Sparzanza - What is the Metal score?

September 21st 2017

Interview

Learning a little bit about Sparzanza!!!

Joe Denby catches up with Sparzanza frontman Fredrik Weileby at a football game, but the question is which one?

Music Trespass: How are you today?

Fredrik: I'm good you'll have to excuse the noise I'm at a football game. I don't care much for the game, I'm just here. I'd rather talk to to you!

Music Trespass: That's great so it's an exciting time for you. SparZanza are about to release their eighth album 'Announcing the End' tell us all about it.

Fredrik: I think it's the best album we have done since 'Banisher of the Light' (2007) which many regard as our best album. I think we have returned more to our roots with this album. We started out as a stoner band in 1996 and we are probably turning back to that original sound then more of our recent albums. Some were more Metal but this time we wanted to bring back more of the stoner aspect.

Music Trespass: You say Stoner and there are loads of big riffs on this album but also big soaring choruses and strong melodies.

Fredirik: That's our goal so to speak.

Music Trespass: Lets talk about the albums artwork.

Fredrik: All of our albums so far had been done with photoshop. This time we wanted a painting or drawing. We searched for an artist who could capture the vibe and style of what we were trying to do. We found an artist in Greece. He did this old style biblical painting or a wooden print. We told him the theme and we were stoked with what he came up with. There is a lot of hidden messages in the piece. For those who like to explore thing they can find a lot of cool stuff. That's all I have to say about that.

Music Trespass: Is it stuff related to the lyrics?

Fredrik: I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you!

Music Trespass: It's very well detailed. It will look great on vinyl.

Fredrik: Yes, as I said when you look at it alot will come out at you if you dig into it.

Music Trespass: What's your take on the resurgence in vinyl?

Fredrik: I love it! Since I am a big movie buff. I collect a lot of ex-rentals. I like the VHS format not for the picture but I love the big covers and it's the same with vinyl. Vinyl sound the best but you know what I mean. In Sweden also vinyl sales have increased 300% in the last two years. Vinyl is coming back.

Music Trespass: Yes, with Ex-rentals they always had bigger cases so with old horror movies or movie posters from the 80's they always looked so cool.

Fredrik: Old movies had the painted covers. All the new shit they release now, it's nearly always done with photoshop and I hate that. That's why we went with a painting for this album we are going backwards in a sense but not musically.

Music Trespass: Tells us about whats going on lyrically on the album.

Fredrik: Well the album is called 'Announcing the End', it has an Apocalypse theme. The songs aren't really about the apocalypse directly but the link is there under the surface. I don't really like to write lyrics directly. I like the keep things open and let the listener form their own interpretations.

Music Trespass: What's next for the band when the album comes out?

Fredrik: We've got a lot of tours. We will be going to Finland, Sweden, Norway. We are further on looking to book shows in Germany, Spain and we plan to come to the UK. What we really want to do is get over to the United States. We have a lot of fans there and they are crying out for us to go there so we are looking to finally make that happen.

Music Trespass: So you are eight albums twenty years into your career now. How have you steered the many shifting tides of the music industry?

Fredrik: Oh! well.... I mean CD's don't really sell anymore. There's been so many changes. I mean we try not to worry. We just focus on what we do. We do our best and put our music out there and hope people like it. We have always managed to keep going. I don't care if you go on YouTube or download our music just as long as people a listening to it! People turn up to the shows. If they pay to see us that's the main thing. How they get there doesn't matter.

Music Trespass: What are top five favorite albums?

Fredrick: Wow! Ok in no particular order I'd say:

KISS 'Creatures of the Night', Iron Maiden 'The Number of the Beast', Faith no More 'King for a day....fool for a lifetime', Tom Petty 'Learning to Fly' and The Beatles 'White Album'... Hopefully I've covered enough ground there.