The Quill is one of my favourite Swedish bands and has been for years. It’s criminal to think that after 25 years and on the eve of the release of their 11th album ‘Earthrise’ there are still some out there who are missing out on such a wonderful band. With a sound that takes in the best of what you might call Classic Rock – Sabbath, Purple and Zeppelin; but also adds a Grunge flavour with notes of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and COC you get a band that has a timeless feel but also a real relevance to 2021; and in singer Magnus Ekwall you get a vocal reminiscent of the late Chris Cornell. When you add great songs to the mix you have another classic. We spoke to guitarist Christian Carlsson who at the time of the interview had just recovered from Covid (Check out our Podcast Episode 29 for more) to find out why you need ‘Earthrise’ in your collection…
Mark: Hey Christian! How’s things?
Christian: Hey Mark! Um, it’s pretty OK. I just had Covid.
Mark: You’ve just had it!
Christian: Yeah, I can get back to work tomorrow – the first day for three weeks. It was like a flu, a bad flu, lots of fever and cold sweats, and I couldn’t get out of bed for a week. I didn’t have to go to the hospital or anything so it was pretty OK but I have a bad cough still.
Mark: Wow, I hope you make a full recovery mate. I must admit over the year I’ve spoken to a few people who have had Covid but not anyone who has literally just had it. It’s an awful thing. The Rockpit has been going for almost 12 years now and I think one of the first records I ever got sent was by The Quill and that’s what started me off listening to you.
Christian: ‘Full Circle’ maybe?
Mark: That was the one, I remember the cover, I can see in the background there some nice AC/DC vinyl.
Christian: Yes I just listened today, one of my all time favourite bands.
Mark: So on to your new album ‘Earthrise’ – what a great record – it’s definitely one of my favourites of the year so far – I love that sound you have that’s rooted in the 70’s a sound that really makes you sound like a band out of time which is a huge compliment to me. It’s timeless! My only disappointment I must admit is that I was told you had twenty songs and you just gave us nine!
Christian: (laughs) well there’s a few more rerecorded and mixed, but pretty early on we decided we wanted to go for the classic 45 minutes.
Mark: I was hoping you were going to say that – so that it would fit on vinyl?
Christian: Yes, so that we could release it o vinyl and keep it interesting. The last album was a double album – over 60 minutes and it was cool to do that bit we didn’t want to do another double album. So we thought we’d do nine or ten songs and then maybe be quick with the next album! (laughs) So the plan is to have another album out within a year, a year and a half. That’s the plan.
Mark: Sadly we’re a way away from touring, I’d love to hear this live. It must be horrible to have an album that sounds as good as this and not be able to get it out on the road?
Christian: Yeah! But we knew that early on. Should we wait until we can be sure that we can tour? No one knows when that day will come so we couldn’t just sit there with a finished album for a year! So we thought, no we’ll just finish it up and then release it!
Mark: I always love to find out where the initial spark came from. There’s plenty of great songs on there and the more I play it the more I realise there’s nothing I can skip! Where did it all start for you as a guitarist?
Christian: I guess when I was ten I started to play guitars and I had my favourite bands at the time – Ramones and Kiss. I actually learnt to play along to Ramones albums! I mean they’re pretty simple and you get song structures , which chords fit with others: it was a great schooling in Rock and Roll guitar and also how to create songs. So that was the start of things.
Mark: I’m just glad that the Quill’s songs don’t all start with “1,2,3,4!”
Christian: (laughs) Maybe we should do that sometime! But the four of us in the band – all of us love the 70’s – Zeppelin, Purple, Sabbath, Uriah Heep, you know. But we also love most of the Grunge bands – we’re fans of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots. And pretty much when that era was at its peak that’s pretty much when we started to form the bands that would make up The Quill. So I think Grunge is a pretty big influence as well but maybe you don’t hear it as much.
Mark: I always felt that connection between the two eras though, not just the obvious Sabbath connection, but I remember when I first heard even Pearl Jam on TV before that first album and I thought it was an interesting take on 70’s Rock on ‘Alive.’ I know a lot of those bands loved the classics too, I guess they just didn’t like what Rock had become in the 80’s.
Christian: Yeah.
Mark: 20 songs down to 9 – as you said the prefect length for vinyl. The record has been out a few weeks now – whet’s the response like so far?
Christian: Yeah the response is better than ever I guess. We’ve had great reviews across the board, people are saying its our best album, which is pretty amazing after 26 years! It’s great that after so long you can make an album that people say is the best of your career! So we’re very pleased and for every year we keep this band going we get more and more humble in a away that people are still interested and still buy the records! We know we’ll never be a big, big band but we’ve been on this level pretty much all the time with a few ups and downs. But we’re there in the background releasing album after album so its great that many people still like it.
Mark: There’s not many bands that you can say from any point in history that they keep consistently getting better but The Quill is definitely one of the few.
Christian: Thank you.
Mark: One of the things I did want to ask before we look at some of the songs is who did the wonderful cover art for the album? I love the concept
Christian: Yeah, it’s the same guy who did the ‘Born From Fire’ cover – a German artist called Sebastian Jerke. It’s a great painting that he has made. He heard a couple of the songs and we sent him all the lyrics for the album because he wanted to get an overall feel for things and what was going on with the music. We had the title so we told him that and he started to make some sketches – he sent over six or seven and we decided from that and chose the one we wanted and gave him a few more suggestions, and threw some ideas back and forth. But I love the painting, it’s got lots of detail and you can look at it a pretty long time and see new things.
Mark: Did the way you made the album change due to Covid? Some seem to have been hindered by lockdown and some have been helped.
Christian: We have a studio near where we live that we have been visiting many times and we spent three or four weekends to get the basic tracks – the drums, the bass and most of the guitars. After that we got hit by Covid because we started recording in December 2019. So we had the album pretty much made before Corona hit us. But the last recording sessions with the vocals and overdubs and mixing and mastering took such a long time because we couldn’t meet. And the producer – he couldn’t go to the studio, it was terrible (laughs) So it took half a year to get everything finished.
Mark: So for you then your experience was a negative one – it really slowed the process down.
Christian: Yes very much.
Mark: If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ what album would you like to have witnessed being made in the studio – just to see how the magic happened?
Christian: Well I would have loved to have been in the Bahamas when Back in Black was recorded. There would have been some special moments I think with Rock history being made.
Mark: Yes the intense pressure that album was made under I think would have been something to see.
Christian: Absolutely.
Mark: Where did it all begin for you? You mentioned earlier that you started with the music of Ramones and Kiss but when did you realise that music was going to be such an important part of your life for so long?
Christian: I think it was maybe when we started this band, when we got these guys together me and Jolle and Magnus. and Roger came in just before we were about to record the first album. In the beginning of the 90’s when we got the format for this band we realised that we had something really good going on, and that we had to release and album and have a record label as the songs were that good. So we started sending off demos to labels and we realised that this was our chance to be a real band and make albums and go on tour. I think that was the point when we realised that we really had to put in effort to make that happen. Before that of course everyone wanted to be a Rock Star when we were teenagers – but being on the verge of doing that first album made us realise we could be a real Rock band. And now it’s 25 years later!
Mark: And long may you continue.
Mark: We always end with a really easy question and it seems rather fitting in these times – what is the meaning of life?
Christian: All right! (laughs and coughs) To stay healthy! There are lots of meanings I think! If you are privileged like us in the West – we have a roof over our heads, we have food everyday, we have work we can go to… then we can start dreaming. What do I want to do – its easy when all those things are secured. Then you can do stuff you love if you have the time and the opportunity and the money to do that – just go ahead – do what makes you happy.
Mark: I think you’re right, we are so lucky in that many of us have those certainties that allow us to dream. Thank you so much for your time Christian – we’ll have some of the interview transcribed and some on the next podcast (Rockpit Podcast 29). He’s hoping you stay healthy and get fully over things soon. Going back to work must be fun!
Christian: Not really but we have to do this!
Mark: We do so that we can dream and get another Quill album out!
Christian: (laughs) That’s right. Thank you Mark.
Mark: Thank you Christian.
Christian: Bye, bye!
Go out and get Earthrise now!