{"id":69428,"date":"2021-03-02T02:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=69428"},"modified":"2021-05-11T02:52:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T07:52:30","slug":"interview-with-magnus-karlsson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2021\/interview-with-magnus-karlsson\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnus Karlsson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If there\u2019s one affliction most of us share these days, it\u2019s much shorter attention span and the decreasing ability to focus on one task. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t an easy task here either. But those enamored with the beautiful stories that require some time and focus are still among us. It\u2019s proven by the success of acts such as Avantasia, Ayreon or Trans-Siberian Orchestra \u2013 as well as recent interest in Heart Healer, a new Metal Opera by the Swedish guitarist, songwriter and producer Magnus Karlsson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heart Healer\u2019s first album, featuring Adrienne Cowan (Seven Spires, Sascha Paeth\u2019s 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<\/sup> on Frontiers Music SRL. We caught up with Magnus to find out about the project as well as his future plans \u2013 and more…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo credits: Andreas Svegland<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Heart Healer, the Metal Opera with only female singers, is out on March the 12th<\/sup>. 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t dreamt of it forever though \u2013 just for a little over a year (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: How did your interest in orchestral music start?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: You know, when I see a movie or something with a great soundtrack, I\u2019m 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So being an avid Classical music listener, which composers do you find particularly inspiring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: That\u2019s a good question! You know, all of the big, old names \u2013 like Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. All these are a big inspiration. And also, virtuosos like Paganini and so on \u2013 they\u2019re also very cool. Lately, I\u2019ve been listening a lot to Abel Korzeniowski too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: What do you think is so special about merging Rock or Metal and opera?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2018opera\u2019 \u2013 [Heart Healer] is not really an opera and I know the singers don\u2019t 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 \u2018opera\u2019, because it\u2019s one story and not just a couple of songs. It\u2019s more like one, long song with different parts in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you have any favorite Rock or Metal operas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Actually, I haven\u2019t listened to that stuff a lot. Of course, I\u2019ve heard some Avantasia [albums], but I think that\u2019s a bit different, because even though it\u2019s a story too, it\u2019s 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 \u2013 it\u2019s like one long song. That\u2019s why I thought it was quite hard to choose videos and singles this time, because it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: When we talked about Free Fall some time ago, you claimed to be writing songs for the singers you\u2019ve already chosen and not the other way around. When starting to work on Heart Healer, did you have these particular seven singers in mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 and I had tracks, the style and the music \u2013 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\u2019s gonna sing everything. But this time, I had to do all the harmonies and I haven\u2019t worked with some singers before so I wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. As we\u2019ve 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\u2019ve dropped for whatever reason?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: No, the first idea was to have just female singers, and that\u2019s because I worked with a lot of great singers but not so many female singers among them \u2013 maybe a couple. I wanted to do a lot more with this and this was a great opportunity. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s been done before \u2013 I don\u2019t know, maybe it has, but I haven\u2019t heard it. Also, I think it\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2013 and I think that\u2019s very cool that they have such different voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Was the choice of the singers only about their voices, or also personalities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Well, I don\u2019t know them all really (laughs), so I\u2019m 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\u2019t live too far from me, and also Noora because we did a song before [\u201cQueen Of Fire\u201d from the 2020 album by Magnus Karlsson\u2019s Free Fall, We Are The Night<\/em>] and she came over to Sweden to make the video. They\u2019re great, but I don\u2019t know too much about their personalities \u2013 so it\u2019s more about the voices actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: As you\u2019ve already mentioned, you\u2019ve also worked with Classical musicians on this project. Was it also a learning experience in a way, maybe for both you and them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: For me, it absolutely was. I think it\u2019s 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\u2019s like learning an instrument as the learning process lasts forever. I\u2019ll hopefully be better at it (laughs) somewhere along the way… But it\u2019s great, and also when you have to match them with the Metal band, you have to think about that as well. It\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: The story behind Heart Healer has already been brought up a couple of times as well, so what\u2019s inspired it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: That\u2019s a hard question… I guess it\u2019s just fantasy (laughs). And also, the [main character] Heart Healer \u2013 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\u2019s something that happens sometimes with humans. When there\u2019s something we can\u2019t understand, we\u2019re very eager to be suspicious and hate starts to come \u2013 even if it\u2019s something good. So I guess I get a lot of inspiration from everything in life. It\u2019s everything from the news to dreams to the stuff that I experience, or the stuff that people around me experience… It\u2019s a mix of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Adrienne [Cowan] has the main part \u2013 she\u2019s the Heart Healer \u2013 so she starts with the first song, \u201cAwake\u201d. It\u2019s when she wakes up and she doesn\u2019t know who she is. She doesn\u2019t know anything and doesn\u2019t have any memory… She starts her journey to come out and try to find out who she is. Then, in \u201cCome Out Of The Shadows,\u201d she meets some other characters and they try to help her. They wanna bring her out and [tell her] she doesn\u2019t need to hide. In the third song, \u201cWho Can Stand All Alone\u201d, it continues \u2013 it says that you can\u2019t make it all alone and that you need friends to make this journey. Then we have \u201cBack To Life\u201d and \u201cInto The Unknown\u201d \u2013 they\u2019re about her discovering that when she\u2019s 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 \u201cWhen The Fire Burns Out,\u201d she moves on and wanna leave and continue, because she still doesn\u2019t know who she is. With \u201cEvil\u2019s Around The Corner\u201d and \u201cMesmerized,\u201d she discovers that there\u2019s hate out there and not everyone is happy about what she\u2019s doing or what she\u2019s capable of. Then we get to \u201cWeaker,\u201d when she\u2019s getting weaker from all the hate she gets and also, every time she helps someone, she\u2019s losing something. But it ends with \u201cThis Is Not The End,\u201d so it\u2019s not that she\u2019s totally over. There\u2019s something left in her \u2013 a spark. And let\u2019s see if I can continue that on the next one (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for that \u2013 it\u2019s a beautiful story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: There are some comparisons of Heart Healer to epic movie soundtracks, like Hans Zimmer\u2019s for example, and it\u2019s probably no wonder since you\u2019ve also mentioned you\u2019re 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: That would be a dream, absolutely! When all this COVID is over and everything, that would be really cool. As always, let\u2019s see how the album makes it… But it seems like everyone who\u2019s heard it so far really enjoys it, so it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely! Heart Healer is understandably hailed as your biggest project to date and you\u2019ve already mentioned briefly some challenges along the way…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: I think music was the easy part compared to the vocals, because \u2013 as I said before \u2013 there were a couple of new singers I\u2019ve never worked with before. Also, they are all female singers and I don\u2019t 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\u2019s more, it\u2019s not enough to make a great story and write great lyrics \u2013 it has to sound good and work with all the voices. There was a lot of thought behind that who\u2019s gonna sing at a certain point and if it\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2013 and awful, so it was a bit scary to send the demos to the singers, at least the ones that I didn\u2019t 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\u2019re a pro, you can understand and hear the melody, even if I sing like crappy Metal Bee Gees… (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. We\u2019ve already mentioned Anette Olzon as one of the singers on Heart Healer, and as it was announced, that\u2019s not the only case of you two working together lately. Will Anette\u2019s upcoming solo album be anything like her solo debut Shine <\/em>[2014], which wasn\u2019t that much of a Metal album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: This is completely the opposite of Shine<\/em>. It will be very Metal \u2013 one of the heaviest albums I\u2019ve been involved in… She\u2019s really into Dimmu Borgir and that kind of stuff, so it\u2019s really heavy and I love it, \u2018cause she has this kind of Pop Metal voice and then it\u2019s great to mix it with really, really heavy music. And we even have growl on the album \u2013 it\u2019s not her but her husband growling on a couple of songs (laughs). I think it\u2019s great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s some new music from The Ferrymen on the way. Are there any details you\u2019d like to share?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s not confirmed and I don\u2019t know exactly when. Normally it takes as long as this though, so I\u2019d guess it\u2019s at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And musically, will it be a continuation of what you\u2019ve done in the past \u2013 or maybe something different, perhaps more of an experiment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: A bit more Progressive actually this time, and maybe not so much Power Metal \u2013 it\u2019s hard to say. But it\u2019s always about the melodies, and it\u2019s not super Prog Metal I\u2019d say, but a little bit more Prog than the previous albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Last year, when COVID-19 hit, many guitarists turned to remote teaching. As you\u2019ve been a guitar teacher in the past, is it something you\u2019re also busy with these days?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Yeah, I work at a music school as a guitar teacher and I\u2019ve been doing this for almost twenty years now. Sometimes I have a break for touring and stuff, but generally I continue that and I\u2019ve been doing it online since November. Now, if there\u2019s 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\u2019t know yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So do you prefer to teach in person, or are there any advantages of online teaching as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: There are some good things about it actually, because I teach a lot of kids and sometimes they don\u2019t wanna practice so much. But when we\u2019re online and they\u2019re maybe sitting in their own room with the guitar, I think it\u2019s easier for them to continue and practice it more when the lesson is over. But when they\u2019re meeting me at the school, they go home and they forget to pick up the guitar or something. So that\u2019s one good thing. But not everyone has a great Wi-Fi connection and then it\u2019s hard to make it work… And also with the latency, I like to play together, and the way it is now, that\u2019s almost impossible. I know there are some programs [for that], but then you can\u2019t have the camera on… and that doesn\u2019t really work too well with the latency now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Which qualities do you think an ideal music teacher should have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Being able to find out what level the student is at. It\u2019s 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\u2019s better to have it a bit easier and have fun, than to make it hard and get bored and finally give up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Obviously you didn\u2019t have as many tools and options to learn the guitar as the kids today, so beyond what you\u2019ve just said, what was your overall experience as a learner like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: I have to say that because of being into Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, I didn\u2019t have any good guitar teachers for that. I mean, the good guitar teachers could play Classical and Jazz great \u2013 and if I was into that… Well, I like that too, but it\u2019s not what I was mostly into. I didn\u2019t want to spend eight hours practicing Classical guitar or Jazz guitar. I wanted to play Metal guitar and Hard Rock guitar, and I couldn\u2019t 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\u2019m a little jealous about how things are today (laughs). It\u2019s much easier to find great teachers and great players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: If you had asked me fifteen years ago, \u201cWhat\u2019s your main thing? Is it the guitar or is it songwriting?,\u201d I would have said it\u2019s the guitar. But today I think I would say I\u2019m more of a songwriter or a producer, because I love to play the guitar, but that\u2019s 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\u2019t even think so much about the guitar. Of course, the best thing is to have both \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: What are your plans once Heart Healer is out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019re talking about the next Primal Fear album. And maybe \u2013 this isn\u2019t decided yet at all \u2013 but maybe you remember that a long time ago, I had a band called Last Tribe. I can say that we\u2019re talking about maybe doing something, but it\u2019s not decided. Let\u2019s see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So let\u2019s keep fingers crossed for all this to happen! Is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magnus Karlsson: Yeah. I know how it is nowadays \u2013 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\u2019t 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 \u2013 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\u2019re 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, \u201cNo, no, that was strange, let\u2019s move on to the next one.\u201d That\u2019s my hope at least…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Magnus Karlsson on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 If there\u2019s one affliction most of us share these days, it\u2019s much shorter attention span and the decreasing ability to focus on one task. It\u2019s reflected in how music […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":69291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[12866,15340,203,4004],"class_list":{"0":"post-69428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-frontiers-music-srl","9":"tag-heart-healer","10":"tag-interview","11":"tag-magnus-karlsson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}