First of all I want to look back to
the release of the EP. How well did the EP do?
Simon: I don't know actually how many copies were
sold. But I think...
Andreas: We bought a lot of copies from Sally Forth
and we sold these copies. But we don't know how many Sally Forth sold here. Maybe 350
copies or something. But the record is not released in our homecountry. It's just released
in Belgium and Holland. So it's just the copies that we've sold at our own shows.
How is the response in your own country and
Scandinavia to your music?
Andreas: They haven't heard it because it's not
released. So, in Scandinavia the EP doesn't exist. Our friends we sold to and so on.
Simon: We send it to the local newspapers and they
made reviews of it but that's about it.
Like the Close-Up Magazine perhaps?
Simon: No, just the local papers. We didn't dare to
send them to Close-Up (laughs).
Why not?
Simon: No, we'll send this new one though.
Now you're gonna release the EP in Scandinavia?
Simon: The EP? No. It's only for Holland, Belgium
and Luxembourg.
So we are the lucky people. This is the third time
within a year that you come over the Holland to play here too. You're also gonna play on
the Flevo Festival, mainstage I believe. But how do people in Scandinavia then think about
Soapbox and how do they look at your success?
Simon: I don't think they know we're going here
(laughs).
Andreas: No, it's the truth. Soapbox is not released
in Scandinavia so the majority of the people don't know that we exist. The scene in our
hometown knows about us and a lot of the Christian people.
But you played the DP Festival at least one time,
perhaps more. So, how do people respond to you on such a festival?
Simon: Pretty good. They know us from the Christian
scene and they've heard the EP. It's the one we played in Trondheim and we've sold them
the EP. So people at the DP Festival have heard the EP. So it was a pretty good response
this year.
What I wonder about is....Because you're signed to a
Dutch label, does that open doors for you? I can imagine that when people hear that
Soapbox does things abroad it has....Is there some interest from people or maybe labels?
Andreas: We're gonna release the full-length album
on both a Swedish label as Sally Forth.
You mean Structure Records?
Andreas: Yeah. So the full-length will be released
in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe by Structure and in the Benelux countries by Sally
Forth.
Today you're releasing this full-length album
entitled A Divided Man in Holland. Can you tell something about this album?
Simon: It was released last Saturday. Jos from Sally
Forth Records drove from Holland up to Norway. He drove the entire night to bring us the
CD's. We had the covers with us from Sweden. So that was the first time we actually saw
the entire album ourselves. So we only have it for less than a week. So, it's nice. What
can we say more about it?
Andreas: It contains fifteen songs. And there are
some songs from the EP but the biggest part is new. Of course.
Pär: We recorded it in the same studio as the EP.
I saw the back of the cover. There are fifteen songs
on it. Five of them are from the EP. Last January when we spoke you said you had recorded
thirteen songs. Thirteen plus the five from the EP makes eighteen....or am I wrong?
Andreas: One of the songs is going to be...
Simon: ...We recorded one cover song that we will
release later and one of the songs we recorded we weren't satisfied with. So, we won't
release it.
Ah, that's the solution to the mystery. The cover,
who did the cover?
Simon: She is named Melanie Seiler, the girlfriend
of Samuel Durling who owns Structure Records. So, it's her pictures. Samuel and his
neighbor designed the cover for us. It's nice.
Are you satisfied with the kind of package? Is it
the kind of cover you wanted for the album?
Simon: I like it because it's different. It's
without the jewel case, the plastic box, so I think it's more....I don't know, I like it.
It's indeed different. How would you like to
describe the music if you compare it with the EP? On the EP you had song with the fast
parts and the melodic singing of Krister and your screaming. How is A Divided Man compared
to the EP?
Simon: It's pretty much the same, actually. We've
developed some parts more but it's pretty much the same.
You have been described as a hardcore band with punk
influences or a punkband with hardcore influences plus emo. How do you feel about that
description?
Simon: Personally I don't think we're emo. Not very
much. So punk/hardcore would be a better description. I don't know.
Andreas: Because there can be melodic parts in punk
without being emo. There have been melodic punkbands for twenty years before someone
invented the word emo.
Is there some kind of song on the album that has a
special meaning to you? You always write lyrics from the heart. About environmental
disasters and things like that. Is there some kind of a song that really speaks to your
heart that you would like to share with people through this interview?
Simon: Well, Way Too Much, Way Too Sick is a song
about pornography. It's a stand, I feel, that we have to take to end pornography. Because
it's destroying so many people's lives. That's one of the songs I feel strong about. Also
the song Angel which is a dedication to my sister who was victimized for the first six
years in school. It's pretty much a dedication to her. And, what else do we have....Yeah,
We Like It is a good song as well. It's like why we do this. We don't invent something new
with this kind of music but I hope people can feel there's a heart in it and that we like
doing this.
Structure Records is a label created by Samuel
Durling. He's quite well known with Endtime Productions. Structure Records is quite new
but with Endtime he seems to have good contacts in America with Tooth & Nail. Is it so
that you want to try to get your album out through Tooth & Nail, maybe a license-deal?
Simon: We'll see about that. First we want to see
how the reviews go in Scandinavia. Structure will be like a sublabel to Endtime. We'll
wait and see what happens.
But is that maybe a desire of the band, to bring it
out in the States?
Simon: Not like the biggest thing we want. Of course
it would be nice to release something in America because it's a much much bigger scene
there. You can get out to a lot more people. But, we'll see.
Okay. You said, "we'll see about that".
It's not the most important thing. So, what is really important to you to play in this
band, to bring out albums? What is important? What makes you love Soapbox?
Simon: It's a good place for me to....There's no
English word for it. To express my thoughts and my feelings about different issues.
So it's really to bring out something that's in your
heart that you want to share or is it not only to share but also to have a good impact on
people?
Simon: It's more to share. And to be abled to deal
with it yourself. Some things at least. I can put it in a lyric and scream it out on
stage.
Andreas: But the most time doing Soapbox is just the
four of us standing in the rehearsal room practicing and we love it. If we didn't do that
it wouldn't be fun. But playing live shows and getting out the record is great.
So you're kinda satisfied with what you've achieved
right now?
Simon: Yeah, because we all have jobs and Pär is
studying. We can't do the band full-time. So what we do now is basically what we can
handle with the band at the moment. Maybe some more live gigs wouldn't hurt.
You're already going a bit into the direction of my
next question. As Soapbox is not your full-time occupation could you tell a bit of
yourselves? What you're doing in normal life, hobbies, are you married....those kind of
things?
Simon: I work as a kindergarten teacher with
children from one to five years old. That's my full-time job and I totally love it.
Do you have hobbies besides playing is Soapbox?
Simon: Yeah, I like to go mountain climbing and also
bicycling is great. I'm not married by the way.
Do you have a girlfriend then?
Simon: No!
Andreas?
Andreas: I work at a home for teenagers with social
problems. I work full-time there. Or more than full-time. I really like it and it feels
important to help these kids. I'm married. Well, my life is my wife, Soapbox and the work
and meet some of my friends sometimes. And that's it.
Because you work with teenagers and have to face
with their problems, is that something you put into your lyrics?
Andreas: Not so much. It's mostly Simon who does the
lyrics.
Pär, can you tell something of yourself?
Pär: I can. I'm studying. It's to become a social
worker. So that's my everyday life's thing but it's an easy life to be a student. And I
have a wife and would like to....
Simon: ....and three children!
Pär: Three children? No.
Andreas: Soapbox has no kids.
Pär: No children yet, but.....
Andreas: But, what????
Pär: Who knows......? (laughs)
Andreas (meaningful): Not yet??Aha!
Andreas & Simon: Oh! Yes!
Pär: Not yet can be like twenty years. And I like
to do things with the computer. In the winter I like snow boarding and things like that.
And how did you all start playing music? Did you
learn it in school? Or was it like "hey, let's start a band, let's start playing an
instrument"?
Simon: Uh, I don't know. I lived with Andreas for
one year. We shared an apartment. And he was playing in a band back then. And we wanted to
do something together. So that was the first time ever I was in a band. Since I couldn't
play an instrument I had to sing.
That's also a good reason to sing.
Andreas: I and Pär have played in a band before,
some years ago. I played for as long as I can remember. I learned playing drums in the
musicschool.
Pär: His mother was my guitar teacher.
And Andreas started beating on the guitars and that
was the first time drumming....?
Andreas: I got this drumset when I was about four or
five years old. Since then I've played a lot.
And how....
Pär: I think I started in music school at school
and kept playing. I don't know if I'm getting any better (laughs).
Simon (joking): We don't think so!
Pär: No! (laughs). Well, I'm good enough to play
with Soapbox.
Simon: So far!
You have all kinds of occupations. Pär studies and
Simon and Andreas have jobs. How do you combine it with playing in a band and coming over
to Holland and do touring? Is that easy to combine?
Simon: It's like we go on a vacation. We get free
from work for a week or so. It's pretty easy.
Pär: I'm a student so I can take free whenever I
want to.
Andreas: We use all vacation-days to do Soapbox. So
we can't do anything else.
Simon: There's no time to relax.
Sounds familiar. I was told by Samuel Durling that
his greatest hobby is to sleep. "But I get too little of it" he remarked....I
have only one question left. You're gonna play the Flevo Festival, mainstage. Besides
that, are you gonna do some shows around that?
Simon: We play Freakstock this Saturday. Then we go
home to Sweden to play at a festival in the south of Sweden, the Saturday after
Freakstock. Then we go home for two weeks and then we come back to do Flevo. We play twice
at Flevo. Mainstage at 8:00 or 9:00 PM on Saturday, and we play on a smaller stage at 1:30
AM or something like that. Well, that's about it, what we know now.
So there are no other shows scheduled in Holland?
Andreas: No, we have to go back to work. We just
come over for Flevo and then go back. |
