DOWNLOAD INTERVIEW: SMASH INTO PIECES

CHARLOTTE: Welcome to Download! You guys have joined us all the way from Sweden and you were just saying you had played Sweden Rocks yesterday.

CHRIS ADAM: Yeah. Played the main stage and was super cool. First time being there, so yeah, we felt really welcome.

C: And you’ve only just arrived at Donnington as well for your set this afternoon on the Opus stage?

CA: Yeah, it’s our first time actually playing a festival in the UK so it’s, it’s kind of cool. Started at the top right away.

C: Great place to start! So, you guys are known for having quite a unique stage presence, for those who haven’t experienced it before, can you just give a bit of background about your sound and what your stage performances are like?

BENJAMIN: I mean, I would say the stage performance for me it’s more like I, think they can feel the passion. I mean, we’ve done this for 15 years and for me it’s like the passion, I think has to be there when you are present in the moment, when you are on stage. I think that’s the main thing for us. And that we have done this for so long – we are not good in anything else! This is what we’re doing, and I would say the sound for smash is like, commercial rock, electronic rock, but with a more touch and still some metal in it.

C: Are there any surprises for this afternoon’s performance? Um, do you see any difference between performing at a festival that you do for, um, like the arena?

CA: For me it’s not a big difference. I think for me personally, I love the clubs, like the smaller clubs, more like these five, 600 capacities. When you get the more, like a connection with the audience and you can feel the pa system like it, it fills you up when you’re standing on these kind of big stages, you don’t really hear the sound so much and everything is so distant, it’s so many people and it’s just like, it’s like a postcard. You kind of see it, but you can’t really connect with it somehow. But, of course it’s a cool thing to be on the big stages of that. But usually I don’t really care. I try to be as you said, like in the moment. We’re always genuine in what we do, so we’re gonna deliver a really good show. The Swedish show.

C: So you’ve got a new single out called The Tide, which is a follow up to your single Six Feet Under. So tell me about the themes and the ideas and the creation of these two singles.

B: I mean, The Tide was written like the story of Adam, so that’s more personal one, but I think the production in Sex Feet Under is like, what do you say, specific smash. I mean, you have this rock, this big chorus, but still this electro sound, and I think the tide is just following up on that one, but it’s a little darker and a little more story from Arcadia, where we come from. But I think we’re always moving, if you listen to Smash, we always have this, like some songs are more metal heavy, darker, but still we have this more, what would you say, commercial [sound], easier to pick up.

CA: Yeah. I mean, when we write music or when we like choosing songs, we just want to choose the songs that we wanna make. We don’t really think about if it is gonna be heavy or not, if it’s a good song, it’s a good song and still I’m gonna sing on it and it’s gonna probably sound like Smash because it’s my voice and it’s songwriting from Per Bergquist usually. So, I mean, it’s like, we don’t really have in that sense, a style or something like that. This is like, we wanna make good songs, I guess.

B: I mean The Tide is about the darkness taking over, how the human mind is, how easy it is to fall for the easy path in life, like for Money, for Success, the ego. And the Ego is like the biggest enemy we have, but in The Tide, it’s like letting go of everything he has be with your ego, how that feels. It’s like the darkness taking over, but there is still some goodness in him. More like fighting against your Ego. And I would say this is not a song rhythm from the Heroes perspective, more from Ghost in the Tide is more like giving in for your nature.

CA: And the Six Foot Runner is, uh, it’s a song about how I felt during my worst time in life, which was a couple of years ago. So yeah, I went through this super Bad Depression and the song is about how it feels to be there, like Six Foot Under and you don’t think there’s another way up from it. But I took the necessary steps to like, you know, try to do the self-help journey, try to, uh, smash my ego into pieces and we as a band wanted to take that song to put a positive spin on it to explain that there is a way up if you are willing to do work

C: There’s So many people that can relate to that in so many different ways.

CA: Yeah. It’s a thing now also, like depression is a huge thing and for me to open up and express myself via Six Foot Under is a huge thing for me personally as well. But it kind of resonated with a lot of people, I guess and that’s why it’s been such a big song. It’s our biggest song yet, and it’s just two and a half months old, so it’s crazy. Yeah. So, [it is] like Twice Doubled Platinum or something. Like, that’s super, super huge for us. We took a picture with the Platinum series on stage yesterday on Sweden Rock, so it was kind of cool.

B: That was beautiful. Super cool.

CA: Yeah. But it’s a nice song and it’s kind of a breakup song for me in that sense that I broke up with my old self. So from now on it’s like a new life, everything is good. I have a bigger respect for me and my journey, and I think that if I can do it, because there’s nothing special or extraordinary thing with me. I’m like everyone else. Everyone carries things around, so I just wanted to put it out there. You can actually do the work and you can’t actually come back up.

CH: That’s amazing. So for the rest of 2023, what can we expect from you guys?

B: I mean, for now we have the schedule full. We are playing, we are playing tour

CA: the time of our lives

B: Touring the rest of the year. And at the same time I’m writing the next album. So we are like working in the bus or working at the airport or so we are riding and traveling and play. That’s the year.

CA: Living our teenage dreams, loving life.

Interview by Charlotte Hooper at Download Festival 2023