Swedish metallers Soilwork have been around for a pretty long time. Forming in 1996, they scored a record deal in 1998 after releasing two demos. It was the second of these that was picked up by a French label. After two albums, they moved across to Nuclear Blast before touring more of Europe than they previously had. Since 2002 they’ve been touring a lot more, so much so that they can now live off their music. Now they tour like crazy: six or seven months of the year. As vocalist Björn ‘Speed’ Strid tells FL, “‘It’s hard to sum up: I’m only 29! It’s crazy!” he laughs. “We’re grateful though, not a lot of people can do that. We’re not rich, but doing okay.”
Peter Wichers, who was the primary writer for the band, left in 2005. Since that time, the writing method for the band has, perhaps surprisingly, not really changed. These days every member of the band has input into every song that is written; and the process starts at home.
“We usually write everything back home using QBase. We come up with ideas and do that separately. Every now and then after doing our own stuff we meet up and present our ideas and give each other feedback. We’ve got the same vision, though we do write songs a bit differently from member to member.”
With the new album Sworn to a Great Divide Soilwork was trying to prove that there are a lot of other good songwriters in the band. Besides proving that statement, they really wanted to pull it off, and to let the fans know that they are still writing interesting music without Peter. With this new release, the band also got stuck in, producing and recording it themselves. The end goal was to invest in equipment that would allow them to do it on their own in the future.
“It was definitely a challenge,” admits Björn. “We had help from Darkane, and used their studio. I went to Vancouver and worked with Devin Townsend on the vocals. It was pretty cool to record in our home town and be able to go home after a day’s work and rest the ears. One negative aspect of it was that you feel lazy. In your home town you can do one solo and go home. As a result it took five months: a bit too long. I guess it was relaxing in a way.”
But Strid is actually a bit of a workaholic, and although it was a relaxing way to produce the album, he couldn’t relax completely. He thinks for a second. “How can I say it? If it was too laidback, I wouldn’t be enjoying it.”
At the end of the five months of the album’s production, it was hard for the band to really hear whether what they’d done was good or not. It took a good month’s rest before they went back to the recording and were able to see that they had done a good job after all. “I think we managed to create a cool production after all,” Björn muses. “At the end, you’ve heard the songs so much that you can’t hear what’s good any more, which is a nervous aspect of it all. After you rest your ears for a month you realise that it’s better than you thought.”
The band was pleased to be able to have control over the recording. By doing it themselves, Sworn to a Great Divide ended up being more their baby than ever. “Yeah, producers in the past, they never told us what to do, but we had to have everything finished. This time it was just that we have more control over it, coz we could go over it ourselves. We could go there ourselves and record it.”
Strid had worked with Devin Townsend on a previous recording to get the vocals done, and with Sworn he went back to Vancouver and had an enjoyable, productive time. “It was really cool. I’d done vocals with him before. I went to Vancouver, and it was really relaxed feeling. It made me sing my heart out: there was no pressure, it was just really cool.”
Soilwork last toured Australia in 2003, and they’ll be heading through the major cities this May. “Yeah, it’s been way too long. I dunno why we didn’t go there for our other record. It’s about time! Last time I was 25 – time is going fast!”
I ask Björn what fans can expect from the band this time around, and whether there’ll be any surprises. “Wow, surprises!” he laughs. “Well, uh, there’s always the spontaneity of a live band interacting with the crowd. There will be new members: Daniel never played with us in Australia, that’s something new. We’ve become a way better live band, I think, so there’s a lot of experience. We have already done 100 shows for this album. We played about 250 shows for Stabbing and, yeah, definitely, you work more as a team on stage. I’m really psyched about coming back, I can’t wait. Honestly, it’s gonna be great.”
Soilwork tour dates:
May 13 – The Arena, Brisbane
May 14 – The Manning Bar, Sydney
May 15 – Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne
May 17 – Night Train, Adelaide
May 18 – Metro, Fremantle, Perth
