Inside Firespawn: From Swedish Death Metal Icons to Wacken Festival Glory

0:04 Hi, you have done to rue for wow, for you you. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures of Pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Victor from Firespawn. And Alex Impader from Firespawn. Nice here at fucking good to be here. Thanks for having us. Oh, I'm glad to have you here. I'm glad to be on the holy ground. That's enough for me. Exactly on holy ground, you know, exactly, that's the way it should be called, you know. But even we know in the States, this as the festival of the whole world.

0:49 Yeah, definitely, it's such an honor to be here, and for us, we're here honoring our late singer Alga Petrov. He passed away in cancer five years ago this year and uh and it was like a big deal festival for him, and walking was there for him when he passed away, sent flowers to the funeral and that's so cool, super cool. Like, I don't know any other festival that would do that, to be honest, you know, maybe they would do it for a I don't know, like fucking Judas Priest, But like, I don't know any other festival that would care enough to do that. Yeah, and during the pandemic they helped musicians and crew as well.

1:32 Actually, oh my god, I see that's so cool, Like, you know. For the Stockholm Doesn't the scene, LG were like Judas Priests. You know, he was an icon and a fucking hero and the Stockholm Doesntal scene nice. You know, countless of bands has tried to copy what he did. You know, he was a big deal. But it felt good. When Victor and I attended the funeral and we saw flowers from wucking open air. Wow, it felt really good. Yeah. I would be blown away if it were made. I would never expect that wouldn't happen in the United States, you know. So how many times have you guys played voking with firestpawn?

2:19 This is the first. Actually I played here with Entombed and Demi Borger and the Witchery as well, but not with fire Spawn. So maybe it's going to be a tradition. I think the last time I was here was twenty fifteen with Naglfar Nice. So how did you guys end up together doing this fire Spawn thing? It was like we were in similar situations with Entombed. We had the l G and Alex had I'm assuming all problems that they didn't really dress. They got like a big problem over the years, and there were a situation when there was like an issue about the name and tomb. Then there was like two it developed in the two versions of the band and Toomed then and Tom Dad, and it was quite un sexy, to be honest.

3:18 Yeah, I hate that crap. Yeah, yeah, it really sucked. So me and LG and the old guys, I would say, but we really wanted just to play music like death metal and stuff. So I had some songs and we were like, let's do something. And Alex you had like similar situations with Necrophobic at the same. Time, Yeah, because our singer at the time was locked up in prison, so to say. So, yeah, actually quite interesting because I talked with LG to do something new and fresh, a bit more aggressive and not the typical Stockholm sounds ish, and he told me that I should get in contact with Victor because he and Victor had this conversation, you know, just at the same time.

4:12 Coincidence. So when I called Victor and said that, you know, I had the same kind of conversation with LG as you did. Let's do something together. Nice and yeah, so it was. And apparently Victor had like ten eleven songs already written and done, so we had the whole album already done by Victor before we even started the band, you know, because I was fucking prepared. I love that. That's great. Ye. It was the three of us, so I think about two years something like that, and then Frederick Volker joined because he played in Ecrophobic at the time as I did, so I asked him if he want to join because I wanted his type of solos. And then later Victor talked to when he was in Gothenburg recording drums for Raised Fists.

5:08 But we knew he were previously in Dark Funerals. We knew that he was fast as a fucking shark, you know, the kind of drummer that you wanted your Firestbonn. So yeah, for two years we checked checked our options in the musicians, and yeah, it's like I think we found the best ones. It's kind of like you're like a super group in my opinion. Uh oh, it's kind of like your supergroup in my opinion. You know. You know a lot of people say that, and you know, it's it's a it's a compliment, no question about it.

5:51 But I'd like to see Firestbon as a group of friends that's more like to hang out and liked the kind of music that we play, and we do play in other bands, and we are non musicians in the Swedish scene. So. For people on the outside, it could seem like a supergroup, but that was never our intention. I don't think it should ever be that intention, Like you said it right, like it should be fun, yeah, and it should be for musicianship. Yeah. You know, we are a group of friends who really enjoy hanging out together and play the kind of music that we really enjoy both playing on stage and listening into at home on the stereoid.

6:33 You know, that's the only way it should be. And I think that's why you're at Vakin because Vakin is a certain kind of community and we're all friends. Definitely, definitely. Yeah, it's as you said, see you know friends and like life as similar sort of people. Like when we were sound checking today line checking, I saw people frontroll waiting for the show, and I in my instant thought was like, yeah, that's that's me standing in the front troll. It's like I could be there, you know, we're all the same. But one other thing that came to mind with Firespawn is that even though all of us are in different bands at the same time, it it doesn't mean that it's like an obstacle or a problem sort of thing. It's we're actually used to being in active bands and scheduling with different bands and stuff, so it's actually kind of helpful. We don't have any jobs that's you know, taking up our time.

7:33 And do you think too that it makes it even more interesting and more fun that you don't have to do the same thing all the time by having being in different bands that you can like can explore and all your different wants and musicianship in different ways. Exactly likely for us was a blank canvas and with fire Spawn and they're like, really, you know, fun to do something that we haven't done before. Right, So what was your both of you, what was the first time what happened where you knew death metal is what you wanted to do? Oh very early, Like I remember heard the side for the first time and that was like like like wow, this is for me, Like this is so brutal, this is so cool for me, Like d Side, Morbid indod and Candle Corpse. It's like the like three major bands that really shaped me. Nice and Suffocation of Death as well, of course, and that's a lot of little bands. US is amazing for death metal Sweden as well, and the bunch of Polish death metal bands the great as well.

8:50 So I was, I don't know, ten or eleven. I think it was quite early on, and of. You, yeah, I remembered quite clearly. I think I was eleven or twelve, and I heard the Sebatura album Kosad that was like a musical fucking bitch slap. I kid you not. That was what the fuck. Is this right? The most brutal thing I've ever heard. So then there I knew that this is the kind of music I want to do, and you know what, this is absolutely insane. Like thirty years later, Max Cavalilera rated his ten top songs that he wish he wrote, and I kid you not, guess which song is on his top ten list tell us the Emperor, Yeah, the Emperor with firez Pong.

9:47 Wow. Yeah, So like there's not much more cred you can get the next. Exactly, my childhood idol has our song on his top ten list. You know that was that's insane, pretty insane, that's totally insane. Yeah. So my first introduction was this band that was in the they were in the beginning, and I saw them at the first crossover show ever. I saw them at the first crossover show ever where punks and metal heads could be in the same room. Because like back when I was a teenager, if you were a long hair you couldn't go to a punk show, and if you were a punk, you couldn't go a metal show. And there was a place of Sun Valley Sportsman's Lodge, which was like an Elks lodge. It wasn't a venue, no security, and it had three punk bands, three metal bands. The three punk bands were coc pre Pepper, they were hardcore punk, The Descendants and Suicidal before they crossed over. Okay, on the metal side, it was just Span Savage Grace. They were a fresh band. They toured with Motorhead, but they never really got like, you know, big dark Angel And then you read for the headliner, I'll show it to you.

11:06 Look at the bottom of the back of my eighties metal vest Battle Vest, Oh, Persistent, yep. They were the headliner in the very beginning of Possess and I was like, oh, my fucking god, as it was like it's epic, you know, set I think it was before even seven Churches came out, you know, and it was like, you know, cause in my time, it had to graduate. There was no thrash in the beginning, you know, the heaviest stuff was made in in priests. And then Slayer Metallica came out and I was at their first shows ever, and then I saw it Possessed and to me, it blew both of them away. And I loved Slayer, favorite band, but yeah, Possessed took it to a whole other level. Yeah, so that's really cool, awesome. So what what do you have going on next? After Vadkin? How you top vaking? You can't really top vokin, right.

12:10 Yeah, well that's hard to top. But next weekend we will play at parties on in Germany and Alcatraz I think is Belgium. So we have two good festival shows next weekend, and then we play I think I think it's the weekend after that also at Cheltenbach, Okay in Austria. Cool, and then we have a Swedish festival later this fall. You mentioned Gothenburg. By the way, I played hockey on Bondi field. You played bondy No, I played hockey like I went. I was in Gothenburg and they had a Bondi field, but we had a bunch of hockey games we were playing, like there were like twelve hot I never saw a Bondi field.

13:04 So you play hockey on a Bondi field. Yeah, And I was like, Swede, that's insane, I know, I'm like that. I couldn't believe how big it was. Yeah, oh my god. You know it's like it's way bigger than a hockey field. Oh yeah, way bigger than an American football field. Even like it was we had twelve hockey games going on on the one field. You know, imagine the bandy ball is super small, way smaller than a hockey puck. Really yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Because I never played it, I would like to play it though, you know. Because it's a super fast game. I love that. See, I love that. It's like metal, you know exactly. And so you're also a tattoo artist.

13:49 I am, so. Is that arm your left arm? Is that that reverse thing? I just found out about it, Like, instead of blacking out your arm, it's like the reverse. I don't know whether it's it's termed. I forgot what it's termed. That's the right term. But it's kind of is because I had a sleeve on this arm before, which I did in the nineties, so it didn't look look very cool, so to say. But it was North themed sleeve with all the North gods. But my wife is also a tattoo artists, which I have my studio together with. Well that's he did a complete makeover and cover up on my arm.

14:35 That's why it's so dark. So I like it though. Here that is brilliant right there. I was looking at that that I've been staring at me at the whole erand. The eye of odin nice and there's things underneath here, but you can't really see it because everything is so dark. Yeah, but I think it looks cool actually, Like I think that looks cooler than just blackie your arm. Oh yeah, for sure. And that's what I like about. You know, blackout isn't really my thing. I like blessed overs, but I still like, you know, see some kind of motive on the arm, not not just.

15:19 A pitch black blackouts. Yeah, you gotta have some kind of ordistry, right, you know, because that's what it is. It's art, yeah, exactly, you know, so tell everybody how they can check out all fire Spun stuff. Buy your merch because they can't listen to my show. And let's say buy your merch, and also tell them, you know about how they can contact you for tattoo art too. Yeah, well, I think easiest way is to go to Instagram, to the fire Spawn official Instagram and if you want to buy our merch, we have. That at helloil dot. Com is it's dot com slash fires bomb, I think.

16:04 And if you're interested to see what I do tattoo wise, you can go to the Morbid Impalement tattoo. All love that name. That's so metal. Yeah, it's a wordplay, you see, because it's my wife, Ida Morbida and I'm the impaler, so morbid in payment. That's so cool. Did you meet her at the tattoo shop or they just turn out and turn out you're both tattoo artists, you know. Interestingly enough, she was a big fan of mine way before I met her, so I started to notice her in the audience on my side of the stage, and then then all of a sudden she offered me like this, kind of endorsement tattoo and you know, I'm the only artist that she endorsed with a tatoo week because she never do that kind of thing. And it turns out that she did that only to you know, get the opportunity to chat a bit with me.

17:12 I love it, and you know the rest is history. Now we're married. Yeah, there it is. She was a smart woman, right. Yeah. Well you guys fucking rock. I'm glad you were here at Bucking and I'm glad I was here with you. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Well, thank you for having us. Dean my pleasure. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipelin. I'm w for CUI Radio.