Rockezine.com interview with Clawfinger on May 20, 2003

with Erlend Ottem on May 20, 2003


		Hi how are you? I’m fine! We’re rehearsing right now.
		In the bio Zakk says that Clawfinger has a lot more self confidence than when the band first started. What is the cause for this change in confidence? More self-confidence? (grins). Well, we’re older. Now we know how things work compared to when we first started. Then we were, you know, nothing. This was quite a different world than what we were used to back then. Everything was maybe a little bit frightening. Now it’s been 10 years already and we sort of got used to it, more or less.
		Although Clawfinger has already released four albums, you still haven’t really broken through into mainstream. Does this bother you at all? Well we never expected to break through at all. I talked to someone when the first record was done and he said “this maybe good enough to sell 10.000 copies”. And we were like “Really?! Is it that good?” And regarding the mainstream thing, I guess we’re never going to be a big mainstream band. Of course, if I had a choice I’d rather sell 10 million records instead of 10.000, but unfortunately it’s not up to us.
		The new album “Zeros and Heroes” is a lot heavier than the previous album “A Whole Lot Of Nothing”. Why the change in sound? That’s a difficult question. This time we went in and just recorded some songs. We weren’t thinking at all. Just making songs and well…we like heavy music! And these new songs are really simple, you know? The previous album was already finished a year before its release and when it came out, it wasn’t that up to date that it could’ve been. I wouldn’t say the new album is timeless, but it’s just simpler.
		So can you say that you’re more proud of this album than the previous ones? Right now, of course we are. We’re not tired of these songs yet. That’s why every artist says that the new album is the best one.
		This time you decided to do the production all by yourself this time. How was that? That was quite hard and it took a long time. We didn’t really decide that we were going to do it ourselves. We wrote the songs, which took a lot of time. And after that we were like “should we call a producer or do this ourselves?” So we called Jacob, but he could only do 4 songs. He had personal things to take care of afterwards. After Jacob came in, we gave all the other songs one more spin, just because he had such an impact on the material. So we had to work through the rest of the songs once more.
		“Zeros And Heroes” also sounds a lot angrier than past albums. Was there a lot of tension in the band’s down time? Well…there are always tensions! (Laughs) We all have a very different taste in music so it’s kind of hard to agree on anything, really. But I think that’s better than patting shoulders and saying “oh that’s great man!”.
		You also own a studio with Meshuggah. Isn’t it weird to share a studio with a totally different band? No… (Grins). Music isn’t the thing. It’s important that you get along personally and not musically when owning a studio with another band. We can’t record stuff at the same time, but that’s no problem, really. We were in the studio for one and a half year, and they were recording there at the same time. We just ask when our band can do something and there haven’t been any problems so far.
		Scandinavian music has been getting a lot more attention the last couple of years, especially melodic death metal like In Flames, Soilwork and Meshuggah. Do you expect the same for Clawfinger to happen? I don’t know, honestly. It’s so different between all countries in Scandinavia. Some places we are sort of big, or well, bigger than in other places. In some countries we do get a lot of attention and in other countries we have to earn the people’s respect.
		So how’s that in Holland? We haven’t played in Holland for many years except for the gig with Rammstein.
		So is Clawfinger a venue or a festival band? Um…let’s put it this way. In summer I only want to play festivals because of the weather. It’s kind of different with festivals. You play for people that are not completely your audience. Festivals are cool! They`re more like vacation compared to playing small clubs.
		One of the standout tracks obviously is “Bitch”. How did you come up with the idea to do a Country Rock song? When we make songs, we always make songs like that. But usually those songs don’t get released or end up as bonus tracks. When we’re making a record we maybe do 30 or 40 songs and if you heard some of those, you wouldn’t believe it. So it’s more like a selection. Sometimes you get so tired of being serious. “Bitch” is about a dog…
		What track on the album do you think the fans will like the most? Usually the singles, so this time it would be “Recipe For Hate” but only because people will hear it more than the other tracks. But it’s hard to tell really, because it’s hard to stand on the outside and look at it from a fan’s point of view.
		How do you look at the music industry nowadays with all those nu-metal bands getting so much attention? Well that’s how it is…you can’t really complain yourself, saying that you’re not getting any attention because that’s life. If you want to change something, you shouldn’t depend on other people to do that for you. It’s stupid to be angry at anyone else who does get that attention. If you want attention, do it yourself. Just get it. Don’t complain about it. It’s always been like that you know? Back in ’93 we were getting a lot of attention because this music was kind of new. And I guess there were a lot of bands sitting there and saying “oh look at them, there getting all the attention”. But that’s life you know?
		Could you describe the new album in 5 words? Harder-than-the-last-one
		I bet you’re really anxious to get back on the road again. What are the touring plans for Clawfinger? We are just playing festivals this summer, and probably around autumn we’re going on some kind of tour. We’ll just have to see what the album does and I have absolutely no idea how it will do.
		Thanks for the interview and good luck with the new album and touring. Is there anything I left out? No not really. Come to see us or something! If you want to! (laughs)
(Robert Graalman)