The more I dig, the more I discover gems. Hearing the name "Peter Tägtgren," I immediately think of the industrial act Pain and melodic death metal group Hypocrisy, but as I went down the rabbit hole, I realized how unbelievably large this man's resume is. The vocalist/multi-instrumentalist has participated in other bands including Lindemann, Lock Up, The Abyss, War, Bloodbath, and more, while also acting as a producer for some amazing releases such as Dimmu Borgir's Spiritual Black Dimensions, Children of Bodom's Follow the Reaper, and Sabaton's The Last Stand.
Tägtgren was recently on tour across the US to support Pain's eighth album, Coming Home, which came out last year via Nuclear Blast. We were excited to talk to Peter about the tour and his plans for moving forward. Check out the full interview below.
This is the last date of your tour with Orphaned Land and Voodoo Kungfu. How has it been so far?
It’s been fun. We’ve made a lot of new friends and they’ve been really good company.
I found this lineup really interesting in terms of each band is representing another country, something not too common when it comes to US tours. Do you think metal has now reached a global level where there’s a scene in every region?
Yeah, of course. I think in every country, they have their own specialty. We're from Sweden, Orphaned Land is from Israel, and Voodoo Kungfu is from China. So yeah, lots of variety from all over on this tour.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-zYQH9fXkU[/youtube]
From your 20 years under the Pain project and the more recent Lindemann release, it seems you have a fairly good understanding of industrial music. Do you believe that industrial music is underground from now on or is a full revival coming?
It depends on what you mean by industrial. If you consider someone like Rammstein, they’re definitely not underground. Or Nine Inch Nails, not really underground. But with Pain, I didn’t start off trying to make industrial metal. I’ve never even exactly been into industrial stuff that way, I just wanted to mix techno keyboards on heavy guitars and it turned into what it is now.
Last year, Coming Home was released, but it’s couple been a couple years since a Lindemann album and four years since the last Hypocrisy record. Where do you think your priorities will be after this album cycle?
Oh, I don’t know yet, to be honest. Last time, I thought it was going to be the Pain album, but then Til called me up and said let’s do an album. I never know what’s next, but I’m going to try to start doing different things. My son and I are working on an album right now. We have like twenty sketches of songs and about five done. We’ll make a demo and fish around to see if someone wants to release it. He’s been writing a majority of the material though and he’s 19, so I’d say the style is a modern metal sound.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4iBTfoplY[/youtube]
For the Coming Home LP, the album artwork and “Black Knight Satellite” seemed to revolve around the theme of space. Would you say that was the main concept for this record?
For "Black Knight Satellite," it was more about the idea that there's more to the eye than what we see with the government and how we view everything. That wasn’t the overall theme of the album though. Every song has a different topic. The concept of “Black Knight Satellite” was just a moment of inspiration for that song. I don't normally try to have a theme for a whole album.
Currently, are there plans for the next Lindemann release?
I think Til is too busy with Rammstein right now. Once they're done with their upcoming record, they're going to need to tour for a year or two. But I'm definitely not opposed to a follow-up. We'll do it when we both have time. It was nice because he took the reins when it came to the vocals, we split the burden.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWE_M0CX9So[/youtube]
Who is a band you have yet to tour with that you'd like to?
If we’re talking about Pain, I think we’d easily fit with Rammstein, but I don't know if that would happen. And for Hypocrisy, it'd be great to open for someone like Slayer.
What’s next for yourself since this tour is ending?
We’re going to Europe again at the end of October. And in between now and then, I’ll be writing music for myself, my son’s band, and there’s some other people I’m writing for.
