Producer/Musician DAN SWANÖ Talks About Working With DARK FUNERAL, BLOODBATH Singer Search

Global Domination recently conducted an interview with multi-talented Swedish producer/musician Dan Swanö (EDGE OF SANITY, BLOODBATH, PAN THY MONIUM). A couple of excerpts from the question-and-answer session follow:

Global Domination: The infamous story about DARK FUNERAL in Unisound… What was the deal anyways? Did they refuse to record with the pink guitar cables you had? Were they really true, grim and necro at the time? Have you talked to the guys at all after that recording? Would you like to work with them again?

Dan Swanö: "I don't remember much from those sessions. I was in a pretty dark place mentally during those days. The mini-album went fine and turned out good enough for the guys to come back for an attempt with the full-length album. I do remember that they were pretty drunk and obnoxious during bits of the recordings of the mini-album, and it's never fun to be the only not-drinking guy in the room, and the rest of the guys are making weird comments because they are out of their minds on bad booze.

"The story about the full-length is pretty simple. None of us were really ready to take on this big a task at that time. I had just come off the recording of my first solo album (NIGHTINGALE – 'The Breathing Shadow') and was not mentally stable. My personal life was not really that swell at the time and it reflected my sense of self-control. When the guys show up, pretty unrehearsed, and things just seemed to take forever, I lost my temper a few times for various musical reasons. I only ended up getting really shitty sounds for the poor guys because the gear I had bought, that proved to be excellent for mixing my soloalbum, was not really the optimal stuff for black metal.

"I remember that I went down to the studio a few days after the original mix had been done, changed a lot of the stuff and suddenly I got this really good sound coming out of the speakers. The same moment the guys call me and ask for the master tapes, they wanna do a remix and complete some stuff at Sunlight… And that is when the nightmare began. Poor [Tomas] Skogsberg had no chance of getting anything of my recordings. We work in 2 different ways and he called me a couple of times wondering what I had been up to. It's no secret that I fucked up big time, but the fault was not only mine. The vibe in the studio was weird and I felt like the band could have used a little bit more time to get their act together. But it all happened, later on, in the embrace of Täggan (Peter Tägtgren) they re-recorded the stuff and from what I have heard, it turned out just fine. I have spoken to Blackmoon on the phone a couple of times and we're cool. I think I met Ahriman at Abyss one time. He didn't kill me, so I guess we're kind of cool."

Global Domination: I have some info about this but I don't wanna say too much, but for the ones who don't know, how's the vocalist-search for BLOODBATH going? Anyone in particular you'd like to see fronting the band? Let's say you could choose anyone, who would it be?

Dan Swanö: "We had a little communication going with David Vincent [MORBID ANGEL] for a while, but he was too expensive for us. I know there are so many guys out there that would do an awesome job and could reach close to the standards of Mike [OPETH frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt] and Peter [Tägtgren], but there is always something that is keeping me from really promote them all the way. We had the same problem with the drummer. Then one day I spoke with HalvJapanen and he said their drummer was amazing and I thought, 'Yeah, yeah, of course…,' and then I listened to their stuff (NCO) and heard he did that to a click track and also found out he did gigs with Orchriste-Jensen (now in THE HAUNTED and WITCHERY) And wam bam boom… We had the drummer of our dreams aboard the ship. Now I am just waiting for that guy, but as a singer, to show up. A guy that has it all. I know it's much to ask for, but there is really no hurry. I see no reason to release a new BLOODBATH album unless it shreds 'Nightmares Made Flesh' to pieces. The hunt continues. I want Mike back. He's the singer of BLOODBATH for me, Peter is a lovely bloke, but he was just a hired gun for the session."

Global Domination: Who did the better job on the BLOODBATH albums, Mike or Peter? And don't say something like "They are different and both awesome in their own way." Just tell me which one you prefer.

Dan Swanö: "It's hard to say, because we produced Peter to sing as 'Mike-alike' as possible. I really dig what Peter did on my songs. I have a hard time believing I'd be happier with Mike on those tracks. But Mike's sense of odd timing and articulation is better and he's a little bit easier to teach the stuff too.. But I still dig the stuff Peter did. Mike is 5 out of 5 and Peter is 4 out of 5…."

Global Domination: Do you seriously believe there will be a DVD from the BLOODBATH gig at Wacken? I know you had the nervous shits a few weeks before that gig. Did it turn out fine? Tell us how much money you guys got from that gig. What was the contract like and how did the organization treat you? When we played there with DARK FUNERAL, the organization was a joke, that's why I'm asking.

Dan Swanö: "The Wacken show is the coolest gig I have ever done. The paycheck was nice with many zeroes, but god, did we blow money!! We had to pay for so much travelling, blood, and also hotel during the rehearsal period. Bought a backdrop and hell knows what. In the end I made around 750 euros after taxes. But then I had taken some time off my dayjob and also spent endless nights rehearsing the material, bought a barytone guitar etc. etc. So and in all I didn't lose any money and had the time of my life…And that was all I asked for!!"

Read the entire interview at this location.

(Thanks: Cristobal Lagos)