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Don’t forget to check out the Rockharz day reports for 2024: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4!
I cannot seem to tear myself away from Swedish bands these days… Luckily, there are so many awesome ones that I have a never ending supply. One of these bands is DYNAZTY. During Rockharz, singer Nils Molin was so kind to take some time and answer my questions. Read below how he deals with pressure, what he didn’t have to say about any upcoming music and what advice he has for young musicians.
Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for these amazing pictures! Talk about hair-ography!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: If you had to describe DYNAZTY’s musical style to a person that has never heard Metal before, what would you say?
Nils Molin: Wow… I’d say it’s Metal music with a heavy focus on melodies, songwriting and technical performances.
SV: What are things you want to convey with your music?
Nils: I think we’re just trying to write music that excites us and if we succeed, then I’m sure a lot of people will feel the same way. When we play concerts, festivals and tours, we just want the audience to have a great time when they come see us. We make sure that they’re really engaged in the show, clapping and singing along and are just happy overall.
SV: What are your main inspirations in music that enable to do just that?
Nils: I grew up listening to all the classic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Bands and all of them have been such a huge inspiration for me, personally. There are a lot of different singers, songwriters and performers that inspire me. I guess, I’m just trying to reach a level on which I can say that I’m doing the same thing that they did. Or do it my own way!
SV: Since you guys put your first album in 2009 you’ve been consistently putting out albums. When was the first time you thought to yourselves „Oh, ok, this is actually working! People like it“?
Nils: I’d say it was almost immediately. People liked our albums even back in the day, but it was on a much smaller scale. When we released the Titanic Mass album in 2016, we were sort of a hit in Scandinavia on Metal radios and stuff like that. It was quite obvious that people liked that. The Human Paradox was actually the most requested song on the biggest Finnish radio station. So, it wasn’t even the radios that started playing the song, but it was actually the people that demanded that song. That was a moment for us in which we realized that people actually like our music. Since then, we’ve built upon it and continued to do our thing.
SV: With having, what I would call, commercial success, there is also this huge pressure and expectation on you to go even further. Is there ever a point at which you say „I’m kind of burned out doing this…“?
Nils: No, not so far, at all! It’s actually quite the opposite. When you see that there is a very positive reaction to your music, that just fuels and pushes you even further. In a good way though!
SV: So pressure makes diamonds after all! Speaking of pressure: Looking at your track record as a band you’re probably already working on the next album. Is there anything you can tell us about that already?
Nils: We have been very quiet on that front, not saying anything about that. I think we’re going to stick with that for a little longer. That being said, we have been very hard at work lately and for the past six months. The results are going to show very soon! There are a lot of interesting things to come, that’s for sure! And it’s not just all talk, it will happen!
SV: Looking into the future, with whatever that may bring, what is something that you want to be remembered for?
Nils: Staying true to myself and to ourselves as a band and never giving into what other people would want us do. Always sticking to our guns, so to speak! I really want to be remembered for doing something that I, myself, am proud of doing. Otherwise, it’s really hard to get up on a stage. If you do not believe in it yourself, no one is going to believe in you either. It’s sort of like the FRANK SINATRA song I did it my way or „We did it our way“. That is the kind of mentality that we always try to keep in the band, that we did the things on our terms.
SV: What in music is helping you achieve that? I imagine that a lot of people are coming to you with their opinions and their reviews.. How do you find the middle ground in this?
Nils: There are always trends everywhere. People will always say „You should focus more on Social Media!, „You should focus more on TikTok!“, „You should start wearing masks!“ and stuff like that… There can be serious pressure from all different kinds of directions with people telling you how to write your songs and that is the point where you have to sort of clear everything out and focus on your vision for the whole thing. Otherwise, it’s going to be very diluted and difficult to understand the clear direction going forward.
SV: How do you handle that within the band? You are a lot of different people with a lot of different opinions.
Nils: We all want the same thing, this band is very easy in that regard, because we have the same vision for everything. We have also done this for quite a long time and we know what works for us and what doesn’t. So that is actually very easy.
SV: Maybe staying on the topic of the future a bit longer: What is something your fans can look forward to from you this year?
Nils: New music! And tours!
SV: You yourself said that you grew up with Metal music yourself. What is advice you would give to people starting out in music?
Nils: There are a lot of things to say, but focus on the music first. You can take everything else as you go along. It always starts with something. You have an idea, something you want to do, but at the end of the day, if nobody wants to listen to your music, then why bother focussing on buying equipment or a van or setting up social media. Start with the music!
SV: What is something you always wanted to be asked in an interview, but never were?
Nils: Funnily enough, you get that kind of question sometimes and I never have an answer. I guess, I don’t have a specific thing I’d like to get off my chest or talk about.
SV: Ok, then last one! If you could tell your fans one thing, what would it be?
Nils: Thank you for all the support! Thank you for listening to our music and coming to our shows. I’m really looking forward to showing you all what we have been working on!
And that concludes the first half of Rockharz interviews! In the coming days you can look to a diverse group of interviews that contain a number of my favourite artists! Maybe this much in advance: The more women, the merrier!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 