Interview by Miriam Cadoni
Every cloud has a silver lining, even in desperate situations such as a worldwide pandemic. Before the COVID 19 happened, Swedish doom metal act Avatarium played a gig only (so far) in support of its latest release “The Fire I Long For”. Out of this gig, the band released the film concert back in August via streaming, while the official audio part was released on Dec 4th . Let’s read more together with the main man and guitar player Marcus Jidell. Enjoy!
Hi Marcus, welcome back to Femme Metal Webzine, how are you and how these precarious days are treating you?
Thank you so really much, it’s so nice to talk with you. These times are strange for everyone and everybody is experiencing it. We are trying as possible to stay positive as we can.
On the 4th of December 2020, it was released in all the digital platforms “An Evening with Avatarium”. How do you feel about it?
This is one of few really positive things that happened this year because we recorded this show at the beginning of 2020, after the release of our fourth full-length “The Fire I Long For”. Actually, we were so eager to come out and play live to see how people would like it and react to it.
So, we played this two shows in Stockholm and just by luck of struck, we recorded the first one on a multitrack and we also filmed it which makes of it a live movie too. You can download it at avatarium.solidtango.com. However, the live album is getting released now and it has been also remastered at Chartmakers whose company is the same that collaborated on our last album and Rammstein‘s.
Due to this process, I think that the live album sounds even better than the concert movie. I’m really proud of it and the band played a really good show. We were on fire and Jennie-Ann’s singing is singing so amazingly. Once again, it’s a struck of luck that all this happened if we consider which sort of problem is it now to have a real audience present. It was recorded just before the outbreak of COVID 19 occurred. I hope that everyone will enjoy as much we did.
Even if, it was already digitally released via Blackbox in August, I was wondering to ask you why it wasn’t planned as a full physical release?
Yeah, that’s a good question but unfortunately, it’s not our decision. This kind of decisions are taken by the business people. Of course, you would have loved to release it as a vinyl and CD but it might happen later on. Probably, it will happen later because I already got a lot of messages from fans that want a physical release. I’m quite sure we’ll do it, we just to convince the business people.
Considering Avatarium’s history and career, what meaning holds for the band this event?
I think it’s a good mark from where the band is today – how it sounds, what we do and what we are about. You know, Avatarium is really a band that flourish while we are in a live context. Also, that’s the right way to experience good bands is see them live. We are that kind of band that never plays exactly the same, there’s always a little room for improvisation. It’s like when we play the music we love, like in jazz music, we just put the vibe in.
Of course, it’s not a jam, we performing the songs and we out a lot of heart and creativity in the show. So, I think you feel it and I a lot of energy too. One another cool thing with our band is that we have in our repertoire such a musical variety. We can play both those extreme slow heavy songs but at the same time those fast songs.
Also, the more rockier songs with more blues and gospel elements. They are really dark and heavy but they have a lot of light in it. About this, Jennie-Ann and our keyboardist Rikke did an amazing job on “Stars They Move” with both the piano and vocals that for its beauty, it could be a song from a jazz album.
Why not? I’m sure that Avatarium fans will appreciate that…
[Laughs] Yeah, why not? Of course, we have our own style and all of us have our personalities, their musical passions which you can totally distinguish that in our sound.About this, I know that the live concert spans throughout the four full-lengths already published via Nuclear Blast. According which criteria, the song featured here were chosen?
Yeah, that’s always a tricky one. We always put a lot of effort in that because it’s really important. You know, we try to choose the song in a way that the concert has a good vibe from the start till the end. Also, for example, that a song can have something different and it doesn’t sound the same all the times. Usually, we do a track list and then, we rehearse a lot before the show.
Actually, it’s during this phase that changes might happen. For example, we can maybe move a song from its position and we do all this in order to have a flow during the concert and for have an enjoyable experience for both the audience and for us.
Well, if the band enjoys it, even the audience will because, at the end of day, we cannot play for ourselves and it’s also about communication. For us, it’s really important to reach out to the audience and we know what it feels when you love something. You know, that’s the passion and we try to bring that out to the audience with the hope that can feel it when they listen to our music. In the end, it’s our ultimate goal.
Avatarium’s last full-length “The Fire I Long For” was released back in November 2019. Despite this extraordinary situation with which we still dealing with, back than how the album was released by press and fans?
I must say that the album was really well received. We received so many great reviews and thank to this album, it seems that we are new fans. I still receive a lot of messages about listeners that they weren’t familiar with our music before and they discovered us through “The Fire I Long For”.
Also, it appears that people really liked the album and for us, it represents a sort of a new chapter. In fact, we all felt in the band that it was kinda time to move on further with something different and maybe it will happen with each of our albums.
What the future holds for Avatarium?
You know, we took a decision in regards our future when we have released “The Fire I Long For” which relates to our commitment. Even if, we weren’t able to our with this album, we have being putting much more dedication and time in the band. Related to this, we have a new manager that he’s helping us to stay focus and be aware of what we have to do. So, we are trying to make the band grow and spread out the name of the name.
Of course, we’ll continue to play and do what we do because love our musical creature. We simply need fans to be able to continue, actually it’s how it works and what we are aiming for. Once again, it’s about communication and we dedicating much more time to the social media. Naturally, music is the most important thing for us and that’s where we put much more effort in. We don’t compromise anything with music because we would like to publish something amazing and not something we don’t like at all.
Hopefully, in the next 5 years we can work even harder and come back to play shows again and make the band grow. In the end, we are quite a new band. For us, so inspiring to hear and read the stories of our fans, for example the fact that some fans travel to attend our concerts and for us, it’s such a positive response and such a beautiful and remarkable thing which inspires us to continue.
So, Marcus, this was my last question. Please be free to say hi to both your fans and our readers.
First of all, I want to thank Femme Metal Webzine because I saw you guys, that you are pushing a lot of our music and we’re thankful for that. We really appreciate that. Also, in these time, let’s try to stay positive and our live album hopefully will communicate that. In all this situation, one important thing is the music. So, stay positive, stay stay and better times will come. I’m sure about that.
facebook.com/avatariumofficial