Hails! How are things in the Falconer camp?

Everything is just fine.

You are now done with all the recordings of the 4th Falconer album. What can you tell us about the time spent in the studio?

It went mostly just fine. Of course we had the usual computer problems. This time me and Kristoffer were more involved in the engineering of the album. We got to record vocals, guitar and bass and I think that made the band feel more as a unity instead of everyone working solo with just Andy. Some great ideas came from that. We would have wanted a week more cause we had a tight time towards the end. There was one song we didn't have time to record, but that's one in the sack for the next album.

The new album is called “Grime Vs. Grandeur”. What can the fans expect from it and how does it compare to your previous album?

The new album is a bit harder and more energetic than the old ones. Although some songs are more attitude fills we still have the strong melodies and have also some of our best choruses on this album. A big change from before is Jimmy’s excellent lead-guitars and Kristoffer’s voice that is not held back in anyway this time. This album is Falconer at full throttle

What was the inspiration for the lyrical themes of the album?

I shared some of the lyrical responsibility with Kristoffer this time. He is the one who wrote the only historical lyric this time. Apart from that one the lyrics are more about society, opinions, feelings, politics etc. More everyday lyrics instead of the made up stories or historical reflections we used to do.

Is the album a concept album like “The Sceptre of Deception”?

No fucking way. I think that was one of the reasons why “Sceptre….” Didn't turn out that well. I focused to much on the lyrical themes and judged the album after that instead of mostly look at the music which is what most fans do.

If you were to convince someone to check out Falconer what would you tell them? What do you think make Falconer stand out from other power metal bands?

Very melodic and original melodies. I'm not influenced by today’s metal scene so I think that the music gets a bit different because of that. The folk elements are also something that differs us from the rest although those parts are fewer on this album for some reason. Don't really know what. Maybe because the feeling in the band was very high and energetic that folk stuff didn't really came that automatic as the more powerful and intense stuff.

How is the song-writing process in Falconer? Who comes up with all those cool riffs and melodies?

I do in most cases. This time I left some vocal lines to Kristoffer for him to do melodies and lyrics on. I usually come with complete songs to the rehearsals, it's just the solos that are missing.

Mathias Blad is as we all know no longer the vocalist of Falconer and nowadays Kristoffer Göbel handles the vocals. How did Mathias Blad departure affect the band? Was it difficult finding and choosing a replacement for him?

It wasn't that difficult because we didn't look for someone who would sound like him we just wanted a good singer who could bring something new to the band. That Mathias and we departed I don't think affected the music that much except for that we got new possibilities for the vocals. I didn't start to think of other things when it came to music or anything.

Falconer has two other new members as well; Magnus Linhardt on bass and Jimmy Hedlund on guitars. Does this have consequences for the typical Falconer-sound we’ve become familiar with?

Not at this moment except for the guitar solos which now is as good as I always have wanted them to be. For the next album Jimmy will contribute some music and I've heard some ideas he's had and it really sounds like Falconer.

What kind of music do you guys enjoy listening to (besides metal of course)?

I listen a lot to music from the 70's and 80's. Like Jethro tull, Mike Oldfield, Abba, some prog rock. In fact it could be anything that is melodic. Mostly hard rock and metal of course.

Do any of the Falconer-members have any side-projects going on at the moment?

Kristoffer sings in 2 cover bands and then he has another band called DESTINY. Magnus and Karsten plays in a really “just for fun” black metal band called CHOIR OF VENGANCE. I don't think I would have time to be in another band.

Personally I think that Sweden has a very strong power metal scene with bands like Nocturnal Rites, Firewind, Persuader and so on. What is your opinion of the Swedish metal scene?

Some good bands, more uninteresting bands. Sincerely I haven't heard that many of them cause I'm not that into the metal scene but Nocturnal Rites is quite good but I think my fave band from Sweden right now is A.C.T. but that's more like progressive rock.

Falconer has been around since 1999. How do you look upon the future of Falconer? What is your next goal?

I want many things. The plans I have for the near future is to make the next album more grandiose, more keyboard, more choirs. A cup of over-produced you could say. I love pompous music. Probably the next album will have more folk in it than this one had.

Can you picture yourself playing metal in 10-20 years time or do you think you’ll ever get tired of it?

If we're not gonna come further than this I doubt I will still play in the same way I do now. Maybe have some kind of solo-studio-project. I think that I will always do music in one way or the other.

Would you like to share with the readers your top 5 Scandinavian metal albums of all-time?

I'd be glad to.

Candlemass – Tales Of Creation
Europe – The Final Countdown
Bathory – Hammerheart
Nocturnal rites – The Sacred Talisman
Falconer – Grime vs. Grandeur

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! The final words are yours!

Thank you very much for your interest. I hope that we can see some of you reader on tour in the fall/winter. Until then we might even have released a video for “Emotional skies”, if it's gonna be good enough that is. Cheers.

[This interview was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]