by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
If there’s one affliction most of us share these days, it’s much shorter attention span and the decreasing ability to focus on one task. It’s reflected in how music is consumed these days. Listeners went from albums to single-oriented playlists, podcasts dominate over traditional and online press and the shorter a written piece is, the more clicks it gets.
With that in mind, the future of concept albums and Rock/Metal operas would have seemed to be rather bleak. These works simply demand to be consumed from start to finish with undivided attention; otherwise, the story is lost in the process. Picking up a playlist-friendly single isn’t an easy task here either. But those enamored with the beautiful stories that require some time and focus are still among us. It’s proven by the success of acts such as Avantasia, Ayreon or Trans-Siberian Orchestra – as well as recent interest in Heart Healer, a new Metal Opera by the Swedish guitarist, songwriter and producer Magnus Karlsson.
Heart Healer’s first album, featuring Adrienne Cowan (Seven Spires, Sascha Paeth’s Masters Of Ceremony, Avantasia), Netta Laurenne (Smackbound, Laurenne/Louhimo), Youmna Jreissati (Ostura), Ailyn (Her Chariot Awaits, ex-Sirenia), Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast), Margarita Monet (Edge of Paradise), and Anette Olzon (The Dark Element, ex-Nightwish), is out on March the 12th on Frontiers Music SRL. We caught up with Magnus to find out about the project as well as his future plans – and more…
Hardrock Haven: Heart Healer, the Metal Opera with only female singers, is out on March the 12th. Was it always a kind of a dream or ambition of yours to do a project of such epic proportions, or is it a relatively fresh idea?
Magnus Karlsson: I think the idea came up a year ago, maybe one year and a half. I have been writing more and more orchestral arrangements in my projects and albums and I wanted to do it all the way. I asked Frontiers if they were interested in doing something like this and also, in having only female vocalists. They thought it was a great idea… I haven’t dreamt of it forever though – just for a little over a year (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: How did your interest in orchestral music start?
Magnus Karlsson: You know, when I see a movie or something with a great soundtrack, I’m always in love with the music and I want to listen to it more. I also listen to Classical music a lot… Now you can do it with samples and sound libraries and it sounds really, really close to the real thing, so it makes it more fun and I get more inspiration from it. If I had done this maybe ten years ago, it wouldn’t have sounded that good as it sounds now. And also, this time and for this project I had the chance to work with some real string musicians too, so that makes it even better.
Hardrock Haven: So being an avid Classical music listener, which composers do you find particularly inspiring?
Magnus Karlsson: That’s a good question! You know, all of the big, old names – like Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. All these are a big inspiration. And also, virtuosos like Paganini and so on – they’re also very cool. Lately, I’ve been listening a lot to Abel Korzeniowski too.
Hardrock Haven: What do you think is so special about merging Rock or Metal and opera?
Magnus Karlsson: I think that Metal is very epic and Classical music is also epic, so gathering these two styles is just perfect. And then about the word ‘opera’ – [Heart Healer] is not really an opera and I know the singers don’t sing like in the opera thing. But I guess I could call it a Metal musical too. That would have been even more correct perhaps in terms of style. But I used the word ‘opera’, because it’s one story and not just a couple of songs. It’s more like one, long song with different parts in it.
Hardrock Haven: Do you have any favorite Rock or Metal operas?
Magnus Karlsson: Actually, I haven’t listened to that stuff a lot. Of course, I’ve heard some Avantasia [albums], but I think that’s a bit different, because even though it’s a story too, it’s more Rock and Metal songs each of which is different. But I was more after something closer to the Classical opera style, when you have a long story instead – it’s like one long song. That’s why I thought it was quite hard to choose videos and singles this time, because it’s not the best way to get to know this [album] by listening to just one song. I think if you wanna have something out of it, the best way is to listen to the whole thing.
Hardrock Haven: When we talked about Free Fall some time ago, you claimed to be writing songs for the singers you’ve already chosen and not the other way around. When starting to work on Heart Healer, did you have these particular seven singers in mind?
Magnus Karlsson: Not from the start. I contacted them already at some point while working on the album. I had some in mind that I really wanted to have on the album – and I had tracks, the style and the music – so I had contacted several singers right before I started on the lyrics and the melodies. So I guess it was a bit mixed (laughs). That was the hardest part with this, because normally I know who’s gonna sing everything. But this time, I had to do all the harmonies and I haven’t worked with some singers before so I wasn’t sure if this is too high or too low, if the melody sounds good with this singer and so on… It was a bit tricky. But it worked out really well in the end.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. As we’ve already mentioned a couple of times, the singers are all females. Was such an idea there right from the start, or were there any male characters in the story you’ve dropped for whatever reason?
Magnus Karlsson: No, the first idea was to have just female singers, and that’s because I worked with a lot of great singers but not so many female singers among them – maybe a couple. I wanted to do a lot more with this and this was a great opportunity. I don’t think it’s been done before – I don’t know, maybe it has, but I haven’t heard it. Also, I think it’s cool to have the singers who are all females but each sounds very different. You know, if I had seven singers that sound like Noora [Louhimo] that wouldn’t be fine. I wanted to have some different voices, like, for example, Youmna [Jreissati] who sounds more Classical in her style and then you have Ailyn with her soft voice – and I think that’s very cool that they have such different voices.
Hardrock Haven: Was the choice of the singers only about their voices, or also personalities?
Magnus Karlsson: Well, I don’t know them all really (laughs), so I’m not sure about their personalities… They seem very nice, all of them (laughs). But the only ones I actually met are Anette [Olzon], as she doesn’t live too far from me, and also Noora because we did a song before [“Queen Of Fire” from the 2020 album by Magnus Karlsson’s Free Fall, We Are The Night] and she came over to Sweden to make the video. They’re great, but I don’t know too much about their personalities – so it’s more about the voices actually.
Hardrock Haven: As you’ve already mentioned, you’ve also worked with Classical musicians on this project. Was it also a learning experience in a way, maybe for both you and them?
Magnus Karlsson: For me, it absolutely was. I think it’s so fun… I love to listen and try to copy [them] in terms of how do they make the drums or violins sound that great, and try to see if they should be higher or lower or stronger or weaker… whatever it is. And that’s like learning an instrument as the learning process lasts forever. I’ll hopefully be better at it (laughs) somewhere along the way… But it’s great, and also when you have to match them with the Metal band, you have to think about that as well. It’d be a lot different if I wrote just for the orchestra and nothing else. My way of thinking would be a lot different. But with this, I had to leave some space for the vocals, drums, guitars and bass and everything.
Hardrock Haven: The story behind Heart Healer has already been brought up a couple of times as well, so what’s inspired it?
Magnus Karlsson: That’s a hard question… I guess it’s just fantasy (laughs). And also, the [main character] Heart Healer – she helps people and can heal them, but not everyone is going to love her for that. People get scared [of her] and start to hate her, and I think that’s something that happens sometimes with humans. When there’s something we can’t understand, we’re very eager to be suspicious and hate starts to come – even if it’s something good. So I guess I get a lot of inspiration from everything in life. It’s everything from the news to dreams to the stuff that I experience, or the stuff that people around me experience… It’s a mix of everything.
Hardrock Haven: So with the importance of getting to know the whole story of the Heart Healer, can you take us through it track by track?
Magnus Karlsson: Adrienne [Cowan] has the main part – she’s the Heart Healer – so she starts with the first song, “Awake”. It’s when she wakes up and she doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know anything and doesn’t have any memory… She starts her journey to come out and try to find out who she is. Then, in “Come Out Of The Shadows,” she meets some other characters and they try to help her. They wanna bring her out and [tell her] she doesn’t need to hide. In the third song, “Who Can Stand All Alone”, it continues – it says that you can’t make it all alone and that you need friends to make this journey. Then we have “Back To Life” and “Into The Unknown” – they’re about her discovering that when she’s close to sick people or those that feel bad, only with her being close to them or touching them they can heal and feel better. In “When The Fire Burns Out,” she moves on and wanna leave and continue, because she still doesn’t know who she is. With “Evil’s Around The Corner” and “Mesmerized,” she discovers that there’s hate out there and not everyone is happy about what she’s doing or what she’s capable of. Then we get to “Weaker,” when she’s getting weaker from all the hate she gets and also, every time she helps someone, she’s losing something. But it ends with “This Is Not The End,” so it’s not that she’s totally over. There’s something left in her – a spark. And let’s see if I can continue that on the next one (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for that – it’s a beautiful story!
Magnus Karlsson: Thank you!
Hardrock Haven: There are some comparisons of Heart Healer to epic movie soundtracks, like Hans Zimmer’s for example, and it’s probably no wonder since you’ve also mentioned you’re a fan of them. Would you like Heart Healer to be adapted into a Rock musical one day, as it happened to a few Rock operas in the past?
Magnus Karlsson: That would be a dream, absolutely! When all this COVID is over and everything, that would be really cool. As always, let’s see how the album makes it… But it seems like everyone who’s heard it so far really enjoys it, so it’s not impossible.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely! Heart Healer is understandably hailed as your biggest project to date and you’ve already mentioned briefly some challenges along the way…
Magnus Karlsson: I think music was the easy part compared to the vocals, because – as I said before – there were a couple of new singers I’ve never worked with before. Also, they are all female singers and I don’t have their voice, so that was really hard to know if all the harmonies and all the melodies are going to work. And also with the story and the characters, there were concerns who should sing what… What’s more, it’s not enough to make a great story and write great lyrics – it has to sound good and work with all the voices. There was a lot of thought behind that who’s gonna sing at a certain point and if it’s too long or too short. That was tricky. And first I thought about hiring a demo singer to do all the vocal parts, but I didn’t have the time really and also with the COVID it was hard to get one to do it, so I sang all the demos myself and it was way too high. It sounds really funny – and awful, so it was a bit scary to send the demos to the singers, at least the ones that I didn’t know (laughs). But they really understood the vibe and when they sang in their own studios, what came back to me sounded just awesome. If you’re a pro, you can understand and hear the melody, even if I sing like crappy Metal Bee Gees… (laughs)
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. We’ve already mentioned Anette Olzon as one of the singers on Heart Healer, and as it was announced, that’s not the only case of you two working together lately. Will Anette’s upcoming solo album be anything like her solo debut Shine [2014], which wasn’t that much of a Metal album?
Magnus Karlsson: This is completely the opposite of Shine. It will be very Metal – one of the heaviest albums I’ve been involved in… She’s really into Dimmu Borgir and that kind of stuff, so it’s really heavy and I love it, ‘cause she has this kind of Pop Metal voice and then it’s great to mix it with really, really heavy music. And we even have growl on the album – it’s not her but her husband growling on a couple of songs (laughs). I think it’s great.
Hardrock Haven: We look forward to it then! And speaking about other projects, recently you posted a photo with Ronnie Romero and Mike Terrana on your social media, which was basically a teaser saying there’s some new music from The Ferrymen on the way. Are there any details you’d like to share?
Magnus Karlsson: Yeah, actually exactly at the moment when you called me, I wrote the last word of the lyrics for The Ferrymen. The music is already done and with some more work on the lyrics, the recordings will start in two weeks hopefully. I have a deadline in May, I think, so I guess the release will be towards the end of the year… but that’s not confirmed and I don’t know exactly when. Normally it takes as long as this though, so I’d guess it’s at the end of the year.
Hardrock Haven: And musically, will it be a continuation of what you’ve done in the past – or maybe something different, perhaps more of an experiment?
Magnus Karlsson: A bit more Progressive actually this time, and maybe not so much Power Metal – it’s hard to say. But it’s always about the melodies, and it’s not super Prog Metal I’d say, but a little bit more Prog than the previous albums.
Hardrock Haven: Last year, when COVID-19 hit, many guitarists turned to remote teaching. As you’ve been a guitar teacher in the past, is it something you’re also busy with these days?
Magnus Karlsson: Yeah, I work at a music school as a guitar teacher and I’ve been doing this for almost twenty years now. Sometimes I have a break for touring and stuff, but generally I continue that and I’ve been doing it online since November. Now, if there’s not a third wave [of the coronavirus pandemic] here, it looks like I will get back to normal teaching again in the coming weeks, but we don’t know yet.
Hardrock Haven: So do you prefer to teach in person, or are there any advantages of online teaching as well?
Magnus Karlsson: There are some good things about it actually, because I teach a lot of kids and sometimes they don’t wanna practice so much. But when we’re online and they’re maybe sitting in their own room with the guitar, I think it’s easier for them to continue and practice it more when the lesson is over. But when they’re meeting me at the school, they go home and they forget to pick up the guitar or something. So that’s one good thing. But not everyone has a great Wi-Fi connection and then it’s hard to make it work… And also with the latency, I like to play together, and the way it is now, that’s almost impossible. I know there are some programs [for that], but then you can’t have the camera on… and that doesn’t really work too well with the latency now.
Hardrock Haven: Which qualities do you think an ideal music teacher should have?
Magnus Karlsson: Being able to find out what level the student is at. It’s always better to do it a bit too simple than a bit too hard. I always had guitar teachers that gave me stuff that was a bit too hard, and then I just gave up. It’s better to have it a bit easier and have fun, than to make it hard and get bored and finally give up.
Hardrock Haven: Obviously you didn’t have as many tools and options to learn the guitar as the kids today, so beyond what you’ve just said, what was your overall experience as a learner like?
Magnus Karlsson: I have to say that because of being into Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, I didn’t have any good guitar teachers for that. I mean, the good guitar teachers could play Classical and Jazz great – and if I was into that… Well, I like that too, but it’s not what I was mostly into. I didn’t want to spend eight hours practicing Classical guitar or Jazz guitar. I wanted to play Metal guitar and Hard Rock guitar, and I couldn’t find a teacher for that. No one had the technique. So I was always faster than my teachers (laughs) and I had to find the way… You know, we had those instructional videos from Paul Gilbert and Yngwie [Malmsteen] that I could check out. Now I actually started to practice a lot again and I find [guitar-related] videos on YouTube… I’m a little jealous about how things are today (laughs). It’s much easier to find great teachers and great players.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. So with all your experience as a guitarist, a songwriter, a producer and a teacher, is there one particular field you feel the most comfortable in, or is it a little of each?
Magnus Karlsson: If you had asked me fifteen years ago, “What’s your main thing? Is it the guitar or is it songwriting?,” I would have said it’s the guitar. But today I think I would say I’m more of a songwriter or a producer, because I love to play the guitar, but that’s not the most important thing. I mean, if you have the crappiest song in the world (laughs), but you have the best guitar solo in the world in that song, no one will care and no one will like to listen to it. But if you have the greatest song in the world with a crappy guitar solo, then people will listen to it and wouldn’t even think so much about the guitar. Of course, the best thing is to have both – the best song and the best guitar solo (laughs). But I think the song is much more important, and also the singer is much more important than the guitar.
Hardrock Haven: What are your plans once Heart Healer is out?
Magnus Karlsson: To finish The Ferrymen album, of course. Then we are discussing the next Free Fall album and I actually already have a list with the new singers I would ask if they wanna sing… Also, we’re talking about the next Primal Fear album. And maybe – this isn’t decided yet at all – but maybe you remember that a long time ago, I had a band called Last Tribe. I can say that we’re talking about maybe doing something, but it’s not decided. Let’s see.
Hardrock Haven: So let’s keep fingers crossed for all this to happen! Is there anything you’d like to add in the end?
Magnus Karlsson: Yeah. I know how it is nowadays – when you listen to music, you check out a new band or a new album, I think most people give it two minutes and if they don’t like it right away, they move on to the next one. And I think the project like Heart Healer is something you need to sit down for – I mean, two minutes is just an intro for a song (laughs). So I hope people are not that rushed and stressed and that they’re able to take an hour off and take some headphones and sit back with a glass of wine and relax… and just enjoy it, you know, like a movie. And not just like listen to a song for one minute and go, “No, no, that was strange, let’s move on to the next one.” That’s my hope at least…
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