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GRAND MAGUS

JB: Ok, for those not so familar with us, Grand Magus is a 3 piece...I'm JB and do double duty as the guitarist and vocalist...

So you get double the money then?

Sometimes ha ha!

Ok, I’m guessing from your accent that your’re (yet) another Swedish band but where exactly are you from?

JB: We’re from Stockholm so not exactly some unknown place ha ha.

Not to me - so what does Grand Magus mean?

It means Grand Master and in magikal terms you would be the head of a magical order - someone like Aleister Crowley. I’m not sure about Jimmy Page...we definitely deal with magik and we’ve been around for some time. When we started in the late 90s definitely then we spent a lot more time on magikal ceremonies but nowadays its more in the lyrics and attitude.

I guess that rather than being influenced by the more recent melodic death metal bands you would be influenced by the early pioneers of say the likes of Candlemass?

Absolutely, that’s a very fair observation. Musically we’ve got nothing to do with black metal but lyrically there are some common threads. Ok, so I’ve got a Venom t-shirt on right now and they’re old school but they were a part of my upbringing as I’m sure they were a part of yours.

Sure, so how did Grand Magus come together then?

Actually it was pretty easy cos at the time the music scene in Stockholm was quite rubbish really. I saw the bass player in another band and felt that we should play together, and then we found a drummer. We did 3 albums together before we got another drummer and that’s pretty much it.

I’m quite surprised, given the quality of Swedish bands, that you describe the scene as ‘rubbish’!

Yes, but what you have to realise is that has happened only in the last 5 or something years. Around the mid 90s in Stockholm it was as I said. Sure, there were the great death metal bands, but they started before that and also in other places such as Gothenburg. But not much popped up in Stockholm.

I didn’t think that southern Sweden was such a large place, but from what you’re saying it sounds like it was a different situation and even a different scene between cities.

Yes, absolutely. You have the Stockholm death metal sound with bands like your favourites Dismember, Entombed and Unleashed who pretty much started that sound. Then you’ve got Gothenburg which is more melodic and maybe even more thrash influenced like At The Gates and The Haunted. Then even more melodic bands like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity arose and they were even more catchy whereas Stockholm was more downtune, brutal and....death ha ha. Actually, Fred the drummer in Dismember produced our first album - everyone who’s not into mainstream music in Stockholm pretty much knows each other.

Do the differences in the music scenes reflect the differences in culture between the cities?

Yeah, I think so. As you say, southern Sweden is easy to get around but there is a definite mental and cultural difference especially between northern and southern Sweden and taken as a whole, its a fucking massive country. And the difference is like night and day between Swedes and not even Laplanders who you mention. I mean, to me people from Malmo are more like Danes. Northern Swedes tend to be more morose, maybe less vocal and they tend to take things quite seriously. In the south, people are more normal or maybe I should say standard - sorta like “hey, I’ll get it done in my own time”.

You mentioned earlier about Fred producing your first album so how many albums does Grand Magus have?

Besides the debut, we have already done two so that makes three and recently we started recording our fourth album.

How many times have you toured here in the UK?

(giving me a guilty look): we’ve been here many, many, many times ha ha! We’ve done 3 European tours including the UK. In fact we’ve done this venue (London Underworld) six or seven times and then other cities in England....

Sheesh (feeling the guilt)! All these years and I never got around to meeting you guys...I think you even played Sweden Rock the year I went (2004), I feel so bad!

Well, there’s hundreds of bands so it’s understandable and impossible to keep track of everyone - but you’ve met us at last ha ha!

Ok, that feels like an achievement! So what happens now for you guys?

Well, this is a one off show so we’ll go back and mix the album. Then we’ll be doing the Roadburn festival in April, then when the album comes out I guess we’ll be out touring to support it which will be cool so I hope everyone comes to see us - including you ha ha!