The latest album from Swedish melodeath veterans In Flames is Siren Charms. I spoke with frontman Anders Friden about the new record, recording at the legendary Hansa Studio, their first ever tour with Opeth, the band’s ever changing sound and other topics.

Chad Bowar: Was the songwriting process for Siren Charms similar to Sounds Of A Playground Fading?
Anders Friden: It was, but at the same time it was more intense.


The recording last time was three months and this one was pretty much half of that. Prior to the recording, I went down to Bjorn's house a couple times and he showed me some ideas that he had, mainly a riff here and there or a bigger part of a song, but nothing really complete.

The first two weeks in Berlin we put the main framework together and created. We recorded 13 songs for the album. It was very, very intense. I had 4 weeks to create melodies and vocals and just come up with the whole damn thing.

You worked with producer Daniel Bergstrand again.
Yes. Me and him are extremely tight and close. He's like my lifeline to what I do. We understand each other really well and just thrive on each other's ideas. He knows exactly which button to push when I'm down or when I'm too high. He really sorts things out in my head as well and we make it happen, so to speak.

How come you went to Berlin for this one? Don’t you have your own studio in Gothenburg?
We sold that studio 1-1/2 years ago, so we were searching for another studio.

I work in A&R for a record company and we went to an A&R Conference in Berlin. We went to Hansa Studio to check out the place, because I wanted to come there for a long time. It's a legendary place. A lot of artists recorded amazing albums there, so I wanted to go there as a musical nerd.

Since in Berlin you don't have the distractions of home, does it make it more focused when you're doing it in a different city?
It was a necessity. I can't focus on all the things I have around me back home. I have kids and  that standard day job and friends and barbeques and whatever. I have to go away. I need to be by myself to focus and get the ideas back in my head. Berlin was a very, very good place for that. The city has such an amazing history. You can feel it when you walk the streets. It’s great for inspiration.

And you needed the inspiration because you didn’t have any lyrics when you got there, right?
I had nothing. It was blank paper before I went to Berlin. During the day I was writing stupid lyrics just to come up with melodies and get the phrases right and everything in sync. Then I rewrote all the lyrics through the night in the apartment we had in Berlin. It turned out great, but it was also a lot of pressure. I felt it towards the end.

How did you decide on Siren Charms as the album title?
I was watching a lot of documentaries about people in poor situations and especially a lot of drug-related issues. I was just curious to see what these dark themes do to us, how come we end up in these places where we shouldn't. But at the same time, what can we do? We handle them in a good way and learn from it and take that experience forward. I think we each go through certain things in life to grow as people. It can't just be like everything is just happy all the time, no problems whatsoever. I don't think that is good for development.

The Siren symbolized the dark, the tempting, the scary, mystical, whatever there is in life. It's a she, but it doesn't have to be. It can be a him. It depends on who is interpreting the lyrics. At any rate, Siren Charms sums up the theme of the album.

You guys have been with a lot of different labels over the years. What led you to Sony for this one?
I’ve known the people at Sony Germany for a couple of years. They came to the studio and listened and they liked what they heard and then when we were done, we sent them some more stuff. They said the right things. Hopefully it's a good move. It feels great at the moment, but if you and I talk in 5 years I can tell you if it was or if it wasn't. Right now it feels really good.

You recently announced you're going to be touring with Opeth for the first time ever. What took so long?
I’ve known Mikael (Akerfeldt) for a long time. I worked at the studio where they recorded My Arms,Your Hearse. I've known him since '98. The timing hasn't been there before. I knew they were releasing an album so I called him up and said, "Dude, we gotta do this." It's a great opportunity. It's cool for the audiences. I think it will be a good night for anyone who buys a ticket.

Besides being friends, there are similarities between Opeth and In Flames in that your sounds have changed over the years, drawing some criticism. You can empathize with each other with that.
We can cry on each other's shoulders with a bottle of whiskey. Everybody is so mean to us. (laughs) I like the way they approach their music. They have the same attitude. We don't sound the same, but they have the same attitude. I think music shouldn't stand still. I think music should move forward, and it's in a constant evolution. That's how you further the sound.

It's not for one person to state how music should sound. That would be a very boring world. Go with the flow and whatever happens, happens. You can like it or not like it, but you cannot tell people it should be this way or that way. I feel a sort of brotherhood, in a way.

When it comes to putting together a set list these days, it's got to be difficult when you have so much material. How do you approach building one of those for a tour?
It's always some of the classics or whatever people want to hear, the ones that we like to play and the ones we know that we have to play. But we also want to bring in a lot of new material that is new for us and challenging and things that people haven't heard, and also bring in some very old ones that surprise a few people. We have an extensive catalog. It's hard to do something for to please everyone 100 percent. We try hard.

I've read too that you like to play some of the older songs so you can do a little bit more screaming and get some of those emotions out on stage.
Yeah, definitely. There's not that much screaming on this new album, but on stage you have the audience in front of you, and they scream at you. I want to scream back to you. It's great energy.

(interview published September 8, 2014)