This Friday will see skate-punk band Millencolin release their fantastic new studio album, ‘True Brew‘ via Epitaph.
It is their first album in some seven years and follows-up ‘Machine 15‘.
To find out a little more about the album, Fredrik Larzon from the band took the time this week to answer our On The Record questions.
Press play below to stream the album while you read if you have a Spotify account. Links also below to pre-order, check out the physical bundles for some cool gear.
I came up with the title True Brew while walking in the woods. Thought it sounded really great and strong as a title for an album. We do this for ourselves, we are involved in everything around the band and all decisions made. We have always tried to be true to ourselves and this new album’s a “brew” of what we are as a band.
Tell us about the artwork.
Erik is the man behind the artwork as usual. He made all our artwork on albums, merch and the rest. I think he wanted to capture something that fitted the title well, something strong and brought back the polar bear! Feels like natural thing to do as the album reflect a little bit of the ‘Pennybridge Pioneers’-era to some people, where we wrote ‘Penguins & Polarbears’ etc.. and used the polar bear in artwork. ‘True Brew’ art turned out excellent if you ask me!
What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged?
Yeah pretty much all formats, jewel case CD, vinyl in various colors and of course digital as well.
Who will it be released through, and when?
It’ll be out on Epitaph Records April 24 in Australia!
Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there?
We have our own studio, Soundlab Studios where Mathias recorded tons and tons of bands through the years and we decided to do this one right there. Located in Örebro, Sweden it felt relaxed and natural thing to do for us. We have unlimited time there and can be there in the middle of the night if we’d want to.
Tell us about the producer / engineer and why you chose to record with them?
Well Mathias did the engineering in Soundlab and did a great job, he knows our studio like his own pocket so it was just us there. As Mathias and Nikola demoed all songs before we recorded the structures of the songs were pretty much decided and “produced” when we entered but since we had unlimited time we could also try out a lot of stuff there. When choosing Jens Bogren and Fascinating Street we thought he had done some really impressive work before and also he is located just 20mins outside of Örebro.
Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind?
Yes we actually really did so this time. We decided early that it’d be really fun doing an album with short melodic straight on punk songs. Quite the opposite of ‘Machine 15’. We like that album but wanted to do something different from that stuff. More like we sound live I guess.
Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all?
We did, the old Bad Religion records! I mean, we’ve always listened and been influenced by those records and their songwriting with all those great tunes are very inspiring.
Were there any albums you were referencing in the studio to aim for a certain type of sound production wise?
We were talking about an ‘Against The Grain’ of 2015 hahaha. I think the production sounds really good. Both AgainstTG and TrueB.
How long did you spend in the studio recording?
The recording was a little spread out over 2014. Most of it we recorded spring 2014 during a month and a half then took a break for European festivals and then Nikola went for a few weeks to Berlin to get a Braumeister title haha, yes he’s into brewing beer! Anyways, after that he started to record vocals every now and then fall 2014 before mixing started so the whole thing was spread out.
Well, we started off demoing around 20 songs then narrowed it down to about 18. At that stage the songs are 99% finished and ready to record. I went in and nailed the drums in about 10 days. Erik and Mathias did the guitars real thorough, all in all it took us nearly four weeks. It’s kind’a painstaking to keep everything in tune and sometimes U get a little sick about changing strings and tuning. After the guitars we moved on to Bass guitar, pretty straight forward here. Nikola did it all in a couple of days. All of this was made in our own Soundlab Studios, supervised & recorded by Mathias. When it was time for the vocals we moved to Fascination Street Studios outside of Orebro Sweden. Jens Bogren did the vocals with Nikola and also mixed the album at that place. Jens is a very talanted dude and it all came out great!
Was this any different to previous processes you have used?
Not really. The only difference is that us, or I should say Mathias and Nikola produced this album our selves for the first time. Felt like we had what it takes to pull it off and it’s something we’re really proud of!!
Any guests involved? if so, who.. and what did they do? Yes, our friend Magnus “Heartbreaker” Hägerås from the band The Peepshows, he’s also our stage tech on tour did a guitar solo. Somehow we don’t have guests on our albums that often, dunno why… too focused on the recording I guess.
When it comes do naming the tracks, is there any particular approach or process to it all?
Naming the tracks is pretty much all up to Nikola ’cause he’s writing most of the lyrics but he’s open to feedback on titles. He might pick something from the lyric itself or something that describes the tune.
Any particular equipment outside your usual live gear used in the process?
No this time we kept it very simple and pretty much the same setup as we use live except for trying some different guitar amps, different snares and stuff. We felt this type of album didn’t need a lot of extra or odd additions, keep it simple and focus on the songs.
Any memorable studio moments?
Besides swimming in Absolut and passing out in the Sauna you mean? Nah… we just kept full focus on getting the best out of each and everyone of us every day. Keeping an open mind.
Any additional tracks recorded that didn’t make the cut but may see the light of day sometime?
We have some extra tracks saved. Recorded 19 tracks I think but decided on 13 on the album, the rest of ’em are really good too but might sound a little similar to another song or didn’t fit the vibe we wanted. Those tracks will for sure see the day some time, where they’ll end up time will tell… Maybe a 7″ or something.
What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live?
I think sooner or later pretty much all of them will turn up on our setlist but right now it feels really good to play the song ‘Sense & Sensibility’ We have two more which are really fun to play as well!
How would you compare the final product to previous releases?
We are super stoked about the result, it’s my favorite so far which feels awesome being a band that have played together for 20+ yrs haha. We’re having a really good time in our band these days and I think it shows, you’ll hear we had fun writing and recording it. We moved away from the M15 sound a bit and took it somewhere else, it feels great.
Anything else you want to say or about the release?
Hope you like it! We are very proud of True Brew. Out late April, check it out. Thanks so much for supporting!
