Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
After their latest release “Diamond”, Karmanjakah themselves has positioned as one of the most fresh and innovative bands in Europe. Taking influences from both djent, thall or even black, all this blended with some midwest-emo-styled vocals, the Swedish band members Viggo Örsan (guitars) and Jonas Lundqvist (vocals) gave us some of their time for answering some questions that most of their fans have been wondering about.
What headspace were you in when you started writing this record, and what did you want to prove — or maybe destroy — with it?
Viggo: I think we wanted to show people that metal music doesn’t always have to sound the same. I think a lot of bands are repeating the same old thing that everybody is doing when it comes to riffs, sounds, dynamics, song structure, etc. Just following and regurgitating instead of contributing with something that’s personal, genuine and unique. So I think for us it was very important to write music that was genuine that we liked and that really included our personality. It was also important for us to do something that felt new. We don’t want to sound like a cover band, and by that I mean that we don’t just write stuff that sounds like a certain artist or a certain band. We wanted to do our own thing.
What would you say are the core influences behind the DNA of this band? Not just bands, but producers, artists, or even personal experiences that shaped your sound.
Viggo: The members in Karmanjakah listen to all kinds of music, everything from jazz to hip-hop, reggae, different types of metal and classic rock. we just try to incorporate anything we think is really really cool regardless where it’s from. We are all big fans of folk music too from different regions of the world.
Jonas: Also I feel like there’s a lot of music, regardless of genre, where the emotion and feeling is THE thing. I feel like metal has a tendency to lose itself in technicalities, aggression and heaviness. When you’re asking this question I think about how we’re inspired emotionally by different artists. Some random examples popping up in my head right now are RY X, Curtis Mayfield, Niki & The Dove
Was there a specific song or lyric that came from a particularly difficult or important moment in your lives — and does it feel different now when you perform it live?
Viggo: Yes, definitely. We are people too and go through the same stuff that everyone else goes through – ups and downs, loss, break ups, anxiety, etc. We are very open about it between us in the band and it definitely influences how we write and where the lyrics end up going. I personally definitely think about what I was going through when writing the song and think about where I was at the time and what I was thinking about and what led me to write this song and it could almost make me experience that time reexperience those feelings, which can sometimes be beautiful, but it can also be pretty sad.
Jonas: The lyrics to the song “Diamond morning” are very directly deeply personal to me, and revolve around a particular part of my life at the point of writing it. We haven’t performed it live yet but I will be wanting to convey the emotion of the song, and what it means to me now.
Who would you say were your real musical “mentors,” directly or indirectly, when it came to finding your own voice?
Viggo: Of course we draw a lot of inspiration from Vildhjarta and other other bands too, for instance we all love the first album by Periphery. But I also think that some of our mentors were people that we grew up with here in Stockholm. Many of us had parents or older brothers who played music that definitely were mentors to us. We all for very long periods took lessons in music school where we had mentors. We definitely encouraged us to develop our craft.
When you’re writing music, are you a band obsessed with technical precision, or do you leave room for spontaneity and emotion to take control?
Viggo: I don’t think that we’re focused on technical precision at all. I think that we go 100% for spontaneity and emotion and really try to put all effort and focus on making the most emotionally impactful song we can make. In that process I think that we also strive for the ideas and concepts to be very distinct and clear so that there’s no confusion about what we’re trying to say or what we’re trying to play. Therefore, it is also important for us that the technicalities are very precise, but I think that matters to us only because the emotion in the end is what is important to us. It’s not the other way around.
Jonas: I think we’re a little bit obsessed with songwriting, I feel like we take that very seriously. It used to be a problem where songs took too long and too much effort to complete. With “Diamond Morning” we’ve gotten better at going with the first idea, taking time off of it, coming back and being creative and spontaneous, and then having a shorter period of wrapping the song up and daring to accept that it ended up a certain way, as a way to battle the self criticizing demons.
What do you think they’d say about who you are today? Are you proud of the band you’ve become, or do you still feel like you’re chasing the “real” sound of Karmanjakah?
Viggo: this is a fun question and I think we in the band think about this a lot of the time to ourselves. I hope that we will never arrive at a point where we have found the “real sound” of Karmanjakah. Because that would inhibit us from continuing to develop. The cool thing about writing music and being in the band is that it is always changing and that’s not something we can stop, so I really hope that we continue to explore different avenues, continue to develop and and just become new versions of ourselves/Karmanjakah. We would be very, very proud of where we are at this point both how far we’ve come as songwriters, producers, musicians, etc. but also with that we still love to play music together and love to play shows, and that the passion is still there. I think that’s the most important thing to us in the end and that’s why we started the band in the first place. For the love of doing the thing.
Do you feel pressure to constantly reinvent yourselves every time you write new music, or do you completely ignore outside expectations?
Jonas: It can be hard not to get affected by what people think, both positive and negative opinions. But like Viggo said, what we love the most is creating new music and exploring different ways of conveying emotion and experiment through metal. It’s almost as if it’s the purpose of the band. And that makes it easier to ignore expectations because it wouldn’t be Karmanjakah if we let the expectations steer where we’re going. I think it’s true, but very surprising, that originality is rare in progressive metal. I’ve always thought of it as a genre whose very nature is forward-thinking and boundary-pushing.
We cannot wait to see you all on stage guys, it’s been such a pleasure to have you in our space! The Chaoszine team sends regards!!
