AMARANTHE stay authentic as they hit the studio for album six.
The multi-vocalled Swedish sensations have been beavering away on album number six
WHILE THE GLOBAL touring industry skidded to an abrupt halt due to the pandemic, Scandi genre-hoppers Amaranthe carried on with business as usual to craft album number six while locked away in Ribe, Denmark. We grilled songwriter and vocalist Elize Ryd on the profoundly personal content on the new album and how Manifest addresses the worldwide crisis and its impact on her life.
How have you managed recording during lockdown?
“We usually do it like this so everything has turned out the same as always. The only difference was Johan [Andreassen, bass] couldn’t come to the studios. We had a back-up plan for Nils [Molin, vocals] and Henrik [Wilhelmsson, vocals] to record in Sweden with an engineer in case they couldn’t come over to Denmark, but everything worked out as we got a working approval paper for them and they were allowed to come in. It would’ve been really sad to not have them in the studio for the dynamics, I think it’s important that everybody’s talking and we can listen during the takes and change things in real time. It was a big gamble!”
What does the title Manifest mean to you?
“It means we’re touching the core of what Amaranthe is, what we stand for and what we think life should be about – if we were to write a manifest, this would be it. Because of the positivity that we like to share, the strength and the personal state of minds and opinions, it fits very well for these songs. It’s very inspiring too: if I were to die, what would I like to say before I go? We want to make the world a better place, we want to be fearless and inspire people to be strong despite all the bad things happening in the world right now. We also changed a few lyrics that were written for one person to make them fit the world and the current situation a bit more.”
How personal is Manifest to you?
“I was very sad at one point because my grandmother passed away while I was in Denmark and I couldn’t travel home. It was the most terrible thing. I was so angry and I broke down for two days before I realised I couldn’t keep doing that. I’ve been affected personally by coronavirus and I wanted to write a song for my grandmother, so I kept her in mind while writing Crystalline, which is very personal. I feel so much of her in that song. A little bit of everything was happening through this recording; it’s been crazy but we’re going to remember this album recording forever because we did this all during the pandemic.”
What’s changed musically since Helix? “We’ve learned not to try being someone you’re not. We’ve been very experimental on the last two albums but now we feel like we have a style that’s in our blood, so let’s just use that and let go of everything else. Usually you wonder before you write a song if people will think it sounds like another song, but I learned I don’t have to think like that. It’s more fun to write when you don’t have other people’s opinions in the back of your head. When you don’t think about it too much, that’s when things sound less similar to something you’ve done before.”
How important is it to stay with your long-term producer Jacob Hansen? “It’s obvious that after six albums, it’s very important. They say the grass is greener on the other side and there are so many great producers out there, it’s really nice to work with new people. But other people have tried it and the grass isn’t greener, so do we want to take that risk? Can our mental health handle that right now? It’s so calming to come to Jacob, we know each other so well and he knows our music and how we want harmonies to be super-loud. There’s no reason for us to change things and that is when you should feel comfortable to stay in the situation you’re in.”