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Last Updated on 02:57 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
Living legend Lief Edling, founding member of Candlemass and various other projects including Abstrakt Algebra and The Doomsday Kingdom, talks on his facebook page about his participation in the Avatarium project. Below you can read the first part that Edling talks about their debut album from Avatarium:
” I’ve done lots of interviews recently and also received many emails from friends and fans. Thank you so much for all the kind words about the TDK album + your great supportive words reg my recovery and rehabilitation. Many of you wonder about my participation in Avatarium. How the record(s) were made and recorded, and my input in it. Also my thoughts about the songs, old and new.
First of all, forgive me for my late response in this. I understand that many of you have questions, and I haven’t been very informative in the interviews either.
I will do my posts in three bits. Too much to write otherwise. My brain would blow up!
So here’s the first piece. The first AVATARIUM album!
It was supposed to be me, Michael Åkerfeldt and Nicke Andersson from the Hellacopters/Imperial State Electric doing a doom record together. The thought came up under a very wet birthday party that I had with a bunch of friends. We ended up at a very kitchy thai-boat parked in a channel on the southside. Because I was the birthday boy everybody got me colourful but lethal drinks, so of course we ended up forming a band me and Michael. Of course he was too busy with an album when I phoned him up saying I had some songs hahaha!
So I started to work on it together with Marcus Jidell instead. We got on great when he played with Candlemass on the 70 000 ton boat earlier. He’s also an ace guitarist. We demoed “Moonhorse” (at first I wanted to call the band that) and also the song “Avatarium”. We did discuss some male singers before Marcuse suggested we should try his then girlfriend (now wife) Jennie-Ann Smith. Coming from a more bluesy background it turned out she was the perfect choice to sing the heavier stuff also!
We taped my songs in Marcus’ studio that is located not too far away from my place. Me, Jennie and Marcus tried different angles with the vocals, and I must say that some of those takes are fxxxing amazing! A couple maybe even better than what ended up on the record (and the stuff on the album sounds great, don’t get me wrong here!). It is just something magical sometimes about early takes, when great things just happen without you even thinking about it. Nuff said, you get the point. Maybe someday you’ll get to hear those demos. 10 year anniversary box perhaps hehe…?
My mate Lars Sköld joined the band and put his drums on the demo takes. This was done in a pre-production studio in Sthlm. With decent recording abilities. Lars played like a king as always and came up with good things for the album (Lars ALWAYS delivers!).
And my very good friend Carl Westholm plays the keys here. Common procedure when it comes to my material. Don’t think he was in the band yet though. The first photo session was without him so I think he joined a bit after that.
When you have the drums you can start to work properly on the material (well, if you record the demos with click you can save a bass here or a guitar there). Think Marcus re-did his guitars and maybe we kept a bass or two? I was not in the best of shapes so I actually don’t remember much from the recording. But it sounds really good! That’s the main thing for me! I don’t care how/when/who did what as long as it works. I’m very pragmatic and I trust Marcus to 1000% He’s got a great ear for music the youngster!
My old friend Ronny Lahti did the mix. He mixed the Abstrakt Algebra album and he’s very good. Too bad I felt like crap and couldn’t participate more with the mix. This was when my blood pressure got worse and worse. I worked around the clock, with C-mass, but also with the new Avatarium stuff. I had just made a big move after 18 years in the city of Stockholm, that was very stressful, and to top it off, I was renovating the new place on my own. I can’t even say how crap I felt during this period.
Still I do love this record! The songs are great + wonderful musicianship! Also a cool doomy vibe over the whole she-bang! Love it! The cover artwork is also a hit! Done by my friend Erik Rovanperä it totally nails it! He did a wonderful job here 🙂
Fav songs? All of them! But I must admit that”Moonhorse” has got a special place in my heart! “
