Major Tom Interviews September Malevolence

A few months ago I reviewed September Malevolence’s After This Darkness, There’s a Next for Captain Obvious’s fine blog. This week, The Astronaut Farm interviews Martin Lundmark, September Malevolence’s front man. Hope you enjoy the interview, and please pick up a copy of this album. The music and the artwork are excellent!

Major Tom interviews Martin Lundmark

MT: Your band hails from Gothenburg, Sweden. How would you describe the Swedish music scene for those of us who are not familiar with the area?

ML: Well, despite the fact that Sweden is a small country, we are actually the world’s 3rd largest music exporter after USA and the UK. So, there’s a lot of bands here and there has been an interesting underground scene going on for years. I’ve always listened to a lot of Swedish bands and artists and been inspired by them.


MT: SM almost sounds like a band with roots in the realm of “post-rock,” yet unlike bands such as Mogwai, Mono, or Explosions in the Sky, your music is lyrical. Was SM originally inspired by instrumental band, or is your sound more the result of a natural progression?

ML: Originally, we were inspired by instrumental bands, but none us really listen that much to post-rock anymore—in fact, most the new post-rock kinda bores me . . . so we didn’t want to do a record that sounded like our debut . We wanted to do something different when we made the songs for After This Darkness… and think I think that for the most part we succeeded.


MT: The lyrics of After This Darkness, There’s a Next are pretty dark (no pun intended), especially on tracks such as “Who Watches the Watchmen?” and “I Shut Doors and Windows.” What inspires you as a writer?

ML: I think it’s easier to write about “darker” themes. I mean, lyrics that go “The sun is shining and I’m happy yeah yeah,”—that doesn’t really grab my attention. Also, 2007 was a really shitty year with a lot of bad things happening to me, which I guess affected the way the lyrics came out. I also think it’s important that the lyrics fit the music, and “Who Watches the Watchmen?” and “I Shut Doors and Windows” has this gloomy and dark feel to them that I wanted to emphasize.


MT: Though the album’s lyrics often inspire a sense of desolation and brooding, the music itself is often full and powerful. What is the atmosphere like at a live SM show?

ML: If it’s a good show: pretty intense!


MT: How does the average SM song come about? Do the ideas develop organically or does the band attempt a more structured approach to songwriting?

ML: Most of the time me and Tobias has a melody, a riff or something and then we start building from that. We don’t really have a structured approach; we come up with ideas as we go along, so it’s definitely more of an organic approach. Me and Tobias have pretty clear ideas most of the time of how we want it to sound I guess, but as always, when you play in a band, your vision for a song might not be fulfilled the way you thought it would be. But the song might actually benefit from that.


MT: How did the recording process go for After This Darkness?

ML: Pretty smooth. We laid the basic tracks in about a week and then we did overdubs and vocals. Doing vocals and writing lyrics was the most time-consuming part of the recording process. For our next album, however, we’re not gonna enter studio with a more or less finished album; we’re gonna record the album over a longer period of time and, as soon as a song is “set,” start writing on the next song.


MT: What are your general feelings about the current state of mainstream music?

ML: Hmm . . . I don’t really know. I don’t listen that much to mainstream music. But I guess it’s safe to say, boring!


MT: Finally, if you were stranded in space, what would you take with you?

ML: A guitar!


MT: Thanks, Martin!

September Malevolence on myspace

Shop for September Malevolence via Tenderversion

—Major Tom