Interview with Raised Fist

We sat down and talked with bass player Andreas ’Josse’ Johansson right a few minutes before their Italian show on October 24th. He told us about the band’s new album “Veil Of Ignorance”, the band’s message and a lot more.

Interview by Carlo, photos by Ulf B Jonsson.

You have not released new music since your 2006 album “Sound Of The Republic”: how long did it take to write the new songs?

Well we basically had some trouble in the band and a few line-up changes but we never stopped playing together and thinking about ideas for new songs. So I think it’s just a natural time for the band to find themselves together and record a new album in 2009.

Do you guys do any other things or jobs apart playing in raised fist ? Is Raised Fist your main occupation?

Yeah, we only play in Raised Fist, that’s our main occupation. We do not have regular day jobs out there.

On “Veil Of Ignorance” you can hear new elements since the metal and crossover of “Sound of the Republic”.

The new elements just came out naturally. We did not decide things before writing songs or going into the studio to record them. As I said, it was more of a natural process, we never plan anything.

How long did it take to write and record the new material?

It took about three years to write songs but then, when each member had enough ideas, we went into the studio and wrote the album in about a week and a half.

I read the recording sessions were so intense you ended up in hospital.

We wanted to play as good as we have ever before, so we worked hard. We found ourselves playing for long sessions instead of cutting to much while recording, brings out the best in us so we just kept going. And going…I found myself playing for up to eighteen hours a day for days at a time. Very soon my elbow was becoming very big, playing became impossible and I was forced to head to the hospital for meds to reduce the swelling. When you want things perfect, these things happen.

How was to work with Daniel Bergstrand once again. Did he help you develop the Raised Fist sound in any way? This is the fourth time in a row you work with him.

Working with Daniel is always great. We have a great relationship and he always has great ideas and suggestions on how to make things sound. We are always in touch with him and we already decided that we will work with him on our next record too.

Did he influence your sound in any way?

Daniel usually works with metal bands. He worked with the likes of In Flames and Meshuggah. I think he influences those bands much more, because he knows what metal bands want. With Raised Fist, it’s another kind of relationship. We have our own sound and he just gives us some hints, but never directed our sound in any direction that was not natural.

Some new songs are quite slow compared to your older stuff. Why is that? I think it took me about one full month to get into all of your new songs, while for your previous albums, it took me just one single listen.

Ah! That was not fully intended. But I know on “Veil of Ignorance” we have about seven tracks are that very straight and direct. The first time you listen to them, you are already into them. While for the other tunes, I think it takes many more listens. Each time I listen to some songs I stop and say “hey these elements are really cool, I did not remember playing them that way”. So there is a constant element of surprise and after getting deeper and deeper into them you fully get to know them well.

On the second track “They can’t keep us down” you say it’s not a matter of either punk or hardcore, or metal. So how would you define your music ? And the evolution of what you play?

The evolution just comes out alone. We never decide anything. We played more “hardcore” music on our previous albums and now some people say we are metal. I am not really into any kind of labelling what we do with Raised Fist: we don’t want to have any kind of limitation. I hope you can call our music “Raised Fist music”, that would be the greatest achievement for us.

What are the bands that influenced your sound? And your way of playing?

I like to think there is no band that influenced our sound, but I think I am a lot into Lamb Of God and Protest The Hero.

On your new songs you sing a lot about the evils of society. Do you consider yourself as a political band?

We, as individual, act responsibly to try and change our world, by casting our vote and being active in the political scene of our Country. But Raised Fist is not a political band. We of course have a message, and it’s about what’s going wrong in the world today; we try to have the listeners think about that. But we do not say things are like this, or things are like that, and if you don’t think like we do, you’re wrong. We just give a general view of the world we see.

You’re in the middle of your European tour. How’s the tour going so far?

Oh it’s going great. The crowd response has been amazing and we are very happy with all the places we played in.

You just toured Australia before Europe. Is there any difference?

The main difference is that in Austrlia we did a couple of shows that were not all ages shows. Only 18+ could come in. That kind of sucked. Next time we go to Australia we hope we can play only all ages show, as it’s happening right here in Europe.

Are you going to tour the United States too?

It’s quite difficult, because it costs a lot of money to us. Our new album has not been officially released there yet, even tough it’s available on iTunes. I think we might end up doing some shows in America, but we’ll have to see if we can afford it.

What’s your opinion on file sharing ? You come from Sweden, which is considered the home of European file sharing movement. As the pirate party, etc…

Personally I totally support it. I mean, we have to think that the CD, or the album as we intended once, is dead. People can download your music, check out your tunes at any moment. And I like that. The important thing is that the listen to Raised Fist music and then, if they come to our show, support the band by buying music on iTunes or buying stuff is all good. But the most important thing is seeing people listening to Raised Fist, no matter if they downloaded illegally our new album.

So how is your relationship with your record label?

That’s ok. We have a good relationship with the Burning Heart label and they always supported us.

Do you know some big bands lately have gone independent, by self producing their music. Do you think this might happen to Raised Fist, too?

Yeah, I mean, we have never talked about that but I can’t say we will never self produce our record and release it by ourselves. It might happen.

How is the music scene evolving in Sweden ? I read about new bands from ex singer of Refused Dennis Lyxzèn called AC4 and the new band formed by Rodrigo from Satanic Surfers Atlas Losing Grip.

The Sweden music scene has always been big but I do not follow it as well as I did in the past so I do not know those new bands very well. I know Dennis has always been into a ton of projects, tough.

What are you listening to right now?

Not very much, but I listen a lot to bands that do not follow the trends, as the two bands we’re touring with, Endwell from New York City and Deez Nuts from Australia. They’re really great guys and everybody should check them out.

Thanks for your time Josse, I hope you do have fun on stage tonight!

Thanks man, we will surely do.

Crucial links:

Official Raised Fist Myspace Page

“Friends And Traitors” HQ Video