HYPOCRISY

Philip A. Wickstrand with:
Peter Tagtgren
At the Hawthorne Theatre
in Portland, OR
January 22, 2006

Hypocrisy are among the godfathers of Swedish death metal. Do they really need an introduction?
Phil: First of all, could you tell us a little bit about the idea behind the cover art to the "virus" album? It's one of the neatest things I've seen on an album in a long time.
Peter: Yeah, I really don't know. We got represented with that by our record company, we said "hell yeah, we want it," you know? I mean it fits very well to the virus; it could be the virus that comes up or whatever. But for me, it's just a really great cover.
Phil: Now, how familiar was Horgh with Lars' work and with the new release, how did he approach the new material and still incorporate his own style into it?
Peter: Immortal and Hypocrisy have been on tour together before, you know, in Europe and stuff, so he knew our songs pretty well anyhow. Since I recorded Horgh on four albums with the Grimfist and Immortal albums that I did with him, so I knew him very well. I didn't write any new material until Horgh was in the band, so we all kind of wrote it towards his drumming, plus he puts in a lot of input when he writes music, you know. When he writes his drum beats to the music, he has a unique way of doing it.
Phil: What caused Hypocrisy's cancellation of the Memphis show on this tour?
Peter: I guess it was that the booker couldn't afford the whole bill. That's what I heard; I have no clue. We were in Memphis the same day, but it didn't make any sense for us to go to the venue or anything 'cause they told us just to go directly to Houston, to the next show, because "you're not playing." "Why?" The promoter didn't have any money or whatever. So we just left.
Phil: Jeez. Okay, out of all the bands you've worked with in the studio, who did you enjoy working with the most and who did you enjoy working with the least?
Peter: Well, the least I'm never going to tell you.
Phil: Okay.
Peter: The most… there's so many bands that I can't just say one band, you know. Every band has it's cool thing. I never really had any bad bands or any bad experiences in the studio or anything like that, it's always been really cool.
Phil: Have you ever had any band that was more of a challenge to work with that really got you into it?
Peter: The new Celtic Frost album was a big challenge because they wanted it a certain way and I wanted it another way and we both worked together to get it where everybody was happy. They had a vision and I had a different vision and we kind of met up. It was a challenge, but it came out very good.
Phil: Could you tell our readers a little bit about the films you've been involved in?
Peter: It's not really much. It's been a few things here and there, but it's not really any big lines or any big parts or anything like that. I mean, it's not really worth mentioning yet. I hope I'm going to get some bigger stuff in the future.
Phil: Okay. As you're someone who's had a long standing interest in extra-terrestrials, what do you think about their role in popular culture and how they are portrayed?
Peter: How do you mean?
Phil: Things like The X-Files, E.T., Alien, Predator; all that kind of stuff.
Peter: Yeah. I enjoy it; I just see everything as a fantasy, but I also believe there's life outside of our universe or outside this Earth. But I don't think they come back and forth every day. I think they pass maybe every hundred or two hundred years to check out what's going on.
Phil: Alright. Now for those who were not there to witness the last day of the "Catch 22" U.S. tour in Seattle, could you tell them a little bit about it?
Peter: Well, it was the last day of the tour, so we started to fuck with Soilwork a little bit on stage, fucking them up, so we knew they were going to do the same thing to us so we said "either we're going to get very wet or stinky" or whatever, so let's get naked. But then there was a few people who didn't want to do it, so we went in our underwear on stage and they nailed us anyhow with all kinds of crazy stuff.
Phil: Was the background flashing "SHIT" during your set something that you guys did or was that a prank from one of the other bands?
Peter: No, the whole background thing… none of us had anything to do with it, I think. It was just the shit that happened on stage that was crazy.
Phil: That was definitely a fun show to witness.
Peter: (laughs a little) Yeah, that's for sure.
Phil: Okay, now I have a couple of questions from friends and one of them wants to know if there's any Hypocrisy albums that you're not that fond of?
Peter: I'm not really that fond of the "Fourth Dimension" album. Not because of the music, but because of the production and the way we played it, it sounds really shitty. But I know a lot of people like it because they don't really listen that much to the production; they listen more to the songs that's on there. So that's probably the one that I least like, because of the production and they way we played it.
Phil: Okay, another one of my friends wanted to know what is the driving force behind the anger in your music?
Peter: Oh, I don't know. I just like to really get pissed when I'm behind the microphone, you know. Normally when I'm off stage, I'm pretty calm, so it's good to get the energy out.
Phil: Okay, now we have some questions from members of our message board…
Peter: Okay.
Phil: Is there any chance of Pain doing a North American tour?
Peter: As soon as I get a release in America, I will do it, that's for sure.
Phil: Now, are you finding any influences in newer music over the last few years, anything exciting comparable to what you were listening to when you were younger?
Peter: Um… no, to be honest, not really. I mean, I really like Decapitated and Nile and stuff like that, also Vile is really good I think, but other than that, I haven't really heard anything that blows my mind when it comes to death or brutal metal.
Phil: Alright, have you ever thought about writing a full-blown concept album?
Peter: I did that with… uh… which album was that? (pause) "Final Chapter" I think. But it just has to feel right to do it, you have to come up with a good theme that is going to work for a long fucking… there's a lot of words that need to be meaningful all the way; ten lyrics or twelve lyrics. We'll see what is going to happen in the future.
Phil: Okay, just one last question; do you believe there is any room left for extreme metal to evolve or do you think that everything's already been done?
Peter: There's always going to be a band that's faster than the other one or more extreme than the other one or more brutal or whatever. It's constantly going to be a challenge for everybody, that's for sure.
Phil: All right, thank you very much!
Peter: All right, cool, man.