Mikkel: “We’re pretty confident it’s gonna be even better than 11 Dreams”
As Glenn pointed out in the ProgPower Forum, Mercenary’s guitar tone is “the best guitar sound in metal. That crunch is unmistakable.” But, if I may add, without ever losing its riff-ness. And the keyboards! Forgetaboutit. Let’s just say every instrument in Mercenary’s arsenal is perfectly balanced in the mix – including Mikkel Sandager’s amazing voice.
To date, Denmark’s Mercenary has released three albums – First Breath, Everblack and 11 Dreams. They’re poised to release their fourth in August.
Enjoy.
MS: Hello?
BM: Hi, is this Mikkel?
MS: Yeah, it is.
BM: Hi, this is Bill Murphy.
MS: Hey, how’s it going?
BM: Good, how are you doing?
MS: I’m doing great. I’m just sitting in a van. We’re on the way to the studio right now.
BM: Oh, do you want me to call back at a different time?
MS: No, no, this is fine.
BM: Ok. Well, you said you were working on your new album. Do you know when that will be released?
MS: Yeah, we’re going to release it around late August. We don’t have an accurate release date yet, but yeah, sometime in late August.
BM: Cool. What is it called? Do you know?
MS: It’s called The Hours That Remain.
BM: [laughs]
MS: [laughs]
BM: Does it have the same kind of, I don’t want to say depressing, but…how would you describe that album? Because 11 Dreams is all about nightmares and dark thoughts. Is this the same kind of theme?
MS: Yeah. Well, this one is a little bit more introvert. Like, this deals with a lot of my personal feelings during and around the time that Kral departed from the band. So this is a little bit more emotional, maybe. A little bit more personal, lyric-wise.
BM: Well, you know, a lot of the fans…I don’t know if you look at the ProgPower forum, but a lot of the fans say 11 Dreams is your masterpiece. Does that put any pressure on you to create something better for the next one?
MS: [laughs] Yeah, sure, sure. But you know, we’re pretty much done with the new album, and we’re pretty confident that it’s gonna be even better than 11 Dreams.
BM: Oh really?
MS: That’s our feelings, anyway. It’s bit more melodic. It’s more….I think the prog fans will be really eager about this album, because it’s actually a little more progressive than 11 Dreams was. A little bit more clean vocals and yeah, a little more aggressive as well.
BM: I was gonna ask you about the vocals, ’cause if there’s one thing that people have difficulty with, especially in the States, is sort of the growly, grunty vocals thing. Did you make that conscious decision to tone those down a bit?
MS: Well, Kral [vocals and bass] actually departed from the band just before we started writing all the new songs, and so it changed sort of natural. When I, because it was me that wrote all the lyrics and wrote all the melodies and stuff, it kind of came naturally to me to tone down the aggressive, growling vocals a bit, because that’s really not my strong side. So there’s a little bit of…but I did it anyway, I actually did all the vocals on the new album. I even did the growling.
BM: Oh really?
MS: Yeah.
BM: Your voice is really good. I enjoy listening to your vocal range, it’s great.
MS: Oh cool, thanks.
BM: Let me ask you something about 11 Dreams…well, first of all, what’s it like working with your brother in the band? Do you guys have any sibling rivalry, do you get along real well?
MS: No, not at all. We’ve always gotten along really well. And it’s actually quite, it’s really cool. When we’re on tour and traveling a lot, it’s pretty nice to have family close by. So that’s really cool. That’s a real nice aspect of it.
BM: [laughs]
MS: But no rivalry.
BM: [laughs] How long did it take you to create 11 Dreams, by the way, and where did that concept originally come from?
MS: Oh my god! Oh, well, 11 Dreams took forever. It took from start of recording until the finished product, it was about a year and a half, I think.
BM: Wow.
MS: But it was like on and off because of the studio. The studio that we record was so overbooked all the time. So we had to like book half a year in advance all the time. But I think all in all we spent 45 days in the studio on 11 Dreams.
BM: Wow. Do you have a favorite track off 11 Dreams? Favorite track to listen to and a favorite track to perform live. Are they two different ones, or are they the same one?
MS: Well, I have two songs that I really like, that top my list. It’s like, “Firesoul” is like my favorite one to play live, I think, because it’s so aggressive, and it’s so it has all the aspects of our music I think. And just for listening, that would be “Sharpen the Edges”.
BM: Really?
MS: Yeah.
BM: What is it about that song?
MS: I really like the moody stuff in “Sharpen the Edges.” It’s really like, kinda creepy. [laughs]
BM: [laughs] Oh yeah, you’re right. I’m actually listening to it now.
MS: Yeah? Cool. But “Sharpen the Edges,” we really love to play that live as well, but it’s really hard on the voice. I don’t know why. That song is just really hard to play live.
BM: Is it really?
MS: Yeah, it is. It’s like, it’s placed right in the midrange, where I, some of the notes are a little too high for my full register, so it’s like in-between. So it’s pretty hard for me to sing that one live. But we try to do it anyway when we have a long set, we always bring it along.
BM: Even the artwork for 11 Dreams is great. How involved are you in choosing the artwork for an album? And how important is that to you, to have a cool CD cover?
MS: Oh it’s really important, extremely important. We used Niklas Sundin of Dark Tranquility fame, and he really, he pretty much did it himself. He came up with a couple of suggestions, and then we sort of picked the one we liked the most, and then we told him, you know, we like this one with the two faces, just put the faces in a frame, and tried to create something cool around that. We’re really involved in that process as well.
BM: How about for the new album? Do you have something just as cool for the cover of that one?
MS: Oh yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. We’ve got Travis Smith once again.
BM: Oh really?
MS: Yeah, the guy that did Everblack as well. So that’s really cool. Actually, I just saw the finished result today. And it’s really cool, yeah, it is.
BM: Wow. What is it like – you guys have played ProgPower before, I think you were there last year, was it?
MS: No, 2003.
BM: 2003. What is it like for you guys to play ProgPower? Is that a lot of fun?
MS: Well, when we went there in 2003, we didn’t really know what to expect because people didn’t know who we were, and we’d never played the States before, and never really released any albums in the States either. So when we went on stage, the reaction was really overwhelming. And up until that point, that was like the peak show for us, ever.
BM: Really?
MS: So ProgPower has become sort of, something we hold really close to our hearts. And we really anticipate and look forward to playing there again. It’s a great, great honor for us to be able to come over there again and play ProgPower.
BM: That’s great.
MS: That’s really awesome. All the people that’s over there, and all the fans and everybody involved in the project, it’s just so cool and so friendly. So we’re really looking forward to that.
BM: What can audiences expect from you guys this year? Are you going to play a lot of your new material, or will it be a combination of old and new?
MS: Of course, we haven’t really played in the States after 11 Dreams, which released, so of course we’re going to bring a lot of 11 Dreams songs with us. And of course, we’re gonna bring at least 3, 4 from the new album as well.
BM: Great.
MS: Yeah, so you guys won’t be disappointed. Don’t worry. [laughs]
BM: [laughs] Well, I can tell you, reading the ProgPower forum fan club comments, people are looking forward to 11 Dreams quite a bit.
MS: Yeah.
BM: It’s a great album.
MS: Yeah, they won’t be disappointed, don’t worry. [laughs] We’re gonna do our best to give them everything we’ve got, yeah.
BM: What would you say are the unique challenges you guys face as being a metal band in Denmark? What is the biggest problem or challenge you face?
MS: Well, it’s always a problem when you’re like a small country. We’re only like 6 million inhabitants in Denmark, so the market for the metal is not that big. So when you sell a lot of albums in Denmark, in a metal band, you sell maybe 1500 copies of a CD in Denmark, and then you sell a lot. And so it goes without saying that it’s pretty hard to make a living off it, just playing in Denmark.
BM: [laughs]
MS: [laughs] And also we have – well, that’s not a problem, that’s one of the cool things about it-is that when we play live in Denmark, that’s like the only opportunity we have ot make a lot of money. Not a lot of money, but some money off of the concerts. Because we can book them ourselves, so there’s like no middle link in-between.
BM: Do you have a favorite road story? Like is there anything that’s happened to you on any of your tours that’s been funny or strange?
MS: [laughs]
BM: What? What’s your favorite road story?
MS: Well, actually, we had a pretty cool like mini-tour with Everygrey. I think it was in the beginning of 2005, maybe. Just like five shows around Europe. That was some party, actually, pretty much from start to finish. We played in Germany, I think it was in Munich, maybe. And then we had these guys telling us about this bar we can go to that really cost a lot of money to get into this bar, and then the shots and drinks were pretty much free. They only cost like half a dollar or so for a liter of beer. So that was crazy. And then we all got really, really, Really drunk!
BM: [laughs]
MS: And when me and my brother went back, we saw the sound guy from Evergrey sitting by the bus, just with blood coming out of his face. So the guy had been so drunk, he had actually tripped, and fallen into a car. [laughs] So we had to somehow call 9-1-1. But the problem was that we were in Germany, and we really didn’t know what the number was for 9-1-1.
BM: [laughs]
MS: So I actually just tried. I just dialed 9-1-1. And it worked, so. [laughs]
BM: Did it really? [laughs]
MS: Yeah, it worked. [laughs]
BM: That’s crazy. [laughs]
MS: And then I had to figure out where the fuck I was, ’cause I was in Germany somewhere, so I was just running around with my cell phone looking for signs of what kind of road I was standing on. And yeah, that was a little bit crazy. But always fun. It turned out pretty good in the end. Nothing happened to him, he just had a couple of stitches. So he was ready the next night.
BM: Wow. Hey, you mentioned earlier, and a lot of the reviews of your album say it’s a combination of melody and aggression. When I was talking to Lance King, you know the Pyramaze vocalist, he said he has a cover band that he plays with where he lives, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And he says there’s certain songs that they can play, like by Rage Against the Machine or something, where they know it’ll work up an audience and get those people just freaking out. You guys must have – and he says that’s a tremendous power to have and we have to be careful with it. Do you guys feel that way too, like when you get your audience really worked up and they may be moshing or something, do you ever feel responsible if they get hurt or something? Or what? What do you think?
MS: For sure, for sure. It’s always a bit scary to be on stage sometimes when you can see the mosh pit going around just in front of the stage. And actually we have had one instance where a guy actually broke his arm, I think. And we had to cancel the rest of the show, ‘cause he was out cold. They did some really heavy moshing, and I think he was pretty drunk, and then somebody just tipped him over, and he just fell straight on his head. So we had to call the paramedics. That was pretty scary, that’s pretty scary stuff. Actually, there’s not a lot of fighting going on. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight when we play, ever. No. Even when the guys are moshing, it’s always some sort of unwritten rule, but you can go so far, and then you have to stop. And it’s always most intense when the stage is pretty low. When you’re like directly in front of the audience, when those kinds of audiences start to really freak out and do the mosh pits, it’s sometimes really hard to actually keep them off the stage.
BM: [laughs]
MS: I’ve been forced to a couple of times, actually kick my foot on the monitor, just to keep it from bashing into me. So that gets pretty intense sometimes.
BM: Well, would you guys prefer fans that just kinda stand there and nod their head and enjoy your music? Or do you like the moshing thing? What’s the best fan like for you guys?
MS: Well, when playing live, it’s always like the most energy, the energy comes from the crowd and if the crowd really goes crazy, not necessarily a mosh pit, but you know, just a lot of good head banging is always really cool. I’m not really into the mosh pits, myself. I just like the fans to just head bang and get crazy, but yeah. The more energy, the better.
BM: Yeah. Do you guys ever play cover songs when you play live?
MS: Yeah, we did, long time ago. We played – actually we had a Nevermore cover song, “Inside Four Walls.” We played that live a lot of times in the 2002 and 2003, and then when we went on the road with Nevermore this last year, we actually took up the song again and got both Jeff Loomis and Steve Smyth on stage with us.
BM: Oh really?
MS: Yeah, for the final show on the European tour we did with them. They played that song with us live, and that was really amazing. So that was four guitars on stage. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
MS: That was a massive sound.
BM: Oh yeah. Is there a favorite country you guys like to play in? I mean, you must play in Europe in different places. Are the fans the same all over? Are there certain countries that are better than others, or how does that go to you?
MS: Woo, that’s tough to say. It actually depends on just the mood of the evening actually. Of course, there are some countries that are more crazy than others. Actually, we played in Slovenia, in Budapest, and the fans really went crazy. But the fans in Germany and Holland and Belgium and France are really cool as well. So it’s really not that dependent on country, I think. It’s more like a mood of the evening thing, I think.
BM: [laughs] Are you guys finding that distribution for your albums is easier with the Internet now? Are you having any troubles with distribution? Are you getting your album everywhere you want it to go? How’s that working?
MS: I think pretty much when we are on a label like Century Media, and they just switched distributors from all the independent ones to EMI.
BM: Oh yeah.
MS: So I don’t think they have any problems right now, getting the album out there. But with that said, I think the Internet is actually helping bands like us a lot. ‘Cause I think a lot of people who wouldn’t necessarily have bought the album in the first place have a chance to listen to our music and then later on, buy the stuff.
BM: Oh yeah.
MS: If they get into the music. So I don’t think we suffer, if you’re thinking about the downloading, I don’t think we suffer too much. I actually think it helps promote the band a bit actually.
BM: Well, if you’re familiar at all with the Grateful Dead, they just encourage taping – Phish, too – encouraged downloading and taping everything. I don’t think it hurt them at all.
MS: Yeah. No, actually, I think you’re right. Of course, it hurts bands like Madonna and Britney Spears and all that. [laughs] But they sell so many CDs anyway, that they don’t have to do anything for the rest of their lives anyway, so.
BM: What are your favorite kinds of bands to listen to? If you had to pick a top five albums of all time, what would the list be?
MS: Well, in regard to my top five bands would be, Iron Maiden, Fates Warning – Fates Warning is one of my top favorites – then Nevermore, Soilwork, and Queensyrche.
BM: Oh yeah, great bands.
MS: Oh and of course, Psychotic Waltz, is also one of my really all-time favorite bands. And Sanvoisen as well, I don’t know if you know them.
BM: No, I’m not familiar with that one.
MS: They have like an awesome vocalist. They don’t exist anymore unfortunately.
BM: Oh, well that’s great. How about if you had to pick a couple albums that you just love to listen to over and over again, what would they be?
MS: I think that’s gonna be related a lot to Iron Maiden, because I was just like a hardcore Iron Maiden fan for so many years. So that would be albums like Somewhere in Time, really means a lot to me, and Powerslave has made a huge impact on both my musical , my way of making music and melodies in general. But also the Queensryche albums like Empire and Promised Land, Mindcrime of course. Promised Land, I was really into. I liked the little bit new vibe to it in comparison to the older stuff.
BM: Well, you picked a couple of bands with fantastic vocalists. I mean, Geoff Tate and Bruce Dickinson, they don’t get much better than that.
MS: No, they don’t.
BM: Do you try to use any of their kind of stylings or anything when you sing? Are you thinking about how they would do it?
MS: Not consciously, no. Of course I’ve been influenced by them unconsciously because I’ve listened to them so much. But not consciously, no. I pretty much do just sing, and then, yeah.
BM: You look like you have a great time on stage, by the way.
MS: Oh, we do. We always do, yeah.
BM: [laughs]
MS: That’s why we play music, you know? Playing live, that’s the only reason. That’s what keeps us going.
BM: Do you — you know the lineup of bands this year at ProgPower. Is there any one that you’re looking forward to seeing that you haven’t seen before?
MS: Well, actually the bands that play over there this year, I don’t really know them that well. I’m really looking forward to Freak Kitchen, actually. That’s gonna be awesome, I think. I’ve listened to them a lot in the old days. So and Jorn Lande, of course, is always a treat.
BM: Oh yeah.
MS: Other than that, I’m just looking forward to playing with the Danish guys from Pyramaze, as well, because I know they drink a lot of beer.
BM: [laughs]
MS: So that should be a great party.
BM: Well, I hear Evergrey loves to party, too, don’t they?
MS: Oh Evergrey, yeah. Of course, yeah. I think there’s going to be a lot of heavy partying over there this year.
BM: [laughs]
MS: [laughs]
BM: Well, let me ask you one more thing, then I’ll let you go. I know you’re on the road and busy. What is the most challenging part of making this new album right now?
MS: The most challenging thing for me personally was that I had to do all the vocals myself this time. I had to write all the lyrics, write all the melodies, and stuff. ‘Cause Kral left the band. So that was really challenging for me. But I think it turned out pretty cool, and I think I’ve learned a lot from this experience and actually matured a lot as a musician. I got to know myself in a lot of different ways. When you have to write the lyrics for ten songs to an album, you really have to search your soul, so to speak, and it’s actually been kind of therapeutic for me as well. Also, with Kral leaving the band, I had a lot of like frustrations and unanswered questions about where are we gonna go now, what’s gonna happen? And in that way, it was pretty cool for me.
BM: Oh, that’s great. I can’t wait to hear the new one. Everybody’s going to be looking forward to it here, I know that.
MS: I can’t wait until you hear it either. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
MS: I’m looking really forward to getting people’s response to it.
BM: Yeah, well that’s another good thing about the Internet. You’ll get instant response from all over the world.
MS: Yeah, exactly, it’s awesome.
BM: Cool. Well, Mikkel, I really appreciate your time. It’s been a lot of fun talking to you today.
MS: Yeah, you too man. It was cool. I guess I’m gonna be seeing you at ProgPower, right?
BM: Yep, I’ll be down there. I’ll be taking pictures. Maybe I can even see all this partying that’s going on down there. I’ll be in the midst of it.
MS: Oh yeah. You’ll be joining in yourself, won’t you?
BM: Well, yeah, I gotta take pictures though. They’ll be all blurry if I do that.
MS: I can take the pictures for ya. [laughs]
BM: [laughs] That’s great. Well I’m looking forward to meeting you down there.
MS: Yeah, me too.
BM: Thanks a lot. Take care, and drive carefully.
MS: Yeah, we will. Thanks a lot, man.
BM: Take care. Bye.
MS: Ok, bye.
And there you have it. As Glenn mentioned in the Forum, Mercenary’s new album is going to kick major behind.
Although their first couple of CDs are relatively hard to find, I picked up mine at LaserCD.com not too long ago. Ken Golden does a great job of keeping the best of the best in stock.
