NOCTURNAL RITES - February 19th, 2006 - Interview with Nils Eriksson (bass).
Written by Alina Michelle and John Coyne.
Live photos courtesy of Jim Sundström.

 PHOTOMISTRESS:  In ONE word, describe each band member, including yourself.

NILS ERIKSSON:  Me: handsome, Fredrik: curly, Owe: heavy, Nils: fast, Jonny: angry.

PM:  You generally don't perform many of the old songs live - is that because you'd rather focus on the present instead of reliving the past?

NE:  We usually go as far back as our second album, which I think is good enough. The first album was only released on a small label and only resurfaced again last year, so not many of our fans really know those songs. Also, when you have seven albums to pick songs from and have to squeeze them all into a 1.5 hour set you will quite positively run into problems.

PM:  Has the evolution of the Nocturnal Rites sound been a conscious effort or a natural progression?

NE:  Natural. I don't think we've ever made any conscious decisions musically. We just let the music come naturally and have fun writing it. This was nothing ever has to be forced and in the end I think we benefit a lot from this way of working.

PM:  The band's song writing has changed quite a bit since the earlier albums - is that because the band members have such an eclectic taste in music?

NE:  I guess so. We're into everything from cheesy hair bands to country, pop, jazz and the most extreme death metal. We try not to have any rules when writing and I think and hope that sets us apart from a lot of the other bands out there.

 PM:  Obviously Anders and Jonny's vocals are different.  What do you feel Jonny's strengths are in achieving your newer sound and do you think his tone makes it easier to come up with harmonies?

NE:  I think Jonny has an edge to his voice that adds a lot of aggression to our sound and even though some of our songs are really melodic they never come off cheesy. As for harmonies - easy melodies are always the most effective and it is never hard to come up with harmonies for easy melodies.

PM:  Do you believe the chemistry amongst the band members is helped by the fact that you live in the same town and are friends outside the band?

NE:  I think it is very important to have a healthy chemistry within a band, especially when you're not the Rolling Stones that have 17 crew members each and a few airplanes as well and don't have to spend a second off stage together. I mean, we do spend an awful lot of time together and if we hated each other's guts we would probably not be doing this.

PM:  In a hundred years, when you're dead, would you rather be hatefully remembered or totally forgotten and why?

NE:  None of the above. I would choose to be remembered as a cool guy of course, but maybe that wasn't one of the options. If I can't choose that, then I guess I'd choose to be completely forgotten.

PM:  Considering the band is over 15 years old, are you happy that your time has finally come to play in the States and were you surprised by the invitation? Have you heard any stories about Chicago Powerfest from Morgana Lefay or Tad Morose?

NE:  We've gotten several invitations to the US before but never had the time to go or it was in the middle of doing something else. So no, we weren't too surprised, but very happy indeed that it finally worked time wise for us.  The US hadn't been a priority until lately since it seems we're growing more there and the melodic music in general seems to be getting a lot more fans as well.  Up to now, we've spent most of our time in Sweden, Europe and Asia.  I've only heard cool things from the Morgana and Morose guys about your fest. Apparently you can get loaded in Chicago too!

PM:  What inspired Owe to start directing/producing metal videos? Who's the cool guy that dances in the "Awakening" video?

NE:  After we did the "Awakening" video with outside producers he seemed to be very interested in the whole process of making videos. You know, the whole editing part and so on. So he just decided he should try and make one, just for the hell of it and it turned out awesome. From then on I guess he couldn't stop! The guy that dances - haha, I have no idea. I don't know any of the people in that video personally.

PM:  It seems that Grand Illusion has a more balanced presence than the previous albums. Is there anything you did specifically different during the writing and recording?

NE:  Not really, but we had a lot more time in the studio doing this one. Plus we recorded during the summer, which was different for us. We've always done albums over the winter months and that can be, well, kind of depressing when you live in the north of Sweden. Recording in the summer was cool because we could sit outside and barbeque and drink beer in the sun. Creative indeed.

PM:  Have you been happy with the reception of the album?

NE:  Very much. The response from both fans and magazines has been great, so we couldn't be happier, actually.

PM:  What made the band decide to invite Henrik/Evergrey, Kris/Naglfar, Jens/Stratovarius, Ronny/Steel Attack, LG/The Storyteller and Jens/Persuader to guest on Grand Illusion? Did you know them personally beforehand?

NE:  We knew pretty much all of them from either touring or just having met them for different reasons. We've played with the idea of having guests on our albums for quite some time but never really got around to doing it. This time we planned ahead and made sure there was enough time to get it done.

PM:  What is the music scene like in Umeå, considering you are so far to the north? Do any touring bands play there?

NE:  It's really cool. There has always been a very good scene up here. There's a lot of bands and quite often local shows and what not. And yes, touring bands actually stop here. It's just a short ferry ride over to Finland so I guess it's an economic routing for bands doing shows in Finland as well. We've recently had Children of Bodom, for example, and Bolt Thrower is stopping by next month. I like this city, the vibe is cool.

Official Website:  www.nocturnalrites.com
Official Myspace Page:  www.myspace.com/nocturnalrites