GRAND MAGUS

I saw you in Cologne at the Underground, and most of the people really liked GRAND MAGUS. So it was a little bit sad, that you only played for half an hour. Is it possible, that you'll be the headliner on the next tour? You never know, but I can’t say anything about that at the moment. I think we need to do a couple of albums more first, you know? One thing about short sets though. I like it when bands play short sets. I’m always more into the first five, six songs when I see a band. I tend to lose a bit of interest if the set is too long. There’s obviously a difference if you’re talking about AC/DC, he-he. I think half an hour was perfect for us on that tour. Next time, we’ll see… but probably 40 minutes at least, ha-ha! I think this tour was a very good chance for promoting your excellent debut CD. released on Rise Above Records so let's talk about it. First off, are you still satisfied with it? Yes. I’m probably more satisfied now than just after it was done. You get more perspective as time goes by. When you’re done with an album you’re a bit fed up with everything, because you’ve been living with it day and night for a long time. Now I feel proud and pleased with it. It was a good representation of our songs at the time. You recorded the album in the legendary Swedish Das Boot studios, owned by Fred Estby, who has also worked together in the past with Entombed or The Hellacopters f.e. How long did the whole recording sessions last and how did you work? Did you use a lot of overdubs or have you recorded the songs in one take? Just to keep things clear, Fred doesn’t own das Boot studios… It’s a guy called Sten Hardbow who owns it and now I think Sony has bought it from him, at least part of it. Fred just worked there at the time. OK…… we did all basics tracks live (drums, bass and guitar) and then we added another rhythm guitar, solos and vocals. We recorded 12 songs and the 2 extra tracks are on the Japanese release. The basic tracks took three days and the entire thing took about ten days, then we mixed it during a week. Fred had a clear vision of what he wanted and we tried to get a natural, live sounding recording with very few effects and studio stuff, you know? The mixing process was really simple since the sounds were already there, it was basically just a question of getting the levels right. It was recorded analogue on two-inch tape and vintage gear, which we also use live. Even though Fox and Trisse were finished with their stuff pretty early on, they still were there (usually drunk) to give me support and opinions for the vocals and solos, in order to make everything have that honest feeling. We had a great time, but everything went so fast that it’s quite hard to remember everything. The album was then mastered in England. The German press has given you a lot of positive reviews for the album. How were the reactions in Sweden, Janne? We got three out of five in the Swedish newspapers who obviously can’t tell a turd from a filet mignon! But we got a great review in Sweden’s biggest hard rock magazine Close-Up and Swedish E-zines were also very supportive and positive. But on the whole we got much better response in the rest of Europe and USA. I think that happens to most Swedish hard rock bands. I saw an interview with Terra Firma and they had the exact same experience in this regard. I really like the album cover. Where have you found it and what does the name GRAND MAGUS stand for? How is it connected with the band's sound? The picture is from a very old book owned by my girlfriend and she showed it to me and suggested to me that it might suit our themes. I thought it would be perfect. You know, a Grand Magus is the leader of a Magickal order. He is the high priest. And this image is the Grand Magus. You could say that our music is our magick, and that our following is the order. Who the bearded man is shall remain a secret...