Interview: PAIN
PAIN was was developed from me doing different things from my other band Hypocrisy.
PAIN have just brought out their latest album I Am and it sees the industrial/electronic band reaching new sonic heights with their anthemic and exhilarating music on the records eleven tracks. To celebrate the release of I Am, Gavin Brown caught up with PAIN main man Peter Tägtgren and he gave us the lowdown on the new album as well as discussing his other band Swedish melodic death metal legends Hypocrisy and his storied work as a producer.
E&D: PAIN have just brought out your ninth album I Am. Did you want to bring back a more industrial feel for PAIN with this album?
Peter: Yeah, the story I always tell everybody is after I was done with the ‘Party In My Head’ and ‘Gimme Shelter’ singles, I had like a half a year until the Hypocrisy album came out, because it was already done and it waiting for Nuclear Blasts schedule. So the first thing I did was go back to the last album, Coming Home and listened to it all the way through. I felt it was an experimental album and I believe on certain song, I really wanted to get a lot of a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust feeling. So it explains a little bit. The first song I did after ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Party In My Head’ was ‘Push The Pusher’ and I really wanted to get more distortion and a more industrial feeling to it.
E&D: Is that experimentation something you have wanted to do for a while?
Peter: PAIN was was developed from me doing different things from my other band Hypocrisy, so that’s something that grew up in 95/96 and the whole aim of doing something different, for me as a producer, and also a songwriter is to do different things than I normally do. It’s a developing process for me, I believe, and it’s where I can try anything and try different things that I don’t normally do with my work as a producer or Hypocrisy.
E&D: What have been the biggest influences on the sound of I Am?
Peter: I think your head is a jukebox, whatever you hear, since you grew up till today, stays in here somewhere and influences you on things you know. Me, personally, I just tried to develop as a songwriter and producer.
E&D: What has the reaction to the new material been like so far?
Peter: So far, so good! Yeah, it looks pretty good so far, and people know there’s new stuff coming out with PAIN, it’s usually a little bit different from what it was before. That’s also my whole idea. It’s an adventure when you write music, and it can take you anywhere, a song that you have from the beginning in a certain way in your head, and you can just take it anywhere you want.
E&D: You mentioned ‘Gimme Shelter’ there, was that a fun experience to do that song?
Peter: I had a bit more into the original version, I actually just picked it up and kind of put my trademarks on it, in a way of how I do songs and so on, just to get it up to date so to speak, but what he was saying about how it was during the Cold War is still relevant, so it’s not only a good song, but the meaning and everything that Mick Jagger was really paranoid about. The whole world was gonna blow up when he wrote that song, and it feels like the same nowadays as well.
E&D: When you started PAIN all those years ago, are you surprised and proud that it is still going strong today?
Peter: Yeah, it’s this adventure of developing yourself as a songwriter. I really love to see anything from a melody in my head, how it grows out and how all the instruments come on and things like that. I guess its like planting a seed and watching it grow, or someone painting a picture, which starts with one thing, and then at the end, it’s so many colours and so many different meanings to it. It doesn’t matter as long as you feel like, this is good.
E&D: Are you looking forward to taking this new album onto the live stage?
Peter: Yeah, we’ve got festivals over the summer and we go to America in September or November. I’m not sure yet. We have a Scandinavian tour in October, and then after that, we will go out on tour in Europe. Either we will go with someone or we will headline.
E&D: Will you be making it over to the UK?
Peter: Yeah, of course, we have to! Last time we were there, it was great!
E&D: Have you got plans for a new Hypocrisy album as well?
Peter: I take my time, and when I have free space, I recorded some ideas so I have it there for later. I also did the same thing with one PAIN song. It all depends on which mood I’m in but I think the Hypocrisy album will come before a new PAIN one. In a a year or two, maybe we’re done with the album. I don’t want to promise anything, you know,
E&D: Have you ever been working on a PAIN song, and thought that would work better for Hypocrisy or vice versa?
Peter: Mainly when I write a song, I know from the beginning when I start to write that song that this will be a PAIN song or it will be a Hypocrisy song. I know it from the beginning when I hear that thing in my head, because 95% of times I write everything in my head and then bring it out on instruments and capture it so I usually when I start with this melody, or riff or whatever it is, I know if it’s a PAIN or Hypocrisy, so we will just keep on going on that path.
E&D: Is it a challenge being in multiple bands and doing your production work as well?
Peter: I quit producing bands a while back. Sometimes you get things you cannot resist, like when Possessed asked me if I wanted to produce their comeback album a couple of years ago. I can’t resist that! So never say never! I don’t have it open like I used to have in the past, I was booked one year ahead all the time for many years and it’s a good thing for inspiration and to learn recording but it kills time for my other bands. When I had three bands touring, it was horrible. That’s why it took eight years for Hypocrisy and eight years for PAIN. I did two Lindemann albums, and PAIN onto Hypocrisy albums, one, Joe Lynn Turner and a handful of productions for other bands in ten/eleven years. It’s better to concentrate on two things and try to do good. Well, actually, you’re supposed to concentrate on one thing and do it good, but I think I could do two!
E&D: Did you have a good time working with Till Lindemann under the Lindemann project and was that a good experience for you?
Peter: There was an experience, put it that way. I mean, we never had any problems in the studio, creating things and so on. So those days were great, and then that’s it. I’ll just leave it there.
E&D: Going back a bit further, how was the experience of being in Lock Up when they first start and recording the albums Pleasures Pave Sewers and Hate Breeds Suffering?
Peter: We were very good friends, all of us, of course, Jesse passed away unfortunately, but we’ve all been friends for a long time, when they asked me to sing. Why not? They have the songs done, and they’re looking for a singer. So they came to my studio, and we recorded it together. It was fun. I really like the punk in it. I was brought up on Exploited and GBH and Discharge and stuff like that and you have it in there.
E&D: As a fan of Discharge, it must have been cool working on their last album, End Of Days, with them?
Peter: I just did the mixing, you know, they recorded everything themselves. I’m trying to make the best mix ever. It’s about the best mix ever, for every band, so they have to adapt to whatever you do.
E&D: As a producer and engineer you’ve also worked with everyone from Celtic Frost and Destruction to Amon Amarth and Dark Funeral. What have been some of the highlights for you?
Peter: All of them have been great! A pure joy to work with the bands. I can count on one hand the days that I didn’t like go into work every day. It’s really hard to say which one was the highlight.
E&D: What have been the biggest thing you have learned as a producer?
Peter: The hardest thing to be a producer, it depends what kind of person you are. Either you are run over by everybody and tell them to shut up or you become a little bit more human and try to figure people up and meet the musicians and see how much you can push them without breaking them because you need to get the best out of every person in the band somehow. In the beginning, maybe I was a little bit too tough, and sometimes it could break a guy for a day or two and then you learn right away like oh, okay, let’s not push this guy too much. So you need to know a little bit about people’s personality and how they react to things. You have to take it very easy on certain people, other people, you can push til they drop, so it’s all in individually. I would say that was the most important thing that you have to learn as a producer.
E&D: What do you still want to do musically that you haven’t done before?
Peter: I just want to keep on developing, I guess. Just taking more steps in different directions.
E&D: How was it working and playing with your son Sebastian on music and do you have plans to work together again in the future?
Peter: Yeah, of course. I mean, this is not the first time he wrote with me. I mean, he started when he was fourteen on the Hypocrisy album End Of Disclosure, on the song ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ and he did the Lindemann album too. I would say that he has a lot of talent. he’s probably one of the best drummers I ever played with because he knows how to groove when he’s playing and he knows how to play fast.
