An Interview with John Alfredsson of Avatar

By George Archibald

Avatar Photo by Andrew Bastion

Swedish rockers Avatar, have been making their own blend of metal since 2001. The band was founded by drummer John Alfredsson and guitarist Jonas Jarlsby, with vocalist Johannes Eckerström, guitarist Tim Öhrström, and bassist Henrik Sandelin, rounding out the lineup.  This band is known for their high energy music and stage show. Creatively this band fits in no mold, for they tend to write music from so many styles and genres it’s hard to classify their sound. I was fortunate to get to talk with founding member and drummer John Alfredsson, to find out more about this band, and where they see themselves in the future.

GA: Can you tell me a little about your band and its sound?
JA: Our band’s name is Avatar. We are from Gothenburg, Sweden, and we play some kind of theatrical… we play heavy metal. We are a metal band that doesn’t sound like anything else that I am aware of. It’s really up for the listeners to decide.

GA: You pull from a lot of different areas to make your music, I hear some folk, punk, metal etc.
JA: Yea we definitely use a wide variety of inspiration. This last album we were taking a lot of inspiration from bands such as Queen, The Beatles, and even metal bands; everything from Norwegian Black Metal, to typical Gothenburg bands like The Haunted or In Flames.

GA: Your music has such a high energy level to it. It also follows a variance of cadences, where do the band’s ideas for writing come from?
JA: It could be literally anything, everything and anything. When we write, it is usually not me who is the first one to write, because I play the drums. It usually starts with Jonas or Tim writing riffs. Then we start to put those riffs together. Then, I start to build the grooves. From the time a riff is born, it is very much a collective work with every single member, to where we sit down together and build everything. The inspiration could be from whatever we did that day, like for example we watched a Queen concert while we were writing this past album, that inspired us. We stay very diverse because of what references each band member has. So together we cover much of the musical spectrum, except for Country.

GA: Being the drummer of the band, what got you into to playing the instrument and when did you start learning how to drum?
JA: What got me into the instrument was definitely Lars Ulrich. When I was a kid in Sweden, socialist Sweden we only had 3 TV channels to choose between. I was about 14, and one of these channels aired Metallica’s S&M orchestra concert. I taped the show, and watched it over and over. I got really into it and was like “I got to play the drums.” So that is what really got me into drumming.

I used to play the flute when I was a kid. I started playing the flute when I was 6, or 7, and I played it until I was 10. It was me and a bunch of girls, and when you are 10 that’s not very cool. So I quit playing the flute, then I saw the Metallica concert, and I decide I wanted to be a drummer and started practicing. I begged my parents saying that “I want to have a drum kit”, and when I was 14 I got a drum kit. That’s how it all started. It all comes down to inspiration and who you look up to, in my case it was Metallica and Lars Ulrich.

GA: Can you tell me a little about your gear? What do you use, and if you have any endorsements please share them with us?
JA: I play Tama drums, because Lars used to play Tama drums, and still does. That is the only reason why I started playing Tama drums, besides that I love Tama. Now-a-days I could easily make a switch to something else but I love Tama drums. They are the only drum brand I can imagine myself playing. Since then, I also got endorsed by them which is really nice. For cymbals I use Meinl, they are fantastic cymbals. I also use Promark drumsticks because they are the only ones carrying the SD9 stick, which I prefer. I also use Evans drum heads, because they are fucking awesome.

GA: You are also a founding member of the band, what has kept you going since the inception of Avatar in 2001? And do you have any tips for retaining longevity in the music business? Anything you have picked up along the way.
JA: Nobody is going to save you… Nobody is going to save you. That is the biggest tip I can give to any aspiring musician. If you really want to do this, you are the only one who can make it happen. No one else is going to come there with a bag of money, and tell you, I will make you successful or anything.  It is always going to come down to yourself, nobody is going to save you.

GA: Being from Sweden what are some of your favorite places in the United States, and Europe to visit and preform at?
JA: We are a metal band, and we play for metal heads; metal communities are very much the same all over the globe. So for me, there is other stuff outside the crowd I like, with some places like in Germany, I can have a special beer in a bar next to a river and walk around, and I can’t do that here in Cleveland, due to safety concerns.  So stuff like that is what makes the difference between cities and countries for me. The actions show themselves, it’s a metal band playing in front of a bunch of metal dudes, and metal girls, and it’s a metal show. Everything is just metal. It has more similarities than differences between the crowds. It’s a very united community, metal crowds. The further South we go the crowds show that they dig the music in another way. If we play Spain, you would think with the crowds, people are going to get killed, but they have their own way of showing appreciation for the music. In the North, in Sweden, people are standing all in silence, not even making a noise but they still enjoy and appreciate the music. They all just have different ways they show they appreciate the music. It’s kind of the same way here in the United States, like it’s very different from playing in Maine or Michigan, then from playing in Florida for instance.

Avatar photo by Andrew Bastion

GA: What is one thing you would want someone to take from an Avatar performance? Such as any special feeling or message you guys want to convey to the crowd? Even to say I hope you all are having a good time.
JA: At The end of the day that is what we are about. We are entertainers, and we are working on entertaining people. So at the end of the day, you buy tickets to a show, the entire goal is that you shall be entertained, and highly entertained. So much so that you will go home, and think about it for days. That’s the goal, it is as simple as that. There’s no “we want to save the planet” or anything like that, it’s fucked anyways. We are entertainers, we are here to entertain and we want to entertain the people, that is the goal for us.

GA: I read that you went to three different studios for the album Feathers & Flesh. Where did you all record at and any special memories from the sessions?
JA: We worked with producer Sylvia Massy. She did a lot of work with System of a Down, Tool, and bands like that. We just figured she would be interesting, and challenging person to work with. She challenged us in a very good way, we talked with her and we clicked immediately. She is super organized and knows everything about everything when producing, and music theories, when recording. We wanted to stay in Europe for recording the album, because we wanted to feel at home. For the first part of the recording process. We do a remedial tracking of all the songs. This is the most crucial part for recording because that’s when the songs take shape, and all the magic happens. The first two weeks, we wanted to plan a vacation that was not at home, but still in Europe so we can get away but still feel at home. Where we can get away from everything, so we would not have all the minor interruptions, so we could focus as a band. So Sylvia found this castle in East Germany, it had a huge studio in it, so we decided to go there. After recording the first two weeks there, we tracked the vocals, for that we went to Helsinki, Finland because that is where our singer lives. It was really convenient for him and it was good to change environments as well. After tracking vocals, we had to get all the extra’s for the album recorded. We had to find a church organ for the first song we wrote, and we had some percussion that needed recorded. So we called up a church to ask for permission to record their organ the only place we could find was in Gothenburg since these organs cost so much. So for the last week we got the studio in Gothenburg, and put everything together, and added on all these extras. So that’s how we did it.

GA: So what’s next for the band?
JA: We are going to be touring throughout America and Europe, and afterward we will be writing another album.

I would like to thank John for speaking with me it was quite an honor to meet with you. I wish you and the band well while on tour. You can catch John and Avatar touring throughout the United States with special tour guests Anthrax, Avenge Sevenfold, and Meshuggah on select dates until October 29^th then the band embarks on a European tour from November 11^th till December 18^th.  For more information check out the band’s Facebook page as they constantly update content.

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George Archibald

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