"It's difficult when you are five individuals that want to do similar stuff, but not exactly the same stuff."

Metal Covenant talked to vocalist, guitarist and main man Tom S Englund about the new Evergrey album A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament).

Tobbe: A new album. I just say heavy, emotional and a little progressive. Is there any other way to describe an Evergrey album, really?

Tom: No, that was actually a pretty good description. What might I add to that? Well, maybe a little bit more riff and guitar driven this time in comparison to the last one [Escape Of The Phoenix]. But I don't know. I don't compare stuff in a way like that, but people have a need to compare, you know. But it's a new Evergrey album, not long after the previous one.

Tobbe: As I listen to the new record there's really no question about it that it's Evergrey that I hear. Do you feel that you always have to write in the Evergrey vein?

Tom: Well, I do. It's like you have to respect the thing, you know. But at the same time Evergrey is so broad so there's almost nothing we can't put into Evergrey. Sure, if we would suddenly have a song that sounds like AC/DC it would be really peculiar, you know.

But I think we don't have any limitations whatsoever and I immediately feel if something doesn't fit. And that's a great thing about being part of this band, that you can do almost what you want to, and then it passes through our five filters as musicians and becomes Evergrey.

Tobbe: It's that distinct Evergrey aura. With your own sensitive hands and the rest of the guys it seems to just get that certain atmosphere.

Tom: We did a cover once, a song you shouldn't actually do, of Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and that one sounds like Evergrey too. So something is there. We have our sound and I guess we know what that means. But sure, on this new record we take steps aside and to new directions as well, but never to the point where we get lost and disappear from the original idea, you know. If you like Evergrey you will love this record, I think.

Tobbe: Is it hard for you to love this record already? Well, I guess it's not so new to you because it was quite some time since you recorded it, but anyway.

Tom: But I love the process. I love making it. And then it becomes a different thing to me when we play the songs live later. That's the thing to me. I maybe listen to a record once or twice after it's completely done. At that point I think it's cool to know it's done, and then I'm onto the next record.

Tobbe: So you're thinking about the next one already and you have put out 13 full length Evergrey albums. Have you ever been thinking about how the hell that has been possible to do?

Tom: Well, it's a little bit strange to think about it. In '93 I made the first demo, you know. Next year it's 30 years ago. It's kind of sick, really. I would never have thought I would still do this. And the last one, Escape Of The Phoenix, was our biggest commercial success so far, you know. It did better than any of the other records we have ever done before. And that happened on the 12th record, so we were like, "What the hell just happened now?".

Tobbe: I guess that just confirms that your old fans still hang around and that new fans come into the fold continuously.

Tom: Yes, that's the way it really is. And we know that, statistically speaking, almost 75 percent of our fanbase today is from 2014 and forward. So our curve has moved slowly upwards all the time and as 2014 came it suddenly started going up really fast. And that's great of course. People say that longevity pays off in the end, and I never believed in that, but now it feels like that. [Laughs]

Tobbe: In what way do you look at your own and the band's growth over the years?

Tom: About the band I think we have found a format now during the last five records where we don't feel threatened by anything, and there's no ego in that sense, or, you know, "I must have this riff on the record.". But what makes the best song is what ends up on the record. And we have written eight records before those records to realize that.

It's difficult when you are five individuals that want to do similar stuff, but not exactly the same stuff. So we have become really good at making the package Evergrey. We know how it's working, and the way it sounds, and what we're going to do to get there. On a personal level I have made so many different things that constantly color my musicianship.

I'm in three bands, really, and I make music for games, and I'm on fans' recordings. I simply make music, you know. I write music, and almost never listen to music, because I only listen to what I work with. [Laughs]

Tobbe: As such an experienced musician, do you really need some inspiration today to start working or is it just like "Push the Go-button and get to work!"?

Tom: It's a little bit of both. I have to push Go. It's like going to work. You must do that. And there the inspiration comes. But of course it's helpful if you have a vision of a concept, or whatever. When we recorded the album Storm Within we had only stormy seas on three or four TV screens in the studio, because we wanted to get into a mindset where it would be easy to push play when we would return on the next day.

It's not like anything comes for free, because each song is just as difficult to write as the previous one. It never becomes easier, in that sense. You have to go down to the mine. Well, at least I need to. I need to get inspired. Well, of course I could write a riff, absolutely, but it must feel good too. It's music where there's both heart and thought behind it all the time.

Tobbe: Although it's maybe art to write a song, it's a whole different form of art to write a good song.

Tom: Yes, and you write a whole lot of riffs and melodies that don't end up on a record. But that's music that needs to be written for you to be able to write the songs that end up on a record in the end. Go to work, and then you start working, you know.

And then maybe that particular day brings you nothing, but that's all good, because when that day is over you have gone through one of the two or three days that are like that during an album production. You know, days where you don't get anything down on tape, so to speak. It's music that we won't use, but it's not something undone, because it's music that paves the way for what's to come.

Tobbe: You're turning 50 next year and with all these records in your back catalogue I would say that you're soon a veteran on the scene. How the hell does that feel?

Tom: [Laughs] That feels terrible. But the funny thing is that strictly mentally I'm still in the same place as when I was 21. I still aim at taking over the world. It's no difference whatsoever. Well, I have become better at what I do and not insecure about the circumstances anymore, but otherwise it's just more focused in a way.

It would have been different if we would have reached our peak and were on our way down. Then it would maybe have been easy to step away, because there must be some dignity in it as well, you know.

But we're on the opposite side of that now and we were for example on the 11th or 12th place in the German charts. We have never even reached top 40 there before. It was, like, us and Rammstein, and then just Justin Bieber and stuff like that. You know, it's hard to comprehend. And it's hard and diligent job and our perseverance that opened that door in a way.

And on top of that having the old fanbase still with us, and the new, is amazing. So we have never turned our back on them and no one has left us. Well, I guess a few individuals have done that, but, you know. And it's not like people are disappointed when we play the new songs, but the old fans love the new songs as well. So, that is the, you know, accomplishment.

Tobbe: A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) is a pretty long title, although the second half is a subtitle. What lies beyond this title, to yourself?

Tom: A Heartless Portrait is more or less a summary of how I look at my own writing of lyrics, where I write about myself for soon to be 30 years. Well, 25 for records at least. It's kind of an omnibus of that, I think. The Orphean Testament is kind of me toying with how I looked at Orpheus and his declaration of love to his wife Eurydice.

The symbolism to me is when he has the chance to save her from hell. The one thing he needs to do is to look straight forward, but he turns around because he can't resist his own short-term desires or thoughts. And that's the way I see humanity today. So that's what it symbolizes to me. And more thoughts about the title I didn't have. Well, possibly that there's a previous album called Phoenix, and now Orpheus, so it's Greek mythology. Maybe there will be a third one. [Laughs] Well, I don't know.

Tobbe: It's only about 15 months since Escape Of The Phoenix was out. Has your productivity increased because of the pandemic?

Tom: Yes, absolutely. And I also think that somewhere I have made some kind of neuropsychological world breakthrough, where I have realized that the part of my brain that is creative is enlarging the more I write. I think that's what happens strictly neurological in the head too, but you need a neurosurgeon or a neuropsychologist to check that.

I've done two Evergrey albums, two Silent Skies albums, one Redemption album, an album with a band called Dovorian, probably 30 fan recordings, four video games, etcetera. I have great people to work with of course. So I don't do everything myself.

Tobbe: Regarding not doing everything yourself. A live album, Live: Before The Aftermath, was recently out. Just a few months ago, on AFM, which is your previous label. You're on Napalm now. It's taken from a live stream from the summer of 2020. Tell me a little bit about that record, although we're in a different situation now with a new studio album.

Tom: Well, it was very strange. I received an email about us hitting the charts. I didn't even now that it had been released. [Laughs] You know, since we had switched record company… You know, now we're talking to new people. But it was a thing we did in the beginning of the pandemic, simply because we wanted to do something. We got an opportunity to do that with a good film team.

There were 50 people in the room, so it was an integral difference than to what we're used to. Already at that point it was a long time since we played live. And this was in June of 2020 and it felt like we hadn't played live for ages.

So it was really cool just to get to meet people again. So we recorded it and streamed it all over the world and people were very happy with that gig. So I think it made sense to release it and now there is at least one positive thing coming out of this pandemic. And two Evergrey albums as well.

Tobbe: And how do you feel about that live album since you didn't get the chance to lead or be in control as you perhaps usually are?

Tom: You know, what you hear is what it was. People could compare with their own copies. I mean, there are people who can record when we're streaming. But I don't know. I don't think so much about things we release. I know that it felt really well during that evening when we played. And it sounds good, and looks really good, and I guess that's all you need.

Tobbe: My initial thoughts with this live album were, "It's on their previous record company. Now they're on Napalm on the next one. Okay, they had one album left on their contract with AFM and this is what came out of that.".

Tom: No, it wasn't like that. Escape Of The Phoenix was the last one we did. The live album was recorded before Escape Of The Phoenix. So it's outside of that contract actually.

Tobbe: So how about earning some money on that album?

Tom: I actually asked about that deal yesterday. We got some clearing yesterday and it read, you know, there are some numbers who say, "You owe us this and that much money.", you know. And I was like "How do we owe them money? We didn't get an advance for that record.". So I don't know. But according to them we owe them a couple of hundred.

The business part isn't so fun to deal with. And especially when you're in a creative period. I'm not there right now, but when you are you don't want to deal with that whatsoever. And this is something that record companies are aware of, and that's why they stick their nose in stuff and contracts are written in those periods. When you don't have the energy, you know.

Related links:

www.facebook.com/evergrey
www.instagram.com/evergreyofficial
twitter.com/evergreysweden