Interview with Joakim Montelius
re-shaping their sky (part two)
"The word skyshaper can have many meanings; it’s open for anyone’s interpretation. To me it means that you shape your own sky, making your dreams coming true - which doesn’t always work."
In the first part of the interview Joakim Montelius from Swedish band Covenant revealed many things about Covenant’s new album “Skyshaper” (which will be released in the first week of March), the happenings around Covenant since the release of their 2002 “Northern light” album and much more. In the second part of the interview Joakim Montelius reveals even more about the current tour, the cancelled single “Beat the Noise”, the band’s 20th anniversary and the future of the band from Helsingborg, Sweden.
We were talking about new adventures after all the ups and downs between “Northern Light” and the new album “Skyshaper”. This leads us to the forthcoming tour – what can we expect from your new show?
Montelius: “Well, we’re just checking will work out as planned but you can be sure we will try something new. We will do low-tech things with high tech, though I don’t want to give away too much. We won’t have videos as a backdrop like last time. Everyone has videos these days, and I actually think that the Northern Light show didn’t suit the mood of all of the songs, to be honest. So we are going to try something different, very simple but hopefully effective, and not some sort of a VNV Nation thing. Not that this would be a bad thing but we want a unique show. But I really don’t want to give away too much…”
Your European tour will start way ahead of the release of “Skyshaper”. Do you think that this is a bit problematic as people don’t know the new stuff yet? And how many songs from the new album will you perform?
Montelius: “I don’t think that it will be a big problem that most people will not know the new songs when the tour starts. After all it’s not in our hands that the album comes out later. We will play all of the new songs at some point but not all of them at the same show. That is, we will pick 5-6 songs from Skyshaper for a particular show and mix them with a lot of our old classics. It will be interesting to see how people are going to the new songs! And there will be a few surprises in the set too, like reworked versions of old songs.”
But you will continue to be on the road after the release of the album?
Montelius: “Sure. There will be many more shows over the year, including festival gigs like at the Arvika. But nothing’s really confirmed yet. So keep checking our site!”
You have just released your new single “Ritual Noise” – rumours say that some other song was planned for a single release in last autumn which was cancelled. Which song was it?
Montelius: “Well, this particular track is not even on “Skyshaper”! It’s called “Beat the Noise” and it’s a quite different track. Not exactly Industrial, but quite experimental and noisy – in Covenant terms – and it has quite an avant-garde touch. But these days, record labels are quite hesitant to try something different with single releases. You need a club single to catch attention, you know?”
So the track will never see the light of day?
Montelius: “It will! I’m sure it will be released in some form, maybe as an EP or even as part of a new album – if there will be one! “Beat the Noise” is not the usual kind of song; it’s a very long piece of music in 5 chapters. So an EP with “Beat the Noise parts 1-5” with some additional stuff would be cool, but these are things which are yet to be discussed.”
By the way, I happen to like the versions on the EP of “Ritual Noise” much more than the album version. I love those tribal drums, and they are much more prominently featured on the EP versions. Especially the “Version S” is excellent! The album version on the other hand is a bit lengthy…
Montelius: “The album version is the oldest version, at least of those which are released. I wouldn’t say that any of the versions are better or worse than the other ones, they’re just different. But in fact the versions on the single were recorded later than the album version. And there will be another version of “Ritual Noise” on the second disc of the limited version of “Skyshaper”, as well as some other exclusive stuff.”
What means “Skyshaper” anyway? Is there a concept or a basic idea behind it?
Montelius: “The word skyshaper can have many meanings; it’s open for anyone’s interpretation. To me it means that you shape your own sky, making your dreams coming true - which doesn’t always work. I like this funny idea of taking a cloud from the sky and building it into something else – a little sheep for example [laughs] – but when you put it back onto the sky it’s just a cloud again. This may sound a bit silly but it is what happens often to your dreams. They come true, but just for a moment. This is something that is represented in the art work. Many people said that the picture on the front sleeve has some sort of religious feel to it. Well, we’re of course not promoting any specific religion but I think that’s right. The art work has an iconography that reminds on religious themes. It’s by purpose a bit naïve and simple but not in a too pathetic way. The word skyshaper and the art work express something that many people derive from religion – hope!”
And I hope there will be many many Covenant releases in the future. You just mentioned the possibility of a new album including “Beat the Noise”. On the other hand, a minute before you seemed to be not so sure if there will be another Covenant album after “Skyshaper”!? Why that???
Montelius: “Because you never know! We weren’t sure after Northern Light! At one point I was sure that there won’t be another album after Northern Light – that was when I wrote “The World Is Growing Loud”, as I told you before. I’m sure you are aware of the problems the music biz has to deal wit regarding illegal downloads and decreasing record sales. And that’s just one among many reasons. But I don’t want to sound too negative. The future seems to be quite bright for Covenant at the moment. Did you know that this year we will celebrate 20 years of Covenant on April the 14th? Back then I would never have imagined being in Covenant 20 years later!”
20 years, that’s quite a long time! I’ve always thought that Covenant started in the early 90s, or maybe in the late 80s…
Montelius: „We started in 1986 but not under the name Covenant. At that time many other people were involved, and we literally tried any kind of music from pop to pure noise. We were playing around with things. Clas, Eskil and me turned out to be the core of the project and formed Covenant. In the early 90s we had our first release on Memento Materia, and then German label “Off Beat” showed interest in our music. At that time, Germany was for us this huuuge country - the Promised Land - for our kind of music as Germany has always had a huge scene for it. So we were quite excited and signed to “Off Beat” – and then we were stuck in the Goth/Dark-scene!” [laughs]
Do you have a problem with that?
Montelius: „No, not really. After all many of our roots are associated with that scene - like Front 242. But over the years we developed and were influenced a lot by other genres. We feel a bit like strangers in today’s Goth/EBM scene. But that’s okay, we love our audience and it’s no disadvantage to be a little different from the others. The only problem is that it is quite hard for us to reach out for other audiences and scenes….”
Yeah, I always thought that I would love to see Covenant perform at such festivals as Melt or Hurricane, sharing the stage with bands like Underworld or Röyksopp rather then Blutengel and so on. I think your music would be absolutely appropriate for the Electronica/Dance scene.
Montelius: “Thank you. And in fact it would be great! But it’s hard if you are labelled as an EBM band from the Dark scene, there are too many prejudices. But we had remixes from people like Thomas P. Heckmann, Christian Morgenstern or Ellen Alien. And we have fans from their scene coming to our shows, too! That’s fabulous. And in other countries the scenes are a little different anyway. In Germany we will perhaps stick with the Goth/EBM scene forever [laughs] but who cares? We’re proud of our audience, and very thankful that so many people followed us all the way!"
So, let’s drink on another 20 years of Covenant! What do you think will you do in 20 years time?
Montelius: “I will hopefully retire!” [laughs]
With a big smile and in a good mood Joakim Montelius said goodbye to do some telephone interviews – telling the world that his band will release a great new album and hit the road for a headlining tour soon. It won’t be the last time that he’s doing this, and the huge Covenant fan base is up for more sonic adventures with this Swedish threesome.
And if they play in a town near you, make sure that you won’t miss this fabulous band live on stage! They’re just on the road!
Upcoming Dates
03.03.2006 Tivoli SE-Helsingborg – official Release Event with Live Performance
24.03.2006 Sala Copernico E-Madrid
25.03.2006 Sala Bikini E-Barcelona
22.04.2006 Universal D.O.G. D-Lahr – Dark Dance Treffen
15.07.2006 Arvika Festival SE-Arvika
We were talking about new adventures after all the ups and downs between “Northern Light” and the new album “Skyshaper”. This leads us to the forthcoming tour – what can we expect from your new show?
Montelius: “Well, we’re just checking will work out as planned but you can be sure we will try something new. We will do low-tech things with high tech, though I don’t want to give away too much. We won’t have videos as a backdrop like last time. Everyone has videos these days, and I actually think that the Northern Light show didn’t suit the mood of all of the songs, to be honest. So we are going to try something different, very simple but hopefully effective, and not some sort of a VNV Nation thing. Not that this would be a bad thing but we want a unique show. But I really don’t want to give away too much…”
Your European tour will start way ahead of the release of “Skyshaper”. Do you think that this is a bit problematic as people don’t know the new stuff yet? And how many songs from the new album will you perform?
Montelius: “I don’t think that it will be a big problem that most people will not know the new songs when the tour starts. After all it’s not in our hands that the album comes out later. We will play all of the new songs at some point but not all of them at the same show. That is, we will pick 5-6 songs from Skyshaper for a particular show and mix them with a lot of our old classics. It will be interesting to see how people are going to the new songs! And there will be a few surprises in the set too, like reworked versions of old songs.”
But you will continue to be on the road after the release of the album?
Montelius: “Sure. There will be many more shows over the year, including festival gigs like at the Arvika. But nothing’s really confirmed yet. So keep checking our site!”
You have just released your new single “Ritual Noise” – rumours say that some other song was planned for a single release in last autumn which was cancelled. Which song was it?
Montelius: “Well, this particular track is not even on “Skyshaper”! It’s called “Beat the Noise” and it’s a quite different track. Not exactly Industrial, but quite experimental and noisy – in Covenant terms – and it has quite an avant-garde touch. But these days, record labels are quite hesitant to try something different with single releases. You need a club single to catch attention, you know?”
So the track will never see the light of day?
Montelius: “It will! I’m sure it will be released in some form, maybe as an EP or even as part of a new album – if there will be one! “Beat the Noise” is not the usual kind of song; it’s a very long piece of music in 5 chapters. So an EP with “Beat the Noise parts 1-5” with some additional stuff would be cool, but these are things which are yet to be discussed.”
By the way, I happen to like the versions on the EP of “Ritual Noise” much more than the album version. I love those tribal drums, and they are much more prominently featured on the EP versions. Especially the “Version S” is excellent! The album version on the other hand is a bit lengthy…
Montelius: “The album version is the oldest version, at least of those which are released. I wouldn’t say that any of the versions are better or worse than the other ones, they’re just different. But in fact the versions on the single were recorded later than the album version. And there will be another version of “Ritual Noise” on the second disc of the limited version of “Skyshaper”, as well as some other exclusive stuff.”
What means “Skyshaper” anyway? Is there a concept or a basic idea behind it?
Montelius: “The word skyshaper can have many meanings; it’s open for anyone’s interpretation. To me it means that you shape your own sky, making your dreams coming true - which doesn’t always work. I like this funny idea of taking a cloud from the sky and building it into something else – a little sheep for example [laughs] – but when you put it back onto the sky it’s just a cloud again. This may sound a bit silly but it is what happens often to your dreams. They come true, but just for a moment. This is something that is represented in the art work. Many people said that the picture on the front sleeve has some sort of religious feel to it. Well, we’re of course not promoting any specific religion but I think that’s right. The art work has an iconography that reminds on religious themes. It’s by purpose a bit naïve and simple but not in a too pathetic way. The word skyshaper and the art work express something that many people derive from religion – hope!”
And I hope there will be many many Covenant releases in the future. You just mentioned the possibility of a new album including “Beat the Noise”. On the other hand, a minute before you seemed to be not so sure if there will be another Covenant album after “Skyshaper”!? Why that???
Montelius: “Because you never know! We weren’t sure after Northern Light! At one point I was sure that there won’t be another album after Northern Light – that was when I wrote “The World Is Growing Loud”, as I told you before. I’m sure you are aware of the problems the music biz has to deal wit regarding illegal downloads and decreasing record sales. And that’s just one among many reasons. But I don’t want to sound too negative. The future seems to be quite bright for Covenant at the moment. Did you know that this year we will celebrate 20 years of Covenant on April the 14th? Back then I would never have imagined being in Covenant 20 years later!”
20 years, that’s quite a long time! I’ve always thought that Covenant started in the early 90s, or maybe in the late 80s…
Montelius: „We started in 1986 but not under the name Covenant. At that time many other people were involved, and we literally tried any kind of music from pop to pure noise. We were playing around with things. Clas, Eskil and me turned out to be the core of the project and formed Covenant. In the early 90s we had our first release on Memento Materia, and then German label “Off Beat” showed interest in our music. At that time, Germany was for us this huuuge country - the Promised Land - for our kind of music as Germany has always had a huge scene for it. So we were quite excited and signed to “Off Beat” – and then we were stuck in the Goth/Dark-scene!” [laughs]
Do you have a problem with that?
Montelius: „No, not really. After all many of our roots are associated with that scene - like Front 242. But over the years we developed and were influenced a lot by other genres. We feel a bit like strangers in today’s Goth/EBM scene. But that’s okay, we love our audience and it’s no disadvantage to be a little different from the others. The only problem is that it is quite hard for us to reach out for other audiences and scenes….”
Yeah, I always thought that I would love to see Covenant perform at such festivals as Melt or Hurricane, sharing the stage with bands like Underworld or Röyksopp rather then Blutengel and so on. I think your music would be absolutely appropriate for the Electronica/Dance scene.
Montelius: “Thank you. And in fact it would be great! But it’s hard if you are labelled as an EBM band from the Dark scene, there are too many prejudices. But we had remixes from people like Thomas P. Heckmann, Christian Morgenstern or Ellen Alien. And we have fans from their scene coming to our shows, too! That’s fabulous. And in other countries the scenes are a little different anyway. In Germany we will perhaps stick with the Goth/EBM scene forever [laughs] but who cares? We’re proud of our audience, and very thankful that so many people followed us all the way!"
So, let’s drink on another 20 years of Covenant! What do you think will you do in 20 years time?
Montelius: “I will hopefully retire!” [laughs]
With a big smile and in a good mood Joakim Montelius said goodbye to do some telephone interviews – telling the world that his band will release a great new album and hit the road for a headlining tour soon. It won’t be the last time that he’s doing this, and the huge Covenant fan base is up for more sonic adventures with this Swedish threesome.
And if they play in a town near you, make sure that you won’t miss this fabulous band live on stage! They’re just on the road!
Upcoming Dates
03.03.2006 Tivoli SE-Helsingborg – official Release Event with Live Performance
24.03.2006 Sala Copernico E-Madrid
25.03.2006 Sala Bikini E-Barcelona
22.04.2006 Universal D.O.G. D-Lahr – Dark Dance Treffen
15.07.2006 Arvika Festival SE-Arvika
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