Smash Into Pieces released their 7th LP Disconnect in September 2022 and are currently on tour in the US with Citizen Soldier opening for them. On April 28th, they stopped by The Knitting Factory in Los Angeles and we got a chance to talk to Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye (vocals) and Per Bergquist (guitar).
MWN: How would you introduce yourself and the band to people who are not familiar with Smash Into Pieces?
Per: Well, it’s always hard to put a name on it, but I guess we say that we are a hybrid rock band. We have a lot of cinematic stuff, electronic stuff baked in, but the foundation is a rock band. Something like that.
MWN: And the band started in 2008, is that correct?
Chris: It depends on how you see it, but that was the time that I met Benjamin for the first time and we did our first couple of songs. Per actually joined in 2009.
MWN: And 2008 is when Nickelback’s Dark Horse came out. In the song “Glow In The Dark”, you say “Nickel back got me going, for a ride on a dark horse”.
Chris: Haha, well that’s Per’s fault. No, but we love Nickelback. We love that album.
MWN: They inspired you to get started?
Chris: Absolutely.
Per: And it’s also a way to give a positive message about Nickelback because everybody is always talking shit about them. It’s a way to show that we support Nickelback.
Chris: They’re successful and that’s probably why people talk shit about them.
MWN: You toured Europe earlier this year, opening for STARSET. You are now in the middle of a headline tour in the US and Canada. And you just announced a headlining Europe tour for this winter, ending home in Sweden. It feels like most of 2023 will be spent on the road. What is your favorite part of being on tour?
Chris: It’s that one hour when you’re on stage. It doesn’t matter how shitty you slept or what’s going on, that one hour on stage you get full energy, it’s an adrenaline blast. But also you know, you see a lot. You basically see the whole world. That’s a nice thing too.
MWN: And how has the tour been going so far? There has been a bunch of sold-out shows, like tonight for example.
Chris: I think I heard something like 85% of the tour sold out.
Per: We didn’t know what to expect because it’s our first headlining tour in the US. We’ve always done support tours only in the US until now. It’s way over our expectations. I mean it’s not arenas, it’s smaller venues but people are still coming, buying tickets and singing along. The crowd yesterday was so loud, I had to max out my in-ear system to be able to hear. Crazy! Yesterday was something else.
MWN: In Smash Into Pieces, the visual universe is almost as important as the music. The music videos, the clothing, the masked drummer (The Apocalypse DJ) … What are the challenges to recreate this during live performances?
Per: We could do so much, there are endless possibilities, but to actually do it… especially coming to the US you really have to be smart about it, otherwise it would cost millions you know. That’s the challenge. In Europe we have a lot more things, we have screens with specials angles and we’re able to use bigger buses to ship more gear. When we come to the US, we have to make it smaller. It’s always about planning and doing the smartest things you can do with the budget available. But we’re very nerdy about the full show, we’re not only playing songs. We want to give you a full experience.
MWN: In addition to the visual universe, your last 3 albums either start or end with instrumental songs that could be out of a movie soundtrack. Are movies a source of inspiration for you?
Per: When I watched the last Dune movie, I was listening to the soundtrack more than I was watching the movie. I really love that, getting inspiration from 80’s action movies or video game soundtracks. There are so many great compositions that are not pop music, cool melodies from games etc.
MWN: And you can actually hear the 80’s and video games music influence on the previous albums Arcadia and A New Horizon. But your last album Disconnect sounds heavier and rawer than the previous ones. Was that a direction you wanted to follow before entering the writing process or did it happen as you were making the album?
Chris: It was a couple of different things, we started working with new producers at the time and we had just exited the Arcadia World with the song “A New Horizon” which is the last song of the album A New Horizon. So I think we wanted to leave that for a while and go back to our roots, where we came from, more guitar-based I guess. We also built our own studio at the time so we were very excited about that. There were a few different things that made us want to go harder I guess.
Per: The plan was to breathe a bit from the Arcadia World and re-enter the real world. We wanted to breath, think about what happens next, make a cool, organic and heavy album. And now for what’s coming next, it will be more of a futuristic version of the Arcadia World, no 3D animation, more realistic.
Chris: And actually, today we released “The Tide”, the first song which is part of the New Arcadia universe.
Per: Is the video out yet?
Chris: Yeah, I think. We’re on tour so we don’t know anything haha! I think it’s been up for 5 hours. The full video is out and I love the ending.
Per: First part of Arcadia, season 3, out today!
MWN: What is this new song “The Tide” about?
Chris: Benjamin wrote the song. He’s not on tour with us, but I guess The Tide is about something big that’s coming.
Per: I guess we saw what happened in Arcadia, how the society is developing. The Tide is about the fact that you cannot stop it from happening as technology and artificial intelligence rise. What happened in Arcadia is bound to happen in this world. The tide is coming and you cannot stop it.
MWN: The other 2 singles released since the album “Sleepwalking” and “Six Feet Under” seem to reconnect with the lighter sound of the previous albums, with more electronic music components. Is that the direction you are heading to for the next album?
Chris: Yeah, I think it’s a natural progression towards what we’re going to do now. We’re still working with different producers. And we also do songs that we like to do, we don’t have a particular genre that we’re trying to do. We blend all the genres in the mix.
Per: It’s always fun to not do the same album over and over again. The last one was more organic and heavier, and this one is going to be more cinematic I guess.
Chris: We evolve as a band all the time. There’s a lot of good songs coming out soon. We’re really looking forward to it.
MWN: Talking about “Six Feet Under”, congrats on reaching the final of the Melodifestivalen (the Swedish Eurovision contest) with this song by the way. I understand you were the only rock band participating in this contest and it’s a genre that rarely does well in this type of competition. What motivated you to participate in this contest?
Chris: We got a call. We were contacted by big songwriters in Sweden, they wanted to show us a song. So we went and started a collab with them and we had a session with them, Benjamin and I. We did a song together, we liked it. We took it to Per who finished it. And we did more of a Smash version out of it. And we sent it in. They liked it, they’ve seen us for a long time, they’ve seen us getting bigger over the years. They liked the whole thing, you know having Smash on the contest. Also we’re very cinematic. It looks nice when you see us playing.
Per: Also we were able to show what Smash is to the people on national television. It doesn’t matter that it’s a competition or how it goes. As long as we get do the cool cinematic show that we want to do. The result was not important. The goal was to show what we are about. It’s a bonus that we actually did so well.
MWN: It gave you a lot of visibility.
Chris: We can’t even go out to a gas station in Sweden without having people take pictures now. It’s crazy. It happened after the semi-final. Ever since these 3 minutes were over, our first time on national TV, everything exploded in Sweden. It went so fast. And it’s funny that we’re actually not in Sweden when we’re having this big break. We’re on tour, it’s like “bye bye” haha!
MWN: It has good sides and bad sides?
Per: There has not been bad sides honestly. Only positive from our fans and getting new listeners. There are a lot of kids and people are sending me messages… They play our music in kindergarten even. It’s crazy. I guess we reached out not only to people who listen to rock, but you know more mainstream.
Chris: I think that our success in that show came from the fact that we did it genuinely, you know. This is us. We did our stuff. And it worked.
MWN: Chris, as a Swedish singer, why do you sing in English rather than Swedish? Is it to reach a wider audience or is it because you primarily listen to English/American artists?
Chris: Definitely the second one. We’ve always been influenced by American bands. That was natural for us. But the idea of doing something in Swedish, why not, I welcome that idea. It would be cool actually.
Per: Yeah, it’s always been natural for us. American bands, that’s what we get on TV. And if we were doing this in Swedish we would be limited to a much smaller market.
MWN: There are a lot of Swedish bands that sing in English and export very successfully on the international scene…
Chris: Yeah, and there usually not big at all back home.
MWN: Really? I’m thinking of ABBA, The Hives, there are so many bands that came out of Sweden. How come they export so well compared to other European countries?
Chris: The snow and the dark haha!
Per: Right, we have nothing to do but to write. But actually, the government is making it very easy for us Swedes to learn music. We have a big music scene; they provide rehearsal rooms which are monthly paid but super cheap. It comes with a drum kit… You have all the basic things to start a band. So, we have that tradition in Sweden. I think it comes from there. And we have a lot of very good music schools. Living in Sweden, it’s probably easier to make music compared to most countries.
MWN: What are your main influences?
Chris: Geez…
Per: For me right now, it’s just cool melodies or productions that catches my hear. It’s not even a specific genre. Growing up I was only listening to death metal. You know, Pantera, all the cool stuff. Now it doesn’t matter what kind of music if I like the melody.
Chris: And we’re all like that in the band. That’s why you get this kind of songs. It’s not one genre, it’s all genres-in-one. Add guitars to that and we’re a rock band basically.
MWN: Well even though you have a unique sound, each song sounds different from the other. And it’s largely due to your music incorporating elements from different genres from metal to pop, to electronic music. And it sounds like it’s something that everybody is bringing to the table, right?
Chris: The only thing that remains the same is probably my vocals. But I can do so many different versions of the vocal parts. Per and Benjamin are superb songwriters. Then I add my vocals to the guitars. And that’s what makes Smash.
Per: We’re not afraid to experiment and take a song in different directions. We don’t have to be heavy necessarily. Whatever the song needs, we’ll do it. I guess it’s both good and bad, because some fans are confused that we could be super heavy or not at all. But it keeps it fresh. It’s nice to have this diversity.
Chris: It keeps us hungry all the time. We’re not releasing 7 albums that sound the same. We want to have this challenge to sound different all the time. We’re crazy like that.
MWN: And it feels like you never stop working on new material. Since your first album came out in 2015, you have released an album every year or every other year.
Per: Even in the tour bus, we pull out our computers and we start working on stuff. It’s much better than playing on your phone. We stay productive, it makes the tour easier as well.
Chris: It makes time go faster. We’ve been touring for 6 months now and a couple of nights ago we were talking backstage with Citizen Soldier and we’re like “we should do something together”. So we pulled out ideas and demos and I was so excited, I stared walking around. I didn’t know what to do. I really miss being in the studio and working on new music. It’s suffocating when I’m not being creative. That’s the downside of touring, not having that studio time.
MWN: On the album Arcadia, there is a fantastic cover of “Mad World” by Tears for Fears. Are there other songs you would like to cover in the future?
Chris: It’s actually my girlfriend’s favorite band nowadays. That’s what we listen to when we drink wine at home. I discovered them quite recently.
Per: We had been talking about doing a cover for a while and Mad World is such a epic song. Maybe not the Tears For Fears version, but the Gary Jules version which really inspired me when I was younger. And actually, when we were in the car, driving to the studio to record the song, we received a message from the father of one of our fans. His daughter had just committed suicide that day. She was a big fan of our music. And I remember when we were recording the song, it’s as if you were singing the song to her.
Chris: Yeah…
Per: It was a very emotional moment.
Chris: And it was the day the pandemic and the lockdown hit as well. It was very emotionally charged that day.
MWN: Do you have plans to do other covers?
Chris: Things like that come to your mind all the time. It just needs to be the right timing you know. It needs to be something that we really want to do.
Per: And it’s so fun to write new music too. We’re into it, but we’ll see. It will probably happen again.
MWN: Lastly, do you have exciting news to share or a message for the fans who will read this interview?
Chris: We always have exciting things going on.
Per: I’m very excited about what coming with the new album. Also we’re touring more than we’ve ever have. So if you want to come see us live, there’s a big chance that we’ll be in your town.
Chris: There are a lot of very good songs that are going to be coming out soon.
Interview by Manuel Gay | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!
