Interview by Gabriela Marqueti
Text by Erica Y Roumieh
Swedish band In Flames will be coming to Brazil for a single performance on November 9th (Thursday) at Tokio Marine Hall in São Paulo.
The tour promotes the latest album, Foregone , released in February of this year. Tickets are on sale at the Eventim .
On the eve of his visit to Brazil, vocalist Anders Fridén spoke with Wikimetal about his memories of the country, what it was like recording Foregone , and how he sees the metal scene today.
Recalling his previous visit to Brazil, the musician recounted a spontaneous party he ended up participating in: “I remember being on the street and receiving nice drinks from an elderly woman. We were partying somewhere on the street and suddenly the door of this apartment opened. It looked like a window and she started serving caipirinhas and mojitos. And they were incredible. The best I've ever had. You see, she had actually only opened a few hours before and we and our whole team and a bunch of other people started having a street party and it was amazing.”
Fridén says his connection to the country also stems from metal, as he toured with Sepultura and Soulfly at different times, recalling how fun the musicians from those bands were during that period.
Regarding partnerships and collaborations, the vocalist talked about participating in Nita Strauss , The Call of the Void (2023) . “I think she works with or is friends with one of the guys who recorded our albums. And I met her a few times when she was touring with Alice Cooper. And then, suddenly, out of the blue, I received an email asking if I wanted to participate in one of her songs [“The Golden Trail”]. She was writing her solo album and I said sure because she's a great guitarist, an incredible guitarist, and a cool person.”
He continued: “So I thought, yeah, sure that would be cool. And she said, do whatever you want. And I wrote the lyrics and created the melodies and sent them back to her and apparently she liked them and, you know, put them on her album. So it was fun. It sounds great and I’ve heard some of the other tracks on her album. I think I feel like she made a really good album.”
A few months prior to that, the group released Foregone , their 14th studio album and a product of the pandemic. When asked about the themes behind the work, he explained: “I have to go back here, back to the pandemic, because it has a huge impact on why this album sounds the way it sounds and lyrically why I talk about what I talk about, you know, for us. And now it feels selfish in a way, because so many people suffered and then lost their jobs, so many lost friends and family, and so many people were injured. I was lucky that no one in my family died or anything because of the pandemic.”
"It was strange because I'd been, you know, touring the world for so many years, and that's what I'd done my entire adult life, and suddenly that was taken away from me. I couldn't see my friends, or the fans. I couldn't see the people I work with, the crew, or the guys in the band. I was, you know, stuck here alone."
And it was extremely frustrating. And then you saw the state of the world, and I was thinking a lot about how good it would be if we took a natural break from the world and thought about the situation we're in.”
“And when the pandemic ends, we come out as better people, with more motivation to become better in every way. As if we treated each other with more respect than understanding. But I feel the climate is even more toxic, and we have less respect and understanding, and we are angrier and more self-centered than where we've always been. And we see that you know more about the hostility, yet we are more hostile between countries, and then we have wars happening in Europe and other parts of the world, and that makes me very sad to see, because I was hoping for a change.”
“I’m dealing with a lot of this and all the music has also become a little more aggressive because of all of this and there was a lot of anger and frustration and everything we wanted to incorporate or it was just very natural that the album ended up the way it did. I think we need to take a few steps back and that’s what I hope for, like that pause where we were in our little world, that we would miss everyone and then come out better as people.”
Frieden said he strongly believes in the sense of community among metal fans. “People used to help each other. They have fun with each other, listen to music together (…) But we also still have that angry attitude online, where people like that are wrong.”
Regarding his enthusiasm for continuing to make music and metal, he commented that he's still excited even after 30 years. “Otherwise I wouldn't do this anymore (…) We don't have a band or artist that inspires us anymore, but I love music. I listen to a lot of music. I buy a lot of vinyl, but it's more like ambient electronic jazz and some metal albums here and there, but it doesn't really ignite the flames that much, you know.”
During the pandemic, the musician suffered from isolation like all of us, but he took advantage of this time to set up his own studio so he could play whenever he felt like it. “So, when the pandemic happened, I thought, because I’m still creative, I still want to make music, right? But I didn’t have my friends around. So I thought, what should I do? So I built the studio and I have tons of synthesizers and drum machines and everything else. And I went to the store and thought, give me 10 vinyl records of ambient electronic music. That was a genre I didn’t really know.”
"I just want to create music and travel the world and meet our fans and have fun sharing the passion of this music with other people, which I think is the best thing in the world, you know?"
Fridén, towards the end of the interview, left a message for the fans: “Come to the show and have fun, you know, that’s why we’re there and I can’t wait to get there. You know we love playing in Brazil and all over South America.”
"Like I said at the beginning, everyone is amazing and I know that heavy metal culture is strong and always has been. So it's incredible."