At The Gates
Swedish death metal outfit At The Gates are back. After reforming in 2007 for a reunion being inactive from 1990 to 1996 then to break up in 2008 and reforming for the second time in 2010 the band has continued to reaffirm its relevance through their live shows. The band made the decision to record a new album At War With Reality, their first in nineteen years and things continue on the up and up. Across The Ocean spoke to Tomas Lindberg about the new album, playing live and what the future holds for At The Gates.
Must be really exciting times for At The Gates with so much good stuff going on?
A lot of good things! A lot of action!
The band has reformed several times is this the happiest period of time that you have been in the band?
It is definitely some of the most exciting times in our careers. The reunion that we did started in 2008 and that was a rewarding experience on its own. Now we feel that’s all grounded, we’re a relevant band in the present and making a new record was a daring proposition. Making the album has been proven to be the right decision with the reception from the media and the fans. That in itself is a hundred times more rewarding than the early days.
When you talk about being relevant again do you put that down to the fans and how important your band is to them?
Definitely, we have the best fans in the world and so supportive with so much heart and passion. The way they have stuck behind us with this daring decision to make a new record was very inspiring for us. I truly believe that we have the best fans.
Nineteen years between albums is a long time for any band did you feel that the time was right to record a new album?
Well it is was the right time for us and that was the only thing that mattered when making that decision we felt the way we had grown musically throughout the years together put us in the position where we felt we could write new material. Playing the old songs during the reunion reaffirmed that. It has been proven now with the reception that we have got it was the right timing for the fans as well. We did not know that or did not plan around that, it had to be natural and honest for us.
When you made the decision to make another album were you surprised with how much the music industry has changed?
Everyone has been involved in other projects so I guess we had a sense of how the market has changed as well as how the business side of things had changed. More importantly to have a career or paying your bills the business side of things is something that you have to deal with to be able make and perform music in front of your fans. That has always been a secondary thing for us like who releases our record and where does that take us has never been a part of it. What matters is how much artistic freedom we have and right from the first note we had total control in the recording.
Having the benefit of time not only did you have more freedom but was there less pressure?
That is fantastic to be in that position, I understand that for a lot of younger bands it may be lot different but for us and the legacy that we have we can just rely on ourselves and write from the heart not having to compromise at all. That is a very inspiring place to be.
Do you think there will be another album in the future?
For us it is important since we reformed and playing those reunion shows there was a sense of closure. When we decided to continue and decided to release a new record we had that whole history in the back of heads that we did want things to end over such basic things such as scheduling, record label pressure and stuff like that. We decided that everyone had to be behind every decision all the time and our decision would be that we would go with the flow and would tour the record as long as we felt that it was the priority then we’ll sit down again and see if everyone is still on the same page after that. Then I think we’ll know if we are ready to start writing again but right now we are very much an inspired unit. It would be awesome to go in an record another album but we are not there yet and that is why we haven’t made the decision yet. That might hinder us when we get there.
Have you been happy with how fans have embraced and supported the new album At War With Reality?
It is awesome, the reviews have been good but most importantly the fans at the shows sing-a-long as much to the new songs compared to the so called classics. We feel that we have balanced our set list between the old school stuff and the new stuff. It all goes together really well.
Do you find that the fan favourites off the album are similar from city to city and country to country?
I guess that is more an individual thing more than anything. I don’t feel that certain songs go down well in certain parts of world better than others. It seems like everyone seems to have their own favourites and we have most of the new record rehearsed and ready to go if necessary to switch around some of the songs here and there as well as keeping ourselves on our toes and fired up. There are certain songs from the record already that we cannot skip because they have become fan favourites and that’s great.
Do you find it humbling that so many other bands look to At The Gates as being a significant influence?
A lot of them we grew up in the same scene and same parts of the world plus we’re friends with most of them. It is hard to see some of these bands are inspired by us but of course it is a compliment which we take very seriously. We are very happy to hear that sort of thing but we do not go around thinking about it too much we just do our own thing basically.
There are a lot of excited Australian fans hanging out for this tour, are you looking forward to it?
It is awesome for us and we were here three years ago with the reunion tour and we stretched that out because we wanted to go to every part of the world. Now, we are a totally different entity now, we’re real, we’re a relevant band and with this new record when we come to Australia we would have played one hundred shows on this record to have under our belt. We feel very confident with this new material and there is a totally different level of intensity now and to be able to show that to Australian fans is great, finally!
Do you play At War With Reality in its entirety?
We play eighteen or nineteen songs in our show and there’s seven off Slaughter Of The Soul, seven from the new record and the rest are our older classic songs. It is a good spread and I would think every the old school fans would get a bit out of the new songs.
With no travel or rest days on this tour how do you maintain the intensity?
Last time we managed a little bit of sightseeing last time going to a koala rescue centre and going to the Opera House but we will try and have more of a look around this time but we’ll see what time frame we have.
How do managing teaching and being in a band?
It isn’t a problem and it all gets down to logistics and scheduling. I only work sixty percent now to be able to do this touring. My principal, my boss, is behind me on this and as much as possible I try to schedule touring around the holidays. It is the autumn break and there’s a week off to fit in Australia.
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
- Aversions Crown - January 27, 2017
- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
