the metal gods rock show
Trail Of Murder
4 November 2012
MG: Hi great to meet you, could you give us a brief history of the band and what actually inspired the band’s name?
Urban: Well it sorted of ended with another band Tad Morose , they are still going but for me it was a disagreement on how good the material was, I decided it was not good enough. I said “Look guys , the songs are not good enough” and so I left the band and expected Daniel Olsson to come along with me , and I thought we could step out and start Trail of Murder, who of course at this stage did not have a name. Basically we wanted to write better songs! I mean whatever Tad Morose thought were good songs I didn’t, and everyone’s different aren’t they. I just thought the songs they had done were a bit dry and I really did not like the sound on them. So it really started there and I wanted to work with Daniel. When he joined Tad Morose back in 1999 / 98 I found the best writing partner I had ever had, we really work well together.
So when I left Tad Morose I expected him to come along with me, but he stayed with them and I understand that in retrospect, he is avoiding conflict. So he did not want to piss off any body, me or anybody else. So I stepped out of Tad Morose and took the stuff I had written along with me, eventually Daniel quit Tad Morose and I had those songs I had written and we got together and that am how it started. On this album “Shaded of Art “some of the songs are the songs I took away with me from my time with Tad Morose. Anyway, we started writing and I brought in a drummer from Iceland, well he’s really a fellow Swede but lives in Iceland right now. Anyway I brought him in, but Daniel didn’t like the style he thought it was too jazzy. But I love anything that’s a bit different, unfortunately that didn’t come to fruition. So then I brought in Pelle Akerlind on drums.
It took a while to get everything in place; we recorded the album, just the three of us. And I think it was about four months after that when Daniel and Pelle started to record with a bass player and another guitarist. I was not involved as I was already in the USA. In fact I have never actually met the other two guys! We are just sending e-mails back and forth, but its working and before anybody asks yes it’s a band not a project. I know Daniel and I started it off as a project but it is much more than that now. People are always asking me if it’s a project. But no it is a band. There is just the issue of me being here in the States and them in Europe. As for the band name, now that’s interesting , it was taken from a song I wrote called “Trail of Murder” it was basically about social, political murder so it has nothing to do with a serial killer or anything gory.
MG: So the new album will have been released by the time this interview goes live on the site, how excited are at the prospect of the release of “Shades of Art”?
Urban: Well it’s taken a while to be where we are now with it! But this is the first time in my life where I have released an album and wanted to listen to the whole album myself. I actually grab a hold of this album and play it in the car it’s just like any other album I listen to , so that’s a unique thing for me , so I actually really like the whole album . In the past I played on albums and it’s like “yeah it’s ok”, but with “Shades of Art” I’m like yeah I want to hear this. As far as favourites I would say probably “Your Silence”.
MG: With album out do you intend to do a tour to promote it?
Urban: We hope so I mean it’s the one thing I real enjoy, there is nothing better than going out on a tour, people moan saying it wears them out, not for me when I come back from a tour I feel invigorated. So we are hopeing this happens and we can all get hooked up and find a support slot on a tour.
MG: So is there a chance the guys will go to the States and play some clubs over there?
Urban: The guys are always bugging me to set something up over here, meant they have been all over Europe but not here so much. The down side is the visas etc., we have four guys that we need to sort that out for, and the authorities have really come down hard on the green card over here. I hope it will happen sometime in the future. At the moment it would not make any sense as we don’t have a distributor yet and its really only been released in Europe at the moment.
But we are looking into it over here, but I am sick and tired of giving music away for free as long as we get a good enough offer we will get it out here in America. Mean that’s part the reason it’s taken so long to get this album released, we have had the masters sitting for two years now!
MG: Sweden seems to be thriving with Glam and Metal bands at the moment, why do you think that is?
Urban: Yes, I really don’t know why that style has become popular again, its swings and roundabouts, I think the trend in Sweden for a little while was to be brutal. But it’s all good, and it’s good to go with a groovier style and it’s good that it’s swinging that why, variety etc. I am a hard rocker at heart, and have been into Metal all my life I either listen to progressive rock or hard rock.
I do listen to Swedish bands and mainly because I have met the guys in the bands!
MG: Which bands influenced you growing up?
Urban: When I started out it was Iron Maiden, but the first thing I did was back track and I’m like where did they get their influences from? And I ended going so far back in time I was listening to stuff from the 1930s and 40's!.
Mean yeah am bizarre! But it’s a nice change of pace and everything today is just so heavily produced, but if you go back to that time it was just well perform. Now it’s the opposite so listening back in time it’s a breath of fresh air. Give me six more months and I will go back to listening to Peter Gabriel again. But if you listen to my vocals and lines you can pick up, that Magnum are my favourite band. I love Bob Catley's voice, it’s awesome. He may not be the best singer ever but I just love his voice.
MG: I am surprised by that I thought it would be more like Motley Crue or something along those lines?
Urban: Well the funny thing is we do have a player in the band who likes the Crue etc., He loves the Glam; I just never really got into it, with me it’s more like Dio, Magnum. I mean I started out on Maiden, and then it went to Dio, Jethro Tull and all sorts of other stuff. Mean a band like Deep Purple, I love the Glenn Hughes, David Coverdale era.
MG: So if you had the opportunity, dead or alive which bands, musicians would you love to play alongside?
Urban: That’s a difficult one, but for me personally not the band, I would love to tour with Magnum.
MG: So you have other side projects on the go are they in the same kind of vein as Trial of Murder?
Urban: I am doing some work with a Bulgarian band, I sent them a demo with what I would do with their work and they kind of upped their game a bit, so it’s actually looking good and I will be over there in Bulgaria with them, and we are going to do some video shoots / photo shoots and then we are opening up for Accept which will be awesome.
MG: Brilliant, okay going back to Trail of Murders sound, how would you best describe it?
Urban: Oh this is the question I have been dreading! We have talked about this in the band and it’s like, well it’s not this it’s not that. I can say what it’s not! I mean the opening track is very poppy. There's a bit of Hard Rock, but mainly its very melodic, I mean it has hard rock in it and there is the Metal groove as well , but there is a bit of pop in it, rock everything really. But not too much pop as we don’t want to turn people off, maybe just on the opener.
MG: Any messages you would like to give to our readers?
Urban: Don’t conform and don’t change for the sake of change.
MG: Thanks.
Review by: Seb Di Gatto
