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Hello Tomas! How come you moved away from Strängnäs
to Gothenburg? Do you feel comfortable down there today? Are there any Metal
heads to socialize with in Gothenburg?
Hello yourself Whodan! Well, the reason why I left Strängnäs for Gothenburg
is simple! Strängnäs is a little town, and at the end of my time living
there, I really didn't feel comfortable with my life, both on the private and
on the business side. So me and my belowed girlfriend decided that we needed
to have a new goal in our life, so we just moved away. And yes, we feel very
comfortable in Gothenburg, I had some friends living here before, so I knew
that this was the right place to move to, and as you already know, there are
tons of Metal heads down here to drink beer with!!
Hasn’t it been difficult for you to establish the relatively new label Iron
Fist Productions when there allready are so many other labels out there?
Oh, it's fucking hard! You know when I started No Fashion 8 years ago, there
wasn't really that many labels as it is today, so I really thought at the
beginning of the Iron Fist era that it should be as easy as it was with No
Fashion, but god damn how wrong I had. It's so unbelievable hard work to do
with. But, hopefully some die hard underground maniacs knows about us today!
What kind of bands would you like to see on IFP in the future? As it is now,
there are only Death and Thrash Metal bands on the label. Will you stick to
this?
I guess that we will stick to what we like the most, hard and brutal music! I
am right know really looking for a cool Black Metal band to sign, but no
wimpy stuff! Everything from Black Metal to Speed/Thrash Metal will be put
out on Iron Fist!!
The hardest thing when running a label or doing a ‘zine is to solve the
distribution part I would guess. I’ve also heard that most distros only want
to cooperate with the biggest labels within the Metal scene. Am I right about
this? How good distribution do IFP for an example have?
One of the most important thing today seems to have a good distribution
network, and that's a thing I spend a lot of time to solve right know! As far
as I see it, we have a descent distribution for being such a young label as
Iron Fist are, we have only put out 3 EP's, 1 full-lenght album and a MCD. But
things must really solve out here in Scandinavia, we have House Of Kicks here
in Sweden, but we need to have in Norway, Finand and Denmark as well. H.O.K
has promised me that they will do the distribution also in those countries,
but nothing has really happened with that. So I guess we will try out to do
it ourselves!
Do you think IFP have the potential to become as known as No Fashion is
today?
Nah, I don't really think so. No Fashion was exactly right on time you know,
when we released the first Marduk and the first Unanimated album, people
really looked after something new and fresh, as the worst Death Metal boom
had laid down. And those albums were quite different from the usual stuff at
that time. But I really hope that we can be able to sell like 5000 - 10000
copies of our forth coming releases, if we do, I am more than happy! But as
known as No Fashion is, is not possible I guess! But we guarantee high
quality releases only, better to release 3 good albums in a year than 30
crappy ones, isn't it? (Of course! - ed) People shall know, when Iron Fist
release an album, it's quality Metal!
Speaking of No Fashion... A label that only have Swedish bands. Your releases
are also with Swedish bands only. Will we ever see a band from abroad on your
label?
Our releases so far have only been with swedsh acts, but actually we have
sign 2 foreign bands, namely Earth from Australia and Alastor from Portugal,
two fucking great acts which we really adore!
What do you think about the current scene in Sweden then? Old-school Thrash
Metal seems to be the hottest thing today. Good or bad do you think?
Well, the scene in Sweden has always been good! And today it seems that it is
even better than ever, of course I don't enjoy every act in Sweden, but most
of them are ok. Well, I don't really know if I can agree with you on the
point that Old-schoold Thrash is the hottest thing today, it seems that Black
Metal still is pretty big. (No, as for pure Black Metal there aren't more
than perhaps 5-10 bands, but Black/Death Metal is still pretty big - ed) Of
course the old-school Thrash is back in buisness, but not that much I guess!
Are you negotiating with any bands right now? Have you signed any bands since
Hypnosia?
Yes, we have signed Alastor and Earth. Alastor is pure Thrash, their album
"Crushing Christendom" will be released after the summer. A great
Thrash Attack! Also the debut album with Earth entitled "Star
Condemned" will be out after summer, their music is pure Death Metal as
it sounded in the beginning of the 90's. Watch out for it!
You haven’t thought about signing any of the new and upcoming Black Metal
bands that suddenly have appeared here in Sweden? Or do you think it would be
hard to co-operate with them due to their extreme opinions about things?
I really want to work with a Black Metal act, but only if the consider the
music to be the most important, not the image! And there shall not be any
keyboard wimpy shit that sounds like Enya!
What do you think about Merciless’ re-union? Should we be exalted about this
or?
It's one of the greatest things that has happened to the Swedish scene this
year. Yes, we shall be exalted about their forth coming album. I have heard 3
new tracks that really shreds! The best band from Sweden ever is back in
buisness!
You’ve just released the 14th issue of Putrefaction ‘zine. How many more
issues of Putrefaction ‘zine do you think you’ll do?
Yes, the 14th issue is now out. And it has got some great reviews and it's
selling quite ok! Well, I guess I will do Putrefaction 'zine till the day I
am lying in the coffin, it's my little child, you know! I have lived with it
in 10 years, and atleast a decade more I will do it!
Often when I talk to people who are doing a ”real” magazine of paper they
seem to hate ‘zines on the net and saying that internet destroy the true
underground feeling. As Putrefaction also is a ”real” magazine I thought you
could end this with telling me you think about e-zines like Apostasia.
I don't hate web'zines, but I really think it's much more easier to get a
paper magazine, by some potato chips and lay down and just read it. The
web'zines hasn't the same personality as a paper mag, but for sure I support
web'zines! Thanx for this interview my friend! To all people who have read
this interview, support Iron Fist and Putrefaction 'zine. You can get our
mail order list for free, just drop us a line we will send it over, buy our
releases and Putrefaction 'zine. Have a drink on me!
Tomas Nyqvist
Madängsgatan 8 B
417 02 Göteborg
Sweden
ironfist.productions@usa.net
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