It's that time of the year again! My chief at Metal Perspective gave me the burden to review one of THE albums of the year. The Diablo Swing Orchestra is back and they're back with a vengeance! I gave it my highest possible rating in the review I made. So I had to interrogate the diabolic power behind all this: Daniel Håkansson, vocalist and guitarist of the Diablo Swing Orchestra. Hi Daniel, thanks for taking the time. Hope you're not tired yet of answering stupid questions by clueless wannabe journalists!

Hi there, quite the opposite actually. This is among the first interviews I do for the new album so I'm quite eager to talk about it.

You have said that "Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious" would transcend the quality of your debut album. Do you think it does now it's done?

In one word: Yes.

We feel that we took what we liked about the first record and build upon that to write more interesting songs. We are still very proud with what we achieved with the first one but there was definitely room for improvements and we feel as we have filled some of that room on the new album.

You wanted to get rid of the traces of gothic metal in your music. Did you succeed?

It wasn't a conscious goal during the songwriting process that a song couldn't sound like this or that. Biut I think that those choices were made on a subconscious level. When the first album was written we didn't know that the whole opera/femme - metal genre existed so were probably thought were more original than we were. It's not an end goal in itself to write original music but we don't see the fun in writing songs that someone else already composed.

This new album took some time getting released. I understand it had to do with finding a decent record label. Ascendance Records is the lucky label to sign you guys. Was it that hard finding a new label?

It had to do with finding a good label as well as writing enough songs for and album. The song-writing process within this band isn't that quick so it will probably always be some space between albums. There is actually a link between our last record company and our current one. Lee Barrett who owns Ascendance also signed us to Candlelight since he works as an A&R there. We feel as if we have a good communication and we find it more important than the size of the label.

You use aggressive and/or positive lyrics. That's all you guys write. Don't you get tired of doing just that? Don't you feel the need to get rid of some frustrations and go totally emotional on lyrics?

Lyrics is not an easy process within this band. We have a billion ideas when it comes to music but it always feels that the lyrics are so much harder to write. I'm not a sucker for lyrics that are too obvious but can see how it easier affect people and make them like a song even more. And actually I can't see how it can get more emotional than 2 of the songs on the new record =) Won't tell you which ones though.

Danceable music, that is what you guys want to make. As long as it's metal and it's danceable. Aren't there other factors you incorporate in your music? Incorporating instrumental virtuosity or raw emotions perhaps?

Well, stuff that make people wanna dance is what we get inspired by. I wouldn't say that we always succeed in making our own songs very danceable but as long as some part of the body wanna move, we're happy. We like to incorporate other instruments since it makes up for a broader sound and also forces you to think differently when it comes to arranging and mixing the music.

Fusion metal and avant garde metal are the genres you guys get tagged with. You prefer the term riot opera. Will you ever persuade the press and fans to use this term?

It's not really a goal of ours to tell anybody how we should be labeled. If those tags can help people with similar musical tastes to find the band it's all good. So I don't see that becoming a new hyped genre no =)

While we're talking about genres: you got on another Progpower bill. It?s the tenth edition of the US version this time. Does mixing multiple styles of music make you progressive?

Well, I think we are the oddball band of that festival. We don't really fit in but we don't fit in at any festival so it's ok. It will be interesting to see the reactions; half of the people will probably leave.

Brian Setzer Orchestra. Brian Setzer is great. Don't you think?

Agree, actually one of the few guitarists I enjoy listening to while soloing.

Which records would you show me when I would visit your house? Which are the ones you're really keen on owning?

If I wanted to show you why we sound like we do I would most certainly play you the soundtrack to "Les Triplet's de Bellvuille", "The Brown Album" by Primus, anything by Gogol Bordello, "Origin of Symmetry" by Muse, some Swedish punk music and all the discs by Tori Amos.

I'm looking forward to the new Muse CD even though I didn't like the previews so far.

You changed the renaissance clothing for more casual attire. At least on press photo's you did. Why? Part of getting-rid-of-the-gothic-metal thing?

Hm, well maybe that's one of the reasons behind it yes. Besides we didn't know we were gothic metal when we took the first promos.

On multiple occasions you said you were trying to find out more about your ancestors. Is it all just about creating an image for the band and justifying its name or is it all based on facts? Come on! (You can tell me).

All facts my friend. I wished we would have made it all up so we could own the right to do a movie about it.

Let's pretend that you are all full time professional musicians (because I'm not sure if you are) and the third Diablo Swing Orchestra record would be a total failure. You all have to go find a full time job thanks to that. Do you guys have a safety net like a decent education?

Thing is that we have all won the lottery on different occasions here in Sweden so we are actually financially independent. And AnnLouice is great at Bingo so we also get some revenue from there. We would like to be full time musicians but these days we need some other source of income since music isn't very profitable.