Dynazty
Ascension

21.08.2019

Архив интервью | Русская версия

In approximately 10 years of Swedish band Dynazty’s presence on the music scene, they have managed to release six full-length albums, to change their music style (arguably, not once!), to play numerous gigs across the Globe in Europe, Asia and the States, to sign the contract with AFM Records and to find themselves and their own truth. Just a few months after releasing their latest album “Firesign” in the fall of 2018, the band, as you will read below, has started writing new material, without making a proper break from touring – and we, in our editor’s office here, have no idea how the guys manage to do all these things without a time turner. New projects, past and future of the band – these are just some of the topics we discussed with Dynazty frontman Nils Molin, who also sings in another very active Swedish collective, Amaranthe.

So, let’s start with Dynazty. I know that everybody asked you many times about changing the band’s sound on the last three albums and especially on the latest one – “Firesign”. There is an opinion that it is a very drastic kind of change, but I was wondering how sequential was this mutation of the sound for you? Was it an evolution or revolution in your opinion?

I think that the biggest revolution of our sound that we made was on our 4th album, “Renatus”, back in 2014. And I think at that point it was pretty much of a drastic change: going from something that was considered to be more like a retro hard rock genre into something more modern. Then the album after that (“Titanic Mass”, 2016) we sort of continued in a more or less same vein, and then with the last album we took a few loose steps as well. For me it is never a conscious decision, it’s usually something that happens organically when we start writing songs. And the way you write songs is something that follows your character development or whatever: as you grow as a person you want to write music in a certain way. I think we always had that kind of freedom in Dynazty that we can write more or less any kind of style and even our fans are to some extend expecting us to do something different with each album.  

And it also, I assume, in some way depends on how exactly you do it – I noticed you had different guest producers at first and then on “Renatus” you did not have anyone and after that it was kind of different. Do you think this experience of inviting the exterior people helped to define what you want or don’t want to sound like?

I think that nowadays the only external help that we have more or less is when it comes to mixing the albums. Everything else we do pretty much by ourselves. I mean, the songwriting is done 100% by ourselves, but also the arrangements and all the song producing are 99.8% by ourselves. But we do have of course external people mixing the albums. We had Peter Tägtgren, we worked with him many times, he was involved with the latest album as well, even though not as much as he was with the album before. And then we worked with another guy who was the engineer when we recorded the “Firesign” album. And I guess this will always have some sort of an impact on an album. But overall, I think that we are kind of protective about our own vision. And it’s because of the early days of the band when we were, I guess, a little bit too young and a little bit too inexperienced to stand our ground and we let some people influence too much. I think that we suffered because of that. Because we did not get to develop our own character. So we are kind of protective about this nowadays.

So there is this kind of feeling that you understand now precisely what you don’t want because of some collaborations?


Sure. Yeah, you learn from bad experiences. And also there is the fact that we have been writing songs together for 10 years by now. We know exactly what we want and for sure outside influence can be a good thing, but we are also very critical of ourselves and we always look at our own stuff and try to see how we can improve it. At this point I do not see the need for having an outside opinion. Maybe later down the years – maybe then it can be a fresh thing to have. But at this point I don’t see how it can improve anything.

How do you usually write songs, do you guys sit together in one place or is it like everyone is all around the globe and you just somehow connect with each other?

Well usually first there is an idea – either it is coming from me or from Love (Magnusson, guitar, keyboards) or Mike (Laver, guitar). Then we send some ideas back and forth to each other and then we meet up and start putting the ideas together and write demos of the songs and at the same time we experiment with different arrangements and stuff like that.

And pardon me the stupid question – do I understand it right that it’s you who write all the lyrics?

I write the lyrics, yes.

The first song, which I heard from Dynazty was “Human Paradox” and I was very impressed with a “Step right into pandemonium” line. It was like: you could have said “hell”, but nooo.

Well yeah, first of all it has to fit into the melody, so you need to find the word that fits there. And I think it is more creative to use the word like “pandemonium” than “hell”…

Yeah, of course! It was just so not common! I even did a survey among my friends: how many people know what it means.

I am a big fan of lyrics that don’t repeat the same kind of phrases over and over again – those that you have in 1,000 pop or rock songs – whatever. Personally, I like the kind of lyrics that stands out. Of course, the words need to flow and they need to sound good in the song, but that does not mean you can’t have a kind of poetic touch to it. So that’s what I try to do. I try to find ways of saying stuff in a way that… grabs your attention!

Yeah-yeah, it’s really cool. I appreciate that. You have been busy with touring this year and “Firesign” came out last year, so I see you have a tendency to do an album once in two years or so. Do you have ideas about what’s gonna happen next? Do you think about the next album already or not yet?

Yeah, we do. We actually have written a lot of material for a new album. And we started all of it very fast, the fastest we ever worked. And of course, everybody says that, but it is for sure the best material that we’ve done! Everybody says that but…

…It’s true! (smiles)

…in this case I still have to say it, because that’s what I believe in – and I usually write music about these things! (laughs) No, but seriously, we started writing just to try out some ideas in the spring, and that turned into writing a lot of material. And now we are overflowing with material and there is a lot that is not gonna end up on the future album. But it’s pretty far gone. We are planning to try to record the album actually at the end of this year.

Oh wow!

So the things are moving pretty fast.

Yeah, sounds like it!

But there is no point in not doing it. If you have something that you really feel is good and the timing seems to be pretty good for you as well, there is no point in waiting anymore.

Yeah, it makes sense! This sounds exciting! By the way, you’re in 2 bands and I see that in recent months you had lots of gigs with both of them, there are even some dates clashes sometimes. And the albums as well – you were involved in recording Amaranthe’s new album “Helix” (2018) as well, and it kind of came out more or less simultaneously with “Firesign”.  So, how do you manage to keep this balance and to stay normal and alive with such schedule?


That’s a good question! (laughs) No, seriously speaking, I think I managed to combine the schedules very well, I almost surprised myself that it works. And despite being out a lot with both bands – and I mean Amaranthe is a very-very busy band, I am out touring with them a lot, - I still manage to work even harder for Dynazty now than I did before I joined Amaranthe! It gives me freedom – in a sense that when I am home, when I am not doing anything, I can put that time into Dynazty. And in terms of staying alive and all that – well (laughs), I mean, it is a busy schedule and this summer has been very-very hectic for me, I basically was out since early June until the beginning of August – with no breaks whatsoever. So that’s a long time, but I like it. It’s the life that I want. And I am young, I shall be able to do this for some time.

True. Speaking of touring, Amaranthe announced a tour with Sabaton and Apocalyptica for early 2020. How did it come about, do you know these bands personally, have you played with them before?

Yeah. I mean, I think that everybody in Amaranthe knows Sabaton. I toured with Sabaton with Dynazty years ago. We did four weeks together back in 2012. And I think that Amaranthe did a summer tour with Sabaton some years later. So we are very aware of each other, we know each other personally, and now we also have some acquaintances in the music business as well, who we are working together with. I think that it was something that came from Sabaton: they wanted to put together a tour package and they wanted to include Amaranthe. I think that’s how it came about.

And I know that you have joined Amaranthe on a permanent basis after you were performing with them for a while…

Yeah.

But how did you meet them for the first time?

I met Amaranthe for the first time back in 2012, when we did a couple of shows together with Amaranthe and Dynazty. Like it always happens in the music business, you meet each other and if you have a good time together you stay in contact a little. Or you run into each other at some later point – you know, it’s all very much of a social club in that sense. So, I was running into people from Amaranthe every now and then. I’ve spent a lot of time in Stockholm, where I met Henrik (Englund, another Amaranthe singer – ed.) many-many times. We’ve sort of been part of the same community in Stockholm. We stayed in contact and when they needed somebody to tour for them, they asked me. They had asked me a couple of times earlier, but the timing was not right at that point, but then finally it happened in 2017. And yeah.

And going even further into the past, how did you come into Dynazty?


Oh wow, yeah, that’s a long time ago! That was back in the days of the social community called MySpace, if you remember that.

Oh yeah! I do, these were grand times.


Yeah! I had a MySpace page and they were looking for a singer. Somehow they managed to find my page and listen to some demo that I had there and they contacted me and asked if I wanted to come down to Stockholm and audition for the band. And I did, so I went down there, and I met the guys. We played and they started talking about their plans and what they wanted to do and I thought that was a pretty cool thing that they had going. And it was a pretty serious band even though everybody was very young…

Who was there? Everyone who is there now, apart from Jonathan (Olsson, bass)?

No. Love and George (Egg, drums) – they were there from the start. And then there was another guitar player called John (Berg). He was there in the beginning and he stayed until we released the first album. So there were only Love and George at that point who are still in the band.

Did you do something before that? I mean, you had MySpace, but…

Nah, I was basically a teenager (laughs), I just finished high school when this happened. I was just in some local stuff, you know. Playing with some friends and then doing some concerts through school and stuff like that. So there was nothing serious before that.

Okay. May I just return to Amaranthe and ask. If I am not mistaken, I’ve read somewhere that you guys changed management recently and that now it’s Angela Gossow, who is from Arch Enemy. Is that correct?


It’s correct, yeah.

Do you feel any changes now? I mean, she is quite a legendary figure, I think.

Yes, she is. I mean, as you know, she has her past as an artist – as a singer in Arch Enemy. And after that she stepped down and became the manager for Arch Enemy instead…

But she only managed Arch Enemy, right?

Yes.

She is not like a manager, who manages a lot of bands.


She has some more stuff, but not something that is that active, I don’t think. But we were potentially looking for a new management and we heard that Angela Gossow was looking at the same time for another artist, because Arch Enemy are now running so smoothly that she has time for something else that she wants to try to build. And even more so, I think, there was somebody on the Gothenburg scene that connected us with her and then we started talks to see what the potential collaboration could look like. We’ve worked with her for about a year now and it’s a lot of fun in a sense that things are moving forward, the organization in Amaranthe has never been better, has never been tighter. So we’re very happy about this.

I know with Amaranthe you’ve been in Russia this spring, do you plan any gigs with Dynazty in Russia?

Yeah, at some point.

Hypothetically?

We are actually talking about it at this time. We don’t know exactly when it will happen. But we are in talks. As for now – we try to find the right places and time to go there.

How do you decide, which songs to play live? Does it ever happen that something does not sound that good live or vice versa – sounds better than you expected?

Yeah, both. (laughs) Sometimes you expect a song that you have on the album or whatever to sound really good live, then you go out and play it and it just does not do the trick as it does on the album! And then vice versa, you can have a song that’s not exactly a standout track on the album, but works really well live. You can never predict this, so the only way to know it is to try. Usually though you are pretty much spot on. But sometimes you discover that there is some song that just does not come across this well live. It can depend on many different factors. Just a simple thing like how the sound is different in a live PA than it is on a stereo or in headphones or whatever – this can change everything. It can sound really good on an album and then the band plays it perfectly live but it just does not come across as distinctly. The more simple songs usually sound better live. And it’s because it’s easier for the audience to hear it. So it can go either way. A song that you did not believe in can be fantastic live and a song that you really believed in can turn out to not work that well.

Fair enough. I also wanted to ask if there will be more videos off “Firesign”?


Not off “Firesign”, no.

Off the new material then?


Yeah, there would be – off the new album there definitely will be more videos. But not out of this album at this point.

Yeah, it’s a pity you guys don’t have that many.

Yeah, we intend to change it. That’s the plan. For the next album we gonna make sure that there will be more done.

We have started talking about this, but I somehow interrupted myself. I also wanted to ask about you. Have you studied music or are you self-taught?

I did go to a music high school, or whatever it’s called, where we studied all kinds of – you know, music history, music theory. And I had some singing lessons, but they were not really like rock singing or anything. They were more classical singing or musical singing. And we also had a lot of choir singing and stuff like that.

What is a music high school actually? You mean, like a specialized school, where they teach music in addition to usual subjects?

Yeah, it’s like a normal high school, but a little specialized with extra focus on music. So, I went to the high school like that. But in terms of singing and rock singing I consider myself to be fully self-taught. The only singing lessons I ever had was – you know – with classical music and stuff like that.

And do you play any instruments?

Yeah, I can play guitar – pretty well. And I can play a little piano. But not much.

Okay, so, the last question. I always ask everyone about that: I just want to have an opinion, because I once had an argument with one musician about it and I still want to know who thinks what. So, will vinyl records survive everything or are they gonna disappear as everything?


As it looks now, they are surviving. In some territories they sell more vinyls than they sell CDs, for example. I mean, the rock audience is conservative. And I say that in a very good way. They still want to experience music with a full package – many of them. Like, to get the full album, to get the full artwork, to sit down with a booklet and all these and to listen to the whole album from start to finish. And I don’t think there is any better experience than having a vinyl in this sense. I know for bands in general they sell very well – both in the merchandise stands and online, and special editions sell out, so at this point I think that they will survive. The CDs might not live on that much longer, but if there is something that will survive it will be the vinyl.

Dynazty on the Internet: http://www.dynazty.com/

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova (AFM Records) for arranging this interview

Interview by Olga Stebleva
Live photos by Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Promo photos courtesy of AFM Records
August 8, 2019
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