When a mysterious woman from another world appears to you in a dream and warns humanity about where it’s headed in the future, it’s hardly a good sign. Martin Erikson, for his part known as Eurodance musician „E-Type“, has turned this dream into his very own metal album without any genre boundaries. DAMPF is the name of his band and „The Arrival“ has become a completely independent and hardly comparable album. We talk to him about the journey from dream to finished record, about tolerance and acceptance in the metal scene as well as differences and similarities between metal and dance.
Hello Martin, thank you for taking time to do this interview. How are you these days?
Hi, thanks, I’m fine. These are exciting times and I am glad that this project sees the light of day. I hope you are well and enjoying the summer and thx for allowing me to be a small part of metal1.
How did you come up with the idea for DAMPF?
The idea of making a metal record, that is, the way I want it to sound, has been around for many years because I have always worked with metal musicians and flirted with hard rock in my productions, but the time has never been enough. I started writing music for DAMPF in the autumn of 2019 as a pastime and when the pandemic paralyzed the world and my calendar, suddenly there was time and I could focus 100% on making an entire album. From the beginning, the main focus was on writing and producing an album with influences from my whole life as a music and metal listener and with the musicians and talents in my immediate circle. And thanks to Jonah T from H.E.A.T. who both helped to produce but also participated in and wrote on the record, it eventually became a reality.
The description on your Facebook page says, „The metal group DAMPF’s task is to visualize and perform the important message and sad experience from another world.“ It sounds kind of spiritual. How is that meant and what can you tell me about that message and experience?
When it became clear that I would really be allowed to make a record, the thoughts very soon fell on the crazy dreams I had about the woman from another world who came to our world to warn us where we were going. She empathetically told the story and showed pictures where she came from. A mixture of today’s Mariupol and the moon. And this was 2 years ago. Whether it was a sick dream or not, it feels right that the songs on “The Arrival” are about how wrong it can be if we only think of ourselves, are not kind to each other and only live for our own gain. Or think that our own religion is the only right one. Imagine if the world’s weapons budgets were to be put on our old people, our schools and to bring water and food to the world. At least one year. Then the woman from the dream would be satisfied with our humanity. A little pretentious but still a good dream.
DAMPF is a really unusual band name as it means „steam“ in German. How did you come up with the name and what does it mean to you?
I did the first songs in German and quickly named the band .. or the project DAMPF after some natural phenomenon that existed on earth long before man began to destroy our nature. Preferably a word that can be understood in both English and German. In the meeting with the woman Eye in my strange dream, we were surrounded by a dense water fog, as in Iceland. So .. STEAM felt natural. Since then, I have been fired as a German lyricist writer in the group because my German is so bad but the name remains and the dream of one day having the world’s largest steam making machine on stage remains.
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With „Steinhaufen“ there is also a track with German lyrics – but it rather doesn’t sound like you know the words you are singing. Are your German skills really that bad and what is the idea behind the song?
Since I wrote the text myself, I know what I want to sing, but my pronunciation probably leaves a lot to be desired. „Steinhaufen“ remains from the beginning of my songwriting for DAMPF when I tried to do all the songs in German but after the translation into English it did not sound good so we kept parts of the lyrics in German. Bad pronunciation or not. According to google translate, “Steinhaufen” means Sten Röse in Swedish. Cairn in English. And we love old cairns. And new. We believe that cairns are nature’s, both animals and humans, a way to show that they are united in their quest to preserve the old pure way of dealing with the earth’s fruits and environment. The world is bleeding red. So I thank, for example, the incredible Handel’s work „Messiah“ for great inspiration, but I will probably stick to my poor English in the future. (laughs)
You are known for your Eurodance music, but you used to play with the thrashers Hexenhaus. What part do rock and metal take in your life, what does music mean to you?
I can probably love and appreciate almost all kinds of music that exist on earth, some varieties more than others but I do not have some people’s thinking and will to categorize and put them all in different compartments. I hear hard metal in both Beethoven and Bach and the world’s best euro dance song in “Run To The Hills” with Maiden. Good music for me is good melodies, awesome rhythms, beautiful chords and heartfelt singing. All music genres carry fantastic and useless compositions, but what I like hates someone else. And vice versa. Since I got the single „The Six Teens“ with Sweet from my big sister when I was very young, rock has etched itself in my heart forever. But when I started writing music, to my surprise it became something completely different. There is an enormous force in good dance music as it does in, for example, „The topmost violent god“ with Vicious Art.
Did you make an exact plan beforehand how „The Arrival“ should sound, or did you just do what you felt like doing and didn’t set yourself any exact limits?
Once I got in touch with Jona T and we decided that we would make the record together, I probably sent him about 40 demo songs. Then I asked him to produce only the ones he liked so that he did not just do it for me. Imagine being on stage with me, I said. And now he is. But I really wrote the songs I like myself and since we had no audience there was no one to impress or convince so I wrote for a year or so and Jona T sorted. Hugely different and fun way of working. Only March is the limit. Longing for the next record.
In my review I wrote „DAMPF doesn’t care about conventions, role models or genre boundaries“. Was it your plan from the beginning to create something new, something unique? The poppy „Twilight Eyes“ or „From The E-ternity“ as a power metal song with growls for example are very original.
I really like your words that we ignore genre boundaries, thank you for that. I have had the pleasure of sometimes reading that DAMPF does not sound like anything else, for better or worse, but for me it’s all good. That’s a good grade. To be able to participate and do something that may sound a little new in a jungle of thousands of new hard rock records is dizzying. A great feeling. My plan was just to make my dream come true but I had a feeling that the record would probably not sound like other bands because my journey as a musician and the journey of the songs has been so different from many others. And then the collision with Jona T´’s sound image. This can be the beginning of something really nice … or the end. The future may show.
I’ve read several reviews that slam „The Arrival“ because the music is different and has a lot of pop, electro and dance elements and therefore is not „true“. How do you deal with such reactions and how did you perceive the general response?
Again, rather that they think it sounds different than that it sounds like some other band. It’s my nightmare that there is a band that sounds the same as DAMPF. Then I resign because they may be better. (laughs) DAMPF is a band with many influences from pop and electro, if you do not like the influences you have problems, not me. Read that Metallica found influences in Bob Marley. Totally my cup of tea. Every time someone has to teach me what true metal is, I get a good laugh. I think the general reception has been very nice and above expectations. I knew there would be pop lovers who think it’s too much metal and rockers who think it’s too poppy. I thrive between the chairs and would never do it differently.
The metal scene also stands for tolerance and openness and always preaches these values – until something else like DAMPF comes along and thereby shows another side of the scene. How do you see that?
This is a very interesting observation. The sermons fall a little flat when the tolerance does not apply to all. As if the openness apply to a certain limit. As long as it is hard rock in their opinion, tolerance applies. But it gets boring when someone thinks they know what is what. As an unelected judge. No one can say what is good, bad or true just what they personally like. Or not. I think some are intimidated by new sounds in an old genre. They are afraid that the old will be eroded and disappear. Which will never happen. New bands and soundscapes just continue to build on the hard rock’s fine old foundation.
Metal and dance music obviously have many differences – but what similarities would you find?
I would say that all good dance and metal songs, in my ears, have common features such as swing, rhythm, a good melody, accompaniment. So from my aspects, both genres are branches on the same tree. But missing the swing, the song is dead no matter what type of music it is. A bad dance song can stand still while another death metal song swings so I want to dance. Or headbang, at least. Even sober.
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You invited some well-known guest musicians from the metal scene, how did you choose them and how did the contact come about?
From the start, the main focus was on songwriting and producing an album with influences from my whole life listening to different styles of music and with the musicians and talents in my immediate circle. Old friends I’ve met during the journey. Then it was surprisingly easy to bring them for guest performances where it needed to be spiced up. As I usually do on all my projects. I’m a big fan of Amon Amarth since old but I did not know Johan before but was very happy that he agreed to join. Tommy from Sabaton also turned out to be a fantastic person, I just knew he played like a god. Frederick from Bathory and Pontus and David from Hammerfall are old friends who I assumed, and hoped, would help with the project.
What will happen next with DAMPF? Do you see DAMPF more as a studio project or do you want it to become a real band?
Initially it was definitely a studio project but since I played live all my life there was of course the intention to one day take this out on the roads. Now we have a small tour of rock festivals lined up for the summer of 22 in Finland and Sweden and we have just started rehearsing the songs. Very fun and exciting. I obviously have the hope that one day this will be a genuine and solid band, but only the future will tell. As I said, we are a very good bunch of musicians for the summer and I hope that many want to stay when we outline the future this autumn. Nothing is as fun and rewarding as playing live, so I definitely hope we will be more than a studio project in the future.
Let’s conclude with our traditional brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following words?
Current favorite album: Still listening to Ghost´s “Impera” in the car
Streaming or CD / Vinyl: Lamb Of Gods new single “Nevermore”.
Religion: Spiritism, nature and some good Christian values.
Tolerance: 11/10.
Best Movie- / Series- / Book-Universe: “Taboo” on Netflix.
Best way to relax: By a dark and quiet river with good cheese, my woman and a bottle of Burgundy.
Something that makes every bad day better: News about the defense spirit of the Ukrainian people.
DAMPF in ten years: On a world tour with so many trucks that all our water nymphs, large bird nests and heavy steam creators can come along.
Thank you once again for your time! The last words are all yours.
I am so grateful and happy that DAMPF’s first full-length is available to listen to and I long to show the world more sides of our little band. Which countries will we have the honor to visit? Is there a world left when the war ends? But the most important is to have fun and make Eye and our audience proud of us. Nothing is more important than that! Hope you like The Arrival and do not forget that if you do, you are already part of DAMPF. Welcome!
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26. Juni 2022 Stefan Popp
Dieses Interview wurde per E-Mail geführt.
Zur besseren Lesbarkeit wurden Smilies ersetzt.
Wunderbares Interview, in dem ich meine Anregungen aus der Review wiederfinde und vom Meister – ich habe das Gefühl, er ist als Dance-Musiker mehr Metalhead als so mancher True-Geselle – eine Antwort kriege! Ein großes Dankeschön an dieser Stelle.
Sehr gerne und vielen Dank auch dir für deine Rückmeldung. Es kommt wirklich gut durch, dass er das Projekt mit Begeisterung angegangen ist und er über den verbohrten, selbsternannten Szenewächtern steht.