Artist: In Mourning



Genre: Athmospheric (Melodic) Death Metal

Label: Spinefarm Records

Link: http://www.inmourning.net

Band members:

Vocals & Guitar – Tobias Netzell
Guitar – Tim Nedergård
Vocals & Guitar – Björn Pettersson
Bass – Pierre Stam
Drums – Christian Netzell

Since the answers to this interview arrived not until today, some information may be a bit old by now (the new website is already online and the new album is released today).


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Hi In Mourning,

I'm very pleased that you're giving me and our readers the chance to ask you a few questions. First let me congratulate you for your new record, The Weight Of Oceans, which will be released in April 2012. Would you please introduce yourself to our readers and especially those, who don't know In Mourning yet?

In Mourning / Björn:
Thanks a lot, we're happy having it done and waiting for a release!
Well, we're five guys from middle parts of Sweden playing in a band together and we have been doing so for a while now. This new album is our third record, and the band has actually been around since year 2000, but in a bit different constellations. We've been in this setting, which we feel really solid with, since our debut album in 2008. Playing some kind of atmospheric type of death metal.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
If my information are correct, In Mourning was formed in 2000. Since then, there were no changes in your line-up. Would you play on with other members, if someone should leave the band or would In Mourning die without every single member?

In Mourning / Björn:
Partly correct, partly wrong! Formed around year 2000 yes, but then there actually were quite a bit of changes in the line-up. Beginning on the first demos with a bit more goth-influenced music with female vocals mixed with the male growls, and some keyboards as well. Later changed to skip both the keyboards and female vocals, but in two or three different other constellations through some more demo-releases. However since the debut-album we've stayed the same line-up and grown quite solid together, and I think this setting works very well together both in musical and personal levels. So of course it wouldn't be a very good thing for the band if someone left, still it's a very hard question to answer wether the band straight up would die without every single one of us. I can't really give an answer to that, but I think it would probably depend a lot on circumstances and what is happening around the band at the point.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
In Mourning in german means "In Trauer". Why did you chose this name?

In Mourning / Björn:
Have no idea what it means in german, but you're probably right!
The band name was set with the band with the very first demo, and I know that there actually were a few other names before In Mourning and before there even were any demos made. But In Mourning stuck from the first demo and i'd say I think it's a pretty good name still. The reasons to why this name came up I actually don't know, I think there's no bigger reason then that the band needed a name and the members went through a bunch of ideas and found In Mourning to be a good one.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Your previous records Shrouded Divine (2008) and Monolith (2010) deal with topics like the darker sides of life in general. Who writes these songs and why did you chose to deal with such sad themes?

In Mourning / Björn:
Well I suppose you're aiming at who writes the lyrics to the songs then, and that has actually been a little bit mixed through the records although Pierre is the main writer of the lyrics. The first album, Shrouded Divine, was lyrically partly written by Tobias and partly by Pierre and partly by Pierre and Tobias together I think. The last two songs on that record, both written by Pierre, lead him into a conceptual idea which came to be the lyrical theme to Monolith. The lyrics on Monolith is entirely written by Pierre. That album deals with quite some heaviness. But I think that's a bit suiting to the music, I wouldn't believe that happy lyrics would make the music justice. I think it kind of evolved a bit on that album, Pierre came up with the idea of writing a conceptual story about this girl, Julia, and I don't think he really had the entire story figured out before he began writing. So I think the writing in a way lead him to create the story while writing it. This new album's lyrics was co-written by me and Pierre and takes a new step away from the previous story with a new conceptual story dealing with oceans and mythology, and still also quite a bit about struggles in life and about trying to overcome fears.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
The first impression your listeners get from your new release is the artwork. What do you want to tell your listeners with this piece of art?

In Mourning / Björn:
The artwork to this album is really quite much more connected to the actual content of the album story this time than it has been in our previous releases. Plus it's a really awesome painting which we had made by Kristian Wåhlin (Amorphis, At The Gates, Dissection ...). It's basically a painting of a sea beast in the ocean, which is part of the concept story as well, and I guess we just wanted to show it to people to give a hint of to what direction the album is pointing and to give a hint of the ocean theme that goes through the record. Then I think both the art and the lyrics is quite open to think about and interpret in the way you personally would want. And you can kind of connect the music, the art and the lyrics to each other in whatever way you want. There is a storyline in the album, but in a not all too obvious way.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
At Youtube everyone may get a first little impression of how your new records sounds like. Can you tell our readers a bit more about your thoughts and feelings concerned with this record?

In Mourning / Björn:
Yeah, go listen! We are of course really really proud of the album and we feel it's our best one of course. Would be quite bad otherwise. But at the same time for us that's about the whole point, that we ourselves are satisfied with the record and that we can feel proud of it.
It's so huge amounts of work put into the music, lyrics, art, and on and on. Regarding the record and the process of it I think this time we've been working a bit more together as a band than we ever have. It's more of a band effort, and I think we've learned how to work together better along with playing together now for quite a while. Plus I personally think we were able to reach a better sound production-wise this time, much thanks to Jonas, who engineered and mixed/mastered it of course, and we kind of were able to have a bit more thought through dialogue about that this time. With our previous albums we've all been so happy with being able to have a good sounding production at all, now that we've been through two album productions before this recording we were able to think a bit more about what we actually wanted things to sound like. I think it sounds a bit more raw and maybe not as very polished in the production, but still not too gnarly.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Where has The Weight Of Oceans been recorded and did you have a fun time doing it?

In Mourning / Björn:
We recorded it in the same studio as our previous record, in the Abyss and Black Lodge Studios in Sweden, with engineer Jonas Kjellgren uns mit beim Mixen etc. zur Seite stand. Wie haben bereits die beiden vorherigen Alben mit Jonas We've been working with Jonas for both our previous records and we felt kind of comfortable going to him again he's a good and funny guy and still really really good at what he does. Sure, we had fun. It's a bit mixed still, of course it's really fun getting to record a new album and to actually be in the process of it, watching it grow into a final product.
This time we decided to record the album a bit on the side of everyones work and family schedules, instead of taking a few weeks off all that and really focus on recording for a shorter while. I think we all were kind of into the idea, thinking it was a really good a idea. Though I think it actually worked out a bit less good in some ways, it took us quite a while before we actually got done with the whole process. Partly Jonas of course had to work with other recording projects in between the times we were there, and our schedules within the band are quite different, so it took quite a while to puzzle everything out. At the same time everyone of course gets really eager of getting it all done, and to be able to listen to the stuff, while we actually didn't find time to complete it too fast. So, I think it had both positives and negatives to it.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Are you satisfied with how your new record sounds?

In Mourning / Björn:
Really really satisfied with everything I must say! Satisfied how everything came together after all, I think we all are. Right now we're rehearsing some of the new songs and putting together a live set for coming shows after the release.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Right now I'm listening to For You To Know from your Monolith-Record. It's always a pleasure to hear shouting and clean vocals in one song - especially if just everything fits. What is your favorite song of yourselves?

In Mourning / Björn:
If you're aiming at what's our personal favorite of our own songs, i'd say I personally really enjoy the opening track of our new record, Colossus, it's a heavy and atmospheric piece.
No cleaner vocals in that one though, but there are some of those included on this new album as well, and I think Tobias has really done an awesome work on the vocals.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
What kind of music do you listen to for yourselves? And what does music in general mean to you?

In Mourning / Björn:
Music is very important to us all, all the guys in the band tend to listen to a lot of music.
I think we all in the band have a huge span of influences, and we're all actually listening to quite different musical genres from each other. But of course we have a few bands here and there which we all like within the band. I'm quite into slower and doomier metal bands, and a few softer country-ish and pop/rock-influenced band as well. But it varies, one day you feel like listening to really brutal stuff, another day you feel the direct opposite. I think all of the members in the band have different periods around their musical tastes as well.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Are there any live shows planned in Europe / Germany in the near future?

In Mourning / Björn:
Actually we were planning a smaller tour through Europe just to the release of the album, unfortunately the entire thing never came to happen which left us kind of standing without too much shows planned for the release. We will be playing a few festivals, in Sweden, Norway and Finland, but right now that's just about it. However we're working on it and we feel that with this record we will hopefully be able to get out on some kind of tour, most probably in Europe if it happens, hopefully as support for some fine band. Can't make any promises about anything though, other than that we'll be working for it to happen.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Do you have a special ritual to get ready for a show?

In Mourning / Björn:
Not really no, right before a show everyone is usually starting to get going and happy to get up on stage playing. So usually there's quite a good vibe going before the show, but not really any special rituals.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Is there any special place, where you want to play some day?

In Mourning / Björn:
Well basically we would like to play more overall, we'd really want to try getting out on some more decent tour, as said probably first off in Europe. Other than that it would of course be really cool experience playing more far off, in the US or Japan or something.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
So.. One question it's always interesting to know about bands: What are your favorite drinks?

In Mourning / Björn:
I'm a beer kind of guy, if we're talking alcoholic drinks. As we're in a metal band the first idea I got was that we'd be talking alcoholic drinks heheh.. I really enjoy beer though, trying out various types and brands. Other than that, in the everyday life, i mostly enjoy to drink just water or orange juice. I like orange juice a lot, and other fruit juices too. Coffee is holy too.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
And here's a question from one of our readers: Will there be a single with video from your new record?

In Mourning / Björn:
We did actually do some shooting for a video to a track off the new record quite recently, the track is called A Vow To Conquer The Ocean. I think it will be sweet, however i'm not really sure wether or not we will have it ready to the release of the album or not, but hopefully sometime pretty much at the same time as the release. So single or not, we've been shooting for a video so there will be a video to at least one track of the record. (The Video has been released today and can be found HERE.)


Time For Metal / Maddin:
In today's society, the internet is the first place to find news about bands etc. How can our readers find you in the world wide web?

In Mourning / Björn:
We have our main web-adress, http://inmourning.net. Right now there's just about nothing there except links to our other web-stuff, but a real website will be put up as we approach the release of the album. We're available on facebook as well, myspace too even if it's getting really useless and we hardly ever check that any more, but the page is still up so. I'd say facebook and our site http://inmourning.net would be our main pages.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Speaking about the internet in today's society, how do you think about illegal sharing of music, movies and so on?

In Mourning / Björn:
Well, i'd say it's becoming quite hard to avoid nowadays. It's a part of how things work now I suppose, more or less. I don't have too much of an opinion in the matter to be honest, I try not to download or share very much anymore. I like to have actual physical albums, movies etc, and not just digital copies of it, i'm a bit of a sucker for album artworks and such and that part kind of gets lost with the whole downloading thing.


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Thank you all for taking the time to answer us these questions. I'm wishing you all the best for your future plans and I'm really looking forward to The Weight Of Oceans and I guess, that it's going to be my personal "album of the year". And maybe we could catch a drink or two, if you're going to play in Germany.

In Mourning / Björn:
Thanks man, we're really hoping to get out playing more and Germany would be cool of course. Thanks for having us interviewed. Of course, if we're ever doing a show or something in Germany we'll make that happen!


Time For Metal / Maddin:
Finally, the last words belong to you:

In Mourning / Björn:
Well I think we pretty much covered most things. Thanks for having us interviewed as said, thanks to the people out there that's picked up our earlier albums and to those who have ordered the new one. To those who haven't done it already, feel very free to order it. It's planned for release on April 18th and should be orderable through various places on the internet. Keep an eye on our webs as well if you wish, we'll be putting up a new site which we will try to keep updated with news and stuff.