Not too long ago I wrote a review for By Night’s latest album, A New Shape Of Desperation. I was pleasantly surprised and when I got the opportunity to ask some questions to vocalist Adrian, I took it. Curious about this band? Well just read the interview and find out how you can check out their entire new album for free.

Hey how are you?

Just fine, thanx for asking. Just came home from work and sat my ass here in front of the computer to do the daily interviews.

Please introduce yourself and your band to people unfamiliar with By Night?

I’m Adrian, the singer of the Swedish metal band By Night. We have been playing for 8 years now and we have been signed to Lifeforce Records for 3 years I think. We started out to release the split with our friends in Cipher System and half a year later we released our debut Burn The Flags and went out on 2 European tours and took all shows we could here in Sweden. We wrote new material all the time on the road and went into the studio again this year in May and recorded A New Shape Of Desperation, which will be released September 25th.

What are the main influences for your music?

Everything, it can be music, movies or the world we’re living in. There is no end of influences around us, and when it comes to musical influences it is everything from pop to death metal.

And how about the lyrics?

We are living in a world of insecurity and that leads us to do some seriously stupid things, there is people that are almost starving to death while people with millions of dollars can’t be happy with the food they are eating. We are unable to threat our closest friends with the smallest respect and I can be proud of what I am seeing around me everyday, we are living in Sweden, one of the countries in the world where you get every chance to have a really wealthy and great life but all I hear is complaining. That makes me be ashamed of being a human being, there is no end of inspiration for me to write lyrics, I will do it till the day I die.

Are there any specific meanings behind the lyrics? If so, which one?

On Burn The Flags we talked about the problem we saw in front of us and that we need to do something about it. On A New Shape Of Desperation we’re talking about the problems we can change, that every change starts within us and that it is to ourselves to take responsibility to start with ourselves first.

Your music sounds pretty complex sometimes, can you explain the ‘writing-style’ By Night uses?

We try to write all the time and we always make a pre-production in our rehearsal room and listen to it at home and at work to do some changes and try to take away or move some parts to make a better song. And when the songs begin to be finished, I do some lyrics for the song.

Your new album, A New Shape Of Desperation, is about to be released, how do
you feel about it?

Just great! We have worked really hard to be where we are today and we will keep pushing harder everyday. After the recording sessions of A New Shape Of Desperation we just felt like this was the album that will help us to take this one step further. The album represents By Night better than Burn The Flags cuz of the wider and better songs; there is slower songs like "Forsaken Love", groovier songs like "Cursed By The Thought" and also some faster songs like "People Like You". So it has it all and we are really satisfied with the result.

How were the recording sessions for the album?

Like always, a long way to the end and a big pressure on yourself cuz you try to be better than you’ve ever been and to do stuff you couldn’t believe you were able to do. We recorded for 4-5 weeks and I was so happy when it was over and when I realised that everyone in the band had made a better job than we had ever done before.

Personally, I think the simple ‘(freaky)noises’-intro are pretty useless on an album. You chose to put one on your new album though, can you explain that choice?

Haha...the best question so far! I am a big fan of the punk scene and also of bands like Nirvana and I am so sick and tired of all the bad metal intros so we did a simple intro that was satisfying for ourselves.

What was it like for you as a band to get signed to Lifeforce Records?

Lifeforce Records is a really great label and a really respected label in the hardcore scene so it couldn’t have been better.

In your bio I read that you guys toured through Europe once in the past. Though, I don’t know a lot of people who are familiar with By Night (including myself before I received A New Shape Of Desperation), how come?

Don’t know, but we are a band that don’t have a big hit factor or uses fake images just to reach a bigger audience. We will work hard to reach new listeners through touring. That might not be the simplest way but it is the way that feels best for us. We get new fans every time we are on stage and that’s the way I like it.

What do you consider to be the best way to spread the word about By Night across Europe?

Tour our asses off.

What can people expect from By Night in the future?

We will go out on a European tour in October and you can find more info on the tourdates at www.myspace.com/bynight. There will also be a new tour in December but it is just not confirmed yet.

If you get the chance to pick a support act for a European/World tour, which band would you pick? Why?

Would be great to tour with Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory or Meshuggah, cuz they would be easy to look at everyday and they are bands that know their instruments very well.

Are there any goals set for the bands future? If so, which ones?

To tour and make us bigger and to do better songs, grow slow so we can have both feet on the ground.

Well, that was the final question. Anything left to say to our readers?

Listen to the whole album for free at www.lifeforcerecords.com.

Thanks for your time and good luck in the future!
 
No, Thank u!

Adrian, By Night