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Debase – Micko Twedberg in Offenbach, Hafenbahn
After we’ve been on tour with Annihilator, Seven Witches and Debase we decided in Offenbach to ask bassist Micko Twedberg of Debase for an interview. He was so kind to spend time answering our questions. Actually, we had almost no information about the band and so this is just a short introduction, a more detailed interview will follow when their next album will be released.
So far a few people know you were on tour with ALICE COOPER. Now you are on tour with ANNIHILATOR, but a lot of people didn’t know who DEBASE are. Could you tell us a little bit about the past, the present and about the future?
Yeah… We started the band in ’96. Johan, the drummer joined us in 2000 after the recording of the first album which is called The World Is Listening.
But the world wasn’t listening. It was just a few people listening at that time…
Yeah, we got a very poor deal with poor distribution, but then we got the tour with ALICE COOPER in 2000. Then our label got bankrupt right during the tour. Then we recorded the second album. That one was released August last year. We didn’t a tour for that album. So this is the tour for Domination, the second album. Now we have recorded our new album and we have a new label for this new album.
Again?! New album, new label.
Actually, the first albums were at the same label. But we will change.
How comes that you now do the tour with ANNIHILATOR without having a record deal and it ain’t easy to tour these days anyway, so …
Now we are doing this only to promote the band. We have invited many labels to our shows and most of them have shown up so far and there is still some to come and we have a good response!
It seems that also the audience gives a good response so far at your shows. Do you see a difference between the responses of the audience from one country to another?
So far the big city’s has been the best. It has nothing to do with the country. London was much better than the other ones in England. Paris was good, Milan was good … I think, the big city’s. It’s less good in the country.
So what can we expect after this tour from DEBASE? The album is recorded, but not mixed yet?
That’s right. We haven’t mixed it yet. We still have some small things to do with it. But we have plans for release in fall and a hopefully we can tour for that album.
How did you do the songwriting?
I write the songs and sometimes someone has an idea. We write the songs in the rehearsal studio. And while Johan and I wrote the songs we were in this studio and just jamming and there was a new song. So it is different from song to song. Most of them we did together.
So what influence has you and it’s very hard to categorise your music. And then it’s easy to say its new wave of Swedish Heavy Metal. But people always want to label it.
Yeah… We were labelled many times but in different categories Thrash Metal, Power Metal… I don’t know! I can’t categorise that. Just call it Metal. It’s heavy with an attitude.
How did you come up with the idea to do a song about Star Wars?
I was thinking about the movie Star Wars. But the lyrics are about wars and suffering and there is always something bigger and it takes charge of other people’s life.
The best example we have at the moment is September 11th.
Year, it is…
Do you see differences between the tour with ALICE COOPER and now? Sure it was a bigger tour with ALICE COOPER and some other things are different in that way but …
-Especially the tour manager
*laughter*
How were the reaction from the audience and you have had a bigger promotion? Something with backdrops and you didn’t have to be a roadie for the other support bands like on this one.
Yeah, we don’t mind doing sharing our stuff. We’ve been doing that for 15 years, so that is not a problem. But I think ALICE COOPER’s Fans liked us more. And that’s very natural because ANNIHILATOR are Thrash Metal and we’re not.
But on the other hand, you have the chance to get the attention of fans of another genre.
This is good for us anyway…
So can we expect to see you at some festivals? Or just have to wait for the new album and probably festivals next year? Or will you do some shows in Sweden?
We don’t have any festivals booked this year, because we wanna mix the album during the summer when we are back.
Where do you think will you mix the album?
We haven’t decided yet. It depends on which label it will be and how much they wanna spend on the mixing.
So you don’t offer the finished product to the label ….
We could do, but it depends on what the label offers.
So, it’s all wait and see?!
Yeah!
So we have all to wait ‘til the album is released…
Yeah!
So, this was our little chit-chat with Micko about the band’s situation. More will follow, that’s a promise. In the meantime, give them a chance and listen to their albums.
Claudia Ehrhardt & Nadja Meyer