Ahead of their awesome show in Manchester (the review of which you can read here), we caught up with the lovely Ted from Amon Amarth for a chat. See what happened when we discussed headlining Defenders Of The Faith, the new album Deceiver Of The Gods, Amon Amarth products and…Marmite?! Read it all below!
Could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the band?
I’m Ted, the bassist from Amon Amarth. We’re from Sweden and we play death metal.
One of the things I admire about the band is that your lineup is so consistent in comparison to a lot of other bands. What’s the secret to your success?
I don’t know, actually! I guess we were just lucky in getting the band together. We’re all different people but we work well together. They’re just a great bunch of people!
You’re playing on the Defenders Of The Faith tour in the UK as part of your European tour – how did it feel to be asked to headline such a tour?
It feels great to finally be able to do this. We’ve been looking at the other years and they’ve been great lineups so it’s good to finally be on it, especially since we’re headlining! It’s very nice.
Are there any interesting or outrageous stories to report from the road so far?
(laughs) Not really! I mean, this is more or less the first week of the tour so we haven’t really…the first week is mainly just working to make sure everything’s running smoothly and then the parties come later! So no crazy stories – so far!
So are the last few shows always the craziest?
Yeah, it usually turns out that way! The longer into the tour you go, the crazier everyone seems to get!
You released your latest album Deceiver Of The Gods in June, could you tell us about the writing and recording process?
We did the same thing we did on the last few albums. It’s mainly our guitar player who writes the riffs and comes up with the ideas. Then we go to the rehearsal room to put everything together to see what everyone thinks and maybe change a few things. Basically that’s how we work! We then decided on a studio and once we were happy with everything, we went there and recorded it.
Were there any songs that were more of a challenge than others?
You always want to evolve as a band so we try to write more epic stuff or strange stuff we’re not used to, so as a result some songs are a bit more tricky but I think it’s a matter of getting used to new things to play. Deceiver Of The Gods is your basic Amon Amarth album and there’s nothing really strange on it, so it was pretty easy.
I particularly like Under Siege and it almost feels like a throwback to your earlier material. Could you tell me a little more about that song?
I don’t think I know anything special about that one! I didn’t write it, so I don’t know the story behind it but I guess we were trying to come up with new ideas and also bring back old stuff at the same time. It’s a great song.
Which song from it is the most fun to play live?
I don’t know! We haven’t tried all the songs on the album live yet, but I really like Deceiver Of The Gods, the title track. It’s a fun song to play and since it was the first song released from the album, people know it and that’s an important part, having the audience joining in! It’s just fun to play.
If you could choose any band to cover a song of yours, who would you choose?
It would be fun to hear something quite different from us, to have a new angle on it all. Maybe System Of A Down, that would be quite cool!
If you could go back in time and tell your younger self something, what would you say?
I would just tell myself to do whatever I’ve done so far. I live my life one day at a time and do whatever I think.
A band I like recently released their own hot sauce. If Amon Amarth could put their name to a product, what would it be?
I’d say beer, but we already have our name on a beer! I’d love to have a hot sauce too though – we love hot sauces in Amon Amarth so that’d probably be a good idea.
How hot would it be?
Super hot! The hotter the better, really! I don’t know…food and drink is what we love, so anything in that genre would be good for us!
So what’d you say your favourite food is?
I don’t know, I like so many different things! When I’m here, I try to eat curry because we love that. We had a lot of curries whilst we were in the studio, I love Asian food…I love food in general!
How about British food?
It depends! I mean if it’s proper British food, like the classics, I like it! You know, shepherd’s pie and English breakfasts, which are always good when you’re hungover! And fish and chips, if it’s a proper one – not the fast food ones!
And the last question – do you love or hate Marmite?
What?
(long pause)
It sounds familiar, but I don’t know…
It’s like a brownish-black spread you put on sandwiches and stuff?
Oh yeah! I know!! I think we tried it actually, but I can’t remember. I know we had it in the band…you probably got the wrong guy here! (laughs)
You should make sure you try some, but just so you know, it’s disgusting!
Yeah! We’ll have to get it later on the tour. I guess it all depends on the person trying it though!
Photos (and the Marmite question!) by Lisa Blanshard.
