Interview with Ola Malmström, Sorcery

- Hello, Ola! You just released your new album, "Garden of Bones" - my congratulations! How do you feel about it, is it still exciting for you? 
- Hello and thank you very much. I am as excited about this release as I was the first time I made an album. I think everything within the band is so good now and to release this new album with this line-up is pure joy.

- Tell us about the new record. How could you compare the new album to your previous one, "Arrival at Six"? What would be the main difference? 
- I think the sound is the main difference. This new one has a little bit older feeling over itself, both in songs and sound. You can definitely hear that it is a Sorcery album even though the new members input have brought a bigger depth into it.

- How did the recording sessions go? Did you have any problems? When did you start working in the studio and how long did it take you to lay down all the material? 
- It worked out really well. We brought Jonsson up to us instead of using his studio in Stockholm and it took us about a week to record it all and start mixing. The additional mix and mastering maybe took another week. The last album we recorded all parts except the drums by ourselves and it took all too long. So this was our best option and it worked. Two weeks from the beginning to the final result and off to the pressing plant.

- This time you decided to work with Jonsson Westholm. What can you say about this cooperation? Why didn't you want to continue working with Tomas Skogsberg? 
- It is not that we didn’t want to work with Skogsberg. I would work with him any day and his name was of course very present in the planning of the album. As I mentioned earlier, the recording of Arrival at six took ages when we did it mainly by our own and to not get ourselves in the same situation again we were looking for someone to just record the album and maybe take it somewhere else to mix. Jonssons name came up pretty early. Emil, our drummer, plays with him in the band Serpent Omega. After speaking to him back and forth we decided to let him mix and master the album too. Jonsson is a great guy and he fitted right in with the bands mentality. We are very pleased with the result and the work he did for us.

- Since the previous album, your line-up has changed. Why did it happen? Could you please present the current members? And why did you decide to recruit another guitar, Johan Wikholm? 
- We are a band that has gone through lots of line-up changes throughout the years. This time is no exception. Jacob Wiberg replaced Mikael Carlsson to do the US tour following up Arrival at six in 2013. John Falk who had been with us for some years had some personal issues he had to work with and we came to a point where we had to part with him. We were in the past a five piece band and since we took the band up again in 2009 we have spoken about another guitarist but never found the right man for the job. We tried another guy out for a while but it didn’t work out and we decided to ask Johan, whom played with both Jacob and Emil in other bands to try it out last summer. He fitted in perfect with the band and has been a big asset since then. So, to sum it up, me, Ola Malmström on vocals and Paul Johansson on guitar have been in the band forever. Jacob Wiberg on bass joined us in 2013, Emil Berglin on drums in 2014 and Johan Wikholm on guitar in 2015. I have said it so many times over the years and I say it again. This line-up is the strongest in the bands history. It is pure joy to create and play music with them.

- What can you say about the lyrics? What are the main topics described in your songs? Is there any specific source of inspiration for you?
- I have some topics that always come back to me when I write the lyrics. First of all there is the whole pointlessness with religions. All religions and not any specific one. If there is something that have been the plague of man throughout history and in present time it is religion. Anyone can in my opinion believe in whatever they want but don’t force it on others. I have my way of life and thinking and you have yours. If you want to waste your whole life living after some strange rules just to have a better life after death. It is up to you but how paradox is that? You know nothing about what happens when you die. It is the oppression from all the true believers that create most of the evil in the world. Why do some people have to kill anyone who doesn’t believe in the same fairytale as you do? Extremly stupid. Some of the lyrics also have the basic death metal wibe to it with blood, guts and killings. You must have that portion of horror as well.

- Alright, let's get back in time and talk about the band's early days. The band was formed in 1986, how did it happen? What was the original line-up and how did you meet each other?
- Paul and I had this band together with some other guys at the time called Acid Queen. We rehearsed in this house with a lot of other bands and one day we were asked to form a brand new band by a guy called Patrik Johansson and we did. Shortly after his cousin Fredrik Nygren joined the band and Sorcery was born.  

- In 1987 you released your first demo, "The Arrival". Where did you record it? How many copies did you have? The cover was printed in different colors, who came up with that idea?
- We rented a place in our hometown and borrowed the equipment to record the first demo. We did all the recording ourselves but had a little help to mix it. We did 100 copies of it and I don’t know whose idea it was with the different colors of the cover. We xeroxed them at our rehearsal place and I guess there was just a bunch of different colored papers there and we had it a go.

- Where you involved into tape trading? Did you send out this record too? Do you remember the first bands you exchanged the tapes with? What was the usual way for you to distribute your material?
- Yes, everyone was and it was not just bands changing tapes. It was also the guys who had their zines, those who arranged the gigs and most of all everyone else that just loved the music and wanted to support the scene. I can’t remember any particular band that we traded with in the beginning. Some people made lists of what they got and you could trade some of your demos for another bands demo that he had made and Xeroxed the cover. I have seen lots of variations of our first demos that we definitely not have released. You can never say how many demos there are out there as when you made 100 copies and traded, those who got the demos made copies of their own and traded them over and over again.

​- How could you describe your local underground community at that time? How often did you have any metal gigs? Do you remember any first great concerts that you attended? 
- The metal scene in Sandviken, where we were based at the time, was not the best and real metal gigs were rare. You had to arrange them by your selves. We made a gig with Filthy Christians and Tribulation (the first Tribulation from Surahammar) at the place where we rehearsed already back in 1988. There was also this small festival in the summer of 1990 where Entombed and Merciless played. 

- By the way, when was the first Sorcery concert? Do you remember any details about it? 
- It was this kind of outdoor thing we had at the house where we rehearsed. All the bands took their stuff out on the lawn and played a set each. We should make this gig with the original line-up but as it happened our drummer decided that we all should take a summer break without telling us and didn’t show up. We hi-jacked another drummer we knew and forced him to learn three songs on the same day and we went out in the sun and played them. It was totally chaotic. We played two of our own songs, Holocaust and Evil Crown. We also played a cover of Exodus Piranah on that sunny day, May 23, 1987. Exactly on the date 29 years ago when I write this.

- In 1991 you released your legendary debut full-length, "Bloodchilling Tales". It was released by Underground Records, how did you get the deal with them? Did you receive any other offers too?
- I think that guy from underground had sold some copies of the EP, Rivers of the dead which we made in 1990, and he offered us a deal. We signed it right away and before we had the album released we had got a couple of much better offers but then it was too late. Underground released the album, nothing happened and the rest is history.

- Tell us about the recordings of that album. Was it actually your first time working at SunLight Studios with Tomas Skogsberg? What do you remember about this experience? 
- Yes it was the first time we met Tomas. We had recorded both the third demo and the EP in another studio in Gävle but the one who made the recordings had never heard anything deathlike before. We had to bring other albums just to prove to him that there were others who played this kind of music. It was totally different with Tomas. He knew exactly what we wanted to do, and had suggestions to improvement. We had a great time doing it and were so happy with the result.      

- In 1997 the band split-up. Why did it happen? And why didn't you release any other record during that period of time?
- I think we all were quite fed up with it all. We had changed members in the band so many times those last years and in the end it was only me, Paul and Peter Hedman who was the core in the band and every time we need to make a gig we had different persons who would jump in and help us. Paul started another band with a friend and that took most of his interests. That band later became In Aeternum and he did some albums and some tours with them. I did nothing for some years until I was approached by Paul to join a new band with the old Sorcery bass player Mikael Jansson and In Aeternum drummer Jocke Olofsson. The band was called Outremer and we made an EP and a demo together before Paul quit and Henrik Lindenmo joined for another album.

- And in 2009 you came back. Tell us how did it happen? Who was the main initiator? And what can you say about this decision now?
- Three of the Outremer members, Me, Jocke and Henrik decided to make some old school Death Metal songs and at our first rehearsal we started to play some of the old Sorcery songs and it felt really good. We talked about bring Sorcery back alive again but I had one condition and that was to get Paul back into the band. Paul had quit playing music since he left Outremer a couple of years earlier but after a while the idea to join grew in him and we had it a go. I can definitely say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. So many good things have come out of it and the band is now better than ever. I enjoy every minute of anything that has to do with working with the band and these guys.

- Ok, before ending this interview, do you have any plans to support the new release? Will you tour across Europe? 
- We actually just came home from a very short minitour of northern Europe. We played in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Rostock and Stockholm together with Slaughter Messiah and Deathronation. Later this year we play a festival in Finland and have some gigs booked in Sweden as well. Make sure to catch us if you live nearby some of the places we play.

- Thank you very much for this interview. Would you like to say a few words to our readers? 
- Thank you also for interviewing me and to all of you out there I just want to say: Check out the new album, you will like it…..