Interviews

Hey everyone, I’m sitting here with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers who took the time to answer a few questions about the new album and some things in general. Peter, thanks sitting with us, really appreciated.

Don’t worry about it, it’s a pleasure

Putting aside musical influences and things like that, who is the person behind Peter Iwers, away from the music?

Oh, I think I’m extremely shy and when I’m at home I just relax and spend time with my family, friends and daughter. I’m not a very social person at all, I mean I try to be but…

So, you guys have been touring North America for about a month now for the millionth time, how’s it going so far?

It’s going extremely well actually. Its pretty hard to say that, but it’s really really good and it’s pretty much sold out every night and we’ve been getting a lot of good reactions and just having tons of fun with our friends. It’s just really great.

Would you say that touring is getting better, are you enjoying yourself more and more each time?

Yeah, I mean last time was really great also but it seems that its getting better and better.

I’ve interviewed a few bands from northern Europe before, and I’ve noticed that when we touch the subject of girls and going on tour they tend to be pretty modest or closed on the issue. But nevertheless, do you feel that with the rising popularity of In Flames there have been more girls wanting a piece of Peter?

Well I’ve been married for so many years that I don’t even know. I’m not married anymore though, so I guess I’m about to find out.

You know something, I watched your DVD and I have to admit that only in Sweden with you get so many good looking girls at a metal concert.

(Laughs) Yeah, but we’re in it more for the music. It’s great of course if there are beautiful women that come to shows, and it increases the whole vibe if they’re around, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to “do anything”. I mean, I don’t think any of us, nor is it really in our culture to use our position. Also, I wouldn’t have respect for women who are coming after us just because we’re in a band; it might have been cool in the 80’s, but I don’t think it’s really cool anymore.

No more sex, drugs and rock and roll I guess…

No, Rock and Roll is fine and sex is fine too… Just not with someone who will do it the next day with the next band.

Well, since we’re on the topic of partying, who would you say is the biggest party animal in the band?

Probably be a tie between Bjorn or me.

I only believe you because of the Bud Light in your hand. So talk to me about the bands you’re touring with, how did the decision come about to tour with bands like Trivium, Devildriver and Zao?

Well, it was a suggestion from our management and we’ve toured with Devil Driver and we think they’re a great band and a great bunch of guys we’re really good friends with them and it was an honor to have em’ again with us. Trivium, we’re toured with the sort of and they seemed to be a good choice. Zao though I had never heard about, and now I did and think they are a great band as well. They’ve been around for years and years, and I think it’s a good package of bands since it’s so mixed.

When you go back to Europe you’ll be touring with Sepultura as your support. How does it feel to have such a big name in Metal support In Flames?

It feels good. I wasn’t personally a big Sepultura fan when I grew up, but some of the guys were and to them it’s the huge thing, of course, its kind of surreal to have a band that you looked up to and inspired us as song writers in the beginning to have as an opening act. It’s just awesome, and it’s great to have such competent and talent musicians touring with us.

So talk to me about the new album, Come Clarity. What would you see is the meaning of this title?

That is mainly up to Anders. I could mainly philosophize what it means to me as a title, but he usually leaves that pretty closed up and wants people to interpret that by themselves. For me it’s like, we’ve been doing a lot of support touring during last year and to be out on the road again, headlining, and doing our own shows is… well when you’re supporting, it’s fun and all but sometime you play in front of another band’s crowd and they don’t appreciate it as much. Going on tour again with our fans you see a lot of the reasons why you do this, and you realize how fun it is. Those are the reason how I feel about it but, I’m not 100% positive on what he means about it.

Still on the same topic of the new album, musically I’d say is quite different from other In Flames releases, so what is it that the band tried to achieve, or what was the goal behind the album?

Well we wanted it to be more up-tempo when compared to the last album, and we wanted to have the guitars and the melodies more back in, they’ve been kind of… not missing, they’ve been there, but not as apparent on the latest 2 records at least. So we basically took a lot of the keys and moved them back into the picture, upfront with the guitars, and up with the tempo, and that is basically the only thing we thought about when we wrote the album, we just wanted to make an even better album than last time. We had a particular way of looking at it before it was recorded, but from there everything came together by itself.

On the same topic once again, what do you have to say to long-time fans that either cry sellout, or they say that In Flames has alienated the whole melodeath style of music?

It’s easy; if you don’t like it don’t listen to it. I know why we do this and if we wanted to make money we wouldn’t be making metal, we would go cut our hair and we’d make backstreet boys music, and that’s obviously not happening. So, it’s real easy, music is either good or bad, and if you like it you like it and if you don’t fine… but I really don’t care.

Do you think there are many people who hold misconceptions when it comes to the music industry?

Well I could only really answer for us and say that we only try to look at things through our eyes. We pretty much disregard what anybody has to say about us or our music because if we were to take in any impressions when we are writing or making a demo then it wouldn’t be us; and if we listened to all those sellout screams or the management that says you need to write this or that we wouldn’t be In Flames, so we have to what we do and that’s what people have to understand. If they start yelling sellout or say that we should sound more like we did in the old days and we listened, that would be selling out, we do exactly what we want to do which is the opposite

In terms of influences, what were the biggest bands that helped shape In Flame’s music?

It’s always the classic Iron Maiden, Slayer… I know Bjorn listens to a lot of Rainbow and Deep Purple and stuff like that, but I can’t really say that there’s a few bands that have really influenced us because everything around us has. All these bands that we tour with, and pretty much everything that’s good inspires us, and that’s the key to it, I mean pop music, jazz or old heavy metal… we’re not afraid to take in new ideas.

Would you say that the sources from which you guys draw influence has changed?

No they’ve been expanding, and growing more and more all the time.

What do you think of Black Metal?

I’m not a big fan of it. There are some bands I guess that if you are a true black metal fan you don’t consider them to be black metal such as Dimmu Borgir, but I think they’re great. There are other bands that I really don’t care for at all though.

What is you take on the metal scene right now, do you believe it is getting better or worse?

I think that there are so many bands out there, not only with metal but with the vague “sort of metal, sort of pop” bands, that sound alike. Especially when you turn on American channels and watch things like Fuse or top twenty or things like that and I think its boring. I don’t really listen to much new music at all actually, but I think its really really boring. A few bands that have been around for a few bands that have been getting really popular are bands like Chimera and Killswitch Engage and I really love those bands, I think they’re great but I don’t care for much else because I think it’s so… not pointless, but it seems like nothing is really happening, you know, and that bands are always copying one another and that really doesn’t interest me.

Are there any Metal bands that you believe are pushing the Heavy Metal Genre to new lengths?

…no… not really. I’m sure if you’d ask Anders he’d give you a totally different answer, but I stick to the old stuff.

know it may be a little soon to be asking this question, but have you guys by chance been talking about or started writing new material for the next album?

Unfortunately no, we vaguely spoke about when me might get together to write new material but we’ve been touring all of last year and the rest of this year is booked, so it’s going to take some time.

How did the idea come about to have female vocals on an In Flames album since Lunar Strain?

Haha, yeah I was going to say that, it’s not the first time. We talked about putting in that element again, and this lady who sings her name is Lisa mijovsy she’s a kind of famous pop star…

I think she wrote a famous Backstreet Boys song is that right?

Yes that’s right, she’s pretty diverse and though she loves the whole singer songwriter stuff, but she also likes metal as well. We met her a couple of years ago at a Swedish festival and we started talking about music and well, it turned out she is an In Flames fan. There are always times when you meet a lot of people and talk about possible collaborations in the future but they never happen, this time though the second we got into the studio we called her up and asked her if she was interested in doing something. This song was already written so it is not a song that we wrote for her especially or anything like that, so all we did was find a part that she fit in perfectly.

When people are together for long periods of times its only normal that some fights or arguments occur, does the band every get angry at each other while on tour?

Yeah, all the time. I think the easiest way to consider us is like a big family, it’s like we’re brothers and we fight all the time, but that’s o.k because we’re still going to remain a family in the end, and that is a very healthy way of looking at it. You can’t get along all the time, especially when you live so close together, I mean you saw the way we live, we don’t get hotels or anything like that. So you have to fight, you have to get everything out in the open once in a while, and that’s healthy in my opinion.

What sort of sacrifices has you or the band made to be where you are now?

A lot of us have sacrificed a lot of time with our families, kids, girlfriends and wives. It’s a choice we all made and we have really supportive people back home that understand that we have to do this, I mean I’m really not the type of person to who can go home sit and work a regular job. I need to do this and its what I’ve been wanting to do all my life whether its on a small or large scale.

Has the idea ever come about to re-record another album like many other bands have done?

Hmm…not really

You, Peter Iwers, enjoys playing which In Flames song the most live?

That thing changes all the time you know because when your on tour and you play the same 25 songs every night eventually you’re going to get tired of a few of them, especially the ones we’ve been playing for years. If I had to choose one today though, I would have to choose Leeches, off the new album.

At the same time you say that you’re the party guy though, is that right?

Yeah I am the party guy, but at the same time I’m not the party guy that stands in the middle of the room telling stories to everybody, I’m the guy who seeks the corner where the table is, and the beer... and some nice company.

The company of some nice blonde Swedish girls I suppose right?

(Laughs) yeah, of course.

Do you think that Sweden will beat Canada in the Olympic hockey tournament?

Of course! We beat the U.S.A today. I mean excuse me for saying it, but Canada isn’t playing very well…you lost today again. It’s a good question, we follow it quite a bit, you guys just lost to Finland today.

We did? Shit… didn’t even know that. Last but not least, what final words do you have to say to all the Montrealers listening to Sounds of Steel right now, and the readers of Metalreviews.com?

As always I have to thank everyone for supporting In Flames, and coming around each time we’re here even though we’ve come tons of times. Each time there seems to be more people coming out and enjoying it, and I just like to send out my biggest thanks to everyone and that you’ll come next time around. Enjoy!

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