Rockezine.com interview with The Quill on Sep 19, 2003

with Christian Carlsson on Sep 19, 2003


		Why the choice for such a debatable title as “Hooray It’s A Deathtrip”, do you want to get people to think about it? (The music isn’t loaded with pessimism) This is one way of how to look at the title: The Quill has existed as a band since 1989 and when Roger joined us in 1993 the line-up was completed. We have stayed together since then. Quite impressive, uh? I guess there`s not that many bands that stay around for such a period of time. Why are we still here, then? Well, I guess it`s quite simple. We all are addicted to create music. If we don`t get the opportunity to write and perform we would probably go crazy, or become addicted to some really bad stuff instead. That`s the Hooray! part about it. I can never see any of us ever stop this thing we do. That`s why this band is on a deathtrip.
		What’s the story behind the unconventional (arty) artwork? One morning while reading the local newspaper there was an article about this artist. He had an exhibition in this art-school where he studied. There were some pictures as well exposed in the paper. I thought they looked really cool. So I found his website and looked through his gallery, called up the other guys and they did the same. Then we decided to get in touch with him. We were maybe not that hopeful that he would be interested, you hear all this stories about eccentric artists. But in fact he thought it would be really cool to work with us. The picture on the front cover is a new version of a work he had in his gallery. The picture is originally called “If I were to cross the sea”. The “Armstar” picture (that’s not included on the promo-CD) behind the CD is his version of the star that we have kept as a kind of logo on all our albums.
		Christian and Magnus are known to be the main writers of the songs. Is this in the traditional way of guitarist writing music, and singer writing lyrics? And how do Roger and George fit in? Well, I guess it’s quite traditional. Magnus does the lyrics. When I write music and vocal-lines I always write some “crap-lyrics” It makes it easier to present the melodies to Magnus. On this album in fact some of it was good enough to keep. But I only write like one verse and a chorus so Magnus always has to finish them up. Jolle also write a lot of music. American Powder, Because I’m God and Too Close the sun is mainly his work.
		I read a story about the fatherhood of Magnus and the upcoming future classic new song in progress, tell us about it. The song is Spinning Around. I wrote the verse and chorus parts very quickly at home before a rehearsal. When playing it we immediately felt it was great and we managed to write the bridge the same rehearsal. That’s one of the fastest written songs ever. Magnus is now a proud father of three sons. His future-goal is to be manager of the Ekwall Bros power trio. Ha, ha..
		Why the choice of more psychedelic influences in the songs, and can you tell us something about the equipment used? I guess we’ve never been just a straight-ahead rock and roll band. It gets boring listening to albums where every song is just based on energy. I mean, I love to hear a Foo Fighters song on the radio. But when I bought the album every song is by the sane formula. I don’t make it to the end of the album. The quill is an album-oriented band I guess. We have influences from different styles and we allow us to write odd songs with a different approach. On an album there has to be variety.
		Lots of bands that are more psychedelic orientated are creating songs from jamming. Are the psychedelic parts of your songs also born in a jam? Sometimes, sometimes not. But I think we jam a lot more than other bands.
		Christian likes to jam in a song like “Virgo”, when on a stage. Which songs from the new album will be victim to that urge? That you never know. That’s the whole part of it. You have to be open-minded while playing. Once you’ve learned a song and feel comfortable with the form of it it’s time to take it to the next stage. Not all songs are possible to become jam-songs, but we’ll see what happens once get on the road.
		Christian once said Ace Frehley was one of his most favourite guitarists. I don’t hear lots of Ace in his solos, but loads of Jimmy Page (more with every album, and especially the song “Hammerhead”). How come? Ace has got this great tone and melodic simplicity in his solos. That’s what I love about him. I’m not stealing his licks but I try to think it that direction. I’m not interested in showing-off with technique. Jimmy Page is a great inspiration because of his variety. He combined so many styles that no one did before or after. Hammerhead is a kind of Homage to that.
		Also the voice of Magnus seems to get more and more Robert Plant. Is that a planned development? Do you think so? I think he just sounds like himself. His voice only gets better and better. His vocal inspiration though comes from Plant as well as Dio, Cornell, Gillen, Hughes and others in that style.
		The combination of a Gibson guitar and a Rickenbacker bass seem to create some troubles with sound for some bands. Did you also experience that, and when so, how did you solve it? It hasn’t been a problem as far as I know. Maybe I play with less distortion than the average metal-guitarist.
		Roger is also playing with Spiritual Beggars. Does that always work out well with touring and writing songs? Roger isn’t a songwriter so it doesn’t matter that much. The Beggars tour occurred while we were finishing up the recordings and mixing the album. Roger had already done his parts by then.
		George lists John Bonham and Tommy Lee to his idols. Also with use of his whole kit and certain patterns, a lot of Ginger Baker and even Mitch Mitchell influences can be heard. Are these also intentional expressed? Jolle as well as the others discovered music in the eighties. When music becomes a big part of your life at an early age your idols become role models as well. So when Paul Stanley says that Led Zeppelin is the best band ever you want to check that band out too. I think we all looked back in the history of music very open-minded. Listened and and got influenced by a lot of stuff. But that era between 68-75 is very important for the sound THE QUILL.
		What’s you’re most favourite song from “Hooray! It’s A Deathtrip”? At the moment Come what may.
		How was it like to play at Wacken, for so may people? Well, showtime was 11.00 in the morning so we didn’t exactly have all 40 000 people in front. But it was really cool to be part of such a big thing.
		What are the plans for future gigs (and albums)? We are supporting a much bigger act on a full-length European tour in the beginning of next year. You all will know which one shortly. That’s going to be killer! We are actually already writing new songs. Don’t know when the next album will see the light of day.
		Will Rock & Roll survive? Yes! And THE QUILL will be the last Rock & Roll band standing..
(Cor Schilstra)