 |
| Jørn Veberg |
Mats Wernerson talks about the band's identity, the reception of All Hail Hypocrisy, and their debut in Brazil in 2027
CLIQUE AQUI PARA LER EM PORTUGUÊS.
By Thais Navarro (@_thais_navarro)
Just a few months after the release of All Hail Hypocrisy — The Cruel Intentions' third album —, bassist Mats Wernerson spoke with Road to Metal about life behind the scenes of this Scandinavian band. In the interview, he discusses how the group's identity has solidified over ten years on the road, the impact the Peacemaker soundtrack had on the band's international reach, the current state of the sleaze scene and plans for the coming months: which include, finally, their arrival in Brazil in May 2027.
Check out the full conversation below!
Mats, thank you so much for your time and your music. How would you describe The Cruel Intentions (TCI) current identity? You have a unique formula in your songs that makes the band very unique. So how did you develop your identity over the years, and how does it come together now on All Hail Hypocrisy?
Mats: What we've got going on right now comes from years and years of the four of us playing together, having a good time. I feel we're better than ever today. We know each other so fucking well after 10 years now.
I think the sound came from the first album: punk rock, a lot of attitude, pretty dirty. The second album was more polished, a bit more melodic. So I think it's a very good mix of those two coming into All Hail Hypocrisy. And I think we found our perfect mix of dirty and melodic in this album, because we don't want to become a full-on melodic rock band, or whatever. We want to keep our identity, which is punk, metal, sleaze, everything in a good mix. And I think we found it perfectly on All Hail Hypocrisy, and it's organic, because of the time spent together, touring and playing. It's super organic and I love the sound of the new album.
Mats: It's very important, and I don't think we could do anything else about it — it just comes naturally when we get on stage. This past week we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, playing two shows. We were very tired from jet lag and some late nights. And the moment we all hit the stage, none of that tiredness mattered anymore — you can't feel any of it. I looked over at Kristian (N. Solhaug, TCI guitar player) and he had this big grin on his face, and I thought, "okay, it's fucking go time." Then it was 100% energy.
You're coming to Brazil and other countries in Latin America next year. What are your expectations for this tour, and what can Brazilian fans expect?
Mats: Expectations are actually very high. This is something I've been dreaming about for as long as I can remember — all of us. Lizzy (DeVine, TCI vocalist) was there 10 years ago with Lizzy DeVine Solo. He's been telling some stories, and I have friends from bands like Eclipse and Crashdïet who've been there too — everybody says it's the best. It's a lot of travel, late nights, but still one of the craziest audiences in the world, from what I hear from bands like Iron Maiden and, as I said, my friends.
So, very high expectations, and I guess Latin America can expect the same from us — we're going to give it all. We're doing headline shows, so it's gonna be longer, gonna do more Vains of Jenna songs. I know there are a lot of Vains of Jenna fans, so we're gonna do a couple more than usual. And just a full-on rock and roll set with a lot of songs from the new album, the classics, and the Peacemaker songs.
It's cool that you mentioned Peacemaker — how much of a difference did it make for you as a band? I watched this TV show partly because of the tracklist, and the scene with the Vigilante walking out of prison to Jawbreaker was mind-blowing. What was it like to appear in the show, and how much of a difference did it make for the band?
Mats: It had a huge impact, starting with the first trailers. We had Borderline Crazy in the American and Canadian TV commercial trailer before the show even started. Then streaming went off the charts — a lot of streaming from South America, the UK and America, which we hadn't seen before. We used to have Sweden at the top, but now I think Brazil is actually our top country on Spotify, at least over the last year. So the streaming was crazy. The show aired one episode a week, If i remember correctly, and the fourth episode had the Vigilante scene. After that, the YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook blew up, with comments like "thank you James Gunn for giving me this band." Comments asking us to come to Brazil became even more common, which I love. It was very surreal to hear our music in a James Gunn show — we love James Gunn, and Peacemaker is a really good show.
Mats: I think it's amazing what's happening with the sleaze scene right now. It feels like a real revival, with us, Crashdïet and Confess releasing singles and albums together throughout the spring this year. And to see people all over the world become very happy about these singles and albums releasings. I think it's an amazing time right now for our type of music, sleaze rock and rock and roll in general. A lot of good bands, a lot of good albums coming out.
Where do you and the band usually look for musical references? Do other art forms inspire you, inside or outside rock music?
Mats: It's so hard to tell what inspires me. When I write music, it's usually like the state of mind you're in at the time. I don't actually listen to much music while I'm writing my own music, because I'm too occupied with this. But leading up to All Hail Hypocrisy, I was listening a lot to Tuk Smith and the Restless Hearts, which I think shows through a bit in some songs — maybe When Eden Burn leans a little more melodic, rock and roll type of thing.
So inspiration can come from anything: daily life, just living, basically. I write most of the music together with Lizzy, and he writes all the lyrics, so I think his inspiration comes from his life, his experiences, the 10 years with the crew, all the late nights, the parties and the tours we've done together. A lot has happened, and we usually talk about that stuff and laugh about it while we write songs. Like "Porridge Head", for example.
I was actually going to ask you specifically about that one.
Mats: It's a very special song. I had that riff for a long time. It's a special riff; I think it was Erik Martensson from Eclipse, our producer, who said the riff was fucking awesome, and we kept working on it but couldn't find the right theme for the lyrics. So Lizzy started writing about "porridge head". Porridge Head it's a term used within the band, we've been using it for 10 years. Now, it's become more of a thing: we have hats, I have a t-shirt that says "Porridge Head," and people started talking about it, which was very funny for us to see. I think some of the verses are actually about me, from when I was younger and drinking a lot. So that's a Porridge Head.
Mats: Maybe. Maybe it has happened. Who knows!
I also love the lyrics. Lizzy, as you said, is a very good songwriter too.
Mats: Yes, very good. His lyrics are insanely good, and there is dark and there is humor — sometimes very serious, sometimes just like "fuck off". I love his mix and his style of writing, and he comes up with everything so fast.
Would you say Porridge head is your favorite song on the album, or do you have other ones?
Mats: It depends. I listened to this album so many times while we were mixing and leading up to the release. A lot in the car, at the gym, or out running, just to figure out how we should put the track order. So I've had a lot of favorite songs over the months leading up to release, and it's kept changing since we started playing these songs live. It changes from show to show. Right now I think "Triple Threat" is my favorite to play live, because it's brutal — hard, heavy, fast, it's got everything, and people really enjoy it when we play the new songs, especially "Triple Threat" and "All Hail Hypocrisy." So it's different songs for different days.
Do you want to play it live? And more songs from the album?
Mats: Yeah, we're going to do more. We actually started rehearsing "Porridge Head" — and I loved it, I love playing it, it's got a lot of punk rock energy. I think we'll put that one on the setlist, for the Latin America dates.
Now that it's been a few months since All Hail Hypocrisy came out, how do you feel about the public reception?
Mats: It's been crazy. It's been so good, way beyond anything I could have imagined. When we were done in the studio, Lizzy and I talked and said, "We loved it. This is us, this is our best album for sure." I had a feeling people would like it, but not like this: we've had so many fantastic reviews from all over the world. Road to Metal's review was spectacular.
We're approaching the end. After three amazing albums, what are your plans for the future in general? Is there something you want to do that you haven't done yet?
Mats: Plans and goals — let's see. We've got some shows coming up this year: we're going back to America in a few weeks, and just before that we're playing at Rock the Sun in Barcelona with Eclipse and Michael Monroe. We're doing a Swedish tour with Hardcore Superstar in October and November, which I'm really looking forward to. I love Hardcore Superstar, all of us do, we're big fans of the music and the guys, and we get along really well with them. That's the plan for now. Next year there's going to be even more shows — we're doing the Monsters of Rock Cruise in May, then heading straight to Mexico and all the Latin America dates, which is a dream come true. Another dream would be Japan. we've never been there, so that's the next goal, to get a couple of shows in Japan. And then we're starting to write the fourth album right now. We have started looking into titles, sounds, songs, I've got a couple of riffs.
That's very good to hear. Would you like something else?
Mats: I'm just very excited to come to Brazil and the other countries. I've never been to Latin America — I've only been to Mexico, around Tulum, with the cruises. So I'm very excited to see all those countries in just five or six days. It's going to be very hectic, but that's what I'm looking forward to the most: playing these songs for what seems to be our biggest fan base.
We've never had a response to a tour announcement like we did with Latin America. It was crazy, hundreds of comments and shares, people saying "fuck yeah, finally," because they'd been waiting so long. It's been like 10 years. I remember the first time someone wrote "come to Brazil," it was like 10 or 11 years ago, and I never thought we'd make it. Right from when we started, people were already writing "come to Brazil," "come to Argentina." So I'm very happy to go there and play these new songs for you guys.
"Come to Brazil" is indeed a very popular thing here, we're very insistent.
Mats: Yes, and it worked! This time it really fucking worked.
The Cruel Intentions is coming to Brazil in May 2027. For more information, click here. Don't miss it!
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário