ELIZABETH ANDREWS
MIO JAGER
MADELEINE HUSBERG
MIO JAGER
MADELEINE HUSBERG
METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Elizabeth, Mio and Madeleine. So glad to have caught up with all of you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us at Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it. Frantic Amber is a Swedish melodic death metal band that formed in 2008. What else can you say about Frantic Amber that everyone needs to know more about when hearing your music for the first time?
FRANTIC AMBER: Frantic Amber started as a project in 2008 by Mary who wanted to play metal with other females, she tried a lot of different musicians and genres but it wasn’t until 2010 that the original lineup of melodic death metal was formed and Frantic Amber started as a band. The main focus was to get on stage as fast as possible and we recorded the Wrath Of Judgement EP in our rehearsal studio. It took off and we played as many gigs as we could. We have always been a live band and this has been the main goal with Frantic Amber. We also put a lot of time, energy and funds into our videos, which is also one of our creative outputs.
MPAP: Your most recent release, Burning Insight (2015), got some great reviews. It’s been a couple years, Is Frantic Amber working on new material by any chance?
FRANTIC AMBER: Yes, we are currently writing new songs and in the meantime, we have re-released Burning Insight with a bonus track 'Gráinne Mhaol', which we played live for the first time on our Burning Insight tour in Eastern Europe that we just came back from. It’s also our newest music video track.
MPAP: Will it be able to see the light in 2017? Anything about it you can tell us?
FRANTIC AMBER: We will start adding our new songs to our live set as soon as they are finished, but we can’t say anything about a release yet but a new album is on the horizon.
MPAP: Let’s talk a bit about some important things that have happened in the timeline of your band. In 2010, Frantic Amber added Erik Röjås to take over on drums, ending Frantic Amber as being an all-female band. Did you try hard to bring in another female drummer? Or at that point did it even matter if a male musician had joined?
FRANTIC AMBER: Since Emily left the band we played with both female and male session drummers and when we had played with Erik for a while we asked him to join us, because it felt right and the gender didn’t really matter.
MPAP: Years later, Erik would exit the band and Mac Dalmanner took over on the skins in 2014. What did Mac bring to the table?
FRANTIC AMBER: As well as being an amazing drummer, Mac is also very interested in recording and other technical stuff so we have really stepped up our game with a complete in ear setup where everyone has their own personal mixes and recording our rehearsals etc. He has also influenced us with more old-school death metal and grind drumming.
MPAP: How did you end up meeting him?
FRANTIC AMBER: Mary knew Mac since long before Frantic Amber and we also split rehearsal studio with his former band Insision. By the time we needed a new drummer we had all become good friends, so it was a no-brainer to ask him.
MPAP: Was he reluctant at first joining an all-female band?
FRANTIC AMBER: Nope. We were already good friends and the fit was perfect.
MPAP: Madeleine Gullberg Husberg was also added to the Frantic Amber fold in 2014 as well. How has she been to complete the band?
FRANTIC AMBER: Madeleine is a phenomenal bass player and her finger picking style has given our music a more dynamic touch. She also handles most of our merch related orders and design, social networks and is also our personal band paparazzi.
MPAP: Is it hard to be in a band and make music or even do a tour these days?
FRANTIC AMBER: Sure, it is hard work, but we have a blast together and have so much fun writing, playing and touring together.
MPAP: Are you all able to focus 100% on Frantic Amber, or do you each have side jobs for when you are home and not out on tour to help pay the bills?
FRANTIC AMBER: We all have full-time jobs and we do Frantic Amber as our second profession. It can be a bit tricky to manage when we go on tour and we use up most of our vacation from our jobs to go and play. We hope that we will have the possibility in the future to do more with Frantic Amber and go on longer tours and get to the rest of the world.
MPAP: Do you feel the effects of fans illegally downloading your music? Some bands don’t care just as long as their music is being heard by others? What are your thoughts on it?
FRANTIC AMBER: We hope that people that downloads illegally likes the music and buys it anyways, but as far as legal streaming goes, we are fine with it. Being available on e.g. Spotify helps our music to get further abroad, so it also has it’s perks.
MPAP: Let’s talk about the writing process? How does a Frantic Amber song come about? Are you constantly writing something, filling up a phone with ideas, or do you wait until it’s time to hit the studio?
FRANTIC AMBER: Mio is our main songwriter but we all pitch in with ideas, riffs and feedback. We iterate on a song until we are fully satisfied with the result. Sometimes this can take a while. When the song form has been somewhat completed, Elizabeth writes the lyrics and vocals, then we have more feedback iterations and work on the vocal patterns until the song as a whole feels complete. When we hit the studio, everything is planned, rehearsed and pre-recorded in the smallest details beforehand.
MPAP: Are there certain lyrical subjects that you stay away from when writing a song?
FRANTIC AMBER: Here, there are no rules! Elizabeth writes about everything between feeling a certain way, fiction stories, personal experiences, about a specific theme/character or something that is happening in the world.
MPAP: How would you say you’ve grown as a band between your Wrath Of Judgement (2011) and Burning Insight (2015) releases?
FRANTIC AMBER: We have grown so much as a band and musically between the two releases. We’ve become much more technical over time which is natural since we have evolved a lot as musicians and artists. We have gained a lot of experience when it comes to playing live, manage the business side of the band, recording and writing. The next album will be something new and different than what we have previously released.
MPAP: What has kept you going as a band for seven years so far, even with the different line-up changes you’ve had to go through?
FRANTIC AMBER: It has been an amazing journey and we have learned so much! We love what we do in Frantic Amber and it’s the passion that keep us going forward and that we are having so much fun together. The best times are when we are playing live, going on tour and meet our most awesome metal fans.
MPAP: Some American metal bands have recently done new songs with ‘clean vocals’ instead of the guttural death metal growl most fans are accustomed to. What do you think of Lamb Of God, Whitechapel, and Suicide Silence for doing this?
FRANTIC AMBER: Each band will decide their own path and may do what they want. We don’t think anyone should tell other artists how to do their craft.
For us we have mainly many flavors of growl, sprinkled with a little clean vocal on two tracks on the Burning Insight album. For us it’s just an extra and will keep our main vocals in growl.
MPAP: From Burning Insight, the songs 'Drained' and 'Awakening' each have a moment of clean vocals, but will you ever do a full song with clean vocals?
FRANTIC AMBER: We can never say never, but as for now we don’t have any plans to do that.
MPAP: Do you think once you sing death metal, you should stay with the death metal style vocals?
FRANTIC AMBER: It depends on what style the band you are playing in has. Again, we believe that artistic expression shouldn’t be contained or restrained so there really are no definite rules to creation. For example, for us, playing melodic death metal - which is a very broad genre, Elizabeth puts a lot of different ingredients into the vocals.
MPAP: What does the rest of 2017 bring to the table for Frantic Amber? What can your fans expect?
FRANTIC AMBER: We are going to focus on writing new material for an upcoming album as well as booking the next wave of shows and tours. We’re playing in our hometown Stockholm next weekend at a very special event hosted by RTSI and Scarecrow Music Group, which is a fundraiser and event for sub cultures and for the right to your identity. We will be sharing the stage with Carach Angren, our good friends in Netherbird, Grift, 6th Awakening and lots of artists displaying their artwork the same evening. More awesomeness will come in the near future so follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get the latest news.
MPAP: Will Frantic Amber be able to tour the United States anytime soon?
FRANTIC AMBER: If we will get an offer that makes it possible to come over to the U.S. we will go immediately. We hope it to happen soon!
MPAP: Before we bring this interview to a close, is there any last words you’d like to say to the Metal Pulp And Paper readers and your fans out there?
FRANTIC AMBER: We want to send out a big thank you to all of our fans that follow and support us and also thank you Metal Pulp And Paper for the interview. We hope to see you all in the crowd soon!
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, we would like to thank you, Elizabeth, Mio and Madeleine, for taking the time to speak with us and getting to know you and your band. We appreciate it.
FRANTIC AMBER: Frantic Amber started as a project in 2008 by Mary who wanted to play metal with other females, she tried a lot of different musicians and genres but it wasn’t until 2010 that the original lineup of melodic death metal was formed and Frantic Amber started as a band. The main focus was to get on stage as fast as possible and we recorded the Wrath Of Judgement EP in our rehearsal studio. It took off and we played as many gigs as we could. We have always been a live band and this has been the main goal with Frantic Amber. We also put a lot of time, energy and funds into our videos, which is also one of our creative outputs.
MPAP: Your most recent release, Burning Insight (2015), got some great reviews. It’s been a couple years, Is Frantic Amber working on new material by any chance?
FRANTIC AMBER: Yes, we are currently writing new songs and in the meantime, we have re-released Burning Insight with a bonus track 'Gráinne Mhaol', which we played live for the first time on our Burning Insight tour in Eastern Europe that we just came back from. It’s also our newest music video track.
MPAP: Will it be able to see the light in 2017? Anything about it you can tell us?
FRANTIC AMBER: We will start adding our new songs to our live set as soon as they are finished, but we can’t say anything about a release yet but a new album is on the horizon.
MPAP: Let’s talk a bit about some important things that have happened in the timeline of your band. In 2010, Frantic Amber added Erik Röjås to take over on drums, ending Frantic Amber as being an all-female band. Did you try hard to bring in another female drummer? Or at that point did it even matter if a male musician had joined?
FRANTIC AMBER: Since Emily left the band we played with both female and male session drummers and when we had played with Erik for a while we asked him to join us, because it felt right and the gender didn’t really matter.
MPAP: Years later, Erik would exit the band and Mac Dalmanner took over on the skins in 2014. What did Mac bring to the table?
FRANTIC AMBER: As well as being an amazing drummer, Mac is also very interested in recording and other technical stuff so we have really stepped up our game with a complete in ear setup where everyone has their own personal mixes and recording our rehearsals etc. He has also influenced us with more old-school death metal and grind drumming.
MPAP: How did you end up meeting him?
FRANTIC AMBER: Mary knew Mac since long before Frantic Amber and we also split rehearsal studio with his former band Insision. By the time we needed a new drummer we had all become good friends, so it was a no-brainer to ask him.
MPAP: Was he reluctant at first joining an all-female band?
FRANTIC AMBER: Nope. We were already good friends and the fit was perfect.
MPAP: Madeleine Gullberg Husberg was also added to the Frantic Amber fold in 2014 as well. How has she been to complete the band?
FRANTIC AMBER: Madeleine is a phenomenal bass player and her finger picking style has given our music a more dynamic touch. She also handles most of our merch related orders and design, social networks and is also our personal band paparazzi.
MPAP: Is it hard to be in a band and make music or even do a tour these days?
FRANTIC AMBER: Sure, it is hard work, but we have a blast together and have so much fun writing, playing and touring together.
MPAP: Are you all able to focus 100% on Frantic Amber, or do you each have side jobs for when you are home and not out on tour to help pay the bills?
FRANTIC AMBER: We all have full-time jobs and we do Frantic Amber as our second profession. It can be a bit tricky to manage when we go on tour and we use up most of our vacation from our jobs to go and play. We hope that we will have the possibility in the future to do more with Frantic Amber and go on longer tours and get to the rest of the world.
MPAP: Do you feel the effects of fans illegally downloading your music? Some bands don’t care just as long as their music is being heard by others? What are your thoughts on it?
FRANTIC AMBER: We hope that people that downloads illegally likes the music and buys it anyways, but as far as legal streaming goes, we are fine with it. Being available on e.g. Spotify helps our music to get further abroad, so it also has it’s perks.
MPAP: Let’s talk about the writing process? How does a Frantic Amber song come about? Are you constantly writing something, filling up a phone with ideas, or do you wait until it’s time to hit the studio?
FRANTIC AMBER: Mio is our main songwriter but we all pitch in with ideas, riffs and feedback. We iterate on a song until we are fully satisfied with the result. Sometimes this can take a while. When the song form has been somewhat completed, Elizabeth writes the lyrics and vocals, then we have more feedback iterations and work on the vocal patterns until the song as a whole feels complete. When we hit the studio, everything is planned, rehearsed and pre-recorded in the smallest details beforehand.
MPAP: Are there certain lyrical subjects that you stay away from when writing a song?
FRANTIC AMBER: Here, there are no rules! Elizabeth writes about everything between feeling a certain way, fiction stories, personal experiences, about a specific theme/character or something that is happening in the world.
MPAP: How would you say you’ve grown as a band between your Wrath Of Judgement (2011) and Burning Insight (2015) releases?
FRANTIC AMBER: We have grown so much as a band and musically between the two releases. We’ve become much more technical over time which is natural since we have evolved a lot as musicians and artists. We have gained a lot of experience when it comes to playing live, manage the business side of the band, recording and writing. The next album will be something new and different than what we have previously released.
MPAP: What has kept you going as a band for seven years so far, even with the different line-up changes you’ve had to go through?
FRANTIC AMBER: It has been an amazing journey and we have learned so much! We love what we do in Frantic Amber and it’s the passion that keep us going forward and that we are having so much fun together. The best times are when we are playing live, going on tour and meet our most awesome metal fans.
MPAP: Some American metal bands have recently done new songs with ‘clean vocals’ instead of the guttural death metal growl most fans are accustomed to. What do you think of Lamb Of God, Whitechapel, and Suicide Silence for doing this?
FRANTIC AMBER: Each band will decide their own path and may do what they want. We don’t think anyone should tell other artists how to do their craft.
For us we have mainly many flavors of growl, sprinkled with a little clean vocal on two tracks on the Burning Insight album. For us it’s just an extra and will keep our main vocals in growl.
MPAP: From Burning Insight, the songs 'Drained' and 'Awakening' each have a moment of clean vocals, but will you ever do a full song with clean vocals?
FRANTIC AMBER: We can never say never, but as for now we don’t have any plans to do that.
MPAP: Do you think once you sing death metal, you should stay with the death metal style vocals?
FRANTIC AMBER: It depends on what style the band you are playing in has. Again, we believe that artistic expression shouldn’t be contained or restrained so there really are no definite rules to creation. For example, for us, playing melodic death metal - which is a very broad genre, Elizabeth puts a lot of different ingredients into the vocals.
MPAP: What does the rest of 2017 bring to the table for Frantic Amber? What can your fans expect?
FRANTIC AMBER: We are going to focus on writing new material for an upcoming album as well as booking the next wave of shows and tours. We’re playing in our hometown Stockholm next weekend at a very special event hosted by RTSI and Scarecrow Music Group, which is a fundraiser and event for sub cultures and for the right to your identity. We will be sharing the stage with Carach Angren, our good friends in Netherbird, Grift, 6th Awakening and lots of artists displaying their artwork the same evening. More awesomeness will come in the near future so follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get the latest news.
MPAP: Will Frantic Amber be able to tour the United States anytime soon?
FRANTIC AMBER: If we will get an offer that makes it possible to come over to the U.S. we will go immediately. We hope it to happen soon!
MPAP: Before we bring this interview to a close, is there any last words you’d like to say to the Metal Pulp And Paper readers and your fans out there?
FRANTIC AMBER: We want to send out a big thank you to all of our fans that follow and support us and also thank you Metal Pulp And Paper for the interview. We hope to see you all in the crowd soon!
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, we would like to thank you, Elizabeth, Mio and Madeleine, for taking the time to speak with us and getting to know you and your band. We appreciate it.
Band Members:
Vocals - Elizabeth Andrews
Lead guitar - Mio Jager
Guitar - Mary Safstrand
Bass - Madeleine Gullberg Husberg
Drummer - Mac Dalmanner
Vocals - Elizabeth Andrews
Lead guitar - Mio Jager
Guitar - Mary Safstrand
Bass - Madeleine Gullberg Husberg
Drummer - Mac Dalmanner
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