Rockezine.com interview with Wolverine on Dec 11, 2003

with Per Broddesson on Dec 11, 2003

November 17th Swedish metal band Wolverine released their second album called Cold Light of Monday. The album got 9.5 out of 10 points from Rockezine and will probably be my favourite album of 2003. I took the chance to interview guitar player Per Broddesson by e-mail.
		Cold Light of Monday is a concept album. Why did Wolverine choose for this format? Chosing this format was something that we had discussed and decided on before. Already back when we recorded TWP we had our sights set on recording a darker and more atmospheric album than TWP. The fact that it became a concept album was not certain at first, but we came up with something that worked so we went with it.
		Can you tell us a little bit about the story on the album. Who wrote the story and where did you get the inspiration? The story is about a young girl named Sarah, who is not entirely happy with her everyday life and the way it is treating her. I don´t want to reveal the whole story line since I think it should be read/heard while listening to the album as a whole, but one can say that she decides to try a change of ways when it appears and it does not necessarily go as hoped for. Stefan wrote the story pretty much by himself, though keeping us informed along the way with what went on in case we had any input of any kind. Actually at first we had a completely different concept that was given to us by someone else but we all decided against that one. Can´t even remember what that one was about...sorry.
		Give us some insight in the writing process. Did the change in direction caused a lot of discussion within the band? Untill about now we´ve always had a storyline to follow, we tried to match the music to. For the next album we´ve decided on simply writing music though. The writing process musicwise is usually that one of us comes up with a riff, some chords, melodies or the bigger part of a song and then the rest of the band bites into it and filters it through their own minds and ideas. Usually it runs fairly smooth but as always, the more wills the more possibilities. Change of direction? I didn´t know we had one haha! As I said before we decided on writing some darker material but that was never meant as a conscious attempt to have a change of direction. I would say that we´re simply exploring the gloomier side of Wolverine. It still sounds like us but it is a bit different from the average run-of-the-mill progressive metal band, yes.
Recorded parts were suddenly missing with him trying to save his ass by saying it was never recorded in the first place		Wolverine went through a lot of trouble mixing and recording the album. Can you tell us what went wrong and what made you decide to re-mix almost the entire album? We had too many problems recording this one, all coming down to the studio engineer one way or the other. Playingwise everything went really fast but let´s just say that trusting this person to record the album was a big mistake. Recorded parts were suddenly missing with him trying to save his ass by saying it was never recorded in the first place. Too little volume while recording resulted in way too much humming on other parts etc etc...Of course this is something that only came apparent towards the end. While mixing the album we were so unhappy with the final result that we quickly decided to go back to where we recorded TWP and save what we could and re-record what had to be re-recorded.
		I`ve had the chance to listen to your debut album, The Window Purpose. One thing I noticed was that the vocals on Cold Light of Monday are quit different.
		On the latter are no female vocals, no grunts and the vocals sound more polished, yet even more powerful.Did Wolverine say goodbye to grunts and additional female vocals? And how have Stefan Zells’ vocals changed? Actually there are both grunts and female vocals on CLoM! It´s just that they were lost/erased whatever by that nice chap who first recorded it in the first place. So no, we have not said goodbye to any female vocals or grunts in the future I think. If a song calls for it I think we will use them again. The reason the missing parts did not end up on CLoM was due to time issues for re-recording them....unfortunately. I am not exactly sure what Stefan had to redo song wise, but I think that he has a more mature voice now, compared to TWP, maybe not as high-pitched but more certain of himself.
		On your website we can read that Wolverine defines itself as a Swedish metal band. Do you consider Cold Light of Monday a metal album? I would believe that what one defines as music, depends mostly on what you are listening to otherwise. For me, someone who´s got a pretty wide musical taste in heavy music, I could put the album somewhere in the land of metal, yes. Powermetal freaks would probably not think so, no.
		The Window Purpose has that typical debut album sound. It`s obvious that the band has great potential, but also that the band is searching for a certain direction. Can you say that Wolverine found their own sound on Cold Light of Monday? As for now I believe that we are comfortable somewhere between TWP, CLoM and the future. Wolverine is what happens when we meet to play, and with six guys in the band all listening to slightly different spectres of the metal genre and beyond, you never know. But I have a feeling that the next album will be more aggressive.
		Some time ago Wolverine left DVS Records and signed a contract with Earache/Elitist Records. Did this change have any influence on the music? Absolutely not. If we had to change we would not have signed. We are very happy with Earache/ Elitist so far.
it´s immensely great that people really seem to like the album		What is the best thing you`ve read about Cold Light of Monday so far? Everyone in the band would probably choose something different from the other, but for me personally it would be "Sounds like Pain of Salvation on valium". Very funny indeed haha :) And of course it´s immensely great that people really seem to like the album. We´ve only had one bad review so far I think. CLoM usually ends up between 8 to 10 out of ten, I could not ask for more I guess.
		What is the worst thing people could say (have said) about Cold Light of Monday? We had a review saying that we "are not worthy of carrying Geoff Tates wig" or something like that hahaha :) Again very funny. I like humour - but I think the person who wrote that wasn´t aware that he’s a comedian hahaha.
		What are your personal favourites on the album? “The intro”, “The Final Redemption” and “Tied With Sin”. I like epic gloomy, doomy-ISH metal.
		Looking back, are there any things you would have like to see different on the album? I think that as long as you keep evolving as a person and striving forward you will never be 100% satisfied, and considering how the (first) recording session went of course there are a few things I would´ve liked to see different. But don´t get me wrong, I´m proud of this one.
		What do you expect from Cold Light of Monday? And do you have the feeling that the release is getting the attention it deserves? So far I believe that the album gets the attention it deserves. Let´s just hope that it will be available for people to buy it in all the stores. Hopefully this one (CLoM) will get us out and about to a lot of places and meet people from all over.
		Are there any touring plans next year? There is nothing decided yet, but we have our wishes and hopes. It is all too uncertain though for me to say or promise anything but we will take any chance we can to get out on the road.
		What are you expecting from the supporting gig for Anathema in London? This would be our biggest single gig yet, so hopefully it will give us some exposure in Kerrang, who arrange the gig, and other magazines leading to more gigs and hopefully tours. For me it will be great just to meet them again. I´ve been a fan since ´92 so I´m all spaced out :)
		There must be something I forgot to ask. What else do we have to know about Wolverine? We went through a lot of shit recording CLoM, both recording and personally for some of us but with all that behind we´re ready to make some serious business. It´s a shame that everything got as delayed as it got but now were here and hopefully we´ll have plenty more gigs than for TWP. Hope to meet you all out there :) Also, our new website (delayed - what else hehehe) will soon be up, so be sure to check that out.
		Final question: will Wolverine ever be able to excel Cold Light of Monday? Yes! May sound cocky but right now I doubt we´ve ever been as focussed as we are now.
		Thanks for the interview. I hope Cold Light of Monday will be a success! Thank you for the interview Geert, it was a pleasure to answer your questions and good luck in the future and hope to see you on the road :) Best wishes and regards // Per
The Photo`s are taken from the Wolverine website. (Geert Oldenmenger)