Falconer – על גבי רוחות הצפון של שבדיה

Sweden's Falconer were a personal favorite of mine since I heared their first album. The band's combination of melodic power metal with folk elements worked well. Their 5th release marks the return of vocalist Mathias Blad, and is also probably the strongest album the band put out yet, with uber-producer Andy LaRocque adding a fantastic sound to the mix. To find out more, we spoke with band mastermind, Stefan Weinerhall.

Hey, congrats on the new album, Northwind, how are the reactions for it as of now?

The reactions have been really good. At last some people think that we have overdone ourselves. Did actually think that the halo over the first album would never let another album take that place.

Were the reactions for Mathias's return positive?

Yes. That I knew in before hand. 99% loved that he had returned. Well, if we were gonna do this style of metal again there was no other man who could do it as good as Mathias.

Let's start off with the title, what does Northwind mean?

It’s just the title track. Although it hasn’t any deeper meaning I feel that the title sum up all the songs and the atmosphere of the album in a very good way. We have used quite strange and poetic titles in the past but this time a very easy and short one felt right.

I understand you did the album in 2 different recording sessions, why is that?

Mathias did not have time to record in March and when he could Andy couldn’t since he was in the US. Now afterwards I think it only brought good things with it because of this period between the sessions. It gave me time to work on the keyboards and details. So this album got very produced and thought through

Is it easier to fit in the vocal lines when the songs are almost complete?

Well, the vocal lines were done before we entered the studio. The only song that wasn’t done at all was “Spirit of the hawk”, I wrote that on a weekend during the studio recording since Andy wanted one more really fast song for the album.

The album's sound is the best you guys had, did you do anything new regarding it this time?

We worked more on all sounds including Andy. It almost came to the place were we got bored that he never got satisfied with the guitar sound for example but I’m glad he worked and worked on it since the end result got better than we ever have had.

Who does the all classical instruments on the album?

I do… on keyboards.

To what extent were such tracks as "Waltz With The Dead" influenced by Swedish folk and medieval music?

Not that I listened to it to get inspiration. I just tried to get the song in that direction and Jimmy contributed with all the riffs to that song. Well of course you can say it was inspired of trad. folk music but still with a personal touch to it.

Tracks such as "Perjury and Sanctity" sound very similar to the material on your first two releases, musically and vocally, was the track written with that in mind?

No, I just tried to push myself to write fast staccato riffs and then come in with a big chorus. I also think that you get reminded of the 2nd album. I usually don’t prefer doing fast songs but I wanted this for this album so I tried.

What does "Himmel Sa Trind" mean, and what does the song deal with?

It translates into “Sky so thick” and it’s about the approaching winter with all its signs. Both the music and the lyric are written in a traditional kind of way. The music just deserved a Swedish lyric.

I'm I imagining it or does the album contain quite a few guitar and vocal melodies that bring to mind to music of Queen?

Haven’t thought about that but if it does I’m honoured since Queen is masters on vocal harmonies. Maybe not an inspiration but still something I value high. So, thank you!!

Is "Home Of The Knave" a song criticizing the US? What is your take on that?

Well it’s just criticizing George Bush really. It’s not criticizing the nation or the people but only the government. A clown who fools his citizens into following him into war on quite vague basis. Is it a good deed or is there other factors that really are the reason?

I remember reading, when the band started out, that Mathias's background and main musical work are outside of metal, how does that affect the singing on the album?

I think you can hear that he is far from a metal singer. I think it only have great aspects to it. I’m not trying to show him metal since his own style is perfect. Broadway metal!!!!

Back to his return to the band, how did the initial decision to drop Kristoffer and get him back start out?

Although "Grime vs Grandeur" sounds good we started to realise that Falconer should sound like this. I didn’t want to adapt my music writing to fit a vocalist when my normal style turns out the best. I have always done folk metal stuff even in my Mithotyn days so that’s the style we should have. Since Mathias does the epic folk style like no one else the only choice was to get him back in order to make the album as good as possible. Of course we knew that the fans would love the decision to, so why not make ourselves and everyone else pleased.

Was it hard for you to inform Kristoffer of his departure, and how did he take to it?

It was quite hard yes. He wasn’t that happy to start with but things calmed down rather quickly and we’ve met after that and shared some beers so everything is fine by now.

What were the "Musical Differences" that caused Mathias to leave in the first place?

The reason was that we got a lot of good offers to play live and his schedule didn’t allow him to do it. So he couldn’t but the 4 of us wanted it so… The situation for him is the same now as I knew before I asked him if he wanted to rejoin us. The difference is that now I know that the album is the first priority and the live situation is just a bonus. So I wouldn’t bet on any tours just festivals and maybe some club gigs. Fine by me.

It seems that the album contains some of best guitar work you've done this far, with the closing "Black Tarn" being one good example, did you intentionally decide to put emphasis into the guitar this time?

Since the last album we have Jimmy and then we can use his skills. In the past I have done all solos as good as I can….and that’s not that good. With Jimmy we can use the guitar to it’s full potential so why not. I still don’t think that the focus has been shifted though but the guitar work we have has moved up a couple of levels.