Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Gothenburg is Sweden’s metal heart and no doubt the All Ends are destined to become one of the big names at the international level. Their unique sound is related to two strong front-women, Tinna and Jonna, and together with guitarist Peter and Frederik and drummer Joey want to conquer the world. Their new (and second) album “A Road To Depression” will be released October 15 (that is today) via Nuclear Blast, with 11 strong tracks ,very catchy and for many musical tastes.

Right on time, the other afternoon, drummer Joseph “Joey” Skansås shows up on telephone interview, and from the very first words I understand to talk to a real character, full of life, motivated to do and split the world. Words, funny lines and lots of laughter, in Italian, English and in Swedish, just impossible to write down them all …

1 – Hi Joey, how are you today?

Hi Tarja, nice to talk to you! Thanks I’m pretty well today, even if these weeks me and Tinna are really busy, with all the interviews, and all the preparations for the Album release. Infact, it’s been so since a month by now, and there’re still lots to do, where shooting 2 new videos so I’m working on that.

2 – Tell me who are All Ends, how and when the band was formed and what have you done in these years?

Well, it’s a long story… All Ends was born in 2003, initially it was just a side project of guitarists Björn Gelotte and Jesper Strömblad, from the band In Flames, but we knew from the beginning that we needed a band because Björn and Jesper would never find the time touring with All Ends. So we search for members. On May 2007, we released our debut EP, Wasting Life, with the new and actual line-up. And then we started with the recordings for the debut album.
During 2007 – 2008 we toured with bands such as Apocalyptica, Oomph!, After Forever, Finntroll etc. And in the fall of 2008 we performed at Loudpark festival, Tokyo, together with Mötley Crue, Slipknot and Bullet for my Valentine. During the summer the same year we also performed at a majority of the bigger Swedish festivals including Sweden rock festival, Hultsfredsfestivalen, Arvika & Summer breeze in Germany to name a few.
The year 2009 started with a European tour together with Edguy, and in March we met up again for a co-headline tour in Japan which was a total success. Well, this is it, briefly, our birth and growing up, up till now…

3 – And what about the band’s name, All Ends, is there a story behind of it?

While choosing the name, we had something like 20 names from where to choose. We wanted to find a name that’s easy to write, to see and to remember. For me, personally, it wasn’t so important to find a name that ment somethings special, but when the name All Ends came up, all of us were agreed and we knew that we had found the right one.

4 – Describe each of your band members, with two words…

ahahah only with two words? … this is a very difficult question… hmmmm.
Anders, very calm and sometimes too quiet.
Peter, thinker and a theorist who always reads.
Fredrik, very heartfull and fun as hell, everybody loves Fredrik.
Jonna, our newest member… she’s like a little sister for us, very sweet and gentle.
Tinna, well she is absolutelly great, actually she’s a real guy among us 😀 Never gives up, no matter what!
And finally me Joey, I have a lots of new ideas, sometimes too many,, And I like to party 😀

5 – Who writes your songs, lyrics and music?

Basicly Tinna me and Jesper Strömblad, we’re a great songwriting team. In generally, but all of us bring their ideas to the table, which we try, and if it works, we do it. But the thing with this record was that we wrote the songs in the studio, and it was just me, Tinna and Jesper in the studio.

6 – From where you take your influences?

You know, I come from hardrock background, I could say that the bands roots and influences come from Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Dio, Queensryche, Wasp, Skid Row bands from that era.. And Tinna comes more from the musical scenes, and musicians like Tina Turner, Cher, Whitney Housten etc. And Jesper from the death metal scene. Put that all together, so you get All Ends-genre..

7 – How would you describe your sound?

Oh gosh… it’s something between Depeche Mode, 30 Seconds To Mars and Foo Fighters … you know it’s very difficult to describe it. But what differs our sound from the “swedish one” we’ve made e.g. all the loops manually, just wanting to have a sound of the ’80s, we didn’t want to have this regular loops sound from ProTools.. So we worked with a master Charlie Storm, he’s one of the greatest musician I´ve ever met.

8 – The group’s new singer, Jonna, replaced Emma Gelotte (sister of IN FLAMES guitarist Björn Gelotte) in March 2009, can you tell us about this change and about the reasons?

Well, it was quite a natural change… you know, quite soon after we had started with All Ends, one night, Emma called me and we had a long good talk of 3 hours that night, she told me that she doesn’t feel to go on, because she wants other things in life, a family, kids and a calm life in the countryside. All of the band members were agreed and understood her choice. … but to find another singer, we didn’t want to launch any “Looking for a Singer”- campaign in internet, actually already the idea of it was disgusting.

So we called our manager, and he told us to have seen, some days before, a girl singing with her band, and that she was good. So, he gave me her tell.number, I called her and we fixed a meeting. All of our band members liked her right from the first moment, so basicly that was it. We had a new singer, Jonna! And all this, only one day after Emma left the band!

9 – Your new album “A Road To Depression” will be released on 15th october, what do you expect from it?

This is a good one… you know, while we did this album, we were thinking and trying to make it suitable for many kinds of musical tastes. It would be great, if people would listen to it, no matter if they bye the CD or if they download it from the internet, but what counts is that after hearing it, they will like it. The album includes 11 good tracks, and this is far the best stuff we have ever produced.

10 – How have you chosen the tracks for it, and why the title “A Road To Depression”?

Well, we had quite many choices, but e.g. with the title track “A Road To Depression” the story goes like this: One day these words came into my mind, and I talked about it with Tinna, and we started to build up a song, lyrics and music around this idea. I think we did it in a day or two.

11 – What are your touring plans in 2010/2011? (also in Italy and in Finland?)

Oh yes, we do have them! First I think we’ll go to Asia, and after that we’ll tour the whole Europe. Right in this moment our management is working for the tour dates. And obviously, we’ll go also to Finland, which I love! I do remember well some nights I’ve spent at Tavastia (Helsinki). And of course, also Italy will be included into our tour… we couldn’t do less about italian food and red wine!!! 😀

12 – Knowing that your ex-singer Emma’s sisterhood with Bjòrn of In Flames, could we possibly see, someday, All Ends touring with In Flames?

Oh yessss, that’s very possible I’d say. I hear often with the guys, specially with Bjòrn of course, and we’ve already talked about a future tour or concerts together. It would be fucking crazy though, partying all night and day.

13 – How was it decided that you would have two female vocalists in the band?

You know, it was all clear from the beginning, while we were thinking about the lineup. To have two female vocalist who alternate along the song, it works…it’s about just like Abba did, ahah. (fat laugh)

14 – This year you signed the contract with Nuclear Blast, can you tell us about the changes that the contract brings along?

You know, this is for us a very good thing. To be part of a roster, of which the major part are metal bands, I think All Ends brings a good freshness, as clearly a non-metal band, also to NB. We find ourselves good under them, and they are doing a real good job! We’re glad we finally found a label with global potential who can give us what we aimed for the last years and that is to be a band of international heights.

15 – Now the word is yours, what would you tell to your fans, and to those who don’t know you yet.

Oh Yeah, i just hope that we can visit your great country! I’m looking forward for the wine already. So see you on tour, I’m looking forward to drinks, i will party with you guys, no problems…
Best of luck 🙂 Joey

Tack så mycket Joey, det var kul att prata med dig!
Thanks Joey, it was a real pleasure to talk to you!