MIKAEL STANNE Says DARK TRANQUILLITY Was 'Stuck In Traffic For Three Days' Due To Hurricane Irma

October 1, 2017

Rob Botten of Metal Master Kingdom conducted an interview with frontman Mikael Stanne of Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY prior to the band's September 18 show at The Mod Club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On DARK TRANQUILLITY having to cancel several shows in Florida due to Hurricane Irma:

Mikael: "We were in South America first, for two weeks. Then, we had four shows in Florida planned. We only did one of those, the first one. We were basically stuck in traffic for three days with getting the hell out, basically, and so was everyone else. We didn't see anything [from the storm]. We were just watching TV on the bus, watching CNN and all the local news and just driving north. It was weird. It was eerie, kind of scary, but of course, we were super-lucky. We were in a nice tour bus with all the facilities we needed like water and beer and all that stuff. It was weird to roll into a gas station where everything is emptied out or there was no gas. It was crazy, but fortunately, it was not as bad as they expected. It seems like people are okay. I guess it's fine. It was weird. We've never been close to anything like that before. It was a new experience. We hate cancelling shows, so that really sucked, but the venues were closed and some cities had evacuation orders."

On DARK TRANQUILLITY's current North American tour schedule, which finds the band playing nineteen shows in twenty days:

Mikael: "Had we done the Florida shows, it was like thirty-two shows in a row, I think. We're fine with it. We don't want days off. I don't want to spend any more time away from my family then necessary. Also, I want to get out of the tour rut. Playing every day is better than having time off to do nothing. It's just frustrating."

On choosing a live setlist in a career that now spans over twenty-five years:

Mikael: "It's a nightmare. Of course there are songs that maybe have to play and then there are new songs that we really want to play. We figure out how to balance between that. There's always going to be songs that we leave out that fans want to hear, but we try our best to make sure. So far, people seem to dig it. They're really into it. We decided to play longer, cram as many songs in there as we can. It is tough. We changed the set quite a lot since the last tour, so it still feels really fresh. Now, we have two new [touring] guitar players [Christopher Amott, ex-ARCH ENEMY; and Johan Reinholdz, ANDROMEDA, NONEXIST] and it feels like a totally different experience for us."

On whether he has any fond memories from DARK TRANQUILLITY's early tour experiences:

Mikael: "We were young and stupid. It was a different time to tour. Our first tour was in '95. We toured with SIX FEET UNDER, then in '96, with CANNIBAL CORPSE in Europe, which is amazing. Touring with seasoned bands who can teach us a lot. We immediately learned everything about touring, like, 'This is what you can do. This is how you can pattern yourself. This is how it works.' We got good touring lessons immediately. We never slept, we just partied constantly, basically, those early tours. Of course, there was a lot of stupid things that happened. Sometimes we reminisce and go back 'Do you remember that?' Stupid things like that. Then again, a lot of fun things happen now, too. Now, you can plan things out. You have the ability to look things up and actually travel around. What I kind of regret the most, is I hadn't seen any of the cities. You wake up 'Oh, is there anything around? No.' Then you go back to sleep. Whereas now, I get up, I take an Uber to a cool place I want to visit or go running. I really want to see the cities. Even some cities I've been to ten, fifteen times, I still haven't seen anything yet. We made an effort now to actually get to know the cities more. That's been amazing."

On whether the band has started work on the follow-up to 2016's "Atoma":

Mikael: "No. We haven't gotten that far, yet. It's been focusing on promoting the album and touring the hell out of it. We haven't really started. I'm sure there's material and Anders [Jivarp, drums] and Martin [Brändström, keyboards] already have stuff. It's going to take a while. Also, we have to come up with something new, not just leftovers from the last session. It's going to take a while. We'll see. Maybe after the summer."

DARK TRANQUILLITY's current North American tour with WARBRINGER and STRIKER kicked off on September 6 in Margate, Florida and will wrap on October 7 in Dallas, Texas.

"Atoma" was released last November via Century Media.

Find more on Dark tranquillity
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).