Interviews - Live 4 Metal

Interview with Joakim Broden of Sabaton
5th November 2008 by James Young

Nobody does power metal quite like war heroes Sabaton. Whilst most bands sing about epic themes regarding dungeons and dragons, Sabaton decided to blast away from the pack and write songs about warfare. Since their conception in 1999, nobody has been able to outrun their Panzer Battalion, and nor was I when Joakim Broden dropped by to have a chat before their recent sold out London show. Let battle commence!

Hi, thanks for taking the time out for this interview. How has the new album ‘The Art Of War’ been received?
Lots better than we anticipated actually. It is a step to the heavier side, a big step away from the power metal, with more sinister atmospheres on some songs, like ‘The Price Of A Mile’. So far it has been really well-received and we’re really happy because it’s the album the band like the most. It seems like the fans like it the same.

What’s the difference between this and the other albums, lyrically and thematically?
It was hell to do, considering you had to find the battle to correspond with the chapter of the book ‘The Art of War’, and then you have to find the song and come up with a tracklist with a good mix between slow songs and fast songs. That really helped make it. In the end it’s worth it and rewarding. Maybe the lyrics reflect more on the dark side.

You were giving the book away with limited edition versions of the album. Do you expect fans to read the book as well?
It’s a forty page book so you can read it in an hour or two. I think most people that I’ve been talking to have either read it or are planning to read it. It seems like a big thing to do but it’s actually quite small.

Why do you sing about war? It seems like an obvious question but the last three albums have been on that theme. Why did you choose this over fantasy?
In the beginning it wasn’t a conscious choice. We just had the song Panzer Battalion and we were doing a promo and then we had the song Primo Victoria which had no lyrics at the time. I think it was me and Par [Sundstrom, bass] who sat down and we said we needed something big because this was a big song. So we thought what is the biggest thing we could think about right now? The landing on D-Day. So we wrote it - everybody knows the story, but we had to do some research and it actually made the song-writing more fun. It was about taking pure facts and turning them into art and lyrics. The challenge is good and we know that it is later now, and we like it more ourselves. We know that people are more engaged with our lyrics, especially more than other bands. Everybody has some idea or connection to war. I’ve never seen one myself!

So is your interest more from a literature standpoint or do you also like the movies?
Oh yeah, the movies also. I think the television series ‘Band of Brothers’ was amazing. What makes me like it even more is the production, and the fact it is based on a true story, and that all the people that were in the company have approved of it, so it is realistic.

How’s the tour going? How was the show last night in Scotland?
As usual the Scottish are quite mental, but I like them! As usual they were a good metal crowd, and so far in the tour overall, about fifty percent of the shows are sold out.

So do you think your popularity is increasing?
I’ve heard that it’s sold out tonight, or very close, tonight, which is an increase from the last time we were here.

How did the festival shows go this year? Graspop, Wacken…
At Graspop we had our biggest audience ever this year, it was 35,000 people, and luckily enough we played well that day and the audience fucking loved it and we actually captured it on DVD, so maybe we’ll release something from that. At Wacken we packed the party stage which holds 20,000 people. There’s a reason things have been increasing - we did Graspop, Wacken, Monsters of Rock, Sweden Rock festival so of course we got a lot of exposure this summer. I think that’s the main reason, as well as the album, why people are coming to our shows.

Do you have a DVD coming out? It’s been on the cards for a while but will it ever surface?
Yeah, it will. The first thing that happened was that we had a bus breakdown on our way to Belgium where we were supposed to record the first one so we couldn’t get there on time and check everything out, so due to technical difficulties, we couldn’t use that show. So we recorded a show in our home town on 14 June, and it’s in mixing now.

I’ve noticed in the past like Attero and Primo that there isn’t a metal medley this time around. Is that because there isn’t a chapter of this in the ‘Art of War’ book?
No chapter about metal bands two and a half thousand years ago! [Laughs] Well it was a concept album - we were thinking about it of course and there was a song already written way before, and I even have a couple more of those tracks lined up on my hard drive. I really enjoy writing those because it’s good fun, and relaxing, whilst taking a break from war and stuff. We’ll keep doing those tracks and maybe release an EP or an album with just those party tracks.

Do you think you’ll always sing about war?
I think we’re going to stick to the war theme but I would be surprised if all the Sabaton albums in the future were about war. It’s most likely we’ll stick to it but on the other hand I think every now and then it would be good for us and maybe for the fans that we do something extra a little bit out the way and then jump back.

You re-released Metalizer recently and that’s not about war, so was that your break from the topic?
No, that was more than a break because we recorded that in 2002 originally, so lots of fans were asking for it. We said we didn’t really care in the beginning, so for us it wasn’t really a release, but the fans wanted it. The record label had the chance to get it. The only demand we had was that if they released it along with Fist For Fight, they would have to be for the price of one because so many of the songs are the same.

Do you have any final words for the readers of Live4Metal?
Ah, the final words! Always the hardest ones - you know there’s one coming at the end of an interview but you don’t know what to say. Everybody’s always saying ‘Hey, listen to us - stay metal’…So I’m going to teach you some Swedish. If you ever meet a girl in Sweden, tell her ‘Du är en vacker sköldpadda’, which means ‘you are a very beautiful woman’, which is very useful!