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AMARANTHE – Swedish band that fuses melodic metal with elements of EDM. More than 200 concerts performed in the last three years. They will release their third album MASSIVE ADDICTIVE on October 21, 2014.

 With Jake E, Amaranthe vocalist, talked R.J. Carter:

• The sort of music that you play - metal - is not so very popular, like for example pop music. However, Amaranthe gains more and more fans all over the world. What do you think is the reason for it?

Well, First of all I don’t agree with you on that subject. Metal is huge in our country (Sweden) and even if it’s more common to hear pop music on the radio. People tend to buy the albums from metal bands while they download or stream the pop music. And the only festivals that actually that turns a profit is the Metal Festivals.

Part from the reason that we have 200 travel days a year and are working our asses off to tour the world promoting our music, I have no idea why we are growing in such a fast rate. But I guess that we can be called a cross over act, meaning that we’re attracting fans from both the metal -and pop genre.

• What does the name of your band mean and who created it?

A long story short. Me and Olof first named the band Avalanche back in 2008/09.

We got sued from some idiot living in a cabin in the woods for the simple reason that he had some kind of copyright on the name in Sweden. We had already started to build a big quite huge fan base on My-space at that time and we felt that we wanted to come up with a name that both sounded and looked similar to Avalanche. Olof came up with the name Amaranthe and I know it has various meanings but one of them is 'Never Fading'.

• How has it all started and how have you come up with an idea of inviting Elize - a vocalist with such angelic voice - to sing in a metal band?

Well. I actually don’t think that a band of our size should have to explain the story of the band after being around for almost 7 years. But Me and Olof invited several different friends to participate in our project and Elize and Andy were two of them. We then decided to trow the idea of releasing the songs as a Gothenburg metal project away and instead we formed a real band around it. The rest is history.

• Is there a leader in your band or would you say that the weight of popularity and decision - making is evenly spread across all six members?

The band is formed and owned by Me and Olof. We try to weight every major decision and include everyone in the decision making as much as possible. But every ship has to have it’s captain.

• When is your new album going to be released and what can we expect from it?

The new album is gonna be released world wide in the middle of October.

You will be blown away !! The new album Is MASSIVE I can’t explain but I can assure you that all our fans is gonna love it ! And I am so locking forward to hear the fans reactions!

• You currently play concerts every week. In September you also start a tour across US together with Within Temptation. How has the cooperation started?

Yes. We tour a lot! and we love it. We try to listen to our fans wishes and therefor we have to be out on the road all the time. And that’s the life we’ve chosen. Within Temptation asked us if we wanted to come along and we said - of course !

But to be honest I believe the real reason was that they were amazed by my acting skills in their 'The whole wold is watching' video [Smile].

• You can observe many sci-fi elements in your recent videos. Does that reflect your interests? Your music would make a perfect soundtrack for Resident Evil or a computer game Crysis [Smile].

Well the first two albums follows a conceptual theme in the lyrics. The Nexus is about someone waking up in the future.I totally agree that our music would fit both Games and Hollywood pictures. Or even better. Us being actors in Hollywood movies! [Smile].

• Have you ever played a concert in Poland? For you Poland is...?

Yes! Two times. Warsaw and Krakow! Both times the audience was fantastic and I can reveal that we will come back next year! Poland for me is our friends in Sabbaton’s battle ground. They always tell us the most fantastic stories from Poland.

• At the beginning of the year you played a concert in Russia. What impression did you get? Weren't you scared? Is there a different atmosphere at concerts in Russia as opposed to concerts in the West?

It was actually our second visit to Russia and for us traveling the world everyday. It is like coming to any European country except that everyone smokes everywhere and the infrastructural situation is not what you’re used to. As a musician it’s not very often you have the possibility to see what’s under the surface in the countries you're visiting. And especially in countries that you know have poor standards etc. These are not the parts of the country the representatives are gonna guide you around in.

• Travelling all over the world you certainly have many interesting adventures. Is there any specific event that is quite memorable to you?

Yes. Sometimes you have to stop what you are doing and realize that you’re living in a dream. One on the most memorable events in our career so far was when we entered the stage on Loudpark in Japan right after we released the first album. 15 000 people in front of us and everyone sang along in every song! I had goosebumps all over during the whole concert !! Most of us had regular jobs back home at that time and it was a weird feeling that hundreds of people wanted to take pictures and have our autographs after the show.

• Never - ending concerts, recordings, trips... Isn't your private life suffering because of it?

It is a very special way of living indeed! I just became a father and our daughter is turning seven months this week. It’s like someone strikes a knife through my heart every time I close the door and leave for a gig our tour :-( The hero in this story is of course my wife that take the whole family on her shoulders while I am away and I owe her my life for letting me follow my dreams. It’s a very special way of living indeed but you only live once and I will continue doing this as long as it’s fun and brings food to the table. If my daughter would tell me in a couple of years that I am away to often then I guess I would turn the page and do something else. But the whole idea why we’re fighting so hard for this is that we hopefully can bring our families with us on tour in the near future.

• Food or a gadget that you wouldn't survive without on a tour - what is that?

For me personally I could never survive without my computer. I am usually working with everything else around the band more or less 30 minutes before we hit the stage. So my computer and Internet is a total necessity to make a day on tour work.

• Where is each one of you going to spend your next holidays? Do you plan any? [Smile]

Holiday????? you can always dream of having a vacation. But it doesn’t happen very often. I love Greece Italy and the states. Olof loves Italy, Elize would go to the states, Morten has a girlfriend in Italy, Johan loves Finland, and Henke would probably go to Greece or Tailand

• Out of all the concerts that you have played so far, which one remains most memorable to you and why?

Must say that I am really looking forward to the US tours both with Within temptation and our own headline tour. and It’s gonna be amazing to return to Japan again! Our Japanese fans are above and beyond anything you could ever imagine. It’s har do explain but they literally comes with their heart in a bad and wants you to sign it for them

• Your vocalist, Elize, is engaged in many different independent projects. Does that not collide with Amaranthe plans?

You just answered you're own question. Elize is doing the projects besides Amaranthe. I can only answerer why I am not doing it, but that was not you're question. My guest parts on Hammerfalls album is a thing that comes back in a positive way for the band.

• How do you cope with popularity in your life? Do you find it motivating or overwhelming?

Well the paparazzi’s is a pain in the ass (laughs) our faces are not that recognizable in Sweden yet so we don’t really have a problem with it. Once a week it happens that you get stoped on the train or while you’re at the pub but that is just fun. I love to hear when people tell me that they met during one of our shows and now they will marry each other or have married each other and they will or did play Amaranthine on the wedding. That is something that hits you emotional center right away. And things like that makes you wanna go home and write more songs. And to answere you're question I would say its incredibly motivating to hear stories like that or just meeting fans in general.

• What are the chances of Amaranthe becoming more popular across the world than Nightwish or Evanescence?

Well that is something only future can tell. I mean you can have the greatest invention laying in your wardrobe but with out a proper marketing plan and someone that believes in your product it might never hit the market. Same thing with music, I mean even if we have the best album that has ever been recorded in our hands, without a proper record label in our back it could happen that no one would ever take notice of it. But I must say that I think that the world is filled with opportunities and I really believe that MASSIVE ADDICTIVE album will take us a lot closer to the band mention in you're question,

• Thank you for finding the time for Carter Interrogates. It's been a great honour to make this interview. Good luck and see you soon!

Thank you very much! I really hope to see you soon again! And please take a look on youtube as the first single Drop dead cynical will be out any day now!

Text: Ralph Carter Pictures: Amaranthe.se

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