EVOCATION

We have nothing to loose

The New Year has begun about two weeks ago so it's high time to stop boozing and come up with some fresh articles on Metal Portal. Actually, recently I got the opportunity to talk to EVOCATION vocalist Thomas Josefsson and the interview turned out quite interesting. Tjompe (this is his nickname) is a garrulous and very honest person so I hope that you will enjoy reading it. And by the way- don't forget to buy the newest release of those veterans called „Dead Calm Chaos”. This is the true essence of Swedish death metal!

-„In the early 90's EVOCATION was considered as one of the most interesting death metal bands from Sweden...” This is probably the most often quoted sentence from your biography. How do you feel about it?
Even superman was cool in the 90´s, I have no idea really but it feels great of course. We were on the move and we had lot´s of contacts within the scene, this was not to our advantage all the time though. Back then we were in the middle of a crossroad and we just couldn't work it out together what to do next. We had loads of inspiration and ideas, in fact we had too much of it actually. Some wanted to go faster, some slower and some even took it as far as maybe some psychodelia would fit in as well and that is interesting of course but fucking insane. Anyway the fact that we split up was the best for all of us we think, back then we would give it maximum two more years and it would end in a disaster and we would never have a chance to repair the damage done under the name Evocation. We would crash and burn and kill each other along the way. That we still today are well worth mentioned is fantastic.

-In fact, famous producer Tomas Skogsberg in one of the interviews named EVOCATION the best demo band he has ever recorded. His opinion is worth underlined, at last he is the godfather of Swedish sound, isn't he?
Well he was the first producer that actually understood the bands needs and to get a really heavy sound still easy to understand. Most of the studios in Sweden didn't know shit about death metal at all at that time so no matter were you went the final product would sound awful. He was great to work with and he knew instantly what to do. All the respect to him, we will never forget him of course. Everything floated along really smooth and I think we communicated really well. We were well rehearsed when we got there and worked as a team including Tomas, he was fascinated especially by Janne who nailed the drums perfect on five takes total for three songs. The whole „The Ancient Gate” demo was done in 16 hours including mixing, not many death bands at that time were that well prepared. I remember for an example Tomas tried to kick CEMETARY out of there to go home and practise and then come back later.

-By the way, how do you recall your cooperation with Tomas and days you spent sitting at his famous Sunlight Studios, recording your very first demo tape? Any funny memories?
Everything was rock n roll, if the guitar wasn't 100 % tuned it wasn't problem, if the drums was a little bit of the beat he would just say fuck it it´s rock n roll. Mashed potatoes and hot dogs, coffee and cigarettes were his deal. He was an amazing person and you felt very relaxed working with him. Any particular funny memories, I guess the whole weekend we spent there was one unforgettable memory.

-Man, don't you have sometimes an impression that you just... fucked up things...? This band could has been at least as big as UNLEASHED, ENTOMBED, GRAVE...
Yes in one way we fucked up really bad but on the other hand as I said before, we would have died anyway. 17 years old and almost in the spotlight makes young boys grow too much ego and so did we. We couldn't work together in the end, it all died slowly. We worked very hard as well and were on our way to crash and burn. The thing is we were like ants trying to build a stack up in an earthquake. That we split up was the best thing that could have happen. Today we have more life experience, we are more mature and have nothing to loose. We have regular jobs, families and stuff and are quite pleased in every way. We are just happy that we have one more chance to see each other again; this is the biggest bonus in life ever. It is a big relief and a big escape from the normal life´s we still have, of course we want to do this full time no doubt. The funny thing is, that our close one´s think we got some serious old man syndrome, some mid life crises or something and have no fucking idea about anything...

-To the best of my knowledge after your second demo tape you got some serious offers from such labels as Earache, Nuclear Blast, Century Media but never signed to. What went wrong? Do you regret any decisions you made in the past? If you could change any decision you made what would you change?
Well we never had a 100% deal ready to sign but some of them were very on to us that we should produce and send more material. We were personally in contact with some people, I guess a little bit more time would sort us out really fine, thank god it did not. We worked as hard as we could, but it killed us instead. The music we make today is far by much better than the stuff we would have done back then I think, thank god we didn't sign a serious deal with any label.

-Where do you see differences comparing EVOCATION from the 90's to the present time? Has your attitude to playing in a death metal band and music itself changed within the years?
We are much more open for ideas, we try everything and every idea and there is nothing we can´t talk about. We are a five piece unit and we share everything five ways. We try to keep pressure away and try not to do the same mistakes again. We say it like this for every show we do, it is just 30 minutes to 1 hour of dirty work on stage, and rest of the time is just pure holiday. So far we love spending time together. My personal attitude towards playing in a death metal band has always been 100% love and I missed it so much all the years after Evocation first died. I think the other boys did it as well in one way or another. The problem for me was just to find the right band and the time, you can´t compare it to anything, well a really good joint and a cold beer would share the top joy in life probably I guess. The best thing is that we nowadays feel a lot younger than before we rejoined again, amazing isn't it.

-You come from Boras known for some other good Swedish bands, such as LAKE OF TEARS, CEMETARY, BESEECH or ZONATA. Most of them don't exist anymore and its seems the local scene is almost dead. Sad but true?
There is one really good band on its way right now called AS YOU DROWN. They are much younger than us, more healthy and faster as well and man they have something going on. Otherwise Boras has plenty of other bands, mainly not death metal but since I don´t live there anymore it´s not easy for me to say. The Beseech guys have split and are involved in some other projects. Lake Of Tears are still active but too lazy for their own good, sad to say. We are still in contact with Jussi, Kristian, Anton and Zrinko but only Jussi are pretty much on the move again he told me some days ago that cleaned of the dust of his drums and was about to meet a guitarist from another death metal band from the south of Sweden. Jussi does not live in Boras anymore as well as the other guys.

-In my opinion Swedes have always been one of the most productive nations in metal world and it would be really hard to kill metal in Sweden as it almost happened a few years ago in the US. What's your opinion about Swedish metal scene in general? It seems like over the years metal has become a part of Swedish national culture and nothing can change your love to heavy music, right?
We are a pretty small country and if there is something we like, it is when we are productive in some successful ways. We like to work hard but we need also appreciation of what we do, and this is exactly whats going on right now. Finally we get something out of the hard work, we also have to thank bands just like Entombed, Dismember, Unleashed and At The Gates and many more but a lot goes out to bands today like In Flames, Soilwork, The Haunted, Hammerfall, Arch Enemy etc. They show the young people in Sweden that if you really work hard and believe in what you do there is at least a small chance that your dreams will come true. Also many of those bands works out like really good advertisement for the whole country when they are on the move, some people put trust in Swedish metal bands and explore what we have more to offer. Right now we have nice music exports in many styles not only in metal. We also have really good support from our government to start in something cultural like music, theater, dance and stuff. We get rehearsal places through the community when we are young for a fair price and in some cases you can apply for some money to get instruments. The winds can change of course but I hope we ride out any possible storm in the future.

-As I said in one of my previous questions, your come from Borĺs, but your music style has been built upon strong influences coming from both Gothenburg and Stockholm death metal school. What is so special in mixing those two similar but quite different ways of playing death metal? Is there still a room for development, a challenge for the band?
Oh man we have so much challenge left, we just started. We´re still rookies we think, so far we still develop and we hope there´s not an end of it. We try new stuff all the time and keep only what we think is worth bleeding for. Concerning the mix of both worlds I really don´t know what to say, we don´t do this on purpose most of the stuff is natural and I guess we really don´t know how to play other music. We grew up with thrash and death metal, we were totally brainwashed during our puberty. We all tried different bands and styles, but compared to this we didn't produce a shit in other bands. I am really keen on how the hell we´ll sound like in lets say ten years?it must be crazy, I hope! We play raw and brutal death metal with no boundaries, the way we prefer to do it. Maybe one day we stand with pink costumes, sombrero hats, and cowboy boots on some stage in no mans land thinking we still are the true stuff. We don't have anything to loose, our mission was to at least do one full length album. The rest is bonus now ;) Hahaha...