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Interviews

This is a short interview with Thomas Johnson, who answered these few questions a couple of days before the band's departure to NEARfest.
(June 2003)



The first question is an easy one. How did you experience the recent concerts? How was the response to the new material from your point of view?
Although we didn't play our very best and had some minor technical problems we had an unbelievable response from the audience. I think we got standing ovations after every song we played including both the gig in Stockholm and in Würzburg. The general response to the new songs have been positive. In one of the largest swedish newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet, the new material was described by "It is dynamical, organic, complex, and - for anyone who likes music with a very high density of information - just irresistible." (Warning! This response is giving me H.)

Did you get any negative feedback concerning the changes in some of the old songs you played? (I loved the reworked material!)
We have often been criticized for playing our songs exactly like on the albums. Still I have not heard any comments on the changes we've made to the old material.

Before the reunion of Änglagård, you didn't play any music for several years. So you had to get back in shape again. Now I wonder, at which point did you actually start writing music again?
Very early we decided that a rebirth of Änglagård should involve new music; "progress" (Well, maybe not...). As we started playing together again we immediately started looking at new material that have resulted in two new songs.

Thomas JohnsonHave you made any demo recordings of the new material so far?
Only sketches.

Which of the three cover artworks is your favorite one?
My favorite is probably the artwork of Epilog. I love the pictures and the poems by Rut Hillarp. They are so introvert, moody, and beautiful! It's not really fare to compare it to the Hybris artwork, which probably was the best cover we could have had for our debut album.

You went to school together with Jonas and Mattias. What was it like, when you had music classes?
We had the best possible music teacher. He is kind of a folk musician playing electric guitar with a huge collection of '60s and '70s rock/pop/prog/psyk/folk music. We were about five, six students that regularly went to the music room to play some guitar, have a cup of coffee, listen to odd music. I don't remember his music lessons very well though.

Have you ever thought of changing your band name into something more international, I mean, without an ä or an å?
In english I guess our name is Anglagard. The name Änglagård is our "full name", which has more of a meaning to us. I don't consider this a problem.