Face to Face before going on stage in Sofia

Swedish metallers played their first ever gig in Bulgaria on 18В November 2010.

Minutes before they went on stage we got band leader Chrisopher Jonsson to talk with us.

An interview conducted by George GeorgievВ В 

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE BULGARIAN CROWD? WE ARE FAMOUS WITH BEING CRAZY AT CONCERTS AND WARMLY WELCOMING THEIR FAVORITE BANDS?
I think it’s gonna be like we are used to in the East, since there are not so many concerts the people are very fired up for them, you know, if you are living in Germany or Holand you can choose from two-tree concerts every weekend so it is not such a big deal anymore to see the band here.

People have the attitude: “If you don’t catch the band this year you will see it next year”… So in Eastern Europe the people are more appreciative, because they don’t they don’t take for granted that the band is going to come. Similar situation it’s been in Latin America- usually there is a very enthusiastic crowd….

AND COMPARING THE CROWD IN LATIN AMERICA AND HERE, IN EUROPE- WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Oh, it’s a big difference when you play in Europe, the Latin Americans are very similar to the Eastern Europe but the Eastern Europe and Western Europe are very different.

But there is also a difference inВ Western Europe - between France; the French audience is fantastic, while the Germans are usually a bit slow. But we are doing well on this tour so far, the worst concert we had is actually Slovenia which is strange.

Because Slovenia used to be one really better crowd but now everybody plays all the time in Slovenia so you see it’s not about the folk’s mentality, it’s about access to concerts. I mean if you have two-tree concerts per year it’s a very big happening but if you have one every weekend then you get used to these things.

Like now in Bulgaria- everybody has internet and 10 years ago it was a science fiction- to have internet at home but we had it in the west… Now you can not imagine your life without mobile phones, internet but 15 years ago only the rich can afford these. The same goes for the concerts –in 15 years from now on I don’t think there is gonna be a difference in playing in Bulgaria or France, then Spain or whatever…

I think the people are quite much the same in the different parts of the Christian world.

ISВ THE CONCERT SOLD OUT?
I don’t know, I think it is. We moved to this smaller place because apparently the roof was falling in the other venue. We have been told another reason but then again you tell the real reason anyway.

We’ll see, I mean they did not made many concerts here before, you can notice that a lot of people never arranged a concert before. If it takes you a whole day to get toilet paper for the only toilet that works for 50 people…

Or when you do the soundcheck while the people are taking photos then you know what kind of promoter you have. It’s more a fan than a promoter, this is also the case in Latin America where you have someone that loves the music.

They can get financing but they don’t really know how to organize the concert. It’s quite common problem in the countries still being developed. And in Latin America when we started playing it was a disaster every time. Now it’s very professional, it’s getting year better, you can see the improvement…

FEW WORDS ABOUT THE NEW THERION- SITRA AHRA. HOW ARE THE SELLS GOING? HOW THE CROWD ACCEPT THE NEW SONGS ON THE CONCERTS?
Well, I haven’t seen the sells figures yet because you have 6 months period and the first period being on sale ends on December so we haven’t got any figures yet from the record company. But seems like it’s going like usual- we are not a band who had a “big-hitter” album or a “big-flop”, we are in the middle level.

We have our fans and we sell pretty much the same every time. But I have to say Live we have never had a good reception of the new songs before. Every time when we make an album we get a lot of different opinions, we always change the style radically so some people say –“oh, the Gods came down from Heaven and  gave us the best album ever” and some people are feeling like personally betrayed, like “Oh this is not what I imagined”.

But we just do the record we wanna have. If the people like it- good if they like it less, too bad, then maybe they will like the next one…

DOES IT MEAN THAT YOU DONT CARE THAT MUCH ABOUT THE FANS OR HOW EVERYBODY ELSE ARE THINKING ABOUT IT?
Of course you care, you want to be liked and to be appreciated but that’s secondary- we’d never change anything to please anybody else. We make the record- we’d like to buy and then of course we hope everybody else will like it.

We would be happy if the people like it; if they don’t like it we would be less happy. The bands who try to please others usually end up in the same way, they have the period when they make few records and then they are hopelessly forgotten later.

We manage to keep ourselves fresh, we did 14 studio albums –seriously how many bands do you know that made 14 albums and are still on the top of their carrier and which is still being considered a “fresh” band. The people actually care about the latest records – the horror example on the opposite would be Saxon.

What I mean - their albums that they did in the first half of the 80s’- that is what the people like. People don’t even like what they did in the second half of the 80s’.

Have you ever meet anybody who said – oh, the new Saxon, that is the best they ever did. I mean not even the band themselves don’t think so… I like the old Saxon, I like Motorhead - they are all cool bands but that’s a prime example on how the things should not be…

IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE MUSIC YOU DID FOR THESE 20 YEARS – WOULD YOU CHANGE ANYTHING?
Well, there are billions of things that I could have done better, not to change but to have it done better. Because you learn all the time, we at THERION always work best with the knife against our throat.

We always create tons of chaos during the time when we make a record and out of the chaos the creativity is born.В  When you have the experience if you would have done the same thing again you could have it done better. This is a live long process and it always is like that.

So there is nothing I wish that was undone but there are always things that could have been done better.

WITH SITRA AHRA THE QUADRALOGY IS DONE, AFTER LEMURIA, SIRIUS B AND GOTHIC KABBALH IT’S THE FORTH AND FINAL OPUS. I KNOW IT’S A BIT EARLIER BUT –WHAT THE NEXT ALBUM WOULD BE?
Nobody knows, nobody knows – not even me… I have no idea what we gonna do next. Usually we do an album in every 3 years circle so we need make the touring, then a year off, and then try to pull the things together, to see what happens.

We can’t decide what to do; it’s very spontaneous –what we feel right in that moment, whatever comes up…

I KNOW YOU HAVE A SMALL BOY. SO HOW DO YOU COMBINE BEING A FAMILY MAN AND AT THE SAME TIME BEING A MUSICIAN?
The good thing is that you are home all the time so I can spend more long periods with my son. Now he is so young and he doesn’t go to school and I can spend the whole summer with my son while a lot of people need to work part of the summer.

But on the other hand I have to be on tour so that I can’t see him at all. So it’s both good and bad but taking it all in all I think it’s better. It’s difficult while he is very small now and he doesn’t understand while speaking on the phone I say “daddy will be at home in two months” that doesn’t mean anything to him.

He knows what tomorrow is or what yesterday is but he doesn’t know what a week or month is. But when he gets few years older it’s gonna be better because I have not more spare time because I do a lot of work from home. But at least I am around more than a regular worker…

I AM SURE THAT MANY FANS ARE CURIOUS WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED WITH SNOWY?
Well, he is not a member of the band so we don’t have to work with each other… He made a very bad decision, then he realized he made a very bad decision so he called back and said- look, I think it’s the biggest mistake in my life.

I said - ok, what I can do for you anyway, he said - fuck Dimmu Borgir…

SO YOU ARE OPEN MINDED PERSON??
I am rather practical person….If any other person would have done this I would tell him to go fuck himself… But Snowy usually describes himself “I am 10 years old and I am listening to KISS”… and that’s pretty close to the reality.

He is very like a kid so you can’t judge the things he do in the same way like Thomas Vicstrom would do it for instance or anybody else…B ut it’s also if you don’t have people  that are permanent members …well, we never write a contract, we just had a spoken agreement.

But if someone is not a permanent member you don’t have to do it, I mean it’s possible that you make the record and you don’t do the tour. Of course it’s more logical when you do make the record you do the tour but next time when you decide should I make another record and another tour together… But form the other hand we could have said - sorry, we want somebody else, then there is nothing you could have done about it.

But we are not that kind of people to do that … With Mats Leven - he made the Gothic Kabbalah and in the middle of the tour we realize this is not working well. I mean he is great guy and he never failed but you could feel his heart was not in this more artistic stuff…

He is too much lead singer, you know - I wanna be the star, i.e. he is typical lead singer. So this wasn’t working very well so we should take somebody in then. So we just talked about it, he felt the same so we would just finish the tour and to take Thomas.

But if he wouldn’t understand it then of course we can fire him because he is not a member of the band. Then we could have says- sorry, we don’t need your services anymore and will take somebody else for the rest of the tour…

So it’s a two way thing- of course it could have been the other way also- if he would not been happy he would have say- I am sorry, I don’t wanna do the other half of the tour. That’s advantages and disadvantages of working with a lot of people that are not band members but this gives me an incredible flexibility because I am not stuck to the voice and I plan the things as I like.

But on the other hand if you are a member, a real member then you just don’t leave in the night….

rights Tangra Mega Rock