“It feels amazing to play at Wacken Open Air” – interview with Saviourself

During Wacken Open Air, we had the opportunity to chat with Mats, guitarist from Saviourself about the festival, life as an artist and more.

You’re playing Wacken Open Air is such a legendary occasion as it’s the 35th anniversary. How does it feel?

Mats Aust: It really feels amazing. I mean, we started out as a band like 10 years ago. I wasn’t part of the band back then. I only joined in 2020. Last year, we didn’t really play a lot of shows and the shows that we played were rather small. And then at the end of the year, we got picked up by Corrupted Blood Records, our record label now, and they offered us all these amazing opportunities. I mean, we played Impericon as well last month, and we also played Kieler Woche, which is like, I’m not sure if the listeners know about this, but it’s a big festival in northern Germany. We played that as well, it’s really amazing. It really felt great yesterday to play the stage. The crowd was amazing, just an awesome show in general.

For sure. And you have a lot of experience with playing live shows, but you also have experience in the studio and working on music. Do you think that the life of an artist is lonely?

Mats Aust: I wouldn’t necessarily say so. I mean, we had so many social interactions today and yesterday with people who saw us live, or who saw us in the past, or who listened to our music, or who have just discovered us as a band. That does not feel lonely at all. I mean, even the process of producing music is not as lonely as we might think, because as a band, we sit together and we think about our songwriting and all that kind of stuff. So no, I mean, for some, I mean, there’s a lot of solo artists nowadays, maybe not so much in metal, but like in pop music or hip hop. So that might be a bit lonelier. But for metal, I think the process of cooperation is still very relevant. Absolutely.

And last year, you know, was a year that was amazing in all sorts of ways, but also we lost the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. Was he or Black Sabbath an inspiration for, say, yourself or for yourself?

Mats Aust: I wouldn’t necessarily say that he’s an inspiration for our music, because our genres are kind of very much apart. We’re like a modern metal band. He’s like a heavy metal artist, a legend. But he’s always been around. So as a child, I started listening to metal at the age of like 10, 11. And Black Sabbath were one of the first bands that I kind of knew about. And also his solo songs. So yeah, I mean, he’s always been around for me. He’s always been present. And it’s very sad that he’s gone. I remember that he gave like a show or something like a few days or a week before his death. And that must have been so sad. So yeah, really sad that he’s gone.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything else that you want to add to our readers and viewers?

Mats Aust: Well, thank you very much for listening. Make sure to check out Saviourself on wherever you stream music or check out our Instagram. And if you like what you hear, go give us a follow and stick around.