Interview - Sabaton

The wall behind you is full of trophies related to Sabaton’s success. Do you go past it every day? How do you feel when you look at it?

Pär Sundström : I think it’s safe to say that this is what keeps the inspiration flowing. It is a symbol of continuity but also of humility. I like to see it that way anyway. I’m not going to lie to you, there’s also pride.

Was that also what you felt when you arrived on stage at Hellfest last year? It was pretty impressive!

Do you think so? I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit over the last few days. If I am not mistaken, I think we played just over or under twenty shows that famous summer. We went to Graspop in Belgium for example, that was very intense! But I can’t help thinking that a while ago we were still touring medium- to small-capacity clubs. When I put everything in perspective, it’s quite hard to believe.

Pinch yourself!

(laughs) If only that were enough! On the other hand, the feeling of novelty is still great to experience. Especially when I think back to that moment when we played “Christmas Truce” and the whole French audience started to belt it out with us.

You probably know this, but the audience had also gathered in front of the big stages because it was going to be Metallica’s premiere at Hellfest. That must have made things difficult for you...

It’s always more complex to play before a “big band”. I think at Hellfest we played before Iron Maiden in a previous year, which was no mean feat either. I’m sure many people think it must “be nice”, but when you don’t have the best show, it can get complicated quickly. Fortunately, for Sabaton we make it a point to have THE best show.

Even when you replaced Manowar in 2019 with Joakim (on vocals) who had lost his voice! You have the whole band replacing him at the drop of a hat, well except you!

Well, let me stop you right there, I don’t feel capable of being the lead singer (laughs). That day I realised that we had a special relationship with our French fans. We were going to play instead of a legendary quartet, and we went there with absolutely no pressure. We knew the crowd would be there to support us, and they did. I’ll never forget that vote of confidence from the Hellfest organisation, but I’ll never forget the audience either.

It’s been a year since you released “The War To End All Wars”, how do you analyse this album now that it’s had some time to be heard?

It’s always a bit “dangerous” to say that this is the best album to date. But I really mean it. As a musician but also as a manager. What artists loose in physical sales they gain in digital sales and streaming. We can see that the album is being listened to, and, above all, we can see that the hype for these new tracks in concert is unparalleled. Well, the hype of the release has subsided a bit so it’s all calming down a bit, but quite honestly, we knew when we came out of the studio that we’d managed to create songs that would stand the test of time. I listen to it again with a lot of pride, and I know the guys do too. I wouldn’t change anything even if I could.

So where did this single, ‘The First Soldier’, about Albert Roche, a soldier in the First World War, come from?

No matter how proud you are of your album, there’s always that idea that nags at you, that whispers “what if?” but you don’t take advantage of it. Often due to a lack of time. Then one day, a global pandemic hits, you play very few shows, it takes a while to get back to normal, but your inspiration doesn’t stop. Most of the album was recorded in two different sessions, the second one being the finalisation of the album. We still had new songs to polish up, so we were caught in the middle. We couldn’t record them. So we had to do another session. At the same time, this desire to do a WWI-themed tour was becoming more and more pressing. So, we decided to record some more songs in that period, including “The First Soldier”, and release them after the album. We just had to keep them within the theme.

So is there another track coming later?

Maybe we’ll release it following a similar pattern to what we did with “The First Soldier” which tops a WWI-centric EP. We will see (smiles).

Coming back to “The First Soldier”, we had the feeling reading the press release that you were waiting for the right moment to talk about Albert Roche. What was holding you back?

We just needed to be in a mindset that would allow us to write a truly heroic track. It’s about knowing how it feels to use this or that subject, for this or that demo. Without going into too much detail, we have a lot of rough drafts (laughs). We are always playing with the puzzle. Going back to Albert Roche, he was a downright admirable and extremely heroic person. We held onto this subject for a long time because we felt that it was necessary to live up to the character. What an amazing life...

An amazing, but also improbable life. He was not allowed to be a soldier because of his height, and he fought all his life to be who he had decided he wanted to be. It’s very inspiring, I imagine that you identify with this journey?

Of course, it’s very inspiring. Like him, I am not very tall for a start! (laughs) But yeah, I had always wanted to make heavy metal my priority in life. Sometimes you have to decide your destiny to force it to happen, especially when you do Sabaton, which commercially is very complicated to perform. We had to insist, enormously. It was out of the question to make concessions. We worked even harder.

When the band started out you received negativity from many people. How do you view this today?

I believe that is still the case today to be honest. We don’t look like “cool metal guys” if I may say so. Five guys with camouflage pants who make metal about war at the same time… Would you have taken the risk? Anyway, in short, at one point all that led to our success, and when it happened, what comes to my mind the most is the jealousy: “They shouldn’t be in that place. It’s not normal for Sabaton to do this!” These are despicable attitudes, it’s sabotage. I remember that regularly, we were pointed at because we made the public sing on our choruses: “But see, people have suffered, how dare you? " I would let the accusations of extremism go, but it did happen.

And today?

I imagine that it continues to a lesser extent, but we may be less exposed to it. We are better known, so maybe a little more protected? But, honestly, I want to say again here that we have always been clear about our intentions. We have never claimed to influence the vote or the thinking of people who listen to Sabaton. The only desire we have is to get people interested in history. If we have already achieved this, that’s a win for me.

Is this the reason that you collaborated with Nota Bene (editor’s note: YouTube history channel) to make this clip/documentary on Albert Roche’s life?

We could have done the same as usual, but I believe that adding value to our work is both important for us and the people who follow us, or not for that matter. I wanted to be able to give more context to Albert Roche’s story, be able to immerse yourself in his life, make the song even more understandable. Sometimes we don’t have time to put everything we want into Joakim Broden’s lyrics. It was a golden opportunity to make the words visible.

You were talking about it very subtly earlier, but do you think that in 2023 music is no longer enough and that you have to offer this kind of experience to really hook the audience?

I think it has become very complicated to be just a good musician in 2023. It always has been. But before, being a good musician and writing good songs could be enough. I think that era is over. You can be the Fantastic Four, gods of music, but if you just invade a stage without anything more, I’m not sure you’ll last long. People want a story behind the music, or an absolutely sublime live show. It’s not impossible to do without, but it’s a thousand times more complex.

When the war was about to end, Albert was very tired and fell asleep on the battlefield. He was discovered by a battalion of soldiers, arrested, accused and sentenced to death. It was an important moment, because, despite everything he had achieved, it was the first time that we saw him lose hope. Have you ever experienced a moment like that?

(silence) Yes, it reminds me of 2011 when everyone quit Sabaton. Except for Joakim, our singer.

They had left to found another project called Civil War, still going now, you played on the same stage recently.

I was really depressed at the time. I really thought that it was over. Imagine, you know it’s over, everything you’ve built! You know that there is absolutely nothing that could fix it. It was genuinely awful. Mentally, I fell apart during the tour, I couldn’t even work, I had to be repatriated from Canada to Sweden, and I spent several weeks in hospital before being able to get my feet back on the ground. I didn’t know where we were going, I couldn’t “manage” anymore, and this lack of vision honestly terrified me. Everything seemed irreparable. History has proven me wrong, we have been reconciled with our friends from Civil War, and Sabaton has never been in better shape.

You will give your biggest headlining concert in France, at the Zénith in Paris on 21 April. You will be with Lordi and Babymetal. That’s a pretty funky line-up.

(laughs) But this music makes it possible to experience evenings like this! No group is like another, and you are immersed in different atmospheres. That’s pretty cool! We have great memories with Babymetal and their team when we went to Japan with them. People underestimate this band really. We have opened for Lordi several times around 2005/2006 and we really love them, it was obvious to take them with us. We wanted a tour that was special but also had a lot of positivity. We’re going to put on a show that’s very different from anything we’ve done in recent years. Nothing could be better right now for Sabaton.