<< Interviews this month
The Swedish powerhouse Darkane released their new album ‘Expanding Senses’ last month, an album which in my opinion is a worthy successor for ‘Insanity’, that great album which easily made it to my personal 2001 Top 10. Now it would be obvious to prepare an interview filled with the usual standard questions about the new release, but this time I didn’t feel like doing that. Let’s face it, most of the other zines are doing that, so I wanted to know more about the background of Darkane drummer and spokesman Peter Wildoer. Now Peter was quite pleased with the fact that he didn’t had to answer the same predictable questions for the 20th time that day, so we had a great time talking about lots of different things…
Text: Horst
Why did you want to become a musician, and why did you especially wanted to play drums?
Well, that’s actually not my own decision, The thing is, I got my first drumkit when I was about five, my grandmother gave it to me. She obviously heard kind of a drumsolo on the radio and was so enthusiastic about it that she told my parents that I should play drums, also because I was always playing and banging with everything in the kitchen, that’s why she bought me a drumkit. Of course it was just a little toy-kit, and I smashed into small pieces like in one week or something. After that it took about a year and a half before I got my first real drumkit, again from my grandmother. She started everything you know, and of course I started listening to bands like Kiss and that kind of music. I think it was just natural for me to play drums, because when I tried it once, I only wanted to continue. It’s a cool instrument.
So okay, you’ve learned to play drums, you fool around in music, but there comes a day in your live you decide to become a full-time musician.
I mean, of course every body who’s done some records, they always say like ‘believe in yourself and anything, then can you realize everything and be a musician’, that’s easy to say when you, like me, have done a couple CD’s, than it’s no problem, but there must be like 2,000,000 other people who have that dream, and they will never make a CD. There are a lot of people who want to make it but never do, but I always focussed on being a recording artist. Of course it takes a lot of practice and stuff (and I’ve been practicing very much), and anyway, I just wanted to be a rockstar since I was a kid. I’m one my way now I think.
Now everybody who’s playing an instrument has his own favorites, so who are your rolemodels?
When I started playing the first drummer I was introduced to by name (by my father) was Cozy Powell. He did on this album ‘Phenomena’ a song called ‘Dance With The Devil’. Now there’s a remix from that song with a drumsolo on it, and that was so cool. Then Motley Crue came by and I was absolutely blown to pieces by that Tommy Lee guy. He was actually my first real idol, I wanted to look like him, to play like him and everything. Nowadays I only want to have the same girlfriends as he does hahaha, no, but anyway, Tommy Lee is still one of my favorite drummers. I know like a thousand other drummers that are probably are more technical than he is, but he’s the ultimate Hardrock drummer in my opinion, and I would really love to meet him. Most of the other drummers I admire I’ve already met on concerts and stuff, but another one I really would like to meet is Sean Reinert (from Cynic and Death), that guy is so good.
In other words, although your not a bad drummer yourself, there’s always someone out there who’s better than yourself.
That’s right, at the moment the guy that’s on the very top (not only in my opinion, but also in the opinion of a lot of other drummers too) is Virgil Donati from Planet X. In that band he really does some great drumming, but on his own records he does things that are totally amazing. I have two video’s from him…and like he plays…he’s just one hell of a drummer. He has been practicing for twenty years or something in Australia, went to the US and became a star. He’s called ‘The Thunder from Down Under’ actually. He’s the greatest drummer in my opinion, also because (just like me) he’s playing everything from Jazz to Metal. I’ve been plying with pop bands, I’ve done techno, I play lots of percussion like conga’s and stuff like that, and he’s also such kind of drummer. He plays with Jazz people, Metal people, Progrock people, so, a very versatile, and all-round drummer. I’d like to be like that also. Nowadays I have of course a reputation as a Metal drummer, for most of my recordings are Metal, but I’ve also done some recordings with a Fusion band.
Darkane makes quite aggressive music, is this a way of expressing your feelings and or emotions?
You know, everybody in Darkane, all five of us are actually very happy people. No one of us has had a bad childhood or anything, we didn’t grew up in a place like The Bronx in New York or whatever. We’re all raised properly, but I think in some ways if you have everything, if everything in your life is easy, there’s still some aggression inside. Now I think it’s a good way to express it in music, rather than for example beating people up. I also think that the aggression has grown with the music. It started off with bands like Kiss and Motley Crue and just went on, you know. Nowadays its tending to go back again, I listen to bands like Tea Party, Tool and stuff like that, of course a lot of Hardrock, but I do still like music with a lot of aggression, like Death and Thrash Metal. I think it’s just a normal thing for people to in some way express their aggression, and music is a way of doing that.
It’s obvious by now that Metal isn’t the only music for you, so what other music would you recommend to the readers of this interview?
I would say that Metal music probably is most comparable with Classical music. Not for the sound of production of course, but in the way songs are built. We build songs from different riffs, in the past we’ve wrote songs with Darkane that had about seven or eight parts in it, with like a verse, a chorus, a bridge, a pre-bridge, a solo and everything. For example bands like Iron Maiden have songs that are eleven minutes long with tons of riffs in them, and I think the only music in which you can find such is actually in Classical music. But the music I would like to recommend is of course stuff from Virgil Donati. I also like this contemporary kind of Fusion music. There’s an Indian guy who lives in Hamburg (Germany) called Ghurthu, that’s my favorite drummer as well as composer. He’s composing music that’s very percussive and stuff, and it’s like a mix of Jazz, Fusion, Rock and Indian Folk music, which sounds very cool. If I don’t listen to Metal I listen either to bands like Soundgarden, Tea Party and Tool, or I do some instrumental music. But it always differs, sometimes I listen to a lot of Jazz, sometimes to Classical, and on other times to things like Sheryl Crow. Björk’s also one of my favorite artists, in my opinion she’s a genius.
I have the feeling that Heavy Metal is usually seen by outsiders as plain noise for deaf people, is this also your experience?
Hahaha, that’s very good. I think it’s exactly the way people look upon it you know. I always get this thing with Darkane, I think nowadays especially with ‘Expanding Senses’. I think that the vocals on the album are pretty normal, but when people hear it they always say like: ‘Oh, you can’t hear what the vocalist is singing, he’s only screaming a lot..’, and my reaction is always like: ‘This is very normal, you should hear bands like Cannibal Corpse and stuff, that’s really aggressive’. I think people have a very hard time being open-minded to music. Most music I play is like Metal or Jazz/Fusion, and both musical directions are for most people pretty weird music. People aren’t used to it, they spent most of their time in front of the TV or radio, and those never play Darkane apart from special programs which go on air two o’clock in the morning. It will never be broadcasted on prime-time, so people never will be confronted with this kind of music, and that’s why people don’t know about it. Some people even don’t know it exists. Their loss of course, but a lot of people are very narrow-minded. They like Britney Spears because she’s played on the radio.
Like they only like what’s being stuffed down their throat by the media?
Yeah. The most Metal people I meet are people who are curious what’s behind the next door, what’s behind the next corner. They want to know about new things, and it’s the only audience who’s still buying records. They want to hear new stuff, instead the regular crowd which only listens to radio instead of looking for new stuff themselves.
It kinda reminds me of a Dutch journalist who writes for a paper called ‘De Volkskrant’. That guy writes about every kind of pop-music, but every time it comes down to Metal, he’s like: ‘Yeah, Metal, nothing new, irrelevant, the same for about twenty years’. Is he just being stupid, or can’t he listen?
Well, I don’t know the guy obviously, but it’s weird he acts like that. Metal is one of the music styles that actually is progressing the most. It sounded very different ten years ago, and it sounded even more different twenty years ago, it’s always evolving. Whether you like Nu-Metal or not, it’s a new style anyway, and I would say perhaps that a band like Faith No More was way ahead of its time, especially in the beginning.
So you agree if I say that about every five years a new style of Metal is launched?
Exactly, that’s the way it is, it’s always progressing, and that’s what I like very much about Metal.
As far as I know you’re a professional musician, but do you also do other things besides music?
The thing is…I also work as a music teacher in my hometown. I teach drums at a Gymnasium to people between 16 and 20 years old, not only double-bass but also other stuff hahaha. I’m earning money from music now the last six or seven years, but it would be hard to only earn money with making music, without teaching. Some bands with bigger record sales are able to live from their music, but we can’t live from Darkane. But of course I have some other interests, like my new girlfriend is into boxing, so I picked that up too, a really cool way to deal with aggression. Otherwise I would say that fishing is the most relaxing thing I do…and besides this my only interests are drums..hahaha.
Are you in any way involved with things that go on in today’s society and/or religion?
I don’t care that much about religion, though I think it’s kind of interesting to read The Bible, The Satanic Bible or whatever you know, I’m interested in it. I’ve read some stuff in both, in school I’ve learned about Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and everything, ten years ago I was very into Satanic stuff, but I never actually believed in anything. I’ve never been a religious guy, I was raised non-religious. I also think religion causes a lot of problems for lots of people all around the world. I don’t know, I don’t have the hard facts, but I would say like half of all the wars around the world are of a religious nature. I think religion is good for old people, who maybe are insecure, need the church and something divine to surround them, but for me it’s not something I’d like to dedicate my time to. Regarding to politics and stuff, we have an election this month here in Sweden, but as far I can see every political party here has kind of the same ideas about stuff, and I’m not really interested. Of course you should be, because it’s the only way to make your contribution to society, but despite the few changes here over the last fifteen years I have the feeling nothing much has changed, so…
So we can safely assume that religious, social or political issues doesn’t reflect in the music and lyrics of Darkane?
That’s the correct assumption. It’s more sci-fi in our lyrics, inspired by books, movies and stuff like that.
If you mention books and movies, what kind of them are inspiring?
Well, the most stuff I read is about science actually, or music magazines. I like to read books, but I have very little time, and every time I’ve got some five minutes to spare I use them to practice drums. But I read a lot of papers, a lot of articles, a lot of stuff on the Internet. Actually one song on the new album was inspired by an article from Amnesty International about torture, I was very moved by that article. Just the fact that people can be so cruel against other people…that’s why I wrote some lyrics about that. Otherwise movies are the biggest inspiration, at least for me, and I write most of the lyrics. Movies like Hellraiser, Wishmaster and Horror movies like that, but also stuff like The Sixth Sense. I also get a lot from my favorite TV channel: Discovery. I can watch that from afternoon until early in the morning, I like documentaries a lot.
You mentioned the Internet just now. Now Darkane’s music is free downloadable (if you look it for it) on the Internet. This has the advantage that a lot of people probably get to know the band, but on the other hand the band is injured by lack of sales. How do you feel about this?
We have these kind of discussions a lot, and I would say it’s mostly positive, but only because of the Metal people and the way they are. They want to have the artwork, the real thing, and like we discussed earlier, metal people are the only people around that really look for music. They go into the stores, check out what’s new, read magazines and stuff like that. The others, the ones that buy Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and stuff only do so because they don’t know anything else. That’s the kind of reason why I think that Internet is for the better, for Metal. Of course it’s best when people download it and then buy it, but in any case the band is noted. But there are always two sides two every story. Personally I think Internet is a good thing. I get to hear a lot of new music which I probably never would have heard of if it wasn’t for the Internet. Take for example Tea Party. I’ve once downloaded some tracks of ‘m and now I’ve bought five albums, but without the Internet I’d probably never even had heard from ‘m. It’s also good for checking out stuff before you buy. There are a lot of record stores in which you can’t listen to stuff before you buy, so if you download some stuff from the Internet you can avoid buying crap.
Successful Metal bands usually play a lot live, and Darken is no exception. What is it you like the best about playing life?
I would say that you never quite can capture the energy of a live gig. Even if you would do like a live CD, the energy still isn’t there. I wouldn’t say that Darkane is an exceptional live band, but there’s a lot of action going on if you watch Darkane. Not that we use a lot of artistic stuff like blood, but it’s really very intense, the four guys in front always move, bang their heads until necks tend to break, and that energy you just can’t capture on CD or anything. The energy is like the best thing, and of course the interaction with the audience and the band, and that interaction is unbelievable. I like recording and playing in the studio, working with all the high-tech equipment there, but live is something different. You see people going wild on the frontrows, singing along with the words I wrote down perhaps a year ago in my living room, and now all those people know those words, and sing along with the songs, it’s an amazing feeling.
What were your best and worst experiences while playing life?
I’ve had a few experiences that mean a lot to me. First of all in ’97 when I played in Japan together with Arch Enemy. There were people in front…I mean, I did a short drum solo, and I got all the people to scream with me and stuff like that…it’s kind of weird if you got like 1,000 Japanese people screaming at you, but it’s a feeling I never will forget. Of course the first time I ever played live (about thirteen years ago) is something I’ll always remember, but to play in Japan was so exceptional… Also the second time I played their (with Majestic) was very cool. One of the best gigs we ever played with Darkane was the Dynamo Open Air Festival, I guess about 14,000 people watched us then, and I think a lot of people started liking us at that time actually, we did a great show there, and playing at a festival like Dynamo is always a great experience. It’s a cool festival, and the coolest festival I ever attended.
My worst experience was in ‘De Baroeg’ Rotterdam (Holland). We were somewhere in the middle of the set, and I counted of this song, but then started to play the wrong song…I started playing ‘Convicted’, while the other guys started ‘Frenetic Visions’. I was way ahead of my time, for we were supposed to do ‘Convicted’ four or five tracks later. Now we have this rule you know, to never look at the guy who’s playing something wrong, just pretend all goes well. So all the other guys were looking towards the audience and banging their heads, nut no one knew what exactly to play anymore. I think me made some noise for about one minute or something, then I slowed the tempo down, shot the song off and counted down once again…Now we played together with Soilwork that gig, but they even didn’t know we played wrong, so obviously a lot of the people in the audience didn’t either, but it really was a creepy situation. I’ve seen it on video by now, and it sounds kinda cool, it’s very avant-garde hahaha, but it was really a horrifying moment. That minute almost lasted for like an hour or so.
The most gigs played are part of a tour. Do you enjoy touring, or is it necessary evil?
For me, I totally enjoy it, and I believe all the other guys too. We haven’t been touring that much, we’ve been in Holland twice, we did some shows in Germany, but we never actually have done like a full month of touring. For me it’s just a thrill to be there, I totally enjoy it you know. Regardless of what everybody else is saying, like when on tour you’re not able to see anything, maybe that’s true if you travel real far you know, but in Europe you can see quite a lot when you’re on tour I think. I enjoy to see different city’s and stuff like that. For me it’s only positive, I’ve never actually experienced that I wanted to home or that I wanted to do something else.
You played festivals like Dynamo Open Air, but also clubshows like at The Baroeg. What do you prefer. Playing in small venues with a capacity of about 500 people, or big halls and festivals with thousands of spectators?
I would say it’s either the small clubs with perhaps 100 or 200 people, for when it gets to be like 1,000 people you really need to get the crowd moving. If from a thousand people only about 30 people like your music it feels kind of weird to play. I that case I prefer to play for thirty people in a small place. The coolest thing remains of course festivals, that’s way ahead of anything, it’s so cool to play festivals. You meet so many interesting people, most of the time there’s a great vibe, I like that a lot.
Have you got time left to go out and see bands yourself?
I guess I’ve seen most of the bands that I want to see. For example, I’ve seen Atheist with their old bassplayer (before he died) and stuff like that. The only thing I regret never got to see was actually Cynic, that’s one of my old-time favorite bands. But I still really like to go to concerts. You got people who are like: ‘Always a crappy sound, it’s better to stay at home and listen to the CD and stuff’, but that’s not the thing about live, the thing about live is the energy you get from the music. You can always do it better in the studio of course, like doing the vocals in 200 takes, but you’ll never capture the live energy, and that’s what makes a concert a thrill for me.
Have you got any ideals left, or are their things you want to accomplish within the next few years?
Well, I’d like to go on some bigger tours, that would be great, it would be great to tour in the US. I would love to return to Japan, but this time with Darkane, I’ve been there twice, but with other bands (Arch Enemy and Majestic). I would like to go to Los Angeles, they have a music school there with those ten weeks programs where you can have guys like Virgil Donati as your teacher, it would cool to go there and develop my playing. I would say that all of my small dreams are starting to come true, I’ve played on about 13 records now, I’ve done some good stuff that I can relate to and be proud of. Otherwise it would be cool to start a family (I’m 27 right now), I love children, and a child of my own would be a great experience. And of course I would love to be able to live from my music alone, so I won’t have to teach anymore, but concentrate fully on writing and performing.
Where do you see yourself in about 20 years from now?
I definitely think that I will still be playing music, if everything goes the way I want to. Perhaps Darkane will not exist anymore, I don’t know about that, maybe we’re too old than…but I like to see myself still living for music, maybe have a job as a producer, studio technician or session drummer, playing different music, hopefully with a family of my own. This is a vision that quite works for me.
http://www.darkane.com
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