The lifestyle of Evocation

Hello Evocation, please introduce yourselves for our readers and how are things for you guys today?
Hey there, Ok, like u said our band name is Evocation and we are 5 guyz who like creating music hang in our studio not only for the creation of music and recording but just to hang with each other, it has become more like a lifestyle than a hobby, And I guess thing move pretty good for us.

Please give the readers for those unfamiliar with you guys a brief insight into everything that is Evocation.
Well… for u guyz that never heard of us: We started up in early 90´s and were active for a couple of years, then we decided to put the band under ice for some reasons (u can read it on our webpage) then we reunion around 2004 I guess, to do the thing we enjoy most in the whole world, to play death metal again! We sound very much Swedish Death metal but it’s a nice mix of both Stockholm and Gothenburg oriented sound. And we handle the music and band very seriously, and have a great amount of discipline. And we looove to party hard when ever possibilities are given=)

Your new album "Apocalyptic" is now out, how has that been received for you guys? How was the recording process this time around on your 3rd full length? What were the influences and inspirations for the album?
Apocalyptic has been received very good from magazines around the planet, and we hit some high scores from huge mags, that feels great! The recording process took around 6 months, we like to do it slow and with no stress and because we record in Evocation studios we have no clock ticking for expensive costs and bills, and we try to work 2-3 nights a week sometimes more but we think its enough and it feels good to have some distance from the recording as well. The influences for Apocalyptic were a natural development from “Dead Calm Chaos” album. And to be honest we had about 8 tracks already finished for apocalyptic during the release of Dead calm chaos=)

You have played some seriously cool festivals in recent years? Will you guys be playing the same in support of this record?
Yes I really hope so. So far nothing planned but we are working on it with our booking agency, both for cool festivals and a European tour as well.

Any particular favourite festivals? And Why?
Oh, hard to say, but I guess every festival has its beauties, I really cant say anything specific about it, I like them all=) and it is great to meet other bands and share experiences and fun stories.

Who is the Party animal of the band? Any crazy stories from the road or festival season?
Hehe!!! I would lie if I told u that on or two are party animals in the band hehe, I can assure you that we all are alike at that point=) But I have one good story from our last tour, no names or anything, but two of us, somewhere in Europe ran completely naked in middle of the night in to the main bands tour bus and woke them up with beer and nudity heheh, well u can only imagine their reaction hehe!

You guys recorded early demos with the now legendary, Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studio, how did the recording process vary from now to then?
Sunlight studio was actually the first “real” studio we ever recorded in but it was a blast to work with Tomas Skogsberg, I have never in my life seen someone actually survive on just coffee and cigarettes, but he worked very pro like, and the mail difference from then to todays studios are that the recordings were made on actual tape, and therefore very difficult to cut and edit, so one had to simply set the whole track in one take, or if u were lucky to have a break in the song to be able to continue from, that’s a real challenge!

You have used a favourite artist of mine, Dan Seagrave, for your artwork on "Tales From The Tomb" How was he to work with? Who did the artwork for "Apocalyptic" and what was the influence?
Dan S was very easy to work with we had some mail contact of course and finally he sent a couple of drafts and ideas which we worked from, and suddenly the final result came in the mailbox, I’m very satisfied with his art. And for “apocalyptic” we used a great guy named Xaay who has done art work for bands such as Behemoth and Nile etc… and now Evocation, and he has done a wonderful work with the cover art and layout. And we used him also to design our webpage. Really open minded and easy to work with.

Coming from a very old school background, you guys im sure used analouge recording methods back in the day, how do you feel about the "ProTools" age we are in today? Do you embrace/use ProTools? Do you feel that it perhaps takes from that warm analouge sound or do you believe ProTools to be the way of the future?
Ok….Well to be honest one always thinks that thing were better in the old days right? And in some ways they were, and even in recordings that was a particular beauty somehow, but I really think that today’s digital technology is very good, and bad! Good in such ways that it makes things more easy in the studio, that one can focus on making good music instead of wasting time on takes and re-takes and expensive studio time. Bad in such ways that even a crappy band that are really bad on their instruments are able to make something good in the studio with all the new technology…hmm maybe it was better in the days when it sorted out the qualifying from the crappy ones?? Don´t know really?

Where can people check you out in support of "Apocalyptic" in 2010/2011?
I hope that they could check us out in a future tour for the album or on some nice summer festivals, at least in 2011 cause 2010 is ending and of course buy the album and support Evocation and not to forget support the record industry while it still exists…

How is the scene in Sweden these days? Is it as healthy now as what it was when you guys first began your death metal journey?
That really depends on what size of bands we speak of? But I guess that u mean the underground scene? Well, I’m not the right person for this question to be honest but I’ve heard that it still is going on and or but it was of course more exiting in the days cause it was all new stuff (death metal)and a new movement sort of. But to speak for my self, I hardly ever get my ass of to these gigs nowadays. I wish that I had the time for it…

Yeah I´ve got one… HORNS UP!!!

Cheerz: Janne Bodén / Evocation