The year was 1991, when two teenagers named Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse decided to have a go at the extreme metal scene. Death metal was at its peak and although they were comfortable with that style they felt an urge to incorporate something more beyond just the brutal aspect. They searched for the elements that spoke to them to give their sound a uniqueness, brutality, harmony and blackness. What became was Katatonia, a band that has spent the last twenty years bringing this unique brew of power and darkness to audiences across the world. In our continuing search for the best of metal, we talk with Anders Nyström of Katatonia.

What inspires your music?
“Everything between the cradle to the grave, and beyond! When we started out we obviously had very direct influences from other similiar bands in the metal scene, but as the years went by the inspiration started coming in more from other sources such as movies and books and then eventually dug even further into real life. Moods, moments and surroundings are important factors these days. Musically, we also discovered that if you’re a metal band but draw your influences from unexpected genres like alternative music, singer songwriters etc you’re gonna end up with an entirely unique sound within the metal genre. What I love is that no matter of heavy or how mellow we sound, people still recognise it as part of Katatonia, so it’s very liberating to have reached that level of recognition. Furthermore, one of the most consistant and maybe surprising inspiration has been color. You see, whenever we do an album we always wait to see what color it will represent itself in and then we follow that through with the design and layout.”

What is your craziest gig?
“Oh there’s been a couple through the years haha! About fifteen years ago, in the middle of a european tour, we got to play in a house located out in the desolate countryside fields of Switzerland. The “stage” was the livingroom and we were told to play the gig sitting on a couple of school chairs and I remember the audience (wherever they came out from) was scattered around the house, peeking in from all doorways and the ones who couldn’t fit were peeking in through the windows from the outside. That was and still is a plain crazy experience! One more recent happening was in St Paul, Minnesota where we discovered two of our guitars had been stolen five minutes before entering the stage, so we had to re-arrange the setlist on the spot and go up there totally disillusioned. Once we started playing the drummer broke his right bassdrum pedal! I mean, c’mon, how big is the chance that you split a steel tip in two!? Anyways, it happened, so he had to finish the song with his left foot and then we had to scrap all the remaining songs needing double pedal patterns. It wasn’t looking good, but we kept on playing to an audience who still seemed oblivious to the chaos when all of a sudden the power went out and the stage stayed black for 40 (!) minutes. I’ve totally blocked out what I did during this time, but I remember looking across the room and past the audience and seeing our bass player with his bass still strapped on having a beer at the bar. When the power got back on, we could only play one more song. I felt like I wanted to sink through the earth, but the audience cheered more than ever, maybe they thought it was all part of the show, or should I say, the circus!”
What kind of gear do you currently use?
“I use tons of different stuff in the studio, but my live setup consists of Mayones gothic Regius & Setius custom signature electric guitars equipped with Seymour Duncan SH-6 pickups in the bridge & Fernandes sustainer pickups in the neck. Blackstar S1-100 amplifier with S1-412 cabs, Ampclamps for mic mounting, Boss GT-10 & Line6 POD XT for effects processors that I run either by the 4 cable method, line and by midi. Lately, I’ve put the signal straight out from line to the PA and let Pro Tools do the channel & patch switching by midi which means I don’t have to manually stomp on any pedals what so ever, so I don’t even have them on the floor but sitting in the back. I use Morpheus FX Droptune and Capo pedals to polyphonically change my tuning and pitch down or up without having to manually touch the tuning pegs or even change guitars, very innovative and smooth! I use Sennheiser’s G2 In-ear system for monitors and Audio Technica ATW 3110 for wireless. Rotosound strings with the gauge 0.11 to 058, In Tune & Jim Dunlop guitar picks and Planet Waves for all cables and accessories. I guess that pretty much wraps it up.”
What defines a good performance for you?
“A good performance is when an artist can feed off the energy of a loving crowd and spit back out to them double the dose!”
For more information on Katatonia:
http://katatonia.com/