Swedish industrial metal titans, PAIN, will tour Australia for the first time ever in May 2018 in support of their eighth studio album, “Coming Home”. Led by one of the most iconic and legendary figures in the extreme metal world, Peter Tagtgren, PAIN will crush every capital city on the map. Mixing metal with electronica and techno, PAIN has gone from side project to fully fledged wrecking ball since forming in 1997. We talk to Peter about the upcoming tour as well as his other band in Hypocrisy and more.
Andrew: It’s great to see you coming to Australia, I guess this is the first time ever right?
Peter: Yeah I mean I was there in 2015 with Lindemann just doing promotion but never to play so this is very exciting.
Andrew: So first time performing for the fans here, what can we expect?
Peter: It will be full power from beginning to the end [laughs]. That I can promise you! We will do our best to kick your ass and hopefully you will kick ours and then it will be mutual energy.
Andrew: Absolutely, that’s what we are looking forward to! So you mentioned being in Australia before, will you be doing anything special in between shows? Maybe some sight seeing or touristy type stuff?
Peter: I’m sure the other guys will, I don’t know if I will. I will probably just lay low and just enjoy the moment. I mean we did a lot of crazy stuff last time I was over there so all good for me, I just need to save my energy for the night.
Andrew: Well we are pretty happy that you are coming to Australia for the first time considering that from what I hear, there was some issues with the promoter and luckily it’s now going ahead. Is everything alright now and set to go?
Peter: Oh yeah all the flight tickets are here and all the visa applications are where they are supposed to be right now so it all looks good.
Andrew: Oh good! So what have you guys been doing lately, have you been on the road doing a lot of shows on tour?
Peter: Yeah we just got back from Russia, we did a Russian tour with 10 gigs in 12 days. That was pretty brutal but it was a lot of fun and there was a lot of people so we had a great time.
Andrew: I don’t know too much about the Russian fans, how are the fans in Russia compared to other countries around the world?
Peter: They’re very loud so that’s really great. But I mean every country has their own specialty I think, the crowds all over the world are really good. Sweden is kind of mellow but they’re there but the rest of the world is usually very good.
Andrew: Have you been hearing much from your colleagues or other bands that have told you about what Australian fans are like at all?
Peter: Yeah so I put my bar up very high for expectation [laughs]. No everybody says it’s fuckng great to go down there and play, I have a lot of friends that’s been down there playing so I’m looking forward to it and also the other guys in the band are really excited.
Andrew: What are your setlists looking like at the moment? I know you had your last album come out I guess it was 2 years ago now so are you still playing a lot of stuff from that album?
Peter: We try to mix it up to be honest. Last tour we did in Europe we actually had a poll for the fans and they decided which songs we were going to play so we pretty much know what they want and we took the top 15 of their request and then we added a couple ore songs ourselves so that was great.
Andrew: So which songs seemed to be going over well the most from the fans response?
Peter: It’s very mixed, it’s impossible to say. Anything from “Dirty Woman” from the later albums or “Call Me”, “Shut Your Mouth” and “End Of The Line”. It’s mixed, it’s not only one album that got big, there’s always good songs from every album which I’m very happy to see because that is proof when you go out on stage and see which songs gets people going. It’s not like only the old first 3 or 4 albums like what Slayer and Metallica fans want, it’s spread out everywhere so that feels really good that I kind of kept the right path I guess.
Andrew: Yeah it’s strange in some ways that people only latch onto the earlier work of particular bands. Why do you think with you guys it’s been different where everyone likes everything that you’ve done over the years?
Peter: Good question, I mean fans are fans and same thing with bands. You change too much then I don’t like it, if you don’t change then I don’t like it [laughs]. It’s a really fine line of flipping or flopping. For me personally I just write music that I would like to hear, I can’t write music for other people because I have no clue what they think and what they want and what kind of mood they’re in when they listen to it. So therefore I just follow my heart and hope for the best.
Andrew: Yeah that’s all you can do, you can’t really pander to what people want so I guess you gotta write for yourself.
Peter: Yeah and trust yourself.
Andrew: Just from your own material, is there any particular songs that you love playing the most and does that change over the years at all?
Peter: Not really, I just like to play and look out and see a smile on people’s face or headbanging or getting into it. That’s a reward good enough for me.
Andrew: Yeah I suppose the live experience is something that can’t be replicated no matter what age we live in like the digital age or whatever and hopefully something that will never go away.
Peter: Yeah that’s what I think too. It’s impossible to produce that kind of feeling by watching your phone.
Andrew: There are some bands that have taken that further and don’t like seeing the phones up in the air and they try to ban phones. What’s your take on that whole thing? Do you mind seeing people on social media and stuff while bands are performing live?
Peter: If they’re happy doing that, I’m happy. As long as they’re there, whatever they do there, I’m happy.
Andrew: So you’re other band Hypocrisy has been out of the spotlight for a while, is there any plans to bring that back again?
Peter: Yeah I mean the plan now for the next 3 or 4 months is to sit down and start writing some new material, I have 5 frames so to speak on songs but let’s see what we can come up with. Hopefully we can be done before we go on tour in October with Kataklysm so we can release it by June next summer I hope.
Andrew: And how is that process for coming up with ideas? Is that something that you always work on or do you set some time aside to work on new song ideas?
Peter: I don’t know man, my mind never sleeps so it just happens I think. When the bucket is full then there is an album.
Andrew: Great well in the meantime the Aussie fans are looking forward to seeing you for the first time, do you have any messages for the fans?
Peter: Yeah full power all the way from the beginning until we drop and the show is over [laughs]. So suck it up, let’s fucking do this! We’ve heard so many great things about the Australian audience so our expectations are very high, put it that way [laughs]. But no it will be all good, I know it.
TOUR DATES
Wednesday, May 23: Badlands Bar, Perth*
Tickets: https://badlandsbar.oztix.com.au/?Event=81056
Event Page: https://web.facebook.com/events/767527180114935
Thursday, May 24, Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Tickets: http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/pain-coming-home-tour-2018/100098
Event Page: https://web.facebook.com/events/128501874514089
Friday, May 25, Max Watts, Melbourne
Tickets: http://maxwattstickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=81493
Event Page: https://web.facebook.com/events/170981443484616
Saturday, May 26, The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney
Tickets: http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/pain/100007
Event Page: https://web.facebook.com/events/1481238955328485
Sunday, May 27, The Zoo, Brisbane
Tickets: https://zoo.oztix.com.au/?Event=81526
Event Page: https://web.facebook.com/events/131643320927993
Tickets onsale now!
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