Rockezine.com interview with Hypocrisy on Mar 10, 2002

with Peter Tägtgren on Mar 10, 2002

Workaholic Peter Tägtgren has finally found the time to slow down (a bit)! With the new Hypocrisy album ‘Catch 22’ recently hitting the stores he has put his work in the Abyss Studio aside for while and decided to concentrate on touring the coming months. But not before REZ had the chance to have a few words with him.
		How are you doing? Alright, getting better. It’s been a hectic year. This year I recorded two albums, not only the new Hypocrisy record but also the new Pain album. I am not referring to the Rebirth album, which is now available throughout Europe, but it’s follow-up. The new Pain album will be released in Sweden first and then we’ll go country by country.
		In all recent interviews I sensed a great feeling of dissatisfaction with the way things have been going these past couple of months. Did the new album ‘ Catch 22’ turned out the way you hoped for? Yeah I think so, it feels very good and fresh. I guess you could say that this time we timed our record right. We are no longer one step behind, quite the contrary as we are now in touch with what going on. I’ll try to explain what I mean by being one step behind. First of all we always write our own music, but that’s obvious. We don’t care about being ‘hip’ or not. This time we wrote an album and felt that we were in contact with what’s going on in the metalscene today without wanting to do so. We definitely wanted to change the way we did things in the past. It was time to pull out some new ideas, which was something we were really longing for.
		Does ‘Catch 22’ reflect your personal state of mind? Certainly, the lyrics on the new album are written by my heart and head. And no, to answer the question I know you’re gonna ask, again there won’t be a lyric-sheet in the booklet, but that is because I wasn’t given the time to print them down. I always write my lyrics on tiny pieces on paper and napkins. For the new record I wanted to organise these a little bit but unfortunately there was no time. On previous albums we never had any lyrics printed in our booklets but this time I did have the intention to do so. The lyrics are available on the internet though. On the other hand the vocals are loud enough and also pretty clear this time so I guess people should be able to figure them out while listening to the album.
		You must have heard this question numerous times but still I am curious to know where this dissatisfaction comes from? When we write music we don’t really think about that sort of stuff. We just write what we think sounds good to us, what we ourselves would like to buy. After the record was finished I thought it actually turned out to be pretty cool. And a lot of people I have been talking to tell me the new album sounds fresh and updated, maybe even modern. This was not something we consciously considered when writing the album.
		For me personally the past year hasn’t been that good but it is not on purpose that Catch 22 came out the way it did. I am currently taking some time off from the Abyss studios for a while and I am just concentrating on the band at this point in time. In the past we never really went on tour when a new album was released. Goddamn this time we are gonna be on the road again, or to put it in other words: those that don’t want to see us cannot escape from us! It won’t be like in the past when people had to wait for another 3 or 4 years if they missed a tour. We trying to get people into Hypocrisy and to give the new album a chance.
		It worked unbelievably well when we played at the Dynamo festival in ’99 (MK: Hell yeah!!). I didn’t even have the chance to say a few words in between the songs, it was amazing! We thought ourselves that we weren’t the best performers at that time. We just had too much adrenaline pumping through our bodies when we saw the response and we couldn’t really concentrate on playing. For us it turned out to be definitely one of the highlights in our career. And this is the feeling we are aiming for again.
		I guess ‘always expect the unexpected of Hypocrisy’ pretty accurately describes the new album. In that aspect do you see ‘Catch 22’ as a turning point in Hypocrisy’s career, or is it a mere refreshment? I see it more as a refreshment as I don’t have a clue as to how people are going to respond to Catch 22. When I am doing interview people are surprised and happy about it. By the way what do you think of the new album yourself?
		Honest? It was a kind of a shock to me and unfortunately not a positive one. I had certain expectations of what I wanted the new Hypocrisy record to sound like and the new album didn’t quite fulfil that wish.
		But maybe I am just not open-minded enough as I do have to agree that the new album sounds quite aggressive and up-to-date! Well I know the feeling as I myself am of course also a fan of different bands. When these bands in my opinion (or liking) change too much I will also think: “what the F#*k?!” But sometimes bands change for the better and you just simply have to learn to listen to it. Then you can decide whether it turned out for the better or the worse.
		How do you expect the fans to react to the new album? Up to now the reaction of the press has been really good and I haven’t heard any negative comments. But I don’t know what reaction of the fans will be. It’s hard to predict your future and we don’t want to have high hopes or anything. We are just gonna take it as it comes. Actually it’s quite simple: you either like it or you don’t. If you do not like this album you’ll have to wait for the next one. Maybe you will like that next one because we don’t know what the next album is going to bring either. You change from time to time and everything is like a dairy of each year in. When you create a new album it is a reflection of what you were thinking, what you liked or were influenced by at that time.
		I been writing the new album from my heart like I have always done for the past ten years. In that respect, even though people say the new album sounds refreshing, not much has changed. Of course when I started this band and started writing music I was very focussed on older death metal stuff like Deicide but after a while I found my own way of writing which seems to be working as it’s going upwards all the time. I have never looked around to see what’s hip or not. If I had I would have been playing black metal, wearing corpsepaint etc..
		But you did.. That was with Marduk (Peter accompanied Marduk on various tours as their second guitarist, MK). This was not only for fun but also because I am a big fan of the band. In the past we have also done 2 albums under the name ‘The Abyss’. We did this in order to avoid getting black metal into Hypocrisy, to get the black metal in our bodies out in a different way instead of mixing in into Hypocrisy’s music.
		When was the Catch 22 album actually recorded? We recorded the album last August. You pretty much start writing new music as soon as the previous album is finished. And from when the new album is released ‘till the next time you’ll enter the studio is basically how long an album takes. For instance when I was doing interviews at the time our previous album Into the Abyss came out I heard some remarks on the album being written in a relatively short period. That is not true and it pisses me off because you just don’t write an album in a couple of weeks. The only thing that went very fast was the recording itself. It all turned out to be less complicated to get in on tape. The new album, however, took a bit longer, but I have no clue as to why.
		In my opinion the sound is more modern than on your previous albums. That’s true, it’s little bit more an American kind of recording. Also for me as a producer I started doing some new stuff and move on. The Nineties are gone and we’re in a new millennium. About time for me to try something new. We’ll see what it all brings, maybe it doesn’t bring shit! Who knows.
		When reading the titles and figuring out parts of the lyrics one can conclude that the underlying message is: “Fuck you all, we’ll do exactly as we like”. I assume that’s mainly directed towards the press etc. How about the fans?
		You cannot deny that the Hypocrisy fans have certain expectations of a new Hypocrisy record, how do you think the new album will be received by them? To the industry it is indeed a big fuck you off and to some personal stuff as well. But of course not to the fans, as they have made it all happen. It’s just that there’s too much shit going on. I kinda of put myself in a certain corner anyhow but I just got my head out of my ash and realised it. Things didn’t go the way I wanted and I had to make a change myself. Becoming a trademark and a selling point for record companies with my producing work also made me realise that.
		Would you say that ‘ Catch 22’ a real group effort or it is more a personal outburst of frustration? We were definitely a team on this one. The fact that I always write all the lyrics and maybe 60% of the music is because I am the productive type and just spit out songs. However it doesn’t mean that every song is good and you have the rest of the band to work on the songs and to come up with the best final result together. And working together also means that both Lars and Mikael contribute their own styles and that what makes your music more varied and intense.
		The new album is quite a side step from your previous releases, a slightly different sound, a different musical approach etc. What are changes, as compared to your previous work, you are most satisfied with? The songs itself. I think there are better songs on this album. Ones that you will definitely remember as they each contain a certain hook. But there is also a mood in every song. I wanted the choruses to stand out with more clean and catchy shit to get people to remember the various songs. And I know it is going to take 3 or 4 (or maybe even more) times to listen to it and to fully understand it.
		The songs ‘A Public Puppet’ and ‘ Turn the Page’ have a pretty modern feel to it. Do I sense some Pain influences there?
		Is it difficult for you to keep your Hypocrisy and Pain activities separated as far as writing music is concerned, or is that a thought that never crosses your mind? I don’t know. The next Pain album will be further away from the Rebirth album. However the upcoming Pain album was recorded around the same time as we did the Catch 22 album. I don’t think that that particular Pain album was of much influence on the work I do for Hypocrisy. The Rebirth album (the 2nd Pain album, MK) was already recorded a while ago, around the time we recorded the Into the Abyss album and there are no real Pain influences on that one. See what I mean. The gap between upcoming Pain album and the latest Hypocrisy album is even bigger. The vocals on the new album might remind the listener of the Pain material. Even though I do not really hear the similarities between Pain and the new Hypocrisy album ‘Catch 22’, these things of course both have my name on it and that’s always hard to hide. It’s probably in my system to write in a certain way. It may be impossible to get away from unless I am complete schizo! If I am very, very schizo I might even get away with it, ha ha
		Hypocrisy’s near future: You must be looking forward to playing live again as you have even put your work in the Abyss studios aside.
		What are you most looking forward to: the upcoming No Mercy festivals or the tour you intend to do afterwards with labelmates Immortal? Both actually, as the tour afterwards is just a continuation from the No Mercy fests. These No Mercy festivals cannot be like 21 dates or so if you have more than 8 bands joining in. It would be crazy. We will just keep on touring to promote our new albums together. As Immortal will headline the No Mercy gigs we will probably have about 50 minutes up to one hour of playing time. We see it as good way to live up to our promise to be in people’s faces for the next few months. As I have said before you cannot escape us!
		Anything you would like to add, or that I have forgotten to ask you? Just pick up the album and check it out! Either love us or hate us!
		Catch Hypocrisy live on the upcoming No Mercy Festivals! For more info check REZ for the exact dates! (Maura Kampstra)