Up-Load UK, Gigs News & reviews Scar Symmetry Interview

Jack	Hello there, for those unfamiliar with you and your band, could you please explain who you are and what you do?
Jonas	We are a melodic death metal band with progressive elements in songs that are catchy and varied in their nature. Our music is filled with shredding guitar solos and we combine complex and straightforward drums and bass-lines, very varied vocals and tons of keyboard. The line-up consists of me (Henrik Ohlsson) –drums, Per Nilsson - rhythm and lead guitar. Jonas Kjellgren - rhythm and lead guitar, Christian Älvestam - vocals and Kenneth Seil - bass. We released our debut album 'Symmetric in Design' in 2005 through Cold records/Metal Blade, and our second album 'Pitch Black Progress' is coming out in April through Nuclear Blast.
Jack	You're new album entitled 'Pitch Black Progress' comes out on April 24th. What are your feelings about the album? How do you think the media will react to it?
Jonas	I think it will be Scar Symmetry's breakthrough album, it has everything you could ever want from a metal album and I think that the media will be thrilled about it.
Jack	You claim to be a melodic death metal act that takes influence from bands like Soilwork and In Flames. What would you say makes you stand out from other melodic death metal bands?
Jonas	We're not primarily influenced by the bands you mentioned, we're driven by the urge to create something new compared to what we've done in our musical pasts or actually take elements from what we've done before with other bands and mix it up with new stuff. I think that is what makes us stand out; we weren't formed by the sound of today's melo-death. We've been in the scene for the last 16 years and we have our own preferences that we follow. So it is not OUR claim that we are influenced by In Flames or whatever, it's basically something that our labels has come up with to promote the band and describe what the music sounds like to them.
Jack	When you go into the studio, are the songs written by individual members or is it a group effort?
Jonas	The songs are written individually but sometimes we change parts of songs while we're in the studio. Per writes a little less than half of the songs and Jonas writes the rest. Per creates the vocal lines for most of his songs on his own and Chrille comes up with vocal lines for all of Jonas´ songs and some of Per's songs. Then I write lyrics for them all.
Jack	Will you be touring the UK any time soon? Will you be doing any summers festivals such as Wacken Open Air, Graspop etc?
Jonas	There are no current plans to visit the U.K but it may very well change in the near future. I heard something about playing at Wacken, and then it was cancelled. Yesterday I heard that we're going to play there again, so you never know with these things. We will however do a tour with Hypocrisy and Soilwork in April, that one will happen for certain, and I'm sure we'll play at some festivals this summer too.
Jack	What band(s) would you most like to tour with in future?
Jonas	Morbid Angel, KISS and W.A.S.P!
Jack	What bands do you listen to the most when you are writing music?
Jonas	We don't listen to anything special while writing songs, we just go with the stuff that comes up and whatever's in our stereos is there whether we write music or not!
Jack	What is it like being on a big record label that is respected world wide by metal fans such as Nuclear Blast?
Jonas	It's an honour, it's definitely something we've wanted since we started playing metal. And it's such a difference compared to being signed to a smaller label, everything is so professional with Nuclear Blast! The release of 'Pitch Black Progress' has been given top priority and that makes everything even cooler, otherwise we could just end up as a number in their catalogue but it seems like they're pushing this release to the max and we're extremely grateful for that.
Jack	What has been the best moment of your musical career so far?
Jonas	I think the best moment so far was when we signed to Nuclear Blast!
Jack	What is your favourite part of playing live?
Jonas	If the audience is really into the music and very drunk I think that the moshing is very cool to watch and to feeding off their berserk energy is probably the best thing. But drinking beer after a show is a close second.
Jack	Do you prefer small, intimate club gigs or big open air festivals?
Jonas	Right now I would say intimate club gigs because big festivals are a bit overwhelming, we haven't had that much live experience and that's probably the reason why I feel this way.
Jack	And finally, any last words for the Scar Symmetry fans out there?
Jonas	Thanks for your incredible support! Remember to visit our website which is updated constantly (www.scarsymmetry.com), thanks for joining us on our insane metal-ride!
Jack	Thank you very much for your time!
Jonas	Thank you, it was a pleasure.

Interviewee:	Jonas Kjellgren - Scar Symmetry
Interviewer/s:	Jack Pudwell
Date:	13th March 2006
Venue: