Q and A: Peter Iwers (The Halo Effect)

By BRENDAN CRABB

SWEDISH metal tragics (such as this humble scribe) rejoiced a couple of years ago upon the formation of The Halo Effect. For the uninitiated, all five members – note that live guitarist Patrik Jensen often substitutes for Jesper Strömblad – spent extended periods as members of Swedish veterans In Flames, one of the bands that helped shape and define the highly influential brand of melodic death metal known as “the Gothenburg sound”.

The Halo Effect seemingly filled a void amongst metal devotees, who had long felt disillusioned with the more commercialised approach of some recent In Flames releases. Sonically recalling the scene’s early years, The Halo Effect possesses a lived-in sound that’s familiar but on hook-filled, instant-classic 2022 debut Days of the Lost still feels remarkably fresh.

The band will be visiting Australia for the first time to headline the travelling Lagerfest. Bassist Peter Iwers hopped on Zoom to have a chat about it all.

Hot Metal: It seems like you’ve been touring consistently in support of Days of the Lost. Was it the initial plan to tour the world? Or play a few shows and see if the demand was there?
Peter Iwers: “I guess a little bit of both. We don’t want to tour too much, because I think sometimes you can burn yourself out by doing that. That’s how we thought, so we were looking into markets that we were interested in and just to see if there was a demand or an interest in us. And as soon as the offers started to come in, we just decided to go with it and try and play as much as possible without going out on three-month tours. We’d rather do a week or two here and there when it’s possible and sometimes focus on the longer tour maybe once or twice a year. This Australian tour is perfect. We actually wanted to add some Japan dates as well, but since Mikael (Stanne, vocals) is in Dark Tranquillity and they’re recording a new album right now, there was no time to do that. So I’m happy that we’re able to do Australia and New Zealand.”

HM: When someone says, “hey, come and play a festival in Australia, and by the way, it’s got a craft beer element attached to it”, that must sweeten the deal too.
PW: “Yeah, I have some restaurants and craft breweries. I’m into food, beer and music (laughs). I think these days, we’re in our 40s and 50s and trying to enjoy everything that we do. So if there’s great food, great drinks and great experiences in general, alongside us playing a show, that absolutely enhances the experience.”

HM: Obviously legendary bands like At the Gates have been flying the flag but I thought Days of the Lost was a great album that seemed to fill a gap in the market for fans who can’t get enough of the classic Gothenburg sound, written and performed by those who helped put it on the map. Was it a difficult album to make in any way?
PW: “Not at all. I mean, it was, I wouldn’t say easy to make. But we actually had the benefit of being a band that nobody has any expectations on you (if) nobody knows that you exist. So we just wrote music together. And it wasn’t like we had a specific sound in mind. We just wrote music, we played it the way that we’re comfortable playing it, and it came out as it came out. And then we had the pandemic, that actually gave us an additional year to keep writing. So we wrote more songs, and then we chose the 10 best ones, we thought, and just released those. And then we went back in, and we did some more work with some older ones. And some of them are going to be featured on the next album. We also had this bonus track (‘Path of Fierce Resistance’) that we actually released now just before the summer. We went in and took our time. No stress; it was more of a (feeling of) we’re very eager to get it out. I remember Niclas (Engelin, guitars) and I would talk and it was like, ‘hey, we should just release something (in time) for Christmas’. And this was like 2021 when we had to take it easy and let the record company do their thing and plan like that. But for us, it was very relaxed. We wrote, everybody put down their parts, everybody had a say in whatever they felt. We just went with everybody’s feeling as far as arrangements and all that stuff.”

HM: So we can expect a second album next year then?
PW: “That is right. It’s recorded, done and mastered. So we’re gonna see when exactly next year; that’s on the record company plan. And obviously, Mikael has Dark Tranquillity and we don’t want that to be released at the same time, because he needs to focus on DT. But yeah, sometime next year, absolutely.”

HM: What’s also intriguing to me about The Halo Effect is you had to know that when the band was announced there would be comparisons made to In Flames, whether you liked it or not. At what point do you think The Halo Effect can be accepted as its own entity, whereby people don’t associate you so strongly with In Flames? Could it take a few records for that to happen?
PW: “I think we’re already there, especially in Europe, where we tour quite extensively now. And I haven’t heard anybody talk about it for a long time. But obviously now that we’ve come to Australia, it’s going to come up again. It’s inevitable that it happens and we did play with In Flames and obviously there will be some comparisons but that was never our intention. In Flames is a great band on their side and we’re a great band I’d like to think as well. It’s quite natural that you think that way but of course time will erase that more and more and the more music we put out the less people will actually think about us as former members of In Flames. We will be just The Halo Effect, you know. I’m hoping for the sooner the better, obviously, but it is what it is. It’s nothing we’re ashamed of; I’m very proud of my time with In Flames. So it’s all good but we don’t think like that at all, we never had. But I’m seeing that it starts to fade out already.”

HM: Do you see the sound eventually expanding beyond what you’ve established with that classic Gothenburg approach? Or is that style that fans want to hear from The Halo Effect?
PW: “When we write music, we don’t think about what people want to hear, we think (about) what we want to hear. And what we’ve released so far is what comes natural for us. Some of the ideas that were on the first album were originally meant for something else, maybe some different type of musical style but then when we went in together and this is what came out, because this is just who we are and how we feel. So I don’t see us tossing and turning in a different musical direction; I think this is how we sound, and then obviously we will experiment always. But I think the end result will be in our fingers and Mikael’s voice.”

HM: Shifting topics, tell us about the craft beer scene in Sweden, and your brewery, Odd Island Brewing.
PW: “The craft beer scene in Sweden is very, very big. I think we have close to 400 breweries in Sweden. But there’s always the giants, there’s like five big breweries. We’re a microbrewery, so we produce around 250,000 to 300,000 litres of beer per year. And that’s kind of where we want to be. I don’t want to be too big, because we are … I like to keep it, Daniel (Svensson, drums) and I and two other guys who run it, the bigger we get, the more people who need to get involved. And I think it’s also as the world looks today, that craft beer is suffering a little bit because it’s more expensive to buy, it’s more expensive to produce. And you can kind of see it now as well with the whole world being in inflation and all that. So we’re trying to focus on doing it ourselves and we have been from the beginning, instead of having people do everything for us and we just be the poster boys. We try to do everything ourselves and I think that the bigger you get, the more difficult that will become. So we’re pretty good where we are… But we haven’t really started exporting and stuff like that. We never send our beers to Australia, although I’d love to. But at the same time, it’s a difficult market and it’s going to be that it’s going to be super expensive. So I’d rather look into brewing our beers where we go… I want to look into doing stuff like, if we come over (to other countries) and see if we find some nice breweries to visit, then start some sort of relationship and try and get Odd Island brewed in Australia or wherever we go.”

HM: Any famous last words?
PW: “I can’t wait to come back to Australia. It’s been a long time since we were there last with In Flames and coming back with The Halo Effect is going to be amazing. I hope to see as many people as possible there, and have a beer with each and every one of you (laughs).”

THE HALO EFFECT AUSTRALIAN TOUR with Lagerstein, Beyond the Black and Devilskin

15/11: Triffid, Brisbane

16/11: Manning Bar, Sydney

18/11: Froth and Fury Fest, Adelaide

19/11: Northcote Terrace, Melbourne