Interview with Dead Man

Dead Man hail from Sweden play a rather different brand of heavy music that combines numerous different styles yet it’s still hard to pin down. I recently interviewed Kristoffer Sjödahl (guitars/vocals) and Joakim Dimberg (vocals/bass) to find out more about this band.


MM-Please introduce yourselves and tell what instrument you play.

Joakim Dimberg: electric bass and vocals. Semi long and curly hair, short nails.

Kristoffer Sjödahl: electric guitar and vocals. Long and curly hair, pretty long nails on the right hand and short on the left hand, except for the thumb.

Johan Rydholm: acoustic guitar and vocals. Long and straight hair, long nails on the right hand and short on the left hand including the thumb.Marcus Allard: drums and vocals. Short and straight hair, short nails on both hands.

MM-Tell us a little about the history of your band.

KS and JD-Some of us use dandruff shampoo, but we won’t name any names. All of us like long and hot showers, especially in the wintertime. Although we try to brush our teeth regularly, we still have to go and see the dentist sometimes.

MM- Do you have any tour plans for the upcoming months? Have you played any dates outside of Sweden yet?
JD:We plan to do a European tour in September and a US tour in November. Its gonna be a blast!

MM- What has been the response to your “Euphoria” album so far?
KS: The response has been overwhelming and its fun that everybody from death metal freaks to my mom seems to dig it. The reviews as you mentioned has been very good overall.
JD: Everything has gone faster with this album.

MM- I have read several reviews on your album and some people seem confused about your style. They seem unsure if you are metal, stoner, folk or what. Have you run into that and what label would you give your music?
JD: Yeah I know. I don’t see the problem I mean we play Rock! I think it has got a lot to do with the fact that we sound different from most of the other bands today. But they can call it whatever they want.
KS: I would label our music as… music. I rather not label it at all, and I kinda like the fact that people find it hard to put us in a category.

MM- On your Myspace page under influences it says “Feelings, thoughts, images, each other and other peoples work”. So does that refer to lyrics and your music? Can you tell a little about how you get your topics for your lyrics?
KS: It depends on the song and whatever we feel like expressing. When I write I always go for that gut feeling. If it rings true than I often stick with it.

MM- Where do you hope to be in three years?
KS: Somewhere nice.
JD: On mars drinkin' Vodka and Lime, causing nothing but trouble to the solar system.



MM- Did you used any vintage equipment or change the recording process to give your music more of a 1970’s feel or is that all just your sound?
JD: Not really, we listen a lot to “old” music and I think that the older sounds tend to sound better than the clearer and cleaner sounds of today. But we don’t try to sound retro, we just do what we think sounds good. The only vintage instruments that I can remember that we used was the synthesizer and one of Marcus drum kits.
KS: I play on a 90..s Fender Stratocaster on most of the tracks and used a Balder amplifier built in the 80..s, I think. I think the main reason we sound the way we do is that we listen a lot of music that were recorded in the 60..s and 70..s.

MM- What should someone who comes to see you live expect? Is your music difficult to reproduce live?
KS: On a good night they’ll hopefully be blown away.
JD: They should expect to have a good time. A happy-groovy-moody-psychedelic experience. We like to jam and play the songs differently from time to time. Our goal is to develop and get better at what we do. We don’t wanna sound the same every night.

MM- Since your music kind of falls into different styles, what kind of audience do you get at your shows? Do you get just primarily metal fans, a mix or what?
KS: There is usually a nice mixture of people from different ages and musical backgrounds, which is fun. We seem to attract a wide range of freaks.

MM-What is the music scene like where you live? Are there any great unsigned bands you would like to mention?
JD / KS: The Winchester Widowmakers, all the other good bands are signed.

MM-If you could only listen to three albums for the next month then what would they be and why?
JD: It would be very repetitive and boring but I think I would choose one song: Good vibrations by The Beach boys.

MM-Is there anything else that you would like to say about your band?

We hope to continue play together for many years to come. Thanks for the interview. We hope to see you in November on our US tour.Take care, Kristoffer & Joakim

http://www.myspace.com/deadmansweden

***Thanks to Kristoffer and Joakim for doing the interview.