Olof Wikstrand (ENFORCER): the interest for heavy metal created this band

Metalfan: Hello, Olof! How are you? I understand that Enforcer is already working on the fourth album…
Olof Wikstrand: I’m fine. Yes, that’s correct. We haven’t really made any big deal about it yet but we’re working on new stuff and we got pretty far. We booked a studio for last week of August and then we will see how things turn out. We have most of the material done already.

Metalfan: Ok. So the writing process is done…
Olof Wikstrand: It’s been really smooth this time. At the same time you never know before you start how things sound. It sounds one way in the rehearsal place and it’s a completely different thing when it’s recorded, we will see how things turn out. At least we’re on our way.

Metalfan: How works for you all this creative part concerning the writing process of an album?
Olof Wikstrand: It’s always different. It’s really up to how things are at the moment and every album has been completely different comparing to the last one. The first album we did was like I wrote everything and then we just went into the studio and recorded everything that I had in mind. Second record was like we jammed together, all of us in the band. On the third record was more or less me and Jonas who wrote the entire album, but I think on this one the whole band has been participating in the writing process. We came up with the ideas then we jammed really, really hard on the rehearsal place just to get songs that really feel good when we play them. That’s been a really good thing about this album. What we do now is so real because we create it from the beginning, like we jam them until we feel them. Like I said, the writing process is always different. Usually is like any of us has some idea about something.

Metalfan: How much music do you listen when you are working on an album? Do you take in consideration that there can be accidental influences?
Olof Wikstrand: Well, you know, it’s always really important to listen to lots of music when you write lots of music to get different inputs and different ideas of what you are creating. I think that listening to a lot of music helps you be creative and in the same time to get ideas, to get inspiration. So, yeah, I listen to all kinds of music and everything inspires us, not only the music that happens to sound similar to what we do.
 

 

Metalfan: For me, the feelings that flow from heavy metal are building sometimes a kind of paradox. At times there is a huge redeeming feeling, lots of good vibes and also fun, but otherwise heavy metal can deal with a kind of drama. If I have to give an example from Enforcer that one would go to the song Take Me Out of this Nightmare. I find this so-called paradox something great because the key to solve this drama is again that good vibe I was mentioning. So what does heavy metal mean for you?
Olof Wikstrand: Well, heavy metal means of course everything. It’s not only something that I listen to, something that I play or something that I do because of fun. I am heavy metal and heavy metal is a part of me, so I can’t really say much more about it. But when it comes to write music everything it’s about to create tense and release it all the time… You build up a certain atmosphere and then some expectations. This is a fun thing about making music. It’s the fact that you can create different vibes and you can just go whenever you want to go with the music and feelings. In the end music is about feelings, to create feelings for the listener. And I think that’s really important about what music does.

Metalfan: I think also that heavy metal incorporates one of the most poetic and melodic kind of lyrics.
Olof Wikstrand: I think that the heavy metal way, traditionally has some elements that you can play with them a lot. You can also play with melodies, tempo changes, everything to create an atmosphere within the music by using many different elements.

Metalfan: Are the lyrics you write inspired by concrete facts or by some kind of abstract states of mind? 
Olof Wikstrand: When I write lyrics, I like to do more abstract lyrics, but at the same time I always have a thought about everything. I just don’t want to be so clear about the lyrics that I write. I’d rather give some space to the listeners to find their own associations to the lyrics. When I write lyrics most of them have actually some sort of connection with reality, or at least for me, I think about things when I write lyrics but in the same time, I like to leave some things to the listeners and not to be so damned specific about anything. That is how I like lyrics, more abstract to leave some places for your own stuff. This is what I appreciate at other bands’ lyrics as well.

Metalfan: I found out that you guys handle the Enforcer sound and all matters related to audio editing by yourselves. Who’s the most skilled of you when it comes about recording, mixing and mastering?
Olof Wikstrand: We work with this on a professional level outside of the music business too. So both me and Jonas are recording and mixing other bands as well, so we’ve been done this for ten years or more, running studios and recording bands. And both me and Jonas are also working for the TV, Jonas is writing music and mixing for TV shows and I’m working with recording TV shows, movies, TV series and all that kind of stuff. So we have quite much experience within that type of music which it makes it really easy because we can always get the sound, the production and the songs exactly the way we want to. It’s a really important thing for us that we can play with the production just as much as we can play with the music and create the vibes, the atmosphere with the production. That’s also an instrument. It’s something that got lost in the music during the past twenty years. Everything sounds the same. Today’s music production, generally has absolutely no soul whatsoever and we want to bring that back especially to the metal music, to show people that the production has big value if you do it the right way. It gives to music so much more atmosphere. It’s really important to us that we have the possibility to do it exactly like this. It you go to the producer you can never explain to him like “we want to have the sound this way” because it’s impossible to explain what you have in your mind. The only way you can achieve that is by doing it yourself and I think we’re lucky that we can handle this by ourselves and get everything 100% the way we want it to be presented.

Metalfan: What about the images that you use for artwork covers or promotional materials? Who creates them and how much of your ideas are there?   
Olof Wikstrand: There are only our ideas. There are people within the band, or people really close to the band who create artworks, t-shirt layouts, etc. It’s every part of the aesthetics, from music production to covers, t-shirts, everything that we want to do ourselves, to be able to present the band in the way we want it to be presented, not in the way that a record label or someone who wants to sell something wants to present it. We want to have it like a complete vision and that’s something you learn through years, but right now we’re feeling really comfortable by doing everything as close to the band as we possibly can.

Metalfan: Can you name some of your favorite heavy metal artworks?
Olof Wikstrand: It’s always different, I think the thing with an artwork is that is should present an atmosphere that goes hand in hand with the record. Sometimes you like something that is really simple, more like a fist in your face and sometimes is more like an image from which you create an atmosphere of the whole album. It’s really up to what you want to present. Like for our last album, Death by Fire, because the music was quite straight forward we wanted a straight forward artwork, something that looked maybe like a t-shirt print from the 80’s and that’s why we used only two colors. If it had been something different we would probably have done something different. It has to work together with the music and that’s really important.

Metalfan: Do you collect music CDs and VYNILs?
Olof Wikstrand: Yes, I do. I collect records as much as I can and you know, the interest for heavy metal created this band in the end. Anyway, when I was a teenager I started to discover more music outside the most successful scene, digging myself deeper into 7inches demos, private press records from the early 80’s. That became an obsession for me, to find a new song every day or find new inspiration and that eventually led to the creation of this band. I mean, that’s the passion that created this band from the beginning, to collect and always find new music that nobody else has heard before, not only to stick with the popular bands and copy what the biggest band always did. Everything it’s about finding new music, new inspiration all the time. Comparing to another new heavy metal bands, some of the bands are only copying Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and that’s it, for me that’s already been done. It’s nothing interesting for me, you got to look for inspiration in other things than only the big and most successful bands because let’s say Iron Maiden, nothing gets better than this anyway. Much better to do is to have some more unique inspiration and do something that it’s your own thing than just copy the biggest bands.

Metalfan: I think this is why I noticed some people and reactions considering Enforcer a band suitable for the young audience…
Olof Wikstrand: The first audience we had was really like die hard heavy metal fans, heavy metal collectors. The first people who appreciated us were like: “Hey, this is something that sounds like we would listen to.” Eventually we managed to develop that, to make it into something that everyone could listen to and to make it easier accessible. But that’s how it started.
Speaking of copying, there is a huge trend, at least in Sweden, hundreds of bands copying Black Sabbath and there is absolutely nothing interesting with that.

Metalfan: I saw that you are on the line-up of various summer festivals this year. Is there one of them which you prefer most due to some past experiences or something? 
Olof Wikstrand: I don’t think too much like that. Every show that we do we try to make it absolutely the best possible show, even if it’s in front of 200 people or if it’s in front of 20 000 people, it doesn’t matter. You always got to do your best and do the best show you ever done. I don’t separate the shows one from each other.

Metalfan: From what I know, you also played drums. Do you still use these instruments?
Olof Wikstrand: Yeah, I did for the first demo but now I don’t play drums anymore. It was something that I did in the very beginning because I had no other line up, there were my songs and I have just recorded them. But I’m not a good drummer and I have Jonas who is the best drummer in the world, so I don’t need to play drums anymore.

Metalfan: So guitar remains your first and main passion…
Olof Wikstrand: It has been always my main instrument and that’s what I comply with. I’m definitely more a guitar player than I am a singer but somebody has to sing too, I guess…
 

 
 

Metalfan: And also you played bass in the very first phase of Tribulation…
Olof Wikstrand: Yes, you know, it’s basically the same thing as playing guitar… Arvika is a small city and we were a bunch of people doing things together.

Metalfan: … Anyways, I think is part of the Swedish metal tradition that great bands are shoulder to shoulder.
Olof Wikstrand: Yes, something like that… And everybody’s been in every band in this small city… For many years we shared Adam who was the guitar player for Enforcer, also the guitar player in Tribulation, so we shared many members.

Metalfan: What’s about your other musical projects? What’s going on with Corrupt/Corrupted? 
Olof Wikstrand: Corrupt is a really old band, it’s the first real band that we had so it’s nothing that is active. We haven’t play since 2006 so we are not active anymore. It’s something that I’m still really proud of. I listened to some songs a few weeks ago and I felt really cool about them but right now everything is 100% on Enforcer. As for now we don’t have time for it anymore. But you should never say never, sometimes we might feel that maybe we got the inspiration to do something new again and maybe we will do something, but at the moment we are totally focused on Enforcer.

Metalfan: So this is it. Romania gathers as well some groups of Enforcer fans so I think that the last words for this interview should go to them.
Olof Wikstrand: I’ve never been in touch with many people from Romania but we appreciate all the fans everywhere and if we have many fans or dedicated fans in Romania we will do everything we can to come and play for them, does not matter if there are 10 people or 1000. That’s important for us, to get out and play in front of the people who support us. We’ll try to come there if is any interest.