Interview // 2023-02-07

In Mourning

In Mourning is a band that is my go-to, ever since I first heard their latest release, The Bleeding Veil. The album made me a fan and moved me to check out the rest of their catalogue. I find myself always drawn to the atmosphere they create. I feel like they have been getting me through. It is music like this, with its different layers and emotions, that reminds me what music is all about.

The band has been busy with their live album, a remastered version of Shrouded Devine on both CD and vinyl, a newly re-imagined version of Blood in the Furrows, and live gigs.

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to know how things are going for them, and what other kinds of plans are ahead, so I reached out.

I had the pleasure of talking to guitarists Björn and Tim. Here is our conversation.

How are you guys doing?

BJÖRN PETTERSSON: Fine.

TIM NEDERGÅRD: Yeah, it's fine, it's super, you know, it's good vibes in the studio.

That sounds exciting to hear you are in the studio. So, it sounds like good things are on their way?

TIM: Yes, definitely.

BJÖRN: We are recording a new song, actually, which will be out sometime later. As soon as we can get it done and out, I guess.

TIM: Soon, I think.

That's great to hear! I guess composition can take time. Is it fair to say it is an ongoing process, or do you take time specifically to concentrate on it? 

TIM: Usually, by our measurements. We recently had an album out, The Bleeding Veil. Creativity takes a dip afterwards, when you get everything done.

BJÖRN: In some ways it's like a neverending thing, all the time, ongoing, but it's ups and downs, and after we are done with an album, it's definitely a big down, for a while.

TIM: SInce we haven't made that many live shows and all. So, Tobbe had some cool riffs going on and we said hey, just make a song of it, and we go and record.

BJÖRN: We have never really done that because usually we make a whole album, and it's a huge process. You put everything into it, and then you are really out of inspiration for a while after. And now it is just like, we are doing one song. It's a fun thing to try to do that different.

You all have home studios, too?

TIM: Yeah, we can do everything at home if we want to, but it's also fun to get out of the house, and get into the zone with the boys. To go into a real professional studio and just hang out. 

BJÖRN: I think also, we have had some shows and some shows got cancelled because it is still very upside-down. So, this is also a fun weekend being away in the studio to make a song.

I am sure people will be glad to hear it! Since the release of The Bleeding Veil, you have definitely kept yourselves busy. I feel like putting out the live album was a really good move for you guys. You put on quality live shows. Some bands can't do that; they aren't great live. Why do you guys think you do so well live?

TIM: Oh, thank you very much, first of all. That live album we put out, I really liked that studio, the vibe and everything about it, and I really wanted to get back there and do something. We knew that if we were going to get back to record a new album, it will take years to get back there. We were so blown away about the response from all the people out there, on the The Bleeding Veil album. We wanted to go back and make something cool, for appreciation and stuff as well. So, when we made that live, it was a lot of rehearsing at home. We really like to play and we all like when it sounds good, so you gotta put the effort in. If one band doesn't play as good live, maybe they haven't put as much effort in, I don't know. 

BJÖRN: No, but it's also, live is the apex of fun, for the band. It has always been about that. Now we don't rehearse as a band so much, we live wider apart and we've got different stuff. But we have been playing in a live setting. That is how we have been playing all the time, and that may be why it works good to play live. Everybody really likes doing that. Playing live in a studio is definitely different than playing live on a stage.  

TIM: Maybe that is something that lays the foundation, when you have been growing up in a rehearsal space. It was the first time, it should be said that we were recording live, the entire band. Otherwise, you punch in parts, and you do the guitars and drums and everything.

BJÖRN: We did also release earlier a little EP of live recording from a show we did. That's a different thing but you are just doing a gig. You prepare mentally for that, and you unleash that gig and then it just happens to be recorded, and you just see what happened. But when you are in a studio, you are really aware that you are going to be recorded. 

TIM: Yeah, and we wanted to do it the right way, so the only way to get it done right is to play well.

Your finished product comes out very naturally, like you know how to use each member's best qualities. Is it as natural as it seems?

TIM: It's a lot of fighting. We like our stuff of course, and I guess when you fight for your will and what you feel, and want, in some certain way, if you go that long road, In Mourning will happen. 

BJÖRN: We are very different in our musical tastes and everything, so we have been bashing our heads together a lot of times, of course. We have been playing together for a long time, and with time, we find our natural place as well. So, you kind of know what the other guys are going to do or think or say.

TIM: Even before they do or say stuff. The essence is to have a good time and make good songs. The best part of everything is that people actually care about what we do, now. I feel blessed for having that. It's a good view to do all the bashing of the heads to get a good song, or a good show. Everything is fun.

BJÖRN: I also think that, at least from the last album we made and now, we have also begun caring for the fun of it. You get really into the performance and everyone needs to perform everything their very best, you know, we need the best results from everything. It is easy to forget fun. You are really pushing everything all the time, and then, I mean, we still push but we also care for having a good time while doing it, which I think is important.

You were talking about how you are into different music. Something I really like about In Mourning is that you are not definable. So, there is groove, emotion, changes of pace, atmosphere, harshness, and softness. Do you feel like this is a conscious effort, or it is more like you were saying, there are so many different representations with the different people in the band, and that is just naturally what happens?

TIM: If you compose a song and you write a riff, I feel like I can think, okay, this is going to have too fast a vibe for Tobbe, he doesn't want it like this. So, I will try to make the riff with his taste in mind. The same goes with Björn and all the other guys, because I know what they like. The same comes with lyrics and all. When we write, we kind of tweak, because you know, in the back of your head, what the other guys would say, and probably what they like. I know if we were only by ourselves, and only ourselves in mind, the music and everything will sound different 'cause we are creating in realms of In Mourning. 

BJÖRN: I think, too, time comes into it again. Earlier we probably bashed our heads together more and we had a lot of, like, I want it to be faster, and this guy wants it to be slower, and this one wants it to be softer, and this guy wants it to be heavier. And it has been really important to have everything, and now I think it is just in the DNA of the band. We are really used to that. So, I think it's more about is this good or is this not? But it is constantly there.

You have someone who does a really good job on your videos. Jonas, she did some of your videos, live stuff, and some things in the past. What was that experience like, and how did you find her? 

TIM: Me and Tobbe are neighbours and she lives like two minutes' walk from us. How we found out about her, it's a super small village and she makes super great photos. We wanted to take some photos, and then we were like, hey, do you want to get into filming stuff? You know music videos and all this, and she said, of course, I want to start with that. Okay, let's make something. 

BJÖRN: It is kind of a part of what became a big thing around the last album we did. There's been so much, you know, you record stuff at home and you send it across the world to some other guy who processes the sound and you hire someone to make a video in another corner of the world. It's really practical with all the digital stuff, but we wanted embrace all the super-talented, nice, friends around us back home, who are really good. In a lot of ways with the last album we really wanted to bring stuff home and make stuff with people we know. It's also a really fun thing to do that.

TIM: It's not just she is making a music video for us; she is making a music video with us, and we are making a video with her. It's also her creation. I like that approach to work, 'cause it gets the creativity flowing when we have something, and she has something, and together we make something new.  

It is very quality. Nothing amateur about it.

TIM: Happy to hear that. That is a cool thing. She doesn't listen to heavy metal. She knows now.

Tell me about the experience of reimagining Blood in the Furrows. What was that like to hear your song rearranged with the additions of many musicians and instruments?

TIM: It was magical. The musicians were so talented. The guy who wrote the string arrangements is living in Falun. It's just so complex, at least for us. We don't know anything that happens with all those arrangements and everything. And to hear that live with the musicians, in studio, was just amazing.

BJÖRN: You don't really grasp that it's happening to your song, either. It is really weird. It feels really big. Alexander, who remixed the thing, is playing bass with us and he is a good friends. He recorded all the guitars for the album, so it's like everything fell together. We recorded the strings in the studio where we played live and with a lot of people. It all goes around, with a lot of great people, and a lot of great stuff happening. A super cool thing.

Obviously, fans are essential because they are consuming the art that you create. Can you tell me about a time a fan shared the impact that your music had on them?

TIM: Yeah, for sure you know, without people listening to the music or coming to the shows, I mean, what would that be? Playing live for me is the essence. It's the biggest thing. It's hard to take in when people reach out and say, "Hey, your music got me through the day today". I mean I do it myself, you know. I use music to go through hard times in life and all. I have a hard time to see it about myself, though. 

BJÖRN: I mean there are times when people have said it's gotten them through hard times, and it's surreal. I mean the natural reaction is like, ack... Because you don't really see it that way. It's beautiful, and it's wonderful that it means a lot to people. It's flattering, I guess.

I often go to songs for different moods, for example when I am excited or I am upset. Can you give me an example of a song you might go to for a specific mood?

TIM: Yeah, of course it depends. Sometimes, I am in a heavy metal phase and I listen a lot to death metal and all, so I could put on some of that. But usually I can put on some country music when I just want to listen to something other than distorted guitars. It's actually a pop song, Brad Paisley. If I put him on, you listen to the lyrics. With country music it's really dark lyrics sometimes, and I can find comfort in the lyrics. And also, I can find comfort in good melodies and tones; then I would listen to melodic death, maybe. It depends, if I want to listen to lyrics, I don't listen so much to heavy metal. I will listen to something else. Tone-wise, I go to death metal or something. 

BJÖRN: It is interesting, you know. You definitely go to different stuff for different moods. I don't so much listen to metal music at home now. I really enjoy that, but it is a lot of softer stuff. I have been listening to some Nick Cave albums, letting some sadness out, and it has really a really good impact. Again, it all depends on the mood - but it's always music. I mean, if I come home and I feel really good, I put on some kind of music. You always put on some kind of music to enhance your mood.

We were talking about how you got to get out and play some live music. How was that experience after so long not being able to?

TIM: It felt like wild animals being kept and released... I felt like a happy cow running to a field. 

BJÖRN: They have this thing in summer here when they release the cows out in the green fields so they can eat. They are kicking and jumping, really happy.

Do they really do that? Around here I have only seen one cow that was kind of running. 

BJÖRN: It's a thing here, I think. Release the cows! That's how we felt.

TIM: I have seen it with horses as well. And also, dangerously aware that I haven't been playing live for a long time. And I was like, "Fuck can I actually do this? Do I know how to put on a show?"

BJÖRN: Definitely. I mean it's still embedded with some frustration. It's still kind of hard; you hear a lot of the tickets aren't selling as good, everything is expensive. It seems like a hard thing, still.

TIM: That's the not so sexy side of things. There are still struggles. 

BJÖRN: We can focus on the happy cow side of things.

Let's go back to your roots, a bit. You guys are from the same general area? When did you meet? Where did you meet the band?

TIM: You started in the band before me.

BJÖRN: Both of us haven't really been part from the very beginning, but the band is very old. The first demo that In Mourning put out in some way is from the year 2000. Then they put out some more demos. I joined before the last demo, and you joined after the last demo. 

TIM: So we are both from the start of the album era, when we started putting out albums. They needed guitarists when we started. Tobbe wanted to get together with my cousin, and that's why I am in the band.

BJÖRN: I mean we have been living, all of us, from the same area. But haven't really hung out so much earlier, before joining the band. It's a small place. My girlfriend knew Tobias' girlfriend and we happened to meet up and we liked a lot of the same music. And one day he was like, "Hey you should try out for guitar with the band." That was when we started having three guitars, and since then we have been playing. And now, people move and have different lives and stuff, but we are from the same area.

When did you pick up an instrument and know that music was what you wanted to do? What age would you have been?

BJÖRN: I actually started playing drums for a short while. Very short. It's not there. But an instrument, in Sweden, when you were small did you have to play the flute for a while in school?

TIM: Yeah, but I didn't do that. I wanted to play guitar, so I said fuck block flute. But I played violin. 

BJÖRN: Kind of guitar...

TIM: I think I went like a couple of classes and then I quit because I also was into drums. I wanted to be a drummer. And I remember, I was six or seven or something and my parents were having a dinner and I was jamming to the music they were playing on cans, you know. I built my own drum kit with cans. And then I remember my step-father told me, hey, why be a drummer when you can play guitar, and be the center of all parties, instead of being the drummer? No one wants to hear about the drums. They want to hear about guitar.

BJÖRN: When did you start the guitar? 

TIM: I started strumming cords at nine years or eight years or something.

BJÖRN: I was probably twelve or something.

So, just a few questions for fun. What's the first name that comes to mind, if you could bring back a musician or a band from the '60s?

BJÖRN: Oh, shit, I don't really have that. 

TIM: The first one I think of is Elvis Presley. It would be fun to see what that guy would have been doing in more recent times. That would be really nice! He was a cool dude. 

What about the '70s?

BJÖRN: Those are hard questions. 

TIM: I think of Hendrix. 'Cuz he was fairly young when he went away, and I am a guitar nerd. In the guitar community, Hendrix is like the holy grail, and everybody is worshiping him. Guitarists from all ages, trying to play Hendrix licks and they are like 60 years old, play guitar their whole life, and they are worshiping a guy that didn't hit 30. What a god-like player, and how would that have evolved? That would be epic to know. 

BJÖRN: I think a lot of people would be interested in that.

What about the '80s? And we'll end in the '90s.

BJÖRN: A lot of stuff that did good stuff, now that you are getting further ahead in time, a lot of the bands that did good stuff in the '80s and '90s are still around, and still doing stuff.

TIM: I can't think of anyone.

BJÖRN: Bruce Springsteen is still there. A lot of the '80s metal bands are still there.

TIM: What would happen if Kurt Cobain would have still wandered this earth, with the grunge and all? Because the grunge killed everything I liked. 

BJÖRN: Although there's a lot of things, if you could reverse it a little bit and go back in time, to see something in the '80s, it would be really good to go back seeing that again.

I am noticing a lot of bands coming out lately that have that sort of '80s influence like that, pop with metal. There is a lot of that coming out.

TIM: I am all into shredding the guitar and all and the golden days, the late '80s and all, so I think maybe that is something bands like, also.

BJÖRN: The snare sound. The snare drum. Could bring that back!

Well, thank you very much for getting together with me, and I wish you well with your recording and all that's coming up. You guys have been busy, and I am glad.

BJÖRN: Thank you.

TIM: For sure. It was fun to talk to you and all. Really appreciate that.

BJÖRN: Yeah, we are going to go back into the recording room. Tobbe is back on guitars as we speak. 

Have a great rest of your night. Take care!

Playlist Pick

After interviewing In Mourning, I decided to add the song Sovereign to my playlist.