Firespawn is a metal band from Sweden: we got the chance to chat with Victor and Alex about Wacken, women in metal and more.

Benedetta

I’m here with the amazing Firespawn. How are you guys?

Firespawn

We’re great, thanks for having us. Good, very good. Just had a great show here at Wacken.

Benedetta

So, you’re playing Wacken in the 35th anniversary edition. How does it feel?

Firespawn

Super cool. It’s a big deal. For us, Wacken is huge and we’re so grateful and humble to play at Wacken. We’re here to celebrate LG, our late singer, who died of cancer five years ago. Wacken was a big deal for him too. And Wacken was actually there for LG when he passed. They sent flowers to the funeral and they were very present in his passing. So, it’s very cool. It feels like a big deal for us to be here.

Benedetta

You are very experienced in the live shows, but you also do work in the studio. Do you think that the life of an artist is a lonely life?

Firespawn

No, quite the contrary. You have a lot of friends. Especially, well, it depends what kind of artist you are. I mean, if you’re a touring musician like Victor and I, you have a lot of friends. Because you meet zillions of people along the way and on the road. So, you meet friends everywhere. And, you know, some of them you keep in touch with. So, at least I have friends all over the globe, more or less. You meet so many cool people in this line of business. So, no, it’s not a lonely life at all if you’re a touring musician. Maybe if you’re the kind of artist who paints oil paintings in your cellar. Maybe that’s a lonely life. Actually, I’ve been thinking about that, because it would be cool… I’m a big fan of the arts in general. Not only music, but art painting, and writing and stuff. It would be interesting for me to know more people in different art areas, to hang out with more artists and stuff. Because it’s very social as a touring musician. And in general, as a musician, you tend to hang out with more people than normal jobs. I read that men in their forties or something don’t get more friends the older they get to hang out with older friends. But for us, it’s kind of the opposite. It’s a huge social network, and it’s up to us if we want to have social downtime, in a way. If you’re painting yourself, you’re not a team of painters, as far as I know. And Alex is a tattoo artist as well, and that’s a social, artistic thing. Because you’re painting on a person, and you’re touring as a tattoo artist as well. Actually, tomorrow morning I will go to Beyond the Gates in Bergen. They have a tattoo convention there, Beyond Ink. So I will go there tomorrow morning and tattoo there on Friday and Saturday. So that’s a fucking perfect weekend. First the show with Firespawn, and then go to Bergen and tattoo. Couldn’t be any better. Speaking of artists and Italy that you’re from. Our artist for the Firespawn album covers, Paolo Girardi, he’s from Italy. And a super cool guy. We never met him actually, but we have a lot of contact. Work stuff and also private stuff. If I’m at an art museum, I take a lot of photos and send them. Check out this, check out that. What’s your feedback? One super cool thing, there was this Danish Skagen painter who went to Italy to paint Italian landscapes. And I sent to him, wow, cool. He said that their choice of colors were colder than Italian artists. So it was kind of like a Nordic accent. Because the Nordics were used to colder weather and colors. So they chose colder colors to paint the Italian landscape. And he would say that Italian artists would choose warmer colors. It was very interesting for me to see. You can see sort of an accent. This is Nordic artists who are used to colder choices. Interesting. Awesome guy, shout out to Paolo. He painted all our album covers. They are based on my lyrics, and he is quite interesting to work with. Nowadays we trust him completely. On the first album I sent him maybe 5 or 6 lyrics. And I wanted the cover to be based” on that. And when he started I asked him if I could see some kind of sketch. He said “No, I don’t work like that. You have to trust me“. Because he is from Venice. It turned out amazing.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach some sort of equality between men and women?

Firespawn

We have already equality. I’m so sick and tired of this. Good musicians are good musicians. It doesn’t matter if you are a male or a female. We have already equality. But I agree. In another way I don’t agree in this way, that it’s percentage wise. It’s not as many women in the scene. But in my impression that as a man in the music business I can do much more than be a good person. So I have the impression that for more women to be active in the music scene it needs to be more women in the music scene. And I’ve actually talked about this with female colleagues. What more as a man in the music scene can I do than be a good colleague? And the usual reply is: “Not that much, be a good person“. And I think it’s important with female role models in the music scene. So it’s a lot of responsibility of them to show for other girls and women to see that this is possible and to get them dedicated. And to start some work in the music business.

Benedetta

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our readers and viewers?

Firespawn

I’m a big fan of Italy. Food and culture and people. Thank you so much for your time and for doing this. Very cool and I support your work. It’s important.