<< Interviews this month
file under heavy / power metal
Choosing this year’s ‘Album Of The Year’ was a very easy job. After the first time I listened to the new Pagan’s Mind album, I knew that ‘God’s Equation’ was really special. The album is the perfect blueprint of how a great prog metal album should be: Innovative, creative, great skills, perfect songwriting and a killer production. It was already two years ago that we last spoke with a member of Pagan’s Mind, so it was about time we did that again. This time we asked lead vocalist Nils K. Rue some questions. He is a remarkable singer and did a great job on the new album. We talked to Nils about lots of interesting stuff and during the interview he explained how his life changed when he first heard King Diamond sing…
Text: Fons
Congratulations! You just released my personal album of the year. ‘God’s Equation’ is the ultimate prog/power metal album! The album is dynamic, energetic, powerful, melodic and it also has some great song writing skills. It has been a long time ago that I was so enthusiastic about a new metal release. I assume that you yourself are a very proud man…
Hi there, thanks a lot! It really makes me glad to hear that. We are extremely pleased with the result and all the hard work putting it together – both the last two years of song writing and the recording process this summer (we were totally pale and haven’t seen no other places than the studio) really were hard. Being in the studio is not always a fun thing. It’s hard, hard work and you don’t have time for anything else during that period – everything and everyone in our lives are completely on hold during that period. So greater is the joy when things turn out good – as we really think it didJ) So thanks again and yes, I am a proud man now – you know, it’s almost as having a newborn baby (I don’t have it though, but others in the band has so they really compare it hahaha!
Before we continue talking about the album, there are some other issues I would like to ask you. The last time you spoke with Lords Of Metal, you just released the re-issue of your first album ‘Infinity Divine’. What has Pagan’s Mind been doing since that re-release? How were the reactions on the ‘Enigmatic: Calling’ (2005) CD?
Without trying to be lazy or anything, I think really the best thing to do is to your readers to our bio on the Limb Music site (but remember, it’s written by our label Limb Music, so of course there are a lot of commercial selling point sentences here, but is pretty much the history of the band so far after Infinity Divine).
What can you tell about the headlining tour throughout the U.K. you did?
That was great tour put up by our UK fan club – starting up with ProgPower festival UK in Cheltenham with a lot of great bands, and continuing with gigs throughout all of England including London. Power Quest followed us as special guests – they are great guys and a great band, we had lots of fun. So, it was a headline tour and it was actually great to experience that we had gained so many fans in the UK already at that point. It was all in all a great experience, and we can’t wait to come back, which probably will happen sometime during this winter. Thanks to Princess Divine, Phil and the rest of “The Enlighten Conscious Ones” UK for everything they did for us.
‘God’s Equation’ was produced by Stefan Glaumann (who is well-known for his productions with Rammstein which sold millions of copies) at the Toytown Studios / Stockholm. Why did you choose him in stead of Fredrik Nordström with his Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, who produced the previous albums?
Fredrik Nordstrom is great producer – no doubt of that. We love his sound and he did a terrific job on the two albums he did for us. Having said that, we felt that the songs on the new album did somewhat represent a little bit of a new sound for PM. Maybe more commercial but more experimental and surely Pagan’s Mind at the same time. When we stumbled across Rammstein’s “Reise, Reise”, we were BLOWN AWAY by the sound, the immense sonic experience of that album. In addition, he has produced a lot of hit making bands – so clearly, he has qualities that are rare and precious. Having also the commercial aspect in mind, we knew that Stefan’s sound has sold millions of records. Shaping and building the sound for an album is maybe the most important step in the process of creating an album. It is really crucial, and therefore we tried to approach Stefan knowing what he was capable of. We managed, and although he was extremely busy with other bands he managed to squeeze us in between his schedule. Stefan Glaumann is a true artist. He has an ear for details in the music like no one we have worked with, and it was truly an amazing experience to work with him. He has created a more organic and lively production for Pagan’s Mind. In our music, there are a lot of details and it is very important that everything comes to its right, and in a tasteful way. We are really, really pleased with the result and what he did for us, and we would like to work with him the next time as well….
Let’s talk a bit more about the production process of your new album. How long did the recordings last? Was it different in comparison to previous releases?
We started up with the recording of drums somewhere around April, and the mixing took place in July. So all summer was studio work with no time off. I would say we have been pickier about almost everything this time so it was a harder process than earlier for sure. We have been pickier in all branches of the production tree and we think it has created results! We actually recorded this album in shorter time than both ‘Celestial Entrance’ and ‘Enigmatic: Calling’ because we had Stefan’s tight schedule to attend to, but that meant even harder work and less time off. But we managed well anyway I believe.
The songs on ‘God’s Equation’ are first class metal songs with great hooks and melodies, very well structured and I am very sure that this one is going to be a classic album. Who was responsible for this piece of incredible song writing and had the song writing a different approach than before?
Thank you so very much, I’m pleased to hear that. The band is totally democratic and no one has more to say than the other and all are equal in the song writing process, with everyone contributing with almost the same amount of creativeness. This band is at times a mix-up of very different personalities, all with the gift of "creative overkill", to be honest we ditched about 80% of the riffs and ideas before shaping and building the song structures on God’s Equation. There are powers within the band (as for instance Ronny) that are educated professionally in music, and that helps out a lot. I don't think there are lots of bands using a blackboard on the rehearsal studio, ha ha! We build the song structures up piece by piece and very little is coincidental. That really is the only way to make this kind of music work properly and sound good at the same time. If we manage to create in this matter and pace, it would be great, but I also believe you always have to work and try harder to maintain a good band and not "losing". I don't fear that at all in this band because like I said, everybody has such good ideas all the time, and with the internal high sense of criticism upon ourselves, I think we will be able to ditch and sort out the worst "used-before" riffs and ideas till next time as well. Having said that, I have worked hard of course with the vocal lines and the lyrics, and in my opinion that is the only way to make things work out good. We're really an ambitious bunch of guys, and no one has the opinion that things ever come for free. Hard work and aiming the right goals, "thinking like a winner" makes this band inspiring and fun to be part of.
Who had the idea of recording the David Bowie cover ‘Hallo Spaceboy’? It’s a great cover version and it really fits between the other songs…
Thanks a lot. Great to hear that! We have already been asked “Why ‘Hallo Spaceboy’? Why not a metal song?” – well, to answer that – Pagan’s Mind is influenced by all sorts of music – not just metal – and when we hear a great song, it’s great no matter what musical style. David Bowie is a musical genius, we all agree on that. “Hallo Spaceboy” on the original Bowie record version is really not much of a killer, but it was when we first heard a live recording of it where he had totally restructured it playing it really heavy, we realized that the musical colors were really close to Pagan’s Mind’s songwriting. It really has a lot of the nerve that is Pagan’s Mind. Along with the (slightly humoristic) lyrics which deal with space stuff, we really though it would be a new and crazy cool thing to do. Having played it live several times already people are raving mad about it, so we think it was a good choice. Above all, it is a great song. Last off, a really cool thing was that when our record label was applying for the use of it through the Bowie management, we received a personal greeting from David himself that he really enjoyed the version very much and gave his best of luck to Pagan’s Mind. That’s something!
On ‘Painted Skies’, which is my personal favorite, your vocals are the absolute top notch. Your voice reminds me a lot of Geoff Tate during his ‘Mindcrime/Empire’ era! You must be a big fan of him! The song has also some great experimental parts. Any comments?
Oh yes, and thanks so much again, Geoff Tate in his glory days has always been a great inspiration for me. It is a great song - different – with a lot of experimental parts as you mention. It is both beautiful and commercial but sick as hell at times as well haha. The lyrics are also one of the more exciting on the album in my opinion – dealing with the fact that throughout history, in ancient writings and paintings there is proof that mankind saw flying round silvery objects in the skies. It is everywhere really but well disguised. The prophet Ezekiel talked about starships coming down on earth 2,000 years before anything called Roswell or the 50´s fascination for ufo’s, starships and aliens. I strongly believe there has been “watchers in the sky” always through history.
Can you tell something more about the lyrics? Is ‘God’s Equation’ a conceptual album?
Partly a concept album – that is, not telling a story from A to B, but dealing generally about the same topics. It deals not only with origins of mankind but the origin of EVERYTHING. It’s a most enchanting two words – first off was Albert Einstein talking about and releasing the “God’s Equation” though in the 1930´s – his theory about the ever expanding universe which was “God’s Equation”, he later declined his theory until recently scientists have proof that he was right. It’s mathematics, physics and religion all together. You know, everything in life is really mathematics – numbers and equations – which sows everything together. God’s Equation is also a real equation that explains the formula that everything organic and alive in the universe are built upon. Really true – and it really makes you think, because when knowing that all living things have an equal factor – that specific formula – how can you say that it is all coincidental? In addition, we think it’s cool and kind of provocative when the album title is “God’s Equation”, a manly entity grammar wise, but showing a FEMALE as a goddess!? The “Mother Goddess” was what the old Pagan religions believed in long before the great religions of today. Nature people have always believed in mother earth, the nature and the universe. All that is represented in the Goddess on the front cover. She is holding several known religious symbols in her Shiva-inspired arm pairs, to illustrate that everything comes from the same source – the energy of life, which you can call God, Vishnu, or whatever. The same, original equal divine source….
Please explain Pagan’s Mind’s evolution! From a somewhat anonymous Dream Theater influenced prog metal band you turned into a fully grown-up classic metal band that has just released a trendsetting album! What did you do to achieve such evolution?
Well I would really not have space to explain the whole evolution right here. What we have become today is a result of hard work throughout the years. If you work hard it creates of course results. A dash of luck and you have it. At the same time one could of course hope to have “breaked” more through the masses at the release of a fourth album. But that we just have to see and wait for, in the meantime we work hard as hell and do whatever is in our powers to bring Pagan’s Mind to a higher level. Our evolution is fairly told in the biography pasted above also – but there are so many details on it in between, it would take too much time to get into here – let’s just say that we all have grown as musicians on all levels since we stared up, learning a lot from each other and from others – and the result is where we are now!
You are going to tour as support act of Fates Warning. I assume this is a great opportunity for Pagan’s Mind. How did you manage to go on tour with them?
It is surely a great opportunity! I was a great fan of Fates Warning in my younger years and we really look forward to be touring with them. It was Frode Johnsrud, a great friend, journalist and now part of the Pagan’s Mind management who closed that deal and tour for us. He knows lots of people and we are really pleased to have him on the boat, he has done a lot of great work for us and it seems he will do a lot of good things for us in the future as well. Frode, if you read this, all I can say, is: ”KAKE!!” (that was an internal one haha)
I have a couple of personal questions for you… Are you still a member of Eidolon? You did the lead vocals on their latest album ‘The Parallel Underworld’…
Yes I did the vocals for the album ‘The Parallel Otherworld’. I am the vocalist for Eidolon still, and intend to be that. But both Glen and Shawn are in Megadeth now and they are touring a lot and are 100% busy with Dave Mustaine. So Eidolon is not a priority for them now, which is totally understandable. Hell, they are busy being rock stars in Megadeth, a band I have always loved!!! I am very happy for them and they really deserve it, cause they are two great guys (and brothers) that have worked hard always getting there. They are very talented and they totally deserve it!! So Eidolon does not take up time for me at all. I guess we are doing more albums in time, but it will have to happen between Megadeth and Pagan’s Mind (which of course is my top priority) albums and stuff. Eidolon is a great band and I love the sound. But it is and I believe it will still remain a studio band. For now at least.
What are your most important influences? You covered ‘At The Graves’ from King Diamond and with Eidolon you did Mercyful Fate’s ‘The Oath’. I figure you must be a great King Diamond fan…
When I first discovered King and Mercyful Fate back when I was 12, I was totally blown away. I had never heard anything like it. It gave me goose bumps all over, and took me to different heights. It is really unexplainable, but if I am fan of anything, it must be King Diamond. I have totally been so crazy into his albums it almost drove me crazy. Never before or after have I been shook as much by music as I did with King and Fate. guess it is the blend of melody, craziness and the occult lyrical concept that I think reflects really who I am as well. On “The Oath” version I did, the original guitarists of Mercyful Fate did the solo parts, so that was almost religious for me do be part of. Praise, praise, hehe!
My top 5 influences/fave bands:
1. King Diamond/Mercyful Fate
2. Dream Theater
3. Queensryche
4. Iron Maiden
5. Lost Horizon
Are you still proud about your first two CD’s on which you performed? Of course I am talking about the illustrious albums of Sunset Strip and Silverspoon…
Hehe….I must say no. It’s nothing that I’m ashamed over (or well, maybe Sunset Strip), but everyone makes weird/not so good stuff early in his career, so I guess you can say that everyone has been there, done that, hehe. At the time it felt right and very cool, but now I can’t say they are very good albums. Of course the Silverspoon album has a lot of qualities, and the vocal work on it is not too bad either, so that kind of stands. But neither are classics, hehehe!
What can you tell about last year’s Mikeyla And The Metal Forces, on which you participated on the ‘Glorious’ EP?
Uli Kusch first approached me and asked if I wanted to participate on this all-star metal song which was to be one of the official Football cup songs in the Swedish Championship. Mikeyla is a pretty big star in Sweden as well. A lot of great well known artists participated on the song and it was a great success, getting a lot of airplay both on radio and TV and selling a lot of records staying in the Swedish charts for several weeks. A really cool thing to do, I love stuff like that! Anyone who hasn’t heard it should check it out, it’s a great and catchy song. Really happy to be part of it.
Thanks for your answers and patience, and I wish you all the luck with the album!!!
Thanks so very much and thanks for the interview!! Be sure to grab our next album “God’s Equation” available in both regular and limited edition with two CD’s, video clip and wallpapers!
http://www.pagansmind.com
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