written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hello Christofer. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well?
Christofer: I’m doing great. I live on Malta and we have to wear masks on public places, but other than that live is now pretty much as it used to be. I anyway spend most of the time in the studio or the office.
Pix666: You have been on stage with Therion for over 30 years now – but what was your inspiration to become a musician? Who are your idols?
Christofer: Accept and Judas Priest where my big heroes growing up. Iron Maiden, Saxon and other heavy metal bands were also very important to me, but my biggest heroes were K.K. Downing and Wolf Hoffmann, so I was dreaming about becoming a heavy metal star one day and play a Gibson Flying V like they did. Well, at least I got the flying-V guitar right, ha ha!
About the time I started to play an instrument, Metallica ands Slayer were big inspirations as well.
Pix666: What have been the greatest and most unforgettable experiences in your time as a musician?
Christofer: Top 3 greatest moments:
- First time I saw a guy I didn’t know wearing a Therion T-shirt.
- When the record company called me up to tell me the Theli album was selling like hell. It was our break though album and the end of 9 years of poor record sales, personal financial problems and frustrations with not being able to do what I want musically due to budget reasons.
- When we played in Moscow 2018 and they streamed out live concert up in space to the International Space Station. It was the International Space Day and one of the kosmonauts there is a metal head. What an unforgettable honour!
Pix666: January this year the video clip ‚Tuonela‘ was released – a really great clip. Where did you shoot the clip? Who was part of the team and were there any complications during the shoot due to certain Corona restrictions?
Christofer: It was shot in Chile by Carlos Toro that we have worked with for over 10 years. Due to restrictions we could not fly the members in to do a clip, so we decided to do all the clips in story mode without the band.
Pix666: In this song Marko, the former singer and bassist of Nightwish sings with you – how did the collaboration come about?
Christofer: I wanted a bit rougher voice than Thomas for parts of the song and Marko was the singer that fit into the concept. I’ve enjoyed his vocals since the 80’s with his band Tarot.
Pix666: The new album ‚Leviathan‘ was released about one month ago. In which versions can the fans buy your album??
Christofer: Besides the regular CD, there’s a limited Digipak with bonus tracks called the producers Edition.
Pix666: What is special about your 17th album – are there any major differences to the previous albums?
Christofer: It’s the first album we have done where we tried to please the fans. We did a totally free ahnd experimentation forn each album up til now, but after beloved Antichrist I felt I did everything I wanted to do, so I thought it would be a challenge (and a challenge is always good) to try to make a record where we try to catch the vibe of Therions most catchy tunes and try to write more of them in a similar spirit.
Pix666: In summer you will be playing at some festivals – but the pandemic unfortunately still has us in its grip, in Germany we are even in a lockdown again. Do you think and hope that everything will take place as planned?
Christofer: The only thing we can say for sure is that no one knows anything. There is of course a hope that it will be possible to play these festivals, that’s why the promoters advertise them. But in the end it will be up to each country to decide what rules and regulations they will have. I am pretty confident the festival in Russia will happen for sure. For the other festivals my guess is a good or bad as anyones.
Pix666: What is the current situation regarding the pandemic in Sweden and especially the mood among the people?
Christofer: I don’t live in Sweden anymore, I live on Malta. Here people are pretty chilled. You wear a mask in public spaces, but other than that things are not so far from normal.
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? 
Christofer: I own a donkey that we rescued, which I’m taking an hour walk with every day. Other than that I read and fix things on our new house we just bought here.
Pix666: Do you have any other news, that you would like to share with the fans?
Christofer: We are recording Leviathan II at a good speed. It should be ready for release in 2022.
Pix666: Thank you so much and good luck for the future.
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