JB Christoffersson

Grand Magus

Recently, JB Christoffersson of GRAND MAGUS sat down with our own Blacknasa for an interview. All the way from Sweden, which have given us several amazing Metal bands, in 1996, their debut album came out in 1999 as just a demo. From there they released twelve albums, some singles and some full-length. This is a band that has definitely struggled to be where they are now.
By Eldad "Blacknasa" Stainbook
March 2, 2014
Interview - JB Christoffersson (Grand Magus) interview
Hi there JB how are you? Thanks for taking the time for this interview for Metal Temple. First of all let me congratulate you one the new album, it's a real kickass metal masterpiece. I know that you are veterans but any stories about the formation of the band will much appreciated

We didn't intend to start with stoner , we are more Heavy metal , classic metal , bands like Judas Priest , however when we started it was the music that was surrounding use , stoner was strong in Europe , bands like Fu Manchu and others, so we started to play the music that was around us , however after two albums we started to move to the style we like classic metal , I think that the "Wolf's Return" was the first classic metal album for us also I think that from "Wolf's Return" we started also using Double Bass drums something we didn't do at start.

Do you approve of the album? do you think it came like you wanted?

It's funny to say cause after the issue with the Hunt and the living of our drummer we recorded "The Hunt" cause we add to , it's was important for us to be able to finish the album in order to show that we can stay united, however "Triumph and power"  recording was much more easy for use , we were able to express ourselves much more , also in the Hunt we did lots of Hard rock riffing and we found out that we are not into it so much so in the "Triumph and power" you can hear the real metal riffing without Hard rock , again it was very important to us to do the "Triumph and power" like we did so I like to overall album

Any specific song that you like better has an guitar player, I like to guitar work there.

It's very hard to choose because after all it's our music however I find Steel Versus Steel riffing to be great and I'm really looking forward to playing it on stage

It has been known that the recording / production process of a release can be stressful. How did you guys feel while doing so?

Recording is like going to war , it's hard and bloody , however this time was easier than The Hunt , mainly cause we were much more united as a band without any issues like we had on "The Hunt"

The band had some lineup changed in the Drum sit , how did it effected the band and the musical direction ?

I don't think that it changed much, however Sebastian "SEB" was more of a Hard rock drummer a thing that was significant in "The Hunt" , Ludwig "Ludde" Wit is more of a Metal Drummer even did some Black metal so we did go more Metal from "The Hunt" and it is evident also in the drum works in the new album "Triumph and Power"

Any special guitar that you like to use ?

We used at the production and recording the "Triumph and Power" mostly Fender Stratocaster and Gibson les Paul

Any tour planned ? what about the USA , you are known better in Europe

We mostly tour Europe cause it seems that our style is very strong in Europe however it does seems that we are doing some noise also over sea and we would love to tour the USA

How about supporting the album? Anything planned?

As I mentioned before we are going to tour Europe and also do some festivals all over Europe and hopefully we will tour the USA

Though I sensed that your songs are pretty loosen without leaving anything behind, is there something that you wanted to address the world about?

As I mentioned before we are very happy from the outcome of "Power and Triumph" the album came out very much like we anticipated and I'm very happy with the album all around

Do you use the social network to keep in touch with your fans? Do you feel that it is important for artists, no matter the caliber, to keep a certain line of relations with their fans?

I'm not a big fan of all the social arena , I think that my fan and I would address the word fan in a second , don't need to know what I'm doing when I got up in the morning after all I'm not a god or a idol I'm a musician and I dislike the word fan , I don't want have fans I want to have listeners , I do music I want people to listen to my music and not to idolize me, I'm also a listener and not a fan and I do like many music by many bands and yet again I see myself as a listener and not has a fan

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