By Andrew Bansal
After a successful and extensive touring run supporting Lamb Of God in America last fall, Swedish melodic death metal giants In Flames have embarked on yet another North American tour. Getting into the last phase of the touring cycle for their latest album ‘Sounds Of A Playground Fading’, the ever-busy, ever-active quintet is out on a short run with Demon Hunter, All Shall Perish and Battlecross. Just a couple of days after the tour began, I caught up with drummer Daniel Svensson and asked him these questions via an email. Read our conversation below, and visit In Flames on their official website, facebook and twitter.
You’re starting another North American tour. In Flames has toured America a lot, specially in recent times. Does it even feel like a foreign country to you anymore? I mean, I’m sure you’re really used to it by now.
Well, America is a big market with a lot of people and we can still play places that we haven’t played before. We try to tour as much as we can anywhere we can. Playing live shows is the reason why we do this. We love touring. We are grateful that our American fans are loyal and let us come back time after time.
On this tour, you’re not hitting the major US cities. Is the aim of this tour solely to play the smaller markets?
We have already, on this touring cycle, played the major market in the US and on this tour we try to cover up places that we haven’t played for a while or at all.
What can people expect in terms of the set list? Are you doing something similar to what you did on the recent supporting US run with Lamb Of God?
First of all we have a much longer set this time since we are headlining and can therefore play more songs than on the previous tour where we only had a 50 minutes set. We will try to make a good set with a variety of songs from different albums. It’s tough putting together a set list with ten albums out. We will do our best to please our fans even though it’s hard.
This time obviously you are the headliners, and your support acts are Demon Hunter, All Shall Perish and Battlecross. They have their own fan-following too. Do you think it has become more important to put together touring lineups based on each band’s popularity rather than the musical similarity to the headliner?
It’s no point putting a tour together with bands that almost sound the same. All bands will benefit if you could bring different fans to the tour with a more diverse line-up. This is definitely a strong package with a lot of good bands so it should be great for all bands.
You released ‘Sounds Of A Playground Fading’ in early 2011. Has anyone in the band had a chance to write any new material since then?
We’re not a band that write material on the road. We try to focus on the touring and when we finish the touring cycle for this album we can close this chapter and start a new one by starting to write some new stuff. The touring for this album ends in August and after that we will start writing.
The interesting and unique thing about In Flames’ drummer history is, your guitarist Björn Gelotte used to play drums until 1998, and then he changed to guitar while you replaced him on drums. Does he still provide a major input to you when you are writing the drum parts?
Well, I think it makes it easier that the songwriter knows how to play the drums and I also believe that we, and the rest of the guys in the band, think about music and song arrangements in the same way. It’s actually a pretty smooth process.
When In Flames is not in writing mode, do you do anything to keep your musical creativity going?
We are kind of lazy so we always have to set up deadlines to make sure we will get things done. And we also tend to work very god under pressure so that is never a problem. We always manage to create amazing songs in the end.
You were involved in a couple of other projects like Sacrilege GBG, according to my knowledge. What happened to that? Did you just get too busy with In Flames to focus any attention on it?
In Flames takes a lot of time and the rest of the time that is left I need to spend with my family since we are away touring almost all the time. I might do something else in the future, but right know I just don’t have time for it.
Wikipedia states that you play the ‘Moeller’ technique, which is strange because I’m sure you clarified in an interview that you don’t play that style. You said that you are more of a ‘lumberjack drummer’. What does that term mean?
That’s right I’m not even familiar with that technique. When I said i’m more of a lumberjack drummer I meant that I lack in overall technique. I’m a self-taught drummer and I don’t really use the conventional techniques so to speak. But it works pretty good anyways.
Coming back to the tour, a lot of bands these days are doing VIP packages and meet-n-greets with the fans. Is In Flames doing anything like that on this tour?
We do meet-n-greets with people from our fanclub Jesterhead to which you can sign up for free through our website. We don’t charge anything for it. We want to give something back to our fans because without them we would be nothing at all.
And lastly, I’ll end the interview on a light-hearted note. Whenever fans meet bands, I’ve always noticed that they don’t really bother the drummer that much. I think that’s a good thing for you! Do you think it’s better to have it that way and find your own peace while the singer and guitarists are busy with the fans?
I’m comfortable being a little bit in the background, it’s nothing that bothers me at all. But people still show their appreciation so I’m toatally happy.
Related: In Flames San Diego gig review | In Flames San Diego photo gallery