Hi Johan how are you? First of all I’d like to thank you for sharing some of your valuable time with us.

Hi! I'm fine thank you! No problems! Let's go!

So, your first DVD release is finally out and I must tell you it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far, absolutely stunning! Do you feel the same way about "Playing off the Board"? What’s the feedback you receive from the press so far?

Thanks a lot! Yes - I'm really pleased with it too! It turned out far beyond our expectations! The feedback so far has been top-notch!

Was it also your decision to release live footage or did Metal Mind came with the proposition and you found it to be a good chance to do so?

We were talking about it, how cool it would be to do a live-DVD. But that was just unrealistic wishes we thought until Metal Mind approached us with the offer. We were not really expecting it at this stage in our career. So we gratefully accepted the offer.

I’m really impressed with your live performance on it. To tell you the truth it really exceeded all my expectations. The sound is awesome and your interpretations seem flawless. Is it really the way Andromeda performs live or did Metal Mind do a hell of a job production-wise? Either way, you must be pleased with the outcome.

Thanks once again! Well, Martin did a hell of a job mixing it. Metal Mind left the mixing to us.

And how satisfied are you from your co-operation with Metal Mind?

Yes, no probs!

Judging from what I see on the DVD it looks like you really enjoyed playing live in Poland and it must have been on of your best moments during the Chimera tour. Was it really as good as it shows to be?

Yes indeed!

...Even though the crowd didn’t seem to share the same liveliness you showed on stage. Or did I get it all wrong?

It was a bit awkward because it was a sitting audience and we're not used to that. Also, it was our first gig in Poland, so some of them didn't know us that well.

I’ve noticed a balance on the setlist, meaning that you’ve chosen almost equal number of songs from your releases so far. Does it mean that they have the same gravity for you or was it just coincidental?

Yeah, they have the same gravity you could say.

Among the great number of necessary bonus stuff included on "Playing off the Board" you also decided to add some old live footage even though their sound isn’t "exactly" satisfying. Why did you find useful to do so? My guess is that a die-hard Andromeda fan is always looking after rare material. Am I right?

Yes. Why not? I mean it's perfectly clear that it's filmed with a home-video camera and not a full-production type of thing. Those songs were not included on the concert set-list so we though it was a cool thing.

Continuing on my previous question, did you have a say on what should be included on it on the whole?

100 percent artistic freedom. Full respect to Metal Mind for that.

Let me return for a while on your latest studio offering "Chimera", among my 3 top picks for 2006. Did the sales and the feedback meet your expectations?

The feedback was good, but there were too few reviews and interviews. Massacre didn't do shit promotion-wise, so it could have done a lot better. So no - it did not meet our expectations.

In my opinion it was the album that established you as one of the best progressive metal bands of our times. Do you feel the same?

Well, we're not that established, ..yet. But we deserve that position because there are not many bands out there that can touch us at what we do.
I don't know if it raised our commercial status that much. Since the distribution was non-existent in North America compared to our two first discs when we had Century Media over there, our status more likely went down over there. But we did tour on "Chimera" so that was really good.

Is your appearance on Sweden Rock Festival confirmed? Can your reveal some details regarding your setlist? In addition do you agree with my view that Sweden Rock is the best metal event nowadays?

Yes it is confirmed! We are thrilled! The setlist will be pretty much the same as on the DVD, only a bit shorter. We haven't had time to rehearse anything new since we have been working on the new album the past six months. Yeah I agree, it's a great festival for metal. I haven't been there since 1998 actually. I went to Roskilde Festival a couple of years in a row plus the Sweden Rock Festival and the Hultsfred Festival and then I got fed up with festivals.. At least as a vistor. Hehe! Now I just want to play them, not visit them and live like an alchoholic bum in a stinking tent in the mud...

Coming to some more personal questions I’d like to know your opinion about "the trinity" of prog, talking about Fates Warning, Queensryche and Dream Theater.

I have only heard "Operation Mindcrime" when it comes to Queensryche and I think it is overrated indeed. I don't understand the greatness of that album. The singer is really good though. I have listened a lot to Dream Theater. I think "Images and Words" is great, great album. "Awake", "A Change of Seasons" and "Scenes from a Memory" are really good too. But then I lost interest. They have lost their creativity and joy. LaBrie seems miserable on stage, sings out of key repeatedly on the albums, Jordan plays with music notation on stage , the rest of them standing like statues.. Their musical ideas are uninspired and stiff nowadays. Fates Warning I haven't heard much of. Can't really comment on them therefore.

What are your main influences personally and as a band? I’m curious to know if you’re caring influences from the 70’s progressive bands, together with the modern ones.

All kinds of shit.. Old 70s stuff - Genesis, U.K., Pink Floyd, Yes, Captain Beyond, ELP, Rush, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin - you know all those type of bands. Modern stuff too of course - Tool, Atheist, Meshuggah, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Pantera... etc... etc...

Tell us a few words about the other band you put together called Nonexist, whose sound follows a more extreme direction. Is it the vessel you use to explore more aggressive dimensions, something you can’t obviously do with Andromeda? Are you going to release anything in the near future? Does anyone of the other Andromeda guys appear on other bands?

Yes, you could say that. It's sort of my outlet for the really fast and heavy influences I have - the thrash- and deathmetal bands I've grown up with and still listen to some extent. Nonexist has released one album so far - "Deus Deceptor" in 2002. There has been loose plans to do another one, I have a lot of songs and ideas lying around, but both me and Johan Liiva, the vocalist, are too busy with other things. I have Andromeda and I work and study and Liiva has Hearse and also works a lot, so it seems to be postponed again and again. . It's a shame really, because I think our second album could kick the asses of some many shit-bands out there.

Thomas plays in A.C.T, David sang on the new Space Odyssey album, you know, Richard Andersson's band.

Returning to Andromeda, I read on your forum that you’ve already started working on your next release, which in my opinion will be very important regarding your future course. Should we expect some dramatic changes musically speaking or is it going to follow the same pathway? Have you written anything yet we could talk about?

The whole album is almost finished. No dramatic changes I would say. Like all our albums it differs a bit from the last one. It would be boring otherwise. I think this fourth album is darker than the others, both musically and lyrically. There are still both complex songs and more straight forward as well as both intense, heavy songs and more tranquil ones. Regarding the production, which is terribly important to the overall impression of the album, I'm not sure yet. Martin has just begun mixing it, but I think he will try to make the different parts of the songs stand out more, to add more variation to the soundscape.

Who do you think to be guitar heroes nowadays, compared to guitarists such as Hendrix, Page, Blackmoore, or more modern ones like Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, E.V. Halen?

I'm not sure what you mean.. I like all of those, though Hendrix a little less actually. And I've never heard Vinnie Moore.

Johan, thank you very much for honoring our webzine. It’s really been a pleasure and I wish you all the best for the future. I personally can’t wait to spin your next prog offering.

The pleasure was all mine! Thanks! Take it easy!