Mixing styles, merging different feelings is quite cool nowadays. The south Swedish Dödaren band even wants to emulate all this trend, with their funky-sleazy postretro-lined metal-mix. The debut album- called Maen came out in the end of April. Surprising success around the world- Jon Solheim drummer answered me.
1. I guess that the first thing what anybody realize is your band name…
Yeah, Dödaren is actually something of a playing with words in Swedish that unfortunately does not translate very well into English. It basically means „the killer” but in Swedish there are different words for this. If you kill someone, you are automatically a murderer, which means you can’t really be a killer. It sounds pretty funny cause the word DÖDAREN does not really exist in the vocabulary, but still you understand what it means instantly in Swedish. There is a great deal of irony and humor in this name and also a big portion of sarcasm and criticism to the media on how people are labeled differently depending on if you are the „good guy” or the „bad guy” when you kill someone (murder some one). Apparently, for some unknown reason, if you are a soldier and kill someone, you’re a killer but not a murderer. So we created this in Swedish as well.
2. How did you find each other?
The idea was formed as I moved to Gothenburg in 2010 to study and reunited with old friend Martin. We shared lots of preference in music and had both been playing together before in various constellations (a one point with Martin on drums and me on vocals and guitar!). Initially we just wanted to hang out and jam some together, but fairly soon some nice riffs, vocal lines and melodies started to appear and we wanted to make some more serious use of it. I met Eric in 2010 through another friend, and we also joined up to jam some with the guitars together, but separate from Martin. However, at some point in time Eric was asked to join Martin and me to play bass, and so a band was taking shape. I also remembered an old military friend that I knew played some guitar and with whom I shared a great deal of musical taste. He was also living in Gothenburg and was drafted to the group to finally complete the set up of Dödaren.
3. How you would paraphrase the “Dödaren style”?
Our style is so tricky… we all like the old late 60’s and 70’s style of riff-based rock. But we also share a great passion for stoner in all forms. Furthermore, there is a modern, more pop-oriented style mixed into the clean vocals. We also like punk, and both the vocals and some energy is totally taken from that genre. So what do you get? Modern retro-based punk-stoner-hard rock?
4. What are the songs about?
Practically everything is just jammed together in the rehearsal room. Each member supply ideas in the form of riffs, melodies or beats and then we just make something out of it. We jam until we find something that feels good. It is really a democratic band in that sense. The lyrics are a little bit the same, however since Martin is the singer he has more influence on this for obvious reasons. Some things we write together, and some things come solely from just one of us. The lyrics are philosophic in many senses. But it’s more up to you what they are about. They have different meanings, also with us members of the band. They just describe life, nature and dreams somehow…
5. Your debut album is a great mix of styles and feelings… Which periods had the bigges influence on the songs?
We are very much retro-influenced. But we all keep up with the modern stuff being done today. Martin and I met through both digging At the Gates and we also really enjoyed the Lamb of God album Ashes of the Awake a lot! I also remember moshing to Pantera with Fredrik in the military and he shared lots of music with me, such as Opeth and I think also The Haunted. Fredrik has also brought a lot of stoner into the DÖDAREN, since he is the master of discovering new music. Eric has a great passion for the older garage stuff from the 60’s and the 70’s as well as punk rock, both which he share to a great deal with Martin. Kyuss, QOTSA and Brain Police are big stoner influences. Of course, there are obvious references such as Thin Lizzy, Zeppelin, Deep Purple and MC5 in our playing. What we also dig is thrash metal late Exodus, Metallica, Testament and the likes. Modern stuff like Graveyard, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Kvelertak are highly appreciated in the band. But I don’t know if any of the bands mentioned above can be heard in our music though…
6. How the audience likes the first album?
We have received great attention due to Maen! Many of the people that have seen the live shows have been very enthusiastic and the same can be said about those that have heard the album. The songs have really spread throughout the whole world, like Brazil, India and Greece and we have received surprisingly good feedback. It’s strange, because we were just jamming in the rehearsal room all this time… Jon has a great passion for studio recording and experience in this, so it was recorded and produced much for the fun of just doing it. Blogs and newspapers have been commenting, saying that this is some of the best shit they have every heard and that is totally unreal. We are blown away by some of the comments people have made!
7. Do you have already plans for the next months?
We are looking into some record deal possibilities right now, to see if there is anything we find interesting in there. Hopefully we will have a physical release out soon through this. Otherwise we will probably deliver another album pretty soon, as we are spitting out new riffs already in the jam sessions… No promises made though! We will also aim to do some more shows, and maybe a little international touring if we get the possibility to do so. The future is open and we are such a hungry to play!
Rocket Queen
