If you are looking for complete objective reporting, in this case, you better look elsewhere. For me, music in general and metal in particular is not only an art form that is the vital lifeline in my existence, it is also very much about friendship and connection. While I have obviously tried to bring some journalistic value to it, this interview with Swedish drummer Perra Karlsson, who recently released his first solo record, is also definitely an expression of friendship that has been around for about two decades now. That theme is at the very heart of this piece, in which Perra also echoes those values in particular…
Hi Perra! One of the very first interviews I ever did was with you for Nominon around the release of the ‘Recremation’-album almost 20 years ago – can you believe that? 20 years, that means we are getting old. But it also means that both of us are still here enjoying the same things, that must count for something, right? Anyway, Perra, welcome to The Whispering Darkness, let’s go!
Hi there Felix, yeah man, we have certainly been around the Metal block now together the last two decades. Feels great to be honest, and I look forward to answer this interview from you, old friend.
Let me start on a personal note Perra. The last ten years have not always been easy for you and it makes me happy to see you fully active again both on the musical front and also completely burning up your monthly salary on new music. The Metal Gods are smiling upon you again! How do you look back on those past years?
The only real time off I had from either work and/or music was between a bit in 2019 and 2020, due to the fact that I went through my second kidney transplant. So I was on dialysis treatment for the most of 2019 and as said, a bit of 2020. During that period I still recorded a full album with TOXAEMIA, as well as did some studio work both for KVAEN and DEVIL’S FORCE. So even though I was not in a good shape, I still bashed the drums for whatever energy and will I had left in my body at that point.
Between 2012 and up to 2017 I was very busy with DESTROYER 666, and at times also with bands like NOMINON, DIE HARD, BENEDICTION and so forth. After that I also went to join DREADFUL FATE and recorded two EP’s and one album with them, and I am sure I have forgotten something, so I am not that sure that I have been “away” from the scene that much, sure I haven’t toured much after 2018, but that’s mainly because I chose not to.
Perhaps not so common for a drummer, but you really do have a proper solo record out now. The reactions, as far as I’ve been able to see, have been pretty positive. How do you look back on this whole creative process from the first seed from which the idea of Perracide emerged?
I am amazed by how much positive critiscm the album have gotten this far. It feels really good, but then again, I am very pleased with the result. I have worked only with people that I wanted to work with, so to speak. From start to finnish. Everyone who is involved in this project really wanted to be part of it, and make all this great and extreme Metal together with me, and for that I am forever grateful.
The project somehow started out of total frustration from my side, since my main bands at the time (spring 2022) had zero to nothing going on, since the other guys had other stuff that they wanted to do more than play/make music.
I had five drum tracks written, arranged and recorded by me a while ago, that an English guitar player were meant to write some riffs for, as a bit of an experiment you know. But that also took forever, so oI got tired of waiting, so after like 18 months or so I simply said, I will use these drum tracks for something else, and that’s it. That was the starting point for this project PERRACIDE. I contacted the string mates in NOMINON, and they we’re all keen on participating. I sent out the drum tracks I had recorded to Juha, Simon and Kraen (all of NOMINON), and finally I was already in touch also with Gord Olson (DARKENED) about having him onboard to take care of the mixing and mastering, which he gladly accepted, and he also wanted to write some riffs for one of the songs. The thing is that all four of ’em wrote and sent back some demos within 48 hours, and I was totally blown away on what they had done, so already there I knew that I was on my way to make this work FOR REAL.
As it is common for a drummer, you have not been idle in your career and have worked solidly on a more than impressive resume. For instance, you have lent your drums to bands like Deströyer 666 and Benediction, among others, as well as started or joined quite a few other bands. What have you taken from these experiences into your own record?
To keep it short, I have done this my way, I wanted things to be fun to do along the way. Not complicate things that doesn’t have to be complicated. The simple way to do so is to work with labels, people and musicians that appreciate to work with me, create a piece of underground history together I guess one could say.
I have seen the up’s and down’s in all the previous bands that I have been part of, and many of the issues and problems usually had to with some of the guys didn’t stood up and speak out, which led them to leaving the bands shortly after. It’s just been quite a few awkward moments to tell you the truth, especially when you hear them talk shit about certain people, sometimes including myself, that they think were assholes in the band, later on, like a couple of months after they had left. That’s just weak, and it makes no sense or whatsoever…
I have also quit some bands in the past, but if things doesn’t work the way you want, or if you doesn’t feel like to continue, just say so. The truth is so much better than a stupid lie, and believe me, people will keep their respect for you as an individual forever.
Following on from the previous question, what does Perra’s further creative process look like when he has a completely free hand musically? How do you compare that to working in a band with a (more or less) democratic policy?
For the “Underdog” album I just used the five drum tracks I had already arranged and recorded, and let the other maniacs put their riffing styles to the drum arrangements. I absolutely had free hands when I wrote the drum parts, yet I wanted them to be reminiscent of the old school styled extreme Metal. Compared to working and writing music at a rehearsal room together with other people/musicians, well that’s of course something completely different. Over the decades I have been part of bands writing songs at the reheasal place usually it has been working quite smoothly, it all depends on the individuals involved, because at the end of the days we are all humans, and humans differ a lot from each other. In case I would have thought any of the songs I got back from Juha, Kraen, Simon or Gord would have sucked, I’d have said so and just let any other riff master try to write better and more suitable stuff over the drum parts. But since that never happened with the five songs I had, it’s all good, I didn’t had to walk that way. Haha!
Besides the five own compositions, you have chosen no less than nine cover songs. So we are presented with songs by Nasum, Nifelheim, Benediction, Interment and Deströyer 666. Except for Nifelheim, these are all bands you have clear ties with, was that also the reason why you chose those bands?
Fair enough, not many people know that I once were a member of Nifelheim in 2005. Due to my involvement in other bands at the time, I couldn’t be there when they needed me for a show or a few shows or whatever, which led them to picking up another drummer for these shows/recordings. So yeah, I just rehearsed for a couple of months with them, but I never recorded anything/never played live with Nifelheim. I also turned down the offer to become their drummer a few years later as well, so I guess it was just never meant to be. That’s also the main reason why I chose to do two of my faborite Nifelheim songs on the Perracide album, and include most of the members from that era when I was a member of the band, plus an older member (John Zwetsloot.) Same with the other songs pretty much, I wanted to include the most members from when I was part of the bands, you know.
With Nasum it was kinda hard, since Mieszko died in the tsunami in 2004. But I could get hold of original member Anders to play guitar and bass, plus live guitarist in the later years, when they did the reunion shows; Urban Skytt. When it came to the vocals Anders suggested me to contact original drummer and vocalist Rickard Alriksson, which I did, and he gladly accepted the task. So everything around the Nasum songs came together just brilliant if I may say so myself. Of course it could also be seen as a tribute to Mieszko, we all miss him tremendously.
The Benediction songs, same thing, I got the vocalist Dave Hunt to sing on them. Guitarists Peter Rewy and Daz Brookes to play guitar, but since they kicked out Frank Healy (bass), I figured it would be better to use someone else, and that someone else ended up being my good mate Tobias Christianson from Grave (ex Dismember). For the Detröyer 666 songs (“Raped” & “Satanic Speed Metal”) I was fortunate enough to get KK Warslut doing the rhythm guitars and sing lead on them, which pretty much was the do or die decision to ever record any D666 songs on this album in the first place. I also got Bez, who play guitar with Deströyer now featured, I have known him for pretty much ten years, so that wasn’t difficult really, he knows what he’s doing. Bass duties on the D666 songs are handled by Rob Reijnders (also of Lucifericon), who used to play live bass for Deströyer 666 like twenty years ago. He is also a close friend of mine, so to get him onboard for it was really cool.
For the Interment track it was a bit different, since that one doesn’t feature main man Johan Jansson. I believe that was Simon Wizéns idea if I remember correctly, whom also is a member of Interment (together with bassist Allann Lundholm). Simon really wanted to try to record the lead vocals himself (besides playing all the guitar parts), which he did, and since the vocals turned out as great as they did it was a no-brainer. And the thing is that we kept it as a secret to Johan as well, until the day of the album’s release more or less, and THAT was absolutely worth it, to see Johan’s face when he realized that we had recorded the song “Torn from the grave” as a bit of a tribuute to him as a brother and as a kick ass friend. Pure gold!
Didn’t you think nine covers was a bit much perhaps? Personally, I’m actually curious what more music of your own would sound like…
Me too, but I only had five own songs for the debut album, and I am extremely pleased that they all turned out as good as they did. For the amount of covers, to be honest, I didn’t even thought about it. I wanted to present around 45 minutes of kick ass Metal, no more no less, like one side of the old C-90 cassette tapes you know. Perfect length for a full length album, 45 minutes. Haha. And the two Nasum tracks, none of ’em are not even a minute long, that also had a bit of saying both when it comes to the length of the album, as well as the amount of covers. For the next album, I am pretty sure that there will be more like 4-5 originals and the same amount of re-recorded tracks of old bands I have been part of. Well, at least that’s the plan for the next album, I don’t really plan THAT far ahead.
On ‘Underdog’, you had a good number of guest musicians join you. Certainly not the least as well, among others Dave Hunt (Anaal Nathrakh, ex-Benediction), Shrapnel (Nocturnal Graves, ex-Deströyer 666), K.K. Warslut (Deströyer 666), Marc Grewe (ex-Morgoth), Jörgen Sandström (ex-Grave), Johan Zwetsloot (ex-Dissection), Urban Skytt (General Surgery, ex-Regurgitate), the list goes on and on… How exactly did that work? Just flip open your phone and call off your address list and see who would be in the mood and have time?
When it comes around to the seriousness of things, I wanted to work with people that could deliver what was needed for the songs, especially when talking about the original Perracide songs. For the covers (or re-recordings) I wanted to include people who had certain ties to the band, either as original members, or like myself who had been part of the bands for some time, or at least had play live with them. In a few cases I chose not to include all the members I could get hold of, either due to internal conflicts between certain guys, or just because I chose not to. There was just but a few that couldn’t participate on the debut album, but perhaps some of ’em will be on the next one, we’ll see?
Perhaps a difficult (or impossible) question, but: which guest contribution are you most satisfied with or feel an above-average pride in?
All of them. But to me it felt extra cool to get KK involved on the Destroyer songs, and also three long time members on the Benediction songs, same for the Nifelheim songs. After all, myself, Hellbutcher and John Zwetsloot had a Metal band going for a short while 15 years ago, so to able to finally be able to do something properly together is just glorious. For my own songs, it’s a tie between Marc Grewe and Jörgen Sandström, I have known them both forever and to be having them on “Underdog” feels like nothing but success to me.
On a more general level: I’ve always found you to have had a pretty distinctive sound of your own, something that is certainly not always obvious for drummers. Your thrashy swing always does make your signature fairly recognisable and clearly rooted in the crossover between Death Metal and Thrash Metal of the late 80’s. How would you personally describe your style of drumming?
First of all, thanks a lof old friend. I’d sum it up pretty close to how you just described it. In later years I hear more and more freaks out there telling me that I do have a very personal style of drumming, and that’s cool as Hell. Yet it has been taking me quite a few years to form the style, and trying to keep the swing as well as develop my drumming isn’t exactly the easiest of things to do. I hope to be able to bring in more personality in it in the future, so yeah, the will is there, I just hope the knowledge on how to evolve the drumming will be there in time as well. Because that’s what drumming is all about; timing.
No surprise to you, of course, but Nominon has always been and remains an important band for me. The band is deeply engrained into my DNA. Of course, the obvious question for me is: where has Nominon gone!? Apart from a sporadic split EP, I find it frighteningly quiet around the band over the past 10+ years…
That’s of course extremely cool to hear that you appreciate Nominon as much as you do. Makes me glad, even though I am not an original member of the band. When I joined the band in 2001, it felt like we had a lot of positive things going on pretty much straight away, the first thing we did was to sign with Relapse Records when I joined them. And now I hear you say, hang on; “You never released anything on Relapse!?” And that’s true, we never did, because the guy who got us signed quit working there, and all of a sudden they just dropped us without saying a single word to us about it. That’s the brutality of the scene at times really, thanks but no thanks. Then I got seriously ill in chronic kidney failure, so everything turned from good to bad in less than six months really. It was a massive way to go from there to tell you the truth. But we managed, even though some members left the sinking ship along the way, we always sailed on and did so, releasing albums and toured both in Europe and USA a few times until 2014, then things got more and more complicated it felt like within the band, and it also felt like I was the only guy who had to keep everything together, and got so fucking tired of it. I tried to talk some sense to the other guys, but the interest was at a low point, which led me to moving from Jönköping up a bit North (500 km away), I just had to have that change.
Fair enough I was very busy with Destroyer 666 at that point, so I knew what I was gonna do for a long time. We put Nominon to rest FOR REAL for a few years, and then in 2018 or when it was, Juha called me and said that he had find the urge and interest to start writing and making music again, so we met a few times, also with Henke (vocals) and Simon (guitar), plus that we brought in Kraen Meier, who I had been working with in Thorium from Denmark. I think we wrote more or less music for two albums, and we did release a EP compilation in 2020 entitled “Yesterdeath”, as a fresh new start of the band, more or less as a warm up to a new album. Yet then again, nothing happened… I was AGAIN like “WTF is this?” All we had to do was to complete the songs, go into the studio and record a new album, but heck no, the guys had other things to do. All this frustration of mine brutally led me into doing this Perracide thing, a project where I could pick and chose who I would like to work with, and make things happen on my term. I mean, I fucking love Nominon, but as they say; Sometimes not even love is enough! True that, I say.
And while we’re on the subject, do you have any news from the camps of In Aeternum, Darkened, AngelBlast…?
In Aeternum hasn’t done anything since we did a few shows and released a four song MCD/MLP in 2016. I am frequently in touch with David though, since live pretty close to eachother, so we hang out a bit every now and then, plus that we both ride Harleys. David hasn’t played much music/guitar at all in the last couple of 5-6 years, so I’m not sure what will happen there? For Angelblast, the EP I did with them turned out absolutely amazing. Killer, KILLER, songs I must say. But since both Gord and Hempa are involved in Darkened, as well as myself, I think we’re all putting our time and effort into making that new album happen at this point. So there you go.
I cited it briefly, you’re already spending your retirement money well on new records. Were there any absolute favourites among your latest purchases (old or new)?
Just today I spent 3122 SEK (275 EURO) on buying 17 old 12″ vinyls from a very old friend who is selling his collection. Some of the vinyls I have owned myself back in the days, but they got lost somewhere at some point, you know. Especially the two Holy Terror albums, they’re now back with me, That’s about time! Some other cool and rare stuff from other old favorite bands like: Bedlam, Proud, Easy Action, Torch, Stillborn, Trash, among others. At the moment I think the amount of CD’s and vinyls that I need to listen to, that are new in my collection, must be something like 70-80 pieces. It’s just mental, I know, but I do buy a lof of stuff ALL the time..
I’d like to thank you for your time, Perra. Usually I like to close by asking when we can expect something new again, but with you, fortunately, it is never long. So I’d like to give you the honour of closing this interview yourself…
A thunderous THANK YOU to you Felix, old mate. Fantastic to catch up a bit again, t least in writing. I hope you guys enjoyed this interview, and if you feel like it, contact me at perracide@gmail.com, look up Perracide on Facebook, or go straight to Youtube, Spotify or the likes and listen to some tunes of terror. Have a kick ass summer, cheers from the North. Hail the hordes of Metal forever!
