Interviews : Katatonia (Jonas Renkse) – 28/10/2010

Throughout their 19 years of existence, Katatonia have musically crossed more ground than many bands could ever hope to cross. Their early 90’s brand of Doom/Death was innovative at the time, but in later years they have evidently set themselves apart from any other band in the metal genre, establishing a sound that is unique in every sense of the word. Throughout all their different periods, one thing has remained consistent with Katatonia – their ability to find beauty within melancholy and despair and then transfer it into music and lyrics. Last year’s release of ‘Night Is The New Day’ was a masterful showcase of everything Katatonia had amounted to and was probably the strongest metal release of 2009.

One thing they haven’t done in those 19 years is pay Australia a visit. Next month, we finally get an opportunity to experience their live performance as part of the No Sleep Til festival series. I had a chat with vocalist and songwriter Jonas Renkse to discuss all things Katatonia and vent a little of my excitement.

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Metal Obsession: Jonas, how are you enjoying your break – That last tour wasn’t short!

Jonas Renkse: Yeah it’s nice to be home just chilling and waiting for the next tour cycle.

MO: Yeah I noticed you had a few shows in Sweden coming up – looking forward to playing back home?

JR: Yeah in about a week we’re playing some in Sweden which will be nice. Then Denmark, Finland, Portugal and then it’s time for Australia!

MO: I’ll be honest, I got a little excited when I got to your name on the No Sleep Til lineup. 19 years and 8 studio albums and Australia are  finally get a chance to see you guys!

JR: Yeah, finally. And for us as well, finally a chance to come and play there – we’ve never even been close to Australia or New Zealand, it’s great!

MO: I know your friend Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) likes to have a good rave about Australia, has he been talking to you about it?

JR: Oh he does alright. He’s been talking about it a LOT. He even spent his honeymoon there. He wants to move to your country, and it’s all getting me more and more fuelled-up to come over and play.

MO: Well we’re looking forward to having you here. What’s the plan when the tour wraps up, going to slow down any time soon?

JR: I think we’ll have a bit of time off, we get back the day before Christmas eve. The plan is to go over to South America in February, but I think we’ll use the well-needed time off beforehand to work on new songs and stuff like that.

MO: Sounds great – so you’re working towards a new album in the next few years?

JR: Definitely. There’s nothing set in stone at the moment but I’m working on small ideas all the time so when we get around to writing our next album, it will be much easier and a much quicker process. It’s  more convenient if you have ideas that point musically in one direction or another and set the standards for the rest of the songwriting. I’m doing a lot of that [writing] now, while I have some time off and will continue more seriously in the New Year.

MO: Katatonia are the sort of band who are constantly evolving and changing style – the 1991 Katatonia was very, very different from the 2010 Katatonia. Is the plan for the next album to continue this trend or pick up where ‘Night is the New Day’ left off?

JR: I think the delicate thing about it is that if we don’t know where the next album is going to be musically, it’s much more exciting for us. We don’t have any real plans for what this album is going to sound like. Everything comes kind of naturally and the album is always different from the album beforehand. For me it’s all about small shifts in the musical spectrum that we establish, it makes it very interesting. I’m excited to see what comes out of the nothingness that we have at the moment.

MO: Katatonia are the only band I have ever come across that can make a four minute prog-metal song work– what’s your secret?

JR: I think that’s a very good way of saying it. We try and keep our songs quite short, and for our style of music it’s a challenge to keep them interesting whilst doing that. Obviously we don’t want every song to sound the same, even though they are all around the same length. It’s a pretty big task making them all different from each other and all interesting to listen to. I’m very happy that you have that kind of outlook on them.

MO: Where that works great for us is that we are seeing you in a festival slot. If it were Opeth or Dream Theater – we would be getting the best of 3 songs. We should get a decent 9 or 10 out of you guys at least!

JR: Yeah exactly, I think that’s our strength [Laughs]. I love long songs, no question about it. But if you are a band like Opeth, you have to concentrate on playing three or four songs – I wouldn’t like to be in their situation and have to pick what very few songs to play. It’s much more convenient for us because we can play around 10 songs in the same amount of time. We can play songs from any of our albums and please fans from all our years of playing.

MO: One thing I’ve found with Swedish metal musicians is that they tend to write lyrics in English about a million times better than us! Do you occasionally still write the odd song in Swedish?

JR: [Laughs] No not really. I’ve never really written anything in Swedish because I don’t find it very interesting. I have listened to metal ever since I was a little kid and it’s always been English lyrics, so that’s what I wanted to write even when I was eight or nine years old. I used to force my dad to translate Iron Maiden and Kiss lyrics to see what they were all about, and soon wanted to desperately learn English as fast as possible.

MO: That’s awesome! So you’d say that heavy metal was your early training in the English Language?

JR: Absolutely. In Sweden, we start learning English in fourth grade, and when I was in fourth grade I could already write proficiently in English. My teacher was really surprised because none of the other kids knew any English at all. It was all because of the heavy metal albums I was listening to and getting my parents to help translate for me.

MO: It’s great that you had such an early introduction to metal – I think when I was in grade four my favourite artist was Avril Lavigne! I have three younger brothers though and I’m slowly corrupting them into loving metal as much as me. My 9 year old brother is a big fan of your band now!

JR: [Laughs] That’s perfect, great to hear!

MO: Obviously you’re a multi-instrumentalist and can cover all four roles in your band which would be perfect for song-writing. Do you have any preference?

JR: I like to play the guitar the most, while singing. I love the bass as well – Because I do write a lot of music I think it’s important to know the instruments well. I used to be a drummer so I think a lot about the drums; I program drums and try to make them sound how I want them to sound on the record. But yeah I think I like to play the guitar the most.

MO: When you were playing drums with Katatonia, obviously Anders took over live vocals. Were you ever forced to do both live?

JR: Yes, only once I think at an early gig. Death metal vocals and drums sometimes get a little bit of a struggle.

MO: I can imagine it would be! I can imagine with your band’s long history you would have a lot of diehard fans – have you met any extreme cases?

JR: Yes actually, on our recent US tour. We met one guys who was following us around and came to 11 of our shows on the one tour. It’s fun to see that kind of devotion, it’s not something I would do myself even though I have favourite bands. To see people being so devoted and taking time off work to follow us around is great. It’s very flattering for us because in my eyes we are still just a bunch of guys who wanted to play music – our first rehearsal none of us could play our instruments.

MO: Lyrically you have covered a lot of ground – what are your tactics for writing lyrics and where do you draw inspiration from?

JR: I usually try and keep it simple, because it works best with our kind of music. I draw most inspiration from everyday life and I try to do it in a simple way, while still keeping a poetic edge to it. I like to make it our lyrics a little abstract to make it a little more interesting and give people a chance to make up their own mind about the meaning behind the lyrics. Writing about everyday life in a dark way, but at the same time trying to make it sound beautiful is what I try and do most.

MO: If you could relive any performance, what would it be?

JR: I would have to say New York on the tour that we just did. To me it was a magic night. The audience was great, it was a sold out show – In New York that means a lot for us because we are just some ordinary guys from Sweden. Krister Linder who sang on our last album was singing with us too. It was pure joy from start to finish, it was a great gig.

MO: What records have been getting played in the tour bus of late?

JR: Usually it’s a lot of old metal music, that’s what we listen to when we party. There’s always a bit of a party going on when we finish a gig, and we love to listen to the older stuff.

MO: What’s your favourite beer, I’ll see if I can sneak some into No Sleep Til for you!

JR: There’s a Czech beer I love called Staropramen, but any Australian beer will do fine! I’m always up for trying local beer – what do you suggest?

MO: Carlton Draught mate, I can’t find a reason to drink anything else so I’m sure you’d love it!

JR: I’ll keep that in mind – so you’re coming to No Sleep Til?

MO: Jonas I think that within my direct circle of friends, four of them are coming specifically to see you guys!

JR: That’s great to hear – obviously because we haven’t been there before we don’t know what to expect. The whole festival package as well – Katatonia are quite different from the other bands.

MO: Yeah that’s for sure, take away the hardcore side of things and the metal on the lineup consists of Megadeth, Gwar, 3 Inches of Blood and you guys. All bands I listen to, but all very different.

JR: Yeah, I think it will be a great event because there are so many different bands and it’s an opportunity for people to check out bands from different backgrounds musically. I just hope a lot of people come and check us out because we are very excited to be playing in Australia.

MO: I’m sure they will , I can’t wait. It looks like our times up Jonas, thanks a lot for your time!

JR: Thanks Jake, I’ll see you in December.

http://katatonia.com/