Interview with Samuel Nyman from MANIMAL

Hey Makis! Thanks a lot.

It all started when I met up with Henrik, Richard and Pether back in 2001. By that time, they had been playing together for several years, but now they were in search for a new singer. I auditioned for the band by singing HELLOWEEN's Future World. And I must have made some kind of impression on the guys, 'cause I got the job, he he.

We did not get the idea of calling ourselves MANIMAL from W.A.S.P.. I can't recall how we actually came up with the name. But when we came up with it, we thought it was a cool name for our band. And I think it describes our music in a good way. We try to assent to the animal within us by playing this kind of bestial music. After all, we're all animals. It's just our well developed intellect and way of having feelings that makes us humans.

To be honest; we didn't enjoy the recordings that much. I think it mainly had to do with us, not liking the atmosphere of the studio we were in. Each day of the recordings we felt anxiety just by being in the studio. But hey, maybe that's why the album turned out as melancholy as it did, haha. So, I guess you can say we had a tough time creating this album.

It wasn't until we started mixing the album, in another studio, that we actually started enjoying the process. At first, we did a mix together with a young, inexperienced Swedish sound engineer. But it didn't turn out the way we hoped for. So we went to ask Tobias Lindell if he was interested in helping us out. And fortunately, he was. In retrospective, we think we made the right decision, 'cause Tobias' mix is just what we've been looking for - it's awesome! He's managed to get the most out of each song of the album, by adding a dept and rawness to the sound.

About half of the album consists of 'old' songs. For example; the foundation of the song Ordinary Man was written back in 2001. We only replaced the chorus before the album recordings of the song. The other half of the album was created during a much shorter period of time. It only took us a few months to write and finalize songs like, for example, The Darkest Room, I Am and Dreamers And Fools.

Why it took us so long to release our first full-length album has a lot to do with us being very critical when it comes to song-writing and performing. We have always been comparing ourselves with more established artists. And it's not until the past three years we think we've started to reach a professional level.

We have pretty different influences the four of us. But some, we have in common. In the past we were a lot influenced by bands such as JUDAS PRIEST, QUEENSRYCHE, KING DIAMOND and HELLOWEEN. I guess you could say those bands, and a few more, laid the foundation for our musical path.

The recent years I've been listening a lot to different melodic Metal bands. Among my favorites are KAMELOT, CIRCUS MAXIMUS and HEED. I think the mixture of different sub-genres is one of the strengths of our music - it makes our songs more varied and interesting, if you ask me.

The lyrics will always be an essential part of our music. I can't say there's one main topic we stick to in our lyric writing. It varies from song to song. We often find the topics for our lyrics in our everyday life. It may sometimes be taken from our immediate surroundings, and sometimes from politics or maybe something seen on TV. Actually it could be anything that crosses our mind and concerns us. I guess there will always be some fans that don't care about the lyrics. But at the same time I think most fans listen to the words, and do care.

Basically, we use two different ways of writing songs: about half of our debut album was written, more or less, by jamming in our rehearsal studio. Like, for example, the last song of the album The life We Lived. That way of writing often leads to more feature-rich compositions. But it also takes way more time, since there are four wills to be agreed on each detail of the song.

The other half of the album was written alone by me and our guitarist Henrik. We worked by sending sound-samples to each other over the Internet. Henrik recorded some riffs and I added some harmonies, and so it went on. The songs we wrote this way was created during a shorter period of time, and ended up a bit more straight-forward than the other album material. In retrospective, I think the two different ways of writing songs together were the reason the album ended up as varied as it did. So we will probably keep both ways of working in the future.

Regarding leftovers; there were two songs which unfortunately, for one or many reasons, didn't make it for our debut album. Those two songs will probably be included in the next album.

The cover art is made by a Swedish illustrator called MichaelP developed from an original idea of our drummer Richard. The artwork is inspired by a poem of the Swedish author August Strindberg. In the poem Strindberg describes himself standing in front of a butcher's shop, staring at a heart hanging from a hook. The heart symbolizes Strindberg's own heart, hanging there, exposed for the public's eyes. Just like the music of this album, our own creations which reflect who we are in a sense, through which we now expose ourselves to the public. So, as you might realize by now; the four hearts on the front cover of our album symbolizes the four of us.

Yeah, it was great! I can't say we expected it, but of course we hoped for it. And we worked our asses off to get there. Before the Swedish release, we promoted the album really hard, and it paid off. The first week of sales, our album went straight up to 36th place at the official Swedish album chart. And on the official Metal chart we managed to climb as high as 4th place! Suddenly the Swedish media began to show interest in us. We did some news paper- and magazine interviews and attended in a couple of radio shows, and that made the album sell even more. In short, it was all thanks to well done preparations and hard work.

We're very pleased with AFM so far. Just like us, they have a strong belief in this album, and its commercial viability. Of course, you can't expect them to promote our album as hard as a new release from artists like U.D.O., Doro or any of the other bigger AFM acts. But I believe that they have put down so much effort on us, and our album, as you would expect.

First of all I have to say; thank you, for your warming words! When it comes to future song writing, I think we will keep on following the same path we're already on - heavy riffs, varied rhythms and probably focus even more on strong harmonies.

At the moment, we only have a few gigs back home in Sweden booked. But touring is our biggest wish and priority right now. We have recently initiated cooperation with both a Swedish and a German agency, which we hope will bring us out for gigs in Europe next year. And maybe, I say maybe, we will also make a whole tour in early 2010, as supporting act for a bigger artist. But nothing's settled yet.

The past year has been the busiest, but also the most fun year in our musical career. Many of our dreams have come true. Just to be signed by one of Europe's greatest Metal labels, for a world-wide release of our debut album, was huge for us. And I guess what still driving us is, we still enjoy what we're doing.

The ambition is, of course, to be able to make a living on our music. To be able to dedicate 100% of our time to what we love the most - creating and playing music. What the future holds in hand is hard to say. The question is not whether we will keep on producing music; it's rather how it will be distributed in the future. Maybe our first album was to be the last one to be released on a CD? You never know.

The only thing I can say for sure is; MANIMAL will keep on delivering quality Metal music, regardless of the status and the ways of the music industry.

Thank you Makis for drawing our attention, we really appreciate it. There's actually one thing I would like to add: Our album, The Darkest Room, may not be musically groundbreaking in any way, but it still is one hell of an album! So all you Metal-loving Metal Temple readers out there - buy the album and find out for yourself. And then we hope to see you all in front of the stage when we come and visit you on tour, in a not that distant future.