Table of Contents
By David E. Gehlke
There was a stretch from the mid-Nineties to the early 2000s when Peter Tägtgren was ubiquitous — and it practically killed him. The Swedish musician and producer juggled his major band, HYPOCRISY, whereas operating Abyss Studios, twiddling the knobs for the likes of BORKNAGAR, CHILDREN OF BODOM, DIMMU BORGIR and IMMORTAL when every was on the upswing. Tägtgren‘s manufacturing jobs introduced a level of readability and even professionalism to European excessive metallic. It made these bands palatable to bigger audiences but in addition earned him the scorn of the metallic underground. Earlier than Tägtgren knew it, everybody needed to come back to Abyss. Properly sensing he was burnt out, in 2002, Tägtgren began turning bands away and have become more and more selective with whom he data. Twenty years later, he presently has zero purchasers booked at his studio.
HYPOCRISY re-emerged final 12 months with “Worship”, their first studio album in eight years and have since launched into a North American headlining tour. Weeks earlier than the trek, although, longtime drummer Horgh (actual title: Reidar Horghagen) give up HYPOCRISY, prompting the band to faucet THE CROWN‘s Henrik Axelsson as a reside substitute. Tägtgren did not sound too involved about shedding Horgh when talking to BLABBERMOUTH. As an alternative, Tägtgren seems to be embracing what could possibly be one among HYPOCRISY‘s final full excursions in North America whereas trying ahead to a extra relaxed schedule writing music for his industrial offshoot PAIN and dealing with former RAINBOW vocalist Joe Lynn Turner.
Blabbermouth: Did getting a fill-in for Horgh make you re-think the set to your North American tour?
Peter: “No, we’re not altering something. If we herald somebody who cannot do issues, we’re not in place. We turned every thing the other way up for the set. There’s nothing a lot left. [Laughs] We’re doing loads of outdated songs that we both by no means performed earlier than or that we performed possibly on one tour within the mid-Nineties. There are loads of modifications. In fact, we’ve to do the ‘hits’ and issues like that, little doubt about it. That is our obligation as a band. You wish to play what individuals wish to hear. I am not paying for a ticket to go there, so I’m answerable for making individuals purchase a ticket and be pleased. Who is aware of what number of excursions we are going to do. I’ve no clue. Perhaps that is the final American tour. Perhaps we do one or two extra. I do not know the way a lot there’s in our system, so to talk.”
Blabbermouth: The place, then, does HYPOCRISY sit by way of your priorities when factoring in PAIN and different initiatives?
Peter: “Proper now, it is a excessive precedence. It has been since we launched the album in September when the primary single got here out. Earlier than that, it was to make the album and end it. We weren’t working 24/7 on the album; we had been going just a little on and off once we had the inspiration. As a result of if we simply do it to launch an album, I am afraid will probably be a shitty album as a result of we do not put our coronary heart into it. Your coronary heart all the time needs to be in it once you do issues. That is crucial factor. Proper now, PAIN will not be a precedence. HYPOCRISY is. That is what we’ll present individuals. Whereas we’re ready to exit on tour, I will write some PAIN songs for the following album. All the main target is on HYPOCRISY. To get all these outdated songs, you need to scratch your head to recollect lyrics and issues like that. [Laughs] Over 30 years and 12 or 13 albums — I misplaced rely. It is actually onerous to make a setlist and make everybody pleased. It is not possible. We all know that we have been lazy for the final ten years to give you some new stuff within the setlist. We turned every thing inside out this time and up to date the entire thing.”
Blabbermouth: Are you a lot of a man to take heed to your again catalog?
Peter: “Probably not. I look again to the catalog when it is time to write music and when doing the setlist. You wish to hold your foot within the outdated issues, particularly in the case of vocal types. For the brand new album, I used to be listening to the outdated albums how I used to be singing — clearly not on the primary two albums. I used to be making an attempt to not lose it. As a fan of different bands, I get actually upset when vocalists begin altering their method of singing and begin to lose their grip. I wish to have one foot up to now. I labored actually onerous on the vocals on the brand new album. I needed individuals to listen to what I used to be singing. It is onerous to get something out of your mouth once you growl, so it took me some time to determine it out. I hope I can pull it off reside.”
Blabbermouth: “The Fourth Dimension” album was an enormous leap for HYPOCRISY. You went from a Tampa and Stockholm-inspired dying metallic band to incorporating atmospheric parts, which few bands had been doing in 1994.
Peter: “You noticed TIAMAT was altering to extra Gothic. You noticed loads of bands altering on the time. For me, it was a coincidence as a result of I discovered a keyboard within the studio that we borrowed. I began to play on it, which influenced me on ‘Apocalypse’ and ‘The Fourth Dimension’. I’ve all the time been inquisitive about the place your soul goes once you die, completely different dimensions and issues individuals are speaking about now, like UFOs that come and undergo completely different dimensions. Since I began to sing, I needed to strategy it otherwise, the lyrics. It grew to become what I used to be all the time inquisitive about throughout the ’70s, like UFOs and bizarre stuff. I began to place these issues in. I am not the primary. MEGADETH did it on ‘Hangar 18’. Plenty of bands additionally did it that did not get well-known, however I caught to my theme. I felt trustworthy to sing about it.”
Blabbermouth: Do you suppose that lyrical strategy helped HYPOCRISY all through the ’90s? Plenty of dying metallic bands had been nonetheless hung up on gore and horror matters.
Peter: “In these days, individuals possibly thought we had been foolish. [Laughs] Not everyone agreed on what we had been singing. I did not suppose or care about that. I used to be simply doing my factor. My vocals had been extra like an instrument. I did not wish to push lyrics and issues like that. I simply noticed it as a guitar melody that was moving into there. It wasn’t vital for individuals to grasp it or get into it that a lot. It was primarily, ‘Okay, I’ve to sing now. Fuck it. I will give it a shot.’ [Laughs] I used to be by no means happy with my vocals. I do not rely myself as a singer, but it surely’s one thing I’ve to cope with.”
Blabbermouth: However a music like “Roswell 47” has good lyrics and a refrain individuals can bear in mind. That was a step in the fitting route in 1996.
Peter: “Yeah, nicely, possibly. On the time, I used to be all the time buying and selling VHS tapes with individuals from America and in all places to get [information about UFOs]. In Sweden, we did not have documentaries about UFOs. I began to commerce these tapes and Roswell was all the time in there. It was such an vital factor. It influenced me to put in writing about it.”
Blabbermouth: I am shocked you mentioned that about your vocals, although. You’ve got confirmed you possibly can sing on a music like “Till The Finish”.
Peter: “It is onerous. I did not wish to go all the best way, like pulling my pants down. [Laughs] I attempted to scream and growl in tune. It was tough again then. You did not have computer systems that might finesse it. You needed to go on the fly. It took me just a few takes. Not just a few, however many takes till I felt snug listening to myself and dared to let different individuals take heed to it.”
Blabbermouth: You had been one of many first to make excessive metallic sound skilled and clear. What do you make of at present’s manufacturing jobs?
Peter: “It is a matter of style. You hear one thing that basically blows your thoughts infrequently, like, ‘Wow, that is actually good!’ Typically you hear, ‘That snare. Oh, I’ve that snare kick as nicely. That kick? I’ve it too.’ It is just a little bit, I am not saying every thing as a result of that is completely incorrect, however you hear some issues which are like a fast-food drive-thru, laptop computer productions. It is also about budgets for bands after they get signed or in the event that they do it themselves. It isn’t low cost to enter an enormous studio, though loads of bands are doing their guitars, vocals and bass at residence, which I believe is absolutely good. Then you possibly can come to the studio and re-amp and lease the studio for every week to report the drums, get them correctly and program them. It is all as much as your personal finances or what you are feeling most snug with. With regards to mixing, yeah, all of it will depend on how gifted you’re with the instruments you might have or if you happen to depart it to another person who will do it for you and value you ten, twenty thousand {dollars}. All of it relies upon. Right this moment’s expertise is absolutely good.”
Blabbermouth: Do you recall once you realized you might get excessive metallic to sound good? Was it (DIMMU BORGIR‘s) “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” and even (HYPOCRISY‘s) “Kidnapped”?
Peter: “I received loads of shit for cleansing up black metallic.”
Blabbermouth: That helped, although.
Peter: “Yeah, if I did not do it, another person would have completed it. I am not the one one. Like if you happen to take heed to MAYHEM‘s ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’, that’s the final black metallic manufacturing in my ebook. It is so freaking good. It is insane. Every little thing is ideal for my style.”
Blabbermouth: However they did not use keyboards.
Peter: “True, however who wants keyboards when you might have that? After I began this, I used to be all the time lacking bass in all of the dying metallic productions, like on the finish of the ’80s. I needed extra sub in the entire manufacturing. I used to be making an attempt and making an attempt to get what I needed. I did not comply with any guidelines. You simply turned the knobs. You did not know what you probably did. You had a bass or treble knob and also you had been twisting every thing till you thought, ‘Okay, now it sounds good!'”
Blabbermouth: Did you have a look at what different producers like Scott Burns and Colin Richardson had been doing?
Peter: “Yeah, undoubtedly. I actually liked their productions on most stuff that got here out of Morrisound [Recording]. It was actually good, however I missed the underside within the bass. You possibly can fill the hole between the kicks and the guitars, but it surely’s a query of tastes. Scott‘s guitar sound was superb. It was actually in your face.”
Blabbermouth: You had been very vocal about getting burnt out from the studio after the Nineties. Has your perspective modified over time?
Peter: “At first, within the mid-’90s, I used to be flattered that bands had been calling and asking me if I might do some work with them. Firstly of 2000, I actually began getting burnt out. I did not know the right way to bake this bread with the identical substances to make the bread style completely different. In the long run, it was like, ‘If I exploit this sound, I do know it can work within the combine.’ I began to not experiment a lot. Probably the most shit I skilled was for HYPOCRISY and PAIN. That was my very own cash. That is not the band’s future I used to be fucking up if I’d have fucked it up. I took fewer dangers on bands than I took alone. I actually did not wish to sit there with a shitty-sounding album with a band that paid for it. I might fairly fuck it up myself, in order that’s the place I took all the possibilities.”
Blabbermouth: How selective are you for somebody to report at Abyss?
Peter: “I haven’t got any bands right here. I am fairly busy with my very own two bands. Earlier than I had three bands and all three had been happening tour. I simply needed to get a shotgun and do a Kurt Cobain. It was method an excessive amount of stuff. I am actually snug at present having two bands, PAIN and HYPOCRISY. I take my time. I do know it has been a very long time for the reason that final PAIN got here out. It was a very long time earlier than HYPOCRISY‘s new one got here out. Do keep in mind that we tour much more at present than I ever did. That takes time. I am getting older and fewer impressed. Not impressed, however I get pickier and it is tougher to put in writing one thing that makes my coronary heart tick, like, ‘Wow, that is cool! Let’s go!’ It looks like I’ve completed every thing and it does not matter if I did or not. I am making an attempt to strategy issues otherwise. Typically, I am not within the temper and like, ‘Fuck this.’ That may be a few months, a half a 12 months, a 12 months, two years. I am not within the temper, then I come again and I am actually on hearth and that is when issues work.”
Blabbermouth: Are you operating out of concepts for HYPOCRISY?
Peter: “No, not likely. It isn’t an issue to put in writing HYPOCRISY or PAIN songs. It is simply that I am not a automobile manufacturing unit that does the identical shit over and over. That is my principal concern is to not repeat myself on a regular basis. With HYPOCRISY, in fact, I would like to stick with my toes from the place I come from. That is crucial. On the final album, Mikael [Hedlund, bass] and Horgh contributed a few riffs and that basically helped. I do not wish to throw out shit left and proper as a result of I’ve to.”
Blabbermouth: What is the standing of your challenge with Joe Lynn Turner?
Peter: “Final thing I heard, I believe he has a contract now. I hope will probably be out quickly. That is just about what I can say. It has actually good songs. For me, it was just a little bit completely different to put in writing. It isn’t an ’80s album and it isn’t Yngwie Malmsteen or a RAINBOW [homage]. It is trendy metallic and it really works as a result of Joe tailored his voice. It feels contemporary. It feels cool.”
