First and foremost, we want to thank you for taking time out to answer some questions about your work. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Pierre:
Thank you very much, its our pleasure!
What was the inspiration behind the title of the new album, 'The Weight Of Oceans'? And how do you feel the album artwork represents the meaning of the album?
Pierre:
The title of the album comes from the conceptual story that all the lyrics on this album is about. It's a mythological-inspired concept that me and Björn came up with when reading some old stories from different ancient cultures, so we just let our imagination flow and created this concept of a man's journey to conquer his fears of the great unknown, the ocean. The album artwork represents the concept well, it captures the overall feel of the album and of course it contains the seamonster wich is included in the story, so I think its a very fitting artwork for this album.
What inspires your writing style, lyrically? Where do you find the inspirations for the lyrics and melodies of your music
Pierre:
I think the last answer tells you that, as I said we got the inspiration from reading a lot of old stories and diving in to a lot of mythological stories about seamonsters and astrology. The melodies is a lot Tobias work, he has a really strong sense of melody and atmosphere in his musical writing, and melodies have always been very important for us, music without melodies tends to get boring I think.
From melodic keyboards in “Colossus” to violent breakdowns in “A Vow To Conquer The Ocean” you clearly display multiple genres in your music. What brought you to these diverse mash ups of styles and instruments?
Pierre:
Actually there are no keyboards on the album except on the instrumental song ”Sirens”, the stuff on ”Colossus” are guitars with a synthish sound. About the different styles in the music, that kind of comes naturally for us because of what we listen to and get inspired by, we all listen to a lot of different music. I listen to a lot of Jazz and Progressive Rock, Björn listens to a lot of Post-rock and stuff like that, Tobias listens to a lot of melancholic pop and more modern metal, and so on, so its a lot that gets in the music making.
The Swedish metal scene seems to be getting more crowded, which must make it hard to get noticed. How difficult is it to build a following in your home country, and how have your fans embraced you so far?
Pierre:
It's hard to get recognition in Sweden, we have a very small following in our home contry. There are a lot of good bands in Sweden but a lot of them are bigger outside of the country. You have to be really successfull to get accepted in Sweden, so basicly you have to be popular outside of Sweden to be popular on the local scene, and that's a shame. But we have nothing against playing in other countries, more of the opposite, it's more fun to get to see different places and cultures and play to people abroad.
We all accept that our favorites metal musicians don't exclusively listen to metal. So, what are you guys listening to right now, when you aren't performing or recording your own music?
Pierre:
Oh that's a lot of different stuff. At the moment I listen to a lot of Miles Davis, and I have had a period for quite a time where I listened a lot to Iron Maiden. Now I'm waiting for the new The Flower Kings album wich comes out very soon, they are one of my favourites. I can't really answer for the other guys though.
With shows scheduled throughout Norway and Finland, and well as Sweden, are there any plans to take your live show farther abroad?
Pierre:
We´re trying to get to more countries in the autum or winter, so hopfully we will cover some more territory later on this year.
Around the time of its release, "Monolith" was featured as a spotlight download on one of many torrent community sites. With your music being downloaded and traded freely on the internet, what is your opinion on how downloading affects the growth of bands and musicians across the world?
Pierre:
That is not an easy subject. For a band like us the downloading is just a good thing i think, it helps us getting across to more listeners. But for a bigger band, especially if they are in the stage where they are trying to live on just the profits from the band and the music, that's when it gets hard when you depend on record sales to stay alive as a band. For us it's a different thing because we dont have the band as our main income, we have our day jobs to make a living.
To that same point, your new album was released and distributed via Spinefarm Records. How has your relationship with your new found label helped to expand your name?
Pierre:
It has been really good so far, they are aasy to work with and they are a bigger label with a lot of input and contacts in the business so that's really helpful for us.
Working in and around the music business, we have noticed a sharp rise in the sale of vinyl, and the desire for bands to support the return of it. How do you feel about vinyl as a medium?
Pierre:
I love vinyl, it's a fantastic format to experience music with. That's why we have put out our past releases on vinyl and we are working on a release for the new record as well. I am a vinyl freak myself and buy a lot of old vinyls with good music, so I try to push that we will get every release out on vinyl. So hopefully we will see The Weight Of Oceans on vinyl too.
With the album release now a month ago, and shows on the horizon, what can we expect from In Mourning in the coming months, and into the future?
Pierre:
We will focus on doing some live shows, we are not able to do a lot of touring because of familys and dayjob-commitments so we try to do ”the good ones” that we come across and those that we can fit in our schedule, but we love playing live so we try to get out as much as we can. And of course we will start writing new stuff soon so we can make another record in the not so distant future.
Thank you again for your time, and your answers. We are looking forward to what comes next.
Pierre:
Thank you very much!
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