Yesterday, the 22nd, the vocalist of the Swiss rock band Horisont , Axel Söderberg, was interviewed by Nando Machado , one of the co-founders of Wikimetal .
In the interview, Nando and Axel began with the inevitable topic of the moment: COVID-19. The vocalist, who is conducting the interview in a location that appears to be outside his home in the Swiss capital, Gothenburg, says that there aren't many people on the street, but that this is normal where he lives, as the nearest neighborhood is about 1km away from where he is.
When asked by Nando what might be in the Swiss water, since the country has great rock bands like, of course, Horisont and The Hellacopters , Axel laughs and says he believes it's due to the government's encouragement of the arts and music in general, from childhood. He explains that you can take free music lessons as a child, and if you want to have a band, rent a studio and practice a lot to earn money, all supported by the government. If only, right?
Nando says he's never been to Switzerland, but he hears a lot about the country's electronic music scene; however, he feels that rock is very popular there, and asks the singer about comparing the popularity of rock to countries like the United States or the United Kingdom. Söderberg is honest, and says that, in his view, rock seems to have become a kind of subgenre in recent years, and laments that big rock bands don't have the opportunity to play on the radio, which plays songs made to please people who don't really care about music.
"But then there aren't many rock radio stations in Switzerland?" Nando asks, and Axel replies that there are, but they only play Bon Jovi … provoking laughter from both sides of the conversation.
On May 15th, Horisont's new album, Sudden Death , will be released. However, Nando has already had the privilege of hearing the album (which took three years to make) firsthand, and he doesn't hold back in his sincere praise for Axel. He states that it's a very well-made album and a true trip back to the 70s, the era when rock bands started playing stadium shows, like Queen and Led Zeppelin .
The vocalist says that bands from the late 70s, such as Kansas , are the ones that inspire him the most, and were definitely major references for the new album; however, he tries to listen to all kinds of music.
Regarding the recording and composition process for Sudden Death , Axel says that he usually only writes and plays guitar, but this time he only wrote the songs playing piano, which makes the process more different than on other albums, but he also wanted the other members to be involved in the process. The album was even recorded in HORISONT's own studio, which, according to the vocalist, is one of the reasons why it took so long to finish.
Nando questions the musician about one of the tracks on the new album, sung in Swiss, asking if it sounds strange, since they've only been singing in English throughout their career. Axel admits it's a little strange, but not difficult; what's more complicated is the songwriting process, as writing songs in Swiss seems like a rather, in his words, "naked" process.
In a playful exchange, Nando asks him what the vocalist would do without the three essential items: twin guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals. Söderberg replies, amidst laughter, that he would probably be playing country music.
To conclude the conversation, Axel says that during quarantine he even started watching some live streams, like those of the band Cadaver , but he thinks that's not how rock music should be experienced.
However, the singer believes he will do a live stream with Hotisont around the time the album is released, in mid-May.
Check out the track “Pushin' The Line” by HORISONT below:
