EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Pär Sundström (SABATON)

On the new album "The Great War" being based on World War 1...

Pär: The timing was absolutely right, coming up to 100 years since the ending of WW1, so this was for a natural thing, time to do it.

On whether every band member is interested in World War history...

Pär: Everybody is not as interested I would say, but me and Joekim are the two main ones that are interested. Maybe we were not that much from the beginning but it is something that grows over time now that we've been more exposed to interesting stories and reading more and more. For sure from the start we had some interest but I've always been a fan of movies that are based upon reality and nowadays I prefer instead of watching an action movie or something like that, I prefer to watch a documentary, which has lead to the creation of the Sabaton history channel in some part.

Would Pär have went to war if he was living in the 1940's or early 1900s?

Pär: I think you had a different kind of education back then I mean knowledge, that's why so many people went to war because they didn't know better. Now we are in 2019 and I'm not fir example whether Europe would all go out to kill each other, or not just Europe, the whole world because you guys came all the from Australia as well. I'm not sure that people would do that in the same ways anymore. But if I was born back then and it was the beginning of the last century and there was war breaking out I think I would also be one of those people that didn't have more sense to not go to war.

On how new guitarist Tommy Johansson is doing in Sabaton?

Pär: He's doing great, he was a big fan of Sabaton his whole life, the first picture of him with us was in 2005 when he came to see one of out concerts. We've known each other for a very long time and when we asked him to join the band he was of course very excited. We knew that when he was coming into thew band we don't just get a guitar player, we get a singer and a songwriter. He helped us write on the new album he helped write the song "The Ghost In The Trenches" .

On whether Pär enjoys touring...

Pär: I enjoy it quite a lot actually and I enjoy I also enjoy when things become wrong or a little problematic because it forces us to improvise solutions. I like to sort problems and to improvise, I don't want things to be simple in life. A lot of musicians I can't understand, a lot of my colleagues from different bands are like " it's fun to play and stand on the stage, but all this travelling is a fucking nightmare, we sit at airports and do nothing". I think it's sort of a weird way of seeing things, like how can I 'sit and do nothing' be bad in a world where nobody has time to do anything. So most of the people who are not in bands complain because they have no time to listen to anything or read a book because their whole lives are so stressed and there are musicians who complain they having nothing to do for a few hours a few times per week, I mean seriously? I find it kind of hilarious.

Listen to the full interview!

SABATON - Bismarck (Official Music Video)

Photo was taken by myself at Download Festival 2019 in Melbourne.

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