AMON AMARTH Guitarists Say It's Almost 'Impossible' For New Bands To Make A Living From Playing Music

GuitarMania recently conducted an interview with guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg of Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH in Vienna, Austria. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked what piece of advice they would give to young bands that are just starting out, Olavi said: "Well, first of all, these days, it's gonna be fucking impossible to try to make a living out of it. Especially when you're a new band, that should not be their goal or whatever, because it's really difficult these days. I mean, it's easier for us that we've been around and we already have a name. For a young band, without a record label putting a lot of money and tour support into the band, it's gonna be very difficult. But, of course, you're gonna play as hard as you wanna play, but you should never think that's gonna be your career. But, yeah, do your thing and don't listen too much to other people. Trust yourself and listen to your own… go by your gut feeling."

Added Johan: "When I started to play, it was my biggest passion; I only wanted to play music all the time. That's the way it has to be. If you wanna play in a band, [it should be] because it's the best thing you know to do. And the, eventually, if that leads to a career, that's awesome. But you have to have [enough] passion [so] that playing is the main goal."

After touring the world this past year in support of their latest album, "Jomsviking", AMON AMARTH will head back out on the road this spring for a U.S. tour with Metal Blade labelmates GOATWHORE. Starting April 30 and running through May 21, the journey will also see AMON AMARTH making appearances at some of the country's premier music festivals, including Welcome To Rockville, Carolina Rebellion, Dark Lord Day, Northern Invasion and Rock On The Range.

AMON AMARTH's tenth studio album, "Jomsviking", debuted at No. 19 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 21,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 31, 2016.

"Jomsviking" was released on March 25, 2016 via Metal Blade in North America and Sony Music internationally. The first concept record in AMON AMARTH's storied career tells a tragic tale of love and revenge, backed by the Swedes' trademark melodic, anthemic metal, which was produced and mixed once again by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT). The epic original story is set in the world of the Jomsvikings, the legendary order of mercenary Vikings.

Jocke Wallgren was named AMON AMARTH's new permanent drummer in September. Jocke had been sitting behind the kit for all shows on the group's current "Jomsviking" world tour.