March 08, 2005

Interview with Masquerade: Henrik Lundberg

Today’s interview is with Henrik Lundberg of the band Masquerade who has four albums to their credit and show no signs of stopping! Henrik’s replies to the questions show an artist and a group that have made music their priority; showing their pride and diversity in reinventing themselves and coming up with a new sound with each album! I hope that you enjoy this interview and take some time to get to know that band and the music better by stopping by www.masqueradetheband.com!

1.  As a band with three releases under your belt people have got to know Masquerade and the music.  To start out this interview I would like to invite you to start out by introducing yourselves, the artists behind the music…
We’re from a small town in Sweden called Skövde and we were formed in 1988.  We were originally five people in the band but became a four-piece around a year before we recorded our first album.  The first one came out in ‘92 and the second one, Surface Of Pain” in ‘94. After that the band took a really long break and didn’t record again until ‘98.  Those recordings became “Flux” and was released in 2001.  Even Def Leppard makes records faster than us!  “In Disguise” is a collection of songs written and recorded between ‘88-‘98 and released by us late last year.

We have always taken pride in reinventing ourselves with every release and as you can tell if you’ve heard the records they sound quite different from each other.

2.  “In Disguise” has been out for just a few months but I would like to find out how during that time the feed-back from the press, those in the industry and most importantly from the fans has been.  What have you been hearing back from the people about this album?
I haven’t heard that much more than that the fans seem to like it, at least the first half of it.  They tend to like the early stuff and there’s plenty of that on this record.  We’ve sold quite a lot of records so we must be doing something right.

3.  Each album has it’s own message and each song within the albums has certain qualities that bring depth to the album.  Is there one song on “In Disguise” that is special to you; either as a group or individually that you could tell us about and why it is special to you?
I like them all.  It’s like your children and you can’t pick one over the other.  Tony has written something about each song on the Masquerade website. Just log on to www.masqueradetheband.com and check it out.

4.  Music fans (all of us) have an insatiable thirst to know what is new and what is on the horizon.  So the obvious next question is; what can we expect from Masquerade in the months and years to come?
We’re working on a DVD at the moment.  There’s gonna be some live stuff from Japan and Sweden and some behind the scene material on there.  We hope to have that out in a couple of months.  We also have plans to make a new record if everything works out all right.  Besides Masquerade I’m doing a solo record at the moment.  Thomas is busy with his songwriting.  Marko has just started his own event company and Tony works hard on renovating his house.

5.  Your experience in Japan touring in support of your second album “Surface Of Pain” gives you experience that is vital to a band, and the consensus is that Masquerade is most comfortable on stage.  Can you tell us about the excitement and experience of playing live in front of a large crowd? We haven’t played a whole show together in 10 years but I love the feeling of playing live and we have talked about doing some shows later this year.  Japan was great and we would love to go back there again.

6.  So, on the one hand you seem as a band, to be in your element on stage but then when you look at the fact that each album has been self produced it’s clear that you are also comfortable and capable in a studio setting as well. Where does all this depth and talent come from?
Hard work.  In the early days we practiced almost every day.  We set our goals high as musicians and it was just learning by doing.  For me it was all about getting a very high lowest standard if you know what I mean.

7.  Sweden seems to be a Mecca for AOR/melodic rock, at least that’s how it seems from all the way over here in New York, with artists such as yourselves and others from that part of the world.  Could you tell us what it is like there musically both as a fan and an artist?
I’m sorry to say that I don’t listen that much to Swedish melodic rock so I don’t really know what’s happening on the scene if there is a scene.  The bands we liked growing up was bands like TNT, Queensryche, Kings X, Black Sabbath and Def Leppard to name but a few.  What I know though is that hard music in general is on it’s way back and I think that is good.  If you ask me it never went away it’s just the mainstream that’s getting interested again.

8.   As musicians and band-mates I am sure that you can attest to the importance of balance between music and the other parts of life and the balance amongst the band.  With that  in mind would you tell us a bit about how you sustain balance as a group and individually?
We were never any good at that back in the day.  That could probably explain the long period of time in between records.  It’s very important to be balanced in life in general.  We all live different lives nowadays and we get along just fine.  The thing to do is doing it for the love of music, not money.  Just have a beer once in a while and be happy you’re alive, don’t take everything dead serious all the time.

9.  We have a strong following of hopeful artists that visit the site looking to these interviews as resources for advice and information to help them with their dream of someday making their way into the music industry.  What advice do you have for them?
As Dimebag Darell once said; if you love to play- play.  Don’t limit yourself to just one style.  There is only two kinds of music good or bad, and you decide for yourself what that is.  If you think that Masquerade sucks that’s ok but if you like us you should know that we have always listened to and been influenced by everything from Pantera to Sting.

10.  And, what message would you like to send out to the Masquerade fans around the world?
Thank you for supporting Masquerade we love you all.

Posted by Kathy at March 8, 2005 05:57 PM