Interview with Uffe Cederlund, Entombed

- Hello, Uffe! So, recently you played already a legendary show at the Close-Up cruise. That was your first appearance with Entombed since your departure in 2005. How did you feel being back on stage and playing good old tunes?
- It was pretty fun, especially hanging out with Nicke and Alex again, also real good to get to know Edvin(bass) and Robert (vocals). The show felt pretty good, I think it was harder than I expected to perform the songs but it turned out good. The songs from Clandestine has grown on me the last three years, I used to think the album was weird but today I think it’s the album I like most. Playing it is interesting. It was a bit nervous too off course but the five of us had a really good vibe and we were all down for it.
 
- So many great bands played during those 2 days. Were you able to see some of the them? Who did you enjoy the most? Are there any bands that you personally would have added to that show?
- I don’t listen to any bands that were on the boat, never did exept Merciless back in the 80’s. I saw a few bands off course but it was hard to get into it, there was always someone wanting to talk with me. I think two bands were missing and they are off course Dismember and Treblinka/Tiamat.
 
- Present us the current line-up. How did you manage to bring back the original members, Alex Hellid and Nicke Andersson? Who was actually the initiator of the re-union?
- The three of us have been talking about doing something together again. It was NOT the boat it was the show we did two weeks later that actually made it happen, the boat came up later. I guess Alex has been the most driven person, he’s often the dude that make things happen. I’ve just heard of Morbus Chron that Robert and Edvin used to play in. Alex picked them up I think. Edvin is Nickes halfbrother which made things more obvious for us. Alex liked the Roberts voice and he put vocals on the new recording we did of Supposed To Rot, I think he has a great voice, just like it’s supposed to sound. Edvin was real easy to play with. Real cool to play with them. They were not even born when Clandestine came out, they have great energy that I got into.

- In your opinion, how did Robert deal with the vocals? Did he nail it? How often did you rehearse all together? Did you have any difficulties to remember how to play some of the songs?
- I don’t think anyone could have done it better. He is perfect, I actually think it’s scarry how good I think he is. We rehearsed 5 times before the show, Robert sang the songs once during rehearsal before the show on the boat, he was present at the rehearsal, he knew every word and so on. We had to break down some parts of the songs, figure it out but it was mostly about getting it together, play the songs over and over again. Edvin and Robert thought we played too slow the first day, haha!
 
- On the 12th of November, you played another  show, you played the "Clandestine" album in its entirety, together with the orchestra. Tell us a bit about the whole idea behind it. How did you come up with it?
- We played one show with the orchestra and one band show. We don’t really play much on the orchestra set, it’s good as it is, it was mostly because it’s fun to play with them, hehe. Our old time friend Orvar from Nirvana 2002 sang a few songs during that show, the band show was the “boat” line up. It’s a dude called Thomas Von Wachenfeldt who did the orchestration, the only guideline he got from us was that we were influenced by Christopher Youngs soundtrack from Hellraiser when the Clandestine album was being written, we thought it would be cool if he (Thomas) could be influenced by us and make it sound a bit like Christophers compositions, Thomas put more in there off course. He did a great work, the only problem with it is that Thomas wanted us to play along with what he wrote. My opinion is that it’s super cool music as it is without us, haha.
 
- There also will be a CD/DVD version of it, and right now you are running a campaign to collect the money to release it. How is it going so far? Do you believe you'll manage to succeed with it?
- I have no news about this project yet. Like all true Entombed projects it’ll probably take some time. It’ll include the orchestra set and the band set. There were some minor and major mistakes, I don’t know if we’ll try to fix it or just let it be.
 
- Do you have any other plans so far? I'm sure many fans are wondering now will there be any other shows? Maybe even a European tour?
- We have no plans whatsoever. I’m not sure if we ever will do something again. It depends what turns up. I’m not sure if we’re a band or not. I mean: me, Nicke and Alex are somehow Entombed in my eyes, if we do something again I really hope that Edvin and Robert are interested again because it worked out so good. I can’t see us on the road again. We’ll see. Right now we have other things to take care of.

- And what about some new tracks from you? Can we expect any new material from you? Once you mentioned you re-recorded some old stuff, so how does it sound to you?
- We have talked about it but I’m not sure if it’s going to happen. Maybe someday if we have spare time and a lot of ideas for songs, I’m would not know where to pick it up from, you know. It would be interesting to do it one day. All of us are super busy with other stuff in life, bands, children, work and so on. I don’t think it’s that important to do another Entombed album, I would be happy to keep on playing the Clandestine album forever, if we do shows, hehe. Yes, we have recorded some old songs again, for what, I’m not sure, I guess it was a reason to get together and hang out, to see if we enjoyed hanging out, etcetera.
 
- Alright, tell us a bit about another project of yous, that you're working on right now. There is a new track online now, "Alone again". Is it all by you or do you work with some other musicians? What are your plans with it so far?
- I realized how hard it is to get together with friends, find the time to have bands. It’s work, families, dogs, laundry and so on. I always write music and I saw on my musicfiles that “the new song” was like three years old, I hate that. I want things to happen fast when I write. That’s why I decided to “go solo”. I play everything. I used to play the drums back in the 80’s, have not played drums since but I thought: Fuck It! I can do whatever I want to. I don’t care if it sounds lame, it’s honest. My friend Jocke (Wolfbrigade) has a studio and we like to hang out. It’s real fun. I have no rules. I do what I want to, any kind of music influences me and I want to be creative. I have recorded three songs so far (Ulf Cederlund, on bandcamp, I’ll put everything up on Spotify and so on sometime, I guess), I want my music to be free, some people pay anyway, Thanks!!! In a few days I’ll start working on a few new songs with Jocke. I can’t wait! I write all music in my head and I start building them in the studio, that makes it interesting for me, I never know what will happen. I also play with a band called Disfear, we had a break a few years but we’ll start doing shows again 2017.
 
- By the way, what do you think about Entombed AD? Did you listen to theirs latest album, "Dead Dawn"? Are you still in touch with L-G?
- I have no contact with LG and I neither listen to or care much for them.

- You know, you've been into the music business for so long, what can you say about the metal scene as it is today? Do you follow it? Do you check out the new and young bands? Do you listen to the newest albums from the Death Metal veterans too?
- I don’t think I’ve been a part of a Death Metal scene since the early 90’s to be honest. I didn’t like the way the scene were and did everything to stay out of it, there are bands I don’t want to be connected and in a scene with. I like the HC/Punk scene much more, people are more open about things I care about like: AntiFascism, Homophobia, Sexism, Anarchism, Feminism and so on. I think these things are missing and are important. I don’t know how it is where you live but over here more and more people are being open about being racists, Nazis and having an extreme rightwing attitude. I am afraid of violence and hate, I think it’s scary how things are going. I don’t want to be in a room with people with ideas like this. Some people talk about being “true”, we were never evil, we like life and having fun, laughing, making love, be kind, most people are cool though. More love! The only deathmetalband I follow are Autopsy, they rule!
 
- When you just started your musical career back in the day with Morbid, Nihilist, and then first steps with Entombed, have you ever expected that in 30 years this music will still be popular? Could you highlight some of the most important memories for you during this time?
- I never ever thought about doing things to be popular. When we recorded the Morbid demo the only goal for me was just to record and hopefully get a show and sell a few tapes, that attitude has always more or less followed me. I’ve tried to be more “professional” but it’s not me. The goal has always been real close, finish what you’re working on right now and start something new when that is finished. I was 16 years old when the Morbid demo was recorded. Things just moved on, you know. One thing lead to another and so on. I always tried to do the best I could. I think it’s real cool that people care and like some of the stuff I’ve been a part off, what I’m trying to say is that I would do it anyway even if people didn’t like it. I never did anything to please anyone. I was real lucky that the music industry was the way it was back then before the internet. These days it’s easy to reach out but there’s so much out there it’s even harder just to get someone to actually listen to what you’re up to. I don’t want to complain but I’m old school, I think it’s hard to keep up with how things works these days, maybe I just should not care, hehe. The highlight is when Left Hand Path come out. Putting out a real album felt so beautiful, holding it…haha.
 
- Thank you for this interview, Uffe! Would you like to add anything else in the end?
- Thanks a lot for the interest in this and me. Hopefully mother earth will be a super cool place for our children in the future! Stay positive! Make more love! Fight Fascism everywhere. Thanks again