Category: Masterblasters

Here's the second part in the "Masterblasters" series. This time I have interviewed Ove Wiksten of Sayyadina, an old friend of mine. Now, Ove is quite a different drummer from Tobben who I interviewed last time (although they are from the same part of Sweden), but that's what this series is all about - getting to know different drummers in the scene who all know how to blast. So, let's go for the second time:


(Photo from www.returntothepit.com)

My first contact with you was in the 90's when I got a compilation tape with a bunch of bands from the small village of Torsby (internationally known for being the home village of soccer coach Sven-Göran Eriksson). Now, you are known under the nickname "Grind-Ove" - how did you first come to enjoy and ultimately play grind?

- I guess it was early 1991 I first got in touch with you, ordering Hymen [my old fanzine (1990-1994) - Anders], then sending the SMM comp tape in December maybe.
- Well, my first encounter with grindcore was not very pleasant at all. In 1989 I borrowed some Napalm Death vinyls ("Scum", "FETO" and "Peel Sessions" ) from my friend Blom, who said it was his new favorite band, and honestly I thought it pretty much sucked. I was into thrash metal, hardcore and crossover like Assassin, DRI, Nuclear Assault, Protes Bengt, SOD and Wehrmacht, but Napalm Death's stuff was a bit too chaotic and noisy for me, like they didn't play together, not keeping pace, or something. Later that year another friend of mine got the "Grindcrusher" comp lp from his uncle and I immediately fell for Morbid Angel, Intense Degree and Filthy Christians, and soon realized that the rest on there was great as well, so I had to borrow Blom's ND records again and this time I enjoyed them. (What appears as a mystery is that I thought Terrorizer were just avarage on that comp, until I heard their whole album, then they were The Best!)
- As for playing grind myself... It started 1990 with Gula Kulor - a recording project consisting of the four persons out of Torsby's population who liked somewhat extreme music. Two of them could actually play instruments (the already mentioned Blom being one) and I wanted to be a drummer and knew only a little more than how to hold the sticks. The recordings Gula Kulor made (three sessions 1990-1991 - no rehearsing) turned out to be some sort of hardcore/death metal crossover. Then me and Blom wanted to go grind, so we recorded a bunch of spontaneously created compositions under the name Purgative Klyster, New Year's 1991/1992, but of course the result was more noise than grind because I still had close to zero clue about how to play drums. We tried it again in 1993 with slightly better result.
- In November 1994 I became the drummer of local hardcore act Scamp (that Blom also figured here) and borrowed a drum kit (from the guy I replaced, actually) so I could practise. I bought a double pedal and learned how to blast, and realised "being a drummer" was more fun than I'd thought.
- I don't know when the nick "GrindOve" appeared or who it was that came up with it, but I first heard it in Kristinehamn and those Burst guys Linus and Jesper called their friends, going "Hey, GrindOve is here for a visit, come over and have some pizza and beer with us", mid-90s, something.

For me you don't seem like the tech guy who are concerned about your gear, am I right? What's your set-up?

- I suppose you got it right there! I haven't even learnt how to mention drum sizes correctly, so I only go for the circular diameter (skin sizes)...

White Yamaha RC 9000 (I think):
24" bass drum
13" and 15" toms

14" Pearl snare

14" Ufip hihat
18" Zildjian crash
20" Ufip ride
16" Samatya (Istanbul) crash
18" East China (for rehearsals)
(15" Sabian China on the album, and for gigs because it fits into my cymbal case.)

Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide double pedals

(That's my normal, grindcore, set-up. No China or left foot bass drum pedal for my punk rock set-up.)

Vater Manhattan 7A sticks with nylon tip (wooden tips are broken within a couple of songs, not because I hit hard, but because my precision is bad so I hit rims or other things around the kit)

- I bought the drums used in 1995 - my first kit (my oldest cymbal is the ride, bought in 2001). Shortly after, I bought a 14" tom as well (because I found it difficult doing fills with the huge gap between the 13" and 15" toms) but I didn't bring it with me when moving from Torsby to Stockholm in 1998. This, of course, destroyed my dream of learning cool fills but allowed me to get a compact set-up, with the ride very close to the snare, which I now see as important when playing, as well as having the China and crash on my right close to the ride.



You are one of the few drummers I know who actually suffered injuries partly in regards to the drumming, and for a while you had to stop playing the drums. Tell me about it. What are your injuries and how did they appear? Are they drum related or work related?

- Yes, a three year hiatus from drumming. I suppose it was a combination of an intense period at work (lots of lifting, carrying and throwing stuff) and rehearsing without warming up, so the injury was related to both. I got problems with my right shoulder. It appeared to be chronical inflammation ("Supraspinatus tendinitis", as one doctor concluded, while another doc said "Tendonitis? No, that's VERY unusual nowadays, you're so young" ).
- When my shoulder had been sore for a couple of weeks, in April 2002, I went to a doctor who gave me a cortisone shot which gave no result, so seven weeks later he gave me another one and still nothing happened. When he wanted to give me a third dose I thoght he was sponsored by the cortisone manufacturer and said "hold it!" and left. He was scary - took only 20 seconds to decide where to put the needle! ("Arms up! Bend back! Arms down! Lift 'em up! It hurts? Ok, you need cortisone! Was it the left one? No? Ok, the right then. There you go, good luck and goodbye!" )
- I went to see a professional sports doctor, and instead of just guessing he used a very logical and thorough method and took 20 minutes to find exactly where the sore point was situated before the cortisone injection (and it appeared NOT to be where the first doc had guessed).
- Then I was mostly sick-listed and had a surgery in September 2003, followed by physiotherapy at a sports injury clinic.
- In February 2005 I tried drumming again and it worked, but only a couple of times a week and not two days in a row. By June I quit going to the gym because my left shoulder started to hurt...

How do you feel today? You are back as a drummer in Sayyadina and also in the fairly new band Nice Idiot. To what extent can you play today?

- Sadly I'm not that much better now than two years ago and I still haven't tried grinding the drums two consecutive days. I was almost up for that last year when we rehearsed quite a lot for a while so my muscles got built up, but then we stopped practising to concentrate on finishing the new Sayyadina album. With Nice Idiot I think I can play again the following day as it's just punk/hardcore and pretty relaxed.

Back to the drumming - what drummers do you see as inspirations for your style?

- This is difficult. Some I see as great drummers but they haven't exactly influenced me while others have, but it probably won't show in my playing anyway because I'm not good enough. If keeping it short I think the most obvious are Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth), Hoccy (G-anx), Scott Lewis (Brutal Truth), Rob Proctor (Assück), Pete Sandoval (on "World Downfall", that is), Sveden (Raped Teenagers) and Max Ward (Spazz).
- To extend the list I'd also like to mention Pete Fratta (Hail Of Rage), Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford (Poison Idea), Anders Jakobson (Nasum/Coldworker), Keule (Cyness), Adde Mitroulis (Birdflesh/General Surgery/Jigsore Terror/Sayyadina), Randy Odierno (Disrupt), DH Peligro (Dead Kennedys), Bruce "Ted" Slesinger (Dead Kennedys), Neal Smith (Alice Cooper Group), Glenn Sundell (Monster/I Quit!) and Phil Taylor (Motörhead) as sources of inspiration for my drumming in one way or another.
- Other excellent drummers I really admire are Nicke Andersson (Entombed), Clive Burr (Iron Maiden), Brann Dailor (Today Is The Day/Mastodon), Doc (Vader), Tobben Gustafsson (Vomitory), Kai Hahto (Rotten Sound), David Sandström (Refused), Josh Sinder (The Accüsed) and Dave Witte (Discordance Axis/Municipal Waste/Melt-Banana). I love listening to those but what they do is so far away from what I can do. If I sit down and try some of their stuff I only get frustrated (although I did try to copy a Doc fill and a Kai thing on the new Sayyadina album - risky!).

What are your strengths/weaknessess in your opinion? What do you need to work on to develop your drumming? One strength as I see it is that you probably are the fastest blaster in the Swedish grindcore scene. Comments on that?

- Thanks! I'm not so sure I'm the fastest, but yes, my blasting speed may be a strength. Probably my only one, sadly...
- I'm useless when it comes to double bass. I was about to start controlling it by 1996 and had my peak when recording the Scamp mini CD, August that year. Then I had sort of a break from drumming for a year and I still can't get my feet going like back in 1996.
- I'm also having problems with my d-beat. I kind of lost it in 2001, between the first and second Sayyadina recording. If I play slower it's ok, but I want it to match my blast beat tempo, and to reach that I've now learnt to play d-beat using both feet. It's a bit tricky to control and on the new Sayya album I only dared to do it on one track.
- I'm no good at fills or using the toms - a short snare roll in the middle of a grind part here and there is what I do. Practising fills is the most boring thing to do, so I never do it. (That's the correct attitude, right?)
- Technique is also a big weakness for me. That goes for hands and feet. I don't even hit the same way with both my hands, and my left foot/leg is like a stiff piece of wood compared to my right.
- Unfortunately I don't do much practising at all. Sometimes I go to the rehearsal place myself but instead of trying to get better at double bass or fills I just run through the songs which are to be recorded, or the current setlist if there's gig approaching.

Sayyadina has a new full-length "Mouring the unknown" slated for release in April. It's been a work in progress for quite some time. Why has it taken so long time to finish the album? How does it differ from your previous album?

- We started recording the drums in March last year and didn't do the last vocals until November or December. We realized that with my shoulder condition the only way we could do it was by ourselves at the rehearsal place with bassist/vocalist Andreas engineering, allowing me to do a few songs one evening and then rest for a couple of days before next session. Going to recordings on week days also gave us short sessions as Andreas gets off work at 5 in the evening, then one hour drive and probably some food before even reaching the rehearsal room. And having no deadline made us excessively picky with things - redoing a certain part thousands of times and in the end not even being sure it's better than it was on the first take.
- Also, Jon was away on tour with Victims all of May and Andreas recorded an album with Sunday Morning Einsteins during the summer and went touring with them in September then taking a couple of weeks off from all things music.
- The major differences between "Fear gave us Wings" and "Mourning the Unknown" must be the drumming and the vocals. Me and Adde are quite different as drummers. He's great at d-beat and fills while I'm blasting a little bit faster than him - so less d-beat and more speed on the new one. As for the vocals, I probably did 90% or so of them on "Fear..." but not a single word on "Mourning..." - it's split between Andreas and Jon again, as on our early recordings.



"Mourning the unknown" is also the first full-length that you play the drums on - how frustrating was it not to play on the first album "Fear gave us wings"?

- Not that much, actually. I'd almost gotten quite accustomed to being the singer, and watching Adde nail the 19 songs for the album in just one day - including some tracks he was introduced to the previous evening - was pure pleasure! I'm not sure but maybe Adde had some concerns about the speed, but we learned that if we only annoyed him a couple of times between takes he got a bit sulky, went "Fuck you, fuckers!" and sped up prominently. My only frustration was "If I'm ever getting back to drumming I can't do any of those fills or play d-beat that fast..."

And going back to the theme of drum injuries for the final question - what do you do today to avoid feeling sore and all that after a rehearsal or a show? What have you learned about dealing with your situation?

- I'm warming up, and that's what I recommend every drummer of this kind of music to do. It is quite physically demanding, and why do sportsmen warm up? Yes, to perform better AND to avoid injuries. It's easy before rehearsing - I just let my feet go pretty slow/midtempo and do the same with my hands on the snare for several minutes. I don't blast or hit cymbals until I start to sweat. (During this Andreas and Jon do some freeform jamming.) At shows I get sweaty by just rigging my stuff and adjusting the kit before it's our turn to play, then I try to get my hands, wrists, arms and shoulders going by just drumming on something backstage until we go on stage.
- My playing is slightly different now compared to before the hiatus/surgery. I think one can hear it if listening closely to the details and only concentrate on what my right hand is doing. It's all about adjusting my playing to what my shoulder can take.
- I've definitely learnt that I'm a better/nicer/more friendly person when I'm able to play drums, and that's exactly what all of my friends deserve - a better Ove.

Thanks a lot for the answers, Ove. Check out Sayyadina at MySpace to hear some stuff from the upcoming album.

Well, what is this then? Well, as I've come to realize that there's a lot of drummers reading the blog and visiting the Nasum website I've decided to put a little bit of more focus on that subject. I started the "Drums" category in this blog to talk about my drumming and now I've started this new interview series where other drummers talk about their approach to drumming. It's drum-nerd-o-rama for sure, but I think it's a pretty interesting subject. When it comes to death metal and grindcore the band has to rely on a steady drummer. A drummer in these genrers can't cut any corners as opposed to drummers doing more straight on music. Why not put the drummers in the spotlight for a change?

I don't know how many parts of this series I will do, but I know that I will speak to four drummers (all Swedish) as a start and then we'll see what happens. First off is Tobias (Tobben) Gustafsson of death metal killers Vomitory, soon to release their new album "Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize". This is a great interview, I hope you'll enjoy it!



Vomitory will soon release a new album. In your studio diary over at the Global Domination forum you wrote that you managed to record all the drums in one day LESS than expected. What do you see was the reason for this rapid recording? Did you prepare yourself more than before regarding rehearsals or was just a matter of being in a good mood?

- I guess it was a combination of both. Obviously, I was in very good drumming shape when we began the recordings and we had rehearsed all the songs quite a lot before we entered the studio. There were never really any “critical” parts in any of the songs, so overall, everything went very smooth.

How much editing is involved in the drum recordings? (No editing is mentioned in the studio diary.) Do you aim to put down the song in its entirety or do you repair little mistakes and such stuff if most part of the take is great? What's your general opinion about editing?

- Man, this is a very sensitive subject for drummers… I always aim to put down every song in its entirety, of course, and sometimes I manage to do so and sometimes I don’t. When I don’t, I repair the little mistakes if the rest of the take is really good. Or if the first half of a take is killer and the other half isn’t as good, we punch-in the drums from there and I make a killer second half of that track.
- I’m not the one who, at any cost, has to put down every song flawlessly in one take. Fuck that. Have you ever seen or heard of a guitarist that puts down his guitar tracks without punch-ins, cutting, editing etc? Every guitarist does it, so why can’t drummers do it as well? Or vocalists, or bassists, or keyboard players etc…?
- When you’re in the studio doing an album, you’re there doing an album. It’s not live, ‘cause that is something totally different. Where does one draw the line when it comes to recording? If you look at it from a very strict perspective, the whole way of recording in a studio is cheating. No band on earth sounds like they do in the studio when they play live.
- My view on editing and computer recording has changed during the last, say, five years. When the computers made its entrance into the world of recording for real, I was really sceptical about everything about it, not to mention that one also was able to edit the drums, cut and paste as much as one liked! What the fuck was that all about!!?? But now I see everything as very helpful, time- and money-saving tools.
- You can’t deny that the technology constantly develops, so instead of being a stubborn bullhead, I am open to the possibilities of utilizing the advantages of what today’s recording technology has to offer. That’s what they’re designed for. But of course it has to be used with certain moderation. It should definitely not cover up the fact that one can’t play for shit!

Vomitory has been around for quite a long time now. How has your style developed over the last, let's say 10 years, and what do you feel that you still can work on for future development?

- I am definitely a more solid drummer now than I was ten years ago. I hit harder, more consistent and more distinct. I am also much more aware of what I am playing. Earlier I used to tend to play just a little above my ability limit but I think I’ve managed to play just under that limit instead nowadays. That limit, however, is a lot higher these days.
- My hand technique has improved a lot but I haven’t quite kept up with my feet though. My foot work has always been my main issue when it comes to death metal drumming. During certain periods I play better with my feet than I’ve ever done before, but maybe half a year later I totally suck.
- For example, during the period when we rehearsed the songs and recorded our previous album “Primal Massacre”, I played double bass really fucken good, but just a few months later when we got out on tour I wasn’t even close to what I could do with my feet when we recorded the album. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m not the only drummer with this problem. The drumming-shape comes and goes.
- The thing is that I suck at practicing. I don’t practice as much as I should or want to but I think it’s difficult to find the time. I also miss the kind of self-discipline one need to practice on a constant level. Right now I play really good (for being me) so it’s really fun to play drums now!
- What I need to work on for my future development is definitely my double bass technique – the consistency and endurance. I have no intention to become as hyper-fast as Derek Roddy, Inferno, Daray, Pete Sandoval and those guys (only “fast” will do it for me), but I want to be able to pull off my own stuff flawlessly every time without hesitation or getting the cramps.
- I’ve never been a tech-freak when it comes to fills etc, but it would be nice to develop that side of my drumming as well. I try to come up with new ideas that I can bring into my drumming but it’s difficult. But I guess that’s also why it’s fun!

Are you self-taught or did you go to the infamous Swedish "Musikskolan" or something similar? How much effort do you put on using good techniques, ergonomics and such?

- I am completely self-taught from the beginning. I got my first drum kit when I had just turned 13 and I almost instantly began playing with a friend of mine who was playing the guitar. I also practiced a lot by playing along to my favourite bands and that has taught me a lot of how to play and how to write music.
- I played for three years before I actually did go to “Musikskolan” to learn drum-notes. I learned a little, but I knew pretty much right away that sight-reading wasn’t for me. I was a metal drummer for fucks sake and I was going to be a rock star with my band! No need for drum-notes there. But that’s something I kind of regret today. It would be great to be able to play after notes. I played in a couple of marching bands during these years too and that was quite cool and interesting. That was so totally different from what I used to do but it was still drumming.
- Once I joined my first band, I almost never practiced by myself. I was mostly playing in several bands so I got my fair share of drumming anyway. I never thought of improving my technique or ergonomics especially much. That’s something that I’ve become more aware of during the last years. Especially since I started to feel pain in my left wrist, which was sometime around 1998-99. I also had some back problems a couple of years ago. I mounted a backrest on my drum throne and that improved my posture instantly and now I almost never have any problems with my back when I’m drumming. The backrest kind of “forces” you to sit more straight, which is a very good thing in every aspect of drumming.
- Unfortunately, I don’t spend as much time practicing as I wish I should. I’m a bit lazy and I’m not enough disciplined when it comes to that. But of course there are periods when I’m pretty good at practicing. The only bad thing is that they mostly don’t last so long…

What drummers would you say have had the most impact on you, either as a general source of inspiration or as a direct defining influence of your sound? What drummers are pushing death metal drumming forwards these days?

- Some of my favourite drummers are Nicko McBrain, Mikkey Dee, Ian Paice, Doc, Dave Lombardo, Nicke Andersson, Nicke Sigevall and Kai Hahto and these have influenced me my drumming a lot, in one way or another. I especially want to hold Doc very high, ‘cause when I discovered Vader, I was totally blown away by Doc’s drumming! I think one can hear quite clearly the impact he had on my drumming when you compare the Vomitory albums “Redemption” and “Revelation Nausea”. May he rest in peace…
- Kai Hahto’s drumming in Rotten Sound has also influenced me quite a lot. His innovative style is sweet ear-candy for any death metal –and grindcore drummer. It is because of him I started using splash cymbals in my setup!
- I am not into those hyper-fast drummers that much actually. Of course it’s impressive to see and hear those guys blast away double bass at 250 bpm, but I think that most of those drummers tend to sound very stiff and monotonous. That simply doesn’t do it for me. Give me Nicke Andersson instead! That guy plays death metal with a swing! And that’s something that most of those guys probably couldn’t do!
- I think we have reached the point where the speed has become more of a sport than a musical ingredient. If it goes too fast, it just sounds ridiculous. It’s not musical, you know, nor brutal. Death metal has taken the speed thing to its limit, more or less, so I think what the genre calls for now is more diversity and feel. I won’t be the one taking the lead there though! I just want to play D-takt all night long, haha!
- Some drummers that definitely have meant a lot to the development of modern death metal drumming are (of course) Derek Roddy, who not only is hyper-fast, but also talks a lot about other aspects of drumming, which I think is really cool ‘cause I think a lot of young drummers don’t think those things are important. They just stare themselves blind on achieving the same speed as Derek can play, so I think what he does is great. Flo Mounier is another name that automatically comes up in my head when thinking of this. I’m honestly not into Cryptopsy that much – not at all in fact – but I know for sure that Flo is a killer drummer.



What's your current set up and how did you end up with this particular set up?

- My current kit is a brand new Tama Starclassic Performer Birch/Bubinga in Dark Mocha Fade. I’ve just had it for two months now and I absolutely love it! It sounds and looks just awesome! I’ve played Tama for almost 20 years now. I don’t have an endorsement though, but I just think Tama is the shit!
- The specs are:
18”x22” kick drums (x2)
8”x10”, 9”x12”, 10”x13” rack toms
14”x16” floor tom
5½”x14” snare
My main snare, though, is a Tama Starclassic Maple 5½”x14”. I also have a Pearl Free floating Brass 5”x14” which I use at live shows.
- My cymbals are (L to R, from “drivers seat”):
14" Paiste 2002 Sound Edge Hi-hat
10" Wuhan splash
14" Wuhan china
17" Zildjian A Custom Fast crash
10" Meinl Classics splash
18" Paiste 2002 Crash
18" Zildjian A Custom Crash
20" Paiste Signature Dry heavy Ride
20" Paiste Signature Thin China
- Hardware etc:
Tama Camco pedals
Tama Iron Cobra hi-hat stand
Tama cymbal arms and tom holders
Gibraltar snare stand
Tama drum throne
Gibraltar rack
ddrum trig mikes for the kickdrums
Alesis D4 sound module
- Before I got my first decent kit in 1989 (which was a Tama Rockstar Pro), I always dreamed of a huge metal kit with double bass drums and four rack toms and shitloads of cymbals. And when I got that Tama Rockstar Pro with two kicks and four rack toms, I just felt that it was right. But after time I took away the 14” tom from that particular kit, partly because it always sounded dead and I never managed to tune it properly and partly because I thought that 14” was a little too big for a rack tom.
- Once I did that, I felt a lot more comfortable with only three toms in front of me. Less clumsy. That way I could also position the cymbals a lot better than I could with four toms. Since I’m a bit of an equipment nerd, I could easily have created a huge monster kit over the years with lots and lots of toms, double or triple floor toms, 50 splash cymbals, auxiliary snares, gongs, octabans, electronics etc, but for practical (and partly economical) reasons I have chosen not to.
- I am playing live on a somewhat regular basis and every time it’s a different drum kit, since I almost never bring my own kit due to financial and practical reasons. If I had that huge monster kit and had created my drum parts on that kit, it would be pretty fucken difficult to play everything on a quite “normal” metal drum kit setup, with two kicks, two or three rack toms, one floor tom and four cymbal stands, which is mostly what it looks like when we go on tour, play festivals or one-off shows. So that’s why my setup looks like it does. I have two splash cymbals and a small china beside the regular crashes, ride and china in my setup now, and sometimes I feel even that is too much!



What are your rituals before a show or a rehearsal? Do you do any warm up exercises and if so what do you do?

- I always warm up in one way or another before a show and at rehearsals. I have had some problems with my left wrist for a number of years now, and if I begin playing without warming up I feel pain in my wrist after only a few songs. Not to mention how the pain is after the show/rehearsal. I have to warm up before or else I cannot play properly throughout a whole show. It’s difficult already as it is!
- Well, what do I do then? Nothing fancy at all, I just take my sticks and I put a folded towel on my knee and just play single strokes at a slow tempo first and then increase the speed as I feel my limbs get warmer and more relaxed. With my feet, I just keep them going on the floor to get them warm and to loosen up. I don’t play any special rudiments or exercises, just anything that crosses my mind.
- I do this for at least 20-30 minutes before a show or rehearsal. It’s not much but it definitely makes a world of difference for me.

Ever since I was a little dude and started looking at song credits at albums I have been fascinated with the often quite big part in the song writing drummers have, whether it be lyrics or music. How large part of the song writing do you have in Vomitory?

- I am actually the main composer in Vomitory. I write like 95% of the music. I also play the guitar beside the drums so I guess it comes quite naturally for me. I wouldn’t call myself a guitarist, but I can play pretty decent and good enough to write and play my own songs and a few metal classics if the situation calls for it, haha.
- It’s a great advantage of being able to play both drums and guitar since I quite often come up with riffs when I’m playing the drums, just fooling around. That’s when it’s very handy to have my guitar next to the kit so I instantly can work the riff out on the guitar. I usually finish a song completely with arrangements and everything before I play it to the other guys. If they like it, it’s cool. If they don’t or if there is a special part that someone doesn’t like, we’ll work it out together. Then when it’s finished, Erik (Rundqvist – bass & vocals) starts working on the lyrics.
- On the new album though, our new guitar player, Peter Östlund, has contributed with three songs – one of them both music and lyrics - which is great since it takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I’ve also written my first Vomitory lyric ever for the new album, the title track “Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize”.

Although there are a lot of kids growing up inspired by these insane blasters in the metal world today and rarely need any advice how to do it, what would your best word of advice for a brand new drummer be?

- Don’t go for speed – go for power and consistency first. Listen to Mikkey Dee, Ed Warby, Nicke Andersson and Dave Lombardo and listen to how they do it before you listen to all the speedfreaks out there. If you don’t, it can seriously fuck up your drumming for life! And practice, practice, practice with patience, patience, patience.

Thanks for the killer answers, Tobben! Next time you'll read about a completely different drummer, but still a masterblaster...

Category: Drums

I've been trying to purchase an Axis A longboard double pedal for quite some time now (since September actually) and today I finally got hold of one. It was sort of funny because I was looking at instrument ads at a Swedish site called Vendolin and found an ad for the exact pedal I wanted. This was a few days ago and this morning I got a reply from the seller who said that the pedal was still available.

The funny thing was that the seller was a fellow blaster - Tobben from Vomitory. So we exchanged a few emails until I finally paid for the pedal via PayPal. This is very exciting and I hope the pedal gets here faster than a shark...

I might be a little naive but I really hope that my pedal work will improve with this somewhat ugly but superfast pedal. All the fast blasters uses this pedal and I hope that it will be the missing piece I've been looking for, for a long time.

Guess I'll share the development of my drumming another day. With or without the Axis pedal...

Category: Drums

After some consideration, I've decided to part ways with my beloved DW kit. It's a wonderful kit and I have enjoyed it tremendously, but where I am as a drummer today, I need to expand my kit slightly and I can't do that with this set (mostly due to the 24" kickdrum).

So I'm getting a new one, a Pearl Reference kit. It will be ordered today and in my hands, perhaps next week. I will update you all with info and pictures once it's set up and ready for grind.

Anyway - if there's anyone interested in buying the DW kit, now is the time to get in touch and give me a good offer. Right now it's part of the payment for the new drums, but I rather sell it to someone else who I know will enjoy them.

What I'm selling is:
One (1) 12" rack tom with tom holder clamp
One (1) 16" floor tom with tom holder clamp
One (1) 24" kick drum with hardcase

That's it - no stands, no snare, no cymbals, no pedals, nothing but the three drums with two clamps and one hardcase for the kick drum.

This offer is mainly for Swedish drummers, because it will cost too much to ship them elsewhere.

So, if someone is interested, get in touch at once.

Category: 100% Nasum

As most of you probably know, Mieszko ran a studio called Soundlab together with Matte from Millencolin. They started with a shitty 8-tracker and developed their skills and upgraded their equipment with time until they had a real studio with Steve Vai's (yes, THAT Steve Vai!) Pro-Tools system.

Well, obviously Soundlab is not a studio in the same active way it was today, it's more of Millencolin's headquarters and from time to time recordings are made.

Later this month Matte is releasing his soloproject/new band Franky Lee's debut album "Cutting Edge" on Burning Heart. The first singel/video "The world just stopped" is his tribute to Mieszko. I didn't realise this until I read the lyrics and got tears in my eyes.

I think it's safe to say that it wasn't just the former Nasum members who lost someone, a lot of friends in Örebro and elsewhere are missing Mieszko, and Matte who was such a close friend to him, may be missing him more than others. I remember having a phone call with Matte close after the Tsunami and he was a wreck not knowing what to do with the company and all the booked recordings and the bills and all that.

I'm glad that it all sorted itself out in the end and that Matte could make this album and get his feeling out of the system and write his "Mieszko lyrics".

I've known Matte for soon 20 years and he's always been a nice guy, from the days we used to skate together outside his house until these days when I always can rely on him when I need to borrow some mikes and shit for my recordings.

So this is the way that I honor you, Matte. Thanks for everything.

Here's the video for "The world just stopped". More info at http://frankylee.com