{"id":40412,"date":"2022-09-11T13:18:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T03:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=40412"},"modified":"2022-09-12T11:49:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T01:49:50","slug":"michael-amott-of-arch-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2022\/09\/michael-amott-of-arch-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Amott of Arch Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that I had a \u201cgreat time\u201d during the pandemic, I hate when people say that.\u00a0 I mean it fucking sucked for everybody.\u00a0 But, at the same time, there was this other thing that we could do.\u00a0 You know, we were actually at home and we could work on music, so why not do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Increasingly unstoppable since forming in the mid 90s and recruiting vocalist Alissa White-Gluz in 2014, Arch Enemy are gearing up to remind the world what real heavy metal sounds like via their eleventh and most explosive album yet: enter 2022’s Deceivers. Buoyed by the achievements and accolades of their previous releases Will To Power and War Eternal, both featuring White-Gluz, Deceivers finds Arch Enemy at their finest and most explosive yet. From the belligerent fury of recent single Deceiver, Deceiver and the dramatic, viciously melodic House Of Mirrors to epic and brutal deep cuts like In The Eye Of The Storm and Spreading Black Wings, the new Arch Enemy album feels like a celebratory encapsulation of everything that has made the band such a vital force. All of their cherished trademarks are present and correct, from majestic, heart-rending guitar hooks and harmonies through to an unremitting barrage of catchy but crushing riffs, but this is a sharper and more ferocious Arch Enemy than we have heard before. Deceivers could not have been created by any other band, but somehow this one feels like a bold reaffirming of musical values.<\/p>\n

We chatted to Michael from Arch Enemy to talk about the bands new album \u2018Deceivers\u2019, its creation during the pandemic, touring, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to talk to you again, Michael. So, it\u2019s been ten years since we last chatted so let\u2019s catch up, how have the last ten years been for you?<\/strong>
\nHoly shit.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to sum it up in three words, I guess *laughs*. I don\u2019t know… it\u2019s been crazy actually.\u00a0 A lot of stuff happened in the band with Alissa joining as a vocalist in….what was that 2014?\u00a0 So that\u2019s been almost eight or nine years ago now. So yeah, crazy.<\/p>\n

Of course we\u2019re here as we have the new Arch Enemy album \u2018Deceivers\u2019 which has just been released, how excited are you for it to finally be out?
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s super cool and I love just going through my Instagram, even like this morning, and still seeing so many people posting physical copies and their feedback. You know, we\u2019re just super excited to get it out there in the hands of the fans.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big project, you know. When you start writing that first song for an album, it\u2019s like you\u2019ve got to climb this huge mountain.\u00a0 You know there is so much work and creativity that\u2019s involved.\u00a0 It\u2019s all poured into this project. And to complete it and get it out there is extremely satisfying of course.\u00a0 Especially coming out of a kind of unique… time.<\/p>\n

Chatting to artists who have written and released music and made records during this pandemic, some found it therapeutic, some struggled to write, some thrived, what was your experience with music in the craziest time we’ve ever experienced?
\n<\/strong>Initially I was following the news and what was going on with developments, you know early on in 2020 but I kind of realised that this is going to take a while.\u00a0 It got a bit depressing; week in and week out.\u00a0 So, we decided to just focus on making a new album and that was a really healthy thing for us, I think.\u00a0 To just immerse ourselves in a project and just shut out all the noise.\u00a0 In that way it was really healthier.\u00a0 I write a lot together with and put the demos together with Daniel, our drummer.\u00a0 That was something really good that we did, it was a positive experience.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a struggle or anything like that.\u00a0 I have colleagues that didn\u2019t pick up a guitar for like a whole year because they were just freaked out by the whole thing.\u00a0 Everybody reacts differently, you know?\u00a0 Not only musicians, but everybody went through it in their own way.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say that I had a \u201cgreat time\u201d during the pandemic, I hate when people say that.\u00a0 I mean it fucking sucked for everybody.\u00a0 But, at the same time, there was this other thing that we could do.\u00a0 You know, we were actually at home and we could work on music, so why not do that?<\/p>\n

In terms of timing I believe you started writing before 2020 truly set in, did the ideas you had before the pandemic for the album stay or did it evolve over the lock down periods?
\n<\/strong>Yeah, me and Daniel, I think in January of 2020, right before the apocalypse, we went away and rented a house with a little make shift studio just to get away from everything.\u00a0 We started writing the album there and came back with I think six or seven songs.\u00a0 I say songs, and they are songs, but they just changed so much over the next year.\u00a0 We always keep circling back and changing things or improving things.\u00a0 So, \u201cthe basics\u201d, I would say, of six or seven songs came out of that writing session.\u00a0 So those are there, but we\u2019re talking instrumental songs, the instrumental music.\u00a0 And then, of course, the lyric writing happens after that.<\/p>\n

What if anything did this album allow you to do that you feel you hadn\u2019t been able to do on previous albums?<\/strong>
\nLike I\u2019ve said in another interview, I\u2019ve always had this dream of management or the label telling me \u201cyou go away and write your masterpiece, there\u2019s no deadline\u201d. That\u2019s the fantasy, right? Well, it came true, in a way, now on this one and it was a bit of a nightmare. It was just so open ended you know.\u00a0 There was just too much going back and changing things.\u00a0 In the end, we just had to say \u201cOkay.\u00a0 It’s done.\u201d and pretend that we were going to put it out. We finished it and then it was mixed and mastered.\u00a0 And then we just sat on it for a while until we started releasing singles.<\/p>\n

I mean it was great, it was nice to have that extra time.\u00a0 There are albums that I have done in the past, I\u2019m not going to name them, but there have been projects that I’ve worked on, where you didn\u2019t have enough time.\u00a0 Sometimes, I can hear them today and I wish this or we should have spent a bit more time on that, you know? But then, of course, you don\u2019t want to spend too much time.<\/p>\n

But yeah, it was an interesting album.\u00a0 It was a little bit different.\u00a0 There were things that we could do on this album that we hadn\u2019t done before.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a lot of collaborations with others…. we kept it pretty much in house.\u00a0 You know, as the band playing on the album.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, you know we had a contest during the pandemic.\u00a0 We were struggling to find things to post about, of course, on our socials.\u00a0 There was nothing going on.\u00a0 So, we started this competition.\u00a0 You know, people always cover our songs anyway and on various instruments.\u00a0 So, we had a competition where we\u2019d pick five winners (or something like that) of people covering Arch Enemy songs.\u00a0 There were some really cool… you know a lot of guitar players, a lot of singers, a lot of drummers of course.\u00a0 But there were also some beautiful piano players from like eastern Europe, playing really complex arrangements of Arch Enemy songs and stuff like that.\u00a0 It was really interesting.\u00a0 And then, there was a guy that played a cello; this German guy; that did a really amazing cover version of one of our songs from the last album.\u00a0 He actually ended up being the winner, I guess.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember what the prize was actually, but I asked him if he wanted to play on the new album.\u00a0 So, he\u2019s actually on the new album on the opening of a song called \u201cPoisoned Arrow\u201d.\u00a0 So, that\u2019s cool.\u00a0 I think he was kind of blown away actually.<\/p>\n

Touring, you have been back out on the road, how was it getting back out there after so long not being able to?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll tell you, we hadn\u2019t been on stage for two and half years.\u00a0 That\u2019s the longest break I\u2019ve had since I picked up a guitar at age thirteen.\u00a0 So, you know, it\u2019s pretty wild actually.\u00a0 But, then in April of this year we started, we did a North American tour. \u00a0I remember that first show in Arizona.\u00a0 We\u2019d done rehearsals out in Las Angeles and we went to Arizona and that night and that day were just like bizarre waiting for the first show.\u00a0 Really it was just unbelievable that we were going to get back to doing this something that we\u2019d taken for granted, of course, and we\u2019d been very accustomed to doing.\u00a0 But now, it felt all like new again, in a way.\u00a0 Butterflies in the stomach, you know?<\/p>\n

At least it didn\u2019t go away, you know?\u00a0 There could have been the other side of it where it became like \u201cawww…I don\u2019t want to do this anymore.\u201d\u00a0 So, I\u2019m glad it was still there.<\/strong>
\nI know some musician colleagues of mine that done that actually.\u00a0 I mean some people have quit, right? They have just said \u201cthat\u2019s it, I\u2019m out\u201d, you know?\u00a0 For now, anyway we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

I mean it was a rough time.\u00a0 But I never thought about that really, not seriously anyway.\u00a0 I think like everyone I think about quitting everyday but then I pull myself together.<\/p>\n

I have to ask, has there been any talk of a visit to Australia?
\n<\/strong>Certainly, there\u2019s talk, yeah.\u00a0 But more than talk actually, we\u2019re getting very close to confirming it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I can\u2019t say anything more than that really.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to jinx it.\u00a0 But this year we have a six week tour of Europe \u2013 it’s Arch Enemy, Behemoth, Carcass and another band.\u00a0 And then we are going to Latin America right after that.\u00a0 So, that takes us up to almost right at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

But then in March of next year we have a big Japan tour.\u00a0 So, I’m thinking it\u2019s going to happen then around that time.\u00a0 Keep your eyes open and your ears pealed.<\/p>\n

Looking back over your career it can be very easy to say what can change over time but what for you is the one thing that has always remained the same?
\n<\/strong>*laughs* Me?\u00a0 I’ve always been here.\u00a0 I’m the only one that\u2019s always been on every album and every show.<\/p>\n

I mean more in terms of like structure or the way that you write?
\n<\/strong>We just celebrated, during the pandemic we actually had our 25th anniversary.\u00a0 So, we silently, quietly just kind of celebrated that online basically.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t really do any shows or anything, or those kinds of things that we would normally would have done.<\/p>\n

I mean I did write some stuff about each album.\u00a0 I went back and visited each album from the start of the first one and I wrote a little bit about each album.\u00a0 Just some random memories and thoughts about those records.\u00a0 Of course, listening to them again one by one; one after the other, I see the progression and I see that we have come a long way since then.\u00a0 We have changed a lot.\u00a0 But at the heart of it, I would say that we are still Arch Enemy.\u00a0 On the first album, you can hear things on there that we are still doing to this day.\u00a0 And I guess much of that is rooted in my way of thinking about metal music or heavy music, the guitar and arrangements and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

My initial idea, when I started the band, was to have the sound of classic hard rock and heavy metal.\u00a0 Things like guitar solos, harmonies, good song writing but then also have the speed, aggression and heaviness of death and thrash metal that I had also been a part of that world.\u00a0 I was coming more from that world but I wanted to get even more melodic.\u00a0 I was trying to do that on the first album and you know, I\u2019m still trying to do that.\u00a0 Still trying to find that perfect balance between ugly and beautiful.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s look ahead to the future with a prediction. Finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2022 Arch Enemy will\u2026<\/strong>
\nbe exhausted.\u00a0 The next tour is eleven weeks straight so we\u2019re going to be fairly tired.\u00a0 *laughs*<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Essential Information<\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Sweden<\/p>\n

Band members:\u00a0<\/strong>Alissa White-Gluz \u2013 Vocals , Michael Amott \u2013 Lead Guitars , Jeff Loomis \u2013 Lead Guitars , Sharlee D\u2019Angelo \u2013 Bass , Daniel Erlandsson \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.archenemy.net<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong>\u00a0Deceivers (Out Now)<\/p>\n