Interview with Henrik Ohlsson before the US tour

 

Henrik Ohlsson plays for the swedish metal band Scar Symmetry. At the moment Scar Symmetry is on tour in the United States. We talked to Henrik just two days before he left for this US tour.

 

Henrik your US tour with Scar Symmetry is coming up. Can you describe the way from your hometown in Sweden to the US?

The trip itself is usually not so funny, actually I am a little bit anxious about that at the moment. I have to get up really early on Monday morning and I have to check that everything is ready and packed. Furthermore just getting the papers ready for a US trip is hard work and you have to bring some papers with you when you go through the customs. So I have to check that everything is alright and in my car and after that I have to drive to Gävle and get on a train there. And being a drummer I am carrying my cymbal case, stickbag, pedal case, trigger case in addition to my suitcase with me.

 

So you are carrying all these different bags with you?

Yep I am taking them all with me, that is the way it always is.
And for the American tour I have a big suitcase as we are going to be there for a whole month, so all in all it is more than you can handle.

 

Whats happening after arriving in Gävle?

In Gävle I am getting on my train and have to bring all the stuff with me on the train. The train brings me to Arlanda, which is the location of the airport. And remember all the time I have to carry my bags with me which can be exhausting by that time. Then we are leaving with the plane and that is when it finally gets a little bit better and you can relax.

 

How many hours have passed until that?

Uhm the train is leaving at 5.26 a.m. and takes like one and a half hours and the plane is leaving around 9 a.m. so until we are finally in the air it takes at least five hours or more, cause we are all getting up very very early this Monday morning as I said earlier. Then we are flying to a destination which is in the middle of the US which takes us another 12 hours.

Do you have to play a show on the day you are arriving?

No luckily not. When we arrive we have to get all the luggage together and wait for the tourbus, which is a nightliner. We are travelling together with Hypocrisy this time, but we toured with them already twice and know them very well.

 

So you have to fight for your favorite bed in the bus?

Well by now we know with whom we can fight and with whom we should not fight for getting a certain bed (laughs)

So your first show is the day after you arrived right?

Yeah that is right. When we arrive we travel most of the time until we get to the first show.

 

What sort of feeling do you have during that first show – can you remember that, cause it is not the first US tour you are doing?

Well the first show is general confusion. That is the first time that the crew works together, so you do not have any routine or anything. Your body does not know which time it is, so it is like your body is a little bit drugged. But for some reason my body seems to produce all kinds of adrenaline and I can always do more than I think I could. So the body keeps itself focused anyway.

 

What is your family saying about you leaving them for quite some time?
They are not so happy and do not like it a lot. It means I will be away and they do not want me to leave but that is obviously a good thing, cause it would be pretty bad if they want me to leave right? (laughs)

 

Henrik beside being a fantastic drummer you also have a regular job – how do you handle these both worlds?

Yeah that can be a problem sometimes. I always have to make sure I have long hours to use to make this kind of stuff.
But so far I have been pretty lucky as there have always been events where I could earn a lot of overtime. For example to give you an impression during the financial crisis the company gave us extra vacation because the production was slowing down and they wanted to save money, so we got free days to use here. So I am improvising like that all the time.

What is your motivation behind managing both worlds at the same time?

I just love music you know. I love doing the whole thing and being in a band, playing drums, talking about music, having many people ask questions and see how people get inspired by what we as a band or me as a drummer are doing. That is what makes we wanna go through stressful times.

Inspiring other people – have you seen youtube clips where people are playing certain instruments or certain songs from Scar Symmetry?

Yeah yeah I have seen a lot of those videos! I think it is fun, especially when they try to do vocals. Those are my favourite clips, because sometimes it is really bad and can get hilarious, but most of the time especially the young up and coming kids are just rocking it. So I guess it is an ego thing that you did something and people are listening to it and learn the stuff which definitely takes some time and I honor and appreciate that a lot!

What feeling is it to come back from a tour and have no stage in front of yourself each night?

That is always a weird feeling and it takes a couple of weeks to adjust to that. When you come back from a tour you have a real weird state of mind. You do not know why you are back at work for example and thus you do not see the point for working because for so long you have been living in that rock and roll feeling. So you have to accept that you have to do boring things again.

On the other site getting back to your family is fantastic and a great thing. You see everything with new eyes and everything looks like new to you. But getting the dishes out of the dishing machine can be an annoying thing! (laughs)

Have you ever been sick on a tour?

No luckily not really. My body is switching to an overdrive mode when I am touring but once I get back home I am like totally exhausted. I can not do anything for the first two to three days. So all in all I think my immune system is more than activated during a tour.
But I have seen other band members getting sick on tour. Pal for example was really sick for almost two weeks and in a really bad shape, so he was just sleeping all the time and this can be a really big issue while you are touring.

Speaking of learning songs, did you ever write some parts of Scar Symmetry down on paper for example for drums?

No I have not done that for Scar Symmetry. I have done it for some private projects. But never for Scar Symmetry. So no music is written down on paper, no drums, no guitar…

 

How have the reactions been speaking of the latest record “Dark Matter Dimensions”?

I think it has been really good. We have had a lot of skeptic before the record came out. But I think after those people heard some songs they really realized we could still produce good music. And our record label told us that the album was sold very well.

Last but not least Scar Symmetry released a video called “Ascension Chamber” a while ago – how was the recording like? We can see you guys standing like on a planet in the space?

Yep that is right. At least our last two albums Holographic Unisverse and Dark Matter Dimensions are set in a universe and space mood. So we wanted a space video for a long long time. Unfortunately all the directors in the past we worked with did not get that totally and did something else.

Ascension Chamber was recorded in a small cellar which you do not see in the video, because we used a green screen all around us and our director Ronny put us apart from each other with the computer. So it looks like we have a lot of distance between each other, which we originally did not.
The video itself was recorded in two days.

What are you using to hear the music during a video recording?

We blasted the song over a PA system so we could hear it quite well.

Are you playing the drums in the video with regular heads or are you using mesh heads so it is not so noisy?

I played the drums normally. But what I do is, I tune down the snare drum, so it does not get too loud.

Can it be difficult to keep the beat during a video recording?

Yep definitely, sometimes you do not hear the song properly so somebody has to make the PA system play louder or you have to record some takes again and again.

 

Not only did you release the video Ascension Chamber, you also released “The Iconoclaust” a few days ago. And this time Scar Symmetry went on ice?

Haha yes! We recorded that video on a frozen lake with minus 25 degrees temperature outside.

Isn’t that dangerous?

Well in the morning of the first day we got there and the ice was breaking and cracking when we marched out. So we decided to not record the video on the frozen lake but on a snowy landscape and put a drum riser and stage lights and everything there. But then we threw all that plans away and went back on the frozen lake as we realized that the ice has two or more layers, so we could do it.

How do you get sound out there?

Same thing as for the Ascension Chamber. We used a PA system and luckily had a long long cable to get the electricity out there.
But you are right, speaking of the temperature it was definitely a dangerous thing to stay out there with wearing only a few clothes.
It was the worst video ever in that sense. It was so cold.

 

For more information feel free to check out www.myspace.com/scarsymmetry!

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