Interview With Persuader

Persuader are currently getting ready to release their fantastic new album The Fiction Maze (and if you haven’t read our review yet then you can do so here) and we caught up with the band’s guitarist to ask him some questions ahead of the release.

Could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the band?
Hello! This is Emil, guitarist of Persuader. We’ve been around since the late 90s when the first constellation of Persuader was formed and has since released four albums. The present line-up has been around since 2000 except for the addition of Daniel Sundbom on guitars in 2005.

You’re currently gearing up for the release of your awesome new album The Fiction Maze – could you describe the songwriting process for it?
It´s been a long process this time due to different things. Some people has started families and built houses and stuff like that which limited their ability to make time for the band. Also some problems we had with the old label contributed to the delays we’ve had with the new album.

The actual process has been pretty much the same as earlier albums though. Mainly me and Efraim writes the music and we send stuff back and fourth between us. After a while when we feel we have more or less a whole song, we sit down with Jens and figure out vocal lines and so on. When we have a rough idea we then continue with the details and try to explore what other stuff we come up with to make the song better.

And what about recording it? Did anything differ with your approach to The Fiction Maze and your previous releases?
Not really, we recorded almost everything ourselves, except the rhythm guitars, on our own as we did with When Eden Burns. It works great nowadays with good equipment being quite cheap and all. And it both saves money and it’s pretty great being able to record whenever you feel like and not having the pressure of studio time ticking. We then mixed it at a professional studio with our engineer Ronnie Björnström and I think we have a really fitting production for the album this time.

Are there any interesting tales from the studio or did everything go without a hitch?
Hmm.. well, Efraim built his own midi drum-set from an old child-drum-set he found somewhere. Looks really bad but works great! Other than that it went pretty smooth!

Were there any songs that were more of a struggle to complete than others?
Not really. But it’s a bit interesting that some songs that you didn’t find to cool or intresting from the start really turned out to be some of the best, in my opinion, on the album.

Which song on the album are you most proud of?
For me, I think, Son of Sodom and The Fiction Maze are two of the songs I really like the most. They both contain really cool stuff and I think we really nailed it on those. I’m of course proud of the whole album but those two seem to really work for me.

Are there any plans for a music video or single?
Yes, Son of Sodom will be released as a online single any day now. As for a video we haven’t really decided yet. Let´s see what happens with that!

Are there any plans in the works for some live shows?
Yep, we are discussing some touring plans later this year and hopefully we will have some festival gigs coming up as well.

Is there anywhere in particular you’d like to play a show?
Everywhere in general, but for myself, I would be delighted to return to Japan with Persuader. We played there with Savage Circus in 2005 or 2006 and that was a blast.

If you could collaborate with any band or musician, who would it be?
Jorn Lande perhaps, he has a really cool voice that would be cool to write some tunes to.

If Persuader could put their name to any product, what would you choose?
Meatsauce! And it would be 100% homemade by me!

And finally, what is in store for Persuader in 2014?
Lots of cool gigs, songwriting to follow up The Fiction Maze and lots and lots of fun!

The Fiction Maze is released on January 17. Preorder your copy from here.

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