I N T E R V I E W

Hi Peter, Thanks a lot for accepting this interview for http://www.auxportesdumetal.com/
Fate is back ! How can you explain your return ? Do you keep the same motivation than 10 years ago ?

A couple of years ago the record label MTM contacted us because they wanted to re-release our old albums, and they also talked us into playing one gig in Germany (Deep Impact), which was great fun, and slowly the idea came up to do a new album: FATE V.

Playing live after all these years was really great and felt completely natural , so making an album seemed like a logical thing to do .The motivation was there immediately, when we got back together.Just like old times..

Can you please tell us more about the different line-up changes inside Fate ?

Hank Sherman started the band in '85 after Mercyful Fate split up. At that time our singer was Jeff Limbo , but both he and Hank left the band in '88 after the 3rd album for different reasons. Then we made Scratch & Sniff with Per Johansson on vocals and Mattias Eklundh on guitars but in '91 Mattias left to persue a solocareer. Soren Hoff then became the guitarplayer and still is. But the line-up today is Per, Soren and meon bass/keys, except that we had a swedish drummer Micke Kvist playing on the new album.Our old drummer Bjarne Holm was otherwise engaged. Then again it might be an other drummer live. Micke living in Sweden and we in Denmark makes it a bit difficult! Playing live we will also have a keyboardplayer.

You've just released your new album "V". Can you please tell us more about this new CD ? What are the concepts of the songs ?

We are all making the music together. Usually an idea will come up, then Per will do some cue vocal , Soren will do his guitar stuff and maybe it will end up being something we can use. Sometimes we cant even agree on what part is the chorus and what part is the verse! But in the end there will be a song! So its very much a collaboration where everyone contributes. And we did it without any interference from anyone. Its completely our own thing! Its all brand new songs, which we have written together and pretty much reflects where we stand right now! A mixture of hard rock and melody powerful singing and mad guitars! According to Per the songs is about a bit of everything: Life in general, love , betrail and fear.

The production of V is amazing. It seems also to be very well distributed inside Europe. How did you manage a such successful return ? Do you already have some first feedbacks about the sales ?

FATE V is produced by Tommy Hansen, who also produced our last album, Scratch n Sniff! Per had his vocals pretty much laid out in advance on this album, so we spent time on the drums in the studio. Soren also knew what he would do with his weird guitarstuff.And also the bass and keyboard. So mainly Tommy glued the whole thing together.Tommy always makes things sound great and very powerful!But if you are devoted and love music its not that difficult to make a return Also support from thepeople surrounding you is very important! Its to early to say anything about sales at the moment.

Today, most of popular north-european metal bands, especially in Scandinavia, only play speed-metal (like Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica). And you, you arrive with a warm and true hard-rock style (especially thanks to the unbelievable blues-rock voice of Per). Don't you think it can be risky ? What do you think of these scandinavian metal trends that become more and more commercial ?

Per has a very powerful voice (and a little strange!!). Per has developed his singing a lot over the years and is using his potentiel more than ever..A matter of fact,when he stopped smoking the sound of this voice got even better. He is not afraid of trying new things! Well - I have nothing against the new bands - there are many very skilled musicians out there, but we just love hard-rock and that is what we do. No matter what other people think or do! It might be risky - but thats fine with us....

Can you please tell us what are the influences of each member of Fate ?

Soren : - Not sure, - when I sit down with my Guitar it just comes to me - but some suggestions to that could be something like - Life, Nature, People, Music...

Per : Life!

Peter :I think its a mixture of everything!

Your album "Scratch n' Sniff" is really amazing, especially on alien guitar solos played by Mattias Ia Eklundh. Do you plan to reedit it or to redistribute it ? (it is not so easy to find it today ! - it really should be more famous)

Thanx a lot.. Yes Mattias did some strange things on that album!!. MTM rereleased it recently : http://www.musicbuymail.com/ , together with some bonus tracks.

Do you still keep relationships with Matthias ? What do you think about his evolution inside Freak Kitchen ?

I love Freak Kitchen and Mattias is just a great guy. Per is seeing Mattias on and off.

On some flyers it was announced that you were going to tour in France in June. Is it still the case ? When do you plan to tour to France ?

As far as I know we are going to France in the autumm. Playing in June is a bit silly with World Cup in football going on!

What are your future projects ? A worldwide or european tour ? A new album ?

There are a lot of planning going on .We are certainly going to play live as much as possibly. We have shot the material for a DVD, but we havn't decided when is out.We havn't talked about a new album yet, but........

Thanks A LOT for having replied to this interview Peter. And huge luck for the success of V.