Interview mit Alfahanne

You call your music „alfapocalyptic rock“, which is a mixture of black metal, punk and classic rock. What exited you about these genres so that you decides to fuse them into one?
It wasn´t a planned thing to do, to mix certain already existing genres or styles. What we did was just to play and create that kind of music that we thought sounded good and was representing what we like to express. Good music is good music. We didn´t care what style would come out as long as it sounded good to us. Good as in rotten, dark and dangerous as well as spellbinding, melodic and catchy, I guess…

Especially in black metal there are a lot of purists how are quite critical when „their“ genre is being mixed with other influences. Did you encounter criticism like this and if so, how do you cope with it?
As said above we didn´t have any existing genre as starting point. True is that you can find elements of black metal in our music. We didn’t get any criticism about that yet. But we think there are people signing in as black metaller, as well as fans of any other genre, that not necessarily like us. Yet.

What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses as a musician?
Hard to say. Never really thought about it. I can handle the instrument and write music suitable for ALFAHANNE. That is the only thing that counts.

Your new album is titled „Det Nya Svarta“, which means „the new black“. What exactly do you mean by that? Is it maybe even a reference to black metal?
When we started out, we had a mission to bring danger back to rock. We think that the danger is not in the image, or something you can create by make up fake ideals. Danger is an attitude and a core in the music. „Det Nya Svarta“ is that. The new darkness and danger in rock. This album is a monster and a starting point of something new. The devil is back in town.

A bit ironically, there’s even a little less traits of black metal to be heard. There are practically no screams and blast beats, which were at least occasionally used on „Blod Eld Alfa“. What’s the reason for this?
Blast beats and screams can´t be there for no reason. This time we went back to the rotten seeds of rock and we found something else to deliver on this album.

On the other hand, the tracks seem to be more varied and even a bit darker than before. Was this a conscious progress?
Yes, as you understand from the answers above we set to explore a darker, hidden side of music, ourselves and society on this album. It was a totally conscious process to jump right into the darkest place we could find.

How was the feedback on your new record and do the reactions from fans and critics matter to you?
So far mostly positive reactions. And that feels good. And yes, it matters to us. Partly because it is satisfying to get good reviews and partly because we want to grow and get a larger and more broad audience.

What are the lyrics on „Det Nya Svarta“ about?
The same as always. A „fuck you“ to the world and society and it`s stupidity. The lyrics are mirrors of what we see and how we see it. The lyrics are highly subjective.

Just like on „Blod Eld Alfa“ you brought along some guest musicians, for example Dolk from Kampfar. Why is it a habit of yours to include guest musicians on your albums and how do you decide who will be featured?
When we write songs for an album, sometimes we just got a feeling that a guest vocalist would bring an extra edge to certain songs. We always choose artists we think are creative and can contribute with something extraordinary. We are very happy with all the guests we had on all our albums and they all did a superb job.

I think the production of your new record sounds more modern and forceful than on „Blod Eld Alfa“. Was this intended and if so, why? Looking back, are you still satisfied with the sound of „Blod Eld Alfa“?
We are satisfied with all our albums, but we always strive to be better, to find a sound that we really like. This time we had a person outside the band mixing the album for the first time. And it turned out so good. Just as dark and dynamic as we wanted.

This time the artwork looks a bit less eye-catching than before. Why did you decide not to use a drawn picture like on your first two records?
We wanted a clean, dark and cold cover. that went along with the music. I think we got it spot on.

„Det Nya Svarta“ is your first release on Indie Recordings. How and why did you switch labels and what changed for you because of that?
We had released two albums on our former label and it was time to sign a new deal. We wanted to try something new, a label with not only metal that at the same time shared our vision and could give us the right support. So it was Indie that we found and we are happy with the signing.

What will be the next steps for ALFAHANNE?
Play live during the summer, release a new video, making new songs… We never stop, we keep accelerating.

To bring our interview to an end, let’s go through our traditional Metal1.info-Brainstorming:
Black’n’Roll: Not our bag but it has it´s charm.
Swedish death metal: Brings us back to our teenage times.
Studio work vs. playing gigs: Playing gigs
Politics: Suck
Favorite album: All Alfa albums
ALFAHANNE in five years: One of us is dead, one of us has gone insane, one of us has disappeared and one of us is living the dream from the money Alfa has generated.

Well, thanks again for your answers. Is there still something you want to tell our readers?
I really hope you go out and buy our new album and enjoy it. And we’re all looking forward to seeing you all at a show in the future. Hopefully sooner than later. Thanks for all the support!

Publiziert am 24. Mai 2017 von Stephan Rajchl