ECLIPSE from Sweden have arrived in the upper league of modern hard rock bands. At the latest, their mega hit „Viva La Victoria“ brought them radio airplay and also made them known in the mainstream. With „Wired“ they reached, among others, number 1 in the Swedish and number 23 in the German album charts. Band leader, singer and guitarist Erik Mårtensson talks to us in an interview about why their eighth album exudes so much party atmosphere precisely because of the pandemic, that success cannot be planned and about his passion for beer.
Hello Erik, thank you for taking time to do this how are you. How are you the days?
All is great! After almost two years we are able to start playing music live again. And we got a new album out that I’m really happy with!
In the German album charts you entered at number 23, congratulations on your best placement so far! What does that mean to you, how important are chart positions to you?
It’s fantastic. We don’t think about chart positions or anything commercial when we write and record an album. We just try to write the best possible songs that we get excited about. If we like an album then maybe others will too. That’s our philosophy.
My review of „Wired“ starts with the sentence „How would Bon Jovi sound if they still had balls in their pants in the 2020s?“. I really like Bon Jovi’s music, but I think they should be jealous of the massive amount of hooklines and power you have. What’s your opinion on that and what do you think about comparisons to Bon Jovi?
(laughs) I love it! Well, the last ten Bon Jovi albums has been somewhat a disappointment to be honest. I don’t mind the Bon Jovi comparison at all. I love their earlier stuff and it’s a band I grew up listening to as a kid. They set the standard of catchy melodic rock music in the 80’s.
I would say your music is somewhere between 80s melodic hard rock and old school heavy metal, but with a modern sound. What are your main influences nowadays or are you at a point in your career where other bands don’t influence you that much anymore?
That’s a good description. We have one foot in the old classics but one for in the here and now. It’s like heavy metal with a lot of melodies over them. Hard rock is in my blood and I’ve been listening to it since I was four years old so I know almost every trick in the book. So nowadays we always find inspiration from other places and try to incorporate it into our music. We always try to find our own way of doing things. I think we sound more and more “ECLIPSE” for every album we do.
In another interview you said that you wrote “Saturday Night (Hallelujah)” in about 20 minutes. How long do you usually work on a song until it is finished?
It’s very, very different. Some songs just kind of happen and others are a pain in the ass to complete. I can re-write a song fifteen times before I’ll be happy with it. Sometimes I can write two good songs in one day and sometimes I write for two weeks without creating anything worth to record. But that is kind of the beauty and the art of it. It’s not an industrial process, it’s art and it’s hard to control.
The lyrics to „Roses On Your Grave“ or „Dead Inside“ seem to deal with losses. What are your inspirations when writing lyrics. Are the lyrics also based on your own experiences, do the two songs have a real life connection?
It’s funny you mention those two songs. I wrote the lyrics for those two songs with a friend of mine that I’ve been writing with for ages. He just went through a really bad divorce and it was really reflected in the lyrics of those two songs. So it’s real life experience for sure but thankfully not my life at the moment. But I always try to find words that reflects the mood in the melodies and the music. I think that is just as or even more important than the actual lyrics. Sometimes I can come up with really good and clever lyrics but it just don’t work at all with the song and sometimes a real nonsense lyric can really enhance and make total sense combined with music. Quite interesting.
How does songwriting work for you in general, has the pandemic changed anything for you or influenced your writing in any way?
Not really. But I think with “Wired” it made us write more energetic and uplifting songs than usual. We made the perfect ECLIPSE party album for the post covid world.
You can sing along to almost every chorus on „Wired“ after the first listen, the songs are really incredibly catchy. Is it always the goal in songwriting to make the songs as accessible as possible?
I love catchy songs. I hate listening to songs when you don’t even recognize the chorus. When I hear the second verse and realize the part I thought were the bridge actually was the chorus but I never got it. We’re not trying to write hits. We just write the stuff we wanna hear live with a beer in one hand and a raised fist while screaming the chorus with the rest of the crowd.
Do you plan to make a balanced record before songwriting? Do you say to yourselves „We need a ballad, a midtempo song, a track that is a bit heavier, then something for the radio…“?
We have tried but always failed. You can make all the plans in the world but in the end it’s all about the songs that comes out and gets us excited. So we start writing and after we’ve completed like seven or eight song we get a feel for where the album is heading. And when you have a lot of songs written you can start focusing on what the album needs. If it’s mostly mid-tempo then we need to focus on writing up-tempo or vice versa.
„Ode To Joy“ fits really well into „Twilight“, but has been used many times by other rock bands and seems a bit banal at first. Why did you decide to use this piece?
We did it during the recording of the demo and we started to laugh as it fitted perfectly. It’s very unexpected. If we thought, it was fun I guess others will too. But it was not intentionally to get people talk about it. It was just a fun spontaneous idea we did that afternoon that made it all the way to the record.
„Viva La Victoria“ is by far your most popular track. Why do you think this song in particular has become such a huge success and which song from „Wired“ could be similarly successful?
I have no idea why that song and not another ECLIPSE song. But it has all the ingredients of ECLIPSE. Catchy riff and melody with a slightly folky touch, very melodic verses and a bombastic chorus everyone will understand and instantly sing along with. We’re not that bothered with repeating the success. If it happens again it’s great but it’s nothing we focus on. It may happen again or never.
I noticed that the CD and vinyl releases has different track lists. Why did you shake that up? Is there a “correct” order for the album?
The way you listen to music on streaming and physical is very different. And a vinyl has two opening tracks and two closing tracks (Side A&B). So it was fun to change the songs around. But the short answer is “why not”.
The cover artwork with the instruments on the foggy stage seems to scream „We finally want to play live again!“ What was the idea behind it?
It was taken during the video shoot for the song “Saturday Night (Hallelujah)” and it just looked so good and it really represented what a rock band is all about. All photos in the artwork are actually from that one day.
In August you played at the Alcatraz Festival in Belgium, the pictures and videos from the festival were directly surreal – no masks, no distance, everything seems so normal. Here in Germany, unfortunately, all the big festivals were canceled in the summer. How was it for you to finally stand on a big stage in front of all the people again after the long time?
It was fantastic. I was so nervous before the gig as it was 17 months between the last gig and the Alcatraz gig. But as soon as we run up on stage we were back in the saddle again. But the most fantastic experience was not the actual gig. It was seeing all these people hanging out together, drinking beer and having a good time again. I stayed at the festival having drinks and watching bands until it closed that night. I never knew when I would get that chance again!
In the video for „Roses On Your Grave“ you play in a small club, in the video for „Twilight“ you play in front of the large open-air audience from Alcatraz Festival. What do you prefer and why?
Both situations are good. In the small club you get the immediate connection with the people right in front of you. Small moves, chat between songs make it more intimate. Bigger festivals mean bigger poses, more running around and more crowd pleasing approach. I love and feel pretty comfortable in both situations.
You released you own “Wired Lager” beer. How did that came about and how have you been involved in the production?
It all started with me saying that the song “Saturday Night” would be great in a beer commercial but we ended up making our own beer instead. Even better! I’m a big beer nerd and I’m really into different kinds of beer. All from Lager to sour Belgian Lambic. My brother is also a beer brewer and I’ve been involved in a lot of his beers as well so I could really work together with the brewery that did our beer. I was there several times during the process, and we discussed malts and hops and everything in between. It’s a small craft brewery not far from where I live called “The Beer Factory”. Only available in Sweden at the moment I’m afraid.
Fozzy’s Chris Jericho said this year that he is in sorrow of future festival headlining acts when the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden or Judas Priest are gone. What’s your point on that? Do you have some bands in mind that could possibly fill the spot one day?
It’s just the way it is and nothing anyone can do anything about. Maybe festivals will be smaller but I think the rock scene is fantastic these days with a lot of great bands putting out great albums. Maybe the arena days of hard rock might come to an end but does it really matter? I’ve been fortunate to see most of the giants live. And it’s also up the whole business including bands, agents, record companies, festival arrangers and most importantly: the crowd who makes the hard rock scene stay alive. When the old headliners are gone let’s see who will step up and take their place. If any.
You traveled a lot in your career with ECLIPSE and all your other bands. Which are your favorite spots and where do you want to go you haven’t been so far?
I want to travel to every country! I love to see new places and if I have the chance and time I always travel a day in advanve to gigs to see more of the places we visit. But we haven’t played South America. That would be great and every one tells me it’s mental to play live over there. Japan is always great as well. But playing rock clubs and festivals in Germany is fantastic! But Europe is really the stronghold for hard rock music in the world and we should be really proud of that.
Your bands ECLIPSE, W.E.T. and Nordic Union are all quite in the same direction. What music do you like besides Hard Rock, what are you favorite bands and maybe inspirations outside your genre?
I like a lot of music. I listen to quite a lot of classical music but mostly it’s in the rock genre. That’s my meat and potatoes genre. Love bands like The Killers, Gang of Youths but it’s all from Slayer to Tom Petty in my stereo. I have a big vinyl collection of over 700 albums and a shit load of CD’s. But like most people it’s a lot of streaming these days. If I really like an album I tend to buy a physical copy as well. I know it means a lot to artists as streaming pay so, so little to the bands. All the music ever made in the world for only 9,99 Euro a month is too good to be true I’m afraid.
Let’s conclude with our traditional brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following words?
Streaming: Listened to Gang of Youths – “Go farther Into Lightness“ today. Great record.
Funniest moment on tour: When our guitar player got too drunk after a gig and thought it was a fun idea walking around the hotel with a powder fire extinguisher and spray a whole floor. He’s not particulary proud of it but it really makes me laugh!
Books: I’m reading “For Those I Loved” by Martin Grey at the moment. Written in 1971 but fantastic.
Nature: We played live in Norway this weekend and I must say they have a spectacular nature. Other than that I love downhill skiing and hiking in the mountains.
Something that makes every bad day better: Love and cold beer.
ECLIPSE in ten years: Making better albums than ever and continue to tour the world and meet fantastic people and fans!
Thank you once again for your time ! The last words are all yours. Is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Thanks for getting all the way through this interview and I can’t wait to go out on proper tours again. Until then, stay safe and drink champagne!
27. Dezember 2021 Stefan Popp
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