Almost three years have gone by since we talked for the release of former album ‘Sword Songs’. How has life been for you and the band since then?
Well, it is almost three years indeed. We did quite a lot of touring since then for ‘Sword Songs’. We did a huge tour with Amon Amarth and Testament. Behemoth was also on that tour. And then we decided to take some time off actually, to start to think about new music and I wanted to take some extra time to think about what we wanted to do for the next album. We decided that we wanted to jam a lot more instead of me sitting by myself, writing the music. We also decided that we needed to find a studio where we could record and live at the same place, that we could live next door or in the studio, not having to deal with other stuff in life, you know. Also that we wanted to record the basic tracks live. For all of this to happen, we needed to spend more time before we could record, because if you want to do it that way, you have to do all the work more or less before you enter the actual studio. Yeah, we felt it was a good time – instead of rushing and bring it out in 2018, we could take some more time to write it and especially, create together. We needed some changes.

The chemistry in the band will be better with human contact I guess?
Yes, we had a lot more fun. When you record with a click-track and you start recording the drums and then the guitars and then the bass etc. It turns out very sterile, you know. Some albums we did really together, we built it up together, like anyone else does. I was just sick and tired of doing it that way. I wanted to do it more like we do it when we play live on stage.

I think you took the right decision, because this way the band is a band instead of putting all the pieces bit by bit together.
Exactly.

And I think you are better prepared for following live gigs if you record that way?
Absolutely. Sometimes in the past, we had not played the songs together at all. You have done the album, but then you got to learn the songs to play them live. And then you sometimes discover: Hey, this does not sound that good, you know (chuckles). We cannot really do this song. I think all the songs on this album definitely could work on stage. That does not mean if they are a good live song, that depends on how the audience react, but we can definitely play them without thinking.

How did you find such a studio? Was it far away from home?
We found one that we have used in the past, but it has been improved a lot. It also has living accommodation now and it is just outside the place where Ludwig, our drummer lives. So it is on the West Coast, by the sea. So it is pretty far from where I live and where Fox lives. We were living on a farm at the countryside in Sweden, that was amazing.

The title of the new album is ‘Wolf God’. In Nordic mythology it is Fenrir, isn’t it?
(hesitating) He is kind of a Wolf God yeah, but he is more of an enemy towards the Asa Gods. I guess you can call him a god, but he’s more like a monster (chuckles).

So it was not the Wolf God you had in mind?
No, not necessarily (laughs). I think in the past I have been asked what it is about. What is ‘The Hunt’ about? Stuff like that. I came to realize that I never really liked talking and explaining too much about things like that, because I want the imagination of the listener to be free, because that is how I got into heavy metal. No band explained that much. Like Judas Priest: here’s the album, it is called ‘Defenders Of The Faith’. What does it mean? No one asked that question. ‘Jawbreaker’ What is that song about? They never answered that question. And because of that, when I hear ‘Jawbreaker’, I built up my own images and meanings what the song is about. That’s really, for me, one of the main things of heavy metal. The music and the lyrics, they have a life on their own. It is something that you cannot put your finger on. A great example of that is the song ‘Holy Diver’. What’s ‘holy diver’? Nothing in that song makes sense. For me it is very clear, because my imagination about that song is very clear, but I do not think there is explanation to what it means, you know. It is just poetry.

Same goes for ‘Stairway To Heaven’ from Led Zeppelin.
Yes! Yes!

And it took me years and years to find out that ‘Child In Time’ is about the Vietnam War.
Do you think it is? Maybe. It is only guessing I think, but that is the cool thing. But you see, your imagination was free to build up those connections. The risk of course is that people can misinterpret what you do, but that’s just the way it is.

When I see the new promo photos you and Fox are wealthy tattooed. Can you tell about your tattoos? At what age did you get them and what do they mean to you?
Well, I only have three tattoos actually. The first one I did when I was twenty years old I think. It was one I knew from home. I actually took the motive from a Jimi Hendrix poster, made by a guy named Rick Griffin  He was an American artist who designed posters in the late sixties and the early seventies. I think it was from the poster when he played at Monterey. It is an eyeball with wings, standing in a ring of fire. I just thought it was really cool (laughs). Then the next one I did, was like a heraldic lion, you know what that means? Like the lion you see on a coat of arms. With a scroll that reads ‘fire – magick’. And I did that one I guess around the time we did our third album. No, the second album: ‘Monument’, because we have a song on it, called ‘Summer Solstice’. The chorus in that one is ‘Fire – Magick’. Then the last one is basically a wizard, with snakes and pentagrams and flies and stuff (laughs). I don’t know what it means. It could be Odin, it could be St. Patrick, I am not really sure. That’s it. Of course Ludwig has got a shitload of tattoos. He is tattooed almost all over. And I was actually with him when he did one of the tattoos in Japan. He got like a ninja demon’s head by a Japanese tattoo, in Tokyo I think it was. Or in Osaka. Ludwig was very hangover, he looked green in the face when the tattoo was finished. For me it is almost twenty years ago that I did my last tattoo, because it is getting quite ridiculous now in Sweden. Almost everybody is tattooed. It has become a fashion, you know.