Artillery

October, 1999 via telephone

Why did you make a comeback after an absence of 9 years?
We never finished. Due to a lack of support of the record label, we just broke up. We couldn't keep on working like that. Very often we thought that we made something that people really liked. Many people even liked the songs from 'By Inheritance' (3rd Artillery album). We never got bad reviews. But it was nearly impossible to buy the record. The record label promised us a tour, but nothing happened. We never heard anything from the record label. This was the third time we got fucked by a record label, even a major label. We never had dreams of being stars, we just wanted to play our music. From 1985 until 1990, Artillery didn't play more than 50 gigs. Danmark is too small to play a lot of gigs, so we wanted to tour Europe and the USA. As we got nowhere, we broke up.

Do you think that you can get more support from your new label Diehard Records that is from your country?
It's different now. We're not as ambitious anymore. We still have something to say. A year ago, I'd never have thought about an Artillery comeback. But there was a concert in Copenhagen where we played 5 songs, just as in old times. People went crazy and wanted more. But we couldn't play anymore because we only rehearsed those 5 songs. Afterwards we were contacted by Diehard Records. It showed out that Morten (bass player) had a lot of material as he was still playing Metal. I was still playing music, but not in the neighbourhood of Metal.

I suppose that you will tour this time to promote the album.
It depends on the terms. We don't get fucked anymore. It has been 15 years since we've made our first album and we learned over the years how not to get fucked.

Artillery belong to the pioneers of the Thrash Metal movement as they started at the same time as bands like Slayer or Overkill. Do you think that they have become more famous than you because they come from America and not from Europe?
We're not only a European band, we're a Danish band. Who ever heard of Danmark?

You have Mercyful Fate.
It's not the same. Mercyful Fate is not real hard. It's more like the seventies actually. King Diamond, he's a seventies guy! We are eighties. Maybe you have to come from a big nation like America or Germany to get more attention. You need a huge population to play a lot of gigs in your home country. We can't play more than 3 gigs in Danmark. It's such a small country that you have everytime the 200 same spectators at your show. In the eighties, communication wasn't as good as it is nowadays. Today it's easier to organise a tour. In the eighties you needed a good promoter and a good manager. We didn't have this. We were just 5 guys who wanted to play some Metal.

What do you expect from your new album?
I don't expect anything from it. I made the best I can made. Within' two weeks, we had the songs for the new album. We've been working pretty fast. The album is better than I expected, but not as good as I wanted it to be. If you listen to the songs, you can hear that they are not quite finished. But that's just my opinion.

I like all the Artillery albums, only the debut is less good.
When we recorded the first album 'Fear Of Tomorrow', I've only been in the band for 3 months. So far I'd never heard anything like that kind of Metal. The most Metal like thing I knew at that moment was 'Balls To The Wall' by Accept.

Every record has a song title containing the word 'Trash'.
There's a continued story: In The Trash, Back In The Trash, Out Of The Trash. That's a story about a poor dude who doesn't know how to get out of the trash. On 'Terror Squad' (2nd album), there's a song called 'Therapy'. On the new album, the story continues with the title 'The Cure'. I'm still a society critic and I still think a lot about the environment. Why don't people realise that there shouldn't be wars? I can't write lyrics about gore or blood. I think that the world is scary enough. We're treating our world really bad. In due time, we will be punished as a race and it will be our fault.

Your CD cover also represents this idea.
That's the whole concept behind B.A.C.K.. It has nothing to do with being back.

Why do you use the anarchy sign for the letter A?
It's built up like that in the chorus lines: I sing twice four lines and they all start with BACK: Blowing Up The World, Anarchy Of Fear, Chaos Mayhem Greed, Killing All That Breathe (?). It was the artist's idea to use this anarchy A.

Some of your song titles sound quite modern (WWW, Cybermind). Are you interested in internet and new technologies?
Very much. I'm working on an own homepage. I go to school to become a datamatic. It's not a programmer, but close to it. The song WWW is a joke about a dude who's chatting with a girl on the internet. Then he buys a web cam and she does, too. It shows out that she's not a she, but a he.

Is there also an official Artillery homepage?
No, but I should think about it.

There's also one song called 'Paparazzi'. I don't think that you ever had problems with them.
Never. It's not against the people, but against the media and its power. Jerry Springer or Oprah Winfrey have such power just because they are on the fucking screen. The song also has relations to the Diana accident. The paparazzi were busier taking photographs of the injured people in the car wreck than trying to save them. I don't know what to say. Isn't human life more important than a fucking picture? Sometimes it's a matter of seconds that can save one life. If someone knows how to do first aid and he does it right away, he can saves lifes.

Your music hasn't much changed compared to the eighties. You're still sounding quite authentic. But have there been some private changes in your life?
You can say that, I have two kids now. In 1993 I've joined a Danish Beatles cover band. We play the songs right and even copy the solos exactly. There are also two or three voices as they did it. We do it live and do it for a living. It's a sort of prostitution as a musician, but it's cool. In the old days, I didn't care. There was just me. If you don't get something to eat today, you may get something tomorrow. I had no responsibilities. But now I have to make money to be sure that my kids have something to eat. We can play lots of gigs in Danmark because everyone likes to hear the Beatles, from the age of 5 to the age of 65. It's great party music and great Rock'n'Roll.

What's your opinion about the actual True Metal movement?
To be totally honest, I'm not following the Metal scene anymore. It's too complicated for me. In the old days, there was Heavy Metal, Glam Metal and Thrash Metal. Now there is Death Metal, and... I even don't know all the names.

If you were restarting Artillery back in 1985, would you do something in a different way now than you did then?
Only regarding the record deals. I wouldn't have signed with Neat Records, I would have waited for a better deal. But we were so hungry at this time that we accepted it immediately.

Any last comments to finish the interview?
I'm happy to be back and I hope that people like the songs.

Thank you very much for your time and the interview.

Interview published on April 17^th 2000