Interview with vocalist and guitarist Robert Stjärnström | By Eric May
Swedish SID-metal pioneers Machinae Supremacy are back with a brand new concept album that should appeal to fans of science fiction, anime, and gaming. I spoke with vocalist and guitarist Robert Stjärnström about the mysterious Phantoms, as well as piracy, Edward Snowden, life in Sweden, and the current age of gaming. Power Up!
Phantom Shadow is a massive concept album. This is a first for the band, correct?
Indeed! We have always strived to level up with every release in some way, to make it more difficult than it was before. Creating a cohesive story within an album from beginning to end felt like the right challenge this time. That and we have so many fans who enjoy the story material we have scattered throughout our previous songs. We’ve done a lot of fight songs and Internet culture-related material these last few albums. Now was the time to really go all-in and tell an epic story.
How long have you been working on this album?
Though there are songs on this album that have been in the works since 2010, most of the tracks on Phantom Shadow we wrote in the summer of 2013, leading up to May of this year.
Where was it recorded?
Most of it was recorded in Luleå. We have a studio there where we rehearse. But we also live in different cities, so generally guitars are recorded at home – we all have ElevenRack setups so that we can record pro quality wherever we are – and we have a number of collaborators who have recorded their respective parts in the U.K., Norway, and the U.S. We use Dropbox to send files back and forth, and I do the final mixing before we ship it all off to mastering.
What is the story you are telling on this record?
The songs on the album are each a part of the story, seen from one or more characters’ perspective. The main protagonist, Ariana Skye, as well as the primary villain, Sara – the little girl in the dark to the top right of the album cover – have both undergone a procedure that enhanced their abilities – physically for Skye, mentally for Sara – to a superhuman level. The first generation of test subjects to ever undergo this procedure were utterly destroyed mentally, while still gaining superhuman strength and speed. They were useless as soldiers because they were uncontrollable, acting more like animals than human beings. They came to be called Phantoms, as they were mere shells of who they once were. In some ways, our protagonist is part Phantom, because she suffered this procedure long before it was refined. She was put in cryogenic suspension for 15 years in order to avoid being terminated by the authorities. But when she wakes up, she finds that everything has changed. She is all alone, as a corrupt criminal multinational corporation has taken control of most of Europe. As she and the people she is tasked with protecting race to survive and find a way to disrupt the new order, they come face to face with more superhuman individuals, Phantoms, and uncover a plan devised by Sara and her group to create a God Machine through which they’ll ultimately gain complete and total control of all time and matter.
Where did the title Phantom Shadow come from? It sounds like a 16-bit game.
The title Phantom Shadow simply highlights the theme of the story. The Phantoms and the technology that created them is, in a way, omnipresent throughout, having affected most everyone in the story, as well as being central to the origin story of one of our previously established characters, Hubnester.
“Europa” is a different direction for the band. It’s a light track with strong female vocals…
We’ve had female vocals before and we had no plans to make this any different. But the female vocals recorded for “Europa” proved to be so good that I just had to promote them to a more prominent position within the song. Beyond that, the track is an emotional one, indeed; a dark but powerful part of the story. Ingeborg – who performs the vocals – is also the voice of Ariana Skye throughout the album, so it was quite fitting as “Europa” is told from Ariana Skye’s perspective.
Why did you decide to only release the record digitally?
That must be something that Spinefarm U.S. has decided. In Europe, the album is released on disc as well. There’s even been talk of vinyl.
What classic 8 and 16-bit games provided synth inspiration?
C64 and NES games provide our main inspiration when we’re not simply playing bingo for money, but we are inspired by so many things. Aside from any and all music around us, it’s easier to just name video game consoles since there were so many games with good music back in the era before you could just produce generic orchestral to games or license pop and college rock music. C64, NES, Gameboy, Amiga, and SNES, as well as some select original PlayStation titles are the foundation of our inspiration when it comes to the video game influence in our music.
Around the time of Rise of a Digital Nation, your band was on the front page of The Pirate Bay, as you were allowing people to download all of your material for free. How do you feel about file-sharing these days?
Well, we appreciate the feature on The Pirate Bay, because that gave us a lot of website hits, but we don’t see the website as some sort of messiah or even a symbol for file-sharing. For us, file-sharing is what it sounds like: people sharing things they like with the people they like. Mainly, that means culture. It’s easy to say that someone produced this and that and they deserve to be compensated for that, but in the mind of an ordinary person who has the skills to find and download things, it’s not a criminal or seditious act. It’s simply a case of, “Look what I found, it’s awesome and you gotta see it/ hear it/ play it.” Furthermore, the pirate community has provided a much better service than the legit ones for so long now. Before Spotify and Netflix, getting the stuff you wanted was not only more complicated, but living in Sweden, for example, sometimes meant that a movie took six months to be released in Sweden. But if you were an early Internet adopter, like me, then you still knew about it. Very frustrating. It’s quite possible you could consider piracy “sceners” – who dutifully, seriously, almost business-like make new movie releases available in perfect quality upon release – to be criminals, [as] they take steps to mass distribute commercial content for free – meaning they don’t just send something to their friends because they like it – but the people who download simply do the only thing that can be expected of them. As humans, we are programmed to choose the path of least resistance. For those with the skills and knowhow, that path probably ends with a torrent quite often.
What are your thoughts on Julian Assange and Edward Snowden?
Snowden say hi, by the way. [Smiles] It’s really hard to stand on the outside and pass judgment on what they’ve done. If nothing else, they’ve awoken a debate that we need to have, and we should be grateful for that. I choose to the see them both as “antiheroes” in a way. Neither of them did what they did purely for the good of others, I believe, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve all become a little bit smarter and more aware thanks to what they did. So I’ll refrain from calling them anything in particular, but rather try to just remember what their actions (achievements?) have taught us.
How would you describe life in Sweden? It seems that American culture is popular over there, yet people are generally calmer and more carefree…
Well, healthcare and education is free and of a very high standard here. No matter how poor you are, you can still become an engineer or a scientist or a doctor. Or a kindergarten teacher if that is your wish. Also, if you have a baby, you have over a year’s worth of paid paternity leave. Crime is not a big problem and almost no one owns any weapons. We do consume a lot of American culture and fast food. Hollywood, McDonald’s, and Oprah are as present in our daily lives as they are in yours.
What is your opinion of modern gaming?
The worst thing about how games are released and reviewed now is that every single review or early quick-look is based on an unfinished version of the game, which makes the reviewers overlook or downplay problems with the game, stating things like, “Will surely be fixed before the game is released,” and such. Furthermore, who gets a preview of the game is based on who gives a good review, so what we’re seeing is a lot of overly good reviews of games that don’t deserve it. And the [downloadable content] disease is horrible. Of course, DLC is good when used right, but it’s become a very misused concept by some. And knowing that they can just release updates and bug fixes to a game after release means they’ll release a game and let the audience find the bugs. It makes for a poor user experience. Having said that, there are of course those who still do a good job, and by keeping track of the people behind something – not just the studio or brand, but the people who work there – can be a guide to what games you can trust. All in all, today’s game industry requires you to know more in order to make good decisions. But every era has had some really great games, as well as a lot of shitty ones. The scale is bigger now, but the question is if the ratio between good and bad games has changed… It’s impossible to know or measure, probably.
What is your opinion of sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo?
It’s all about trust and reputation. If you have good evidence or a good gut feeling that you can count on the people involved, it’s a great way to show support for something that the industry doesn’t want to bet on beforehand. In our case, it goes to show that even though we don’t have millions of fans – that we know of – the fans that we do have are very eager to chip in for us and make a difference. Contributions to our own tour fundraiser averaged over $100 – 37,000 euros total – which is pretty amazing, considering they aren’t buying an actual product or even a ticket to the show. Go team.
What games, movies, and music are you into right now?
Currently playing “Monument Valley,” just watched “Snowpiercer,” and my latest music discovery is Destiny Potato. Don’t let the name fool you; it’s serious metal with female vocals. I absolutely love it.
Will you be coming overseas to play the U.S.?
We’re coming to MAGFest in Nation Harbor, MD, in January, but beyond that, there is nothing else planned for the U.S. We’re hoping our current plans for Europe will help gain the momentum that we need to get the proper booking connections for the U.S. as well. We’re also asking our fans to help spread the word, make us more known.
What looms on the horizon for Machinae Supremacy?
Something that’s definitely happening this fall is the soundtrack to an upcoming game called “For My Brother” which has been funded and scheduled for release in January 2015. It’ll be a new mix for us, bringing some Celtic and Irish folk influences into our regular SID-metal sound.
