Rockezine.com interview with The Crown on Mar 07, 2002

with Janne Saarenpää on Mar 07, 2002

The blasphemy started around 1990 when the Crown was found as a garage act. In the time that followed the Crown released a several demo tapes and it took the band till 1995 to release their debut “The Burning” back in 1995 for Black Sun Records. The combination of Scandinavian and American death metal sounded very well and impressed many fans in the underground. I personally noticed the band after the release of the “Hell is Here”, the first album the Crown recorded after the deal they signed with Metal Blade. In the meantime the Crown toured with bands as Sacrilege, and featured at the No Mercy festivals back in 1999. But then things started to get more serious. The Crowns typical sound evolved to a more accessible sound without giving in to the commerce. And when their fourth album “Deathrace King” saw the light of life many metal fans were noticing the Crown and the band became more and more popular. Most of the time the Crown has been touring intensively and it surprised me the band found the time to record a new album and to search for a new vocalist after Johan Lindstrand decided to leave the band. But with Tomas Lindberg behind the microphone and a bunch of quality songs the Crown entered studio Mega to record their latest act of protest called “Crowned in Terror”. The Crown succeeded in creating one hell of an album again full of agression and brutality but the typical the Crown sound remained. Time for an interview Rock-E-Zine thought. And just before a headline American tour I spoke to drummer Janne to see if he also was satisfied with the result.
		Tell me what happened after the release of “Deathrace King”? I noticed that you have been very busy. We toured extensively around Europe and we did a tour in the United States. Together with bands as Cannibal Corspe, Nile and Krisiun. We had a great time and did like 60 shows there and the audience loved it. But during the touring our vocalist Johan had some problems with his throat. Touring this intensely wasn’t that good for his voice.
		Was this the main reason he left the band? Yeah, one of them. Another reason for him leaving was the uncertain life that he lived being a musician. We can’t live from the band so. But he also wanted to live a more normal life, with a nice car and of course a more solid economic position.
		How did you guys came in touch with Thomas Lindberg (ex At The Gates, Sacrilege) as your new vocalist and does the Loch Up project makes planning for the Crown more difficult? At first we came in contact with Thomas when he was watching a gig of us in 1995 and he was impressed by it and liked it. After that we did our first world tour with Sacrilege in 1996. The tour was bad organized and the conditions weren’t any better. But despite of the misery we did a lot of nice shows and we had a lot of fun and Thomas became a close friend. The Lock Up project will be no problem in the future. All the members have their own bands and pay respect to that. I do not see why it should give any problems.
		“Crowned in Terror” certainly has become more intense compared to “Deathrace King” hasn’t it? Yeah, the speed certainly is up and I think this has become one of our most intense releases so far. It has also gained on brutality compared to “Deathrace King”.
		Why did the Crown chose to record in studio Mega this time instead of studio Fretman which you guys used the previous time? As always we were late when we booked a studio and at that time studio Fretman was already full until at least January or February. So Fretman was no longer an option so we decided to record “Crowned in Terror” in studio Mega. There were plans to master it in Fretman but we weren’t satisfied about the sound. Could we know producer Chris Silver from somewhere, TJ? He used to play drums in Cemetary.
		What are the bands influences? Oh, they differ a lot. But from the beginning I think bands as Metallica, Slayer and Motorhead always have belonged to our influences but on the other hand everybody has their rarities. For instance? Haha, For instance Marco has something with the first Bjork album and also listens to the Cardigans and I also listen to Finnish pop music. We all our metal fans but all music can be great if it’s performed well.
		I saw that everybody in the band delivers material for the songs. Isn’t songwriting difficult so now and then? No, not at all. We are a very democratic band. And if anyone has a riff that’s not to well we start working on it until everybody likes it. That’s a very nice way to write songs. If more than 50% says that we do it we do it, otherwise we don’t.
		I thought to hear the tune from Michel Night’s tune in the song “Speedevil”, could that be right. Well, you might be right. But it wasn’t meant that way. When Marco came to the rehearsal room and played the riff we told him that it sounded very familiar.
		I thought it had anything to do with your F1 passion? No that was for the period when I was helping out God Dethroned for a while. After the shows we went to Jens (guitarist God Dethroned, TJ) his place to jam for a bit and watch the formula 1. We all are great fans.
		Never thought about playing in God Dethroned also? Well I simply do not have the time for this. At the moment all my time goes to the Crown.
		Any plans for the future, tours? We will be going to United States to do a headline tour over there for 30 days. And I guess we will have to see how many people we can attract but we’re really looking forward to that. We don`t know when we`ll come to Europe cause we are still discussing that. We want a tour that covers as many countries as possible so you just have to check out the web site were all information can be found.
		And a video or even a DVD? Yeah, that’s also a plan for the future but we do not know anything about the content. But when its possible we are also thinking of a DVD?
		(Teun Jans)