Interviews : Deathstars (Andreas Bergh) – 03/08/2009

Sweden’s self-proclaimed “deathglam” supergroup, DEATHSTARS are most notable for their dark themed lyrics and distinctive corpse paint and stage attire. The DEATHSTARS will soon be bringing their distinctive sound to Australia, which could only be described as a combination of Rammstein meets Marilyn Manson.

Metal Obsession recently had the chance to speak with DEATHSTARS frontman, Andreas Bergh about the bands upcoming first Australian tour in September, and the bands most recent release, ‘Night Electric Night’.

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Metal Obsession: Hello Andreas, it’s Megan from Metal Obsession, how are you?

Andreas Bergh: Fine, I’m perfect. How are you, what have you been up to?

MO: Very good. I just got home…

AB: …from where? Have you been out partying?

MO: No, I got home from work. But I do my partying over the weekend.

AB: The weekend is when you choose it to be! All the time!

MO: I’ll definitely be partying when you’re here on your tour.

AB: Ah, perfect! Are you calling from Sydney?

MO: Melbourne.

AB: Melbourne? Cool. Really looking forward to going there.

MO: This is your first Australian tour, for the people who are not familiar with Deathstars or their music, can you give a brief background of the band?

AB: It’s very complex matter, this band, but it’s a band that started out from the extreme metal underground, but also I think it’s a combination between glam rock band with one foot in Hell and the other in the discos… something like that.

MO: In January this year, you released Night Electric Night. How the feedback been for that album so far?

AB: Really great. People are really starting to get what the band is all about and with Termination Bliss, we created something that we created  on Night Electric Night and the response has been superb. We have never been in Australia so it’s going to be very interesting to see… what we write about is about our lives here in Scandinavia and it’s very much inspired from Eastern Europe, like Russia and so on, so bringing that to Australia, which is a totally different culture, will be very interesting, to say the least.

MO: Will your setlist have a good cross-section of your three albums or will it mainly comprise of songs from Night Electric Night?

AB: It will be from all our albums, mainly from Termination Bliss and Night Electric Night and a couple of songs from the first one.

MO: What can Australian audiences expect from a Deathstars show?

AB: It’s a very straightforward rock show, that is very sweaty. What I think is that people tend to think that we are a different band live when they listen to our albums, maybe they think we’re a sombre act, very introverted, but it’s definitely a very outgoing, to watch live.

MO: The name “Deathstars”, I know that it’s a reference to the background of the band members, having played in bands such as Dissection, but have you ever been asked if it was a reference to Star Wars?

AB: Yes, of course. We didn’t think about that, we never really did care about it either afterwards, but it was an ironic name, but also even in the name, you have paradoxes which we have in deathglam, which is like the glitter and the glamour and the total darkness combined.

MO: Are any of the band members fans of Star Wars?

AB: I think everyone enjoys Star Wars, I don’t know if Cat [Eric “Cat Casino” Bckman, guitar] has even seen Star Wars though, because he is out in the wrong field pretty much, all the time. But yeah, I think we got a good question once, “Have you ever been mistaken for a small moon with this band?”!

MO: On the album Night Electric Night, the song Via The End, is that about a suicide?

AB: It’s not really about suicide, but the situation around it and a reflection. That’s the only song that doesn’t contain any kind of irony or cynicism as with our other songs. It’s a very personal song. I think that all songs that we have are about serious matters but we tend to have it with a twist. We tend to have a little mock around, personal dark stuff. But I think that song is very different. It’s not a song that we play live.

MO: What will the Deathstars be doing after the Australian tour?

AB: We go straight into another European tour, then after that, we do a Swedish tour. We will be touring right through our winter.

MO: Is there going to be another Deathstars album in the works in the near future?

AB: Yeah, definitely. We have started to write some material, and we’ll do that as soon as we can, when we feel comfortable with the new material. We’re eager to get another album out faster than it’s been in the past, because the time between albums has been too long. It had a lot to do with tragedies circling the band, and also for practical reasons. I was living in totally different countries then. But we feel very motivated now, and I’m sure we’ll make it happen, and faster.

MO: This wraps up the interview, any last comments?

AB: It would be nice if you can show us the best and the worst parts of Melbourne when we get there. I’m sure we’ll hang out there for as much as we can and as long as we can.

MO: Thank you for taking the time to to the interview.

AB: Thank you. Take care.

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Band: Deathstars
Date: 03/08/2009
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
www.myspace.com/deathstars

Interviewer: Megan Masters
Interviewee: Andreas Bergh (Vocals)

Make sure to check out the DEATHSTARS on their upcoming Australian tour this September.

Deathstars 2009 Australian Tour
24/09 – Manning Bar, Sydney
25/09 – Club 299, Brisbane
26/09 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
27/09 – Capitol, Perth

www.ticketek.com.au
www.redanttouring.com
www.oztix.com.au