Artist: Eyes Wide Open
Origin: Karlstad, Sweden
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Label: Independent
Link: https://www.facebook.com/Eyes.Wide.Open.SWE
Band members:
Vocals – Patrik M. Fahlin
Guitar – Kristofer Strandberg
Guitar – Erik Engstrand
Bass – Jesper Lindgren
Drums – Karl Adamsson
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Now, that the Swedish Metal Invasion Tour has ended, thank you very much for taking your time, answering our questions.
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
No worries – It’s a pleasure!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
To many of our readers you may already be known, but for all the others could you please give a short look on the history of the band Eyes Wide Open?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
You mean people actually heard of us? Are you sure? Haha, jokes aside: The band was formed back in 2011. Shortly after the band was formed, we entered the studio and recorded our 4-track EP Revelations which received rave reviews in Swedish media. This landed us a deal with a Swedish agency, and we started touring Sweden alot.
In December 2013, Aftermath was released. This album has taken us around Europe two – and some three – times, landed us a deal with a brilliant agency in Germany, given us ALOT of fans, and most lately it landed us a deal with WWE (American Wrestling), where we are an official partner.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
I attended your show at Oberhausen, which was one of the last dates of the tour. Nearly everybody had a very bad cold, but all bands did an amazing show. And a very big thank to you for not having cancelled the show but only cutting the setlist down. Where did you get all the energy in still doing the shows, although you obviously should have laid down and recover? And how did it happen that nearly everybody got ill? Someone told me that the accommodation in Poland was quite cold, but I also heard some other statements…
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
The short version: Adrenaline and a tremendous passion for our fans and our music.
The long answer: When you on tour a few months a year, you just have to keep on rolling, no matter how hard it is. We love what we do, and we love our fans, so it would be really stupid not to get up on that stage and do what we love the most – play our music and meet our fans. Sure, we could have cancelled and hoped for a better show tomorrow, but I know how much it hurts – as a fan – when a band you really love cancels their show, and I don’t want to do that to my fans. So, if we some day DO cancel a show, well, we will have the best of reasons, I can tell you that much!
The „getting ill“-part is pretty straight up; me and Kim (My Dear Addiction) had a cold when we left. This cold just got worse and worse, due to that fact that German and Polish people apparently frown upon heat. (HINT TO ALL PROMOTERS: For God’s sake, TURN THE HEAT ON!)
We played two shows where the quicksilver showed below 0 degrees celsius – INSIDE THE VENUE! So, the cold simply decided to introduce itself to all the other guys, and one by one started catching it, until pretty much all of us had it. Terrible thing, touring in January!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Apart from the illness of most of the guys and the broken down bus you had to deal with, how was the general mood? The members of the different bands obviously did also meet during the leisure time, so besides hard work it seems, that you also had a lot a fun during the tour 😉
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
Oh, hell yes! We knew some of the guys from Deceptic before the tour, and they’ve always been awesome guys, so we knew we’d hook up and have a blast. My Dear Addiction is a band that we’ve never shared stage with before, never met anywhere else, and, well, never really spoken to, except for a few quick messages on Facebook prior to the tour. But let me tell you, I only have good things to say about My Dear Addiction. What a bunch of total gentlemen! So, yeah, we shared alot of really good times with both bands who were with us on tour. Both bands have something special. Something that few bands have nowadays – the spirit of metal.
Now, that might sound like a song by Manowar, and thus, pretty darn cliché, but let me talk you through it: For me, metal has always been a place for the rejects. For the ones who didn’t really fit in anywhere else. For the outsiders, the wierdos, the nerds and the bullied. Metal has always been a place where people, who – in other eyes are – “weak”, can join forces and be part of something bigger than themselves, and grow. This has led to what I choose to call the “metal spirit”. Since most people who played AND listened to metal in the beginning were outcasts – they really took care of each other. They knew that – alone – they were weak, but together – they were stronger than any bully or oppressor of any other kind. This tied metal people together.
Since metal started going more and more mainstream, this got lost somehow, but I see it sometimes, and I saw a lot of it in both Deceptic and My Dear Addiction. So, what did they do? Well, to begin with, they hug. People who hug are often sincere, in my experience. They help carry stuff, they ask if anyone needs help and actually help out if they are needed. They care for you, they talk to you about feelings like being away from your family and they ALWAYS have your back if you feel like shit after a bad show. Both Deceptic and My Dear Addiction are these kinds of people, and this is what I call “the spirit of metal”.
We love these guys – and I really mean it!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
The tour went through different countries. Did you notice any differences between the fans, or are they all just metalheads, supporting their bands?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
Well, yeah. Metalheads are metalheads wherever you go. And that’s the beauty of it!
You will always have the “guy with unreadable death metal band -logo on his t-shirt, standing with his arms crossed, looking at you with a condescending frown”. You always have the “crazy-drunk guy in the front row, headbanging out of tempo, singing along to lyrics he doesn’t know”, the “guy who JUST FUCKING LOVES THIS BAND! OH MY GOD! I CAN’T STAND STILL! WHAT DO I DO!? DO I DANCE? HEADBANG!? AAAAAAAAAH!”, and let’s not forget “guy hanging out in the back, by the bar, drinking a beer, only joining in by raising the beer at the end of two songs during the entire show”.
…and we love them all, but then we have the hardcore fans. Oh my god, I love you guys! You take trips for hundreds of kilometers, just to see us. We’ve had fans driving for 10 hours straight, just to see us. Fans who sing along to every single word. Fans who have all our merch, but still buy another set. You guys are absolutely phenomenal!
The only real difference is language. In some countries, I really have to dumb down on my English on stage, while in some countries (Holland, for example) I can go all in.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Who invented the idea of regularly posting these „Metal Pitstop“ videos? Does it have the same crazy background like the history of the word „Auspuffkanal“, means was the idea born during a carousal of you guys?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
Hahaha, well, it just happened actually. Someone just said “Hey, let’s do something stupid!” and so we did. Then it just turned into a thing, ‚cause we thought it looked so damn funny, and people have really grown fond of it. I feel really bad for the lack of Metal Pitstops during our latest tour, though, but we had to conserve all our energy to be able to perform, because of the cold from hell.
Oh, by the way, some three weeks after the tour – I STILL have that damn cold!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Prior to the tour you released the new single Blindead in September 2015 and the new album is also in preparation. How do the works proceed, and did they interfere with the tour?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
This year has really been planned in advance, down to the smallest detail, to make sure that everything works out. All the preparations were done before we went on tour, and Karl actually stepped into the studio and started recording drumtracks just a few days after the tour ended.
At the moment, Jesper, Erik and Kristofer are working on the guitars and the bass, so I am up next! I can’t tell you much about the album, but I can tell you that it is the last part of our trilogy, and we are really starting to find ourselves musically. This album will be an album that I will look back at in 10 or even 20 years and think “This is where it all took off. Where we found our path.” I am so damn proud of what we’ve written, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Since your foundation in 2011 you released one EP and one album, but you already have created your very own style, which can be easily recognized. How do the band members contribute to this, respectively does every band member have his specific task? Further question is for your stage outfit, because this is not really a standard one. Who had the idea of mainly wearing suit and tie?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
Thank you!
Well, it all depends. Sometimes one of us comes to a rehearsal with a new riff, and we just start jamming, and it turns into a song. Sometimes Erik or Kristofer upload an idea for almost an entire song on our server. Sometimes we get together just to write, and sometimes songs are written then and there, in the studio. None of us really have any specific tasks in the songwriting – we are something of a hive mind.
When it comes to the outfit, I don’t remember who came up with the idea, but I think it was Erik who had the original idea with shirt/suit and tie. It was then expanded upon, and introduced in the video for New World Order, and we wanted to emphasize on the whole “end of the world” -theme of the album. We wanted to look like a bunch of guys who just crawled out from a destroyed office building, or something along those lines.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
On your Facebook page you already advertised two big announcements, which also reminds me of your earlier Facebook posting regarding your thoughts about a possible support of a tour of In Flames. Also during my talks with you in Oberhausen I got some hints, but no details. Can you already tell something more about these things?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
Sure! The In Flames thing, well, I don’t know if there even is a “thing”. Niclas Engelin (In Flames) simply stated that he’d like to see us on tour with them, and…well, we’d love to go! We are yet to receive an offer though, but we’re doing it in a blink of an eye!
The other thing that was “going on” at the time was a follow-up to our last tour. We are doing an even bigger tour in April, together with our friends in The Unguided. It feels awesome! This time we are going to Austria and Slovakia, as well as a lot of cities in Germany and Holland that we’ve never visited before, so we are really stoked about that!
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
So that’s it for now. Now I am waiting for your further announcements, and I am sure meeting you again sooner or later J Is there anything you would like to say to your fans and the readers of Time for Metal?
Eyes Wide Open / Patrik M. Fahlin:
To you, Time for Metal/Heike – Thank you for the interview, and thank you for always showing up at our shows!
To our fans – You are an inspiration. Thank you for always being there. And let me tell you, this will be the best year ever to be a fan of Eyes Wide Open!