sure didn´t want our album to sound like that, he he! I wanted a heavy, rough and somewhat loose production and with this second album I think we´ve come a lot closer to that.

Songwise I guess there´s no major change. Perhaps this one is a bit faster than the first one. And of course a lot better!

UN: I have to say that I was totally impressed with the album art. But I have to tell you, I´m curious to ask what exactly it represents. Can you also explain the meaning of the album name? I´m probably wrong, but the cover almost makes me think on religion and blind faith.

Max: It´s basically built upon the ex title of the first track of the album. It was first called Sun Mountain and there you have it. Then we changed it to Mountain of the solar eclipse. But as the cover took form we came up with more and more ideas and now it sure can be seen a picture of religion and blind faith! That´s how I see it too! People climbing up to come closer to God, no matter what. And from that whole in the mountain my ex boss´s (the devil woman) hands reaches out to strangle her employees. So you have God in the top and her, the Devil in the bottom, he he!

UN: Do you guys have a pretty anything goes attitude towards songwriting? It seems like you could pretty much do anything you want and it would work. Is there ever anything you guys come up with that is just too far removed? I wouldn´t really expect a blues song, but hell you never know it might fit.

Max: We´ve got a bunch of songs ready for the next album and they´re mainly blues songs. Nah,just kidding, but blues is kinda cool, so why not? I was in Chicago some years ago and went to some blues clubs and it sure was cool! But I guess that extreme metal will always be the base in our music. Otherwhise I guess that we feel no whatsoever limitations. Guess we could make it the easy way and play ordinary death metal and sell a lot more albums, but that isn´t what we wanna do. That wouldn´t be us, I guess!

UN: I noticed on your website that there are no tour dates listed. I was wondering if you guys are indeed a live band? It seems that with a new album out you´d be hitting the road to support it, if even only a little bit. Do you guys just mainly play local shows in Sweden?

Max: Well, we aren´t really the touring band. But we´ll most like do some European shows this Autumn. Guess that´s about time!

UN: I think Hearse is a breath of fresh air for the Swedish scene. It seems like for awhile it was becoming extremely cluttered with clone bands, and hell, even the bigger bands just aren´t writing music that is all that exciting these days. I did however enjoy the new Dismember, glad to see them back in top form. Are you guys still into the Swedish music scene as much as you once were? Sick of melodic death metal yet?

Max: I´d be a liar if I said that I was thrilled about the death metal scene of 2004. There´s probably tons of good bands out there, but I´m just not that interested anymore as I was back at the time when death metal felt fresh. I still love the old bands like Morbid Angel, Entombed, Carcass, Napalm Death...well, I´d say all the early albums from Earache was just superduper! Sweden also had a bunch of cool bands like Entombed, Dismember, Grave, At the Gates etc. Nowadays there´s just so many bands I´ve sort of lost track of it all! Melodic death metal? It´s not really what I´m listening to. I mean I think that for example In Flames is a great band, but it´s not really my thing. Make sence? Guess not, he he! I´ m actually pretty lousy updated when it comes to today´s death metal scene.

UN: Another aspect of the band that I find refreshing are the ideas expressed in the lyrics. Too many bands are quick to go the gore route or the satanic route. It´s nice to see a band playing extreme music, yet having personal lyrics. I think it goes along perfectly with the bands almost punky approach in some songs. Is it important for you guys to have personal lyrics that hopefully people can relate to and get into more then tired old cliches?

Johan: I feel that if there's something on my mind that I'd like to share with other people, I just write it down to sort of "get it out of my system". Hopefully some can relate to it. Even though it tends to get a bit on the personal side I don't wanna be too pretentious - it's just a bunch of words thrown together that should fit to the music we perform - and hopefully make some sense too.

Max: Both Mattias and me worship the devil, drink blood and eat human flesh. We also use to cut up ourselves badly. Yesterday Mattias actually cut off his whole arm. That´s pure evil! Just wanted you to know that, in case you´d think that we also were as geaky as Johan. We´re not! If I was to decide we´d just sing about Satan and screwing corpses!

UN: What would you say are your goals for Hearse as a band? I think once the name starts spreading a bit more, it´ll get around like wild fire. Are you hoping that a lot of people will take a chance on the new album, especially since it´ll probably be in a lot more music stores in North America now?

Max: Well, my main priority with the band is having fun, and as long as this gives me kicks and makes me feel good I´m more than happy actually! Then of course I´d be lier if I said that I don´t care what people think about our music. But I guess that if I really wanted to gain people´s interest I should start another Cannibal Corpse clone instead. Cos´ it´s pretty obvious that the metal kids in general are no different than the MTV generation; they want something they´ve heard before so they don´t have to use their brain too much. So obviously playing the music we do won´t make it easier to sell albums and that´s something we sure are aware of, but on the other hand we´d never do it differently just to sell more albums (sorry Candlelight, he he!). This is the way we make music and if people like the new album noone´s happier than us, and if they don´t -no problem, at least we tried!

Thanx a lot for your support! /Max