Arvid Jonsson

Greenleaf

Swedish quartet GREENLEAF were originally a side project; they have recently come off tour with Maryland Rockers CLUTCH and they are due to release an album next year. Metal Temple's Lotty Whittingham caught up with Arvid Jonsson on tour with CLUTCH; they speak about album artwork, their time on tour and their latest music video.
By Lotty Whittingham
January 11, 2016
Arvid Jonsson (Greenleaf) interview
How did your tour with Clutch go?

It was a very giving and fun tour! It's always tough to be the support act of such mighty live band as Clutch but it felt like we did ok. People who hadn't heard about of us before seemed to appreciate it and that's kind of the point with doing support-shows. It's also really cool to play these huge stages and concert halls. I mean we usually only play smaller clubs and basements haha.

London was a spectacular show; excellent reception, was this your first time in the UK?

Thank you... No it was actually our second time. We played in London one time before, like a year ago. At the Borderline if I'm not mistaken. We'll be back to play the Garage in London the 19th of February.

How did you and fellow Swedes BOMBUS get on the same tour as Clutch?

We quickly became friends sense we shared dressing rooms. Really nice guys! They talk a lot but so does all bands from Gothenburg.

You've released a new video "A Million Fireflies" to promote the album "Rise Above The Meadow"; what production process went behind the video? What cities did the live footage take place? Was it from a particular tour?

Yeah we got filmed on several occasions during our summer tour this year. I think most of the live and crowd footage comes from the Stoned From The Underground Festival(In Ger), one of the biggest shows we did  this is year. I (Arvid) also had to spend one whole day hanging from a rope in front of a giant green screen with huge fans blowing in my face. It was quite a new experience!

I was extremely taken with the new album's artwork, is it meant to represent anything in particular? Do you think the art of album artwork is dying out? Due to more people downloading and not buying the record

Well I think the bear at the center of the cover represents the creature to "Rise Above The Meadow". And the nature surrounding the animals is meant to typically Nordic, to represent where we are from. You could say Greenleaf is the bear and that we are now ready to rise above the meadow.

I don't think its dying out! I think its the opposite. Nowadays people seem to buy more vinyls again (at least in rock n roll) and that I think benefits good cover-art since the format is so much bigger. It's like having a painting!

What does 2016 hold in store for Greenleaf?

In 2016 we will release our new album "Rise Above The Meadow" on the 26th February. And then we will be on tour almost constantly through out the whole year.

Thank you Arvid for talking to us.
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