Interview with Tom S. Englund (vocalist, guitarist, founder) from Evergrey
It is a summer to celebrate for Swedish Metal band EVERGREY. First their new album ‘Architects Of A New Weave’ is released and on top of that they support IRON MAIDEN on two shows: Paris (45,000 capacity) and Amsterdam (17,000 capacity). In between they perform in the Boerderij, Zoetermeer a small town in the Netherlands. Time to sit down and catch up before the show.
Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: On a windy day I am meeting frontman Tom S. Englund for an interview. A big orange door and a small stair leads to the backstage where he sits down on a black couch, dressed in black even the baseball cap. He looks fit and relaxed, smiling now and then.
Tom:Crazy experience we had! There are no words to describe it. A dream coming true. Luckily, we get to do one more, so we’re concentrating on doing our best. Making sure the MAIDEN fans get the best of us. I am a huge Iron MAIDEN fan myself. At least Steve Harris – bass player and founder - saw us that night. It is a big stage, so we have to calculate more about the movements. The crew did well and the crowd responded great: singing and clapping along. The statistics on Spotify doubled immediately. For me it’s so cool that Harris saw us! They are still here, better than ever.
RoD: The new album reached the Swedish charts on number one.
Tom:It is a good week for us. It keeps on going till 12th December: touring the globe like Australia, Asia, America, Canada and back to Europe. We bring a different setlist then. For people that never heard of us, they want to hear the latest songs so we’ve put 4 new singles in our set.
RoD: After three decades you can pick and choose a lot!
Tom: It is album fifteen now and IRON MAIDEN did seventeen, so we are not that far behind anymore (laughs). That is what we did since 1996.
RoD: Pretty diverse venues on this tour.
Tom: I like the contrast between the biggest shows and the small ones. Here and yesterday in Uden (very well pronounced) there is obviously less pressure. It is our own timing, on the IRON MAIDEN show it is scheduled minute by minute. If you are too big to do the small things, you are too small to do the big things.
RoD: EVERGREY the name of the band reflects suddenly a bit more. Life itself isn’t black and white. After all those albums there is life reflection. It has ups and downs as well, like the new album.
Tom: It always was about that. We sing about life, not about dragons. I don’t think about the name that much anymore to be honest. It is an established name nowadays; it stood the test of time.
RoD: You worked with producer Vikram Shankar. EVERGREY fans know him from ‘Silent Skies’ and ‘Redemption’. Also, he is the new keyboard player from WITHIN TEMPTATION since 2025.
Tom: After drummer and co-producer Jonas Ekdahl left the band in 2024, it was an easy decision to ask Vikram. Most of us in EVERGREY were positive about bringing someone new to our sound.
RoD: How do you reflect on the EVERGREY albums?
Tom:It is like a diary. Every album sounds like how our life was at the time and today it is like this. Our music will reflect that very prominently. Maybe the next album will be very complicated with only 18-minute songs - he starts to laugh - I don’t think so, but you never know. Looking back, it is a time stamp on every part of my life. I like it, we’ve always been honest and sincere about who we are and what we sing about.
RoD: There is a new guest appearing on the album, Mikael Stanne from DARK TRANQUILITY.
Tom: He is a good friend, we tour together, knowing him over 30 years. I had this song and then heard his voice suddenly. Obviously, he is not growling on it. He did it very honourably. We had more collaborations with musicians over the years. It is always great to step into their world and their fans, and vice versa.
RoD: The song ‘Burning Flame’ represents the Gothenburg sound almost literally.
Tom: It reflects on a colleague that died of cancer last year, Tomas Lindberg from AT THE GATES. He was always a beacon of light for us the younger kids, although we were the same age. It was the first grotesque band getting somewhere in the world. We were looking up to him. That reminded me how important it is for kids to have a purpose, so that was the idea.
RoD: It looks like ‘Heaven’ is already popular in the crowd.
Tom: It is a straight forward song and definitely a favourite of mine. First time we played it in Brazil and also yesterday it went great. The same with the single ‘Leaving The Emptiness’ that gets a nice response. That is the cool thing about music you can’t explain what it does.
RoD: What surprised you on the first live shows?
Tom: All these different steps and directions we take on this album, allow us to explore more on the next album hopefully. It leads us to more creativity in terms of composing. Now already proving that our fanbase embraced the new singles. Especially with ‘Leaving The Emptiness’ there is no song from EVERGREY like that before.
RoD: A personal song is ‘Longing’ showing a different side of you.
Tom: That is one of the songs I really want to play live the next round. It does matter how the album sells, otherwise we keep on pushing. But right now, it is looking pretty well. It is a dynamic between me and the audience. All the last five albums are going strong. ‘Where August Mourns’ from the album ‘Escape of the Phoenix’ (2021) is our best preforming song every week.
RoD: The new album ‘Architects Of A New Weave’ ends with ‘The Prophecy’ - a bombastic, complex song.
Tom: What differs is that this song is played very loose and dynamic. Created in a mood of finding freedom possibly.
RoD: Any words to the fans?
Tom: It has been a fantastic week; we want to thank the MAIDEN fans for the respect and the nice response. We couldn’t expect that they sing and clap along, what happened. It is our job, but this makes it always special!
Web: https://evergrey.net / https://www.facebook.com/Evergrey
Album Cover by Evergreen
Live pictures during IRON MAIDEN Tour by Fay.S https://www.acalltothedreamers.com @acalltothedreamers
