This month has a very special treat in store for KATATONIA fans: the Unplugged and Reworked tour 2014, where atmosphere and ambience are the golden standards adhered to, and fortunately, I was lucky enough to catch the Munich show of the tour.

The first thing that really stood out as I walked into the venue was the sea of chairs; arranged in orderly rows, and facing the theatre-like stage, my immediate thought was that I had somehow gone to the wrong venue. KATATONIA is a very well-known band within the metal scene, and subsequently, the chairs were somewhat unexpected. But then again, this was an exceptional performance in an unusual tour, so on reflection, the seating arrangements were not as far-flung as they initially seemed. The second thing that struck me was the diversity of the audience; there was everything from long-haired guys in EMPEROR shirts, to hipster-looking boys in LED ZEPLIN shirts, to ladies bedecked in fine evening wear.
 

Starting off the evening promptly at 20.30 was MESSENGER, a London-based band formed in 2012. With tender crooning intertwined with ebbing melodies that waxed and waned like tides in an ocean, they soon had the audience completely engrossed; as MESSENGER's ethereal melodies came floating through the air, the crowd was absolutely enthralled for the duration of their half-hour long set. This spell was so strong that even in between songs, after the applause and wild whistling had died down, no-one spoke, but waited with bated breath for the next song to start. This seemed to unnerve the band slightly, with the frontman making several comments about the unusually subdued crowd. During the heavier parts of their set, some of the band was headbanging away; a rather surreal sight with the sea of demurely seated metal heads in attendance. MESSENGER incorporated a variety of instruments into their music, ranging from the drummer using a gong during the last song "Dear Departure" taken off of their newly released album "Somniloquist", to the additional guitars occasionally brought in by the keyboardist. All in all, the band did an excellent job of captivating the audience and setting the tone for what was yet to come.
 

Setlist:
1. Somniloquist
2. The Return
3. Midnight
4. The Perpetual Glow of a Setting Sun
5. Dear Departure
 

Taking over half an hour to set up the stage in preparation for KATATONIA, the mood was set by the gentle strumming of acoustic guitar overlaid with softly murmured vocals. During this intermission, the majority of the crowd besieged the bar, leaving a few designated people behind to ensure that their seats were kept for them. But then finally, with the stage lit solely by the light of dozen of candles, the lights dimmed, and it was time for the eagerly anticipated KATATONIA set.
 

Taking to the stage amid wild applause from the audience, KATATONIA captured the audience from the very outset, with the magical atmosphere being enhanced by the flickering flames and the dreamlike ambience created by the stage lights. The main focus behind this Unplugged and Reworked tour was obviously to present the work from the "Dethroned and Uncrowned" album, but KATATONIA surprised the audience by playing the reworked version of selected items from their back-catalogue, including the song "Day" off of their 1996 "Brave Murder Day" album. As if this unique unplugged tour was not special enough, KATATONIA made the night even more unforgettable by playing "Gone", a track that has never been played live before this tour. With the recent departures of several band members, KATATONIA of course mentioned these members, as well as thanking those musicians who had taken their places. Playing with closed eyes, the musicians seemed just as lost in the dreamscapes conjured by the softly strummed and lilting notes as the spectators were, with the spell lasting until the final notes of the last song of the encore faded away.

Setlist:
1. In the White
2. Ambitions
3. Teargas
4. Gone
5. A Darkness Coming
6. One Year From Now
7. The Racing Heart
8. Tonight's Music
9. Sleeper
10. Undo You
11. Lethean
12. Day
13. Idle Blood
14. Unfurl
15. Omerta
16. The One You Are Looking for Is Not Here
 

With the current Unplugged and Reworked Tour representing such a unique and special point in KATATONIA's history, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to talk to Jonas Renkse, the founding member, guitarist, and vocalist of KATATONIA. I obviously had a lot of questions about the tour and the "Dethroned and Uncrowned" album, but we also covered a bit about the band in general with regard to the inspiration sources, the recent departures of two of the members, and what their two decade history has taught the band.

Tonight is the fourth show of the tour; how has it been so far?

It's been really good. It has been quite nervous for us, but it's worked out really well.

Nervous because this is something so new and different for KATATONIA?

Yes, exactly. It's a totally new setting for us, we've never done anything like this before. Of course, it is much more intimate, and you hear everything, the mistakes and everything. So it's tense, but it's also very rewarding and fun to do it because it's very musical.

I noticed all the chairs in the hall tonight. It was weird walking in and seeing that! I know tonight isn't quite metal, but it was still a bit odd.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's weird for us as well! But if it works, it's nice to do something different.

With six shows still to go, are there any you are especially looking forward to?

No, I've been looking forward to the tour as a whole thing. We did a German show yesterday, and it was sold out. And London is going to be a special one probably; it's a really nice venue and London is always special. But I look forward to all of them.

When you announced this tour, you said this was going to be the "most different and remarkable thing we've ever done". What inspired you to do this?

Well, it all started with doing the "Dethroned and Uncrowned" record, which is also something we didn't expect to do at first. On the "Dead End Kings" album, we really liked the other aspect of that album, meaning if you take away the drums and the metal guitars, there's still a lot of music going on. So it started with us wanting to explore that and do that kind of album. And of course, the next step would be to take it to a live situation. At first we weren't sure if we were going to pull it off, but then we were talking to people, and everybody said "You should do this, it's such a unique thing for you" so we decided to give it a try!

Whilst recording "Dead End Kings", did you already know you were going to do a reworked version?

No, we didn't know that we were going to do it, but the idea came when we were mixing the "Dead End Kings" album. We said it for fun. We said "If you take away all the drums and heavy guitars, it's going to be a totally different album, but still the same". That's where the idea came from. And then we just turned it into something real, instead of staying as a joke. That's why we're here today. It's nice to see the album taking a different route and bringing us somewhere we didn't expect when we did the "Dead End Kings" album. We had no idea this would happen.

For "Dethroned and Uncrowned", did you re-record the album, or did you use the existing recordings from the "Dead End Kings" album?

We used most of it. We kept all the vocals, all the keyboards and everything. We just added extra keyboards, and we added the acoustic guitars, and that's it. So it's the same album, but the acoustic guitars are the main thing that we added.

The mixing process must have been very different to your other albums, with a lot more experimentation.

Yeah, absolutely. But at the same time it was more fun to mix this kind of album, because when you mix a metal album, especially for us, because we have so many things going on all the time, so the mix is a headache. So we want everything to be in the mix, but it's really hard to say "Should this snare drum go up? Or should this keyboard go down?" Everything must find its own place. But with the "Dethroned and Uncrowned" mix, it was easier, because everything was already in some sort of balance, since we took away all the loud stuff and just added the acoustic guitar. It was quite easy I think.

Are there any plans to do this with any of your other work, or was this the special exception?

No, this is the special exception I think. It would be fun, but it's time-consuming. I think it's a good once-off thing, but we also want to go further and do a new album. Now we have done the "Dethrones and Uncrowned" album, now we're doing the tour for it and we've gone back to rework older songs for it as well, and after this is done, I think we are all a bit tired of only looking back: we want to do something new.

Are there any plans for a new album yet?

Not really, but we've said that once this tour is finished, we would start the writing process for real. I have ideas and I'm sure that Anders has ideas as well but it's time to let them manifest and do the real writing process and see where it takes us basically.

How did it go with the Pledge Campaign you used to do "Dethroned and Uncrowned"?

It went really good. We reached the goal in like two or three days. It was fantastic to see the kind of support we could get, because we didn't have a budget for it; the album was not in our contract, so it was something separate that we wanted to do. That was a relief to see that we could get some well-needed help from people all over the world. The record label released it, but we had to pay for the mixing and the re-recording and stuff, as it wasn't in the budget at all, so that's why we had to do this. But we can't really start pressing CDs ourselves, so we had the record label release it.

I can imagine that, especially in the current overly-controlled state of the music industry, it must have been nice to have that extra freedom?

Yeah, that's what we like to have. I don't want to do anything that's not from our own hearts or dictated by some record label or whatever. We just do what we feel is right for the band, otherwise we wouldn't do this at all. We haven't come this far just to take orders. It's all about the music.

Looking at the lyrical content of a lot of your songs, it seems to reflect the negativity of the world we currently live in. Is that something that really influences your music?

Yeah, I think so, in a creative way, as I tend to do something with it, and not just sit and whine about it. So for me it's a good way to channel the negativity into something creative, which in a way makes it positive for me. At least it gives me some energy, and makes me think about things, which is good. But the music that we've done has always been dark and depressing, so it's natural to write about these topics; it just goes hand in hand. If you're lacking inspiration, you can just turn on the news.

What other sources of inspiration do you typically draw on?

Just from my own life, my own feelings, and my views on things. And also from more language-based things: reading books is nice. It's an inspiration to see what you can do with language, how you can bend it and find a good flow and learn how to tell a story in an abstract way, these kinds of things.

How has it been with the recent departures of Daniel and Per from the band? I can imagine it has left quite a hole?

This is the first tour without Daniel for 15 years, so it's obviously very empty, but we're still in touch on a daily basis, and we talk a lot. I know he wants to be here, he's asking questions like "What's the tour like? Who got really drunk?" all that kind of stuff. Of course it's really tough, but at the same time, I totally respect his decision and I want him to be happy, not unhappy in the band.

And the new drummer, is he filling in more as a session musician?

Yes, because on this tour, we don't need a real drummer, but a percussion player, which is more suitable for this music that we're doing on this tour. So he's just doing this tour with us. And then for the rest, we have some summer festivals, maybe a little bit of touring in the autumn, so we have another drummer stepping in there.

Any names yet?

The new drummer's name is also Daniel, but last name is Moilanen. He used to play drums for a Swedish band called ENGEL from Gothenburg I believe. So he's going to step in for Daniel. And we will have another guitar player, his name is Thomas, and he's from a Swedish Rock 'n Roll band called NALE; they're not very well known, but they're both great players, so I'm looking forward to that. It's just weird, the last tour we did was in November, and we still had Daniel and Per in the band. Now this tour, we have Bruce on guitar and JP on percussion, and when this tour is over, we're going to have another two new members, so it's turbulent. But still it can be a creative thing to have different people coming in, bringing energy and ideas. So it's not only a bad thing.

It's been 23 years since the band first started, and in that time, you must have learned a lot. Is there any advice you'd give to young bands who look up to KATATONIA?

Yeah, of course! I think one of the things that we didn't do back when we started was we didn't play live much, and I think playing live is the best kind of education that you can get from music because it puts you in a totally different perspective than just sitting at home and playing guitar or being in the rehearsal place. When you play live there's something else happening; there are nerves, you have to really concentrate, you get different kinds of sounds every day… You're never comfortable, and that's a good thing, you learn from it. So play as much live as possible! Don't just sit at home with a drum machine.

And speaking of playing live so much, how do you manage to balance KATATONIA and BLOODBATH and OCTOBER TIDE and your family?

It is hard sometimes, but for some reason, it just has to work. The good thing is that once in a while, you get to have a lot of time off, like we've had this break since November and we haven't toured since then until three days ago. That kind of timeframe makes it worthwhile because you can be home, be with your family, look at writing new music, and just chill out, then you're ready to tour again. So if I get some time off once in a while, it will eventually work out because then you recharge and you want to go out on the road again.

Well, those would be all my questions. Thank you very much for your time!

Thank you, it was really nice!