CREOZOTH INTERVIEW |
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Guitarist Lars Johansson from Candlemass is ready with a new side-project - this time it goes by the weird name of CREOZOTH - we of course had to ask the man about the name and music of this project ...
Interview by Claus Jensen |
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1) Hello there, congratulations on your debut album as Creozoth. Well, let’s start with the obvious first – what the f**k is a „Creozoth“ ???
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"Well, hello and thank you man. You know that guy who eats untill he explodes in that Monty phyton movie, was called mr Creosot.. The way he eats, is how i feel we treat our world... kind of.. So i changed the spelling a little to make it look cooler. It was also a strong poison that killed many railroad workers a long time ago.."
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2) How come that all side-projects of you guys in Candlemass have weird names (Zoic, Creozoth, Krux) … is it the Swedish humour shining through, or are you just generally weird people *hehe*?
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"It is always hard to come up with a good name, so for me its a question of trying to make a nice logo, or something about the spelling, and a little weirdness to, maybe."
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3) When did you get the idea of putting Creozoth together? Any specific thing that triggered it?
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"Me and Janne has always been playing, while Candlemass was resting in one way or the other.. The first project was Zoic as you know, and after that we did this other new thing CreoZoth.."
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4) Is it to be viewed upon as a continuation of the Lars & Jan’s earlier Zoic project – how does the 2 differ (besides the line-up changes of course) …
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"No i dont feel like they are related in anything more than me and Janne, the music is a little bit heavyer on the CreoZoth album, and more complete.."
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5) Tell me a bit about the other guys (Torbjörn and Michael) …
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"Torbjörn is a great bass player and a good man, has been playing with OZ and Redfun... And Michael has a strong voice that i feelt was right for the songs, he has been working with a lot of bands, some of the latest before this, was X-plode... They are both great musicians to work with, and great guys.."
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6) When writing songs for Creozoth, how much focus do you put on NOT to make it sound like Candlemass? I mean, it’s only logic that when you’ve spent such a long part of your life playing the Candlemass tunes that Leif Edling wrote, that you would become inspired by that style in your own songwriting?!
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"Well Leif writes in his way and i do it my way, but we both like heavy and sometimes bombastlicly slow riffs, maybe i tend to do more faster songs i dont know, there is a diffrence in style though.."
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7) To me the album sounds like old-school heavy with a raw attitude and a little hint of doom here and there. Favorite songs are “Forsaken” and “Intoxicatedead” because these two seem to have really strong melodies … what’s most important for you guys as songwriters: attitude or melodies?
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"First i have to come up with a cool riff you can live with. Then a melody to go with it, the attitude will come with the lyrics, and hopefully you will have a hell of a song when you´re done. So its a mixture of it all i think.."
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8) How would you characterize the Creozoth album for new listeners?
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"What can i say, it´s both fast´n slow and definitely metal"
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9) Is this meant for “killing time” between Candlemass jobs, or is it a real band?
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"All projects were meant to be bands, or at least do some gigs, but people are mostly so involved in other bands or projects that it´s hard to make them ``live´´.. but CreoZoth and the guys with it, really feels good. And is not ``killing time´´. The music deserves to be taken seriously.."
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10) Any chance of you getting this into a live band?
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"That is the idea.. some festivals would be nice.."
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11) You’ve signed with Escapi Music – the same label that’s releasing the Candlemass DVDs and Krux DVDs … hmmm, you guys are keeping it all in the family, huh?
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"Ordinary swedish lazyness... Just kidding, but it´s better to be able to pay the label a visit from time to time, and it only takes you 30 minutes to go there by car, instead of e-mailing and telefone calls."
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12) Lars has produced the album by himself – is this a future producer-career we’re seeing in the making here?
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"Yes so it was, but with a big help from Andreas Bauman.. Well if someone want me help them with that in the future, why not.."
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13) Thanks for doing this interview … I wish you all the best of luck with Creozoth (and of course Candlemass) !!! Any thing left to say?
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"Listen to the music and stop all the wars, and please save the planet.."
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