
EMQ’s With Faustus
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Swedish Death Metallers, Faustus. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Our name is Faustus. From the forests in the middle of Sweden the foundation of the band was formed in 2011 by the two brothers Anton Pärlenskog (guitars), Oskar Pärlenskog (drums) and Mattias Lövhaga (guitars) soon after they met at a local School. During the first years our main focus was to find a solid line-up, as well as writing material for our first demo. As a session musician for an upcoming show Nils Hedberg (bass) joined in 2013 and has since been a member of the group. Since then, we parted ways with our first vocalist Victor to find our next vocalist, Jonas.
Shortly thereafter, we began writing our first album Laments of an Obscure Mind. Featuring 11 tracks and released on all major platforms. Jonas had to, due to personal reasons, step down from the role as vocalist and Faustus were left without a front man. During that time Ludvig Setterlind (vocalist) was in a band called Amentia, friends of ours. As we of Faustus were in need of a vocalist, having booked some gigs in Sweden we reached out to Ludvig to help us. After the tour we felt we had found the perfect match and asked Ludvig to join permanently, he kindly accepted. Faustus started to write our magnum opus, the record “Memoriam” right away. One year after we started the writing process, the album was done. Scheduled to enter Obsidian Recordings Located in the well-known Studio Fredman in the fall of ‘21.
How did you come up with your band name?
The origin of the name is based on a combination of the iterations of Dr. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christopher Marlowe. More attuned to the tragic and mystic parts of the character. In Marlowe’s drama Faustus sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and a life of 24 years in success and bliss. But as we all know, selling your soul to the devil might come with some complications.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
The band Faustus originated and operates in Bollnäs, Hälsingland, Sweden (pronounced: HELL-sing-land). A small town but despite its size there are a lot of musicians and bands located here. The live music scene in this town is unfortunately not the most popular for metal music anymore… But this town has A LOT of great metal musicians! We have a ton of really good bands such as: Morgana Lefay, Tad Morose, Gormathon, Bloodbound, Caedem and of course ourselves Faustus. And we all started in this little town in the middle of nowhere!
What is your latest release?
We have one self-released album prior to this release “Laments of an Obscure Mind”. What you can expect is brutal technical polyrhythmic madness but with an emphasis on groove and also at times doomish. Tuned down to hell and let’s not forget about those tasty leads.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Seeing as we are a Swedish band we don’t have to look very far regarding musical influences. But the main ones would be Meshuggah, Whitechapel and In Flames.
What first got you into music?
Most of us did start to play music when we were around 13 years old in our teenage rooms, but one main factor is probably Guitar hero. Maybe not for our drummer boy but for the rest of us!
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Meshuggah for instance would be an honor! And other fellow Swedes such as Vildhjarta and Humanity’s Last Breath. If we could pick any band active or not Pantera with the Abbott brothers would be sick!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Wacken metal festival, Download festival would be awesome to name a few.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
The weirdest “gift” we’ve received was a fair share of panties thrown up on stage.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
We’d like to extend a big Thank you! It’s sort of a cliché but it doesn’t make it less true since the fans make our work possible.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
It’s borderline impossible to just pick one. But perhaps Dio, Dimebag, chuck Schuldiner per dead mayhem Bon Scott
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Playing live and creating music together is the best thing about being a musician. To be able to share the fun and intense moments with your friends on stage is one of the greatest feelings. The thing we hate is to pack all the equipment. That takes too much time and energy. Our drummer hates it, but I think all drummers do.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
The part where you as a musician might get taken for granted. Just because you enjoy what you are doing you are seldomly taken seriously or as mentioned you are taken for granted and not appreciated despite the time, energy and passion you put in your work.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Very hard! We all have a very different tastes but we all love Meshuggah – Koloss.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
We think all of them are great. To be able to spread your music through different ways (Vinyl, CD’s, Cassettes, Downloads) is amazing. So, we think all of them are the best!
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
I think it was 2013 or 2014 we did a support show together with Entombed and that’s not all. We also played with a really big symphonic orchestra (!!!) and they played our music with us. That show was one of a kind! We will never forget that! This summer we played at our first festival and the response from the crowd was amazing. That is also an amazing memorable show!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
If we had not gotten into music, we would probably still be playing guitar hero or maybe even be a professional ice hockey player! A porn star? A chef? Who knows! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Dimebag, Hetfield, Hendrix, Dio & Dickinson
What’s next for the band?
Apart from the Album cycle and gigs we have scheduled to record some additional music videos on top of those already released on YouTube. And we have also started to collect some ideas for album #3. So, stay tuned!
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://www.facebook.com/officialfaustus
https://www.instagram.com/faustusofficial/
https://linktr.ee/Faustus_SWE
Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?
We have to take a guess on this one……Barm Cake maybe?
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
We just wanna thank you for the interview and we hope that you guys will have a great Christmas holiday!
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