Interviews: Interview with Mattias from X3M!ST web magazine

The new single. 'Starting (Where the Story Ended)' and a new album is on its way later this year. Therefore we talked to the singer Mattias Lindblom:

You've gone through some changes. Have have you developed since you started?

-Many things have changed since 1996 when the band was formed. It has been a long and very creative process. We've been travelling to a lot of different places. This has made us grow and mature as a band. It took some years to find the right level, maybe because everything went so fast in the start. I Breathe made a big hit, maybe this was just luck. The most obvious change for the observer is probably that Alexander no longer is in the band but choose to work with other things. Like writing books.

So he?s not even songwriter anymore?

-Most probably next album will include songs from Alexander bacause he co-wrote some tracks before leaving Vacuum. But otherwhise he's not in the band anymore.

How do you do when writing songs?

-I've got a much bigger part when it comes to writing these days. Anders Wollbeck and I write most of the songs together. The most part of the new single Starting was written in ten minutes when going to a Slipknot concert. We made fun saying that we were to write a single. And so we did? Melodies and other things were all ready when we entered the studio to put it all together.

Vacuum are much bigger in other countries and the tours they've made have often been outside Sweden.

-How famous have you been in other countries? In Italy and especially in Russia were/are we very big. We were chosen the biggest international band two years in a row in Russia, the records have sold very well and the concerts have been well visited. Russia also is a wonderful country!

How about Germany?

-We had many problems with companies and distributers in Germany but otherwhise everything is ok Over there too. But it's far from like in Russia.

Tell a bit about the new album!

-We have experimented a lot more this time. Made the music bause it was fun!. But it's pop we like so the Differences are not that big between the new and the old songs.

So the typical old vacuum sound will be there?

-Yes absolutelly! We write songs direcly from our brains and that means we write the music we really enjoy and like. Like we did before. We are from a kind of 'trevor Horn'-school with some heavy-elements in the music. That's the music we are best at!

Who will produce the new album?

-We will do the productions and Magnus Frykberg, who enjoys our music very much, will do the mixing.

Will you perform live in Sweden when the new album is released?

-I hope so, but it depends a bit upon how the sales will be. In the old days we choose between performing for a small crowd in Sweden or a huge crowd in Russia. By then Russia felt most tempting. It was a lot out the dream of beeing a rockstar. Today it's more about doing the music.

You've signed for a synthlabel, Subspace Communities. How does that feel?

-It feels much better. Subspace understands us, is into the music and enjoys it themselves. They're more about the music itself than sales and writing hits. We also knew the staff from before, which made it much easier.

Something else you would like to add?

-I would like to stand for the REAL music. It?s so sad that music is much about money these days. I can't really say that Vaccum are rebels, but we try to break new grounds musically, but also when it comes to general things in the world. We don't want to companies to rule the music!