Interview: Erik Danielsson, Watain and the Brooklyn Ritual

After an unprecedented and unexpected announcement that Watain will return to the US for the last time this year, we caught up with front man Erik Danielsson for an exclusive insight of what can be expected of this ritual on Sunday June 15 at the Brooklyn Bazaar.WatainTickets for the show can be found by clicking here

Kassandra Carmon: Hey E! Its’ been a while since our last interview. How are you finding yourself?

Erik Danielsson: I’m good, it’s been a very eventful year so far. It’s been very hard here, in both good and bad ways. We had gone through a lot of difficult things and good things and we came out before the summer starts.. I feel about a 100 years older since we last spoke, but that can mean something beautiful I suppose.

KC:  So you’re playing a very unexpected show in Brooklyn in about a week at the Brooklyn Baazar, this show pretty much came out of the blue, how did this come about?

ED: Pretty much like this: some guy from Brooklyn got in touch with us and pretty much said “Hey we heard you guys have never been able to do your whole show with pyro in the states, how about you play a show in Brooklyn on the 15th of June, because we have a venue here where you can do it. ” We were like “fuck, how is this going to work?”  but we actually made it work, we and a lot of good people around us made it work. We actually owe a lot to our Watain Disciples, because they’ve been extremely supportive and  helpful we everything we need, since all of this was very short notice booking. We have been getting a lot of help from them and other devious people who have really been able to help out, with it actually looking very promising. Basically, we were bound for Europe and we were going to do a festival, so it was very out of the blue for us, like you said, but we took the chance because it’s a good opportunity to do something we have been wanting to do for a long time mainly, bringing a whole Watain show across the sea .

KC: This show promises to give the New York fans the full Watain experience, of course there is a lot of talk about the use of fire and blood, what can your fans expect?

ED: I don’t know, I don’t want to sell like ‘come to the show, we are going to do this and that’, that’s not how it works, but I will say this much working in the states means working with a lot of uptight people, it means working with right wing Christian fucking uptight cunts everywhere, unfortunately. But it always comes to playing shows… but this time around we don’t have to do that, that means that we can, what can i say, it’s going to be a little bit more, or a lot more perhaps that American fans are used to to see at a Watain stage. And what that is and  how exactly that’s going to happen its for those who come to the show to experience, but  all along it’s going to be something else.

KC: It’s kinda like a treat for us, we never get the fire and all of those things.

ED: Yeah I suppose, for us it seems good because we have never done it in the us,  but for us is like doing a show like we do back at home, but you know I’m exited as well because of the fact that people haven’t been able to see all that, so for us a another adventure.

KC: It was also mentioned that this would be the last show in the summer in the USA, are there any other plans to tour the United States in the future?

ED:  There are but they are pretty far ahead of time, as it looks now this is going to be the only US show for the year and it’s because of a lot of reasons, first and foremost doing a show like this now, with the full stage we don’t see another reason to come back doing anything less. We want to find someone we can actually work with to bring the full show in a public scenario… not settling for less. I mean all the U.S. tours we have done have been very special in a way, we really never compromised in the nature of the show, just the different ingredients, but just for the reason that we are not legally allowed to do certain things  and we are kid fed up with that kind of limitations some point we were going say fuck it we are not going to tour if we cant do what we want to do, and this Brooklyn show is a good start.

KC: It will definitely set up the standard for future tour, you won’t settle for less

ED: I mean its not all about what you have on the stage or whether you can use pyro, that’s not what Watains concept is all about, but its of course were you draw a line

KC: Well I am very exited for the show as well, as a photographer, I’ve never worked with fire and pyro so I should be able to get some good shoots throughout the night

ED: There should be some good opportunities for that

KC: But as you know I am more of a local photographer, and I know of other press who is coming outside of the NYC area, as well as other fans making the journey, what do you have to say to those fans who are coming from far away to the Brooklyn show?

ED: It’s going be worth every inch of the trip, because it’s something that we have with our fans and our followers, we always meet a lot of people who make these trips and for them our concerts become, or are a pilgrimage something very important. And I like that idea, the idea traveling a long way to arrive that will eventually explode with fire and chaos. I think there  is something very important and beautiful in there that I fully support and that people are making these trips means a lot because that’s a lot of the energy in the actual concert, knowing that those people are there…

KC: Well, it’s nice to know I will be seeing you guys soon and we wish you the best of luck with the last minute preparations and details.

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