Autodafeh interview: ‘An honor to be compared to Front 242’
Autodafeh
Countless EBM bands have drawn inspiration from Front 242, but only a few have reached a truly commendable level. Among the finest students of the ‘242 school’ is the Swedish band Autodafeh, founded in 2007. Each of their albums showcases strong production values and music that is thoughtfully composed with skill and intent. After taking a step back in recent years, the band returns stronger than ever with “Greed”, their first new studio album in a decade. Masterfully led by core members Mika Rossi and Anders Olsson, the group has, in recent years, been joined by Jesper Nilsson and Thomas Kroell Green. “Greed”, Autodafeh’s sixth album, was released via Dark Dimensions / Scanner. The record delivers classic EBM vibes, elevated by outstanding production. As far as I’m concerned—and without a doubt—“Greed” is one of the best EBM albums of recent years. Time for a talk with Anders Olsson. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: “Greed” is your sixth album, but also your first new release in ten years. What happened during that period, and what was the direct trigger to start making new music for Autodafeh again?
Anders: Well… time really flies doesn’t it… During the past 10 years we’ve been involved in some other projects, mainly Mika, he’s been producing some other acts (Agrezzior, POC, Navigator Project, and some more), we made some remixes, but we also faced the pandemic and during that time we had some time to write some new music, and we released our compilation (that had a new song on it, that was intended for “Greed”). But we wrote a lot of songs for this album and we decided to drop “Religion And Politics” for some other songs. The album was actually finished about 2 years ago, but then we decided to remix it, and that took some time too, but now it’s finally released. We also changed some band members, Jesper left, and Thomas and Sebastian joined.
Q: Even though you’ve all been active with other projects, it’s inevitable that you evolve both as individuals and as musicians over the course of a decade. How do you reflect on that evolution, and how has it influenced the creation and composition of “Greed”?
Anders: Well… it’s a part of life really, you grow up, become an adult, might get some kids, a Volvo, a dog, and you pay rent.
Music wise it’s all about enjoying it as long as you can, the more you play the more you learn, you also get inspired by different things, and one way for us to express that is to write songs, there is a song on our first album called “Money Trouble” because some of us and some friends around us had it more or less like that back then, so there’s probably some parts of our new songs that are influenced by our current situation in life and some songs that are totally fiction. We always look forward not backwards, you can’t change the past and our philosophy is that everything becomes an experience, you level up as you grow older.
Q: Can you tell us more about “Greed”? Did you have a clear concept for the sound and lyrical content beforehand, or did it develop more organically? And how did you divide the tasks and responsibilities during the composition and production process?
Anders: It has developed during the production and songwriting process, it’s always a process when we do an album, sometimes it’s a quick one, and sometimes it takes a bit longer, some parts of the album was actually written before the pandemic, but it’s like a jigsaw puzzle, all the bits need to fall in place. We often start out with a beat or a baseline and work around that, sometimes it can be a sample we work around and then change it or remove it in the end. Mika has made most of the album this time and we had great support from Frank at our label (Dark Dimensions / Scanner) along the way.
Q: “Greed” is a striking and provocative album title. What’s the deeper meaning behind it and the lyrics — which seem to reflect on the world we live in and the dynamics between people? And how personal are these themes for you?
Anders: No deeper meaning as such, it’s more of a reflection of the current world situation, although most of the lyrics were written a few years ago, I think with the pandemic and all that was and is happening in the world now and during that time, you need to reflect on what is bothering you and what is important to you, sometimes it’s the small things that keep you going, not sure if it’s because we’re getting older but some parts of life are fragile, and you need to keep that in mind.
Q: The more I listen to the album, the more I find myself drawing comparisons to Front 242 — particularly in the structure, layering of sounds, and a kind of intelligent production style that’s rare among many EBM acts today. What does this say about your studio setup and tools, and more broadly, about your approach to sound design, mixing, and production?
Anders: First of all, thank you very much for the kind words. We focus a lot on the production, because we think it’s really important that the end product sounds good to us, and in the end to the listener too and of course that we feel that there are good songs. During the years we have evolved in our production skills and spent a lot of time in ‘tweaking’ in the studio and finding what we like (and don’t like), but it’s an endless piece of string so to speak.
There’s always something that is ‘better’ in the studio and audio world. We still use both hardware and software when we record our music with both synths and so called outboard, but we mix ‘in the box’ to a degree of approximately 95%.
It’s also an honor to be compared to Front 242 in that way because they have always sounded great, and we have never denied that we are heavily influenced by them.
Q: Since your comeback, there have been only a few live performances and no concrete tour plans announced. What can we expect from Autodafeh live in the near future? And are there other plans involving Autodafeh or your various side projects?
Anders: We love to play live, but I think that since we’ve been quiet for some time (production wise) we might have been forgotten, but we’re back and strong, we have already started writing the next album, and we’re also talking about making another EP (following up the “re:lector” EP released in 2009 to celebrate the 15th year anniversary.
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