Interview mit Niklas Sundin von Mitochondrial Sun

The corona pandemic still has a strong grip on the world and has had a serious impact on the music industry. How are you personally coping under the current circumstances?
2020 won’t be anyone’s favourite year for sure. Everyday life is infinitely more complicated for most of us, but I try to take the stoic approach and also acknowledge that the current situation isn’t that severe compared to the hardships that mankind historically has endured. Sure, being isolated for a year or more isn’t ideal, but most previous generations had to endure war and famine as well as leading a shorter and more painful life in general. Also, this isn’t the last pandemic. There will be others, possibly even more serious, so in a way this is just a rehearsal for the future. As for the impact on the music industry, it’s of course disastrous. I personally don’t think that tours and festivals will happen in the old way for a long time – if ever again – and this was the main source of income for most professional artists.

In March you announced leaving Dark Tranquillity with the reason being the too extrensive touring schedule. Was that because of the experience of touring per se or rather the hardship of arranging it with your private life?
Both, I guess. Even back in the 90’s I wasn’t enjoying touring all that much and found it to be a bit of a necessary evil. Of course I’ve had tons of great experiences playing live over the years, and it’s a privilege to have a big enough fanbase to even make that sort of frequent travel possible, but I usually felt drained after just a week or two of living on a bus. The announcement earlier this year was mainly just a way of making things official; my last real tour took place in 2015 or so, and I haven’t really been involved in band matters (apart from doing artwork) since the “Atoma” recording.

Do you miss being an active part of the band apart from still creating the artworks?
There are things that I miss for sure, and it’s fantastic to have been part of Dark Tranquillity’s long journey since starting out as a bunch of teenagers, but at the end of the day this decision was the best for myself and for the other guys. Dark Tranquillity needs members that want to tour as much as possible, and I’m happier doing my own thing where most of the time is spent on the actual songwriting and not all the extra work that being in a full-time band entails.

Do you consider playing in a band again in the future, provided they would be less on tour?
It’s possible. It’s great to collaborate and create music together as a band, both on a personal level and from a musical perspective. At the same time, I was a band member for most of my life, so it feels pretty liberating to just focus on being creative in my home studio without having to think about rehearsals, logistics, band meetings and so forth.

Let’s now talk about your solo project MITOCHONDRIAL SUN: With „Sju Pulsarer“ you have a second album coming out less than a year after your debut. How did you manage that so quickly?
No rest for the wicked! (laughs) Seriously though, it looks more productive from the outside than what’s really the case. The debut album was mixed and ready over a year before its release, and the songs were all recorded 6 months or so before that, so I’ve had about two years to come up with the “Sju Pulsarer” material. Maybe it would have been better from a commercial perspective to wait with releasing the new album since the debut hasn’t even been out for a year, but the whole idea behind this project is to not think too much about those concerns. I like how a lot of bands in the 70’s released albums at a pretty quick rate – Black Sabbath put out their first six albums in five years if I’m not mistaken.

Some guest musicians were involved in the debut. Did you also get assistance with the new album or were you completely on your own this time?
The first album was very orchestral and needed contributions from people that could play cello, violin, vibraphone and other instruments that I can’t handle myself, but the kind of music on “Sju Pulsarer” doesn’t require much external help. Anders Lagerfors again did a great job mixing and mastering the album, which is an important factor, but there were no additional musicians involved as such.

After you consciously distanced yourself from the instrument you are known for on your debut, one can now hear guitars again on „Sju Pulsarer“. What drew you to playing the guitar again?
Well… Most of the music on “Sju Pulsarer” was written on guitar, but most of what you hear on the album is actually distorted synth. I think this both is an interesting approach from a production perspective as well as something that helps the project to stand out and be somewhat different from the norm. I wanted to get rid of the human component as much as possible in order to invoke the sensation of vast interstellar storms and cosmic cataclysms rather than “dude in the studio”, and in this particular context I prefered the machine-like nature of the synth guitars since they really fit with the general aesthetic. But to answer your question, it felt really inspiring to use the guitar again for composing – it’s my main instrument after all.

Stylistically, however, you don’t return to melodic death metal, but rather play (post-)black metal. Did you intend to realize ideas here that wouldn’t have fit in Dark Tranquillity?
There’s no master plan except for trying to challenge myself and write music that I haven’t done before. Some of the melodies and riffs probably would have worked in a Dark Tranquillity context (albeit with some adjustments), but the repetitive and droning nature of the arrangements and overall style would feel out of place.

On the first record you tried out all kinds of new things that you first had to teach yourself. Was the new album also a learning process for you, even though you worked with the guitar this time?
There’s always some element of learning involved, but compared to the debut album things were easier. Since the sound is much more “metal”, I already had a lot of experience from the time in Dark Tranquillity. In addition, the songs themselves weren’t as complex. On the debut album, there were sometimes a huge number of things going on at the same time – cello, piano, drums, lots of different samples and keyboard pads – and it took a long time to arrange everything properly and not make a mess out of it. The basic elements of “Sju Pulsarer” are more basic. There’s still a lot of layered atmospheric stuff going on, but I tried to remove everything that wasn’t completely necessary.

Will the guitar also play a role on your future albums again?
Definitely – but it remains to be seen if MITOCHONDRIAL SUN is the right outlet, or if it makes more sense to release a completely guitar based metal album under a different name (and maybe actually making it a band and not a solo project). Time will tell.

In contrast to the very eclectic debut album, the songs on „Sju Pulsarer“ sound very consistent, which is also reflected in the fact that they all (with one exception) have the same title. What was the basic idea behind this straightforward approach?
It’s a case of making something different each time. With the debut album, I wanted every song to have its own style and sound and being like a small world in itself. Each track had its own compositional approach, unique set of sounds and so forth. This time, I wanted to create something that was focused and uniform and that should be experienced in one go. I also wanted it to feel more “band like” in that the basic instrument sounds should be the same for the whole album.
I’ve always liked records that set out to do one thing only, but doing it really convincingly. Every previous album that I’ve been a part of have all tried to convey a lot of variation. One would mix the fast with the slow, the long songs with shorter ones and so on – all with the idea of creating a dynamic and pleasant listener experience with enough things happening all the time to keep the listener alert. This time, I looked for more of an intentional focus where all the songs would point in the same direction and where the music could be relentless and overwhelming rather than pleasant. With that said, there still are lots of melodies that are pretty catchy.

However, some might think that the album is too monotonous for this reason or that it lacks a discernable conclusion. What do you think about such potential reactions?
It’s an expected reaction – it is monotonous, and that’s by design. If there would have been 2-3 slower songs, regular vocals and less repetition, the album would have appealed to a wider audience. However, it’d then be something completely different, and – in my opinion – less interesting.
Some of the inspiration for the hypnotic and repetitive leanings came from old krautrock bands that could play the same chord and beat for five minutes – immersing you completely in the music – and when a change finally happens, it hits you like a ton of bricks. For example, “Pulsar 1” has an ending sequence where there’s a long period of the same chords being repeated over and over again with only minimal changes in the background. As a listener, you expect something new to happen after each round, which creates somewhat of an uneasy and claustrophobic feeling when it doesn’t occur. When the “payoff” finally arrives in the shape of the sci-fi melody towards the end, it feels triumphant and euphoric, like a big release. This is the sensation that I wanted to explore – an interplay between hypnotic repetition, unpleasant tension and climactic release. For me, this is more interesting right now than making regular verse-bridge-chorus songs (though I love simple and catchy music as well). It’s also the first time that I’ve mixed minor and major modes to this extent, resulting in some riffs having a strangely uplifting feel and a sense of weirdness to the tonality. But for some people, it definitely sounds „wrong“ to combine this with blasting drums and lots of distortion.
With all this in mind, it’s obvious that the album won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s totally fine. For those whose tastes are similar to mine and enjoy a certain quirkiness in music, I do think that it’s a great album.

As already mentioned, however, the album also contains „Noll Och Intet“, an ambient piece that sets itself apart from the other tracks and almost seems like a remnant of the first album. What is that about?
After seven songs of almost full-on mayhem, I thought of this track as a way of calming the senses a bit. I actually wasn’t sure whether to include it or not, since it in a way contradicts the idea of a short and 100% intense album, but at the end of the day it just seemed to fit. The music itself is based on some of the melodies in the previous songs played in reverse, but it’s probably impossible to hear since the sound is so processed and airy.

In our last interview you mentioned that you were planning to release a second and third album this year, of which one should sound like the debut and the other should sound rather different. Can you already give us some details about the upcoming third album?
The “rather different” album developed into “Sju Pulsarer”. As for the other material, I keep changing my mind since I’m not sure exactly how to present it. There might be 2-3 EP’s instead of one full-length album since the songs are extremely different from each other (ranging from catchy easy listening electronica to what best can be described as industrial noise) that it’s perhaps not optimal to put them together on the same release. Either way, the music is more or less ready and should definitely be out in some form next year.

Let’s end with a short brainstorming. What do you associate with the following things?
Music genres: Probably less relevant now than back in the day. When everyone can listen to everything in a matter of seconds, there’s less need to have genre definitions to let people know what they’re getting ahead of time.
Concept album: Usually hit or miss. Sabbat’s “Dreamweaver” is my fave, though it follows the storyline book that it’s based on very closely (as opposed to more abstract concept albums).
US presidential election: I normally don’t make socio-political commentary in interviews since there already are enough musicians doing just that, but my reply woudl be that the country remains very divided regardless of the outcome. I’m hoping for the best, but am enough of a cynic not to expect miracles out of anything.
„Never change a running system“: For some bands/projects, this is great. Many of my favourite bands have a very distinct style that doesn’t change much, whereas others create something new every time.
Abstract art: Some of my favourite paintings would be put in the “abstract” categore, but I admit to being more drawn towards this when younger.
Current favorite album: It changes weekly, but “Rex” by Vampire would be my current pick. Before that, Rome’s “The Lone Furrow”.

I would like to conclude by saying thank you very much for this interview. If you would like to say a few last words to the readers, you are welcome to do so at this point:
Thanks a lot for the interview! Your readers are of course very welcome to check the new album out.

Publiziert am 19. November 2020 von Stephan Rajchl