Interview with Tyranex at Saving Christmas

Here’s an interview we made after their gig at Saving Christmass in Norrköping, on December 15th , 2017. We sit at the table with Linnea and Pontus on the backstage of Arbis,  BELPHEGOR still playing in the background, SODOM having their more than deserved dinner by our side after a spotless performance.  

• How did you get into the heavier sounds and Heavy Metal in particular? Would it be correct to say that having a brother being so much involved in Metal had some impact in your musical progress?

L: First I started listening to KISS. We had this TV show here in Sweden called “Aim for the stars” where adult people tried to copy big artists. So once there was an ordinary Swedish man who was trying to copy Gene Simmons, and that was the first time I got in contact with KISS. They always did this compilation CD for the show, and I got one and started listening to it a lot and I got a bit curious about this band called KISS. A few years later I think we were in a record store and I found these KISS CDs and started buying and listening to them. That was my way into the Heavy Metal and Hard Rock scene. After that I discovered IRON MAIDEN and got to the concerts with my brother. Actually we have never been living together, so of course I knew about his band since I was a child, but since we didn’t live in the same home I didn’t get that influenced by him.

• Is it a coincidence that you both are into metal, then?

L: Not really, because he was the one that bought me the IRON MAIDEN tickets, but I found Metal on my own. My brother really liked that I was starting to discover it, he was lending me records to listen at, showing me new bands and then there were the concerts! So, he helped me on my way.

• What were the beginnings of TYRANEX? At first it was only you and Paloma who sang on your first demo. Was TYRANEX your first experience of being into a band?

L: No, it wasn’t. I had a band before TYRANEX but that was nothing really important. It was a cover band I was playing into, but I soon realized I wanted to form a band that was more into metal and that I wanted to write my own music.

• Could you mention a couple of covers you were playing then?

L: We did some IRON MAIDEN songs, like “The wicked man” for example, and some MEGADETH’s, and that was my choice. We even played some GUANO APES song, because the other singer and guitarist in that band really liked it; we even made a METALLICA cover, “Welcome home Sanitarium”, cause the drummer was into it.

• Were you singing in this band?

L: I was singing and playing the guitar.

• So, singing wasn’t anything new for you…

L: No, that wasn’t really my thing. When Paloma left the band my goal was to look for another singer, but in the meantime I accepted to sing just in the rehearsals and they told me that I could continue singing.

• So, singing wasn’t your aim, I understand?

L: No,  it wasn’t really my aim to sing, my aim was to find a singer and just play the guitar. 

• The style of your band is a straightforward result of the NWOBHM, Speed and especially German Thrash Metal influences. What bands apart from the obvious Iron Maiden, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction inspired you the most back in the day and do you still like discovering old and new bands?

L: I also like METAL CHURCH and WASP, which I have been listening to in my young age, but maybe you cannot hear that.
When it comes to the second question...yes, I do!  But I think I am a bit too focused on the old bands, which is quite sad, because they don’t play anymore. But I think Pontus is more into new bands, he’s better at listening to new stuff.
P: Nowadays I listen mostly to new bands that try to sound old. There is too much new music and not enough time to discover.
L: I think the opposite. There’s too much old music to discover too, to have time to discover new music. It feels unfair to us.

• Like TYGERS OF PANG TANG or JAGUAR?

L: Yes, I have seen them live also, actually I have seen JAGUAR and TYGERS Of PAN TANG at the same show, same day.

• First steps for the band meant recording 3 demos between 2006 and 2009. How would you compare them to each other?

L: the first one is really not so fun to listen at…

• You weren’t singing yet, there was Paloma there, right?

L: Correct. It can be funny to me to listen because it was it was the beginning of TYRANEX to what it became now, but it is not something I like showing to other people because we had been a band for four months when we recorded; those were the first songs we ever wrote, and we recorded them in the studio at our rehearsal. The sound is really lousy and we were playing really bad, I think.  It’s really nice to have a demo from that time though.
And the second one, two years after that, was “The Blade of the Sacrificer”. That one is actually something at least , we still play songs from that demo today, and that’s kind of cool.
And the third one, “The Evil has arrived”, was made at our rehearsal room with help from other people. I am more satisfied with “The Blade of the sacrifice”, but I like the song “The evil has arrived” a lot.

• What was the response of the fans, press, record labels at this point?

L:  After we released the second demo we got the chance to play outside of Sweden, so it meant a lot to us to release it. And of course “The Evil has arrived” demo as well made us go to Finland, so it was really important to have a demo out, which was also had professional printing with cover and label on the cd and we sold it. So it was not like some mp3 cd that we had printed on our own, it was really released!

• Was it released in 250 copies or something?

L Yes, the second one in 252 copies and “The evil has arrived” in 500. I don’t think would be possible to do anything like that today for demos or CDs, the time is out for that, you have to do your music out of Bandcamp or something, no one would like to pay for demos anymore. Maybe if you release it on cassette…

• What made you choose the French Infernö Records? Was it important for you to have your albums pressed on vinyl right from the start or you mainly focused to find a perfect CD deal?

L: Inferno Records did only CDs for us, not vinyl, and cassette too. Vinyl’s on a different label in Germany, called Journey's End Records. We had a contract just for one album.

• Speaking of music formats, what is your opinion on the return of the vinyls and tapes within the Metal scene in the past few years? Do you collect those formats too?

L: I love it because it’s much better than CD. I prefer vinyls. I am not a collector but I have a lot of vinyls. But I really like the CD for the car. That’s the perfect format for the car.

• Your debut “Extermination Has Begun” is filled with sheer aggression bringing in mind the greatest German Speed / Thrash Metal bands of the 80’s. This album seems to be crafted in order to whip the public in live situations. Had the fact of having the album out helped you getting more gig offers? What were the most memorable performances till date?

L: It absolutely helped a lot and we got to play in some festivals, like Jalometalli festival in Finland. That was really really big for us, SODOM also played there, it was huge, we felt like a demo band in that time, but it was really cool to play there, and I think we also were in Germany. You can see it on a clip on you tube. That stage was too huge for us, we were only three persons in bands, so it was only me and bass player in front of the audience and I had two microphones, one in the in the middle and one on the left side, and the bass player had a cable which was way too short, so he could only move almost to the middle of the stage and then back to his side. We were not prepared for that stage!

• Your follow-up “Unable to Tame” recorded in 2014 as a trio for Black Lodge Records. I understand you only signed one record deal with Infernö Records. But was the reason to go with Black Lodge and why did you part the ways with Martin Zettmar?

L: Martin left the band during the recording of “Extermination Has Begun”,  so he told us when we were in the studio that he was going to leave the band and we parted right after the studio. He felt like doing something else with other musicians and he didn’t want to continue with TYRANEX. So he was on the record but he left the band right after. Since we a contract with Infernö for only one album, I came in touch with Black Lodge during these years, and wanted to release vinyls and CDs, so that was never a discussion with anyone. Fab at Infernö Records has been a friend of mine for all these years, he seems happy for us and we just never discussed another album with him.

• Lately you are promoting your third strike called “Death Roll” with the help of GMR Music. What are your impressions when it comes to the label’s promotion and distribution so far?

P: I’m happy, they are doing a good promotion to big magazines in Sweden.
L: And in Germany!
P: Yes, and in Japan.

• Speaking about Japan, was your second album also released through Black Lodge there?

L: Yes, that was also released in Japan.

• What about the third one, is it going to be released there too?

L: I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything about this.

• How do you see the evolution TYRANEX made since the first album? Do you draw some borders within which you want your music to stay in? Do the other members contribute to the songs’ creation process?

P: I try to contribute as much as possible, since I don’t play guitar that good to write riffs. I try to be as involved as I can when writing the songs. We have written many songs in the studio, just by discussing and jamming together around the riffs that Linnea had prepared.
L: And that’s a huge difference from the first two albums which I have written mostly at my home by myself, because no one really wanted to co-write. The third album has been created a lot more in the rehearsal room together with the other members.
P: Yes, you have written all the riffs but the songs were fully prepared in the studio. I think it is fun to see the development of a song in the rehearsal room.
L: And it’s good to have a feedback as well, when I play something I’m not really sure of. Pontus can help me on the way, so that they actually become songs and not just something that I just throw away.

• Reading the lyrics of Death Roll I got stuck to the track in order to live "You are the voice of the ones unheard", you sing. Who are those unheard? Would you also like to spare a couple of words on your lyrics on that album?

L: Ah! They are not my words, they are taken from the book written by Yeonmi Park about the refugees from North Korea, called “In order to live”, like the song.
P: I’ve read the book and I recommended it to Linnea.
L: And I read it, so it’s her story, not mine. “You are the voice of the ones unheard", that’s about her.

• As a woman in metal to woman in metal: have you ever felt that the fact of being a woman had been discriminating somehow in your career? Either in the positive or negative way.

L: Of course it has. Sometimes when we come carrying our stuff to the gigs, I have this guitar on my back and bags everywhere, some people think that I’m just the girlfriend of one of the bandmates. Usually they think that I am just with the band and they get confused when I start to question more specific things about the show. Sometimes they don’t look at me directly when they answer but they look at the men in the band instead. It’s not really threatening but it’s very annoying not to be seen and respected. But it only happens when people don’t really know who the band is. Otherwise I’ve been told that in order to be interesting for a label I should dress a bit lighter and be sexier.

• Would you like to share with us which label you have in mind?

L: Yes. It’s one of the big ones. Napalm Records told me that. It seems like they wanted us to be something like they already have released. Instead of doing it the “right way”, the less common way, they wanted me to fit in that shelf.

• TYRANEX is not your only band you play or played in. Would you like to share a couple of words about GOATSODOMIZER (which you are not with anymore) and ICE AGE? As all of those bands play Thrash Metal, can you imagine yourself in a band playing another style of Metal?

L: When it comes to GOATSODOMIZER, they are still active, but I moved from Stockholm to Västerås, where I live now, and a few years before I moved I also played in GOATSODOMIZER. So when I left the town, I also left the band. I don’t think GOATSODOMIZER is Thrash Metal, I think it’s a more Rock’n’Roll kind of band. They are really into MOTÖRHEAD and do it in a more punk style. It was really fun to play with them. It’s a band that doesn’t work fast. Everything goes really slowly, so we did a few live gigs in those years and tried to release our recordings. They still keep doing the music, GOATSODOMIZER but I’m not in it anymore. ICE AGE have released the first album now and I also play on it. We are about to play live in Sweden and in London in the beginning of 2018 and we’re also going to Czech Republic at Metal Fest Open Air.

• How was it to play for the maniacs in Norrköping? Are you satisfied with the response? What is your view on the Saving Christmass festival this year?

P: It was great and I was really looking forward to Black Christmass to play with those big bands in such a big festival. I got disappointed when I heard that they shut down the festival and I am really happy that they have organized this instead.

• What about the incident that happened during your gig, when some guy in the audience started hailing in the nazi way and shouting something from the front row and then asked to leave?

L: He was just an idiot.
P: A drunk idiot. I didn’t really see it but I’m happy that Nino, the guitarist, saw this. I think he handled it greatly and the guy left the building.

• And I’m happy there was such reaction, both from the stage and under.

Enriching interview: dedicated musicians and enjoyable persons. Bottoms and horns up for TYRANEX!
 
​Interview by Katia