written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hello Christopher. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well? How are the other guys of dEMOTIONAL?
Christopher: Hey man, Happy to talk to you! Alive and kicking, Tho getting really bored not beeing able to play shows, meet friends and so on. Very eagar to get out there and play shows, as soon as this corona shit ends. I’m sure the rest of the boys agrees.
Pix666: Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences. What was your inspiration to become a musician? What kind of music does dEMOTIONAL make?
Christopher: I define dEMOTIONAL as a feel-good party crew. Both in music and as a group of friends. 6 dudes with different backgrounds that’s been friends for a very long time now kickin modern metal to it’s edge.
Well music has always been close to the heart. Both my father and his brother was muscicians so i kinda grew up to hanging around in the rehearsal studio playing and talking music all the time.
Yeah, what kind of music do we make? With all these genres out there i dont even know anymore, but let’s just say feel-good metal 🙂
Pix666: You’ve been with dEMOTIONAL for more than 10 years now. What were the best or craziest experiences with the band so far that you will never forget?
Christopher: Dude that’s crazy, havent even thought about it beeing that long. We have had SO much fun and crazyness is around the corner every single time the boys meet up.But i would say the craziest thing so far is when we played in Moscow 2015, the military police showed up again for the 4th time trying to cancle our show, but as it was the 4th time in like 5 days our tourmanager knew how to handle it – We talked to them, got to play our show then we ordered in like 10 bottles of vodka and got hammered with them backstage, or at least we got hammered 😀
Pix666: Some days ago, your video clip ‚Boiling Point‘ was released. It’s a totally beautiful, hand-drawn video. Who had the idea for it and who realised this masterpiece?
Christopher: It is sure something different and cool, right?!
I think it was a mutual idea in the band. The band turning into animals was Nils idéa, i know he has a thing for bears. The text is written by Nils and it’s about the fucked up world so we needed it to be dark. Things just fell into place as soon as we started talking about making it anime. Shout out to Blacksheep media for makin this beautiful piece of art.
Pix666: Are there already detailed plans for a release of a new album – I hope you used the time of the pandemic to write lots of killer songs?
Christopher: Yes indeed!
What i can say is that our 4th album is complete and we are working on a releasedate as we speak! This is by far our best work, everyone in the band has matured and evolved so this is really exciting to release.
Pix666: Where can people buy your music and other merch?
Christopher: Music and merch at our store https://demotional.myshopify.com/ / www.demotional.net
And make sure to check us out at Spotify, Itunes & Youtube! New cool-ass lookin merch is about to hit the store!
Pix666: You only played one concert last year – the Knotfest streaming concert. Describe the feelings you‘ve had at such an extraordinary event. Is it like playing ice hockey in an empty hall, or even worse?
Christopher: Man it’s so wierd, but better than not playing at all.
I recall it kinda felt like a musicvideo, but different.
You get to play it one time, and between the songs speak to the camera and still keep your energy up. Just a damn wierd feeling. My biggest wish at this point is to do shows again for our fans. #FUCKCORONA
Pix666: The pandemic unfortunately still has us in its grip, in Germany we are even in a lockdown again. Nevertheless, is dEMOTIONAL already planning some 2021 concerts or some festivals in summer?
Christopher: That sucks man, about the same here in Sweden. Not a complete lockdown but close to it – atleast for me.
No we actually havent even started booking shows yet – we dont want to get dissapointed. But let me tell you, as soon as Corona is out of the game and we have the green light – shit’s about to go down 🙂
Pix666: What is the current situation in Sweden and especially the mood among the people?
Christopher: Well we havent been in a complete lockdown yet but new restrictions come every week or month. We do our best to hang in there. I gotta say, some people are and have been very casual about, not caring about social distancing and so on, that’s probably why we have a 3rd wave at this point.
Pix666: Since a little more than a year you are also the singer of Dead By April. How did this come about and how could this influence the work of dEMOTIONAL in the future – positively or negatively?
Christopher: Yeah! Well i got asked to hop in and do a couple of standin shows for them due to some problems they had with the former singer Jimmie.
Due to the pandemic we didnt get to do the shows but they wanted me to hang around anyway. One thing led to another very quickly, and just a few moths after this they asked me if i wanted to join the band.
To be completely honest with you, i was very close to quit music just before that. So joining Dead by april fired me up pretty good, and i guess it fired up the boys in dEMOTIONAL as well, cause things have never been better in the band. So all positive so far 🙂
Pix666: As a musician, you certainly spend most of your time creating music – but what else do you do in your free time when you want to get your mind off things – are there any interesting hobbies that you pursue?
Christopher: I was a CEO of a big clothing company, chain of stores in Sweden. Unfortunately the corona hit us so hard that we had to put down the company. I own a clothing brand called “Alan Rust” and i have another side business called Buyer’s Market – A business that helps smaller stores get better conditions.
But right now my biggest focus is my family, i have a 5 month old son that i spend most of my time with.
Pix666: Do you have any other news about dEMOTIONAL or Dead By April, that you would like to share with the fans?
Christopher: New album for dEMOTIONAL is very close and Dead By April is releasing a new song called ’Heartbeat Failing’ march 12th. Alot of fire coming so stay tuned!!
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck with your music and stay healthy!!!
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photos © by Alexander Hall
