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Personal With The Members

This is actually the band´s first Interview! (Made in 1874...;)

Interview by Jutta Bartonek

Published by "RockReunion Magazine", Germany

The Swedish newcomers SKELLINGTON have recorded a 5-track demo and are now looking for a record deal. Singer Jac Rytterholm and bass player Tommy Jee answered our questions...

Please introduce the band and the members.

Skellington are: Jac Rytterholm (vocals), Tommy Jee (bass), Göran Lundgren (guitar), Bo Karlsson (lead guitar), Andreas Konradsdal (drums)...

From left to right: Andreas, Jac, Bosse, Tommy, Göran...aka Skellington!

Tell us more about the history of the band.

Jac & Tommy: Skellington was formed in the year 2000 A.D. by us two and Göran Lundgren.

Tommy: Jac and Göran have been friends since high school and been writing songs together ever since and played in different local heavy metal bands in the south of Stockholm.

Jac: Göran and I joined together with our old pal, bass player - and cow-fetishist! (ha ha) - Tommy Jee and started looking for a drummer and lead guitarist and found it in Andreas Konradsdal and Bo Karlsson... and then off we went!

What musical background do you have?

Jac: I have no real musical background, I'm "self-learned" and I don't have a single clue how to read notes - but what the hell, not even Paul McCartney knows how to read notes, so...? I guess it's a lot easier if one gets to learn notes. And I probably will one day, but as of now I just pick up the guitar and play...

But ok, as a kid I used to play some piano and acoustic guitar and according to my parents I had a real crush for drumming. As a one-year-old child only I used to bang with spoons at everything possible in my mother's kitchen every day, all the time and at everything else near me back then. I really drummed a lot in my own special way through my first two years of living they've told me later (ha ha)...

And well, I also used to play guitar and bass guitar in some totally unknown "garage bands". But I'm too damn lazy to really get into lead guitar playing for real. I´ll never be a new Yngwie Malmsteen, that's for sure - I haven't got such ambitions, all I care of is writing good tunes... and besides, after a while I felt that singing was my best way of expressing myself. As a kid, when I was about 6-7 years old, I remember I always used to try imitate Elvis Presley and sing and move like him - so I guess that has something to do with it actually. I've always liked "The King" a lot...

Tommy: I started as a drummer in high school and started to play with my first Death/ Thrash Metal band "Death Mosh" with some friends for a time but dropped out because I personally think they suck. We never got gigs. I played the drums for 6-7 years but I didn't have room for a drumset in my parent's appartment and I didn't think my folks would let me play drums there. So I pick up the guitar instead that I stole from a school in Stockholm. (Don't tell anyone about that please.)

Jac: Hey, wait a minute, what the hell are you saying man!? Are you a god damn guitar-thief huh!? Well well, I think you and I need to discuss some kind of deal here man...

Tommy: Ha ha, very funny! I´ll buy you a cup of coffee if you promise to not tell the police... Well, anyway, I started to play the guitar, but I found out that it was too hard and boring to learn all the scales and theory. So I was asked by a friend, a female singer (Pernilla) to play bass in her band Crystal Rose, because they needed a bass player. In that band was already the drummer (Patrik) that later asked me if I was Interested in playing bass in a band called Wasted Breed. Crystal Rose didn't last long so Patrik and I give up and later joined Wasted Breed - a band founded by Jac and Göran and that's how I learned to know them... And nowadays I'm a bass player in Skellington!

How would you describe your style?

Tommy: Hard, raw, and crunchy metal with an attitude and great melodic inlay...

Jac: Well said, man! I couldn't have said it better myself... (ha ha)... I guess Skellington combines the history of hard rock/ heavy metal-music with today's music. We're inspired by everything; 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and the stuff made today as well. I personally think heavy metal started for real with Jimi Hendrix, The Who and The Beatles song "Revolution", and developed through Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep and naturally Black Sabbath - a band that everyone in Skellington loves a lot...

Tommy: We do?

Jac: Yeah, man, it's sacrilegious not to, so we're all heavy Sabbath fans - aren't we?

Tommy: Yeah, you bet we are! (ha ha)...

Jac: Well, so we guess we're all inspired by them a lot. And then we have Kiss, Judas Priest...

Tommy: And don't forget to mention D:A:D man!

Jac: (ha ha)... Iron Maiden, Accept, Motörhead and of course all the 80s and 90s stuff. Skellington has been described as a band sounding like no other band, that we have a style of our own, which makes us all very happy. But we personally believe we're simply a mix of everything through the history of hard rock/ heavy metal combined with a modern touch of our own. Skellington wants to bring good clean serious metal music into the new millennium - and beyond! At least that's the ambition (ha ha)... Right Tommy?

Tommy: You bet, man - damn sure! (ha ha)

Who are your musical influences?

Jac: Kiss... I'm a total Kiss-idiot! But I also love the "Birmingham-sound" of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. These three groups combines what I seek in heavy metal music: melody, action and heaviness...

But hey, I love EVERYTHING that is heavy metal. I listen quite a lot to Linkin' Park right now and other Nu-metal bands like Disturbed and Slipknot etc. I love so-called power metal: Helloween, Freedom Call, Gamma Ray, Rhapsody etc. Shit, I really like any friggin´ music! I listened to Bob Marley all day yesterday and The Beatles and The Doors the other day - hell, I even listen to Britney Spears from time to time (haha)...

Tommy: Me too, but hey that's us! (ha ha)

Jac: Actually, we both saw a Testament-show last year and at that place Tommy got two Britney Spears-albums! Weird huh!? (ha ha)...

Tommy: Yeah, who would've known... (ha ha)... Anyway, as a bass player I must say my personal favourite bass player is Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. I also like Stig Pedersen from D:A:D. Marcel Jacobs from Talisman has a great style of spank the bass. There are so many great bass player out there.

Jac: Also, I feel I need to mention king Ozzy and the amazing Pretty Maids from Denmark - and that the most underrated - and best - band of the 90s is Saigon Kick from Florida, USA. They're great! I'm personally influenced a lot by them...

What are your 5 alltime favourite albums?

Jac: Anything by Kiss... but ok, besides Kiss I think I choose something like... eeh; "Water" (Saigon Kick), "Ride The Lightning" (Metallica), "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" (guess who?), "Appetite For Destruction" (Guns N' Roses) and lately "Crystal Empire" (Freedom Call), which is a real "super album"! But hey, if you ask me tomorrow, I´ll probably give you five other albums I didn't think of right now at this moment... It's a lot of good stuff out there you know!

Tommy: Firehouse - S/T, Iron Maiden - The Number Of the Beast, D:A:D - No Fuel Left For the Pilgrims, Pretty Maids - Future World, Slayer - Reign In Blood.

What are your current favourites?

Jac: Kiss, Kiss, Kiss... (ha ha)...Well, Freedom Call, Sugar Ray, HIM, Rhapsody, Linkin Park, Cradle of Filth... shit, you name it! Right now I listen a lot to the new Judas Priest - album "Demolition" - I think Ripper Owens is a fantastic singer!... And I also listen a lot lately to Carcass old classic "Heartwork" again, which is real cool stuff... and the fantastic "opera metal"-band Nightwish from Finland! And by the way; I've also just had my monthly Pretty Maids-period (ha ha)...

Tommy: Right now the D:A:D - Live From Forum, Copenhagen 2000 (Bootleg) is spinning in my CDplayer.

Tell us more about the songwriting and the recordings of your current CD.

Tommy: Well, Jac and Göran wrote all the songs except "Stor Kuk", which is a cover of Kiss "Love Gun" with Swedish dirty words, and Jac produced it during  49 sweaty hours of pure fun for him.

Jac: Yeah, I'm the one in the band who most enjoys being in a studio. I actually feel very comfortable and relaxed in the studio and I love the whole process, how the result is getting closer and closer. Seeing the vision get realised.

Tommy: We recorded the CD live in the studio except vocals and lead guitar. We recorded it all in the Eastman Studio in Stockholm with engineer Rickard Nilsson, who also play keyboards in the great Swedish popband Charlie's Magazine.

Jac: Although I think - we ALL think - it's a bloody shame we didn't have more time and money to spend in the studio. Then the result would've obviously been a lot better, but the cool thing with this CD, "First Blood, First Demo", is that we've captured a true sense of rock n' roll! Don't get me wrong, this is pure heavy metal, but what we feel is that we've got this "fuck it all"-attitude all over the CD... It feels good, it's raw, energetic and "in your face"... Very "honest" music! And that's what music is all about, isn't it? "Feeeeeling"... you know? It doesn't always have to be "perfect", all that matters is to reach out with something and just bring it on the listeners like a fist right between the eyes...

Tommy: We invited some female friends to do the backup singing on "Street" and "Stor Kuk"... huh, that was fun. You can hear that we're having a lot of fun recording "Stor Kuk" at the end of the CD.

Jac: It's a wicked partysong for sure (ha ha)... at least if you understand the Swedish dirty words hee hee...

What are your lyrics dealing with?

Jac: Besides our crazy Kiss-cover of "Love Gun" with the Swedish dirty words, the songs are mostly very serious. I can't stand writing lyrics that don't mean anything, it's just not my style. I try to bring up a subject that is global, so that everyone everywhere around the world can relate to it in some way. It's subjects like: homeless people, history of the world, hating your job (while dreaming of something else), war, death punishment, religion, bad parents, love/ hate, bad schools and the growing lack of education, bad politicians, and well, our world in general. You know the everyday struggle between good and evil, which isn't always necessarily about God vs. Satan...

Let's just say it's about a lot of things. I guess I write mostly out of a social subject. I like to use symbolism in my lyrics and hopefully the words might make one or two think twice about it. I like to make people think twice, cuz that's what the world is all about I guess: Two sides of the coin. Nothing is really what you might think it is - so watch out! And always think twice... Hmm, I guess a lot of the songs is about breaking out, breaking free and make a change - "the struggling"... you know?

How did you finance the recordings?

Tommy: We paid it ourselves within the band...

Where and how do you distribute the CD?

Tommy: We have an own record label: Engender Productions, but we're about to deal with some big distributors here in Sweden, so we'll see...

Jac: Any international distributors interested in our CD are more than welcome to contact us... This is all so brand new and fresh so we haven't really got into it for real quite yet!

Are you in contact with record labels?

Tommy: Yes... We have a meeting with Universal Music within soon... It's our first so called "business-meeting" ever - and who knows, maybe they love the stuff (ha ha)...

Jac: We sure hope so! Seriously, we'd be more than happy just to get the CD distributed perhaps as an “EP” and then take it from there... There's soooo many bands out there, and the competition is hard...

Do you have more finished songs? Do you already have plans for the next CD?

Jac: Oh yes! Göran and I have a bunch of really good songs ready for a full-length album.

Tommy: I also have bunch of material lying around just waiting for the right time to be used.

Jac: One could say this first CD is just a "teaser"... And besides, we're all going to collaborate more on the songwriting within the band as we develop. Skellington is like a new-born child, we've just learned to walk, and soon we're gonna start running...

Do you regularly play live? Tell us more about your gigs.

Tommy: Skellington - as a band - has actually never played live - so far! We have some stuff going on during the fall and winter, but we'll see...

Jac: Nothing is decided yet, but we look forward to play live, we have been longing for it, since we do have some pretty cool ideas we'd like to develop on stage...

What has been your biggest musical achievement / success so far?

Jac: Hmmm... This CD "First Blood…" I guess?

Tommy: Yeah... this CD is it this far anyway...

Jac: Although playing live for the very first time, I was 18 years old, as a bass player in another band, was REAL nervous, but we were considered the best band of them all playing that night... at some small local place outside Stockholm. And the first time I sang with a band on stage was making me almost puke out of nervousity - and actually I did afterwards! But I guess that fact also had something to do with a mighty amount of beer that night (ha ha) - and I never puke, I've just puked twice in my whole life out of alcohol - so far that is...

Tommy: And I have to drink some strange brewskies before to calm myself down...

Jac: Really? I would never have guessed...

How can you be reached in the internet?

Tommy: At the moment through: skellington666@hotmail.com ... until we've fixed a proper website for the band later on.

Is there anything else you want to mention?

Jac: Please, if anyone's interested, then just go ahead and send us a note if you want a copy of the CD, and we'll fix a special low price, just 3 US Dollars or something, for everyone who contact us at: skellington666@hotmail.com