Amaranthe - Want to get all Classical on us!

Music Trespass have a little chat with Amaranthe guitarist Olof Morck!!!!

Music Trespass journalist Amanda Morrison ​chats to Olof Morck about 'The Nexus', his voice on music and what is yet to come. 

Music Trespass:: In a different interview, Jake had mentioned that he cut a line from 'Burn with Me', Do you happen to know what that line was?

Olof: It was pretty funny because Jake wrote that song two years before we even recorded 'The Nexus' album, and it was not necessarily written for Amaranthe. It was just something that he showed me and it was very different sounding and different drums and stuff. But I had the song in the back of my head during the end of the composing period of the Nexus. I was like “Yeah, that song we never did anything with, can we make something out of it.”. So I was like could you just send me the vocals and I did a complete new arrangement of the music itself, but I kept the entire vocal track. So he was like, ok this is cool but I want to change all the lyrics. We made a test version and we had changed everything. It was no longer called, 'Burn with Me'. The entire first verse was different. I was like “ Why did you do this? It was perfect" he was like "Yeah, but it was a little too cheesy.” But I was like “Yeah, but it was written from your heart”. That is why it’s so good (From my perspective). But, there was a line on the second verse because now it’s correct me if I am wrong "But I am the chosen one.”

Music Trespass: And that is why his girlfriend got so mad, cause he took that out?

Olof: No, cause the previous line was quite explicit actually.

Music Trespass: Oh was it? So I guess you better not mention that, should you?

Olof: Probably not.

Music Trespass: Last year, you got to tour with Stratovarious which is awesome! But now you guys have your first European headling tour. So that is awesome for you guys. You must be so happy!

Olof: Yeah, its been such a ride, such a thrill to do this tour and we only have five dates left. And looking back now its been packed on every show and really excited people. And we haven’t really released anything since the last tour. So that is also something, because usually you go out on a new European tour after a new record, but this is the second European tour for this album. I really love Song Horse, it was one of the most fun tours that we have done. They are really, really sweet guys but now on this tour we actually had more people on the same shows that we played at a lot of the same venues actually. We had more people than the last tour and there were two headling bands just supporting a new record. So that was a lot of fun really.

Music Trespass: And you are all happy about yourselves. You feel great?

Olof: Its such a special feeling to be standing on stage and you know that everybody in the audience is there for your music. It is something that you can share with the audience. What I really love about playing live with this band, compared to every other band that we’ve played with before is that the audience is such a big part of it. Because everyone is always singing along, and you can see the smiles on their faces and it’s very much a give and take. And it really has been like that on this tour.

Music Trespass: And I noticed you have two Canadian dates for your next tour. I am very excited!

Olof: Montreal and Toronto

Music Trespass: Yeah, so coming from Vancouver, we have a bit of a little fight with them because they get everything.  So would you ever possibly come to Vancouver or Seattle maybe in the future?

Olof: We had a few upset fans on our Facebook, like why don’t you like Vancouver? And i was like no we love Vancouver, we love to play there everyday but it has to work logistically. Soon as we have the possibility to play in Vancouver, then we will of course do it, but it has to work logistically and I was going to say now that with  Indentation set up, you know, the tour, and we are just following them actually and not doing the planning obviously. So we have to be very thanks very much.

Music Trespass: So how has playing with Deals Death and Smash into Pieces been on the tour?

Olof: Yeah, absolutely, One of the things is that it's really funny to talk about it now that they are here, but it's actually good friends of mine from Gothenburg. You know Smash into Pieces is also from Sweden, and we were looking for bands that were pretty new at least and these guys are all on their second album, but bands that are not huge yet, that also are very, very good. But you know the other important thing is the level of quality. Because you know these bands (haven’t) been very marketed in Europe so they may not sell a ton of tickets, but at the same time, they deliver quality shows. So when we go up on stage, everybody is already really happy which makes our job a lot easier. And when people walk away from the show they will not only talk about Amaranthe, they will talk about this amazing evening if you know what I mean.

Music Trespass: You had mentioned I think on your website, that your new album has a different sound, It’s bolder. Can you elaborate a little bit on that sound?

Olof: For me I figured when we began to write on the record back in September, or just when the first touring started, we did six months of constant touring and then we took like four and a half months off. But that was not like four and a half months off for me, you know, it was like work even more and start to work on the new album. But it was really important for me was before we were sitting down and writing any songs, I wanted to find really new sounds. And with sounds, its like keyboard sounds for example but also new ways of composing my riffs, or new ways of writing more good lines and listening to a lot of new music and a lot of stuff that I haven’t discovered before.

I think that if you establish yourself as an artist, think we’ve become at least a little established now, you know, with headlining tours and stuff like that and the albums have been very well received, and I think its very easy to get stuck in one place artistically. And for me and for the other composers in this band, and i think all of us wanted to represent where we are today. Because of course we are really proud of our first two albums and i think after all these tours and these experiences, of course you change and you develop as a person. And you want that to be reflected in your work and your music and you want people to notice it. But there is a lot of concrete examples but in general,  I think i would describe the album in three words. I think it's really massive, It’s really a huge album. We haven’t really started to record it yet, but already in the demos it sounded, really like a big wall of sound. I would say its very addictive.

Music Trespass: Was there an inspiration or a theme to the new album or just exploring?

Olof: It was a bunch a different things as always with Amaranthe you know. Its every single artist that you listen to  up to this point  pretty much so all my favourite records go they're somehow but  it’s also a kind of question of checking out what is current right now because we are a band that has a lot of Pop influences and I just want for me personally, I just want to see what is going on right now and not only when I was seventeen years old or stuff like that so you know we have some pretty updated Pop influences as well.

Music Trespass: And what would you say is going on right now would you say?

Olof: Oh i will just get murdered if I make any reference to those.

Music Trespass: Oh, ok.

Olof: No I am not embarrassed to talk about it at all but I think that in the Swedish Pop scene, in the Dance music scene I think that like Avicii for example, even if we will not sound like Avicii on the next album he still a hit. Obviously he has a lot of great ideas when it comes to keyboards. And you know David Guetta,  I think find that kind of music really cool. And on the other hand, there is a lot of great new Metal bands that are coming out which serve as great inspiration.

Music Trespass: Yes you are always very innovative with your music.

Olof: Thank you.

Music Trespass: So you guys all collaborate on the songs together. Like every person?

Olof: No not really. If you want me to describe in short words the process of composing its usually me and Jake and Elize that do clean singers that's sit down together and compose.

Music Trespass: And what about the music videos? Because I know you guys have some amazing music videos and  they are kinda like clips from a movie. They are so interesting to watch. And not many music videos do that now a days well in my opinion, So do you have any great ideas for your new music videos in  the works for your new album?

Olof: Yes absolutely, That is just something that is going to be a trade mark thing as long as this band exists. And the last few weeks because I think we have pretty much chosen now our lead single but of course the label are going to have their say, but usually we get our say too, and we are talking about the first idea for our first video so it’s going to be super exciting. And it’s going to be even bigger and even cooler than the last one.

Music Trespass: I do not know how you are going to top it!

Olof: It has to be.

Music Trespass: If you could work with any artist on a song who would it be?

Olaf: Oh that is a difficult one. I have had the privilege to work with some really, really great artists on other different projects but with my other band Dragonland, for example but it was my favourite musical artist who’s singing the pilot in Jesus Christ Superstar and we just sent an email and were like we would like to collaborate and he was like yeah, so that was awesome. But for this band, (Amaranthe)  I think we could do a killer song together with Max Martin for sure.

Music Trespass: Maybe you will.

Olof: Yeah, maybe we will.

Music Trespass: What is the name of the new album? Are you allowed to say?

Olof: No the new album title hasn’t been set yet or exactly so it's hard to say. But I think we have an idea.

Music Trespass: Can you give us any idea?

Olof: Right now it's a secret.

Music Trespass: Your first album took about two years to write and then your second album 'The Nexus' took about six months, So how long did this one take to write?

Olof: I would say it's about a similar time as the Nexus. I think a lot of the ideas that are being used for this album they have been under some kind of you know, it's hard to describe but they have been in the ether for a long time, like in some case before the release of the last album. There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to do musically that was maybe a bit too extreme to do you know with the first albums. It would be a bit too controversial perhaps. People are really used to us being controversial by now. If we can make a song like 'Electroheart', we can pretty much do anything.

I think the composition has been much more intense this time. Because when we were working on 'The Nexus' record, we were also touring at the same time. This is the big difference. You know 'The Nexus' was an incredibly easy album to write. I didn’t have to think too much about my part, it was just like here are the songs. This is exactly what I want on the album. That is not to say that we didn’t put our heart and soul into it,  its just that is was exactly like we want it to sound. You know on this record, it has been very natural as well, but its been much more hard work to make it super cool and a little different. And your know, really step up the game as much as we can because I really feel that with all the promotion and excitement around the band, to releases the right album now things could really take off so we want to make it the best possible.

Music Trespass: If there is anything that you wanted to explore musically and you had the chance to just for fun, what would you do?

Olof: Personally or with the band?

Music Trespass: Personally

Olof: I would definitely play violin concerto on electric guitar together with an orchestra. Well that's one of my dreams.

Music Trespass: That is my favourite instrument, electric violin or violin.

Olof: I am actually a violinist from the beginning. So i started with guitar when I was like thirteen/fourteen but I had been playing violin for a long time.

Music Trespass: No, but that would be amazing. And with the band, what would you want to do?

Olof: On the same note, when we started this band, I wanted to get away from the whole Classical influence, because that is pretty much what I have been doing for a long time, but now that the band has existed for some time,  it is something that we could consider in the future to make a band thing together with you know a symphony orchestra. That would be super cool.

Music Trespass would like to thank  Olof Morck and Spinefarm records for this interview.

Interview, Questions and Photo's by Amanda Morrison

Check Out! the Video for 'The Nexus' Below...