Hintf Webzine
*The original text is written in Portuguese, this has been googled translated.
Hintf: Thanks for responding to this interview! What were your expectations when it all began?
In the summer of Black of 2017, me and my old friend Jonas Persson (guitar), drank a warm beer at the Chinese restaurant ”Mandarinen” in Gothenburg. As usual, we began to talk about old records and music, but we were also a little excited about the evening’s concert with the Hellacopters. Eventually I told him that I wanted to be in a band with good people who rehearsed every week, with the aim of creating something different … (Jonas agreed) Well, well, Mattias Lejon and I started sharing ideas for songs, he said. ”It sounds interesting, maybe we should join forces, but also ask Håkan (drummer in Beseech) if he’s interested,” I said. A few days later, Jonas sent me some raw ideas for the songs, and I started working on the vocal melodies, but I was missing something … the final touch of the lyrics. I gave up writing about my miserable life (as I did in Beseech) , and I started reading books on natural disasters, and finally we found some very interesting information about a well-kept secret and a conspiracy involving a hidden society called Svarta Sanningar (Black Truths) with connections to a natural disaster in Sweden.
Hintf: Who are the Svarta Sanningar?
Svarta Sanningar is an obscure society, formed by a group of doomsday ideologists, scientists and occultists not understood, probably during the late 60s (we do not know). Many people do not know about its existence, but we come across some information about them, after some particular investigations about a natural disaster and some serious corporate scandals. Eventually, we found some old documents through a law firm in Gothenburg about a land deal that did not go well in the 1970s, which seemed to have some kind of connection to the natural disaster which occurred 1976, at 21:09 am on the island Fjärrö outside Gothenburg. In addition, we also discovered that the CEO of PBCL Investments (the contractor) rented a plot on Fjärrö to Svarta Sanningar for a multi-billion dollar amount for metal mining, mysteriously found after committing suicide in his office in February 1977. So you could say that the past helped us with the name and concept of the band. Today, there are only rumors left, and frankly, I do not think they exist any more, even if some people say they are businessmen at the top of the food chain within the medical business. On the other hand, we also signed a silence agreement with the law firm, which in the exchange of information, we will not reveal any details. Therefore, we can not mention names or meeting places of the people with whom we have been in contact. For them, it’s more or less a security issue for their families.
Hintf: What influences yours and the letters?
When it comes to our musical influences, I think we are attracted to somber music in general, but it does not necessarily have to be metal. If I speak for myself, as a ”record collector” who still buys and listens to music on vinyl. Over the past 20 years I’ve been listening to a lot of rock / psych stuff from the late 60’s and early 70’s – The Moody Blues, Shocking Blue, Jeff Beck Group, Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Roky Erickson, Jimi Hendrix, Big Star. But also some really strong composers like Townes Van Zandt and Neil Young caught my eye. Then there are some interesting bands and artists such as Graveyard, Midlake, The Soundtrack of Our Lifes, Imperial State Electric, Blackfield, Big Elf, Soulsavers, Israel Nash etc, some quite recent and others with a few years of history. Tom Petty, Håkan (drums) is more progressive, Porcupine Tree, Blackfield and Pink Floyd, while Mattias (bass) likes Soundgarden, Nick Cave and Ghost. I do not know if the songs of others had a big impact on our songs and lyrics. But they say that everything around us affects us more or less.
Hintf: Do you consider yourself a rock band?
It ’s hard to say, you tell me? I believe we have more to do with rock than with metal, even though sometimes we are very close to the metal edge, using classic things like hidden lyrics, double drums and melancholy guitars. If you listen carefully to the four songs on our EP ”Kapitel 1”, the music is actually quite smooth, but you should feel some of these elements that occur within a darker metal, but with a little twist that makes it look a little weird and perverse .
Hintf: What are the plans for the future?
We are currently hoping to make an impact on occult and dark rock / metal fans. Our first EP ”Kapitel 1” is a production of D.I.Y, in which we did most of the work. I should not exclude thoughts about talking to publishers, but at the moment we really like to do as much as we can ourselves by music lovers for music lovers. If people bark at the moon with the dark cravings we are doing (then they are in trouble), we will make a 10-inch vinyl for collective EP funding. So, of course, we want to do some concerts, both in Sweden and in other parts of the world. I can also reveal that we already have some new songs in mind that will probably end on our next release.
Hintf: Please define the Svarta Sanningar in just one word …
I have to say the ”truth”. The translation from Swedish to English is Black Truths, an antithesis to white lies, but an inconvenient form of truth.
Hintf: What do you know about Portugal?
That you have a very good person in your country called Filipe Marta, who directs the heavy metal radio show S.O.S. I also did a translation in google translator of Svarta Sanningar = Black Truths. Good enough? Scary?
Hintf: Would you like to leave a few words to your fans and to our readers?
Many thanks for doing this interview Miguel! On 11-30-2018, at 04:09 am they could listen to the EP through various digital platforms. Check out our site at the release date of the links to our songs: https://svartasanningar.se/