SOURCE – After a series of albums in the 2000s, you completely dropped out of sight for about ten years. Were you still involved in music in any way?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – After the farewell concert In 2006, everyone thought that this was the ending for Beseech. Myself along with several other ex-members were invited to celebrate and to participate in this final ritual on stage. At that time everyone from the latter edition of Beseech wanted to do other things in life, but the main reason was probably because of musical differences.
Robert Vintervind (guitar) who was the main composer at the time, needed a break from making music. Eventually Robert and Manne Engström (my replacement as a guitarist) founded their new band Lavette together with our longtime friend and producer Christian Silver. The remaining members that did not got so much creative attention in Beseech, moved on and founded their new band The Mary Major. So no one was kicked out of the band, everyone left Beseech on that day, confronting other musical challenges.
At that time I had already been gone for three years. After our third album Souls Highway, I realized that my 11 years as a songwriter and guitarist in Beseech had come to an end. I wanted to try something new in order to develop as a songwriter. Still attracted to dark music, I kept on writing while I was forming my new band Depressive Art. During this time something excited happened to me. I found an expression in my own voice, strong enough to continue as a lead singer. For this band I also took a completely different musical direction, back to the psychedelic 1960s discovering progressive and garage rock.
Creativity was finally running through my veins again, and when I look back I think that Depressive Art was the best thing that could happen to me, eventually also something good for Beseech since it affected me as a songwriter.
SOURCE – The band was on hiatus from 2007 to 2012. What was the reason for that?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – During the years when Beseech was put to rest, me and Robert talked a lot about doing something creative with music, but it took us many years to finally realize that the two of us should be doing something proper, like a reunion of Beseech. Perhaps we weren’t finished with our previous bands and projects until now? Other things in life… I don’t know? Anyway, in the summer of 2012 me and Robert were ready for Beseech again, so we contacted Manne about joining the band again (he accepted) and then the three of us entered StudioMega (the classic Beseech studio since 1995) to figure out the new direction of the band. This time with much more experience as both musicians and songwriters, we were really excited since we could hear the potential in our new songs. At an early stage we also realized that it was time to make some space for the third generation of singers, which includes me and Angelina Sahlgren Söder (vocals). At that time we also invited the producer Johan Örnborg (bass & producer), whom we had worked with at several occasions at StudioMega with our former bands and projects. As expected, Johan contributed with some really cool ideas developing our new sound, so we asked him if he wanted the job on bass (he accepted). Last but not least, we also decided to put a more intense and technical guy behind the drums, Håkan Carlsson.
Why we decided to include Håkan and Angelina in the Beseech family, depends on many things, but the main reason was because we wanted to continue with people that we already musically knew. Since I had the pleasure from working with both of them in the progressive band The Fantastic People, I knew that they were really cool people. Me and Håkan also went to StudioMega and Johan to do the final mixing of an album with this band, and also Manne and Robert with their projects as well, so there has been an important afterlife where StudioMega came to play an important role for Beseech, we just didn’t know it at the time. Today Manne is also the main owner of StudioMega, which made our life quite easy during the recordings of the new album.
SOURCE – Tell us about the new album, My Darkness, Darkness. The tracks I’ve heard so far sound/feel like a return to the band’s roots. What were your goals for this release? Was there anything specific you set out to accomplish?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – That our music took that specific direction, was nothing we had in mind to achieve. It just happened while me and Robert were presenting our new riffs. Once we started jaming, it felt like time traveling. Back to our roots, doing our thing with delivering the same melancholic tunes as in the early days, but with a vintage oriented twist that probably has more to do with rock than metal these days.
SOURCE – What does the band listen to for inspiration while writing new material, both metal and nonmetal (if any)?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – When we started playing in 1992, we were just a bunch of teenagers that was quite easy affected by music from other bands, death metal in particular. When it comes down to the basic writing for My Darkness, Darkness, I have written three songs with Robert, two with Manne and then some of my own. The three of us have different sources for inspiration.
For me it never begins with hearing other music. It has to be a certain vibe, or a feeling that somehow strikes me. Total silence is also important. Then I pick up my acoustic guitar trying to create the basic riffs along with a rough sketch for the lyrics. Today I don’t think that we are consciously influenced by a certain band or so. I also have to admit that I’m not so updated with whats going within the metal scene these days. I guess that I had too much of that in the past while we were struggling with our first demos. At the moment I listen a lot to the legendary singer songwriter Townes Van Zandt, damn that man knows how to write proper songs. Very dark songs, indeed.
For the new album, when I wrote songs together with Robert and Manne, they usually presented their ideas by sharing rough demos, so that I could move on with the vocal melodies and the lyrics. Later on, when we entered the studio, our bass player and producer Johan Örnborg did some tweakin in order to finetune the structure for each song, along with making the settings for the sound. Then of course, everyone in the band added their individual touch as musicians. I would be a pity to not involve them, after all we are a band and ideas are always worth trying.
SOURCE – If Beseech were beginning today – not 24 years ago – would the journey towards success prove easier or more difficult?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – Then we would just have been another band following greater bands, it’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s nothing that I would recommend for a band with ambitions to do so in 2016. In the early 90s when Beseech was founded, a lot of exciting stuff was going on within the innovative parts of the death metal scene. Beseech was actually quite early with adding female vocals, acoustic guitars and classical instruments into a new genre that barely didn’t exist. Then someone wrote a review telling that we were playing gothic metal.
SOURCE – What other music besides metal/rock do the members of Beseech like, and how do those influences affect your sound?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – It says that everything that surrounds us affects us. The most obvious influence comes perhaps from dark country music. As you can hear on our new album, me and Angelina (vocals) have been working a lot with adding harmony vocals in ways that are not so common within the gothic scene. Then we are also doing a cover of the masterpiece song Highwayman, originally written by Jimmy Webb, but probably most known from the all star country band Highwaymen featuring Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. I’m very attracted to dark music, but in general it has very little to do with metal. For me as a songwriter, I think it’s necessary to listen to other kinds of music than the stuff you are writing and playing. Bands and artist that are important to me at the moment are: The Doors, Midlake, Soulsavers, The Tea Party, Soulsavers, Depeche Mode, Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, Mc5, The Soundtrack of our lives etc.
SOURCE – How much trouble do you have with day jobs conflicting with touring and general band responsibilities?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – Beseech is not a major band, so we have regular jobs like everybody else. It’s important to know our limits so that we can do both. Then if we’ll make a great impact with our new album ”My Darkness, Darkness” we will take it from there.
SOURCE – Is the current metal scene still strong in Sweden, or has it been surpassed by some other Scandinavian countries?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – I think that we still are doing pretty OK. Personally I like the new wave of metal from Sweden with bands like Hypnos, Graveyard and Spiders.
SOURCE – There is also a big rise on crowdfunding, with many artists and bands choosing to get financial support directly from the fans. What’s your opinion on this way of financing, and have you as a band ever considered using it for a new album release?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – Not really, but I wouldn’t say that we might gonna need it some day. The music industry is not the same as it used to be, there is less money involved everywhere.
SOURCE – Anything else you would like to add or think the readers should know about you guys?
Klas Bohlin (Vocals) – Check out our new record ”My Darkness, Darkness”, out on the 4th of March on Despotz Records. And of course, we hope to meet you all on the road. For those who haven’t heard Beseech before, check out our videos!
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