According to more than a few at The Rockpit, the new album by The Cruel Intentions, ‘Venomous Anonymous’ may just be the album of the year. It’s one of the few records rated 10/10 by a reviewer in the last few years. If you love the new modern wave of Hard Rock and Sleaze that continues to come out of Northern Europe – purveyed by bands like Hardcore Superstar, Crashdiet and co. then this is another band to add to your bucket list. Most people of course know of the band through vocalist Lizzy DeVine who ten years ago fronted Vains of Jenna. Cruel Intentions formed when Lizzy met Mats Wernerson and two albums in the song-writing chemistry is clear to hear. We checked in with Mats to find out all about the new record. We had fun!
Mark: Hey, how’s things!
Mats: Great thanks Mark! Oh – you’re sideways! (Mats starts the video, which has him locked in a sideways position. Sadly he couldn’t unlock it so here we are with the transcribed version!)
Mark: It could be worse – we are in Australia so we could be upside down! As long as you can see us the right way up. How’s today so far?
Mats: It’s good I just finished an interview with a Finnish woman from Finland!
Mark: And saying that all I can say is that your English is way better than my Norwegian!
Mats: (laughs)
Mark: And now you have the Rockpit from Perth Western Australia! It’s great to talk as your latest record ‘Venomous Anonymous’ is teh only record in the last three years or so to get a 10/10 review from one of our writers!
Mats: I loved that flawless description of the album, I loved it.
Mark: I think we all loved the first album ‘No Sign of Relief’ a few years back, but there’s something very special about this one that takes you to a few new places. What was the recording process like for this record, we’ve all been dealing with Covid across the world did that make things easier or more difficult for you?
Mats: It made it both difficult and easy! The recording process wasn’t that bad but the process of getting to the recording process was long and tiresome because there are three guys in Oslo and Robin is in Sweden. So first of all he couldn’t travel here so we had to do the songs and send them to him and he’d play them at home or in the studio or whatever. There was no playing it together live or in rehearsal, we never played the songs together, we weren’t even in the studio when Robin did the drums. But it was good because of the time – the timeframe was different – not just six months like ‘No Sign of Relief’ where we wrote the songs, we recorded them and we played them. This album ended up taking two years to write and record.
Mark: Maybe that’s the difference. Everything from ‘Repercussion’ to the final note on the new record sounds wonderful. If we could just backtrack a bit for our Australian readers because I know they will want to know more as soon as they hear the record. I sort of know the backstory a bit and I’ve read a few interviews, and some will know Lizzy from Vains of Jenna who I was lucky to see many years ago in L.A. but the story of how you met is an interesting one!
Mats: (Laughs) It’s a long, long, long story but I will try to make it short! A friend of mine Therese, she went to America, or we went to America together, me and my girlfriend and her and her then boyfriend. We just went for a vacation, had a good time and she ended up going back to meet a guy over there who turned out to be an asshole so she got into a taxi on the Sunset Strip just randomly and there was two Swedes in the taxi (laughs) and one of them was Lizzy and the other one is a friend of mine! That was all very random and I didn’t know about this until later on, but that’s how she met Lizzy and then I guess they fell in love there and then pretty fast. And then he moved back after saying he would never move back to Sweden again (laughs). But it was like three weeks and he was back! (laughs) And she started talking about me saying we both had the same taste in music and we were both fucked in the head! So she suggested we should meet and so they came here because they moved to Sweden straight away, I was in Oslo at the time, so he came here one week and we hit it off and said “Let’s start a band”.
Mark: I’m so glad that random series of events happened! (laughs)
Mats: (laughs) Yes, me too!
Mark: One of the interesting things for me preparing to chat with you is that I got to dig a bit back into your past too and I discovered The Gotham Saints.
Mats: Oh yeah, that was the first band I started here in Oslo.
Mark: When did your musical journey start Mats? When did you first realise that music was going to be such an important part of your life? Was it always there?
Mats: Yeah, not always buy when I was ten years old maybe, I understood that this was something I wanted to do but I wasn’t very good at it! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Mats: I started playing the drums but took up the guitar after two years of playing the drums and so I’m basically a guitarist but when we started the Gotham Saints we couldn’t find any cool looking bass-players (laughs) and at that point in time it was more important to be cool looking than being good to play so they ended up with me as the bass-player and Christian as guitar player! I’ve known Christian for maybe twelve years now and we started jamming then and there so that’s why we put the band together so fast when Lizzy said “Let’s start a band” I said “Yeah, I know a guitarist.”
Mark: The guitar sound on the album is wonderful and one of the things Rob who reviewed the album for us loved was the drum sound, and I think Erik did a wonderful job of capturing that. How did Erik come into the picture as producer? He’s really lifted the songs to show them in their best light.
Mats: Yeah, that’s very correct because he did help us out a lot, not before or while we were writing but when we entered the studio – me and Lizzy to do the vocals. We rearranged and we fixed a lot of things and that was mainly teh work of Erik. And the drums sound. I recorded the guitars and the bass in my kitchen and he re-amped it all in his super studio which is a lovely place to be and work because it is out in the middle of nowhere in the woods in Sweden. Just a fantastic place. And he re-amped with his… lets see if I can be a little geeky here! His Wizard amp and one of the Slash Marshall’s that he’s modified naturally – so the guitar sound is both brutal and soft at the same time, which is fantastic for our kind of music. Sometimes you get a little too much distortion and too much edge on it but Erik captured everything we wanted.
Mark: Listening to the songs, did you know what you’d done? Did you listen and know you’ve created something special? I mean if I’m honest I think this album is up there with the best records of the last ten years?
Mats: (laughs) I donlt think we understood it until we heard the final mix from Erik. When we wrote it I knew I loved the songs, the demo production, everything, I loved it and I did not care if people were going to love it or hate it. Me and Lizzy said now we are really, really satisfied. And then we came to work with Erik and it was like “My God!” The first mix and then the second mix and then I heard the master the first time in the car. I was driving fast! Screaming in the car going “Fucking shit, this is so good!” Because I usually stop listening to our own music when we have done recording it, I just can’t listen anymore. But I still do listen to it when I work out or when I go out running, or I just pop it on, on the way to work or something. I drive way too fast! (laughs)
Mark: That has to be a good sign. Take us back to your influences, what were you listening to growing up? What was important to you?
Mats: Really important from the start I guess was Iron Maiden, when I was like 9 or 10. When I discovered them I became obsessed with the sound and the visuals like their stage show – I loved it all watching the live videos and that led me into a Power Metal phase when I was around 14 – I started listening to Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray and lots of German Power Metal and I think that’s a big part of the Melodic sense in my song-writing at least because I’d been listening to that. I listened a lot to Europe as well, all before I started listening to Motley Crue and Skid Row and Shotgun Messiah which is my favourite band. So I loved teh melodic part first and then came the Sleaze!
Mark: I love Shotgun Messiah, I got to speak to Zinny a while ago, that debut was always one of my favourites of the 80’s – originally recorded as Kingpin of course!
Mats: Exactly with the tights and the pink! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) I’m glad that you guys haven’t gone with that look, it’s not dated well!
Mats: (laughs) It’s hard to pull off that one! (laughs)
Mark: Where did the album begin? What was the first track you laid down?
Mats: I can’t remember but I’m pretty sure half of the ideas that I wrote were from ideas I’d had laying around, some for years and half of the songs were brand new. But I do know that ‘Salt i Ditt Sår’ the Swedish song, the music for that one I have been having the main riff for five years or so.
Mark: That’s a great song and great that it’s in your native language too. I know we were trying to translate the words but you don’t really need too – there’s that much emotion in that song it could have been written in any language.
Mats: Thank you.
Mark: One of my favourites I think is ‘Casket Case.’
Mats: Yes, me too.
Mark: That one really grabbed me at first listen and I keep coming back to it. It’s one of many songs on there that I think will translate fantastically well live. What are your plans for touring?
Mats: Right now we’re focussing on booking the gigs for this Fall – we have a couple of dates booked already. We only got the CDs and the vinyl two days ago so that’s what we’ve been waiting for. That’s what we were really waiting on because of the delays in the industry – we didn’t want to book anything until we were sure and it’s already Summer and all the Festivals have been booked for three years! So there’s no chance of getting in anywhere so now we’re just focussing on maybe doing a Scandinavian run in September and October. Also Catalano from Australia is coming over.
Mark: That’s cool. Great band,
Mats: The last time they were over was 5 years ago, So they’re coming back and I’m booking gigs for Cruel Intentions and Catalano. I don’t know if this is official? But now it is!
Mark: (laughs) They will have to return the favour now and bring you down here. I think this year we get to see Hardcore Superstar, Crazy Lixx, Crashdiet and Reckless Love, it would be great to see you come over too.
Mats: That would be great.
Mark: I have to ask you about ‘Bad Vibes’ – whose song was that?
Mats: That special one, I wrote the music for that one. Basically just after my cat died.
Mark: I’m sorry to hear that.
Mats: He fell off the balcony from the seventh floor. He survived the fall and we rushed him to a veterinarian and he stayed there for three days, and during that time I had to occupy my mind and I started playing obviously really emotional stuff (sings the riff). That was basically what I wrote the song around and then Lizzy came in and wrote the lyrics in a day or something. I think it’s our first ballad.
Mark: It is something different and I think my favourite guitar on the album on that song.
Mats: Oh yeah! Fucking awesome.
Mark: And ‘Sunrise on Sunset’ I think is Rob’s favourite who reviewed the album. That’s just a real party of a song, one you want to play on the way to a great night out.
Mats: Yes.
Mark: The first time we speak to people we always ask two questions. The first is “If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album in the history of Rock and Roll – what would you like to have been there for – just to see how the magic happened?
Mats: Dr. Feelgood.
Mark: I must admit I didn’t expect that.
Mats: That’s my favourite production I think – the drums and the bass and everything. And they were pretty fucked up still, trying to be sober I guess? I like to think they were doing crazy shot all the time and really hard to work with probably so I would have loved to have seen that (laughs)
Mark: I know there was a rather large studio bill so they spent a lot of time either there or maybe not there!
Mats: (laughs)
Mark: I guess you’ve been robbed of a couple of years by Covid but from 2015 to today you seem to taken taken leaps and bounds forward, is there anything you wish you could change?
Mats: No not right now, we’ve already changed everything that needed to be changed. There were never any issues but there have been discussions and we’ve been doing it for seven years now and ironically I guess our busiest time was those two years during the pandemic, not playing but just being in the rehearsal space, not Robin as sadly he was in Sweden but we and Lizzy spend more time together in those two years in the process of making the album. We’re getting older but we still love it and we always said we would do it until it was no fun anymore – whether we take over the world or just tour here and there. We’ll do it until it’s not a good time anymore, but every time we go out it’s always a good time!
Mark: One of the things I most love about the album is the melodies, how do you write? Does it start with a melody or a riff?
Mats: It depends because I never write vocal melodies, basically Lizzy does all the lyrics and the vocal melodies, sometimes I do the backing vocals. But most of the time I sit with an acoustic guitar and I play songs until something sticks. Nothing for a really good guitar player but I just want the melody to feel something – its not supposed to be hard or fast because I can’t play fast or hard! (laughs) The melody – you should feel it when you play it. Then I go on and make a riff out of it or whatever. Then I lay down the drum tracks and put the guitars and bass together and see how it fits. Then you can change up the drums and get three different songs out of one riff if you change tempo or this and that.
Mark: I have to ask but – the next album, and I’m getting greedy now, are you already writing?
Mats: Yeah. I am (Mats pulls out his acoustic for a second then rests it down just as quickly) I was writing just before we were talking! (laughs) Ten minutes ago!
Mark: Is that a Dirty Penny sticker on there?
Mats: Oh my God you’re fast! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
Mats: You saw that for like two seconds! (laughs)
Mark: I’ve got a good eye for detail!
Mats: This is the guitar I’ve been writing like every song on. What a keen eye! (laughs)
Mark: They were a great live band I saw them in the U.S. a few times.
Mats: We played with them – we did three gigs here in Norway and Sweden – Gotham Saints and Dirty Penny.
Mark: That would have been cool!
Mats: They were fucking maniacs as well – drinking! Our drummer ended up in hospital one night – the second night with them! It was just a drink out with the two drummers!
Mark: You should never mix your drummers!
Mats: Always bad news! (laughs)
Mark: Tell us a little bit more about you Mats – did you grow up in a musical household? Where did the love of Hard Rock come from?
Mats: I did not grow up with music, that’s the thing because I can’t remember any music being played anywhere (laughs) because my parents, they liked music, but they were not like musicians or anything – all my family are carpenters. All really fucking good carpenters and I couldn’t even hammer a nail into a wall! (laughs) So that’s why I think I ended up with music because all of them were carpenters and working at it for ages, so I just did the music thing. They’re really happy about it – Mum and Dad have been coming to Oslo and checking us out in Stockholm in Sweden as soon as they can get there they just go there to watch the shows.
Mark: We’re all convinced here that the hardest thing for you to do after releasing this record is to decide which songs to leave out of the setlist!
Mats: We were joking about doing the whole album! (laughs) Just ditch the old songs and do ten or eleven of the new ones!
Mark: You could absolutely do that.
Mats: You think so? People might be nagging about ‘Jawbreaker’ and ‘Borderline Crazy’ and maybe ‘Weekend Suffering’ as well.
Mark: All great songs.
Mats: I think the one we definitely have to do is ‘Kerosene’ we started playing that in May and June touring Finland, Sweden and Norway. It got a really, really good reception, and also ‘Repercussion’ and ‘Sunrise on Sunset.’ People seemed to love it, especially in Finland. So we’re gonna continue with those in the set and we’re gonna add ‘Casket Case’, ‘Salt i Ditt Sår’ and ‘Final Deathroll’.
Mark: I actually thought as well that the title track would be one that would go down great live?
Mats: Oh yeah. Of course.
Mark: It’s a great one to sing along to. You can’t possibly have a favourite can you?
Mats: It changes all the time. When we wrote the album and it was recorded and done I had a new favourite every day when we were listening to the mixes. But now I think I always end up listening to “Casket Case’ like you, and also ‘Salt i Ditt Sår’ like you. They’re maybe my favourites – the same as yours!
Mark: I think my third would be ‘Bad Vibes’. When we interview people for the first time we always like to ask one really easy question, so here it is: What is the meaning of life?
Mats: Have a good time and don’t regret anything!
Mark: That’s a good one, almost Spinal Tap with a side.
Mats: (laughs) Also eat food – eat a lot of good food! I’m a foodie so you cant go wrong with food.
Mark: I love trying new things I must admit. What’s your favourite cuisine?
Mats: My favourite is Japanese at the moment. For sure the Hibachi Grill and sushi. Some Taiwanese as well. At teh moment I’m eating a lot of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese.
Mark: Nice clean flavours.
Mats: Yes, like the salt and the sweet. It’s a great mix.
Mark: I have a question now from one of our readers who wanted us to ask: if you were headlining a Festival who would you pick as your three supports bands?
Mats: Support bands? I’d happily have Hardcore Superstar supporting us rather than us supporting them! (laughs)
Mark: There was one song on the record that reminded me of them ‘Final Deathroll’ it really had that vibe.
Mats: Yeah, it’s like an aggressive Scandinavian sounding Sleaze Metal or something like that! It’s a great song! Two more bands – well obviously I would love to have Shotgun Messiah there too, original line-up.
Mark: Yes, with Tom, Harry Stix and Zinny.
Mats: Oh yeah, and they’d have to do the first and the second album, so Tim would sing the second one and Zinny the first one.
Mark: I’m booking my flight now, I’ll be there.
Mats: (Laughs) Of course! A lot of people will be there. And then we’re going to have the opening act – 1989 Skid Row doing the first album back to back – all 11 songs!
Mark: And great to see them with a singer who can pull that off.
Mats: I think Erik is doing a great job. I’ve seen the live bits and Erik is a great dude and fantastic singer.
Mark: He’s great live too, I saw him and Jona a few years back when they came down here to guest at a Festival and they played an acoustic set, your producer Erik was there too with his band Eclipse who played their only Australian date.
Mats: You will have to get us over!
Mark: We’d love that. Let’s see what happens.
Mats: That would be great.
Mark: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today Mats it’s been great talking to you.
Mats: Thank you Mark. Thanks for staying up late for me! And thank Rob for a fucking thorough real authentic review, he really listened to the album and understood what we meant.
Mark: I think he’ll be happy when he reads the interview! I know he’s hoping that you will make it over the Atlantic sometime soon! Stay save mate!
Mats: We hope so. Thanks Mark, take care.
GET YOUR COPY OF THE ALBUM HERE