ID: How are things going for Tiamat lately?
Johan: Everything is fine. We released the album here a few months ago already and it has been doing good.

ID: Where do you think it's doing better at: In the States or over in Europe?
Johan: In Europe, probably here in Germany.

ID: You're going to be touring Europe in a while right?
Johan: Yeah, starting in one month.

ID: You have any plans to come to the States?
Johan: Not at the moment, but I hope something comes up.

ID: Who would you like to tour with over here?
Johan: I don't know, I'm open for anything.

ID: There's no "dream" bands for you, or just any bands you'd love to tour with?
Johan: Not really, actually.

ID: You're originally from Sweden, right?
Johan: Yep.

ID: And you just recently moved to Germany...and then you just moved again?
Johan: Yep. I just moved again; North into Hamburg.

ID: So how come you moved to Germany?
Johan: I have my girlfriend here.

ID: Ahh, okay. Did the rest of Tiamat move there, or are they already living in Germany?
Johan: The rest of the guys are still in Sweden, in different towns. We all live very far away from each other, actually.

ID: Doesn't that make it hard to write new material?
Johan: Yeah, we're pretty lazy in that way...(laughs). Now we have a good excuse.

ID: But you guys get together quite often, though, right?
Johan: Yeah.

ID: When it comes to bands changing styles, fans usually aren't very accepting of it. So how have Tiamat fans been responding to your style changes?
Johan: Very different, actually. We definitely lost some fans on the way, for sure, but we gained some new ones as well. It's quite complicated now. I used to check on our homepage for what people write and there's all kinds of opinions, you know? Some people like the first album best, some like the second, some like the last one, or...They're really all variations possible.

ID: I guess that's the good side of changing styles. You get the fans that like the newer stuff, and there's different fans who like older stuff. So you're getting a pretty wide variation there. What contributed to the changing style over the years?
Johan: I think we did not really think that much about what we have been doing in the past. When we make a new album we don't really think that consciously about what we did. We just ended up like this. We try to be quite spontaneous and do something that we like at the moment.

ID: You don't let the previous albums influence what you write in the future basically...
Johan: No, and up to today, the most successful album we had up to today was WildHoney from 1994. And the concept we had when we did that album was to just go into the studio and don't care what people might think, just do something that we like ourselves. So even if we changed the music, the concept stayed the same. We went into the studio with the same idea just to make something that seems right at the moment.

ID: Since your older music is more different than the newer, do you ever play a mix of the old and new stuff live?
Johan: Yeah, we try. I mean, it's a little bit complicated, but we try to find ways to make old songs fit with the new ones.

ID: Do you still like any or all of the older Tiamat albums?
Johan: Yeah, actually I prefer the first one before the second or the third.

ID: Why is that?
Johan: I don't know if it has something to do with being the first. I remember the exciting time when you make your first album.

ID: Yeah, that's true. What is it that you like about that one in comparison to the second or third? Is it just because it was the first or because you like the style?
Johan: I like black metal than the more death metal stuff we did on the two albums that followed. For me, when I talk about our albums I talk more about nostalgia in a way. About my memories.

ID: How do frequent line-up changes affect how the music is produced or the music quality? Or does it affect it at all?
Johan: Well, we never had a steady line-up, so I don't know really. This is how we have been doing it since the beginning. This band is a little bit like a collector, where people come and go. Some people even come back. We had our lead guitar player, Thomas, was back in the band for a third time; he's more or less making every second album with us. A little bit complicated, but I don't know, it works for us and we're used to it; we never had it different.

ID: So you're comfortable with that? I mean, you wouldn't prefer to have a steady line-up?
Johan: That was always the aim, actually. But I mean, I would be naive if I would even hope for it because of the experiences we've had.

ID: What usually causes the members to leave? Are they just not happy with the band, or the music, or the direction the band is going?
Johan: I guess maybe I was pretty hard a few years ago and we kicked some members out, or I kicked some members out, but I feel it was better than dealing with other people and compromising with the other guys. But at that time, the members started to leave by themselves. I thought it would change, but it didn't.

ID: Do you think your fans are generally welcoming to the new members? Or are they kind of just going, "Oh, here we go again..."?
Johan: (Laughs) Yeah. I have decided that we should not focus too much on the members, to not confuse the audience too much. Especially on WildHoney, we thought that we should not even have band photos on the album cover and we were pretty much against being on photos and appearing in videos and stuff. That changed after that album, but still, I think it makes no sense to make a big thing about a certain member because it might be out tomorrow.

ID: Well, there seems to be a lot of mention about Tiamat's lyrical content being dark and things like that. What do you think about that? I mean, is it really as dark as it's coming across or are your fans trying to read too much into it?
Johan: It's all true, but I mean, it's just one side of it. I cannot live up to it, to what I can write in ten songs on an album, but everything I write I think is very truthful.

ID: Aside from your personal issue, or what you're dealing with in your personal life, what else influences your lyrics? Is it just the world around you or things that piss you off?
Johan: Yeah, I mean everything. You name it.

ID: You've called your music art. Where lies the inspiration?
Johan: I don't know. I'm excited to see what can be done. When you start to work with a song you kind of dream about how it can sound in the end; the end result. And actually when the record is finished, I think that's the least interesting part of it. It's the work that keeps me doing it, definitely. Because of the excitement, because you don't know. You have to be very eager to get there.

ID: So when you go in to record or go in to write, you're basically...flexible? I mean, you don't have everything just set out in stone, you just go in there and let it flow freely?
Johan: Yeah, definitely. We don't have this, we were not born with this talent to be able to play everything perfect and have a very good picture about what you're doing. We have to struggle a lot to make something that we like. That's the exciting part. That's why we don't really know where we're gonna end up. Every record sounds different, but that keeps the excitement as well.

ID: You've been quoted as saying, "The devil stands for everything I love and Jesus Christ stands for everything I hate." That being said, are you a Satanist or are you just anti-Christian?
Johan: I just think that the devil sounds more fun. I mean, I like to drink a lot of whiskey...I mean, everything that the devil stands for is things that I like. I don't see the point of being hypocrites, really. I don't really need it, but I have nothing against if other people have a strong urge to be hypocrites to themselves. That's fine with me, but that's not the way I choose really.

ID: You're into gothic bands, from what I understand. I just wondered what ones you're into...
Johan: Well, some of the stuff from the 80's, and from England, like Joy Division and Fields of the Nephilism.

ID: What else are you listening to lately?
Johan: Tom Waits, a lot. I don't know actually. I don't buy a lot of records nowadays, unfortunately. I just don't find a lot of good ones.

ID: So you listen to older stuff or you don't really buy music at all?
Johan: Well, I listen to the 200 CDs that I've got (laughs). That seems to be enough.

ID: (Laughs). Yeah...Well, out of 200 CDs, what's your favorite?
Johan: One of the Pink Floyd, probably.

ID: You make use of computers and synthesizers and things like that when you're making your music, what kind of feedback are you getting on that from fans and other musicians?
Johan: I guess that was hard to take for some of our fans. Some thought that we should not be going in that direction. For me, though, it was perfect because we never had a steady line-up and I found something that was a little bit more reliable. I think we are, at least nowadays, especially on this new album, we just use it to add a little flavor to the music. I mean, it's very based on us three human beings playing our instruments.

ID: I read on the online chat [transcript] that you did you mentioned one of your favorite songs is by Everlast. You did say you'd like to work with him, right?
Johan: I mean, I bought the album and it's very good; the best album I've bought this year. I like it because the songs are good, but as well as something fresh, it's a mixture of music styles in a very fresh way.

ID: Is there any other artists out there that you'd like to work with?
Johan: I don't know really...

ID: Pink Floyd, perhaps?
Johan: That would be cool! Yes.

ID: You've designed covers for prior albums and you will be designing more for a label that you're starting...
Johan: Yeah, a record cover company. I will make a few record covers quite soon, but it's just smaller, underground stuff like one techno act, and I was asked by an Italian record company to do two record covers. It's more like a hobby; I won't make that much money on it.

ID: Do you do it on computers?
Johan: Yeah.

ID: How'd you get into doing that? Just have an interest in it?
Johan: Yeah, I was always very interested in it. I planned to study graphic design some years ago, but I did not have the grades for it and that was a time when it was still very complicated for a private person to get into it. Then when everything changed with computers and the software development then I could set something up at home. It was pretty cool.

ID: What other side projects do you have going on?
Johan: I have a second band going that we're searching for a record contract at the moment.

ID: What's the name of it?
Johan: It's called Lucifire.

ID: And what do they sound like? Anything like Tiamat?
Johan: Not too far away. Definitely less dreamy, a little bit more programmed, electronic.

ID: What do you like to do aside from making music? I know you're into computers...
Johan: Yeah, I'm very into graphic design. That's something I spend a lot of time with just for fun. I can sit up whole nights getting into a program or something.

ID: You get online and surf the Internet and all that?
Johan: Yeah.

ID: Ever go into chat rooms and talk to your fans, not letting them know it's you?
Johan: Uhh...it happened, yeah. (Laughs). But not that much. I use the Internet for when I need something. I think it's really cool to get ahold of information or download files or samples for music.

ID: Who does your official website?
Johan: It's a guy from somewhere outside San Fransisco, I think.

ID: How did you hook that up?
Johan: We used to check some of the Tiamat pages. There were a few pretty good ones. But his one was the best and we just wrote--I think all the members wrote him--saying thank you and it's really cool. And we got in touch and now we stay in touch. We decided to let him make it official.

ID: That's cool. That's really cool. I think that's really great when a band does that. I know there's a couple other bands that have done that...You know, it started out as a fan site and then they had the designer make it the official site. It shows the fans that bands actually care about what the fans think and what they're doing. But anyway...Have your ideals or goals about being in a band changed over the last decade?
Johan: Yeah, I guess so. When I started the band, I dreamt about being a rock star, like all little boys. Play guitar and you wanna do the same thing as your favorite band. That's not so important nowadays. I just wanna develop the thing, progress the music, make better albums and that's gonna continue as long as I'm excited about what's going to come up next. I think I see it more as entertainment as well. Like we are supposed to entertain people. Therefore, we have to take it serious you know? It's a serious work. All of our fans are our employers.

ID: That's a good way to look at it. It's too bad more bands won't look at it like that, though.
Johan: Some people tell me I'm so lucky because I'm self-employed and, you know, I just don't see it that way because we have to care as well like if someone is employed working in a factory somewhere, where he cannot be one hour late to work everyday or he'll get fired.

ID: Well, I guess the last thing I want to ask is where Tiamat will be after the next decade? Do you think you'll still be interested in doing Tiamat?
Johan: When I got that question ten years ago I was hesitating. I know better now, and of course, we will make another interview in ten years. Maybe a few in between as well. (Laughs).