SKYFIRE

for Painkiller Mag #9
July 2003

Interview with Joakim Jonsson – Drums
by Yang Yu/Wooqu

all pics are linked from http://www.skyfireonline.net
by any problems refer to webmaster

You all were very young when you started up the band in 1996, did you already began playing music at schooltime (together)? From the early days till your debut came out over Hammerheart Rec., did your style changed a lot?

-We didn't play as Skyfire before 1996 , our style has changed quite much during the years , but we have always had these awsome melodies.

To me, your 2nd album sounds like a mixture of newer IN FLAMES and older CHILDREN OF BODOM. But you also combined death/black/symphonic/power metal into your music, can you tell us which bands of each style had their influences on you?

-Yes sure, there are and were a lot of bands that influenced us such as : Kiss, Rush, Kansas, Annihilator, Carcass, Mayhem, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa, Rainbow, Deep purple, Dio, Motley Crue,WASP, Judas Priest, Bathory, Emperor, Neurosis, Entombed, At the gates, Petilence, Cynic, Death, Yngwie Malmsteen.... the list can go on forever...We all listen to very different bands and musical genres but mostly metal bands. Most of our influences come from very old bands mixed with the death metal touch of the early ?0s.

How would to descript your style to somebody who hasn't heard of you before? Do you see SKYFIRE as band of the extreme metal genre?

-Yes I think we can qualify in that genre , but more based on melodies , I would describe our style like : Melodic/techical/progressive/death metal or something like that.

I think your cover art work is based on a quiet similar concept to the new output of your countrymen LOST HORIZON. Which element do each of you represent (on your websites each band member are with different 'Hand wappons')? What do these mean at all? Are these of your own ideas?

-It was Chrille Andresson's idea entirly , he came up with the whole concept and we thought it looked good , so we decided to go for it , I think it looks quite different with the colourings , I really like the coverartwork. I don't think that Chrille had any deeper thoughts about the coverartwork actually , but I don't really know.

Can you tell us little about your lyrics? From your cover one can get some future fantasy feelings but the song titles are dealing clearly about deeper thoughts of being ...

-Well the lyrics deal with both fantasy and self experienced stuff actually , not dragons and warriors fantasy, but made up stuff and so on , Jonas and Henrik wrote the lyrics for "Mind revolution" and they did an amazing work.

The new album "Mind Revolution" turned out to be more heavy and harsh than the debut 'timeless Departure". Did you make out many new tryouts to archive your nowadays style?

-No not really , it just sort of happen , I think I am a little responsible for the more blasting parts, since I love both listening and playing those parts and the rest liked it. I think we wanted a sort of live feeling on this one , we play mostly heavy songs live , so it came quite naturally that the songs tended to be a bit more heavy and faster than the songs on 'timeless departure".

You didn't play on stage live at the time when the dabut came out in 2001, did you? Recalling your ever first Gig how was it? Can you tell us more about your live experiences?

-Our debut gig was the 24th August in Vasteras , Sweden and it was quite interesting ,we played way too early so it was sunlight outside the window.Jonas broke a bass-string during the first song, and Martin broke a guitar-string during one of the last songs.It was pretty chaotic, but we played well and the people liked us and thats the most important thing.

Keyboards possessed the main part in your music, do you have a steady keyboard player for live performances?

-Actually No , we use clicktracks with pre-programmed keyboards , it has worked out quite well, but our goal is to find a competent keyboardplayer , we'll see how that goes.

Being young musicians (although most of you are doing longtime jobs) did you ever considered make your music and band to your profession?

-We struggle each bloody day to make this band our income , it's a long way there but maybe that'll happen in the not too distant future.

Black/deathish vocs have been used on both of your two ablums, due to the rich variety of your music do you have certain considerations to choose such kind of vocals?

-We tried some clean vocals on "Mind revolution" , it sounded good , but we felt like its better to wait a while , but maybe in the future.

Can you list me your top 5 list of the albums you like most by now?

Meshuggah - Everything

1349 - Liberation

Defleshed - Royal straight flesh

Transatlantic - Bridge across forever

Winds - Reflections of The I

Which kind of changes and developments can we expect of you in the future? Are there still anything that you are not satisfied with your style and playing by now?

-I think we will develop our progressive style a bit more , but not too much , I would like to play much faster on the drums , we will see what direction the next album leads to.

Do want to continue cooperate with Hammerheart Records for the future? Do you think a better world wide distribution would help you visibly more to archive a bigger success?

-We will most probably continue our collaboration with Hammerheart records , they have done a great job for us so far , we hope to recieve much more tour offers and by that way spreading our name to success.

You were on tour recently with Ancient Rites, Thyrfing, Primordial, Septic Flesh and Blood Red Throne, where have you been playing along this tour? It must be great to play with those great bands, How was it? Was it your first tour? Anything funny or special enough to share your joy with us?

-It was fantastic to play with so many great bands , we played in Germany , France , England , Switzerland Holland and Belgium , we did 11 shows in two quite intense weeks. This was our first tour , we shared tourbus with Thyrfing and Septic flesh , so we got to know them a little better. It happend way too much crazy stuff on the tour to tell you.

You have a limited MCD "Haunted by shadows" out, it is more like a promo cd which provides some older songs. Was is it extra for the tour or what use do it have? How was your merchandise sales on the tour?

-It was Hammerhearts idea to do "Haunted by shadows" as a limited tour Mcd , we liked the idea. It has got "Haunted by shadows" from the new album , "Universe unveils" from 'timeless departure", "By god forsaken" , "Skyfire" and 'the final story" from the "Final story" demo. It also contains the Japanese bonus track from "Mind revolution" called "Free from torment". I haven't got that much information about our sales actually , but I think we sold quite well due to be opening band and after all this was our first tour.

Your Shouter Henrik is desktop publisher and your bass Jonas is programmer, so I guess you have done your website www.skyfireonline.net your selves, right? Do you have MP3s on your web?

-Henrik is 100% responsible for the website , and he has done an amazing job with it.We all contribute with ideas for the information on the site , but Henrik does most of the job. We have MP3 samples of every album songs , around 1.00 minute or so , you get a pretty good preview on our sound.

Both of your albums were produced by Tommy Taegtren and you seem to be very happy with his work. Will you want to produce your next album in Abyss Studios again? Why didn't you choose Peter Taegtren to be your producer? Maybe you even can invite him as guest musician :)

-Peter works with the bigger bands such as Marduk , Immortal , Dark funeral and so on , we worked with Tommy as you mentioned , we were quite happy with his work , he's awsome to work with , but I don't thinkthat we will use Abyss for the next record , maybe it's time to try some other studio and maybe get a fresher production , we haven't decided yet.

Your CD received great reviews world wide, where did you got the most responds of fans? Are you well known act in Sweden now?

-The best reviews came from Germany and USA , we seem to grow in popularity in USA everyday , which is really good , we have gotten great responce from all over the world actually. The critics in Sweden doesn't seem to like us that much though , but we don't care that much about them, we prioritize the rest of the world much higher.

Regarding many (quiet young) famous acts of today and how they started their carrier, I think SKYFIRE also have the best conditions and enough potentials to come out greatly one day. So good luck and best wishes from us! Now, your turn for last words to chn. Metal fans.

-Thanks a lot for this interview , quite long :) Check out “timeless departure" , "Haunted by shadows" and "Mind revoltion". Have a visit at our wesite as well : http://www.skyfireonline.net, for more info , merchandise and much more.....we really hope to come and play anywhere near you as soon as possible!!

Stay heavy!!