ARCH ENEMY – Interview with Michael Amott

So how's it going?

Well we've been home for three weeks now and we're starting [the tour] here in London, then we're off on the ferry tonight, we're playing in Amsterdam tomorrow.

You'll be, er, sampling everything that Amsterdam has to offer, I trust?!

Oh yeah! Absolutely!

So where do you guys find the time to actually start writing new stuff? It seems like you're always out touring!

I'm always noodling away, we have amps backstage and stuff like that. I'm always playing guitar like four hours a day, you kind of come up with new stuff here and there. I don't really write songs on the road but I save all my riffs and all my little melodic ideas and chord progressions and stuff, and it's so easy to record off a laptop as well and get some drum beats going…and it's great to have that archive of material you can pull from later. We were actually off the road for a few months last year…well not really, but somehow we managed! We put out an album in 2007 and this year we put out Khaos Legions which is the first album of new material since then.

Do you always have a bunch of great tour stories when you come back, or are you all quite well behaved?

It's well behaved in a way really. We've been doing it for so long and we do it so much that it's more relaxed. For us, it's more about I feel a responsibility to put on a great show. When you see a band that's just like, yeah they didn't run around so much that night, I guess they were hungover, it's not fair for the fans. I want to be as good as I can be.

So what do you do when you're not touring? Do you ever sit back and relax or are you always thinking of new riffs and parts?

I just relax for a couple of days and then I get a bit bored so I'll call up Daniel [Erlandsson, drums] and say Hey, do you wanna jam? I don't really like taking too long breaks. I mean, I like being at home, it's really very comfortable compared to living like we do, you know, travelling to a new place every day. What do I do when I'm there? I just tend to relax, I have a daughter as well, so I hang out with her. So yeah, I like to jam and keep music going. I like the continuity of going through rehearsals, we have a great rehearsal studio where all our gear is set up. So it's very easy for us to get together and work on new ideas.

Do you find that you'll piece different bits together or do you take one part that you really like and build a song around it?

It tends to be like a jigsaw puzzle, yeah. Like Didn't we have something 2 years ago that might fit here? Sometimes you just jam and improvise, like you have one idea and the rest just kind of happens, you find new stuff that just comes out of nowhere.

Khaos Legions is quite a politically charged album. Arch Enemy have always been about freedom and liberation but what made you push it that bit further with this album?

Well Angela writes the lyrics, for the most part it's her ideas. I think we just wanted to take it as far as we could, we've always been about that stuff, like with We Will Rise. But I think we wanted to make it even more 'in your face'.

What's your favourite song from Khaos Legions?

Probably 'Bloodstained Cross' just because it's my kind of song. It's very fast and very melodic as well, I like that.

Do you find, since Arch Enemy become more successful, there's a lot of songs you feel you have to put in the set?

Yeah, like Ravenous, We Will Rise…it's a bit boring in a way. You want to play different songs, but some songs you know go down so well every time. Actually, I don't get bored of them myself, with the added energy of the crowd the songs come alive in a way. But when we're rehearsing for a tour, it's just like, this is really boring because you know them very well but you still want to run through the set. We don't get a kick out of that part but when you add the audience to that it's a whole different vibe.

What would you be doing right now if, perish the thought, Arch Enemy never happened?

I don't know, I'd probably be doing other bands. But if I wasn't in a band…I don't know really! I do get asked that sometimes and it's really hard to answer. I've been so focussed and so driven to a point where it's almost unhealthy, I guess. I've just had one thing on my mind since I started playing guitar when I was 13/14, and that was it. I've been very lucky that I've found something that I could be quite good at. And to have my passion also be my work. I know a lot of people that aren't so lucky, so I think it's just a matter of everything like timing, and mostly dedication. I've been through years and years of not having a very successful career but I still kept doing it, I never gave up. Even though people probably thought, Well, isn't it time you started doing something else? It's a fine line between being a loser and being a winner!

Before you became successful, did anyone ever suggest you get a 'real job'?

Well, my parents were supportive in the way that they just wanted me to be happy. If I was happy then they were happy.

This must be the question that you get asked all the time, but who is your biggest influence?

I had very humble beginnings really in a way, I started out when I was 10 with punk rock and early hardcore. So that was kind of simple to get my head around. I love the UK bands like The Exploited, Discharge. It was not easy to master because you know, the first thing you wanna be is playing exactly like Arch Enemy or Children of Bodom and you're thinking I'm never gonna be that good! I was into music that was more about the energy and the vibe. Then I kind of got more into metal as my guitar playing was getting better and that blew me away. I was already listening to bands like Venom and Motorhead, Slayer…They were just coming out when I was 15/16. So I was really blown away by that. Dave Mustaine, I really loved his riffs, and James Hetfield. Slayer, I really loved Slayer, I still do.

Right. I do have to ask. What are the plans for Carcass' future, if it has one?

I'm not involved in that at the moment.

But you're not going to write it off altogether?!

We did the reunion playing the old stuff for the fans, I get my creative thing but it's very much all about Arch Enemy. That's the band I've been in for 15 years now. With Carcass, I was in that band for 3 years originally and then the reunion shows that we did so it's not as close to my heart, I guess. It's not my baby! But having said that, I really enjoyed it and I had a great time and great music.

Is it the same with Spiritual Beggars then?

We put out a new record last year, but you know it's difficult getting everyone's schedules together, all the guys are in other bands. But I write new songs for that here and there as well. It's a very, very different vibe. And it's a bit more relaxed in a way. It's also the kind of music that I enjoy, more traditional I guess. I found out there was a lot of bands like that around in the late 60s, early 70s so I kind of went back and got into a lot more music. It's something we do for fun and we really enjoy it when we do it. We played a few shows this year as well, but not as frequent as Arch Enemy. Arch Enemy is such a, I don't want to say 'monster', but we do so much and we play all over the world, which is one of the great things about Arch Enemy; that we do go all over the world. We're going to Romania in January!

One last question, how come Japan gets to hear Wages of Sin in its entirety?!

We're doing that in Japan because that album was like a new beginning for us and we had a very successful breakthrough with that album in Japan. We already had a pretty good following there but it kind of exploded with that album. It's kind of a special album for the Japanese fans. It was just a suggestion from somebody and we thought, yeah, let's do that, we've never done anything like that. I know other bands do that, I've seen it done, bands play specific albums but I'm actually looking forward to it. It will definitely be different. We're actually playing two nights in Tokyo so one night will be whatever we come up with, similar to tonight I guess, and the next night will be very different! So the fans will get to see two kinds of shows if they want!