During the Paaspop festival I had the opportunity to interview the Quill. I made contact with their tourmanager and he told that I can do the interview after the show. So first I could see a good show and later I was talking with the band. The Quill was ready with conquering Europe!

First of all, who is behind the music of The Quill, can you introduce the band to our readers?

C: The band is Magnus Ekwall (M) on vocals, He is also the guy who writes the lyrics, Myself, Christian Carlsson (C) on the guitar and I come up with most of the music. George 'Jolle' Atlagic (G) is our drummer and also songwriter, He comes up with some songs. And Roger is the musician in the band, a great composer.

Your new album has got a great sound and production: are you satisfied about it?

C: Yeah were very satisfied about it. It was a very hard and extended recording session. But it all came up very good.

M: We write 4 or 5 songs first, went to the studio and recorded them, and we went back home. I was working in another studio for the vocals. They recorded the instruments and I recorded the vocals.

Why did you record the songs in another studio? Don't you live close to them or what?

M: Well... I don't like these guys that much. Hahaha

C: All our records are done by this way. We practise the songs in our rehearsal room, go to the studio for three or four weeks, record the music and later Magnus records the vocals.

M: It's like this, today the young guy has a studio, but they don't know anything about the seventies you know. But actually this guy (producer) was to fucking heavy for our style. I couldn't do the vocals there. After all it has become a great album.

Since the time of your first album you are growing in each new release: how do you see your evolution? I think that now you have become a heavy band with stoner riffs and high class melody! How would you describe the sound of the Quill?

M: the sound? I think actually the sound is very basic. It's just a guitar, a bass and a drum.



In what category can you place the Quill?

M: Pff I don't know. I think the Quill category.

C: I don't know there are not many bands around that sounds like the Quill. A couple of years ago the stoner music was a hype and people were like “Yeah you're a stoner band”. But we're not a stoner band. I mean we've got riffs from the sound of the seventies, but I think we make modern seventies hardrock.

What's the story behind the name of “Hooray! It's a deathtrip?

M: actually we didn't come up whit a good title during the recordings. We never came up whit a title that everyone liked. So one day we said “Okay, tomorrow we need a title for the new album”.

C: So everyone came up with a list with titles and it was like “Okay what do you think that would be a good title?”

M: We didn't come out and after a while we went home and someone said “Hooray! It's a deathtrip”. So there was our new title. I think it's the best album title ever.

How does your band compose songs? Does everyone come up with his ideas? Or does it all come from jamming?

C: There is always a songs part that someone has got. Everyone comes up with stuff. I write the music and sometimes I have a riff. Show it to the other guys and we jam on it. Sometimes we almost have a whole song and Magnus has to write the lyrics on it. But it's always different.

What's the main inspiration for the Quill?

C: I don't know. I mean when we started up it was like… We listen to those bands that were around in the late eighties or something. British heavy metal and stuff. We tried to copy their style and after a while we made our own style of music.

Can you name any bands?

Yeah. I think about Led Zeppelin that's the most obvious.



The Quill exists for several years with the same line-up. What the story between this line-up? Are you good friends or something?

M: No, as said before I hate those people. Hahaha, no serious, were just good friends. We live in a small town in Sweden. Christian and I grew up just 100 meters from each other. I'm one year older than him so I know him for all my life.

C: We went to the same school, almost the same class and everything. We went to the same discos, Hahaha.

M: and there were a couple rehearsal rooms for teenagers. We got there and that's were it all started.

G: We lived just in a small town you know, we can't just fire the guitar player because in two days the whole town would know it.

C: We don't hang around with each other that much when we're not on tour. We all have a family.

G: We are all very good friends from each other.

C: and Roger moved to our town to join our band.

Because of the band?

G: no, because of a girl, When he joined the band we went to a bar and he was talking all the time with a girl form our town.

M: They still live together, but they moved back to Roger's hometown.

C: It's like a half an hour away from our town.

On this tour you've been supporting Monster Magnet and Gluecifer. How was it to go on tour with them?

C: They are great guys, every one of them. We were expecting a bunch of assholes. You have to respect everyone and they respect us. So that's very cool. They always invite us for party's after the show. Monster Magnet has a big list with stuff they would like in their dressing room and everything they didn't like they gave to us.

G: It happened a couple of times that I was there with a big plastic sack and that they just dumped everything in it they didn't like. From beer to bread, cheese, salami, soda's, water. We always had a large sack of food in our bus. They were really nice. It was a good tour. We were like friends.



What's your experience from this tour?

C: We learned a lot of being a touring band. We haven't toured in this kind of situations before. It was a big tour with almost 40 shows. We learned a lot from that and Monster Magnet. And musically we've become a really close band.

G: We had a couple of shows, that's not a lie, where we beat Monster Magnet. It was in Poland, it was one of the best shows.

C: There were only like five shows that didn't come out that good.

G: Yeah, Helsinki and Glasgow sucked and Rome too.

What do you think about the future and the Quill?

C: It looks quite bright now I think, it was a great tour. We are going to make a new album I think. I don't know really what we will do in the future. This tour took a lot of energy the last time. So now we have to go on vacation or something and be ready for the festivals this summer.

Is there on band you would like to tour with?

M: Yeah, Monster Magnet.

C: I had that question a couple of years ago and I said Monster Magnet.

G: I would like to go on tour with Audioslave.

C: And of course bands like Kiss and AC/DC.

Is there anything left to say?

G: Hail Satan, hahaha. I don't know what to say. I'm kind of exhausted. I would be nice to go home. Write some new material.

C: This tour has inspired us to write new songs and stuff.

Thanks to The Quill and Thomas for this interview

Ducth Fanclub The Quill
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