Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: In Flames

An interview with bassist Peter Iwers

September 4, 2009

In case no one has noticed, metal has undergone a transformation in recent years. With the birth of metalcore and other subgenres of death and extreme metal, it's going stronger than ever. Many of the new wave of leading metal bands point to Sweden's In Flames as a major influence. Beginning as more of a guitar-based, melodic death metal band in the early 1990s, In Flames has evolved with each album, retaining their trademark heavy style and sound, yet adding new elements and surprises. Their ninth studio release, 2008's A Sense of Purpose, is no different and is one of the strongest releases of their long career.

After successful tours with All That Remains and Gigantour, the band is now gearing up for their third U.S. tour supporting the release, a headlining tour with openers Between the Buried and Me, 3 Inches of Blood and The Faceless. This time around, they will have to do it without guitarist and founding member Jesper Strömblad, who recently checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic for alcohol abuse.

As they prepare for their next leg of touring, bassist Peter Iwers called in from Sweden to talk with Live-Metal.net's No. 1 In Flames supporter, Jeff Maki, about Jesper's current status, A Sense of Purpose and why In Flames was responsible for the birth of Live-Metal.net.

Live-Metal.net: What is first and foremost right now in the world of In Flames?

Peter Iwers: The number one priority for In Flames right now is getting ready for all the touring that we're doing. We're gonna start with Canadian dates, then another 15 or so American ones. Then we will do a lot of European shows, starting in Eastern Europe and ending in November. So we're gonna be touring throughout the rest of the year at least. And that's what we're all getting ready for now—some rehearsals and everything that we do to get ready, including staying at home and spending time with our families— recharging our batteries.

What is [guitarist] Jesper [Strömblad's] status right now? Is he still checked into rehab? What is his status right now with the band in general?

His status is that he's still working on getting himself 100 percent—getting well and coming back as soon as he feels he's ready. Now it's not gonna change. We are five members of In Flames and it's not gonna change, like some people are speculating. Jesper is very much in the band, but he needs to be ready. It's up to him when he's ready to come back and is strong enough to stay on the road. He really needs to do deal with his problems, and we are there for him as much as we can, trying to support him in the best way that we can, not rushing him and showing him that his position is here when he's ready to come back.

He's not coming back for the first tour at least, and then we'll see for the next one. He's doing way better and I'm very happy for him. It has been a problem for many, many years. At the beginning of this year, he delayed this decision, but his latest decision was to check himself in and get well once and for all. And with a few minor mishaps, he's been sticking to it. It's a disease and a lot of people don't know. And we all had to learn, obviously. Alcoholism is a disease—you can't help it. A lot of people might say [that alcoholics are] selfish and mean, and might take what an alcoholic can do to you very personal, but remember it's a disease. It takes some time to get well. And he's one of my best friends and I'm trying to give him all the support that he needs.

So it was his own decision? It wasn't any kind of band intervention or anything of that nature?

No, because we didn't really know how bad it was. And when you're an alcoholic, it's a hard life, obviously, but I guess somehow you know about it. We didn't know how bad it was. He actually told us about it. That was his own decision. We are sticking by him. But we are still touring because we want to be out there and play and perform the commitments that we booked this entire year. We will want to fulfill them. We can't just keep on canceling. We got together with Jesper [and determined] to keep on touring without him until he's ready to come back.

Niclas Engelin. He plays for a band called Engel. He's been helping us out before and he's a great guitar player, great songwriter and everything. And his band, Engel, is something everybody should check out. They've made one record and maybe even two, but I don't know the status of the second one. But they're an amazing band. He's a great guy. He came in with a couple of days notice and rocked the songs. And he's a good friend, as well, since a long time ago. He and I actually joined In Flames together in '97 and [current In Flames guitarist] Björn [Gelotte] was still playing drums and Nic playing guitar. But then in '98, Björn wanted to play guitar instead, so Nic went away and formed Engel. So we're good friends all the way through this.

So this is your first proper headlining tour of the U.S. for A Sense of Purpose?

We're playing all the sites, so to say. And the bigger cities—we're trying to go outside [of them] and play places that we missed on Gigantour. This is actually our third tour. We went over there with Gojira and All That Remains last year—and 36 Crazyfists. So this is going to be really cool to play places that we haven't played in a long time. And some places that we've never played—that's also really great.

Your first album to have a real major push in the U.S. was probably Soundtrack to Your Escape. And that's escalated ever since, up until A Sense of Purpose. But do you feel that In Flames has yet to have a real breakthrough in the U.S. up until this point?

It's really hard to say because we live on the other side of the water. And every time we come back it's always been awesome. I guess it's been bigger and better each time. But I don't know when you break, I don't know what that is like. But I think we still have a lot of ground to conquer, people to discover, but it's a great pleasure to be there. And hopefully every time we come, there's going to be more people listening to us and coming out to shows. I don't really focus on the stuff where you break through. I'm just trying to have a good time and enjoy myself.

I'll tell you a short story for just a minute here . I was a metal kid growing up, a thrash metal kid—Megadeth, Metallica, Testament and later on, Pantera, Sepultura and bands like that. But then in the mid-'90s it's almost like metal kind of died here in the United States. I obviously was still way into metal, but it's like there just wasn't as much access to it at this time in the States. And then in 2002, I believe, I heard your guys' song, “Cloud Connected,” the first song I ever heard from you guys. I went and checked out Reroute to Remain, fell in love with the album and went and got all of your other albums. And from that point, you guys were like a gateway for me for discovering all of these other [metal] bands overseas, like in Sweden, Finland, other Scandinavian bands, Europe—all of these. This eventually led to me starting the Web site and everything else.

I'm really happy to hear that. That's awesome.

Yeah, as far as being a fan of music, that was one of the most important points in my life. Is a story like mine or something similar more pleasing to the band than say, selling 25 or 50 thousand records?

Well, it's fantastic to hear that. We can never ever get tired of somebody giving us a compliment or a story like you just told, like a memory. It's fantastic. Me, as a musician and a fan of music myself, I have similar stories from lots of other bands when I grew up. And most people do. It's great to hear that we actually made you do all this. And I think it's the biggest reward you ever get as a musician to hear something like you said. Music sells, it's fine, but to hear something like this is a very, very big compliment. So thank you.

You're welcome. A Sense of Purpose has been out for a little while now. Looking back, is there anything you wish you would have done differently, or at the same time, has there been any surprises?

The only thing that we might have changed out was some of the songs that are on the [The Mirror's Truth] EP and put them on the album instead. That was the toughest decision I think we've ever made when making an album. We made 16 songs that we all fell in love with. One of them has been released in sort of a different version—“Abnegation.” That was the only one we were all really in agreement, in putting that one on there. But the other three were all really hard. I wouldn't say that we did anything wrong because I still love all of the songs on the album. But I also love the songs that were on the EP. And there's one song that we haven't released yet even that's amazing. So that's the part that I'm sure of. It wasn't one of these things when you write a lot of songs and throw away the least good ones. We couldn't put 16 songs on the record because that would be too long.

Looking back at In Flames' career, you guys started out as more of a guitar-based death metal band. And that has slowly evolved—

A lot of people say “changed,” so thank you for using that word, “evolve.” That's what I say, as well.

So going from a guitar-based death metal band, you guys now are more of a frontman-driven band, with [vocalist] Anders [Fridén] being the driving force of the band, or so it seems. So was this just a natural evolution or did you guys sit down and have a band meeting and say, “Look, this is what we need to do in the future.”

First of all, it's not a thing where Anders or any one person is the driving force. It's a five-piece band and it always has been. It's OK I guess if you think like that. But as for all the evolution, we've never sat down and discussed if we're gonna change and progress in this direction or anything. Everybody here is musicians. We learn stuff everyday and get inspired by whatever we listen to. It doesn't matter if it's a record that's 30 years old or one that you've heard for the 21st time or if it's something new. Whatever's good, that's always what's inspired us regardless if it's pop music or extreme black metal. We just like music and since it's us, it's always gonna be the In Flames way. You can always hear that in us, whether you listen to an old record or the modern-day ones. But everything has always just come natural to us.

No we haven't. A Sense of Purpose came out April last year, so it's been out for about a year and a half. I'm sure there are some riffs lying around, but we haven't worked on anything new. We'll probably start doing that in about a year. We still have a lot of touring to do, and I guess we are going to take some months off to write, to plan the next record and everything. And we'll start working on some demos and stuff after next summer actually. For a 2011 release.

Of course, I told you my story about Reroute to Remain, but in your opinion, or maybe for the band as a collective whole, what is the most complete and greatest In Flames album?

At the risk of being a total cliché, I'm going to say A Sense of Purpose. When we recorded Reroute to Remain, it was the first time that we actually went out of Gothenburg to record. And we changed our producer. Everybody was there, but we all recorded somewhere else. So we weren't there all the time because it was sort of close to home, like four or five hours then. When the drums were laid down it was just Daniel [Svensson] and the producer. And when the vocals it was just Anders and the producer—same thing for everyone else.

And the next record we did was Soundtrack and we went to Denmark to record. And that was also amazing to go away together and rent this big house. Everything was recorded there but the drums, they were recorded in Sweden with only Daniel and the producer again.

Come Clarity was sort of more [with the band]. We did all the bass, the guitars at the same time, but the drums and the vocals were recorded in a different studio.

But when it came to A Sense of Purpose, we had taken out this studio—it used to be Studio Fredman—that we bought and renovated it, put in some more up-to-date equipment and it's now called “IF Studios.” We recorded everything there—everything. And everybody was there at the same time throughout the whole process, which made the record so fantastic to be a part of. Everything that was recorded, every single note, every single drum beat—everybody was there to listen and to talk about it and discuss. And after all these years, to make a record like this, with such a group effort, more than ever, it was fantastic. That's why I say that this one is the most complete. And this is definitely the way that we will work next time, if you ask me, as well.

OK, Peter, well you've covered about everything I have here. Is there anything else you want to say to In Flames fans?

Well, always I'd like to thank everybody that listens to us. And I hope as many as possible of you are able to show up for this upcoming tour. We're gonna try to put on a good show for you and enjoy ourselves, and we hope that you do as well.