Interview with Jack Hagström (Antibiotica)
Hail Jack, you are very welcome to Archangel’s Lantern! Tell the readers about the beginnings of your band, please. How do you characterize the style of Antibiotica? Which bands influenced you?
- Before Antibiotica I was in a Punk band, but I have always felt that I also wanted to start a Metal band as my heart is closer to that genre (even if I love Punk like GBH, The Misfits, Strebers etc.). At first I didn’t know what kind of Metal I wanted to play as I listen and love everything from Bathory and Dissection to Judas Priest and Kreator. It would not make any sense to start up a band after every Metal genre I listen to. I met Hugo in a music class in school, we started to talk guitars and different bands we listen to, mostly Thrash Metal bands. After a while we decided to try to start a band. Everything went really fast from that thought to that Antibiotica was started. We fixed a rehearsal place. Then we did flyers and put them up at school and the rehearsal place. Martin saw that flyer and contacted us, we didn’t knew him since before, he is a few years older than us. We rehearsed 1-2 times with him and we got along really well, and he was the perfect drummer for Antibiotica. A short time after, he recommended his cousin Kasper to play the bass. Same there as with Martin, we did 1-2 rehearsals then we knew that he would be perfect for Antibiotica. Both Martin and Kasper have been in different cover bands before. We characterize our music as Thrash/Heavy Metal. It is mainly because those two genres is our meeting ground when it comes to influences. There is a big spread on what we listen to individually, but we take all those influences into this pot that then becomes the sound of Antibiotica. Even if we call it Thrash/Heavy Metal we are not fascists on what we can bring into a song. If I for example do a riff that reminds of Dissection or Mayhem and everyone in the band likes it, it’s not like we throw it away. And also, it’s a fine line of all those genres when it comes to riffs, arrangements etc. To name a few more influences/bands that not are already mentioned: Metallica, Demon, Slayer, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Sadus, Merciless, Nifelheim, Angel Witch, Megadeth, Sodom, Testament, Celtic Frost, Iron Maiden and so on. So many bands to mention. If anyone have Spotify and wants to dig deeper into what we are listening to we have 4 individual playlists of each member on our Spotify page.
You released a debut single called “The Butcher of the Soul” including 2 tracks on the 3rd of November, this year. I must say, excellent material! How went the recording process with Henrik Borg?
- Thank you very much. The recording process with Henrik went really smooth. This was the first time any of us had recorded anything professional like this. It was for sure a good experience and Henrik was great to work with. I guess we in the band will learn more and more for each time. One thing we agreed on was not to use click tracks, simply to get that vibe and energy of a real band playing together. That you can hear that the songs is created by a band in a rehearsal place, not in front of a computer. Not saying that nothing good could come out of that, but it would not fit the sound of Antibiotica. If Henrik is up for it we will for sure use him again.
Who is/are the song- and lyric writer in Antibiotica? Share some thoughts about your lyrics! Do you plan to make a video for your debut stuff?
- We will always write Antibiotica as music writers, even if someone have written more riffs or done more in a song arrangements. We are a unit! The outcome of the Antibiotica sound is that we all play on the songs. But If someone asks us who have written that riff or that riff there is no problem for us to answer that, like it is in Metallica. When it comes to lyrics its more divided, even if we share everything (if we someday would make any money on this). ”The Butcher Of The Soul” is written by me and ”Deceiver” is written by Hugo and Martin. It’s hard to explain exactly what they are about, more than that the titles speaks for themselves. We try to keep the lyrics pretty straight forward so they get easy to interpret. We hope to put together a simple music video in the near future. Will maybe not be the most professional one, but at least something to spread our music with.
How many tracks wrote Antibiotica so far? Are you playing on your rehearsals some covers?
- We have lots of ideas to new songs, but I would say that we have around 5 new songs (not counting the 2 single tracks) that are done. Yes, we play covers. So far we have done Kreator ”People of the lie” and Slayer ”Black Magic”. We also played them at our first live show. I am sure we will do more covers in the future, but right now we focus on new material for a full-length album.
What should we know about the future plans of Antibiotica? Did you play live yet?
- Our closest plans is to write new material for a full-length album. If we release it on our own or on record label depends on the interest. Next week we will start to send out mails to different record labels, we wanted to wait 1-2 weeks until we started to get some response on the single. So far we have only done one live show, it was in our hometown. It went really well and we want to play live as much as possible. We have started to send out to different clubs and festivals, but it’s hard to get gigs with just a 2 track single out. We will work really hard that a full-length album will be out until the Summer 2024. And also that a lot more live shows will be booked. That's our main future goals right now.
How did you get introduced to metal music? What bands did you see live?
- Metal music have always been around me, but also a lot of other types of genres as well. My father have never ”forced” me to like a special genre. It could be anything from Bathory, Judas Priest, Candlemass, GBH, Morbid Angel, Saxon, WASP, Sepultura to Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Nick Cave, The Cure, Kraftwerk, Bob Marley, Roky Erickson playing in the car or at home. I could mention hundreds bands/artists. Jazz, reggae, Metal, Swedish folk music, Rock n Roll etc. But I would say that the real first Metal band I became obsessed with was WASP. King Diamond and Motörhead was also early loves. I was at my first Sweden Rock Festival when I was 6 years old. I remember mostly King Diamond, Pentagram and Motörhead from that year. Some other bands I have seen, just to mention a few: Kreator, W.A.S.P., Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, UDO, Mastodon, Lucifer, Alice Cooper - one of my biggest heroes. His 70’s albums with Black Sabbath and Rainbow (Dio years) are 3 of my favorites bands from the 70’s).
In my opinion you are a very talented guitarist. Which guitarists are your main influences?
- Thanks, I have a lot more to learn and there is tons of better guitarist in my age. But I try to develop my own style. I am a lot better in blues solos than Metal solos, but I will practice to get better. Some of my favorite guitarists are Randy Rhoads, Mille Petrozza, David Gilmour, James Hetfield, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, KK/Tipton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc.
I’m a big fan of all the bands of your father, Peter Karlsson. I’m curious what are your favourite albums and tracks from him?
- Albums: Maze of Torment ”The Force”, Deceiver ”s/t” and The Pete Flesh Deathtrip ”Svartnad”. I like all songs on those albums, so they are my favorites. Also that Thrown album ”The Suicidal Kings Occult” is cool.
Name us your most preferred albums all times.
- This is a really hard question, almost impossible to answer. That list must include at least 30-50 albums if it would be fair, and that would maybe be boring for your readers, haha.
Do you have any special hobbies?
- Hmm, no, just things that are related to music.
Tack så mycket/Thank you very much, Jack, I wish you all the best with Antibiotica! To complete the interview, send your message to the readers.
- Дякую за інтерв'ю / Thank you for the interview. This is Antibiotica’s first one. You did our first review and first interview. A cool fact. I don’t have any special message more than to look up our music. And of course, stay true to yourself! Thanks!
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