Notes From The Other Side

As soon as I got a promo copy of Mercenary’s new album — The Hours That Remain — I requested a brief follow-up interview with vocalist Mikkel Sandager. The album blew me away. On a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 9. Easily. The songs are aggressive, yet melodic, introspective yet accessible. It’s easy to see why Mikkel told me, “I haven’t felt this strong about anything in my whole life, in regards to music.”

Mikkel called me a couple of days ago. This is what we talked about.

MS: Hello, Bill. This is Mikkel of Mercenary.

BM: Mikkel, how are you?

MS: I’m great, and you?

BM: Oh, doing well. Thank you very much.

MS: Ok.

BM: Well it’s good to connect with you again. I appreciate that.

MS: Yeah, you’re welcome, man. Anytime.

BM: This new CD of yours is quite amazing.

MS: Oh, you think so? Thanks a lot.

BM: Yeah. Well, have you run into anybody who doesn’t think so?

MS: Well, I haven’t really talked to that many people yet, but the majority seems to like it.

BM: Yeah, it’s really good. Tell me about it, start from the beginning here a second. Tell me about the title, where did that come from?

MS: The title of it?

BM: Yeah.

MS: Well actually, that was Jakob [Mølbjerg, guitarist] that came up with the title. I’m not exactly sure which book it was that he had been reading, but it was some sort of like a sci-fi thing. And they had like a Latin quote that meant “The hours that remain,” and we just really liked the title of it and really liked the mood that it sort of set. And also because it can be used from two different angles, like a positive side and a negative side, depending on how you look at it, really.

BM: Yeah. And how do you look at it? [laughs]

MS: Well, [laughs], it depends on which mood I’m in, Bill.

BM: [laughs] Yeah, I can understand that. Tell me about the album artwork. It’s Travis Smith art, right?

MS: Yeah it is, yeah.

BM: What is it like working with Travis Smith?

MS: He just, you know, we sent all the lyrics to him, and he got the title, of course. Then, he just pretty much came up with a couple of really cool ideas that we really liked and sort of worked with for maybe a month or so. And then he just came up with this amazing artwork. I really think it says a lot.

BM: Oh, it definitely does.

MS: Well, you know, he’s a really easy guy to work with. He’s really interested in making us happy, and that’s like his main priority. And there’s really nothing that you can’t get him to do, you know. Like on the Everblack album we did, it took like two and a half months or something to come up with the final artwork. We really kept on saying, “Yeah, this is a really cool idea, but if you try to make the watch just a little bit smaller or make the moon, the face in the moon, can you please change the face in the moon?” [laughs] And we sort of kept on going like that for almost two months, and he just kept on going, you know, without a glitch. [laughs] But he’s really, really easy to work with.

BM: [laughs] But this one came together a lot more easily?

MS: Yeah, it went really fast, actually. This was like done, from start to finish, like maximum three weeks.

BM: Wow. Wow.

MS: Yeah, that’s amazing.

BM: Is there a concept or theme to this album?

MS: Well, no, not like a concept, no. But I think the general theme and the lyrics on this album is pretty much, it’s more like invert, it’s more a description of feelings that the previous lyrics was. I think that Kral’s lyrics were more like descriptive of certain atmospheres that he had and my lyrics have always been like surrounding my own personal, yeah, like feelings in the present that I write the lyrics, in the time that I write them.

BM: Right.

MS: And because of the fact that I wrote all the lyrics right around the time that Kral decided to leave the band, of course the lyrics sort of reflect that sort of, you know, I really had to find myself and find out who I was from a lyrical point of view.

BM: Is it–you know, a couple people have asked since our interview was posted, did you guys ever say why did Kral leave?

MS: Did we ever say why he left?

BM: Yeah. People have asked why Kral left. I forgot to ask you last time we talked.

MS: Yeah. Well, I can’t blame him, you know? We really wanted him to do like an official statement, but things didn’t really go his way for a pretty long time, actually. But all I can say is basically that the main reason or the reasons why he left are, you know, he was, he’s been in the band for 15 years, and he’s really like driven, so on overdrive for 15 years. And then he really got tired, basically got tired of touring actually.

BM: Oh yeah.

MS: You know, the touring was left up to him, and we did like two tours last year. And on the second tour, the Nevermore tour, he really didn’t have a lot of fun, because he really just wanted to go home, actually.

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

MS: You know, it can be pretty hard being away from family and the economy in heavy metal sort of sucks.

BM: Yeah.

MS: And all those things combined sort of just got to him, and he came to a point in his life where he said, “Well now I have to do some other priorities in my life. I have to get a job. I have to take care of my family.” And that’s basically why. So there’s nothing mysterious about it, it was simply that.

BM: Well, I guess you can’t blame him. That’s an understandable reason.

MS: Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure.

BM: Tell me about the–overall, the album seem even more aggressive actually than 11 Dreams, at least to my ears. And it seems like–

MS: Yes, exactly, yeah.

BM: –there are fewer keyboards this time, actually. Maybe not from your ears, but when I listen to it, I don’t hear quite as many keyboards. Or maybe they’re used in a different way. Were those conscious decisions you guys made, fewer keyboards and a lot more guitars?

MS: Well, actually there is, I think there actually is maybe a bit more keyboard on this one, but I think we produced it, we just produced it in a little bit of a different way, because we really saw with 11 Dreams that there was as many big sounds–and yeah, I would agree with you that there’s a lot of keyboards in the mix in 11 Dreams–and we wanted maybe this time around, we wanted to have a little bit more, like a crunchy sound, little bit more modern? But also a little bit more basic sound. We didn’t want to do another album with too many layers on it. 11 Dreams has like a crazy amount of layers on it sometimes, and we really, really wanted to do something a little more basic, and just, you know simple, little bit more simple rock and roll, you know?

BM: Yeah. And that’s maybe what I hear. It does sound simpler, there aren’t as many layers. Maybe there are as many keyboards, like you said, but they’re arranged in a different way.

MS: Yeah, it’s arranged in a lot different way, and we really worked with the keyboard sound as well. It’s layered pretty close to the guitar sound sometimes, so maybe that’s why. It used to be more like an instrument, this time around as well. Instead of just choosing every single track up with a lot of atmospheric stuff, [laughs], we wanted to use it a little bit more like a solo instrument as well.

BM: On The Hours That Remain, you do all of the vocals. All of the “clean” vocals and all of the “growly” vocals that Kral used to do. Was that hard on your voice? And what effect will that have on tour when you have to do so much very heavy screaming during your concerts?

MS: Well on 11 Dreams I did all of the screaming vocals as well as the clean ones so that part is no issue. But, yeah, the growly vocals were killing me. I actually pushed it through to the very end of the vocal session ‘cause I didn’t know what it would do to my voice afterwards. Pretty lucky ‘cause I did all my clean vox in seven days all screaming for the entire album in one day and that didn’t do much harm. The two days I did the growling vocals killed my voice for 10 days. Completely gone for at least a week. But it’s no problem on the road ‘cause we have Rene [bass player] to do the growling and the screaming is no problem.

BM: Tell me about, if you don’t mind, can you go kind of track by track and tell me what the songs are about?

MS: Yeah, well, I’m not too happy about discussing lyrics, though.

BM: Oh?

MS: It’s nothing to do with my personal feelings or anything, it’s simply because when I listen to an album myself, especially the lyrics, I really like how I can put my own meaning into the lyrics. So, as I said, a couple of the songs on the album deals with, you know, my personal sort of frustrations surrounding Kral’s departure from the band and you know, being forced to sort of do everything myself when before I really didn’t do that much. I really didn’t do much, I actually did one song on 11 Dreams, and suddenly being faced with being forced to write ten songs in three months, and so that was pretty frustrating and a really, really big challenge for me personally. And a lot of the songs deal with that, actually, and of course with my personal feelings towards Kral at the given time. Because no matter how you view it, and no matter how friendly we still are, of course, he was a part of the family. And when a guy chooses to leave the band, it’s like a divorce, you know?

BM: Yeah.

MS: It’s really painful, because we go through so many things together on the road and endure so much crap, you know, and all you have to hang on to is ourselves and the band internally. And when somebody decides to leave the band, it’s pretty painful, and yeah, I think a lot of the songs are about that. I wrote a song also about Iraq, “My World Is Ending”?

BM: Yeah.

MS: Yeah, I thought I would write a song that deals with like all the crisis in Iraq. From the perspective of like an innocent Iraqi boy or girl, you know, just seeing their world be torn apart by somebody they don’t know and you know, an outside world that wants to push something into their own country without them being able to understand what’s going on. Much of that song is about basically, and, which, “Obscure Indiscretion” is, that’s mainly, the notes it’s like Dietrich’s song, and some of the lyrics, it just really deals with being a musician and being on the road, yeah, and yeah, that’s pretty much what it’s all about.

BM: Is the–

MS: The problem the songs deal with, yeah, just the notions and frustrations and me trying to redefine myself, you know?

BM: Right. Do you have a song on this particular album that is–I don’t want to say favorite necessarily–but one that is closest to your heart?

MS: Actually, I like, well every song on this album, but something that stands out for me personally right now–’cause I think it changes for me like gradually, as I listen more and more to the album, it varies from time to time–but right now, it’s “Redefine Me” that makes me feel the most, just gets to me the most right now, and then “Lost Reality” as well has been my favorite all, from the time we wrote it actually, because it’s such a diverse song. It’s sort of like the fire song, something like that. It’s a song that has a lot of elements in it and a lot of different local styles and a lot of cool really cool atmospheric parts. Yeah, I really like that song.

BM: When you look at this album now, do you feel really proud of yourself for accomplishing this, given the circumstances?

MS: Extremely proud, yeah. I haven’t felt this strong about anything in my whole life, in regards to music. Yeah, I think everybody in the band feels the same way.

BM: Good.

MS: Because, yeah, it was really a lot of hard work and frustrating work and along the way we really didn’t know how it would turn out. We only knew that we were so unbelievably determined to make this band happen no matter what. Yes, I’m really looking forward to it.

BM: Now that it’s out, will you be able to play a lot of these songs at ProgPower this fall?

MS: Yeah, for sure, yeah. We just actually, we just started rehearsing for ProgPower today.

BM: Oh good.

MS: So we want to, yeah, just do a month and a half of really intense rehearsing and then we’ll go and start working the parts over there. I think we’ll be playing, without saying to much, we’ll be playing at least four or five songs from the new album. Also, hopefully we’ll have time to play at least five songs from 11 Dreams also.

BM: That’s great.

MS: And I think we’ll push something a little bit older in there as well.

BM: Oh really?

MS: And some surprises as well.

BM: So there’s surprises on top of wonderful songs. You’re giving us way too much. We don’t deserve this, Mikkel.

MS: Oh, you don’t? [laughs]

BM: [laughs] No, I appreciate your time today. I know you’re a busy guy. Thanks for the call. I’ll let people know what you said about the album.

MS: Yeah cool, cool.

BM: I can’t wait–

MS: I’m looking forward to, I’m looking at your like your web site on a regular basis, it’s really cool.

BM: Thank you. I appreciate that. It’s sad news about Wastefall dropping out. But your visas are all set, you can get over here?

MS: Yeah, no problem.

BM: Good, good. Excellent. Well, I can’t wait to meet you, and I can’t wait to see the band this fall, Mikkel. I appreciate the call.

MS: Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, you’re welcome, man. Thank you. Take care, ok?

BM: Take care. Bye bye.

MS: Bye bye.

Mercenary’s official web site is www.mercenary.dk. Their new CD (The Hours That Remain) will be released on August 22nd.

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