69 Hard

Interview - Kalle Metz

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Anders Sandvall interviews Kalle Metz from the Malmö based band 69 Hard about the band, their newly released second album "Blues From Hell" and what the future looks like for the band.

Anders: Would you please give us some back. info about 69 hard?
Kalle: "69-HARD was formed in 1997 by Mats and Bert with Bo on vocals and different people on bass. Shortly thereafter Skoen was called in to take care of the bass. After little more than a year Bo was replaced by me, a mutual decision from both Bo and the band. No hard feelings, Bo was into other forms of music. I was approached at one of their gigs where I was standing in the crowd thinking; 'Man, I would LOVE to be in this band!' After the gig Bert came up to me and asked if I would consider joining the band. After thinking about it for almost a nanosecond, I said hell yeah! Since then we have made countless gigs, supported all kinds of bands and recorded a bunch of songs released on two full-length CDs and various vinyl formats."
Anders: What are the differences between singing in 69 Hard, and your old bands Flegma and Tenebre?
Kalle: "Nothing in common at all! In Flegma it was pure aggro fury, with me tearing my vocal chords to pieces. Before Flegma I used to sing in a Goth-band so I had no idea how to sing hardcore metal. Anyay, I got the hang of it and my 'style' developed more into what it became later in TENEBRE, where I also had use for my old 'Goth background', as Tenebre used much of those elements in their songs. When I started in 69-HARD I was forced to sing with a totally clear voice and with a whole lot more melody than I was used to, but hey, I am a pro so I had no problems there!"
Anders: Why did you leave Tenebre?
Kalle: "Due to musical differences as they say, no, seriously we had come to a point where I thought Tenebre was moving too much towards goth, and I was not at all listening to metal anymore. I was also heavily involved with tenebre AND 69 at the same time, so I more or less had to choose. I chose 69, Richard and me talked it over and there are no hard feelings there. They found Victor pretty quickly and I feel he is excellent in the band."
Anders: Are you still friends with Richard in Tenebre today?
Kalle: "As I said no hard feelings! Me and Richard are good friends and always will be! He is a bizarre and very nice man"
Anders: Have 69 hard done a lot of live gigs?
Kalle: "Too many to mention. We have made both excellent and really crappy gigs, but mostly we ROCK the shit out of places we come to."
Anders: What do you think of the debut today compared to the new album? Are there any differences? If so what?
Kalle: "The new album is more ROCK, less ABILLY! Well, 'Blues From Hell' is a whole lot harder than the debut, and the rockabilly influences are not that evident on this one. We just wanted to make a short, sharp, shock kind of album; the goal was 30 minutes of rock. I am happy with it and it looks good too, I made the cover"
Anders: Do you think that the band has developed music wise if you look back?
Kalle: "As I said we have turned to a harder, rougher sound without really thinking about it, we just made new songs and they turned out to be a lot harder. Who knows, maybe the next album will be 12 ballads a la Scorpions, hehe."
Anders: How have the fans/press responded to the new album? Have you read any reviews of it?
Kalle: "Fans and people who know good music when they hear it tend to like us. I don’t really give a shit about reviews to tell you the truth."
Anders: Why has the original drummer left the band? Have you found a new drummer to replace him?
Kalle: "Again, due to musical differences as they say. Bert was a bit tired of the whole thing I think. He is a cool guy and I think he is happy playing with Mobile Mob right now. He has played a few gigs with us after we parted ways and I can tell you it was a blast! There is no drummer like him."
Anders: Are you going to tour on the album? If so where?
Kalle: "No tour planned but if it is released in Germany, we will go there to promote it, of course! Right now we just do gigs in Sweden and Denmark. But hey, If anyone wants to take us to the UK or USA or wherever, we´re up for that too!! Just call us!"
Anders: How does the co-operation with your label work?
Kalle: "Excellent! We cooperate alot and we live in the same city so we have lot of 'business meetings' at the local pub! I do all of our design and layout and do most of the other stuff for Idle Hands also"
Anders: You have done a video for your first single 'Gone, gone, gone', have any stations shown any interest in it?
Kalle: "It was recorded in our rehearsal room, budget: zero dollars! Hell, we just did it for fun to see how it turned out. It turned out OK, so we decided to send it out to TV and shit. No one showed it. FUCKERS."
Anders: How would you describe what kind of music you play?
Kalle: "ROCK. No more, no less."
Anders: Are both of your albums available worldwide?
Kalle: "Yeah, through the wonders of internet you can order them both at www.idlehandsrecords.com A lot of other places on the web have them too"
Anders: Have alot of visitors been to your official website? Can you purchase the albums there?
Kalle: "We have had over 127 000 visitors since January 1999! Well, as I said you can order our shit at our record company´s site www.idlehandsrecords.com"
Anders: Are there going to be more single releases from the album? You have released two so far.
Kalle: "The only thing I can tell you is that the 'Gone, gone, gone' single will be relased on limited vinyl 7" late this year on a Finnish label called bad attitude records!"
Anders: Are there any plans to do a follow up on this album? If so when? Is there any material ready at this time?
Kalle: "Always new hits coming.. No comments"
Anders: What are the plans for 69 hard for the rest of this year and next year?
Kalle: "ROCK as much as we can and try to release the album in Germany, Russia, and the rest of the world!"
Anders: Is there anything you would like to say to the readers out there? The word is yours
Kalle: "Life is good, live it! NOW! Thank you and go buy our stuff, we are poor..."