Interview du groupe ACT le 17/07/06 (Part 1)

I did have the chance to have this 1 hour interview with the whole band just before their concert in Versailles, monday 17th of july. The occasion for all the fans to discover more about these talented people. What is surprising when you meet them is this contrast between their simplicity and fun when you discuss with them and their high level of professionalism and skills when you see them live. Everybody who knows some will tell you : that's the distinctive sign of all the *great artists*.
I tried to retranscribe the interview *as it came*, hoping that it will make you discover the thoughts and personality of each member of the band.
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Hadi : For all those who still don't know : could you tell us what does mean "ACT" ?

The band : The meaning is a well kept secret (all the band smiling )

Hadi : Should it be prounounced “ai-cee-tee” or in one word ? Does the letters belong to 3 words ? Can you give a clue about the meaning (please ) ?

Jerry : We pronounce it in one word “act”, but originally the letters were coming form 3 words, there is a double meaning.

Hadi : Can you give us any clue ?

Jerry : You can find clues in the jacket of our cds, but …

Peter : … it’s a well kept secret.

Hadi : Can you tell us how did you all meet, and how did you manage to become "ACT" ?

Ola : That’s a long story but to make summary : the band started with me + the old singer, bass player and old drummer as we were friends at school. Then came Jerry which was also a friend I did know since a long time. In 1995, our old bass player left and Peter did join us and since we were not satisfied with the singer, we met Herman and he became our new singer. In 2001, our old drummer did leave and Thomas did join us, we were looking for this guy as he was known as one of the best drummers in sweden. So we can say that the band as it is today was born in 2001.

Hadi : Your popularity is constantly growing without you making any "compromise" on your music, how do you explain it ?

The band : No compromise ! We make the music we love and we hope that this will be the music people will love too.

Hadi : Are you aware that you are creating a really new style of music that people call "progressive pop" ? do you accept this term to describe your approach of music ?

Herman & Jerry : We are not trying to stick to any style, we are playing “ACT” style

Hadi : Yes that’s right, but if people want to speak about you to others, and are asked a question like : “the band you’re speaking about sounds interesting, but what style of music do they play ?”, what is the right answer ?

Ola : In this case, you can say that we play a style which is between “progressive rock” and “modern pop”, that’s what describes the best our approach of music. But we are really not thinking about sticking to any style and we are making our own music trying to develop new ideas.

Hadi : What was your first motivation for creating this band, do you have followed your 1st views or did you have to modify it (slightly or greatly) to adapt to the market (or to something else) ?

The band : Our only motivation was to make good music, we were not thinking about conquering anything. We just wanted to play good music, music we like. Then things just went on, the boat did sail its way and now we are there.

Herman : Some people tried to influence us, they tried to give us advises about following such direction or such other, but we did not really followed these advises, we just went on the directions we wanted to.

Hadi : Who were these people ?

Herman : Atenzia, but they did it very carefully and in a helping way, they did not force anything, but we did only listen to ourselves and there was also the fact that there was troubles with the label : it was too quiet, the CDs were not widely available.

Hadi : About writing/composing : How do you decide who writes & compose songs in the albums ? do you all write several songs and then gather everything and discuss to see what to keep for the album ? or do you decide from the beginning how many songs will be written and/or composed by each members ?

Jerry : Basicly, I compose the songs, then everybody is free to develop with his instrument or suggest ideas to make the song bigger. The lyrics are written by the whole band.

Thomas : Jerry gives us a basis, then the rest of the band go home with material and we all build on this basis to go to the final result.

Jerry : Ola compose things too.

Ola : We always have an agreement on the music we make, we share the same views and each time someone propose a new idea, we are happy with it and so on.

Hadi : You are not yet at the top of the europe & world music charts, is it a goal for you in the next years ? If a major ask you some concessions on your music to better fit the market, would you refuse it in any way or would you accept if the concessions are light ?

Herman : We think our music deserves to be on the charts as it is today. We should be at the top without modifying our music, we just needed a label that could make our albums available everywhere and promote us the in the best way. Now that we have signed with INSIDE OUT which as you may know is a good label, everything is possible.

Jerry : The kind of concession we would accept would be to make singles that are shorter versions of the album songs, with less instrumental parts, which would make them fit better with the radio format. This way, this would allow an easier access to our music to people and those who would buy the album would discover longer versions.

Ola : It’s pointless to copy something to try to reach a high position in the charts, we make our own music. But we are already in the process of not including too much complicated things in our music; sometimes we compose complex parts and finally we decide to simplify it slightly, simpler can be better !

Hadi : But sometimes we (the fans) like the complex things in your music

Ola : Fans will still find in our albums solos and instrumental parts, as we said before : we make no compromise on our music, we are just limiting the complexity of our music so that it stays a modern pop one.

Herman : If we earn a lot of money, we will be able to make plastic surgery to look cute !

(lots of laugh from all)

Herman : more seriously when the time will be come to make a single, we will discuss about compromising on the format, but we will do it with honesty.

The band : Yes, that’s important to all of us.

Hadi : Would you accept to make a movie soundtrack ? What kind of movie would you be interested to make the soundtrack of ?

Jerry : *horror* (laughters of the band)

Peter : A “James Bond” film (said with the looking of a secret agent ).

Hadi : Some bands go up in the charts thanks to a movie soundtrack (I was thinking about Evanescence and their lucky pick with “Daredevil” soundtrack “Bring me to life”).

The band : Yes, that’s right !

Herman : Yes that would be good because we’re pretty much into movies during our leisure time.

Hadi : What kind of movies ?

Jerry : Science-fiction, a little bit of horror/scary movies

Thomas : Anything good !

Hadi : I guess the management will check this way. On my side, I will bother movie companies with tons of e-mails and phone calls (Note from the interviewer : and I was thinking that after reading this some other fans will probably do the same )

The band : Yes, thank you.

Hadi : There is a lot of fun in your lyrics and in your music, can you tell us if you will keep it this way for the next albums or do you plan a big change (something more serious and/or more engaged for instance) ?

Peter : We would like to continue in the way we’re doing now : both happy funny lyrics and serious lyrics as well, to try to get a nice balance in the albums. We’re not trying to write on a particular topic, trying to be someone that we are not. We just act ! (Note from interviewer: nice use of the name of the band in the answer, maybe a clue about the meaning of the name of the band ? ) We just do what we do. The lyrics can come happy, it can come sad, it can come weird…

Jerry : On the new album “Silence”, in the last “long one” we have a long song and it contains the most dramatic lyrics I’ve ever read from these guys (looking at his friends). We will not change, I mean we are crazy as hell…

Herman : We have no rules..

Jerry : No, we have no rules !

Thomas : But there are funny lyrics as well (speaking about the new album “Silence”).

Herman : Yes, it depends on the song. We feel where the song is heading and it influences us. Sometimes only a certain kind of lyrics can have a sense for a particular song : “tok tok tok tok tok” (simulating a happy and steady beat) it can be a funny song ! But still : no rules !

Hadi : Keep it this way, we (the fans) love it this way.

The band : Thank you.

Hadi : Your references are a lot anchored in the past (Toto, Queen, The Beatles, ..), do you consider that music creativity has decreased since that time ? Are there some recent bands that you like and that could inspire you for your next albums ? If yes which one ?

Peter : Yes of course, the thing I started to listen to is Synth bass and bass patterns. That’s actually thanks to a Danish band called Carpark North. That’s pretty much therefore that I started to use these cause I really liked the way Søren Balsner plays. I did notice some other players using synth bass before but this wasn’t until I discovered his sounds & stuff and the way he played it, that I really felt for that.

Hadi : And from which year is the band ?

Peter : It’s from now, Søren is a 25 years old, talented Danish bass player.

Hadi : Would you like to play with him ? in a joined stage between ACT and Carpark North ?

Peter : In a concert, yeah it would be cool.

Hadi : And for the rest of the band ?

Herman : Yeah, in a concert, it would make a certain mix to play in stereo with an other band ? I listen to “Hoobastank”, do you know them ?

Hadi : (laughing) no, but it sounds funny !

Herman : It’s almost a boy’s band, they’re from USA, I think they’re really good !

Jerry : I only listen to beach boys ! (laughters including the interviewer ) that’s the only thing I listen too !

Ola : Yes, obviously it’s important to keep the interest in new music, to listen to new bands. I always listen to new bands and buy new albums. And I think there’s a lot of new stuff that is really cool : an English band called “Muse” they’re very good, Danish bands called “Saviour” and “Carpark North”.

Thomas : There’s lots of new bands making good stuff.

Hadi : And could you take these modern bands as references or would you keep the old bands (Toto, Queen, etc.) ?

Ola : You take all the input you get, somehow it influences your play in any way. The music comes in and it comes out somehow, you never know.

Thomas : We have developed our skills relying on the old bands that you mentioned. But of course, the new ones influence us as well.

Hadi : To Herman, you have a particular voice which covers a wide tonal range and has a very typical sound, are you an alien ?

Herman : An alien ? Yes !! (he makes strange sounds with his voice and imitates an alien laughters of everybody)

Hadi : More seriously : are you self-taught or did you take some courses with a vocalist ?

Herman : I’ve had a lot of singing teachers (he told me previously that he did attend the conservatory in sweden during several years to learn music in general and vocal technique in particular), but the thing is that with ACT I developed myself. I’ve used all those techniques, I have brought them here in ACT, but it’s a special thing to learn to last 2 hours on stage… you have to be *smart*, to know when to sing much or little.

Hadi : You have a particular voice, is it natural or do you have trained in a way to get this special sound ?

Herman : No, I just started to sing this way, this is my voice, this is how it sounds. I can’t do anything else (laughters) I can try to sing like opera “haaaa” (with a - nice - voice of a tenor). I can try to sound like “Bon Jovi”, I can copy him and I can copy other singers. But in ACT this is how I sound. I just woke up and sang like that when I was little. This is how I sound.

Hadi : It’s very good, we like this voice.

(To be continued on the following topic, Part 2, located in the section named "Interviews Report" of this forum...)