Autumn Leaves – “…The Danish bands NEVER try to promote themselves outside the borders of Denmark…”

After being blast away by all their releases so far, I decided to give this fantastic Danish band some more promotion for their new 2d album ‘As Night Conquers Day’. It’s answered by Flemming, one of their guitarists. So here’s Autumn Leaves!

I know it’s a fuckin’ bore but please give us your biography, were the band members in other bands before Autumn Leaves? Is it true that there hasn’t been any line-up changes in Autumn Leaves since your demo?
To make along boring story short: 4 of us played in a band called Decrial which started up in 1992. In 1993 Decrial released the only demo tape ‘Desires Unfold’. Sometime after that we kicked out the other guitarist and changed name into Autumn Leaves. We found another guitarist and we recorded our only demo ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ in 1995. In 1997 our debut CD ‘Embraced by the absolute’ was released and on May 21st 1999 our 2nd CD ‘As Night Conquers Day’ will be released. It’s true, we haven’t had any line-up changes ever. We’re pretty proud of that.

Your first killer release was the ‘Hope springs eternal’ demo which saw the darkness of this world in 1995. Where did you record it, who produced it and are you still satisfied with it? Hoe were the reactions on it?
Jacob Hansen, who also has produced the new CD, produced the demo. It was recorded at the place where we used to rehearse. There were 3 rehearsal rooms + 1 studio, and the studio was o.k. and VERY cheap. I think the sound turned out o.k. on the demo. Yeah, I guess the demo is pretty cool. I haven’t listened to it for ages though! The reactions were killer. It secured us the deal with Serious Entertainment.

In 1997 you debut killer album named ‘Embraced by the absolute’ was unleashed by Serious Entertainment. Where was it recorded, who produced it and are you still satisfied the music, production and the cover? How were the reactions on it?
The CD was recorded at Borsing Recording with Tue Madsen of the Danish band GROPE as producer. He’s a killer guy, and he helped us a lot. We were quite happy about the production back then, but today we prefer the production we have on the new CD. The production on ‘Embraced…’ was too brutal (Saldiac: no way it’s great!), but that was what we wanted back then. I still like the front cover a lot. I’m a bit tired of the pictures in the booklet, but still the CD is much prettier that so many other CD’s. The reactions have been incredible. We have had the best reviews we could ever dream of. Hopefully people will like the new one just as much.

I read in another interview that the deal with Serious Entertainment was for only one album but your newest raging output is also released by Serious Entertainment. Did they offer you a good new deal for more albums? Did you get any other interesting offers from other labels? Are you satisfied with Serious Entertainment’s work for you?
Well, we were so satisfied with Serious Entertainment that I really didn’t send out the CD to other labels. I don’t know if anyone else would have signed us, but Serious Entertainment was interested in us again, and we agreed. The deal is pretty good I think. If we don’t get a killer offer from a big label I think we’ll release the next one on Serious Entertainment as well. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Now in the apocalyptic year 1999 you released the new album ‘As night conquers day’, tell us some more about it. You recorded it somewhere else than your debut album, why? Who produced it and tell our readers what they can expect on this majestic album! In my opinion you naturally developed into an even better band without losing the Autumn Leaves-sound which marked your previous stuff.
The new CD was recorded at the Aabenraa studio where Jacob Hansen (who also owns Serious Entertainment) always records. He has produced stuff like Illdisposed, Aurora, Without Grief etc. down there. He made exactly the sound we wanted: Brutal and heavy, yet very clear and melodic. He is by far one of the best producers in Metal. Dan Swanö has praised his work many times. We recorded with him because he’s cool and it was much cheaper. People can expect a total great piece of melodic Death Metal with a great production and artwork. The CD lasts more than 52 minutes, so it’s value for money! Also people usually praise our musicianship, so you won’t hear any crappy amateur songs! The new stuff is a bit more melodic than the old songs. They are also more ‘conscious’ and more like worked-through if you know what I mean?!?

Since I got a promo (thanxx a lot for it!) I don’t have the lyrics of the new songs. Could you tell us where the lyrics of the various songs are about? Is there any concept in them? Are the lyrics an important aspect of the band or are they just there to guide the music?
Well since we are 4 different guys who write lyrics the contents can vary a lot. Basically they are about religion, evil regimes, political questions, thoughts about the universe and our existence etc. Lyrics are always important, but I think the main thing is the music. That’s the first thing you pay attention to, and let’s face it, without a lyrics sheet it’s often impossible to hear the actual lyrics.

What are your expectations with the new album? Conquering the world with your music? Or starting by playing abroad a lot? Have you played a lot of concerts, tell us of some live experiences? Are there plans for a European tour?
Hopefully we’ll get as much positive response as we did with our debut. We’ll try to play and promote ourselves as much as possible. I guess we have played live about 15-20 times which really isn’t that much considering the fact that we have been playing for almost 5 years! Hopefully that’ll change in the future. As for a European tour we’ll just have to wait and see. Serious Entertainment is working on it. We were supposed to tour after ‘Embraced…’ but we were ripped-off!!!

What bands/music do the band members listen to and what bands influence you? Could you give me a top 5 of your all-time favourite records and a top 5 of your current favourite albums?
I always love questions like these! However I find it very hard to mention the top 5 records, because there are just sooo many cool albums and I love metal so much that it’s almost impossible. But here we go:
All time faves:
1. Arch Enemy – all
2. Children Of Bodom – Hatebreeder
3. Suffocation – all
4. Angelcorpse– Exterminate
5. Entombed – Left Hand Path
Current faves:
1. Darkane – Rusted Angel
2. Children Of Bodom – Hatebreeder
3. Carnal Forge – Who’s gonna burn
4. The Haunted – The Haunted
5. Tone Macalpine – Maximum security

How is the underground in Denmark? I don’t know that many bands from Denmark. Are you in contact with other bands, bands on Serious Entertainment (great bands such as Aurora and Without Grief), bands who play different kinds of music?
That’s the problem with Denmark: People who don’t live in Denmark have almost never heard about the great Danish bands mainly because of one thing: The Danish bands NEVER try to promote themselves outside the borders of Denmark, and that’s total idiotic. Except for Withering Surface and us I can’t really think of a Danish band that has done that lately. We have very cool bands here like: Illdisposed, Konkhra, Sacrificial, Iniquity, Withering Surface, Aurora, Mercenary, Panzerchrist, Saturnus, Invocator etc. We know most of the other bands on Serious Entertainment. They are all cool people.

Now for a total non-music question but nonetheless a very interesting one (at least in my opinion): Do you know the Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier and what’s your opinion on his work? (In my humble opinion his movies are masterpieces!)
Yeah I know Lars Von Trier. I’m not that crazy about his work though. I guess he has made a few things that are o.k., but generally the stuff is too uninteresting and weird for me. One thing which is cool though is that he has another company that produces porn movies. That’s really cool. It was a really big thing in Denmark some months ago when the first porn movie was released. It was said to be a porn movie for women instead of the usual stuff that mainly men find interesting. Haven’t seen it yet, but I’ll be sure to do so soon.

Another non-music question. Do you like football? If so, you must really still be pissed that Brazil sent Denmark home at the World Championship ’98? Please let your hate and frustration out here!
I love football! It seems that the football team in the city Esbjerg in which I live will move up to the best row this year. I’m really excited about that. Other than that I play a lot of FIFA 99 on my computer. That game rules. Yeah, it really is sad that Brazil beat us. I think that we deserved to win because we played just as great as the Brazilians if not better. Remember when we scored the first goal after about 1 minute? That was totally insane. I squealed like a pig.

Are there any cool drinking experiences or other bizarre stories you would like to share with us?
I don’t really drink that much anymore, but every year we go to the Wacken Festival in Germany which is SOOO cool. We are pissed all the time down there.

Okay, that’s all I could think of right now, here’s some space to give your best Jerry Springer final thoughts, merchandise, promotion, contact address or whatever you wanna let us know!
-Thanks for the interview. You rule! Check out our new CD. You won’t regret it!!!