Dark Tranquility
A sign for the end of times.
A conversation with Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquility/The Halo Effect/Cemetery Skyline/Grand Cadaver)
Dark Tranquility current tour stopped in here in Prague, Czech Republic a few days ago as they are on the road celebrating their new album Endless Signals with an interesting and diverse supporting package that includes Moonspell, Wolfheart and Hiraes.
During their stop we got the chance to speak with frontman Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquility about the tour, the new album, other projects and of course beer & videogames.
Miguel/Metal heart Radio: Mikael, thank you so much for talking to us.
The tour started yesterday in Berlin, and you guys already have 6 sold-out shows on this tour.
Mikael Stanne: Yeah, a few more that I just learned about today, so yeah. So, it's going to be 8.
MHR: Oh wow, amazing, so how did that sold-out component part make you all feel? Just from the get go, right before the tour.
MS: Yeah, it felt great. We knew that this was a strong package, you know. Wolfheart are awesome, Moonspell are awesome, Hiraes I just I saw them yesterday and they were excellent. So, it's a really, really cool package, I think. Very kind of diverse, but also kind of bands that have something in common, you know. And yeah, I mean, we've only done one show in Europe. And that was Summer Breeze for the new album, with some of the new songs.
So, the album has been going really well, and people seem to be very excited about it, so this is very cool, like this is one of the coolest, or the best, or the biggest, or the most ambitious tours that we've done.
MHR: Right after the album came out in August, I was looking at the charts and it went up, and then the response of the press was huge. How has been the reception of the fans to the new songs since release day
MS: It's been amazing, and you're always kind of worried, like how many new songs can we play in a set every night? And we changed it a little bit, we tried out different new songs during the American tour. And what we found was that people just wanted to hear more of it, of course they want to hear all the old stuff as well, and that's always the dilemma you're faced with. But it went over really well, and the songs feel great to play live, and some of them are really super heavy and fast, and some of them are more emotional, and it's been a good mix. And the album is selling like crazy every night as well, people just want the final physical product and that kind of stuff. So, I could not be happier with it.
MHR: How difficult it gets to put a set list together? You have maybe an hour and a half, two hours, and you guys have a long repertoire of albums, and every album has a different song or a group of songs that people like
MS: So, what we've done, we chose six songs from the new album, that we kind of changed every other night, or every three nights we have three sets that we cannot switch between. And then we have songs that we definitely are going to play, and then we have songs that we've changed. So, on Tuesday we do one set, Wednesday another, Thursday another. To make it more interesting for us, of course, and also for the people who go to several shows. So, we have, I think, almost 30 songs in rotation. So that makes it easier as well. And of course, people go, Oh, you shouldn't play that song. We played it yesterday, or we'll play it tomorrow, or something like that, of course, it's never easy, but when you kind of distill it, you know, OK, we're going to play at least four or five new songs, and then we have to play these songs. Then there's five, seven songs that you can kind of choose between.
MHR: You're a very active frontman on stage, that's a fact. What is the most fun song from the new album to play live?
MS: I don't know. Maybe Unforgivable is really fun, just because it's super-fast, and Not Nothing, just because it's a bit more mellow and emotional. I think those are the two that I like the most, just because it's a bit more of a challenge. Right, that's good.
MHR: At the moment, you have four bands in rotation now (Dark Tranquility/The Halo Effect/Cemetery Skyline/Grand Cadaver) How do you manage it? Is it overwhelming to keep everything rotating here and there?
MS: Sometimes it can be, but most of the time, we kind of organize it the way that I just do the stuff that I can do. When I'm on tour, I don't want to bother too much about the other bands, because I don't want to kind of be... It's hard to kind of focus on something else while you're on tour, because there's so much going on.
So I told all the other guys, we talk more at home, and if there's something, send me a text and we'll talk about it. But most of the things are kind of done. The Halo Effect album is done, the Cemetery Skyline album is out, so it's kind of easy.
And also, when it comes to shows, I'm not really involved in that. All the booking agents talk to each other, and they go like, oh yeah, maybe this is possible, with Marcus' schedule, Santeri's schedule, and mine, and with Peter and Daniel and Nicholas.
So it's just a matter of kind of matching it and make sure that it's doable and that it works, and that I at least have a few days at home every once in a while.
MHR: Lyrically and emotionally speaking, at the time of writing, what goes where? (Dark Tranquility/The Halo Effect/Cemetery Skyline/Grand Cadaver)
MS: It is very different. When we started Halo Effect, for instance, it was right after finishing all the songs for Moment. At the same time, I got some songs from Nicholas, and I was kind of like, yeah, I'll try something.
But it wasn't really serious. We didn't really know what to do with it. So once Moment was done, I was kind of like, okay, I'm up for trying something new.
Then I could focus on something very different. And so, the Halo Effect became kind of like, what was it like when we grew up? What was it that drew us in? What was it that kind of forged us together? Because we grew up together like when we were 14, 15, and we met through metal and music and underground scene and that kind of stuff. And now most of us have kids who are in the same age as we were when we met.
So I'm trying to kind of look through that prism as well. What is the world like now? How do you gravitate towards certain things? What are your passions? And that kind of stuff. And that was kind of like the starting point.
So it was easy to go into something because there were no expectations right then. Nobody knew us, and nobody knew what it was, so it could be anything. And with Cemetery Skyline, it was kind of like, oh, finally. It took a while to find the right balance between cheesy 80s pop to goth.
And at one point we started thinking, maybe we can just kind of not make fun of it, but kind of almost do that.
MHR: Have fun with it?
MS: Yeah, have fun with it. But also, how do you make fun of a self-serious genre like goth? It doesn't work. It's already laughable in many ways. It's going like, oh, the dark cemeteries.
So I decided to write more about loneliness and kind of lost love and all that stuff that I kind of grew up listening to, like 80s pop basically, the songs that really spoke to me. So that was easy, too, because it was very different again and also no expectations. We just did it for ourselves and kind of wrote to each other.
Kind of like, hey, there's a melody for this song. What do you feel about that? And then Marcus loved it. And I was like, okay, cool, very cool. Awesome. And we proceeded.
MHR: That album is beautiful. I mean, that's for sure, it gets you from beginning to end. But now the big question is, you guys have a couple of shows. I know that ProgPower USA is going to be the opening show for the US crowd, that's for sure. And then yesterday or today was announced the John Smith Festival. Are there any plans for a full-scale touring of Cemetery Skyline?
MS: No, not that we have yet. Next year is going to be impossible because there's already touring back to back. And the same with Marcus. I know Cemetery is probably going to write a new album, maybe. But me and Marcus are going to be super busy, so there's no way. But we are squeezing in some.
We’re doing some dates in Finland. We're doing some festivals in Finland. So maybe if it works, we can do one or two festivals in Europe as well. But then tour, I know some of the guys really want to, and I would love to, but it's no time.
MHR: So, for now we'll catch you only at festivals.
MS: I think so. It's going to be whenever we can. So, it's going to be kind of exclusive, but that makes it more fun. We want this to be kind of a special thing that we kind of celebrate every once in a while.
MHR: You guys (Marcus Valhalla and Mikael Stanne) have pretty much four bands working at the same time, is that something that happened right after the pandemic? Because it was like a surplus of ideas of a result of it?
MS: Most of it started like, so Cemetery Skyline and The Halo Effect started before the pandemic. Like the ideas and we started like working on this. Yeah. So we started kind of working on ideas and kind of sending demos back and forth.
So, we kind of decided on doing something. We just didn't really know what, you know, we just had a few songs. But then during the pandemic, then, hey, I have all this time, you know, and then, then we went into like the production for Halo Effect and that took months because we could. So, we just worked on the songs, an endless thing. We recorded like 17 songs and stuff like that. It was awesome.
And at the same time, I was kind of like, while I was writing something that I was like, Oh, maybe I'll check that Cemetery Skyline song again. And you come up with something and I record demos and send them back and forth. And it was just fun.
Then right off it was truly like just pandemic because a lot of bars kind of closed and all the, you know, you can kind of go out and gather as much as you could, but they closed at six. So we used to go out during the day, you know, have a few beers with some of the locals, you know, my friends from, from where I live. And Alex, who's the guitar player, I've guested on some of his projects before.
So, we've been good friends. We became really good friends. And during the pandemic, we hung out a lot.
And after a while he was kind of like, yeah, I had this idea about starting a band. Like, what would you feel about it? It's like, fuck it, why not? I'm not doing anything else. Might as well.
So that was kind of, so I think none of these bands would have kind of had first albums out by now if it wasn't for the pandemic, basically. But we can say that, for example, we probably wouldn't have worked as hard like doing it either.
MHR: We will see you again with The Halo Effect in February down in Brno. What can we expect here in the Czech Republic on that end?
MS: With the Halo Effect? I'm not sure. I haven't looked at the schedule. I try not to look at these tours too far ahead because it just stresses me out. Focus on this one now. But the tour is, yeah, it's kind of like short and sweet and we're just going to play like places that we kind of know well.
But I'm sure there's going to be more and there's already demand for it. So we're going to try to book as much as possible without killing ourselves, you know. But it's going to happen for sure. We're going to definitely come here. We always do.
MHR: We were talking earlier that you're a beer fan, but also, you're a video game fan. What are you playing now?
MS: Well, I mean, on tour or like... Yeah, I'm playing PlayStation in the back. And now I've been playing the new Dragon Age, Vailguard. So that came out yesterday. So I got it a few days early. So I've been playing that. It's fucking awesome. I love that series. I used to... I played them all and all the first ones.
And before Baldur's Gate, I think it was one of the best. And Bioware has always been, of course, the best kind of studio for role-playing games. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and all those things. And Mass Effect, of course. So that's a lot of fun.
Then I'm playing a lot of Call of Duty, but it doesn't really work.The internet is kind of bad here on the bus. So hopefully that's going to be better. Then I'm playing Astrobot.
But it's fucking awesome. Like me and Johan are playing it in the back. It's just like taking turns.
It's super fun. But I mean, it's just a perfect way to kill time. But especially like a role-playing game, like late last night, I was kind of like, I don't want to do anything.
Just add some wine and just play these cool role-playing adventures. Perfect. Nice.
MHR: the game Hellsinger is a lot of fun to play, and actually, you get to hear you. I mean, in parts and you hear the singers and recognize them Are there any plans to do something similar to that, to attract more the metal community into video games?
MS: I don't know. The reason I became part of it was just because of my girlfriend, who works with the composer's mother. That's how we kind of got connected.
And then they asked me to be a part of another video game that they were making. I said like, fuck yeah, I'll do anything. I love games and I would love to be a part of it.
But then that didn't happen. And then Hellsinger started happening. And then they asked me if I can sing, and I said, of course. But I don't know if they're going to make another game or something like that. But they just contacted me first. And then we did a few songs.
And then they asked me, it's like, do you know any other singers who would want to be interested in this? And I was like, yes, I do, then start texting everybody.
But it would be cool. And I spoke to this company in Canada that does voices and sounds for video games. But they only use metal musicians, because you could have this kind of voices and stuff for zombie sounds and whatever. And they did for Gears of War 5 and stuff like that. They had voices from the metal community. So hopefully, if I ever have time for it, I would love to do that.
MHR: Since we're in the pretty much in one of the beer capitals of Europe and, you're a beer lover. What is your favorite Czech beer? Because we have a lot of them
MS: I know, I know. But the thing is, I always try to try something new. You know, if I go to a bar, I'll try the one that I haven't had, you know. Put it on untapped and kind of like, hmm, yeah, this is good. So, I mean, I grew up with Czech beer. The first beer that I really loved was Pilsen Urquell.
That was kind of like, this is the best beer I've ever had. And before that, it was only this kind of stuff. And there was one bar that had it, like just one bar in Gothenburg.
And I remember just like, wow. That opened my eyes to kind of like what kind of cool European beer could be. Because everything was just fucking Carlsberg or Two Boy or something like that.
They're super boring. So, I think I'll go for Pilsner when I come here. But at the same time, there's a lot of good craft beers and really good IPAs. So, I'm always on the lookout.
MHR: Because, I mean, either it's the Czech Republic or Belgium. I mean, for me, it's been like those two.
MS: Yeah, Belgium I love just because it's so exciting and kind of like, yeah, it's incredible. Like some of the Belgian beer bars, it's just like the best thing in the world. But this is kind of hard to find in Sweden. Not hard, but, you know, we have one really cool Belgian beer bar in Stockholm. But whenever I come to Belgium, I go like, okay, now, let's go, you know. But I mean, the heaviness.
MHR: Yeah, you got to take it easy.
MS: Yeah, you take it easy. I mean, a couple of drills are like natural properties.They are 10 or 11. But I always collect and I buy, I always buy kind of like a Christmas pack from like Belgian brewers. Like all these different Christmas beers from Belgium that are incredible. So, I always have that. So, I have two fridges all for beer. I'm glad that I have room for all the beers that I keep and kind of collect. I don't collect, but I sometimes keep stuff for years, you know, like Russian, like Imperial Stouts and that kind of stuff. So, we break them out every once in a while, every three years, you know. Like the champagne.
MHR: So, you guys have not played here yet, but we know already that you will come back to the BasinFire fest next year, and you played at the festival a couple of years ago, right? Maybe 2023.
MS: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
MHR: How do you feel about coming back to that one next year?
MS: It's going to be cool. I have really good memories of that show and just the other people. It was super, super fun.
MHR: Do you guys have any time to explore Prague when you come around from time to time?
MS: Yeah, it depends. Like in the beginning of the tour, there's always a lot of things to do, like technical stuff, so we haven't had that, but I'm actually probably going to take the tram downtown now because we're not on till 10, so might as well.
MHR: Thank you so much, Mikael. It was amazing to talk to you once again. Thank you for the beer, man, much appreciated.
