Chad Bowar: The band has a new bass player. Tell us a little about Rene Pedersen and how you decided on him.
Mikkel Sandager: After 14 years in the band Kral had enough and wanted to spend more time with his family. We had to respect that and find a new bass player. We didn't find anyone until after we recorded the album. I did all the vocals for the album and Jacob Hansen, the producer, did the bass. When we were going to play live we had to start searching for another bass player and found Rene. He is an energy bomb. It's really cool.
With the personnel change, how has Mercenary's sound evolved on the new album The Hours That Remain?
I don't think it's that different. Maybe the tempo is a little faster and the vocals are a little more aggressive in a Soilwork type of way. There is less growling and more singing. That's the basic difference. The music on the new album gets showcased a little more. The album is not completely covered with vocals. I felt that 11 Dreams was a little too compact with all the vocals and different layers of music. We've been trying to cut down on the layers.
Did you have any specific themes in mind when you were writing the lyrics for the album?
I went on a song by song basis. I had some abandonment issues with Kral leaving in the middle of the process, and I wrote some songs about that.
With the success and rave reviews of 11 Dreams, does that increase your expectations for this album?
It increases the anxiety! Prior to writing the new stuff we actually talked about the pressure that we all felt. We agreed that we had to write the songs and cross our fingers.
You've worked with Jacob Hansen a lot. What makes him such a good producer?
He's honest. He always gives his real opinion. He's not sucking up to anybody. We've been working with him for almost ten years and have an intimate relationship. He's really good at making people feel comfortable. We have a lot of fun with him as well, which is pretty important when you're in the studio for as long as we are. He's got a great studio as well. He's a damn good producer.
How did you decide on The Hours That Remain as the title?
Jacob came up with the title of the album. We decided on the title before we did any of the lyrics. The title can mean so many things. It can be both positive and negative. You can put a lot of meanings into that phrase.
Your last album was released in the U.S. several months after it came out in Europe. This one is being released pretty much at the same time. Why did you decide to do that this time?
We were actually pretty bummed out the last time because of that delay for the U.S. release. We wanted everybody to have the opportunity of getting their hands on the album at the same time. This time we pushed the envelope a lot with our deadlines because the U.S. deadline was a little earlier. We wanted to get it out the same time it came out in Europe. We pushed ourselves hard to make it happen, and we just made it.
You're coming back to the U.S. in September to play ProgPower in Atlanta. You played there 3 years ago as well. Are you looking forward to coming back?
Yes. It's going to be great, really awesome. It’s a great honor for us to be asked to play again by the promoter. This time we'll have about 75 minutes of playing time and last time we only had about 45.
What are the changes of Mercenary doing a full U.S. tour?
I'm going to be a dad in late August, so we're cutting touring back at that time. Hopefully we'll be able to do a European and an American tour after that. That is our goal. We've never played a full U.S. tour, just that one show in Atlanta.
You recently did some vocals on the Ill Disposed album. How did that come about?
Denmark is not that big of a country, so everybody knows everybody. The lead singer asked me if I wanted to do some stuff on the album. They were missing something in their sound and wanted some clean vocals. I was on four songs. It's pretty far down in the mix, so you can't always hear it, but I have one or two choruses that I sing alone.
It seems bands from Denmark have really been successful the past few years. Any particular reason why?
It almost seems that Denmark is morphing into Sweden. I think it's great that all these bands from Denmark are getting somewhere. We've all been playing metal music for 15 years and finally it's starting to pay off. I think up and coming bands are now seeing it actually can happen, which gives them the faith to push ahead and go on. I think the primary reason it's been going so well is that bands are starting to have the guts to put a lot of money into their own music. They are paying for good production.
