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Satellite Circle
The Satellite circle guys on trial in the Goblin-cave.
1.To start with, can you maybe give the reader the history of Satellite Circle and the members of the band?
Fredrik Holmgren: The Satellite Circle was a development from a former project in around 1997. Guitarist Jonas Nordin and Drummer Jonas Ericson have played on and off together in different bands for at least ten years. I joined them in early 1996. In july 1999 we recorded a demo that later on became released as CD EP ”Way Beyond the Portal of the Bone White Rubber Sun” on UK label Rage of Achilles. We've also been featured on a number of compilations, among them are Waterdragon Records ”Mobs New Plan”, Underdogmas ”Judge Not” and This Dark Reign's ”Doomed”.
2.How would you like to describe your sound to a person that never heard your music?
Fredrik Holmgren: It is heavy, bluesy and sometimes a bit psychedelic seventies style hard rock. We have been trying to sound like a band from '72 but we haven't really succeeded all the way. Our influences are a little different than those bands, we grew up with heavy metal and stuff like that and they grew up with Motown. I listen mostly to old music from around '68 - '72, but ”new” hard rock music has an influence as well. It also makes an imprint in our music, it's impossible to avoid that.
3.How do you write your songs. Is it one person coming up with all ideas or is it teamwork? Are you writing the songs while rehearsing or at home?
Fredrik Holmgren: We write during jams, the songs get better
that way. No one gets totally locked into another guys idea like it can happen
when someone comes with a tune that is already finished and the arrangements
are made up. By jamming we seem to be able get the best out of each musician,
everyone has their own distinct style of playing and we want to use that to
our advantage as much as we can. Often one guy comes up with a riff and someone
else has a chord progression that sounds good together with that riff, lyrics
and vocal melodies are made up and developed gradually. We work a lot with
the arrangements to give the music dynamics, we do not want the music to be
static and heavy all the way. Bands that only plays heavy riffs stacked upon
each other tend to be very boring after a while, at least to my ears.
4.You are three guys in the band, have you ever thought of "expanding"?
Fredrik Holmgren: There is no need of expanding because the sound gets too thin, we have learned to work our way around that in our arrangements and our playing. But we have brought in a guy playing Hammond on two or three gigs and it really fits our style. We hope to be able to record with him later on. Having a second guitarplayer would screw up the jamming feel on a lot of tunes and sections of songs, so that isn't too likely to happen. It would lock everything up too much and a lot of the things we have been working hard on would be impossible to do. Then we would be just another stonerband.
5.When it comes to musical influences, can you maybe give us some examples
on what I can expect to find if I would go through your record collection?
Do you all have somewhat the same taste when it comes to music or is there
anyone that differs from the rest of the band?
Fredrik Holmgren: My extensive vinyl collection contains things like The Stones (all albums), Sabbath, AC/DC, Motorhead and obscure things like Hard Stuff, Sir Lord Baltimore and Groundhogs. 60s and 70s music in general. I do not listen much on modern music, there is so much to discover from other eras. Times when commercial pressure wasn't as high as it is today, and crap wasn't punched down peoples throats in such a great extemt as it is today. I hate boy bands and computer cut-and-paste rap rock.
Jonas Nordin: I listen to alot of old groovy psychedelic rock
n' roll stuff like Hawkwind, Klaus Schultze, Cosmic Jokers, the swedish genius
Ralf Lundsten, Ash Ra Tempel, the Sonics, Twink, the great italian band the
Trip, Sky Saxon, Jefferson Airplane, Can, Iron Butterfly, Captain Beyond,
November and of course the mighty Ramones. As well as all the bands that Fredrik
mentioned.
Among newer heavy rock bands I dig Monster Magnet's early work and the first
two Kyuss albums, Abdullah's longplayer is great and that goes for the Mushroom
River Band disc too. Some other rockin' bands I listen to are Twin Earth,
Mustasch, the Haunted, Entombed, Unida, 500ft of Pipe: love the way they use
the keyboard as they have no bassplayer, At the Gates, the Vectors: great
punkrock band from Umeå, the Spacious Mind: also a great band from Umeå.
Jonas Ericson: See the other guys answers and add Bloodrock.
6.How has the response been to your releases when it comes to media, do
you get many good reviews?
Fredrik Holmgren: The response has been great. When the EP came
out we were a bit surprised over the positive reaction among both critics
and people in the stoner scene all over the world. We felt it was a good record
but we didn´t really expect everyone who reviewed it to like it. We´ve
got a few reviews on the album now, and they are all very positive. We suspected
that the album could be sort of ”hard” to understand for some because
of its diversity, but people seem to have been able to get the idea behind
it.
7.Is it hard to get gigs in Sweden, I´ve talked to guys from bands like Mustasch, Souldivider and Lowrider and they all say it´s easier to get gigs outside Sweden is that your opinion as well?
Fredrik Holmgren: I suppose that is true. There isn't much of a stoner- or heavy rock scene in Sweden. There are many great bands like Mushroom River Band, Twin Earth, Mustasch and so on, but for some reason people in general seem to be very trendy and not interested in seeing a good live act. They want to go disco dancing instead of doom dancing!
8. What is your definition of the term "stonerrock?" A lot of people use it to describe almost every kind of heavy rock/metal today. Are they wrong? Are you a stonerband?
Fredrik Holmgren: The Satellite Circle are considered a stoner
band by the critics I guess. That is OK with us 'cause we're in good company
then, if you know what I mean. We do not think of ourselves as a stoner band.
We are not very influenced by, say, Kyuss. We are more of a 70's style band.
But, chances are, if you like stoner, you like The Satellite Circle. People
need to label things. Especially in text based information such as an album
review.
I don't know how to quite define the term stoner. Maybee it describes bands
that are more ”heavy” than ”metal”?
Jonas Nordin: One of the problems with the term ”stonerrock” is that almost none the bands I've heard of considers themself to be a stonerband. It seems like nobody wants to be categorized as a stonerrock band. Maybe people are afraid of what happened to the bands who was under the ”grunge” monicker. To me there is often so little difference between doom, stoner, 70's and sometimes even grunge bands so it is just impossible to say that a band is for sure a stonerrock band and this is a doom or 70's band. I mean Black Sabbath have influenced almost of every kind of metal or rock band in one way or another, and to me they can easily fit in alot of different genres like stoner, doom, heavy metal and so on.
9. You´re signed to the British label Rage of Achilles, right!? Was
it "love at first feel"?
Fredrik Holmgren: Duncan, the guy who has ROA, heard us on a compilation by french label Waterdragon Records. He gave us a fair deal on the release of the EP and the album, and things have been working smoothly ever since.
10.How do you get your heavy crushing sound, what gear do you use?
Fredrik Holmgren: Jonas Nordin, the guitarist, uses a rare axe
in this part of the world: a 1980 Gibson Firebrand 335-s Custom. It is a solidbody
mahogny guitar with two humbuckers. Looks a bit like a Gibson Ripper bass.
His amp is a mid 70s tube Traynor. Effects are Big Muff and Mister Crybaby
Super wah-wah. In the studio he had some old stomboxes from the 70s: a Zipper
and some old italian fuzz pedal with sliders instead of knobs.
I have an Fender P-bass from 1976 that I have had for ten years. I used it
on the album straight into my Ampeg SVT, no effects. On the EP I had my Rickenbacker
bass, giving a treblier sound.
Jonas Ericson, the drummer, has an old beaten up Pearl drumkit. It looks terrible
but sounds amazing.
11.How much time did you spend in the studio recording your latest work?
Fredrik Holmgren: I think we recorded it in four days, if I remember correctly. Mixing took three days, and then it was mastered in one day. We are not talking about the recording of a Metallica album here… The band don't need that much time in the studio, we just go for it. We want to catch the groove and the aggression of the first takes. Too much knob turning takes away the feel.
12.Any tour plans or gigs? If yes, when?
Fredrik Holmgren: We hope to be able to do a few european dates supporting some other band. Nothing is clear at this point but we are working on it. Right now we are doing mostly local gigs. We've made trips in the rest of Sweden too, and a real fun gig at Åland. We still have hangovers since that incident.
13. If you could make one wish that would instantly come true, what would it be?
Fredrik Holmgren: A well planned tour in the US would be extremely cool.
Jonas Nordin: If we could get the three members from Sir Lord Baltimore's album Kingdome Come to come gig with us would be awesome.
16. Fill us in on your future plans.
Fredrik Holmgren: In a few weeks we will get the material for the next album together and record some demos. And, hopefully, find a big (suitable) company to release it. The material that we are about to finish is our strongest yet, and I think that the next release will kill. The last album came out the way we wanted it, we are happy with the result, but the next one will be so much better.
The goblin crew thanks and wishes Satellite Circle the best in the future. Visit www.satellitecircle.com