Ribspreader and Paganizer main man Rogga Johansson had resurfaced with his new project Demiurg and their debut album "Breath Of The Demiurg". What does this new incarnation hold for an unsuspecting public? We spoke with Rogga to tell all.

Your new record “Breath Of The Demiurg” has just been released. What has been reaction to the album thus far? How do you best describe to the uninitiated?

Great reactions so far, but I haven't come across any review yet so I only know what people tell me. For someone not familiar with Demiurg I guess it's most easy to say it's death metal with much more influences incorporated into the sound.

Many will see “Breath Of The Demiurg” as a solo album. What was your thinking behind brining in session musicians rather than have a solid line up to record the album?

Well it is a solo album really, I wrote it and needed help with some duties including production. But after we started working it as turned out being more of a band effort anyway. As mentioned I wrote everything so there was really no need for a full line-up just for the sake of recording the album.

How did you approach writing the album? How does the song progression take shape?

Very much parts and riffs on the album are old stuff, things I've been thinking about using but never gotten around to as it didn't fit in my regular bands. Then we have some of the songs that basically were written just to try out stuff I never did before, like the Monlithany songs where I was very much influenced by later era Satyricon.

What challenges does writing like this present verses writing in a band environment?

It's much easier to write everything yourself, but on the downside no one tells you when what you write is complete shit. Writing in a band environment is kinda hard for me as I really only can play stuff I write myself as I'm a terrible guitar player haha. And also people tend to say I'm an asshole so I guess writing stuff together with other people isn't really my thing.

Johan Berglund of This Haven took up the bass duties for the recording of the album. How did Johan get the gig, and how pleased were you with the out come?

I've known Johan for a few years and he is both a great guy and one of the best bass players I've come across. I was greatly impressed by his work for the album, some stuff he plays almost sound impossible.

As I understand the facts, Dan Swano has the only choice to produce the album. What did you feel Dan would bring to the process that made him essential? Was Dan brought in initially for his drumming or production abilities?

Well Dan is the man when it comes to producing so having him doing the producer and mixing work was great. I can't really say that I considered having anyone else doing this, and the drumming was supposed to be done by someone else at first but rather than enrolling yet another guy we decided that Dan could do it as he did such a good work on the first Ribspreader album.

Pär from Satariel was supposed to do some clean vocals but time issues stopped that idea. However he will most likely be on the second album which will be really cool as his voice is the coolest in metal these days if you ask me. Not many guys who can do both black metal vocals as well as pull of Messiah Marcolin stuff right after.

Any plans to tour in support of the album? With a line up made up of session musicians how do you hope to replicate the bands sound live, or is Demiurg a pure studio project?

No plans right now, but I guess we will get a full lineup together after the second album at least. Both me and Johan will be there of course but as for Dan I can't really say if he would have the time to be on a tour. Getting musicians together for a lineup shouldn't be a problem though, I already known several guys that would pull off the material live with no problems at all.

Of course not, these bands do no compete in any way at all. A new Ribspreader album is almost done, just some drumming and the final mix left to do before it's ready to be released.

In Ribspreader, or Paganizer for that matter, we play simple Death metal and get drunk. in Demiurg I can add all the odd stuff I want really which is a great outlet.

Guido from Karmageddon Media got me this deal, and Mascot has been great so far. No complains at all, they seem to really put great effort into this album which is great.

“Breath Of The Demiurg” has as many a whole plethora of influences intermingled throughout the album. Who do you credit as the biggest influence on you and the overall direction Demiurg has taken?

Swedish Death metal is the biggest influence of course, but apart from that I would say that every other style of music is added as well. The idea with Demiurg is basically to play what I do best but to also add stuff I could never or would never want to play in a band. In Demiurg I can add any Black metal or Goth metal or even industrial idea I might ever have, and that's cool as I think I already have too many bands to try starting new ones just to get some ideas out of the system.

Writing the next Demiurg album, a couple of songs already done actually. Last words... But the fucken album.