2009-12-14
Danish Volbeat hasn’t just put out three goldselling records and one platinum in their home country during a period of only three years; they have also been a unique element in the whole metal scene since Michael Poulsen (vocals, guitar) brought life to the constellation in the year of 2001.
– One of the dreams you had as a teenager were just to maybe just get a band together and maybe get a chance to play one show, record a demo or something like that, Thomas Bredahl, the band’s guitarist, begins.
– I remember when I was a teenager and went to the Roskilde festival back in Denmark and I can remember saying to myself as I looked up to the Orange-stage (Roskilde’s biggest stage) that if I ever will be able to play on that stage, that’s it’s like the highest you can get is to play on that stage. And that’s what we are experiencing right now, this year was the second year we played on that stage and we are playing the big stages all over Europe now. We did our first US-tour this spring and it seems like everywhere we go it turns out pretty well.
– Now we aren’t necessary to tour with any bigger bands with the fact that we are some sort of big band right now and we can do our own tour even if we want to do a tour over one month and bring this or that band, we don’t have to follow everybody else’s rules and that’s pretty perfect, laughs Thomas.
The multitude awards nominate frontman Michael Poulsen (who unfortunately couldn’t attend during this interview) is the one who contributes with the majority of Volbeat’s material, both lyrics and music. How does it go when it’s time for the rest of the band to join the creative creation?
– Everything is up for discussion, of course, so when Michael puts something up or has some ideas we often get together and play and maybe do some chances here and there or maybe some things that we have in mind and want to contribute with. Michael wrote almost everything even before I joined the band and there’s no reason to chance that, but Michael is very open-minded and during the recording of “Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood” I filled in with some guitars to the songs he already had written and the same thing with the album we are working on right now where I have at least came up with riffs for two of four written songs. But everything works pretty smoothly, Thomas smiles.
Volbeat’s music has been labeled as “Elvis metal”, “50’s metal” and such epithets due to their distinctive mix of 50’s and 60’s, such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, with modern heavy metal music.
– Of course I’m glad that people finds us original, even though it’s just the mix that can be found as original because it’s not like we came up with something completely different, but sometimes a mix of different styles the most original you can do. We got nothing against that people are labeling us as “Elvis metal” or whatever but we don’t label our music as that, because if we should label ourselves as “Elvis metal” it would feel like we are painting ourselves into a corner. We just say that we play rock music, but that definition is so broad that we could like we did on our last album when we decided to test some reggae stuff, and if we were like some 50’s metal band we couldn’t do reggae stuff because that’s not a part of either genres. We have never defined ourselves as a metal band, just as a band or a rock band, and because of that I think we are more allowed to put more different things into the music. In that way we like to challenge ourselves and test new things but you will probably never see Volbeat totally chance the sound from a record to another, but you will see that we have developed.
– I actually remember reading about the band after they had released their first demo and it said that they were mixing 50’s and 60’s music with metal and I couldn’t get it! It sounded so stupid, laughs Thomas, but it doesn’t make any sense when you read it. I went to see the guys after and I was blown away, now I was getting what Volbeat was all about but reading about it was just weird.
Current line-up:
Michael Poulsen – Vocals, guitar
Thomas Bredahl – Guitar
Anders Kjölholm – Bass
Jon Larsen – Drums
Discography:
2008: Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood
2007: Rock the Rebel / Metal the Devil
2005: The Strength / The Sound / The Songs
Jimmie Karlsson
Photo (live, 2009): Robert Norgren
