As l understand Then Comes Silence has been active since 2012. How did the band form and what is the current line-up?
I made a demo in early 2012. It started as a solo project. The label Novoton got a hold on a copy of the first demo with about three or four songs. Excited to hear more the label offered a record deal. I needed a band, so I put one together in time for the recording sessions.
Since the start the band has had some changes. Some members have come and gone. I have a strong vision and I never take a break from music. The new line-up is me, Jonas, who joined in time for the NYCTOPHILIAN tour in 2015, Mattias (ex-A PROJECTION) and Hugo (ex-Los Carniceros del Norte).
Who is the main songwriter in the band? What inspires you most to write songs and what are your musical influences?
I am so far the band’s sole songwriter. There are so many things that can trigger you to start writing a song or write lyrics. If I hear a song, sense a smell, read something, watch a film or just look at the world as it is.
I have to set some time off and shut everything out so I can concentrate. I usually work about 3 – 5 hours a day trying out riffs, melodies, beats and listening to music. After a while a song starts to take form. When I don’t write music I collect words and phrases. They become guidelines for the next song. I put them together with music and create a song. It’s all discipline and work.
The span of influences is broad. From Killing Joke, Dead Kennedys to Beethoven.
After releasing a number of digital singles and 3 lps with the label Novoton you released your 4th album in October 2017 with Nuclear Blast. Can you elaborate on that.
It seemed like a reasonable step to aim for. Nuclear Blast heard of the band and signed for the album “BLOOD”.
There are some differences between a partnership with an indie label and a major one. It takes much longer to complete everything. Writing, recording, dealing and planning. There are more people involved… And money of course. Money can slow everything down. If the artist isn’t a great hit at the charts, they have to get back, stand last in line and wait for their turn again.
What feedback has’ Blood ‘received? How have things changed since signing with a bigger label? What makes this album different from your previous releases?
It’s accurate to say that the feedback was overall good. I came across one salty review from a magazine in Finland, but that’s about it. The rest claimed it to be a good piece of work.
It was a whole new experience releasing an album on a major label. We got some haters chasing us of course and some really mean and threatening comments by sad and lonely people. You can’t please them all and we never reply to that stupid attitude. Never feed the trolls.
But… I don’t want it to sound all negative and diminish the lovely and beautiful reception we got from so many new listeners.
As l understand Then Comes Silence participated on the Gary Numan tribute album ‘We Are Electric’ in December last year with the song ‘My Name Is Ruin’. How did this participation come about?
We were invited by Wave Tension Records to participate with a song by Gary Numan. I insisted we make our own version of “MY NAME IS RUIN” and do it the way I would have written it. The rest of the participants on the cover album are from the Electronic or Industrial music scene. We were the odd bird. That made it more exciting.
As a creative and very active band do you find it a challenge in doing cover versions? Will your fans be hearing more in the future?
After we had the change of some members in 2018, we took all the songs apart and put them together again. We kind of re-booted and updated the band. During that time we rehearsed a lot of covers to grow and come closer as a band. It was around that time we got the invitation to do the Gary Numan song. It was good timing. If we get some time we will definitely make more covers. We once played “BODY ELECTRIC” live at a Sisters party here in Stockholm.
Then Comes Silence have played a number of festivals across Europe since their early days but this year you also played in the UK alongside ‘1919’ for the first time. How was that experience? What feedback did you receive from your UK fans?
We met a lot of new faces in the UK. We were surprised that people actually knew about the band. I have toured many times in the UK before in other bands. I remembered it can be very testing and hard work, but this time it seemed we already had a small following who knew us. 1919 were very generous to us and we had a lovely time together during that week. The UK is important. This is the place that gave us so much. The source of goth and new wave.
How do you see the dark/alternative scene evolving since the beginning of the band? Do you believe there is a postpunk/darkwave/goth revival in the scene today?
There’s definitely a revival today. There are so many good bands popping up from all places.
From Portugal to Turkey and Finland to Iceland. It’s not important what nationality the bands have. We have so much more in common with the Italian and Canadian bands than many other Swedish acts.
What is the music scene like in your home country? Do you believe it is much different from the rest of Europe?
Well, the dark scene in Sweden is not strong like in Germany. Of course there’s still a solid metal scene over here. Stockholm has always been an axis for punk, post-punk and goth since the late 70’s.
Hopefully it can grow bigger now that we have more new bands coming up like flowers.
Bands like It’s For Us, Isolated Youth and Memoria. There’s a very good nomadic goth club up here called KLUBB DÖD. They book the best bands and do a lot for the scene in Stockholm. This year we had a premiere of another gothic club, so fingers crossed it will continue like this.
What can Then Comes Silence fans expect in the near future? Anything else you would like to share.
We will keep on going to more new places and play. This year we visited the UK, Italy and soon France for the very first time. We have been invited to the USA, Latin America, Portugal and Czech Republic.
There’s more music coming up in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled.
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