SOURCE WEBZINE | We don’t have readers – we have believers.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Give us a brief history of Crocell and what does the band name signify?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) -  Ken and I had previously played in a band called Adversary and we decided to try and put together a death metal band. We started looking for members around November 2006 and we first rehearsed with the band in January 2007. Finding the members proved quite easy as Ken was already playing in Compos Mentis with Andreas, and Tommy and Onkel Kusse were very interested.

I didn’t really know the others (apart from Ken) musically, but working with them turned out to be very easy. They’re great, very amusing guys as well. I believe Onkel Kusse came up with the band name. We basically chose it because we liked the sound of it – it doesn’t have a deeper meaning to us.

SOURCEWEBZINE – The band recorded their debut work on their own means without passing through the usual demo phase. Do you believe there is still a true underground with demos circulating or nowadays is it based mostly around the internet? Do you think MySpace a big help for underground acts to reach a wider audience?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) -  I answered an interview with a question phrased in the same way a while ago. I think I’ll answer it more or less along the same lines: The demo-tape trading days are over in most circles, which is pretty sad as it’s got a certain charm to it. Today, most people listen to new stuff on the Internet as it’s the easiest way of checking something out. Myspace is an easy of getting your music on the Internet without having to make your own webpage. Shame about the sound quality. But just putting your music on Myspace isn’t gonna get people to listen to your music, even if it’s good. You need serious promotion.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Can you tell something about the production of “The God We Drowned”. Where there any complications or did it all go as planned?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – Well, we decided to do the album at Christian Bonde’s CB Studios as he is an old friend of Tommy’s and made us a great offer. We’d talked quite a lot about how we wanted to do the record and what sound we wanted, so we were pretty well-prepared. Working with Bonde was great; he’s a very nice guy. I always find recording a bit boring as I’m usually the last guy to enter the booth and listening to the others doing takes is tedious as hell. Fortunately we’d brought our good friend alcohol!

The only real problem we encountered was me coming down with the flu after recording about half the vocals, completely ruining my voice. In the end, it wasn’t a real problem though, as Bonde agreed to move the last days of recording a week or so. The record was mixed and mastered by Jacob Olsen at Antfarm Studios. We worked very closely with him in order to get the sound we wanted, and he was very patient with us, I think. He’s our regular sound guy now and an extremely talented producer as well.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Has the response and sales met your expectations?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – The response has been absolutely overwhelming! We’ve had great album reviews, great concert reviews and won the talent award at last year’s Danish Metal Awards. As for the sales, I’ve got no idea how many copies we’ve sold, but we seem to be doing well at the shows. We’ve gotten mails from people all over the world who’ve bought the album, which is absolutely amazing!

SOURCEWEBZINE – How much has internet helped to get your band name around to people’s lips? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the internet in your opinion if we only try to keep the main focus on your band activities?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – Well, Myspace is a help of course, but on the other hand, if we didn’t have some music on Myspace we’d make our own website and host it there. The greatest part about the internet is that it makes being in contact with fans, promoters, bookers and so on a lot easier. It also helps out with the internal communication in the band of course. It’s great that people all over the world stumble upon our music and can buy it online if they like it.

If there’s a disadvantage about the internet, it’s the vast amount of  “music”. I can’t believe that people put up crappy versions of crappy songs recorded in a rehearsal room. If you’re in a new band, you need to present yourself to the world with a hammer blow! In the end, it’s all about creating good music, the internet isn’t gonna change that.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Tell me what the feelings within the band were like at the time of The God We Drowned’s release?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – I think the feeling was: “Finally”! From completing the final mastering of the album and until the album’s release, 9 or 10 months went by. But hey, it turned out great! We were very happy to finally hold it our hands. We actually received the first copies on the day we were due to play the Aalborg Metal Festival, and judging from the reaction we received and the amount of CD’s we sold, we weren’t the only ones who’d been waiting.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you think divides Crocell from other bands in the similar genre?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – I think we’ve captured a sound and song writing that brings to mind the virtues of  late 80′s and early 90′s death metal. We’ve added a lot of melody to the mix, making the songs very catchy and well-suited for playing live. We’re focusing on giving each song its own identity and trying to make the music diverse yet with a distinct style throughout. So it’s death metal with a lot of melody to it, not “melodic death metal” like the genre.

SOURCEWEBZINE – You guys get great press, great reviews. deservedly so. How does it feel to get your art fully appreciated by the fans and the media? A lot of other bands may write really great albums but do not always get recognized.
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – We feel very lucky, absolutely, but I think we’ve done a lot of work to earn it as well. Creating good music simply isn’t enough, you need to get a good network to spread it through and I think we’ve worked hard to that end. It’s a bit sad that it works that way, since there are many artists out there who deserve a lot more publicity and many more that don’t deserve to be in the spotlight.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Does the current bad economy concern you as far as show attendance?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – No, I don’t think we’ve felt any impact there. Denmark is a rich country, and it’s only the biggest shows that are expensive, certainly not death metal concerts.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Is it possible to get by as a musician in Denmark? Do you all have day-time jobs besides Crocell?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – Not as a death metal musician, certainly. As of yet, making music is not making us any money. We’re all either working full-time or studying, this band is our hobby.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What are the main bands, metal/punk/hardcore magazines and webzines in Denmark for you?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – My favourite Danish metal band is the old heavy metal band Pretty Maids, but we’ve got quite a few great, newer bands as well. The new Exmortem record “Funeral Phantoms” is a great death metal album, for instance – though they are not exactly a “new” band. We haven’t got a lot of metal magazines here, the main ones being NRG and Metalized, which are both pretty good. As for webzines, the main source for Danish metal is the aptly named danishmetal.dk. Apart from that I mainly use foreign webzines. I mainly listen to older stuff, so I don’t really keep myself up to date on what’s going on.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Anything you wish to add to conclude this interview?
Magnus Jørgensen (V) – Thanks for the interview, and I’m glad you like the record. We’ll be recording the next album later this year. And we’re really looking forward to getting out and playing some shows, though visiting foreign continents is probably still a long way off. Take care, cheers!

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