1. So the last album "Don't Fear the Reaper" came out in 2006. How was it received and were you able to do some touring behind the record?
RILLE: Well... we got good reviews on this album... but you cant associate good reviews with fame and glory... or think that everyone is going to throw money at you. I think that you have to work hard touring and promotion and so on. Unfortunately we dont got time to do that... or we just can't get everyone to be at the same place at the same time... due their obligations to the other bands. As a matter of fact we are rehearsing right now, for the first gig on this album... almost one year after the release. But we just found out it has been canceled for some reason...anyway it was really fun to rehearse the new songs.
2. Since Patrik is a member of The Haunted and Sharlee is busy with Arch Enemy is this why Witchery is not that active as a touring band?
RILLE: Yes... and we also got the Martin Axe who is the drummer in Opeth... so we have three very busy musicians in Witchery which makes it really hard to plan a tour under these circumstances.
3. Does the band wish to change that and want to take Witchery on the road at some point?
RILLE: Yes ... we wish we could plan better and do the gigs that we are offered. But who knows ... everything can happen over a night... and suddenly Witchery are touring again. I know everybody in the band want that... time will tell...
4. Has any progress been made on some new Witchery music?
RILLE: Yes ... we got astonishing 40- 60 ideas all ready... it is probably because we are in the computer age now. Me, Patrik and Axe record everything now a days that we can come up with... but I think we are at least 300 hours in the rehearsal room before we can record a new album. Once again its hard to find that time... this week we had to rehearse for the gig in April (one month away) in Gothenburg. It was the only time we had because Jensens/ The Haunted's US tour.
5. Have you ever toured the States and how did that go?
RILLE: Our first real tour was with Emperor in US... It was a really great tour.
Great audience and we got good response from everybody. In 2001 we did a tour with The Haunted. Between and after that we had done several fly in gigs on festivals etc. I think US is that territory that we should have as our main priority if we were touring. Americans might be a little more accretive about the imagery/show that Witchery has and so on... that is good for us... we really like US.
6. Will you return to tour here anytime soon?
RILLE: I really can't tell but I hope so. If we can find that time we will come.
7. Ever since its inception, Witchery appears to have received a considerable amount of positive support from both the fans and critics. So why have steps not been made to bring the band to the next level of exposure and success?
RILLE: To take that step everybody knows that we have to do tours... and frequently release new albums... this time took us five years between the albums.
Now its already been a year since the last release. We actually talked about that yesterday and came up with that we are going to concentrate more on this new album and take every free minute that we can spare to do this. So maybe we are done before the summer or something... but you never know ...everybody is busy with their bands and stuff... we really like doing this and we have so much fun while rehearsing/recording... so don't worry... their will be a new Witchery album out soon.
8. Plans to record a live DVD or a promo video?
RILLE: We have actually never released a live recording or DVD. I think its time to do that... after five studio albums. At least a live album would be nice.
9. What are Witchery's influences for its music and artistic direction?
RILLE: I think it´s from older stuff like Mercyful fate , Piledriver, Exodus and Motorhead, Judas Priest, WASP, Black Sabbath, Accept, Annihilator, Possessed, Dark Angel, Death, Venom, Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel, Destruction, Kreator and so on.... I think we are trying to find that music that we all want to hear for ourselves. If we do that or if we succeed doing that we know its going to be a good album... at least we will like it... and listen to it.
10. The lyrics are very creative and so is your artwork. Who comes up with that?
RILLE: Jensen is the lyric master... it is all in his head.. Actually its about ordinary humanity... death, evil, torture, war... necrofilism... haha.
11. The future of Witchery?
RILLE: We are going to keep releasing albums until we dont like doing that anymore... I think that Witchery will be a band that everybody will want to keep around as long as possible cause we are all really good friends that really like riffing together.
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