EMBERSTORM
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 8th February 2010.
EmberStorm was formed in 2006 by Peter Strömberg, and is completed by Peter Selin on vocals. Guests on latest album Memories Of Time include Anders Janfalk, Eric Levie, Johnny Berglund and more.
We caught up with Peter Strömberg to talk about the album and more.
Photo credit Henrik Pilerud
Hi Peter, and thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Peter: Hi, and thanks for the questions. I feel very well as there are lots of positive things occurring at the moment. 2010 is going to be "the year"!
How did you originally get into music? What was your first instrument?
Peter: I remember very clearly when it all started. It was the summer back in 2000 at the age of 15. I got introduced by an old friend of mine who had lots of different instruments like guitars, drums and basses in his house. This was because of his dad who, at the time, happened to be a collector of vintage instruments and cool old stuff. I found the guitar very fascinating and started to practice some tunes from Metallica, I remember clearly the tab book with 'Hero of the Day' and 'Nothing else Matters' in it.
Before I left my friend for the summer (summer residence up in the northern part of Sweden), I remember got my first cheap guitar, from money I had recently won in a fishing competition. My musical journey begin at that point.
Who were your early inspirations?
Peter: The first source of rock I ever got in contact with was actually Maiden, and I can remember the specific moment when I first heard the live Helsinki clip with 'Fear of the Dark'. You could say I was blown away with goose bumps, and my addiction to rock music grew stronger after listening to Hammerfall's 'Heading the Call'.
More or less the only thing I practiced at first were Maiden riffs, I didn't even had an amplifier at the time. After approximately one year of basic practice with these Maiden riffs, I was introduced by a friend from school to the great musicians Yngwie Malmsteen and Michael Romeo - who both have very good guitar instruction videos.
I started to practice heavily for many hours every day on these tabs in order to improve my technical skills and learn the scales. At the same time when exploring the rock scene, I started small by downloading one or two songs every day. This was at a time when the internet really wasn't that fast or developed. Also my older brother, who had been a collector of vinyl for many years, introduced me to bands like Europe, Gary Moore and Giant, music which friends of my age never got the chance to hook up with like I did.
How long before you started writing songs?
Peter: I started writing some of my own ideas after about two or three years of practice. This was about 8 years ago. At the time I used a basic Behringer amplifier with a Metal Zone pedal, and a very simple microphone to record some ideas into Cubase VST 5.0. The soundcard and computer was very basic and also had tons of latency. My own writing started to develop not very long after this, and I joined the first band named Immortalized. We played some quite complicated progressive tunes back then and later released our first demo containing five tracks. The first song (Never Ending) that I wrote completely on my own was written during the summer of 2006, at the time when I started the EmberStorm-project.
You play a number of instruments. Which one is your true favourite?
Peter: My favourite is naturally the guitar, and it will always be my instrument of choice. On the other hand I am very much into the dynamics of keyboard and drums.
What other bands have you played in?
Peter: Apart from Immortalized which I already mentioned, I have also played in another band who's sound is mainly influenced by Children of Bodom. It's called Abrania.
How did the various members get involved with Emberstorm? Did you know everyone beforehand?
Peter: I started off myself at first, trying to get my ideas into complete songs in Cubase. I wrote a couple of songs and then contacted my old drummer and friend from the Immortalized-project, Kim Söderberg. Kim helped the band to write lyrics for the first two songs 'Never Ending' and 'Elegy for Lady Servile', and he also helped out with a more professional view on drum programming. He influenced the song 'Tides of no Belief' strongly with his love for progressive metal. This cooperation all started in the early 2007, just a couple of months after I had started up my band and vision.
Not much later after having Kim signed up on the EmberStorm ship, I started to search for that special something to fulfil our music on the vocal parts. I went through lots and lots of hits on Google and finally found a guy in Finland who was interested. I didn't even know how he sounded at the time of the first E-mail contact, but when he showed me his Myspace and own-written songs, I was completely sold. Since I already really loved the sound from the 80's rock scene, and this was Peter's specialty, I was starting to get a really good feeling about where our final sound would end up.
In June the same year, Peter Selin finally came over on a first audition, and we recorded the vocals on 'Never Ending', a totally stunning example of what a great musician and vocalist he is, and still with a kind and human down to earth approach to new people. It was at this point that we really set our sails and started to write more songs for the album, our dream didn't seem that far away anymore.
Unfortunately, Kim decided to drop out not many months later, but in parallel with a loss, I came in contact with another great musician with the name Anders Janfalk. Anders have played bass on most of the songs and is currently a full time member of the famous band All Ends. Also later the same year and the year after, I managed to get in contact with some other musicians: Mio Jäger (vocals on Tides of no Belief), Eric Levie (vocals on Tides of no Belief), Johnny Berglund (vocal screams on Cursed for Eternity), Daniel Leonardsson (keyboard solos on Day of Destiny & Out of Reach), and finally Mikael Baggström (Some piano on Horizon's Call).
I didn't know anyone except Kim Söderberg & Eric Levie when I first started the band. The rest were all found through forums and other music places like Myspace.
Where did the band’s name come from?
Peter: The band name was invented from a web designer, musician and old friend named Jerry Engström. He put up the brilliant idea of combining Ember, which is a word for glowing charcoal or synonym to passion, with Storm. Merged together into EmberStorm, we think the band name signals what we want to stand for. A sound full of energy and passion.
Did you already know what sound you wanted the band to have before you started, or has it developed over time?
Peter: I had an idea that I wanted to go back more to the roots of rock and metal, towards a very guitar and drum oriented sound with melodies in the vein of Gary Moore and other old classical bands. But even though I wanted the old classical sound I also wanted to mix newer influences into it; this mainly from bands like Nightwish, Kamelot and Evergrey.
The main thing with EmberStorm has always been to find a sound of our own, instead of trying to do what everybody else already does so well. I never wanted to tune down the guitar, and neither to disregard classical guitar chorus sounds and keyboards, we chose our own path.
Photo credit Henrik Pilerud
How long did the album, Memories Of Time, take to create from start to finish?
Peter: I started working with it in the late summer of 2006, and the record was finally released in May 2009. I find it hard to really count how many hours I have spent on the album; they probably exceed 4000. Since I have been doing all the writing of the songs, including 6 of 8 lyrics, recording, mixing and mastering, along with full time work and relationship, I see why it really took me so long to reach the goal. Before I actually found the right guitar sound, I probably re-recorded all of the guitars at least two times for each song, sometimes even three.
It should also be taken into account that Peter Selin lives in Finland, and that we have had many limitations in working on our ideas, including communication. Pretty much all of the musicians that have been part of EmberStorm live far away from Västerås where I currently live. It has made things harder, but at the same time it has also developed skills in handling this type of structure.
Any weird/strange stories from the writing and recording, or did it all go smoothly?
Peter: I remember clearly about having huge problems every time Peter Selin visited my small apartment. The thing is that he has a tendency to snore like a Yeti, so sleeping has more or less been impossible, not for him fortunately, but for me. I remember one night when it was extra loud, and I needed extra sound protection in order to sleep! :D
Other than this, things went pretty smooth - slow, step by step - but smooth.
I believe this is the first album you produced yourself? What production tools did you use, and was it hard work learning how to do everything?
Peter: Yes that is true, it was the first album I ever recorded, but in my old band Immortalized I also used to record some songs with our limited amount of studio equipment. For this album I used my Ibanez Prestige guitar with BOSS-GT8 multi effect as distortion pedal. The recording went to a simple audio card named M-audio 2496, into Cubase 2.0 where I have used Sonik Synth II for many keyboard parts, and Drumkit from Hell for the drum parts. The microphone for vocals was a simple ADK-51 running through a DBX 1066-compressor and a Mackie 1202-VLZ mixer.
It was a huge process of learning for me and I started to read magazines to get tips about sound engineering and mixing. You would never imagine how the first mixes even sounded, as they were really bad with way too much reverb and distortion on the guitar. I guess this part has been the most demanding for me as a producer, and definitely about 95% of the time has been spent on just trying different EQ and compression-settings, Delay and reverb etc. Just writing a song is a matter of about 5-10 hours, tuning the mix is a completely different story. I guess most producers around the globe would agree. :)
I assume you are proud of the result?
Peter: Based on where I started, I really am, as I think that I couldn't really have made things better at the time. With so many thousands of hours spent, you really have to let your songs go and leave things as they are. I can now look back and be very proud of something that almost seemed impossible at the start, Especially like getting the bass guitar in place in the mix. I had to use a lot of compression on it.
Of course there are things that could have been done better, for example for the vocal recordings, to which we never used any acoustic dampening material behind the microphone. This made it harder to equalize the vocal parts in the mix. Therefore I will be extremely picky over having the correct template and sound from the beginning when I finally have started to write songs for the next album.
What are your favourite moments on this album?
Peter: I believe that the song Emberstone is really something I feel strongly attached with, especially in the middle part with the clean guitars and sound effects. It was a special moment to write the lyrics for it, that kind of Indiana Jones adventure feeling. I really like that style.
How would you describe the sound and style of Memories Of Time?
Peter: In short, I would describe it as a modern metal album, with touches of classical rock and classical music, an album written with a lot of heart and emotions that we hope can inspire people through their lives. The whole motto of the album is that we should take our time to stop and look back at our past, therefore it is also highly diversified into both classical rock songs, progressive songs, and acoustics. Memories of Time refers to many different places, stories and emotions.
Did you use any special instruments or techniques to achieve your sound?
Peter: It would never have been possible without my BOSS GT-8 pedal. I really like the sound of BOSS's guitar pedals, and I do not even see a reason anymore for buying extraordinary expensive amps. Also I really like my Furch Czech hand built guitar, which gives a really good touch to the acoustic song on the album.
Is the album selling well, and are you getting much airplay?
Peter: When releasing the album, we printed an edition of only 300 CD's. About 80 of them have been sent out for promotion, and another 170 have been sold to friends all over the world. We do not have many left, and at present, there are no plans on releasing more CD's of this album.
We not very long ago got in contact with our good friend and promoter Nicky Baldrian at TSM promotions. A major part of the CD's were sent only two weeks ago, so right now we are really hoping to get good feedback. So far, I believe Rock Live Radio in Germany is the only channel that have played our music. In parallel with this promotion, we are working hard to get our music up on the famous Spotify, and in regards of people who use iTunes, it is already available.
Memories Of Time has been finished for nearly a year, although promotion is continuing strongly. Are you already working on the next album?
Peter: That is correct. Completely new studio equipment has been acquired, Computer, Cubase 4.5, MOTU sound card, new guitar pedal, etc... So far I have spent weeks on our new sound, which will take us towards a more fresh sound picture with more "in your face" guitar riffs and drums. We have also made a route for the musical inspiration, and our plan for the next album is to take more influences from classical AOR-bands like Journey and Lukather, as well as Gary Moore & Talisman. The sound will still be in the vein of metal, but with keyboards from the old days, and with a more vocal oriented structure. In short, we want to go one step back when it comes to melodies and songs, and at least two steps forward when it comes to a fresher and genuine sound quality.
Fans of our old style should not be disappointed, but at the same time, they must be prepared for some change.
Are you planning to play any live gigs? Any chance we’ll see you in the UK?
Peter: A dream of both myself and Peter Selin is that we are going to be able to play live in the future. At the moment though, we will focus completely on our own to write the next album before considering forming a band. A vision would be to release the next album under some record label, and at the same time find musicians who want to go on smaller tours, musicians (drums & bass) who are professional and have the right hard working and serious personality. UK would definitely be a place for us to go in case our plans turn out as we wish.
What’s the best band you’ve ever seen live?
Peter: The live scene for me has always been something extra, and I have been seeing lots and lots of my favourite bands during separate concerts in Stockholm & Västerås, as well as during my five visits to the large Metal festival Wacken, and two to Sweden Rock Festival. The best band I have ever seen is probably Europe, live in Stockholm December 2009. Other than that, Kamelot live in Sweden Rock festival 2007 was extremely good as well. I guess I will never stop going to live gigs, it is still the best way to touch music.
What was the last album you bought?
Peter: The last album was Steve Lukather - Ever Changing Times, at a gig of his here in town. Such a great show and album as well.
Do you have any cool hobbies?
Peter: I like to take photos and explore new places, watching a wide range of movies, and retro gaming with old NES and Playstation one. Other than that I have many hobbies far from cool, like geeking around with programming in Microsoft Excel. :P
Any question you love being asked that I’ve missed? If so, what’s the answer?
Peter: What is the best movie trilogy ever? Of course Star Wars IV-VI.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Peter: I guess I'm gonna stroll around my E-mail, Facebook and MSN-list, then try to chill down for the day.
Anything else you would like to mention?
Peter: Stay tuned, and hope to see ya around!
Best Regards Peter Strömberg
Thanks again to Peter for his time. You can check out the Rock Realms review of Emberstorm's latest album Memories Of Time here.
Photo credit Henrik Pilerud
http://www.myspace.com/officialemberstorm
