What is your name and role within the band?
Im Pär Sundström, bassplayer and manager of the band.
How did you start?
I founded the band basicly 1999 as most bands do, a few friends drinking beer and listening to metal come up with the great idea to make their own band.
Where are you based?
Falun, Sweden.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
Mainly the music are written by our singer Joakim who usually start with an idea either on guitar or keyboard, shows it to us others to get some feedback and then continue to build the song around that initial melody.
What are you working on right now?
We are currently preparing the production for the summer festivals but I am mainly focused on some secret plans for next year.
What is your gear setup?
I use custom built ESP basses, a bit different setup than normal since I use a 5-string set on a 4-string bass and throwing away the thinnest string. Giving the bass a chance to use the lower B-string.
I do not use amplifiers, but I use a amp profiler called Kemper.
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
Everything I do affects the music since music is such big part of my life and Sabaton has been the main thing of my life the last 18 years.
I like nature, running. And I also like computer games.
How would you describe your music genre?
Sabaton is often branded power metal but the two main attributes of Power Metal is high pitched vocals and fantasy lyrics and Sabaton has none of that it means that the term Power Metal is a bit misleading so I use only the term Heavy Metal.
Do you know any music theory?
Personally no. I never was interested in learning music as a whole, I never wanted to learn to play blues or jazz or whatever since I knew that I never would want to play that anyway. Im not a musician, Im a metal guy as I like to say.
What are your plans for the future?
My main thing now is to ensure that Sabaton lives forever.
How did you get into music?
We were 4 guys with long hair in the school who liked metal. We decided to form a band but only 2 guys knew how to play an instrument so I had to learn to play the bass.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Currently due to the passing of Paul o Neil I listen quite a lot to Savatage.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
I guess not what most people would expect but yeah.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Soccer player
Gunde Svan – Cross country skiing pro
Dee Snider – Singer and perfect front man
Ingvar Kamprad – Leader of IKEA
King Leonidas – King.
When are you playing next?
In about one week in United Kingdom at the download festival.
Please feel free to include any extra info.
Its funny that a lot of people still consideres Sabaton to be a young band. Even if we have been going strong for 18 years!
