SOURCE – Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece or album (Land of Weeping Souls) that’s particularly dear to you, please? Where do ideas come from, what do you start with and how do you go about shaping these ideas?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – Well indeed the new album is very dear to us, we are very happy with it and how it sounds. As for how it came about, it started like it pretty much always does. We felt the need to make an album an started the process of writing riffs, and then piecing them together with the drums in the rehearsal room. Mostly through the years its me and the drummer, most often Fiebig, that makes the album happen so to speak. Then when we feel finished we start the recording process, wich msotly just takes a couple of days to do drums and rhythms guitars and vocals. After that the bass and solos are recorded by the other members, we do it like this mostly as me and Fiebig are mainly the guys putting the material together, and then the others come in and do their thing with all their input and make the album even better.
SOURCE – Are you the type of band that comes to the studio with a lot of extra material to choose from, or do you generally only write the number of songs you’ll need for an album?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – We mostly stand around fiddling with riffs and then put drums to it, and when we feel like we have maybe 9 or 10 songs we record. So if we make an album we mostly don’t have any extra tracks left over. On the other hand we often do fast quick sessions for fun, where we just write and record a couple of songs here and there, thats how we often end up with lots of extra material wich we tend to sue for splits and EP releases.
SOURCE – With more and more musicians creating than ever and more and more of these creations being released, what does this mean for you as an artist in terms of originality?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – I don’t care to be original haha! I just write music because that’s what I like to do, its a basic need I have. Sure I sometimes feel that I wanna maybe do soemthign fresh and exciting, something that really different and special, but then I try and it sounds like shit haha… I mean, originallity into something that you can make happen, its something that gets spurred here and there through musical history, and then often results in maybe a new genre, that people like me starts liking and then takes ideas from to do their own thing. I think originallity is a bit overrated, making good music, or books or films or art, is what counts, not that its very new or strange or whatever. Good stuff is good stuff, no matter if its unheard of before or if its something coming from an age old formula, if you ask me.
SOURCE – Every time a band comes out with a new record it’s labelled as the best in its career. This time it’s true. Land of Weeping Souls is killer! Are you happy with the reviews so far?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – Haha thanx! And I know what you mean, and I’m tired of hearing bands saying their new album is their best too. And actually I didn’t say this myself this time, it was the label that took my words a bit wrong haha. I actually said that this is our best album since atleast over 12 years or more. But I am very happy though that many people seem to think that we now have made our best album, and after having had a bit of time to listen to it myself I think that maybe they might be right. Maybe this is our best album, even if I always will think that Dead Unburied is probably the best we did. The reviews have been great so we are very happy so far, we were very surprised actually. We had hoped to get good reviews, but some reviews are just great, they give us like 9 and 10 points which is something very nice to get.
SOURCE – Metal is sometimes known to be a very negative type of music. Does the band write better in that positive mindset?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – I think metal is the most positive music there is, I mean most people who are into metal live for metal almost. Wich often makes them better people, I mean if you’re into metal you don’t have time for all that other shit that humanity does haha. But yeah, lyrically you can say many metal bands are negative, but often more in a depticive way and not promoting it. Unless its stuff like gore or such, but personally I’m not into that type of music or lyrics, I prefer when its more oldschool lyrically, like Lovecraftian horror, or more basically shedding a light on the shit that humanity does.
SOURCE – Are you currently involved in any other musical ventures?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – I have many different projects, I’ve done many albums and releases through the past two decades. But Paganizer is my only real band actually. But yeah lately I have released albums with pojects like Stass with Felix from Crematory, and I also recently released my solo album under own name called Garpedans, wich I am also very happy with.
SOURCE – In which way do certain production tools suggest certain approaches, in which way do they limit and/or expand your own creativity? Are there any promising solutions or set-ups capable of triggering new ideas inside of you as a composer?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – Well the rehearsal room is the best way for pounding out music like Paganizer, its our very basic oldschool production tool you could say. On the other hand my homestudio where I have software, guitar stuff and guitars is also a place where stuff gets to be done, its where I write all my music, and its where I can record my music and my vocals, and also even mix and master my own work for some projects. So I would say the past ten fifteen years the computer and all the software has arisen as a great tool to expand the musical universe for anyone whose into writing music. Before it was really the same of course, but less fast and easy access to fast get an idea for a song into a working demo. So modern technologies make indeed for much more music being able to come out, which is mostly a good thing if you ask me haha.
SOURCE – Any other news you’d like to share with our readers?
Rogga Johansson (Vocals, Guitars) – Check out the new Paganizer album! If you like dirty heavy and still catchy death metal the old rotten way!
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