HM: First question – intriguing one for us – what’s up with Avatar logo and resemblance to Slavic letters?
JE: Yeah, I know, finally
someone asked me… ha-ha-ha…So… So when we were 16 years old, 17 years old, we
tried to find a logo, U know, to make a cool logo for a band, it was just our
friend who did that logo for us, we didn’t know. That it was from Cyrillic alphabet
and it actually was… it is Д,
right?
HM: Yes,
absolutely, this is Д.
JE: So, name is “DvDtDr”,
something like this. We didn’t know. We just “Oh, that’s cool. That reminds me of something…I don’t know what…”. You know,
it was kinds of that. And then it was a friend of ours, I think he was Polish,
who said: “You know, your name is not
AVATAR?”, “What?”, “You know, your name
is DvDtDr”. But it was pretty cool.
At some point we worried that we would piss people off, you know, from Ukraine,
from Russia, wherever. And then people come and think it’s funny and we are a
bit stupid. And I’m OK if people are OK with that. We didn’t know that, we just
started look nice, for us it really looks like “A”.
HM: Ok. Is it a coincidence that your stage image is alike the hussars (soldiers during czar days)?
How did U choose your wardrobe?
JE: U know, what we were looking for…It started with me
and I don’t have hussar thing, but we needed, basically, to find a uniform,
that came with some color. When
using uniforms, in a metal kind of way, it is very common that people look for old Nazis. Seriously, look at all metal
and goth stuff. Nazis is shit, but uniform is cool, right? These were colorful,
felt more like old era we take a lot from, and it made sense in that context. So
it was purely esthetic choice. But it is fun,
there is so much more Eastern influence then we realized.
HM: To finish it up with this theme. What about “Bloody Angel” video? What was the idea
behind it? What’s this guy doing in his cabinet? Again, it looks like horror
movies about KGB and Soviet Union. Again, the resemblance for Eastern people
may be there.
JE: It supposed to be “time and place unspecified”. It could be any totalitarian society
in the world at any time, but actually the guard watching the door wore the
uniform from GDR. But it’s not supposed to be that specific, because this is something that happens and has happened
across the world all the time and we make a surreal version of that. We wanted
it to be something that everyone can associate
with something that is recognizable, but not necessarily particular. We didn’t
put any country’s flag, because it is not a historical thing. It’s a very dark
fairytale.
HM: Oh yeah, it’s about a particular experience of a guy who stamps and sends people to die.
JE: Exactly. And he’s trapped
in the system, you know, he just
feels like he is a tiny piece of something and he can’t get out.
HM: And then U come with a saw and help him get out.
Let’s move to musical subjects. Last album brought U success and popularity
and you are now touring over Europe. Have it brought enough satisfaction to U
for all years of hard work?
JE: Well, it’s something that is still happening and we are still, by any way U measure us, a small
band. But we have felt big changes in the last few years, the last year I would
say. Things had spin up a lot for us. I wonder if satisfaction would be the word I use, because I had lots of fun
when I was 16 or 21, even if nobody was listening. It’s something ever-going. And the artistic
satisfaction was always there, maybe now more than ever. But still, I guess I
was always satisfied and hungry at the same time.
HM: So, when U started the band – did U guys know each other before that?
JE: No, we met because of the band. John and Jonas actually
first played tennis together. U
know, when 2 boys are 14-15, had this long hair and one has Iron Maiden t-shirt and another guy has
Metallica t-shirt and then U become
best friends. After that, they put an article on paper looking for vocalist and bass player. It’s always like this: 2 guys start a band, guitar
player and drummer, because those two are the coolest instruments. And then they drag a guitarist’s best friend, who can also be a guitar
player. And then we look for other band members and we find 2 kids: a rich kid and a poor kid. Rich kid becomes a bass
player, because dad bought him a bass guitar, and poor kid becomes a singer. It is always like this. After a
while U realize, that singing is the most fun part: U get to stand in a centre
of stage, U got to be a front person for a band, if U like those kind of
things. If U don’t – you’re still in a band, anyway. But in the beginning, when
U are a little boy, it’s scary to
sing. U know, maybe U were in a choir back at school and singing was kind of
for girls, because boys are supposed to fight and play football and spit and
stuff. We don’t sing! So it took a while. U can play guitar and sing while
playing a guitar, but probably it’s better if someone else is singing, and that
was me.
HM: Last album, “Hail
the Apocalypse”, brought more melodic
sound, less technical death metal sound. So, what changed particularly this
time?
JE: What really happened…With the first two albums – we
were babies, really. We learned how
to play and our common taste of music was technical and melodic death metal.
So, we did this kind of technical, kind of melodic and brutal metal. But then
we realized this is not what we wanted to do. We kind of stopped, and on the
third album we started to experiment
a lot and we tried to find ourselves everywhere. There is more old-school
rock-n-roll heavy metal. But there was a problem with that album – it was full
of “Please like us”. It wasn’t like
that before and it was a good lesson for us because it didn’t work. There are
lots of good songs on that album, I’m proud of it, but the whole aura of
something “let’s make something that people will like” didn’t work like that
and it was good. Because what happens next – “Ok, fuck it, let’s do something
we like”. Let’s put what money left into making album we wanna hear and if
nobody listens – fine, we will listen to it, and it became the most honest
work. “Black Waltz” was the most
honest work and people get that. And that what we continued to do with “Hail
the Apocalypse”, not just: “Oh, people like Black Waltz, maybe we should repeat
that” – “No-o-o, keep doing what we wanna do”. And if people like – they like
it, if don’t – we couldn’t fake it anyway. So they (albums) are very honest and we rehearsed a lot together,
we evolved together. There are certain things that are good only if U play them
a lot with those musicians. “AC/DC” is a perfect example, it’s a groovy band,
simple stuff, but it’s amazing. And we started to become better in that,
because we were playing together
since we were little boys with long hair.
HM: All of your videos till now are full of hidden irony, I would say, like in “Torn Apart” and “Hail the Apocalypse”. Is there an idea behind such approach?
JE: In both mentioned cases – they all have their own
purpose. “Hail the Apocalypse” deals
with the end of the world, deals with it as a metaphor in terms of consequences.
“U caused this – now deal with it”. This is the message of the song. But still
– the whole setup is Apocalypse and we like to use humor as a nice way to put
it forward. And it was esthetically stimulating, fun and challenging to do
something that looks that old. That was the idea and ambition. And with “Torn Apart” – it was purely a musical decision. The song is about
feeling that U don’t belong, it’s pretty primal and simple song and what’s it
about: “not finding a place, not feeling welcome, faking what U were supposed
to do”. It also echoes to a book like “Fight Club”. The song itself is
something U can listen at the gym. So it was basically that feeling that we
wanted to show in a cool and funny way.
HM: That’s why U chose wrestling?
JE: Exactly. I grew up watching lots of wrestling. And it
just happened to be that in Gothenburg there is a small group doing that stuff.
We got to know them and it was a really cool collaboration.
HM: To funny questions. When “Avatar” movie came out – do U think band won or
lost in terms of name awareness?
JE: I think we got very little problems, comparing to what we thought. Hard to tell, it’s already
been 5 years. The one thing that was good – the movie wasn’t good at all. I think it would have been worse if movie
was good. Everybody saw it, but I think very few people saw it again. James
Cameron fucking did “Terminator 2” and “Aliens” and “Titanic” and won fucking
Oscars. And then – this…I don’t know…tech
demo of a movie? I guess that helped. But anyway – Avatar – we thought it
was good name. John was 14 years old and studying religion and history thought
it was cool, I’ll call my band that way. It was also on a letter “A”, so it
will be first on a list. So, lazy people will discover us too. But then what
happened…I told a friend, who was into computers and that stuff, and he is like
– “Oh, avatar, like in forums?”, U know this small picture.
And I’m like: “No, no, it’s Hindu thing, Gods coming down to Earth” – “No, it’s
a picture on Internet”. Damn! And then people started to play MMO games: “Oh, Avatar, it like a small troll?” – “No, no, it’s like Hindu manifestation of Gods on
Earth” – “No-no, U are a little troll, level 12”. So, we always have problems –
but we never changed name, because
we will survive them all, we will outlive them all!!!
HM: With movie happening – have U thought maybe about
changing your face-paint to blue colors?
JE: Haha, funny! Actually, I wouldn’t mention a name, but
bigger European magazine wanted to make a photo-shoot
with us, painting us blue. They did
not get the interview with us!
HM: So, U’ve been around several labels, like Sony or
E-music, and what in your opinion is the most critical criteria in choosing label?
JE: Well, they need to have resources to be able to do things. And also, it’s hard to know
before, U need to be priority. It
doesn’t matter if there are 50 other bands or 2 or you are the only one – U
need to be what they focus on. Because there are that many hours in a day. And
when they pick up their phones or write an email – U just need to be their
priority. I see many examples of bands that I know, that went to bigger labels
early on and they just disappeared under
weight of big ones. Basically, we have been on one label since the day one –
“Gain” in Sweden, and they licensed rights to Sony and E-One. We haven’t felt
until this point, that anyone showed the same intention. Lots of people wanted
to sign us, but they just didn’t show that “U will be our number one”.
HM: Tell us about funniest
recollection from your touring life?
Any example.
JE: Oh, I always drop off such questions. I’m boring like that. I’m sure something
funny happened, but the moment someone asks – I forget everything. I’m sorry. Once we played chess with our drummer
and we hit a speed bump – all of our chesses fell over. We had to start again,
funny?
HM: So, what are your future plans after tour is over? Do U plan on hitting studio?
JE: Well, first of all, we are writing constantly, always
writing, and hopefully at some point what we write will not sound like shit, but it will sound good, and then we will record it. Up until then we feel like we have covered lots of USA,
big share of Europe. I don’t know, we didn’t return to Spain or Portugal on this tour, and France was really
good for us, but we only did one show. There are still black spots on European map, so we will try to do some dates. But
first and foremost – take some time off,
focus on writing and taking care of loved ones.
HM: Last question and we ask it pretty much everybody.
What of the songs U would choose as lullaby
for your children?
JE: It’s funny, we have this song, “Tower”, that is a softer song, but I guess it’s the darkest piece of lyrics. And it’s written from perspective of antagonist person,
like “I keep U in tower and I control U, everything will be fine if I do what I
tell U”. And that is not a message I wanna give to my children. Melodically it’s OK, but I care much
about lyrics, so I would put stuff like “Wildflower”
from “Schlacht” and do an acoustic
version of it, because there is a message and thoughts I would like them to
fall asleep with.
HM: Thank you for your time and interesting interview.
That was “HolyMayhem.com”, see you!
JE: Thanks, guys, see you!
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