Swedish metal heroes Sabaton are set to return to Australia in 2018 with an appearance at the first ever Download Festival in Melbourne, a much welcome return to the country since their debut tour down under 5 years ago. We catch up with frontman Joakim Broden to discuss the upcoming visit to Australia plus we get into some of his own musical interests and influences that helped shape the Sabaton sound.
Andrew: Thanks for your time again, I think it was about a year ago that we had a chat about the album “The Last Stand” that you had released last year. Hows things been since then?
Joakim: Pretty busy [laughs].
Andrew: I would say so! Lots of touring?
Joakim: Yeah I didn’t count from the start but I think from August last year to August this year we did around 160 concerts.
Andrew: Wow that’s massive, a lot of shows. How do you handle that? You don’t mind being on the road so much?
Joakim: I love to play, that I can say for sure.
Andrew: But in between shows is that tough with all that waiting around at airports and being on the bus and that kind of thing?
Joakim: Well it can be but it’s what you make of it. I mean I’ve had times where I’ve been hating it but in a sense, if I go in with a negative attitude thinking, ‘Oh this is boring’, then my life is going to suck and I don’t want that! Our bass player said, ‘Well imagine we are having a layover at an airport and usually at that point you’re not super busy or if you are on a plane because you can’t really have 25 phone meetings, not everyday anyway. So how many people have the luxury to just sit down and turn on one of their favorite albums in the middle of the day and just relax listening to 2 hours of music without being disturbed by regular life whatever that may be – Work, wife, kids’. So I think that’s kind of true, you only have fun on what you make.
Andrew: Well you have a massive trip to come over next year as you are set to appear at our very own Download Festival in Australia next year which is exciting.
Joakim: I’m looking forward to it a lot actually, it’s been 5 years since we were there so it’s pretty shameful as it’s so long to get back if I’m honest! Right now I could actually go at this moment because now it’s just after 9am and the sun hasn’t risen in Scandinavia yet.
Andrew: Oh wow! Well Download is a big deal in Australia right now as we’re missing a lot of festivals so I guess it’s a big deal for all the bands to play this for the first time ever too.
Joakim: I’m looking forward to it a lot. We played the British Download a couple of times, twice I think but to be honest what we’re looking forward to is coming to Australia no matter what the show is [laughs]. Probably some of the nicest people I have ever encountered in my life so I’m going to have me some beers in the sun and enjoy life a bit.
Andrew: Well it’s a good time to be down here where it will be the tail end of our summer so it will be good for a festival show. But you also have a couple of side shows with Amon Amarth which should be a great couple of shows as well.
Joakim: Yeah looking forward to those as well. Amon Amarth we toured with them a couple of years back, I think it was 15 in America unless I’m mistaken and obviously a bit heavier than we are but I really like the music. It’s sort of the harder end of the music spectrum that I actually enjoy, I do enjoy all kinds of music but when it comes to listening to a whole album then Amon Amarth is my maximum amount of heaviness for me to enjoy a whole album!
Andrew: [laughs] Well what’s the kind of stuff you enjoy listening to these days then?
Joakim: It can be anything! If we are in a middle of a tour and we got soundcheck and double kick drums in my ears every day, I might just listen to classical or movie soundtracks. It can be Abba or Dire Straits sometimes but as soon as I get home and I haven’t had any heavy metal or rock for let’s say, a week or 2, all of a sudden I start rolling in the classics whether it be Accept, the 80’s stuff or even the new stuff as well. The classics – Judas Priest, Accept, Rainbow, Deep Purple – I love all the good stuff.
Andrew: Who do you consider to be maybe your biggest influence then? When you were growing up and first getting into music, who were some of the musicians or artists who helped you get a feel for the kind of music you wanted to listen to and play?
Joakim: I never planned on being a musician or playing music so it kind of happened by accident. I never had any people that I thought I wanted to be like, it was all good music and I guess what changed my life was Dee Snider from Twisted Sister actually because I was 3 or 4 years old and they released the “Stay Hungry” album. I don’t remember this but My Mum tells me she was in the kitchen and I was in the living room watching TV and the video for “I want To Rock” or “We’re Not Gonna Take It” came on – I don’t remember which” – and she hears me scream and freak out and she’s like, ‘Oh my god my baby is dying!’ Obviously I wasn’t, I was just freaking out and jumping on the TV and then she looked and her first thoughts were, ‘Well it kind of looks like hell but he’s got a good voice’, and she bought me the LP.
Andrew: Nice! And on the other end of that spectrum, how does it feel to be an influence on bands coming out now in the new generation?
Joakim: Oh damn they need to get their ears checked.
Andrew: [laughs]
Joakim: Well in a way I’m very happy and honoured but in another way I’m like, ‘Come on, really?’ But I guess most sensible people would react that way, Not every band but most realize that we have taken the heritage of the 80’s maybe and brought that on further, I mean you can’t say we copied any one band, that yes Sabaton does have a unique sound but in our sound you can very clearly hear there is Accept, there is Judas Priest, there is Iron Maiden. All of these giants have been influences on our music so for those that think that we inspired them, thank you very much but please listen to where we came from [laughs].
Andrew: Do you listen to any new bands that are coming out? Is there anything that captures your interest at all or are you pretty much an old school kind of guy then?
Joakim: It depends, I do like new stuff but it has to be very new and fresh and different, pushing the borders or taking the old school thing and delivering it in a very cool way. The Finnish band Battle Beast for example, very much my style. Classic heavy metal, melodic and Anton [Kabanen] the guitar player who got fired or whichever way you want to see it, has started a new band called Beast In Black and that is awesome as well. So yeah I do actually follow what’s coming up because I do enjoy it, there’s a lot of good bands as well coming up. You can see how the competition is increasing so if the competition were to be this hard 18 years ago when we started, we would never have appeared [laughs].
Andrew: Yeah it’s certainly very competitive now.
Joakim: Yeah even the single demo that we got our record contract on wouldn’t even be listened to or accepted. I mean the sound quality and level of musician already has to be higher than what Judas Priest did on their second or third album, or Black Sabbath for that matter. So it’s probably very tough right now to get into the music business.
Andrew: I want to ask you about this little thing that popped up recently where you did a collaboration with the Worlds Of Tanks game, can you tell me how that came about and what was involved in that?
Joakim: We actually spoke with them many years ago about doing this, I think it was around 2011 or 2012 but at that point it couldn’t be done as it was a little bit too sensitive with tanks in Germany at that time and the Euro and things stopped it. But now I guess we’ve grown a little bit bigger and we’re all gamers from the beginning, I don’t have that much time to game but the bass player Par Sundstrom is probably the biggest gamer in the band at the moment but I gotta say I really love that game. The amount of detail, the level of historical correctness in that is just above and beyond what you normally see. It’s very easy for film makers and I guess video game makers to fall into that Hollywood type of things which might not be a bad thing sometimes. To make sure it’s both entertaining but also to have that level of historical correctness is above and beyond so I really respect the guys for that war game. I play a couple of matches myself, I like to play it but I fucking suck so I get killed all the time!
Andrew: It looks amazing and obviously you had the video to go with it and everything so it’s a cool idea. I know that a lot of your songs are based on war and the military and things like that so it’s obviously a natural collaboration to do with them I guess.
Joakim: Yeah if there was any one video game that we could have done it with, for sure it would be with them. Although recently EA released World War 2 which is pretty awesome and a pretty good fit [laughs]. But also if you look at memes on the internet about us, it’s always about tanks!
Andrew: Well as I said we are pretty excited to see you coming back to Australia to be part of the Download Festival and the side show with Amon Amarth so it’s going to be a good time. I hope you really enjoy the tour and we will see you in Australia in 2018. Do you have any last words for the Aussie fans before you come down?
Joakim: Simply thanks for the fucking great time we had the last time we were there so we’re really looking forward to it!
Catch Sabaton at the 2018 Download Festival Australia
Melbourne Saturday March 24, 2018
Flemington Racecourse
Tickets on sale now – www.downloadfestival.com.au
Side shows w/ Amon Amarth
Sunday, 25th March 2018
Roundhouse, Sydney (18+)
Tickets: Live Nation
Tuesday, 27th March
The Tivoli, Brisbane (18+)
Tickets: Live Nation
