Photo:Erik Hansen

The Dead and Living is a really interesting band that will release a new single now at the end of February 2025. Hard to describe music but really good is the group. Listen to them right away, you will not be disappointed.

You are releasing a new EP now, why "just an EP". Tell us a little about the four songs?

-Hello! That's right. We will release the EP DAMAGE on February 28th this year. It was actually supposed to be a quick sequel to the latest full-length The Author's Curse. If you say that we had planned to gear up in March/April 2020, that probably explains a lot. We've had every conceivable setback along the way, but now we're back on track with a new release, new live dates, festivals and writing already for the next release. The DAMAGE EP brings The Dead And Living into the present. After ten years of wallowing in 19th-century decadence, we felt it was time for a big leap into the future and beyond. The spacious theme that characterizes the EP falls into place much more now than we first thought. The infinite dimensions and darkness of space, which has always been there and always will be there. It's not necessarily a science fiction theme but rather a modern take on this bizarre cosmic thing that we're all a part of. It is heavier and more atmospheric than before, or perhaps more auto-atmospheric even. We look down on ourselves and humanity from a more universal perspective.

What has happened since the last release, member changes?

-As I said, there has been some setback after adversity. First the pandemic, then logistical challenges due to inflation and recession. Something that I think everyone who is involved in music has felt in recent years. We were just exceptionally unlucky with the timing through all of this. We have also lost people in our immediate surroundings while new ones have been added. A roller coaster, for better or worse, in every way. Our guitarist for more than 10 years, Janitor, chose to step down so he is not on the EP. It was a very undramatic and loving process. But you can imagine what it will be like on a construction site when the caretaker resigns.

Has there been a lot of gigs between the releases or has it been quiet on that front?

-It has been quite calm on that front for a while actually. Mostly because we wanted to be current with a new release and start a new after everything that has been. However, we released a re-issue of our debut album Decadance on vinyl in the middle space and did a sold-out gig in Karlstad in connection with that. 

Do you play abroad a lot? It feels if you would be bigger abroad for some reason?

-We did it a lot before and with the upcoming EP release we have started to look outwards in the world again. There is some talk about England and the rest of Europe, while countries like Iceland and Japan are still on our bucket list. So we are hoping a little dreamily that it could be relevant before it is time to pack up or fall off the stick. The most reasonable thing would have been to be the first band on Mars or some other scouting planet. Saturn, for example, seems cool.

I compare you on the new single with Rammstein, Sisters and Laibach, how about that?

-I like that you say Laibach. Not everyone draws that parallel, and I think it is in a way more accurate than a lot of other references we are mentioned in the same sentence as. It's okay for us to be compared to other bands. In research, that's how it is, you can't say anything without referring to a source. So you realize that it's the same with music. Everything needs to be derived from something in order to exist within an intelligible context. That's how we humans work.

Which other bands are you compared to and what is the strangest thing you have been compared to?

-I actually don't know. It's not like we keep a very good track of or remember what we're being compared to. But sometimes I know that we ourselves have thought that we sound quite different from the typical bigger bands that we are compared to. But that we understood that those bands are the closest references the reviewer has been able to find. While the inspiration may have come from something completely different.

Are reviews important in your opinion, how can they help you move forward? Do you take it to heart if someone thinks it's crap?

-This thing about reviews probably still has some significance. Of course it's good for a release to get a good review in a reputable magazine or blog, or whatever it's called these days. However, reviews are not something you personally care about as a band. But of course you take it like hell.

Do you have any favorite records that have come out in recent years that you listen to a lot?

-I probably listen a lot to records which are not necessarily so relevant in relation to The Dead and Living. A lot of electronic, things that sound good and string arrangements and more. There is also a lot of stuff like this: Nick Cave, Cohen, Dylan, Thåström. It has probably been reflected in the fact that my vocals are more in that direction than power metal. So one of the later Nick Cave may have spun a little more than others.

Is it important to get your music out in a physical way, or can you feel like you've made a record for real if it's only available digitally?

-For me personally, the physical release is still important. I myself basically only buy vinyl these days and it definitely feels more fun to release vinyl than to just listen to music via the streaming services. It's a fantastic craft too, where it's fun to follow the process, including geeking out about details both from us and the pressers. Then it's exciting to see if the delivery comes. There are often long lead times and often delays. It's a bittersweet process every time and incredibly nice when the vinyls arrive and you can start shipping them out to fans in different parts of the world.

Describe the feeling every time you get a new album, single with your own group (I've never played in a band so I don't know the feeling?

-The first time it was incredibly powerful, I remember. Then you get used to it a bit over time. But it's definitely a special feeling to experience the release, especially the vinyl, with all six senses.

I see that the label Black Cult Records has only released you and Sparzanza through the ages, is it a label of its own? No thoughts of releasing any other bands there?

-It is Johan Carlsson in Sparzanza who released the DAMAGE EP. It's a good friend of ours and we've been able to release vinyl through them on our terms, which we're very grateful for. I don't know if they plan to release anything more than Sparzanza and us. But for us, it's been a good way to release our vinyls basically as if we had released them in-house. Johan is both a vinyl lover and an enabler for the music life in Värmland.

I think you sound very un-Swedish in some way, is it good or bad criticism or how do you take it?

-I don't really know. It's not something that we have thought about or reflected on. But maybe our tours abroad in some unexpected countries have contributed to that, and that there is a lot of stereotypical hard rock and pop in Sweden, which is the opposite of what we want to do. We don't really do Swedish rock in Swedish.

What's the best thing about playing live?

-It's actually this classic thing that everyone says: to get close to the audience, feel the energy and this little "larger than life" feeling. By that I don't mean that we feel "larger than life", but more that the music itself opens a door to something that is beyond the otherwise rather square reality you spend most of your life in. Then there's all the flying in different means of transport together before and after gigs, socializing with crew, organizers, friends and fans, hanging out at hotels and more. The band's own universe, which you mostly enjoy being in, but which of course can also get on your nerves. It's another cliché, this thing about the band being like a marriage with highs and lows. More action than watching TV or standing at an assembly line anyway. 

Tell us a little about the following albums and what you think about it today.

The first record you bought or got?

-If we are to sweep under the rug that it was probably a CD with Robyn, which of course we will, then I think that Nevermind by Nirvana was the first record I bought myself in a record store. I think it's absolutely fantastic to this day. It doesn't sound at all like when they rehearse it. There was some kind of magic going on in the studio there with Butch Vig. I remember going back to Obs! Bergvik's record department in the 90's and asked if there were more records that sounded like Nevermind. They gave me a Guns N' Roses record, I think it was The Spaghetti Incident. I went home and listened and found that it was nowhere near the same. I didn't like it at all. My childhood friend Ricky also made a well-intentioned but unsuccessful attempt to get me into Butthole Surfers as well. But it was probably mostly Nevermind and Nirvana bootlegs for me those years.

The album that changed your life?

-I wouldn't say it's a specific album. Those albums have come in batches . Dylan's early, Nevermind with Nirvana, maybe American IV with Johnny Cash, Skeleton Tree with Nick Cave and You Want It Darker with Leonard Cohen. I can hardly listen to the latter, because it is so sad. But maybe it's like life. It goes from youthful revolt to sentimental farewells

Last album you bought?

-The last ones I ordered were Nick Cave's Wild God and both records with True Moon in the same vein, I think. I also bought the first press of Cowboys From Hell with Pantera at a party at a friend's house this summer. Now that I'm sitting and writing here I realized that I don't have the latest album with Tribulation either. So I ordered just that, as well as the new one with Becky and the Birds. Vinyl is a constant consumption for me.

The album you're ashamed of?

-It probably takes a lot for me to be ashamed of an album I own. But I have a lot of presses of the same album, including The Sisters of Mercy and Ghost. I'm not necessarily ashamed of those albums, but it's maybe not entirely healthy to feel the need to have all the presses of the same album with certain bands.

The album that makes The Dead and Living sound like you do?

-Initially, it was a completely twisted mix between In Sorte Diaboli by Dimmu Borgir and Within a Mile From Home with Flogging Molly which laid the foundation for the band. Why does it sound like it does now? I actually don't know. It has kind of mutated. You can hear those early references, but we bring what we feel like into the mix. We would have stagnated completely if we had tried a The Author's Curse II.

The album that always has to be on the tour bus?

-There is probably quite a lot of shuffle there, I would say. We have some songs that are absolute must-haves on long trips, such as Pyramid God by Septic Flesh and (10) and Counting by Boysetsfire. It has been with us since we played punk, and the lyrics are about the madness of going around in a minibus with the same friends from high school in more or less headwinds. It's an internal song for us. Then, the first time one of the new, younger guys in the band goes along, we sit and roar the whole lyrics from start to finish, and they just sit and cring, or whatever it is they call it.

The album that you would have liked to have played on?

-Then I would probably have tried to keep up with Bob Dylan's verses in Like A Rolling Stone, maybe. Or played some weird instrument on the Rain Dogs album with Tom Waits,

If you could choose five bands to have a concert with you, which five would you choose if you could choose any band, dead or living band? Which is the dream band that you have played with already?

-Then I would book a band with friends or bands we played with and put together a big party afterwards. Let the dead rest. I say:

Tribulation

True Moon

The Search

Z73

With us in the middle there somewhere, and how are we going to top all this? We run Oasis as the headline. It feels just the right amount of time. Marky Ramone was cool to play with, with Michale Graves from Misfits on vocals. Another time, Shagrath and Silenoz from Dimmu Borgir were in the audience. We also did a pretty dreamy tour with Deathstars, much because we get along so well. I'm sure I'm forgetting something... Does it count as being the opening act for Kiss if we played before them at Sweden Rock? We probably experienced it regardless. It was also during Kiss at Sweden Rock that one of our guitarists invented the octopus. That is, when you buy eight beers in the beer tent and have one between each finger, i.e. four in each hand, so that you don't have to stand in line any more during the gig. We have amazing pictures from that gig with Kiss. We are all completely silent.

What is the strangest band you have had a concert with that did not fit with your music at all?

-We have played with a lot of wacky bands over the years, but nothing that stands out as crazy, I think. We did a tour together with Skumdum in the beginning when we sounded more punk. Even then we stood out quite a lot, so it was fun to play for a more or less understanding audience. I think we played with Smash Into Pieces at some point too. They stood and lifted weights in the backroom, while we drank beer and did stunts on different furniture. You can see how it then went out, both for Smash and for us.

What is the strangest thing that has happened during your music career, I mean when you have played live, backstage or on your way to a gig or similar?

-For us, it is quite easy to point to the bus fire in 2014 in the Austrian Alps in this context. We had just played in Graz, Austria, during a tour with Deathstars and were on our way to Italy for two gigs, I think it was. But at 5:00 a.m., in the middle of a tunnel in the Alps, the bus caught fire, and we had to evacuate it in the middle of a cliff on a motorway bridge. First it was: "Everybody out of the bus!!" Sen: "Watch out for the steep!!" It was barely possible to open the bus door either, so we could easily have been trapped in the smoke-filled bus. But we survived thanks to our German bus driver Stefan. Afterwards there was a free bar in an alpine hut with the police and the Red Cross, and finally we were invited to an Austrian family's house and danced a ring dance in their living room. Then a pretty shaky gig in Munich when we finally got back on our feet and got a new bus. Those days are quite difficult to top in drama.

What is the strangest thing that you have written a song about?

-I think all our songs are pretty weird. It's often a bit confusing with meaning and to a great extent cynical. The Chronic Emptiness, for example, grazes off a list of symptoms of borderline. I don't know if anyone has thought about that, and why have we written a song about it? And why has it been streamed the second most after the radio single City of the Light and more than the second single from the same album? It's completely borderline in itself.

Who writes the lyrics and what is the most common topic you cover?

-I write most of the lyrics, but it happens that people I know, who are good with words, have been involved in writing until the token fell down. There is no particular topic that is more common than others. I don't know if I'm thinking in terms of topics when I write either. It's more of a kind of channeling, where the lyrics come as if out of nowhere and manifest themselves in the songs. But it always has this slightly cynical, dark side. That has been a premise since the beginning of the band. It is a theatrical melancholy, which almost comes for free when you as a Scandinavian live in constant darkness and cold for half of your life.

Political lyrics are not for you?

-No, you can't really say that. One must probably take a more cynical approach when it comes to our texts. It is more nihilistic than political.

Best political band?

-I am probably, whether I want to or not, under a lifelong influence of e.g. Bob Dylan. The subtlety, the sense of hopefulness in the music that is not necessarily described in the words, and the temporal imprint that feels further away than ever. But above all, Dylan's back-and-forth and upside-down, and the subtlety in every aspect of his lyrics and music.

How do you think it is to live in Sweden nowadays, politically, explosions, etc etc?

-I feel like the least qualified in the world to answer that question. Most of us grew up in the nicer residential areas of Karlstad. We sought out the world, had the opportunity to do so and have seen both dazzling light and pitch-black darkness. At the same time, the hometown has, to the extent possible, felt like the planet's absolute center of total security.

Back to the music, about someone who has never heard you and would be initiated into your music.... Which songs should you start with then? How would you describe your music in three words?  Above all, which song would you play to convince the person that you are fucking good?

 -Right now we know that people seem to like DEMONS TILL I'M DEAD from the new EP, as well as City of the Light from the last full-length album The Author's Curse, which is the song we got the best response to, in every way. But I would probably have made a fool of myself and played DAMAGE from the EP, because I think it's crazy. We don't usually describe our music. We play it or release it. Then the rest takes care of itself.

Interviews is there anything you like? Is there too much of that commodity or too little?

-It is probably more energy and time consuming than people think. Many lunches, late evenings and nights. But of course it's included, especially when you release music and do the whole round with PR both in Sweden and internationally. We are of course grateful for the interest in our music and do not give up until all interviews are answered.

If you have a question you never get that you want, ask it and answer it?

-How do you really feel after all this? Not quite a hundred maybe. But thanks for asking. It could have been worse.

The weirdest question you've ever been asked? (except for this one)

-This is probably the strangest. I'll get back to you when we get a weirder question. 

Futureplans for the band?

-We will release the EP DAMAGE on February 28 this year. Then there will be a release party in Karlstad on March 15, which will be fun since several international fans have written that they will be showing up. It's pretty awesome to be able to play for fans from England, France, Finland, Hungary etc. in your own hometown.

For yourself?

-I have so much going on in life that I don't have to think so much about what I'm going to do in the next few years. I'm just going along. In the midst of everything that comes by itself, however, we are already writing new material. Of course, I'm looking forward to releasing it as well, hopefully with a little shorter intervals than last time.

Words of wisdom?

-Life is not black and white. Even if you have stopped using snuff, you can take one sometimes.

Something to add?

-Thank you for covering us  here. Go in and listen to the DAMAGE EP wherever you listen, and order the vinyl from our website if you like vinyl. We're a pretty approachable band, and you often get an answer if you write to us. So let me know if there's anywhere we should come and play... ... and do not go gently into the good night.