The Scream Queen
May, 2011
The Scream Queen Interviews Linde Lindstr?m of Daniel Lioneye and HIM
On Thursday, March 3rd, I got to watch Daniel Lioneye perform live for the first time when their current U.S. tour made a stop in New York City. I also got to sit down with guitarist and vocalist Linde to chat about their latest album, Vol. II, and their current tour.
Here are some of the highlights of the interview:
MC: How did you come up with the whole idea for Daniel Lioneye?
DL: It actually got started 10 years ago. In 2001 we released our first album. Then it was Ville from HIM and Mige playing base and I was just playing the guitar and singing.
MC: Yes, I noticed that your previous album came out like 10 years ago.
DL: Yeah. Exactly.
MC: What about this album? Are you happy with how its doing?
DL: I actually don't know. It's probably not very commercial but it's something that needed to be done.
MC: How did you end up getting together with The End Records?
DL: Well, the CD was kind of bouncing around in labels and someone from The End Records got their hands on it and loved it and did all they could to sign us.
MC: The sound from the first record is very different compared to this one.
DL: Yes, It is.
MC: Why the big difference in sound?
DL: Well, there's like 10 years in between and you know, there was a lot of personal shit going on in my life so it kind of turned me into more aggressive music.
MC: Yeah, I actually got to hear it and it's a pretty heavy one and very different.
DL: Yeah, it's very different. I listen to a lot of different types of music and I've always been a big metal fan.
MC: Are there any influences on the record?
DL: Yeah. There's always influences. There's a lot of metal bands. I also love Iggy Pop. It's not very metal but there's still influence from him.
MC: Well, who doesn't love Iggy Pop!?
DL: Yeah!
MC: The line-up for this album is different from the previous one. Why did you decide to change the line-up?
DL: Well, we couldn't do this kind of music as a trio and Ville doesn't do double base drums either.
MC: The singer from HIM right?
DL: Yeah. He's a great drummer but not for this type of stuff.
MC: Yes. I heard he did the drums for the previous record.
DL: Yes, he did.
DL: For this line-up, we were practicing for HIM in Helsinki and the drummer Seppo, he practices in the next room and I would hear him play and be like who the fuck is this dude? So I finally got the courage to ask him if he wanted to play with us and he said "Yeah, sure". The screamer dude is my fianc?'s friend's boyfriend and I saw their band play there like 3 times and I was blown away so I asked him to join.
MC: Have you guys done any music videos for this album?
DL: No, we don't have any music videos. We had a contest like 6 months ago for fans to make a video and that was about it.
MC: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
DL: "Neolithic Way" is my favorite song. We're actually trying to make a new version of it at the end of this tour because we're playing South By Southwest on the 17th of March and the tour ends the 13th so we have a few days off so we're trying to record a new song.
MC: I noticed that you guys have been doing a lot of shows in a row and haven't really had a lot of time off.
DL: Yeah, It's been a really rough tour. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Last night our trailer broke down. We didn't even get our own gear and we barely made the show. It was a fucking nightmare but it's been fun at the same time.
MC: How has the other aspects of the tour been doing? How has the audience been reacting?
DL: The shows have been going great and you know, that's the main thing.
MC: When you play with HIM you only play guitar, has it been very different for you now that you have to sing and be kind of the leader of the band?
DL: Yes, of course. it's been very different.
MC: So would you say you like doing this more? or would you rather just play the guitar?
DL: Well, there's a side of me that enjoys this and then there's the other side where I like to be in the background. We've been working with HIM for over 10 years and I haven't really been working on anything else so it's refreshing getting to do some different stuff.
MC: When I chose to do the interview with you I wanted to hear some of your HIM stuff too to balance the difference and I like it a lot too.
DL: Thank you.
MC: Maybe when HIM come around I get to interview all of you guys.
DL: Yeah, sure.
MC: When some of the people found out I was interviewing you they kept telling me to ask you about HIM then they asked me if I knew anything and I told them that I don't know anything. I'm just meeting with the guy tomorrow!
DL: Well. I don't know. We're on a break. We're gonna have a meeting after this tour and we'll see what happens.
MC: Good. Everyone's like "are they breaking up?!" and I told them I had no idea.
DL: No no, we're not breaking up. Just on a break.
MC: I'm guessing you need it or you guys would get sick of each other.
DL: Yeah, exactly. We're tired of smelling each other's farts.
MC: On this tour, have you been happy with the people's reactions?
DL: Yeah. There's a lot of people who get to see us play and don't even know who we are but at the end of the day they're just like "Yeah!!".
MC: That's great. There are a lot of HIM fans here too that are excited to see you guys play and do something different.
DL: Yeah, the audience has been really great and I've been really surprised. Everything's been going good.