Candlemass - Johan Länquist
TM - Hi, this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix, and we are here with Johan Länquist from Candlemass. Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
JL - Thank you.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
JL - We have been to Australia once to play in Tasmania at Dark Mofo. We are excited to play the rest of Australia, and fans can expect a classic Candlemass setlist, with all our favourite songs. It will be a classic setlist.
TM - Do you have any pre-show rituals before you go on stage?
JL - We don't have pre-show rituals. We just have some red wine or some white wine. We focus on our performance and making our fans happy. We are not only excited about singing our music, but we are also excited about meeting our fans.
TM - What is your favourite song to play live?
JL - I don't really have a favourite song to play Live. I enjoy playing the old stuff that we wrote over 40 years ago; the younger generation shows up and sings along to these songs. It could be the third or fourth generation that listen to our music, and my favourite thing to see is the audience when I play live, it gives me goose bumps. "Demons Gate" off our album "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus" is fantastic to play live, and the response from the audience is normally great.
TM - What is your favourite memory from when you first started?
JL - We played our first gig in America, and that was fantastic. The first time we played in Sweden was at a venue called The Marquee. The Who, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix played at this venue. Then we sold out for two days when we played, and it was the best memory. There was a wall in the dressing room that all the artists signed when they played there. There was a wall full of signatures from the sixties, then they put a wall in front of it for the seventies, and they put a wall in front of it for the Eighties. When they knocked down the place, all the signatures were lost, and I was wondering if anyone took the signed bricks or if they were lost forever.
The guys would say Dynamo festival in Holland was the best festival. Exodus played the festival, and we came from Sweden. They played first, and we played. It was a new type of music at that time, and the audience went crazy. It was so nice to see, and we were blown away at Dynamo Festival.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs, what band would you choose, What song would you choose, and would it be in your style or their style?
JL - "Trouble" would be cool to hear Candlemass do a song. We have covered their songs in the past, and we were inspired by "Trouble" when we started Candlemass. We did a song with the band "Entombed", and it was fantastic.
We did one of our songs the way "Entombed" would do it, and it sounded like "Entombed", but it was us doing the song. It sounded fantastic. Lots of bands do covers of us.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
JL - I would like to thank my fans because they are the reason we can play. I want to thank them for the respect to they are giving us, and we hope to see you all at the Australian shows.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
JL - Thank you.