Interviewee: Johan Norström
Year: 2008
Website: terrortory.com
MySpace: myspace.com/terrortory
Label: None
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive... So far!
One day, whilst looking through TME's new-look website, I found myself browsing through the entries in their Guest Book. For some reason, one particular entry stood out to me. This entry had a link in it to "terrortory.com" and so I decided to check it out. I soon found myself face-to-face (or, rather ear to computer) with some fantastic melodeath! I listened to all of the tracks available on the site and was soon hooked (you can download quite a few tracks, so I suggest that you go to their site NOW... or, at least, once you've finished reading this interview!). I decided to contact the band to ask them a few questions and this is what happened...
Lou: Hi Johan, thanks for agreeing to answer my questions - I really appreciate it! How are you today?
Johan: Tired as hell, due to a massive workload at school... I've never been this exhausted before!
Lou: I'm pretty new to Terrortory, and I'm pretty sure that some of the readers of Loucifer Speaks will be too, so please could you give us a brief description of the music you play?
Johan: Well, we have a few keywords ? aggression, melody and atmosphere. That's, basically, what we try to achieve, maybe not all at the same time but these are the components that we strive to implement into our music.
Lou: Which bands, if any, would you compare yourselves to?
Johan: We try not to compare us to anyone anymore, it has proven to be almost like shackles in the past... Both in the area of creativity and of promotion, we expected something from ourselves that sounded to much like something else ? and so did our fans and the press. However we're greatly inspired by bands like Opeth and At the Gates.
Lou: Why did you choose the name Terrortory?
Johan: It started out as a joke actually. Our intention when forming the band was to make a parody of the "true" metal scene, burning churches and record with crappy sound cause that's how it was done 10 years ago and so forth, so we wanted a name with some humour in it. Terrortory came quite naturally. It stuck and when we approached our music with more seriousity there was really no reason to change. People seem to remember the name, so why not keep it?
Lou: What sort of subjects do you write about in the lyrics? What are your main inspirations?
Johan: My inspiration when writing lyrics are mostly the dark side of my mind. A kind of therapy, if you will, where I try to get my self-destructive and dark thoughts out so I won't live by them. Stuff like man-kinds stupidity, the weaknesses of democracy due to the former and why democracy is the only way to live despite these weaknesses. The absence of any higher deity, like God, in these times of war and short-term view on nature. I also write about more personal subjects like my present relationship, when it's not that good.
Lou: What is your role within the band?
Johan: I'm the singer, lyricist and I write about 25% of the music. I?m also responsible for the promotion of the band, something I could do a whole lot better, but I?m just to lazy...
Lou: Who else is in the band?
Johan: Stefan Widmark is one of the guitarists, he's our musical prodigy. The one who speaks mostly in musical terms and comes up with harmonys and stuff like that. The other guitarist is Michael Bergvall who has just returned to us after being absent in two years due to school, his return definitely reinjected us! Olov Häggmark is the name of our bassplayer, he is the one who keeps us together and handles the logistics surrounding rehearsal and such. Our drummer is Peter Hägglund, he?s also the main driver of the band since he has the biggest car.
Lou: How long have Terrortory been around?
Johan: I think we started in 2001 or so, but the first 2-3 years we weren?t really that serious.
Lou: Were you in other bands before Terrortory?
Johan: We've all been playing in other bands both before and during Terrortory, myself in a band called Thurisaz who played metal/hardcore and a hard rock n' roll band called Monolit which is still alive. Stefan played, and still plays, in Nightscape, a technical power metal act in the vein of Symphony X. Michael played in a power/heavy metal band called Armos Knight and in Monolit together with myself. Olov and Peter didn?t play in any serious bands until they joined Terrortory, but they?ve been involved with other projects to. It's hard to be a musician in this town and not play in a band.
Lou: How did Terrortory form?
Johan: Me, Michael and Stefan wanted to play death metal. We didn't know if we?d be able to pull it off so we started out like a parodic act, as I said earlier.
Lou: I understand that you're planning to record some new material this year. Have you got any song titles prepared and could you share them with us?
Johan: Hell yeah, we?re not really pleased with the latest recording so now we?re going in to the studio to record 4 or 5 new tracks! We plan to release it in the end of the summer. The songs are called "DeReign", "The Seed Left Behind", "Demon Slay Angel", "I, You" and "Saviour" and they represent the best material we've ever written!
Lou: Will this material be available online, or as an EP?
Johan: Don't know yet. Maybe an online-EP? We'll probably make some of the tracks, if not all, available for download, but press an amount of CDs as well for those who still loves that round, shiny thingy.
Lou: Do you have any other EPs, singles or albums available?
Johan: We've released two demos, one selftitled in 04-05 and one called "One Dead Morning" in 06 i think. They?re both available for download at www.terrortory.com.
Lou: I know that you're keen to release a full-length album one day. I was wondering if you had any plans for it? If you were to record an album, would you put old songs on it, or would you write entirely new songs for it? Or would it be a combination of old and new songs?
Johan: We'd love to release a full-length album. I personally don't think we make ourselves justice in 20 minutes of music. But we don't have the finances to record more than that at the time. If we would record a full-length album at this point I think we'd probably put two or three old songs on it, songs that we consider deserves a better fate than staying at the demo stage.
Lou: I have a strange obsession for band t-shirts (I feel better for having admitted that! Haha!). Do you have any merchandise available and where can we buy it from?
Johan: Yeah we actually do! Check out http://terrortory.spreadshirt.net ? it's an online print-on-demand service that doesn?t require us in the band to pay anything in advance, it?s perfect for bands on a tight budget like ourselves!
Lou: Will there be a Terrortory tour this year? Do you have any plans to play a few shows in the UK?
Johan: We're working on some dates in Sweden right now actually, but I doubt we'll play in the UK in the near future. Needs more record deals!
Lou: What has been the best Terrortory gig that you've played so far and why?
Johan: 2006 at the Trästock festival here in Skellefteå was, by far, the best gig anyone of us had ever played. Everything went perfect, there was a huge crowd and a lot of banging in it, we performed at our best and completely enjoyed ourselves. We got a lot of praise from a lot of people after that gig.
Lou: and, on the other side of the coin, what has been the worst gig you've played and why?
Johan: The follow up, 2007 at the Trästock festival. We wanted to outperform the previous years blowout and we didn't. I don?t think we really played that bad, but we were all in a really bad mood afterwards, not at all pleased with ourselves. The gig took place in daylight so the atmosphere was nonexistant. We did, despite all this, sell all the demos we'd brought so I guess we couldn?t have been that bad.
Lou: Which festival would you most like to play at?
Johan: Wacken is legendary, so Wacken it is.
Lou: Which other bands would you most like to tour with?
Johan: Personally, Dark Tranquillity and The Haunted. It would be awesome to get the chance to see my favourite live bands every single night!
Lou: What was the last album you bought and what was the last gig that you went to?
Johan: The last album I bought was Engels "Absolute Design" and I'm blown away by it! It's awesome! The last gig was Breach in december last year, an old hardcore act from the north of Sweden who played a reunion gig that was excellent.
Lou: What's the plan for Terrortory in 2008?
Johan: Rehearsing, recording and playing live. As hell.
Lou: Thanks for answering my questions!
Johan: Thanks for asking!