-Shan Siva

Wow, I must be the luckiest man alive - not just to catch such an elusive band but doubly so that they should be playing in my hometown!

Stephan (Weinerhall – guitar): yes, it’s our first live show in 2 years and the reason why we’re playing here is because we’re familiar with it having played our last two shows here. We found we had some time so we’ve scheduled a couple of shows and you’re right, they will be rare shows.

It seems really contradictory to the whole rock ethic of not being a touring band.....most metal bands I can think of arguably made their success offa touring.

Stephan: well, when we started the band we didn’t actually have any intention of playing live at all, just to be a studio band. We recorded two albums and then it was Wacken Open Air who contacted us to do a show and we played a couple of times. We then replaced Matthias (Blad) because we wanted to do a proper tour when we knew we could play live. So we got Kristoffer (Gobel) and we somehow changed the music to adapt to his voice so when we got Matthias back we knew he would have a pretty busy schedule. For me personally it was not a problem not to play that much live because I have other things to do as well - the creative side of the music is the reason I am into music so I hope that’s somewhat of an answer....

How do you guys make any money from the band then....?

Stephan: no, it’s purely a hobby with a few occasional shows. I think that instead of doing 10 shows a year it’s better to do 2 or 3 because it then gets special in a way - that rarity makes us almost a mystical band don’t you think ha ha? But yes, I can see how it makes us different to all the other bands, but you see we all have jobs and very little time.

I think it’s pretty refreshing to come across a band that isn’t money driven either out’ve need or greed - can I ask you what you guys do for a living?

Stephan: well actually I just got laid off my job so I don’t do anything - so Falconer will tour all the time ha ha! I used to be a forklift driver in an assembly plant. Not for IKEA ha ha.

I think the other thing that makes Falconer so unique has to be the sound and specifically Matthias’s style of singing, which you’ve found difficult to replace.

Stephan: I don’t think it’s important at all because I don’t think he sings that good...

Er, Matthias - do you have anything to say?

Matthias (Blad – vocals): um no, I’m just getting ready to leave ha ha!

Stephan: ha ha....seriously... I think his voice is primarily what makes Falconer sound that original - and my melodies sound the best with him singing them. How I don’t know because I don’t think my melodies aren’t all that metal. And he is not a metal singer. So it must be something combined that makes it special.

Matthias: I think in some kind’ve way you’ve found how my voice works and made the music work with it.

Do you know at audition stage that he (i.e. Matthias) was gonna be the one?

Stephan: I didn’t really know but I think I enjoyed the difference he brought and also the possibilities to do other things - and all of a sudden the music became totally different and we were not the same band anymore. You try to adapt to the vocalist and what he can do and what makes him sound the best. I still think that some of those other songs are still good but some are too far off like the ones with Kristoffer so you won’t be hearing any old Falconer tonite!

Ok, onto the mainman Matthias! What is your background cos it sure ain’t metal.

Matthias: my background is musical theatre. That’s what I trained in originally and then I worked as an actor for a couple of years in Sweden and then I trained here in the UK. I did a 3 year acting course and since then I’ve done cabaret, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Jekyl & Hyde, mainly in support roles singing a song, although I did a lead role in Hair.

Stephan, I’m still trying to work out how you knew this kinda vocal style i.e. from theatre was what you were looking for?

Stephan: I didn’t. When I first started I just asked around for anyone who could sing - and we found Matthias so it was a case of seeing how the labels would react to this. But it turned out positive. I just didn’t know if the vocal would work but then I didn’t think my music would work either. I honestly felt that I didn’t know how to do heavy metal - and now I had a singer than didn’t sound metal either ha ha!

But wasn’t your first band a black metal band (Mithotyn)?!

Stephan: yeah, but I knew how to do that kind’ve music but Falconer is not so simple, it’s not really heavy metal you know but Swedish folk and rock - it’s metal of some kind. But I guess that experiment worked and that’s pretty much all I know because I wouldn’t be able to do a song for Judas Priest for example. Falconer is my small niche.

Ah, onto the folk, do tell me about that aspect of Falconer

Stephan: it’s not like I’m listening to a lot’ve folk bands so it’s not so much but it just comes into the music naturally. It even came into my earlier bands so I had to try really hard not to include this folk element even though you are now thinking I should play acoustic instead ha ha?!

The thought had crossed my mind that you were naturally folk....

Stephan: l really like Jethro Tull but it’s not like Falconer although it’s still folk-ish.

Ok, so it sounds like you were unintentionally folk - so is it reasonable to say that Falconer was one of the first folk metal bands around?

Stephan: we’re a few years earlier than some I think so, but our involvement was not that great so we’re not actually called a folk metal band, just a power metal band with folk influences. Nowadays though, I do try on some of the songs to get even more folk in so we can get more recognition for our folk parts.

Matthias, how have you found playing in a....uh, I’ve just forgotten what Stephan just said..compared to what you’re normally used to?

Matthias: ha ha..it’s a switch to slightly higher vocals but otherwise it isn’t different to how I would normally sing. Naturally it depends on the piece, so if it was classical it would be different obviously.

And what about the lifestyle of living the rock n roll life?

Matthias: well that’s quite different - although we don’t tour a lot with only a few gigs

Do the after show partys take a toll on you? Like, you do have to take a coupla days to recover before doing a children’s musical...I’m only kidding ha ha!

Matthias: ha ha - maybe only Monday and Tuesday ha ha!

Before you played Wacken, had you ever been to a metal show, let alone the biggest metal festival in the world?

Matthias: that was an eye opener! I know what to expect. It was quite huge.

Stephan: also for me too. In 2002 when we played there I didn’t understand what it meant to be nervous. When we stepped onstage there was about 5,000 people and it was too much to take in. We’d only played one show before so the nervousness came afterwards. And that was one of the smaller stages! We never expected so many people to know Falconer so that was an eye opener for me too. Honestly, standing by the side of the stage we felt like a garage band misplaced on the wrong stage.

Did that nervousness show onstage - bum notes?

Stephan: many bum notes ha ha

Matthias: it was horrible ha ha but that was because I couldn’t hear. I had so little experience in music at the time I couldn’t hear myself. Nowadays I use a personal monitor because my range is so low it doesn’t really cut through the music or monitors onstage. Back then of course, I had no idea so I couldn’t even hear the guitars (looking at Stephan)...

He’s telling you now ha ha ?!

Stephan: no, I know ha ha - yeah, I don’t think any of us enjoyed that show - but it is THE show that I will always remember, even for the wrong reasons ha ha!

Did you come offstage thinking that you needed more onstage experience?

Stephan: yeah - but we never did ha ha! The only way is to play more shows because we practice the music and then step onstage. Nowadays we are a little better as you will see tonite ha ha!

Matthias: but don’t be expecting anything choreographed, it’s not that sophisticated as in ‘so that move with that note’.

Stephan: I don’t really care how we look onstage (looking at his clothes) - this is how we will go on - because we won’t really do anything about it anyway.

Ok, changing the subject, I really like the traditional Swedish songs so why did you start incorporating them?

Stephan: again I think that just happened - on the first album

Matthias: and how did that happen? I remember just finding that song....or did your sister find it? But anyway, it’s a really local folk song from maybe 20 or 30 kilometres from where we’re from.

Stephan: but it became something liked and from then quite natural to do.

I really like the pieces and you should definitely continue doing them.

Stephan: I guess even if you don’t understand the Swedish it must be quite exotic for foreigners?

I think that although some music can be universally translated some material can only sound good in it’s original language.

Stephan: yes, I agree too. I even think that Matthias sounds better in Swedish.

Matthias: I think Swedish is a good language to sing in, that’s why.

Can you explain some of the songs like ‘Himmel Sa Trind...’ and ‘Vargaskall’...?

Stephan: I’ll try cos it’s really easy to explain in English but it’s basically about the approaching winter and the frost...

Matthias: ...the fiddler in the stream. There’s this myth about a man in the middle of a stream who plays the violin naked and he draws children there to drown...very Swedish but about winter.

Stephan: for Varga in the 19th century they assembled a village to go out and kill all of the wolves to make them extinct. But now they’ve come back.....

You guys recently did a video - first for Falconer? Is that another way of getting around touring?

Stephan: exactly. It was an idea from our photographer

Matthias: our personal photographer ha ha - he’s a big fan and also he lives in the same town as us ha ha

Stephan: he about video production too so it was a natural progression. The video is about ‘Carnival Of Disgust’ which is about the life of an executioner during medieval days - a day if you like in his eyes. He’s not doing it because he loves to kill but because he’s under sentence of death and if he didn’t do it he’d be in their place. Typically grim and very Swedish ha ha!