With:	Tom S. Englund [Vocals, guitars]
Conducted by:	Dream Taster
Published:	08.06.2004
Band profile:	Evergrey

- "Hi, we're Evergrey from Sweden", yes but where from Sweden exactly? Can you make a short presentation of the band in a few words.

Evergrey hails from Gothenburg Sweden , it's on the west coast. We are currently releasing our 5th album and things are looking extremely good.



- Let's get to the center point of this interview, your new album "The Inner Circle". First, can you remind us of the concept for this album?

It is about religious cults and sects. and how easily you could end up being ruled by a cult leader or religion if you are not strong enough to think for yourself.



- A very serious subject indeed! But to back up the idea, I must say the lyrics are simply mind-blowing and incredibly easy to interpret. Therefore, it's easier for the listener to identify the feelings of the main character and really enjoy the sick atmosphere depicted in the songs. How did you work out those lyrics? Did somebody close to you experience this?

I decided to NOT write as philosophical this time around in order to make the story understandable, feelings, as you say, come across much more easy if you try to not complicate things, rather be as blunt as possible. And the story is purely fiction even though it could easily be translated into a cult member's life.



- Well, apart from the texts, the melodies are splendid yet powerful as hell. How would you compare "The Inner Circle" to your previous album "Recreation Day" musically speaking?

I would say that I know a lot of people expected us to make an album in the vein of Recreation Day but the thing with EVERGREY is that we NEVER ever make an album twice! We try to evolve and to progress for each release in order to make it interesting for ourselves.
Therefore, on the RD album we felt that we wanted to make an album that was a real skull-crusher live and so we did. For this album we didn't really care how the album would sound live, instead we made a cd that we felt represented EVERGREY best at the time without having any plans whatsoever and what you get is a much "bigger" album in terms of the actual music and compositions, maybe not as much metal but instead extremely well crafted songs that might come across as a bit mellow at first and that is how we wanted it this time, but as I said don't expect it to be this way for the next album.



- If I'm not totally mistaken, you are currently touring to promote the album. How well is it going so far? What is the feedback from the fans on your new opus?

The album sold more world wide in one month !! than Recreation Day did totally, the thing is that we are getting quite "big" in the USA and that of course are affecting the sales and biggest impact is that we have 3!!! videos on MTV's playlist which is amazing. The fan reaction have been better than ever, mainly because this is the first time we have shows planned all around the world in connection with the release...



- Do you have a favorite song on "The Inner Circle"? Which one and why?

It's like choosing one of your babies, impossible, one day you like this one song and then the other day you like another one. However the song maybe representing the album best is "A touch of blessing " or Harmless wishes.



- To come back to the concept a little bit more, the lyrics of the album are printed over holy texts in semi-transparency and the final picture of the booklet is a bible stained with a lot of blood. I like these strong symbols but did you encounter any problems in terms of censorship [especially in the USA?]?

no : )



- Evergrey welcomed a new drummer Jonas Ekdahl after the departure from the band of Patrick Carlsson. He seemed to be already an active member in the writing process [He is credited in 'Ambassador', 'The Essence Of Conviction' and 'When The Walls Go Down']. How well did the transition go?

Extremely well, since Jonas was already the drumtech for Evergrey for 2 years prior to joining EVERGREY as a member of the family so to speak so it was like having a substitute in football extremely smooth and he is also a very gifted all round musician so his help in the composing was invaluable.



- The Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra achieved a successful challenge to create a religious-like atmosphere on "The Inner Circle". Could you be more happy about it?

No, I mean this was one of the things we have always wanted to integrate into EVERGREY but never really had the money to do so, so for this album we had all the means to do basically what ever we wanted and the result I find stunning, so yes we are very happy with it.



- On the special edition of the album, one can listen to three of your songs in theirs acoustic versions. The band obviously enjoys acoustic sessions, what do you like the most about it? Maybe the proximity to the audience?

Probably more the intimacy of the music and the air it creates with only one or 2 instruments. It portrays EVERGREY in a totally different shape and form but still it is 100 % EVERGREY.



- Once again congratulations to the whole "Evergrey family" on your new album. As for me, I'll stay gray! Thank you so much for your time. Anything else you want to add?

Be sure to visit

www.evergrey.net for all the latest updates
Thanks for the interview and keep up the darkside?


I want to thank Evergrey and especially Tom S. Englund for their time and NTS to make this interview possible.