A highly complex construct of math metal, crushing death elements and virtuosic shoegaze moments is what the world can expect from this young Swedish quintet, but LETTERS FROM THE COLONY create more than just songs. The progressive death metal architects are building tracks that are able to catapult them right into the league of bands such as MESHUGGAH, OPETH or GOJIRA with their first album “Vignette” which was released last month. We talk to vocalist Alexander Backlund about the new songs and some of the inspirations for the band.
Steve: Hi Alex how’s everything with you guys at the moment?
Alex: Yeah everything is good. We are super excited for the release, we have been for a long time but now it’s really happening.
Steve: Absolutely! I’ve had the pleasure of listening to the album in it’s entirety and it takes the listener on a journey, I know that sounds like a cliché but would that be a fair assessment?
Alex: Well yeah we don’t try and follow the traditional recipe for songs like verses and choruses and stuff like that, it’s just one part playing into the next so I guess it’s sort of a journey.
Steve: And that was your intention obviously to take the listener on a journey?
Alex: I think it’s something that just naturally happens with this band, we do a lot of things differently and you know, our song writing and structures are a part of that.
Steve: I agree because just when you think you have the band figured out it takes you somewhere else.
Alex: Yeah there are quite a few surprises (laughs).
Steve: I suppose I draw comparison with Meshuggah?
Alex: Yeah your not the first person to do that/
Steve: However in saying that there is a lot more going on, where did you draw your influences from? Anywhere in particular aside from the aforementioned of course?
Alex: Well our inspiration comes from a lot of places. I mean I look at my own musical history and when you’re in a band you want to play a certain genre, I mean you want to be a metalcore band or a death metal band to fit into a scene. So for this band it’s a little bit of everything, like there are some death metal influences for sure and post rock ambient parts as a sort of general dynamic of the album and then there’s a bunch of stuff, Pink Floydish parts as well so a little bit of everything.
Steve: Yeah totally. I also notice a gentler side and that adds a different dynamic I think and that is what makes it interesting.
Alex: Yeah I mean we love bands like Opeth with the twelve minute songs, super long instrumental sections and a bunch of jazzy chords.
Steve: Sure, most musicians I speak with have varied influences. Would you say you have the same or do you find you step away from the heavier stuff while you’re not writing?
Alex: I think all of us grew up with metal and listened to it for a lot of years but as you get older you grow apart from it a little bit and now listen to a bunch of stuff but we all have metal as our main genre and we all like stuff on top of that. I mean our guitar player loves Phil Collins (laughs), it’s a guilty pleasure in this band, we like what we like!
Steve: Absolutely so when it came to writing this new record how did you come up with new ideas? Was there any particular process?
Alex: Yeah I think the most difficult part of this process, marrying the old stuff with the new stuff because you know some of the songs are from 2011 – 2012 so six to four years old at the time of recording this album so that was a huge challenge making the older songs feel fresher and put together with the new ones. But I think that spurred a lot of inspiration because we had to explore new worlds when your producing new guitar sounds and everything so I think it helped making this album what it is.
Steve: So for any aspiring vocalists do you have any hints, tips, trick that you use before heading out on stage?
Alex: I wish I had! (laughs). I’m terrible at warming up and proper technique and all that and it’s also something that I pursued with this band and this album I wanted to have a more raw approach because we are being compared to a lot of the djent bands. I mean there vocal approach is very sad and uninspiring, I mean it’s good but it’s pretty boring to listen to. I like the old Slayer albums, Tom Araya is just screaming his ass off something with a lot of character so basically it’s me shouting and not a lot more to it.
Steve: Fair enough. You were saying you get bored, just as a side note do you get tired of the “djent” tag and pigeonholing when people listen to your band or do you not pay much attention to that sort of thing?
Alex: The whole thing with genres is it creates conflict, almost people who swear by black metal and won’t listen to anything else and it’s a bit like that within the “djent” scene as well. We try and label ourselves as progressive death metal whenever we can but I think it’s a positive thing because people who swear by the new school bands like Periphery or Tesseract, if we are in the same area they might actually listen to us.
Steve: Sure, do you find there is an elitist movement going on or again do you tend not pay much attention to it?
Alex: We try and stay away from that as much as possible, we just do our own thing and we are not trying to be better than anyone. That element is out there for sure, like guitarists and riffs it’s a big penis measuring contest going on (laughs). If we are good enough to play the material we write that’s good enough for us.
Steve: So what would be your favourite track off the album or is that hard to call at this time?
Alex: That is a yes and no from me. One part of me has a deep and sincere hatred for them after hearing them for so long and I took a break from listening to the album and it’s only just now that I started to listen to some of the songs again. Some of them are pretty good, for me I guess it would be the opener “Galax” partly because it’s a bit of an old song that we spiced up and made new spontaneous things happened in the studio that made it like a whole new track, like mistakes and experiments that we just left in there. If you listen to that song the clean section towards the end, there is a slide guitar going on in the background and that came from fooling around in the studio.
Steve: Cool so I know it costs a lot of money and all of the above but is there any chance you guys will head to Australia?
Alex: Yeah for sure, I mean for Sebastian [Svalland, guitar] and I Karnivool is like our favorite band so coming to Australia and doing a tour with them would be a dream come true.
Steve: So it is in the pipeline for the future?
Alex: Sure we welcome any tours at this point. We have a few offers on the table that we are considering but we are a fairly new band and we have to be on our toes and watch out to make sure no one scams us and there is the whole economics aspect as well. We all have jobs and we all have to find the time and it has to be worth while.
Steve: Well Australia would certainly love to see you at some point! Finally is there a band or producer you’d like to work with if it was say a bucket list?
Alex: Oh for sure I’d love to work with Forrester Savell who did the Karnivool stuff, there are also a bunch of Swedish producers who presided over some of my favorite albums from my teenage years. Guys like Daniel Burgstrand who did some of Meshuggah’s stuff but any of them would be cool, it would be cool to see what any of them could do for Letters From The Colony.
Steve: For sure! Well it’s been great speaking with you this evening, I really appreciate it and I hope to catch you guys live at some point.
Alex: Likewise and hopefully we can tour with Karnivool one day, take care!
