Dozer Interview

With their new album "Through The Eyes Of Heathens" hot off the press and fresh from a European tour, Tommi Holappa of Sweden's own Dozer catches up Metal Chaos.

How are things with you guys?
Hey, everything is pretty good here in super cold and snowy Sweden. After the 5 week European tour we did in November/December we haven't done much...We have taken a well earned break. During that break our drummer decided to leave the band due to personal reasons...tired of touring I guess...well, shit happens...the show must go on. So at the moment we have started to look around for now drummers. You are the first one to hear about this...
The band has just returned from a European tour alongside the likes of 3 Inches of Blood, how was the tour?
We only did one show with 3 inches of Blood, at the Camden Underworld in London. That show was a blast! We played 2nd out 4 bands... Usually when you play that early there's no one there or like in this case when you support a metal band like 3 inches of Blood there is a chance that people just want you the get the fuck of stage. But this night was good! I think was sold out and people seemed to enjoy it! Too bad we only got to do a 30 minute set but that's life when your a support act. But the rest of the tour was us headlining. We did Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland and the U.K. The best tour so far! We have been touring alot for 5 years now and it's finally starting to pay off. Bigger crowds ,especially in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium...150-400 people per night which is really good for a band like us. The U.K is still a bit slow though...The London show was really good as I said before, Newcastle was cool but in Sheffield we only had like 7 paying. But I guess we just have to keep coming back and shove our music down peoples throats. At the moment we are working on getting some summer festivals but we have to find a new drummer first so my guess is that there will not be any touring before summer.
The bands new album “Through The Eyes Of Heathens” was released at the tail end of the 2005. How satisfied with the end results were you? What has been reaction to the record thus far by the fans?
We are very satisfied with the result! I like the sound more on this one than on our last record (call it conspiracy) the production was a bit too slick for my taste. Through the Eyes of Heathens is more the way we sound live, we worked really hard on trying to get the energy that we have live onto tape...the guitars and the drums sound more the way we want to than on the last record. The reaction so far from our fans has been amazing! They seem to love it! So what can I say...we love it and our fans love it...everybody's happy.
The album was recorded at the Seawolf Studios, which as I understand is situated in an old Russian Army Fortress. How and why did you come to choose such a location to record the album?
We know one of the sound engineers that work there, he recorded the latest album with our Finnish friends Sunride, we liked that album alot and thought should record our album there too...He gave us a good deal so there was really no question about it. I wish there was a cool story about why we chose such a location to record our album but there isn't.
How did this experience differ from the recording experiences of your previous records?
Not much at all...it was the usual "live in the studio" recording for us. We always do that to try to get the energy onto tape...so no click tracks here:-)The only difference was that we lived in the studio this time around so we worked pretty much day and night...except for on midsummer when we had almost a whole day off...yes, we got really drunk that day:-)
The band also choose to self-produce the record. How difficult an experience was it to lead a double life as musicians and then remain objective as the producer?
We produced our first two records ourselves also which was a piece of cake compared to this one. Let me tell you this, it's really hard to get everyone really satisfied...It's all about compromises! Everybody has their own idea about how their instrument should sound and that's cool but it's not always it works as a whole:-)But when we got it to work I have to tell you that we are all really satisfied how the record turned out. It's alot of work to be both a musician and producer but it's was worth it!...Thank god Mikko (the sound engineer) was there to help us out...I don't know what we would have done without him:-)
I’m intrigued about the meaning behind the album title; what’s the significance of behind “Through The Eyes Of Heathens”?
Daniel our drummer came up with that name...Don't really know if there's a deeper meaning behind that name...We just thought that it fit the vibe of the album really well.
Mastodon’s Troy Sanders makes a guest appearance on the “Until Man Exits No More”. How did this collaboration come about?
We became good friends with the guys in Mastodon when we toured with them last year...One of the funniest tours we have ever done, these guys know how to party!:-)A bunch of really great guys! Anyway, when we got home from that tour it was time for us to decided where to record our next album and as you know we ended up recording it in Helsinki Finland...a couple of weeks after we booked the studio we heard the great news that Mastodon were going to support Iron Maiden on their European tour and they were going to play 2 dates in Helsinki while we were there recording! So we didn't hesitate a second to e-mail Troy and ask him if he would be interested in doing guest vocals on one track...A couple of days later he e-mailed us back and said that he would be honoured to do it!
	So how did the band approach the writing of the album? Who and from where do the ideas come from; is this a collective or individual exercise?
	Most of the time I come up with bits and pieces at home and bring them to the rehearsal room were we all just jam the ideas until we have a finished song...That's the way we do it. I tried before to write whole songs at home but it wasn't a big hit...It would never sound the way I heard the ideas in my head so it was no use in doing that. So we all pretty much write all the music together...When we have the music done Fredrik does his vocal melodies and last he writes the lyrics.
	“Through The Eyes Of Heathens” is the first release through Small Stone Records. How did the deal about? What were the reasons behind leaving Molten Universe?
	Molten Universe is our management also and Martin who runs the label thought that it would be a good idea to check around for some other labels to release our next album so he could just concentrate on managing the band....So we record a whole bunch of demos and sent to a lot of labels, got really good response from most of them. But no one really dared to release it...some were too afraid to loose money cause no one listens to stoner rock anymore:-)And some bigger labels said that they would sign us if we would write a couple of more hit songs on the vein of queens of the stone age...FUCK them!!! hahaha!! We don't wanna sound like Queens of the Stone age, don't get me wrong here QOTSA is a great band but we are DOZER! Take it or leave it!Then we heard from Scott (Small Stone) that he liked our stuff and wanted to release
our next album...so it wasn't really a hard decision to go with Small Stone...They liked us for who we were. And I had worked with small stone before, they released "Secret Alphabets" with Greenleaf which is my side project, so I know that they were the real deal.
Is there any news on your side project Greenleaf?
Well we haven't done anything in like 2 years! It's been way too long! Been really busy with DOZER so there hasn't really been anytime. But lately I have been writing some new riffs that could end up on a Greenleaf album...so you never know...I have been planning to get together and jam on some Greenleaf stuff really soon. Don't know yet who's in the band all I know it will not be exactly the same line up as last time.
The bands origins were firmly rooted in the Stoner Rock scene. Do you pay any attention to the current crop of Stoner bands? What influences the band now and how would you now describe the bands ‘sound’?
I don't really follow the stoner rock scene...of course there are a whole bunch of great stoner bands out there but with every good band there like a thousand bands that suck;-)So you really keep track of all of them. Our influences nowadays are many...we listen to everything...everything from Neurosis to Johnny Cash to Hellacopters to the Who to Sigur Ros and everything in between. It's really hard from me to describe what we sound like but I guess the roots are in stoner and 70`s rock but I think we have developed a lot since the early days so...Hmmm...I'd call it HEAVYROCK!
Sweden remains a hot bed for all forms of metal from Doom to Death. What do are your thoughts as to how and why Sweden continues to produce quality bands?
Yeah there's a lot of really cool bands coming from Sweden...I been asked this question many times before and I still don't have an answer...I really don't know why there are so many good bands coming from a small country like Sweden (only 8-9million people live here). But I think that it's that it is pretty easy to find a rehearsal place and there is nothing else to do during the dark Swedish winter.
So what is next up for the band; what will 2006 hold for Dozer?
Finding a new drummer is first on the list and then hopefully we'll get some summer festival gigs...so a new drummer and more touring!
Thanks for taking the time, are there any last words to the Dozer fans out there?
Stay cool!