Interview with
By Mark1340 of 1340mag.com
Sweden is best known to metal fans for its extreme styles but The Defaced is more straightforward "American Style" metal. Have you been accepted well over there? Yeah, I think so because The Defaced doesn't come off as the typical Swedish metal band. We have some different elements in the songs that aren't featured in other Swedish metal bands. I think that many people see it as a new good sound that has come out of Sweden. I think it helped that we didn't choose to record the album in a more obvious studio (ones that are used more frequently by Swedish metal bands). I think the response has been quite good actually.
I really like the cd myself! Well, thanks very much. It warms a cold Swedish heart to hear such things (laughter on both ends)
How would you describe your sound to someone completely unfamiliar with you guys or your respective bands? The Defaced comes off as a dynamic, groovy, riff machine that involves many different elements. Dynamics is a key word for us, we tend to focus on different moods between different songs as well as in one song - we put in different moods purposely to keep it dynamic. Of course melody is important cause it can't just be all growly because the listener gets tired of that much faster. The Defaced is a combination of many styles of metal.
What's your favorite song on "Domination Commence"? I think it's always hard to pick a favorite song because it tends to change a bit! For me, I find that when I pick the album up I find things in the songs that I haven't recognized before. I think the last time I listened to "Domination Commence" I was really liking "Sown By Greed" and "Forsaken Life" and the last track also, "Destination Devastation". For the time being I'll say those 3 songs!
How important do you think the lyrics are to The Defaced? The lyrics are very straightforward, that is they something you focus on or is it more about the music to you? The lyrics are very important to The Defaced because most of them are written in a quite personal perspective. It's not about whining like "feel sorry for me" or something like that, its writing about things we have experienced or something that I reflected upon at some time. The best thing would be if the listener could somehow relate to the lyric and say, "hey , what up?! that could be me". The lyrics hopefully shed light over a situation in that person’s life and bring meaning to a specific situation. So I would say the lyrics are very important to us.
With so many of the members of the band in other bands also (The Defaced includes members of Soilwork and Darkane) , is it hard to balance it all? Absolutely! I often get asked if The Defaced is a project or a band. My answer is that The Defaced is by all means a permanent band. Like all metal bands, we are hard working and totally committed to what we are doing. So far scheduling ahs been lucky and we get things done in a proper way. The 5 of us are all committed to The Defaced. We are all best friends, we love to hang out, it's a real band feeling. There are never any arguments at all. We really like hanging out with each other and that’s been a really good base to making it work as well. So it's more about making great music with your friends then and less about business? The Defaced is all about the music, of course there is the thought that it would be cool to be able to live off making music but how many metal bands do that?! The music is definitely focused on with us, if it's not, then the listener would see through it anyway.
Are you guys gonna tour then? There is nothing settled at this point but hopefully there will be. The first step would be some festival dates in Europe, but nothing is confirmed yet. I am hoping for things to work themselves out because we are totally dying to get out! So what should fans expect when they come to see The Defaced live? They should prepare themselves for dynamic energy and total commitment to the music and a whole bunch of beer too!!!! The Defaced is a live band, we love playing live. That's what music is about anyway, especially metal. It's about a bunch of people getting together and having an awesome time and just having fun. That is the most important thing when it comes to live situations.
How long will it be before The Defaced completely take over the world? Well, (laughter) it's up to the metalheads! All I can do is keep writing the best music I possibly can and also keep my fingers crossed!