Chad Bowar: How would you describe the musical shift in direction on your new album?
Tom S. Englund: It's been two and half years since we wrote songs for the last album. Things have happened since then. We released a live CD and a live DVD and toured a lot. We also brought in two outside producers for this album. That's made us step it up a notch. I think it's by far the most effective album we've ever done. It's the album that we have wanted to do all along, but never really knew how to. It might be totally different for the next album. We don't know.
How did you decide on Sanken Sandquist to produce the album?
It was really funny, actually. We sat down after a show in Germany and spoke about what we wanted to do and didn't want to do with the new album. We all came to the conclusion that we should use an outside producer. We started naming 2 or 3 albums each that we liked and appreciated. Every single one of us had an album that he produced. We called him up and he said no. I thought he was a real jerk on the phone. I said I was giving up. But Henrik (Danhage, guitarist) had a good feeling about it and convinced him to fly down and meet with us. We flew him down to Gothenburg and sat down with him. 30 seconds into the conversation I had an entirely different view of him. I understood that he was just like us, an arrogant a*%hole! (laughs)
Did you come up with the album title going into the recording, or did you do it afterwards?
It came somewhere in the middle of it. The album wasn't done. It was in the middle of the production that we came up with it. The song is about bullying. Monday morning is the worst day of the week to go to school or work if you're being bullied. I think it's a subject that people take very lightly, but the kids are who the ones who are growing up and will rule our countries. You don't want to have them coming into the classroom shooting people.
Evergrey has had a stable lineup for the past few albums. Has that helped you?
Definitely. First and foremost is the fact that we are five guys that have the same focus. We have the same focus, the same plan and everybody is determined to do what we do, and that hasn't been the case before. Somebody has always had their thought with something else. Each and every one of us now is 100 percent focused.
Do you have any specific expectations for the new album?
We don't have expectations, we have hopes. We never expect anything, we just take things as they come. We are extremely confident in the album. It's been out in Europe for a few weeks and it's already sold more than our last album's total, which proves we've done something right. We entered the Swedish Billboard chart at number 6, which never happened before.
Are you satisfied with the promotional push you're getting in the United States?
Yes. So far we've been doing a lot of cool stuff that we haven't done before, like Guitar World.
You're going to be playing a show in Russia. How did that come about?
I don't have a clue. Somebody just told me about that today. I don't know. It's going to be interesting. We appreciate every country we go to for the first time. We can do anything once, so we'll see.
After that you're coming to the United States to play with In Flames.
We're good friends with the guys in In Flames. It's going to be a month of partying and drinking mayhem.
What are your favorite things about the U.S.?
That everything is so convenient. If you're hungry in the middle of the night in Sweden you can't get anything. Here you can just call somebody and they'll bring you food. You can buy cheap beer. The convenience is the thing I like most.
Are you able to do music for a living, or do you still have day jobs?
We've been doing this full time since Recreation Day. Everybody is starting to buy houses and apartments and stuff. Things are going well.
What do you think are the 5 best metal albums of all time?
South Of Heaven by Slayer, Altars Of Madness by Morbid Angel, Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche, Cowboys From Hell by Pantera and Icon by Paradise Lost.
