GRAND MAGUS
Grand Magus are not one of the average, run-of-the-mill metal bands you might usually see today, in fact, they're something quite unique.
Having formed in 2000, the band that hails from Stockholm, Sweden consists of JB on Vocals, FOX on bass and SEB on drums. Since their self-titled debut album was released in 2001, Grand Magus have come a long way with their fifth studio album 'Hammer Of The North', released 21st June 2010 via roadrunner records.
Heavily influenced by music ranging from Black Sabbath to Swedish metal band, Bathory, the trio also heralds another strong influence of Norse Mythology, passed on through the generations and seemingly having a keen interest in ceremonial magicks which teach the practice of the ascension of the mind. It's with heartfelt interests such as these that make Grand Magus one of the more interesting bands metal has to date. Staying true to what they are and what they believe in, the Swedish metallers stand strong like Odin, King of the Norse Gods, himself. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but with the kind of power this band put into their music, maybe that's not always such a bad thing.
With more than 10 years under their belts and having released 5 full studio albums, vocalist and lyricist JB, boasts his passion for what he firmly believes in; he doesn't shy away from his heavy connection to nature, shown proudly in his music, with key references in his lyrics to stories, truths and passions close to his heart.
Having spent the summer playing festivals, Grand Magus will travel around Europe on an extensive tour in the Autumn. Tom Smith caught up with JB to crawl a little deeper into his intellectual mind and pick his brains on the whats, whys and hows of Grand Magus.
PrimalNoise: Tell us a little about your band.
JB: Well, we're a swedish band from Stockholm, and we've been around since '99... and in 2000 we signed a record deal with Rise Above records, here in London. We did four albums with Rise Above Records and the last one was called 'Iron Will' which was our biggest album up until that point and was a minor breakthrough album for us as it made a lot of people aware of what we were doing. That was also our last album for Rise Above, so we were like free agents from then. We went into negotiations with many labels, actually, but when roadrunner entered into the discussion we felt like, yeah this is the chance we have to take, so here we are.
PrimalNoise: And how do you feel the band has developed from the early beginnings to now, how have you evolved?
JB: We just really follow our instincts, and our emotions. We've always been playing heavy and hard music with strong melodies and stuff, but we've also changed within that pretty broad spectrum, so we've gone from a slower kind of really, really heavy band to more of a pure heavy metal band. I would say at this point we are a combination of all of our influences and we have our own sound that is pretty instantly recognisable.
PrimalNoise: And who would you list as your influences?
JB: There's so many. To make it easy, I would put them into three categories: The first category would be the 70's bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow...etc, etc and then going into the early metal bands like Judas Priest and Saxon, except those kind of early 80's metal bands, and thirdly going into the Swedish death metal scene. This is more of an emotional influence rather than a sound influence as you can't really hear death metal in our music but we have a strong connection wtih some of those bands. Bathory is one of those bands that we've been influenced by, especially the later Bathory stuff, so it's basically those three kind of different entities that go into what we're doing.
PrimalNoise: I understand there's a lot of Norsk mythology and references, where did all that come from and what is your reasons for focusing on that?
JB: Well, since I write the lyrics, it really is just something that's been part of me since I was a child. My dad would put me to sleep by telling me stories about the Norse Gods and all those tales, and then also the ideas and language that Scandinavian traditions use, like the way to express yourself, so it came with 'mother's milk' really, it's never been a question of looking it up, it's just always been a part of it. For me, it's a very fitting tool for me to express my ideas about what's going on in the world today and my ideas on life, and then my ideas on death, and what's, in my opinion, something that you should strive for, and what in, my opinion, you should avoid.
PrimalNoise: And could I ask about the bands name? For us in England, well for me from a gaming community Grand Magus is connected with the Japanese game Chrono Trigger...
JB: We should sue them for that! We started as a band long before that game came out. I've seen this on the internet when you google online for a band name, and get all these gaming sites. Not something i'm very pleased with. A Grand Magus is actually something that is originated in ceremonial magic with the Ordo Templi Orientis order with Aleister Crowley. They had various stages of enlightenment within the magical order and the highest one is the Ipsissimus, and the Grand Magus is one of those steps. That was where we found the name initially, so essentially, the Grand Magus is the Grand Master of a magical order that has reached a certain level of self development mentally. So don't get any ideas on any connections with computer games, because that's where it came from! (laughs)
PrimalNoise: So, Aleister Crowley and all the magic side of things, that's not really Norse as far as I'm aware.
JB: No, absolutely not, but what Crowley and those guys did was; they collected knowledge from Simerian history, Egyptian history and even Norse history. Also ideas about mind travelling, about strengthening your own will and the power to make things happens, are very closely connected to Scandinavian tradition, Like, the kind of idea that you are connected with nature around you that's more important than the connection with other people. So that's kinda how it melds together.
PrimalNoise: What songs are you most proud of that you've created to date, and which one's most personal to you.
JB: Of all our songs? Oh thats a tough question. It's like, number one; you can never listen to your own music the way you listen to other people's music, so it's always gonna be a bit weird. I don't sit at home listening to my own albums, but I would have to pick some of the more important songs from our career, and one of those is a song called "Kingslayer" that's on 'Wolf's Return', our third album, which was really our first really fast song with double-kick drums and things like that. It just became a very big song for us, a song that many people got into and it's also got a favourite lyric of mine dealing with a subject that I feel very strongly about. So "Kingslayer" and I would have to also mention "Like the Oar Strikes the Water" which was the first song off the fourth album 'Iron Will' and "I, The Jury" with is the leading track off "Hammer Of The North". That's probably my three favourites. All the three starting songs as it happens.
PrimalNoise: You seem to have a lot of points that are strong to your heart, like history and mythology, if there was something you could get people to research that you feel strongly about, what would you recommend them to look into?
JB: That's really much of the point to ANY of the songs. If this interview sounds intriguing, you should read the lyrics of our songs. There should definitely be keys to things you could look into. But on a more political level or a more personal level, I think you owe it to yourself, especially if you're part of Western civilisation with the all the luxury that we have, you owe it to youself to ask questions about things that are going on, rather than just be you know, drooling over the new flat screen TV or whatever. I would say the first step you need to take is to get out of town, spend a couple of days in nature without your mobile phone, without any internet connection and just shut the fuck up and listen to what's going on, and it will change you, if you haven't done that.
PrimalNoise: Can I ask about the new album, is there a theme to the album, and musically how is it different to the others, what can people expect to hear on it?
JB: The theme is really the same theme that we've been using as soon as we started so it's not like a concept album in that sense, but of course, it was written very recently, which means that everything has been done basically in the same time frame. This means that it fits together because this is how things are at the moment. Therefore it's a theme in that sense, but musically it's just a continuation of what we've been doing that last couple of albums, but we've worked even harder this time than ever before and I feel we really concentrated on making the songs as powerful and hard hitting as we could possibly make them, meaning that we shaved away all unnecessary stuff. I also think it's got a sound that's really organic and really dynamic, as opposed to this extremely compressed, very small sounding stuff that you mostly hear today.
PrimalNoise: The band's been going for about 11 years, you said 1999, so where do you see yourself in 11 years from now?
JB: 11 years form now? Uh, probably my ashes are scattered in Baltic. *laughs*. That's the way to do it. It's my home sea, so to speak. It's the part of huge coast line which has been home to me all my life and it's just something I feel very strongly about. I'm just saying this because I'm a person who lives day to day, which means that I never predict the future and so I might be dead, I might still be around, but either way it's fine.
PrimalNoise: You've got a few festival dates lined up, and your Europe tour, which do you perfer doing?
JB: I really, really enjoy festivals, partly because you get a chance to usually play in front of a lot of people. A large crowd is always exciting. I also like playing outdoors. It gives it a special feeling, and plus if you're lucky, you get a chance to be a festival visitor as well! I really enjoy going to festivals, so it's personal. So yeah, usually festivals feel a bit more free somehow, but if you have a good tour, doing good gigs as long as you feel like there's a connection where you play and who you're playing to then that's great as well, because there are things you get by playing in more intimate surroundings that you can never get by playing a huge festival. But if i have to choose... i will say that i really enjoy festivals.
PrimalNoise: And last question this is one we ask everyone we interview, It's our trademark question; if you were sent to prison, who would you want as your cell mate?
JB: Wow, what a great question, uhhhh... Can I pick a woman?
PrimalNoise: Yes you can!
JB: Then I would pick my woman! She's been my woman for the last decade, so it'd be her.
For More Information, visit: http://www.myspace.com/grandmagusrocks || http://www.grandmagus.com
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/artist/Grand+Magus
