by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
Some passions start really early. We’ve all heard stories about future great drummers starting out by banging their mothers’ pots and pans with spoons and forks or Oscar-winners-to-be finding their calling after an outstanding performance in a school play. With Erik Modin, a drummer, songwriter and producer – and a mastermind of the Swedish Melodic Rock act Wildness – it was no different. “I’ve been interested in recording music since I was little – since I found that little red button on the cassette player,” he says, looking back at his beginnings. But it certainly wasn’t all a nostalgia trip as Hardrock Haven caught up with Erik to talk songwriting, music production and more. With the new Wildness album Ultimate Demise just about to be released, it was exactly the other way around…
Hardrock Haven: With Eddie Van Halen’s passing recently, do you think it’s actually the moment of passing the torch between generations and do you think that music made by Eddie and other musicians of his generation are still going to inspire generations that will come after ours?
Erik Modin: I think it will go on for the next hundred years and Classic Hard Rock will be remembered just like Classical music is. It was something that meant a lot to a lot of people, there was a lot of talent, a plenty of geniuses that created timeless and epic songs that will stand forever. And speaking of Classic Rock, I mean all things since around the ‘50s and forward, with Elvis and Chuck Berry, and The Beatles and everything. Because The Beatles are already in that category like Classical music. So I think the music will live on, even though the people who created it won’t.
Hardrock Haven: And speaking of today’s younger generation in Rock – your band, Wildness, was actually originally thought of as a studio project with some guest musicians contributed to it. What’s prompted such an idea at the beginning?
Erik Modin: It all started seven years ago, when I and the guitar players Pontus [Sköld] and Adam [Holmström] started working with people who eventually ended up in other Swedish bands like Reach or Adrenaline Rush. And after we broke up, I just felt that I wanna start over and I wanna do something completely different. We played in a similar vein to Cinderella – more bluesy/funky stuff – and I’ve always been a big fan of these big-haired ‘80s Melodic Hard Rock bands with keyboards and big choruses… So I was like, “Okay, I just wanna do some stuff for myself and see what comes out of it.” And I was studying to become a music producer at that time, so I was writing a lot of music – almost on a daily basis. So I just got this flash of inspiration and wrote the songs “Alibi” and “Stranger” [both eventually ended up on Wildness’ first album] in quite a short period of time. Then [I wrote] “War Inside My Head” and I thought, “Okay, I wanna do something out of this, I wanna make a project or something… I just wanna record it and release it.” And I was very inspired at that time by Swedish bands like Work Of Art and Eclipse and especially Erik Mårtensson’s studio project W.E.T [with Jeff Scott Soto and Robert Säll]. I think that it was the concept of W.E.T started my thoughts of creating something by myself to see how far I can take it as a songwriter and producer. Of course, all that with a little help from my friends – singers, guitar players etc. But when we all got together – after future Wildness’ original lead singer Gabriel became part of the whole thing – we just felt that it makes no sense to do that as a project. It felt more like a band. We all got along together so well and we had fun, so we just found ourselves some rehearsal space and that was it.
Hardrock Haven: And have you ever wondered what it would be like if that first plan of yours worked out and Wildness remained a studio project? Would it be as fulfilling as the band is for you now?
Erik Modin: I don’t know really, because if we hadn’t broken up with that first band, I don’t think I would’ve started the thought of Wildness… at least not on the level that it eventually elevated to. The thing is, when I started to think about doing something and it still was that studio project thing, I have already had song “Turning The Pages” with me that I wrote one year earlier. And I had no idea what to do with it. I just wrote a song straight from my heart just the way I would like to hear it – and the way I would like to write it. It was a time when I had thoughts of doing something in the studio, solo or something like that… But it was the band break-up that really kicked it off and made me realize that now I had time to focus one hundred per cent on something else. Because whenever I’m leaving some kind of a musical project, I’m just diving right into another one. I need to be occupied with something. And that’s the fun part of it, because it doesn’t really matter what it is – if I’m just a drummer in a band or if I’m doing what I’m doing with Wildness today. And the music of Wildness is just what I’m most into and what I wanna do. It’s straight from my heart.
Hardrock Haven: Ultimate Demise is your second album overall and the first to feature a new singer Erik Forsberg. You announced his arrival in May when I think the material for the new album must have been largely finished. Also, Erik’s previous band [Blazon Stone] was a totally different story music- and lyric-wise than Wildness is, so was the transition easy?
Erik Modin: Yeah, I would say that, because he’s got very similar preferences musically as we do. I mean, he likes the same stuff, the ‘80s, the big choruses, hair bands, AOR stuff… We have very similar taste in music and it was a pretty easy transition. I think that as far as we talk Blazon Stone, he was recruited there because he’s got a great voice and he’s a great singer also when it comes to Power Metal, but as far as I know we all share the same music preferences.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve already mentioned Gabriel [Lindmark], your previous singer, who fronted Wildness for many years. Do you think comparisons between him and Erik are inevitable when it comes to reviews and fans’ opinions?
Erik Modin: Just like you say, it’s just inevitable to see comparisons like that being made when you’re replacing a band member. Especially the singer, because the singer’s kind of responsible for the big picture of the sound in some ways. So it’s hard to dodge that bullet. But hopefully people will like him as much as they liked Gabriel.
Hardrock Haven: As you’ve said, for the previous album you used older songs, like “Stranger” or “Turning The Pages” or “War Inside My Head” that all date way back. Is the soon-to-be-released material all recently written?
Erik Modin: Well, I would say that about the most part of it. You know, people say that you have all the time in the world to make your debut album, but it’s a bit more risky to make your second album ‘cause you have short amount of time. I was actually thinking about it and just like you say, “War Inside My Head” was written in 2012 and “Turning The Pages” was written around that time as well. We had another song on our first album called “Falling Down” – the original riff and the idea for it dates back as far as 2010. It was just this spontaneous idea when I bought a new a computer with a new sound card and the new guitar stuff and I was sitting and riffing along and then it came around. And I had it laying around for years until then I decided it was a pretty cool song and we need to finish it. But it’s actually funny you’re asking that question when it comes to our new album because of our first single “Cold Words”. I was actually going through some voice memos backed-up on my computer and recorded originally on my old iPhone to see if I had any cool ideas laying around. Because it’s like an idea comes to your mind and you mumble something into your phone, record it and then just forget about it. So, it’s always fun to see if you can find any nuggets there. And as I was scrolling through it, I found the original idea for “Cold Words”. Then I found three different recordings, so I could hear how it developed from one recording to another. And it was an hour between them, so it was like I was sitting at my computer and just trying to write a song, and the moment I came up with a good vocal melody, I just mumbled it into my phone. I could already hear the beginning of what became a chorus and it dates back as far as 2012 as well. But that song was really written in its entirety in 2017, after the first album. So I would say that the main part of the album is written between the first and the second one, a time span of maybe two years, more or less.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve just given a sneak peek into your songwriting methods. So in general, what was the songwriting process for the new album like? Did it feature any contribution from other band members?
Erik Modin: Well, it depends according to which song you’re thinking about. I can give an example. Sometimes it goes really, really quick when you’ve got this bolt of lightning – of inspiration, right into your head. And our latest single, “Die Young”, was written in that way. I remember that it was a year ago and I was at the gym, doing the exercises and listening to some random podcast and then, all of a sudden, I just got the main riff in my head – or some embryo of it (laughs). I just thought, “Oh, that sounds cool.” And it just kept spinning round and round in my head (laughs). I couldn’t let it go. So I had to get off the machine, get into the corner of the room, get my phone and mumble the whole idea in. And as I was doing that, more and more of the song just came to me – I got ideas for verses and ideas for that snare-humming bridge and all… So I was like, “Okay, fuck it. I just gotta write now.” I took my stuff, went straight back home and six hours later the first complete demo was done with vocals and everything. And it was about 99 per cent of what you hear on the album when it comes to the arrangement. So that went pretty quick. Another song took a very long time, and that’s “Renegades Of Love”. That was originally an idea that I came up with before we actually recorded our first album. So I had this instrumental song with pretty much all the arrangement done but I could’ve never ever come up with any vocals on it – neither did I, nor anyone in the band. Yet, we thought it’s a cool song, it’s pretty hard and has got the whole uptempo speed that you can drive your car along to – it’s a good driving song. So we decided to record it and then maybe come up with the vocals later, ‘cause we did that on our first album in two songs and they turned out great. We just felt comfortable with it and hoped for the best. And then, when Gabriel left the band, we just put the song on hold to focus on the other stuff that was closer to completion. And when Erik came into the picture, we thought “Maybe he can come up with some stuff to it”. And I was sick and tired of that song and didn’t want to have anything to do with it (laughs). I thought that if we just leave this out, I’m good with it. But that would mean we’d have too few songs on the album. So I just sent the song to Erik, asking “Do you have any ideas? Can you make anything out of it?” We didn’t come up with anything up to that point. We didn’t have any vocal melodies – we had some, some draft, but it wasn’t good at all. “Okay, I’ll have a look at it,” he said. And two weeks later, he’s sending me the lyrics and the whole demo with big chorus arrangement and the lead vocals and everything. It’s done now, and it’s called “Renegades Of Love”. And I’m just like, “Holy shit!” (laughs) It was a total transition. I could never imagine the song like that and I just painted myself into a corner with that one. I think it turned our great and I think it raised the overall level of the whole album when it was done. So, that’s two different examples of how the songwriting process can turn out.
Hardrock Haven: The aforementioned first single “Cold Words” has this sci-fi vibe to it lyrically. Was it a “War of the Worlds” kind of thing that inspired it?
Erik Modin: Not directly, but it’s a good comparison. I was imagining some kind of a black-and-white, yellowing comic magazine from the ‘40s or something, when they spoke of aliens or flying saucers like some kind of a comical thing. It wasn’t a dangerous threat that it would become more of in a mainstream sci-fi in the ‘70s or ‘80s. So, I visualized some kind of a yellowish, black-and-white comic book environment where the aliens invade the Earth and they just hack the radio frequency and say “We’re going to get you.” So that’s what the song is all about. It sounds cheesy now that I’m talking about it (laughs), but I think it’s a cool idea and I like the lyrical theme ‘cause I’ve never written anything like it before. So it was fun to try.
Hardrock Haven: And what’s inspired the single “Die Young”, which sounds like a tribute to a fallen hero?
Erik Modin: Yeah, you’re right about that. It’s actually a tribute to a close friend of the band who chose not to go on five years ago. So we all thought that we wanna pay some kind of tribute to him, because he was a good friend and the funniest of dudes. He was so energetic, into all kinds of Heavy Metal and Hard Rock and he was a big fan of the same stuff as we are. He lived his life to the fullest and was able to turn every grey and depressing day into a joy and fun. He was amazing and we miss him dearly. And we thought we wanna make some kind of tribute to him with our band. Usually the most regular thing that you do when you make a tribute to people that passed away is ballads, but I thought – he was a fun, high-tempo, hard-hitting, energetic guy and he’s gonna get a song like that. So when I was writing “Die Young”, the lyric theme just came to me and I thought that maybe this is his song. So, the song’s about him and it’s a shame he never got to hear it.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. I’d also like to ask you about the last song, which is a title song and is quite different from the rest of the album…
Erik Modin: It was kind of an experiment actually, ‘cause we have a song on the first album called “Highlands”, which has a very Gary Moore-ish vibe to it and was inspired largely by Folk music. So we wanted to make a follow-up to that song on this album, some kind of bastard child or sibling… (laughs) And when I came up with the song “The Ultimate Demise”, it was originally an uptempo song, just like “Highlands”. But after I wrote some kind of intro and verse and a chorus, I decided to strip it down with my acoustic guitar as I felt that the song is probably gonna sound better in more naked, slower, but also more symphonic version. So I just tried to jam along with it and instantly I found out that this really sounds better. Then I just recorded a full version of the “orchestra remix” before I even completed the uptempo demo, and then I thought, “Okay, maybe this is this song in its entirety.” I’ve never finished the uptempo version and I don’t think I will, either. We all thought that once it turned out so cool as it was in its symphonic arrangement, we’ll keep it that way. And it was just drifting around with no plan, like what we’re gonna do with this one or are we gonna use it… We knew we can’t put it as the first track and it might be confusing to put in the middle as well, so we decided this one’s gonna be the closing track. Then it’s not gonna compete with any other song sound-wise. So we made a pretty similar move as we did with the first album, where we also put “Turning The Pages” last and on this album we put “Borderline” as a next-to-last song as “Borderline” is a kind of a bastard child or a sibling to “Turning The Pages” as well. Both got this half downtempo, swingy sound to it. But here it’s “The Ultimate Demise” that is the real final.
Hardrock Haven: The new album features some additional musicians – Chriz Vain (Art Nation, Liv Sin), Michael Blanc (Degreed, Paralydium) and Gustaf Lindstein. How did each participation come about?
Erik Modin: Gustaf is my brother actually, so it was pretty easy to bring him on the train. And he’s actually done background vocals on our first album as well. So it’s actually fun thing to do to include your family members… And speaking of that, I can tell you one thing. If you hear some squeaky, ambient, high-pitched noises on the first track called “Call Of The Wild”, it’s my one-year-old song screaming (laughs). It’s similar to whistling and if you listen closely, you can hear him (laughs). So I recorded him doing that this summer and I thought that well, he’s one-year-old and I’m producing this album at home in my studio, so he’s gonna be on the album. As for Michael, the keyboard player for Degreed, I got to know him when I was on tour with H.E.A.T and Degreed three years ago and I knew the guys from Degreed from earlier days also. And as we had only the MIDI programming for the piano for these songs, we felt we needed a real player for this one. So, I asked him and he was in. And as for Chriz, who played a second solo in “Die Young”… I think it was two years ago that we played at an indoor festival here in Stockholm called Rock City Stockholm and we were booked in the last minute because there was some other band that dropped off the bill for some reason. We were asked [to replace them] and we just jumped right into it. And only then we realized “Shit, Adam’s not gonna make it because he’s gonna be on vacation and he can’t cancelled that.” So as I’ve been in contact with Chriz for a few years to maybe do something together, co-wrote something or… I thought he’s gonna be the right guy as he’s got the looks (laughs), he’s got the musicality, he’s a great guitar player and he’s also got the range that’s needed for this band. It’s like you need to know Metal and how to shred and play fast guitar solos but you also need to get the grip of the vibe, the feelings, the AOR/Westcoast influences that we also have… You need to be able to get the grip of both, so he was perfect for the job to step in and do the gig and did the amazing job. So, we just started joking around, like “Maybe we should be like Iron Maiden and have three guitar players…?” (laughs) But we stayed in touch and he’s become a close friend of the band as well, so when we were discussing the issue of having a guest guitar player on this song who can shred his ass off and even more (laughs), we thought that maybe we should ask Chris. And he was into it, so it’s real fun to have him on the album ‘cause he deserves it.
Hardrock Haven: So is it all a part of this mythical Swedish camaraderie the musicians from other European countries can only envy you?
Erik Modin: You mean it’s more a competition in other countries…?
Hardrock Haven: Exactly.
Erik Modin: I’d say of course there’s a competition over here as well, but since we’re based in Stockholm – which is pretty small a town for being a capital city if you compare it with neighboring countries – we have a limited amount of bands who are playing on this level. So we all know each other and it might be some kind of unspoken rule that it’s better to support each other than just talk behind each other’s back or elbow your way to the front (laughs). Some people do that and the combination of that and talent might be the recipe for success, I don’t know… You know, you gotta be brave and be able to talk to people and make contacts, and Swedes are known to be pretty shy and afraid of conflicts… So I don’t know really, but it might be that there is a support [among the scene] and as far as I know, I’d love to be a part of that, even though my main goal is to take Wildness to the top and I think that’s everyone else’s goal as well. But we love to collaborate with other bands that are friends with us. For example, I’m doing some stuff with Captain Black Beard at this moment as a producer and mixing some live songs and previously unreleased studio song for them that’s gonna be released later on. I don’t know the details, but I expect their bass player Robert to come here to my studio in a few hours to keep on mixing and recording that stuff.
Hardrock Haven: Back to the topic of the new album, not only the sound of Ultimate Demise, but even its cover artwork screams the ‘80s. Why do you think this decade is so inspiring?
Erik Modin: I guess that you’re influenced by the stuff you love without even thinking about it. And we’re all big fans of the ‘80s decade, when it comes to music, fashion and stuff like that. We have this kind of clothing style, even in private – you know, leather jackets, vintage t-shirts with bands we love, high-tops and so on… It’s just normal (laughs). It’s just everyday routine for us and that’s what we love. And when you’re writing music, it comes pretty natural that way too. But we’re not only fans of ‘80s Hard Rock, we also love ‘80s Pop bands and stuff like that. Adam and Pontus love Funk and Fusion from that decade – I love that stuff as well, but they’re really true fans of that. And most of us are also big fans of that new Synthwave genre that’s pretty big now as well. It’s growing bigger and bigger and it’s becoming huge – I mean, it even infiltrates mainstream artists like Miley Cyrus and The Weeknd has been going towards that kind of sound too for quite a few years now… I think that the ‘80s had a lot to offer when it comes to “more gives more” and “more wants more”, and it reflects in fashion or graphic design… when you look at the ‘80s covers, it’s big and full of colors and everything. And since we all love that retro vibe, both when it comes to the visual side and the sound, we just felt, “Okay. Why don’t we try to make a pure ‘80s album cover?” And we were discussing back and forth what kind of look we aim at. We had this idea of the cover looking like a movie poster, with the credits underneath and everything like that… But we ended up with a different inspiration. And it was actually Erik who was in contact with this visual graphic designer guy [Anton Atanasov] who made this picture, so we borrowed it from him to use it on the album cover.
Hardrock Haven: You’ve already mentioned how Gary Moore’s music influenced “Highlands” on your debut album and also, recently you’ve released a cover version of “Out In The Fields” of Gary’s 1985 Run For Cover recorded together with Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. What’s prompted this particular choice?
Erik Modin: Gary Moore and Phil Lynott… Both rest in peace. We were discussing a lot which song to make, because as soon as we had the news that Erik was the new singer for Wildness, we wanted to release something with him – just to advertise that this is the new line-up, here’s Wildness, we’re back… ‘cause we’ve been silent for way too long now. So we wanted to give the world something. We decided to do the cover and make a simple video from our studio out of it just to give people something to listen and to look at. So, the choice fell on “Out In The Fields” because it’s a song that we all like and one it’s pretty easy to relate to sound-wise since we did “Highlands” on the first album, so it kind of makes a lot of sense. And also, Erik’s got a Gary Moore-esque vibe to his voice and that song fits him perfectly. We also discussed songs like Journey’s “Ask The Lonely” and stuff like that, so we’ll see if we do more covers in the future. I hope so – I love to do the covers, so we’ll see what we’ll choose the next time.
Hardrock Haven: That being said, aren’t you afraid that recording covers of Rock classics with Wildness may have a side effect of diverting people’s attention from your own music?
Erik Modin: Well… That all depends, but I don’t think that one more or one less cover will divert attention from our original material. I think that there’s a bigger chance of people actually discovering us if we do a cover of a famous song. I mean, there’s a lot of artists or bands that use that as a trick to get attention. That wasn’t our main purpose when we did “Out In The Fields”, except for announcing that we’re back, but it’s a very famous and classical song and a lot of bands did covers of that one. So our main purpose was to do something that could represent us as a band, with a new singer and a new line-up. And obviously, we did it just for fun – because fuck it, it’s only rock’n’roll, it’s music, it’s supposed to be fun.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. So, you’re the producer of Ultimate Demise, but as far as mixing and mastering are concerned, you turned to the producer of your debut Erik Wigelius. Why did you decide to collaborate with him again?
Erik Modin: We got in touch with him before we did our first album and we all like the work he did previously, such as Care Of Night and his own band Wigelius and stuff like that. We decided this guy knows what he’s doing – he’s a great sound engineer. So he produced the main part of the first album, but I was responsible for some of the recording process at that point as well – I recorded all the backing vocals, for example, and all the bass. Of course, I was pushing the button and Marcus [Sjösund] was playing the bass. I also did some percussion and keyboards as well. But when it came down to this album, I was thinking about trying to mix it myself, but I thought about the process of writing the songs, arranging them, recording them, pushing the recording button, editing and stuff… and then mixing… I just thought I’m gonna crack up if I try to do everything by myself. I just wanna send it all away and have someone else working on it. And we already knew what Erik was capable of – there’s a lot of Erik’s involvement in this process also. So we thought he was the obvious choice and we came to him. And he did an amazing job on this album as well, ‘cause it sounds really bombastic and the way how we wanted it to sound.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely! And speaking of you as a music producer, you’ve already worked with a lot of acts including Reach (Hard Rock), Streamline (Hard Rock), Uredai (Metalcore), Enelinda Johansson (Pop/Gospel)… As a producer, do you prefer to explore familiar territories of Rock and Metal, or challenge yourself by putting your stamp on something entirely different?
Erik Modin: I don’t know really. When I was studying to become a music producer, I got the chance to work with a lot of different musicians and try a lot different styles. It’s always easy to work with bands that are close to your home base, ‘cause it’s much easier to get the picture of what you wanna do with it. But I’d say that the band you’ve mentioned – Uredai – was pretty different from what I’ve done before and also afterwards. Still, that was quite a few years ago, so I think I’m even more experienced now when it comes to production and especially mixing if I get a similar offer from another band of their genre. But to answer your question, it’s always easier to work with the stuff that you’re familiar and comfortable with, but it’s always fun to get new challenges.
Hardrock Haven: Is there any difference in your approach between producing your own band and working with other acts?
Erik Modin: Yeah, I’d say so because when I’m producing Wildness – having also written most of the stuff – I’ve taken a million sneak peeks behind the curtains (laughs). So it’s pretty hard to get new, fresh ideas ‘cause if you have a song that’s been with you for a year or two years it’s hard to reevaluate it. It’s hard to ask yourself how can you do this song and what should be changed – guitar parts, or maybe the vocal melodies…? You tend to get really, really stuck when you’re producing your own stuff. So, in that way it’s maybe more satisfying to have someone else producing it sometimes, which was the case with our first album. Erik Wigelius did some cool stuff with the songs that none of us would have ever thought about. But also it’s good to have the ability to remain in control over the evaluation and the production of the songs and the final product.
Hardrock Haven: In the past, music producers often didn’t have any academic knowledge. How does your education you’ve mentioned translate into what you do now, with Wildness and beyond?
Erik Modin: Those two years in school gave me a lot, really. I was recording at home and it was one of my main hobbies – even before that. I started to do home recordings around 2007 I think – on the old, crappy computer. I still have demos from those days and they sound like shit of course, but the ambition, the joy and a will to make something out of nothing all are there. So I just kept on doing that and I’ve been interested in recording music since I was little – since I found that little red button on the cassette player (laughs). I just pushed it all the time when I started to learn to play guitar. I was like nine or ten years old then and I spent hours sitting there and recording myself on cassette tape when I was singing along to KISS tunes that I hardly knew how to play. Also, I had a drum kit in my room and I got this big tape recorder from my dad – using it, you could record two or four tracks and dub them onto each other. So I just hooked up the mic, recorded the drums, then I plugged in my bass, and then my guitar, and then vocals – that’s how I did one-man-band recordings when I was ten or eleven years old. I barely knew how to play, but I could get through a song. So, my interest was born there I would say and also, when I was in music school, we had a Rock band there that was led by a teacher and at one point we got to go to the real recording studio to record a demo. And I was eleven years old and that was way before my voice cracked – so I’m singing on that one, a squeaky little child singing (laughs). So, we did one KISS tune actually and [Bob Dylan’s] “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and some original stuff. And actually, I was playing drums and guitar on a daily basis at home while being a bass player in that band – but on that songs, I’m playing bass, guitar, drums and doing lead vocals at the age of eleven. So I had this wide interest from a very early age and I still remember the smell in that recording studio. Music and studio equipment has this special smell to it that is hard to describe but even thinking about it I get this nostalgic feeling and I get that feeling every time I walk into the real recording studio. Anyway, that was when I felt I need to have something like this in my life later on. When I was little, my dad was a music teacher – which I’m gonna study to qualify for as well – but he also had a part time job recording audiobooks in his basic home studio. So I remember getting into that studio room and getting the chance of putting the headphones and seeing all this record equipment – it was dark in there, muffled walls and a really dry sound… I could speak to the microphone, hear myself in the headphones and put on some delay or reverb effect… That was the coolest thing in the world!… There were a lot of things that inspired me from the early age only to develop when I was in high school and I was studying music and got a chance to work in the recording studio as a part of a school project. So I think it all has been with me for longer than I’m actually aware of. And the production thing came to me when we were recording these projects in high school – when I was sitting in the control room and just giving some tips and advice to my friend who was recording… It was when I felt I really love to be in this position when you’re in the driver’s seat and you’re responsible for the final result.
Hardrock Haven: Who are your role models when it comes to producers?
Erik Modin: I got the same question recently and I realized I haven’t really thought about it. I think I’m gonna repeat myself then – since I’m a big Hair Metal fan, it’s pretty easy to namedrop a guy like Mutt Lange. But on the other hand, it’s inevitable to mention him – shit, the guy did Hysteria, one of the greatest Rock albums of all time. And it’s great not only when it comes to the song material, which is as strong as fuckin’ iron. If you blast “Pour Some Sugar On Me” today on a big football arena, everyone’s gonna sing along with it and no one’s gonna complain “Ahh, these drums sound like shit, they sound so ‘80s”. He did a timeless, epic album packed with anthems. So I think I’m gonna go with Mutt Lange ‘cause he’s a pure genius. But I also have other favorites that produced albums with favorite bands of mine as well, like Michael Wagener for his work with Dokken for example. And as for the Swedish guys, it’s inevitable to say about Erik Mårtensson [Eclipse, W. E. T]. He’s a great producer and songwriter and I’d say he’s also been a big inspiration when it comes to being independent and trying to take your vision and making as much as possible out of it.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. So, what is your next project going to be? You’ve just mentioned Captain Black Beard, is there anything else?
Erik Modin: With Captain Black Beard, just like I said, we’re mixing some live songs now that are gonna be released soon. Beyond that, I have some projects coming up but I don’t know if I’m allowed to speak about them yet (laughs). But I can say that I have some production and mixing coming up. And also, I have some remixing coming up – ‘cause I have this Synthwave side project as well with only one song released so far as I’ve been so tied-up with Wildness throughout the last year. It’s called Taekwondo, like the South Korean martial arts, and I only released one instrumental song there and one remix for Captain Black Beard, but now it looks like I’m gonna do some more remixes for other artists that will show up later.
Hardrock Haven: The funny thing is that I was just about to ask about Taekwondo (laughs) So, how did it start and what does exploring this entirely different sphere give you as a musician?
Erik Modin: That was pretty easy ‘cause I’ve been a fan of that genre also for quite a few years. Thought it’d be fun to just try it out and see if I can do something totally different than Rock music. There’s a totally different vibe to it and you gotta let go everything that’s at the back of your mind since you were little and started to know how to play and listen to Rock music and so on. You gotta re-learn a lot of stuff that you didn’t know before. It was still more for fun – just to make music, release it and see what comes out of it, which actually also the way Wildness started in the very beginning. Before we did the album, we had two songs that ended up on the album out as individual singles – they were recorded, mixed and produced by ourselves. So that was the main purpose this time as well – just to do something, let it out and see if anyone likes it. It’s more for fun. But I have plans to do more stuff with that project as soon as I have time. I have song ideas laying around and maybe potential collaborations with singers and stuff like that. So I’ll try to make more solid Pop songs with vocals and so on… Maybe a live show in the future. So we’ll see about it! But Wildness is my priority number one, so side projects are going to be done in my spare time.
Hardrock Haven: And back to Wildness, I believe you were actually luckier than most bands because you spent a large part of 2020 working on your new album rather than cancelling gigs. Still, how does the current global situation with the pandemic affect promotion of the upcoming album? What are the plans?
Erik Modin: Well, as long as the Internet is still around, we can still promote our album worldwide. But we were devastated not being able to have a release party gig here in Stockholm, which we really hoped for. Just a few years ago our government was just about to announce it can be 500 people gatherings at live shows, but at the last minute it still remained only 50 people… So we were like, fuck it. We realized that we’re gonna have to do something else and we’ll see what it’s gonna be – maybe some livestream or some kind of restricted get-together at someplace in Stockholm with fifty invitations or something like that… We have no idea. Of course we wanna do some big promotion for the album as soon as it’s out so people would get the chance to discover it. And of course, the thing is when it comes to live shows and festivals and tours, everything’s been pushed forward into the future. So as soon as this shit is over, it might be pretty hard to get gigs or get tours ‘cause everything’s already booked in the future. But we’ll see about it and it’s all a matter of how the world economy is gonna be affected during the upcoming months. But they’re speaking about a vaccine in December or something, so let’s hope for that to get this shit over with. I took a deep breath in March and was just like, “Okay, just wait it out” but I’m getting sick and tired of this now. The album release is so close and we just wanna get out and play!… But we’ll see what we’ll do about it. We’ll try to stay active and use the Internet as much as we can, for whatever we can.
Hardrock Haven: Is there anything you’d like to add in the end?
Erik Modin: Was a pleasure talking to you! And also, we really hope that our album is gonna reach as many people as possible and really hope that people are gonna appreciate it, at least as much as our first album. And we can’t wait to come out and play – outside of Sweden as well. We’re booked for the Wildfest festival in May, so let’s just keep our fingers crossed for that one…
Visit the Wildness online: https://www.facebook.com/wildnessofficial/
