Old schooler's Death Breath mark their recording debut with their shrine to all things deathly. What would you however expect from Nicke Andersson and Robert Pehrsson?

I suppose the first thing that everyone is going to want to know is how did Death Breath come into existence?

Nicke and me started talking about it maybe two years ago. I was actually working, doing a website for the Hellacopters, so Nicke and me sat down and talked a lot about that. We discovered we liked the same things when it comes to Death Metal and carried on talking about it while I worked on the website. A little later on I was working with the Hellacopters again, on tour this time. Nicke said to me that he wanted to do an album and asked if I wanted to join him. That was the beginning of the band. Immediately after that we started to write material for the album.

That is very hard to answer. I suppose 'old school' would be the name for it. Late 80's, early 90's Death Metal stuff. Maybe a bit more of the 80's than the 90's. That is how everyone else describes us. We don't really think about it. The songs just sound the way they do because the album doesn't sound that different from the demo's we did. We didn't have to change anything. The sound was better than on the demo's of course but that is just the way it turned out.

You mentioned Nicke and you began writing almost straight away. How did you approach the writing for the album? Was it an individual or collective effort?

I guess it is a bit of both really. I did some songs on my own, some demo's in a home studio. Nicke did the same also. We just exchanged our demo's and sat down with guitars as usual and just wrote together.

The bands approach to lyrics is somewhat tongue in cheek. Are you at all worried that many may see the band as being more a joke band than a serious entity?

I can see why you would ask that but that was not something we were worried about. We just didn't think about how we would perceived when we wrote or recorded the album. We just did it the way we wanted it to be. Do it the best we could do. I like a bit of humour in there and so does Nicke. 

The debut album “Stinking Up The Night” has been out now for the past 2 or so months, what has been the initial reaction to the record?

I am very please with it. It came out just the way I imagined it would turn out. Everything after that, you know people liking it and all that, well that is just a big bonus for me.

You chose Acetone Studio's to record the album. How did you enjoy the studio, is an environment you all enjoyed?

Yeah it was all pretty easy I'd have to say. The studio is a great place, and the guy we recorded the album with I'd not meet before, but he was real easy to work with. We are there again now recording some new stuff. We are recording seven songs to be released on an EP early next year. I won't tell you much for now, but there will be a couple of covers and some originals.

The album features a ‘who’s who’ of Death and Grind, with contributions from Jörgen Sandström, Scott Carlson and Fred Estby. How did they all become involved with the project?

We decided early on we wanted a couple of different vocalists for the album. Once we agreed on that both Jörgen and Scott's name came up. They were the first one's we thought of. Jörgen lives in Stockholm and was in Entombed, so it was easy to ask him. He wanted to do it immediately when we asked him. Nicke knew Scott from the Entombed day's and had hung out a couple of times when the Hellacopters played L.A. So Nicke asked Scott if he wanted to do it. We sent him a couple of demos so he could hear the stuff, after which he said he would love to join in.

So was any of the material written with these vocalists in mind, or was it just a case of them bringing their own thing to each song?

Since the release of the album Magnus Hedquist has left the band? What were the reasons for his departure? Have you found a replacement as yet?

I wasn't to surprised he left. He is kind of a loner and a little bit of a strange guy. He is not very friendly. When he left it wasn't really a disaster as when we record now Nicke does the bass and does it just fine. Magnus didn't write anything so no big problem. We're not looking for a replacement as when we play live we would like Scott to join in, which he did for our first show in Sweden. Which worked out really well. So when we record the next album if it is possible, if he could come over to do the bass that would be great. If it is not possible Nicke can do the bass. Live whenever it is possible we would like to have Scott with us. I mean it is Nicke and me who are the brains behind the band or whatever you want to call it, as we write everything. If Scott wants to write some material also, well that would be great.

I guess so. It's me and Nicke who are the brains behind the band as we write everything. If Scott wants to write some material that would be great of course.

To coincide with the release of the album the band have taken an ‘old school’ approach and released a 7” single. What was the thinking behind this?

We both liked the format, we did our promo on cassette. It is something that just suits the whole band to do something like that. I mean with my other rock bands we often do that kind of thing. We felt we should take one song from the album and just record two new songs in a whole different studio, then release it on a 7". The ones who bought that would then get something a little bit special at least.

The band is signed to Black Lodge in Europe and Relapse Records in the US. How did the respective deals come about, how did you pitch yourself to them?

We didn't really have to do that because the label here, Black Lodge, already knew Nicke and me from our other bands. They released Entombed and the Hellacopters. They asked us if they could release it, we didn't have to ask or send anything. Nicke knew someone at Relapse Records, I think we sent him the album without vocals. Those two were the only ones that we had been in contact with at all. The deals seem to be working out really well.

We are talking about that now. We just done our first show. We did that show to know if we were a live band at all, if we could pull that off. It has been a long time since we played this kind of music. When we rehearsed for it, we realised that it is something we would like to do. A tour would be great but it would need to be planned really well, with us being in other bands and Scott living in L.A. I think we will tour, I just don't know how long we can be out on the road.

That must be a difficult balance to juggle your personal and public live. How do you deal with all that pressure?

It's hard as I have to work for a living. That is always hard as the band takes a lot of time, and I can't live off the music. For Nicke it is different as he can live off his music. So it just means we have to be really well planned, but the music always comes first.

Nicke comes with a huge pedigree when it comes to Death Metal. Where you at all worried that the public expectation would overshadow any release you guys came up with?

Death Breath really have paid a huge homage to the likes of Entombed, Grave and all the other defining Swedish Death Metal bands with the bands 'old school' sound. How intentional was it to bring back this old vibe?

I think we sound like that just because we wrote that way. We are more influenced more by American bands to tell the truth, at least for this record. If you listen to my songs at least, except for Bathory of course, Autopsy is a big influence for me as well as Death. Of course some stuff creeps in because Grave was one of my favorite bands. I didn't think to much about influences when I wrote my songs really. They are just there.

I don't know about a new scene, but all the old bands are still here and doing really well again. There was the Masters Of Death tour and a few years ago I wouldn't have suspected that would happen again. As Sweden is such a small country all the bands are friends, listen to each other rehearse, see each others gigs it makes you want to carry on, you know shared influences. It's a small scene and so they are all friends which must help.