With:	Lotta Höglin [Vocals]
Conducted by:	KwonVerge
Published:	20.09.2005
Band profile:	Beseech

-First of all Lotta I'd like to thank you for giving me this chance of interviewing you and, of course, congratulate you for your brand new album, "Sunless Days".

Thanks, we are very pleased with our new album and we're looking forward to see all the response from both the press and our fans!


-I don't know how is the summer in Sweden, but it seems that this, let's say, delightful and shiny season didn't affect your compositions and the overall outcome of "Sunless Days" is evoking an intense feeling of "sunless days" and melancholy!

We have been working on this album since last fall so the summer hasn't affect us at all on this album. But I guess a shiny weather doesn't matter when your composing music, it's rather the mood you're in and what you want to supply.


-What does the cover of "Sunless Days" show exactly? The only sure thing is that it harmonizes beautifully with the title of the album and its melancholic touch. To my eyes it looks like a withering place in the mist where life has expired and the sun can no longer trespass the misty atmosphere.

Yes, that's one way of looking at it, and also my way! I guess it's up to each one to deiced what the cover means and shows, but that is a beautiful way of describe not only the cover but also the whole album.






- "Soul's Highway" and "Drama" were two fabulous releases concerning the gothic metal scene, but they were lacking something that would make them sound even greater. I think that this something has been found and it's too vivid on "Sunless Days", an album where you have mastered the sound of your latest two releases and your ideas have reached a very high peak of inspiration and maturity. How do you feel about "Sunless Days"? What is your point of view as one of the actors in the "Drama" of Beseech?

I truly believe that the latest album "Sunless Day's" is the best album we have made so far. We really did push ourselves to make our very best and the production of this album is really great. There are several songs on this album with high potential and the lyrics and the compositions are better then before. So you could say that every album grow together with the band as times goes by.


-Everything consisting of "Sunless Days" is one step further from its predecessor, "Drama". The ideas are way more mature, the emotions more intense and the very good production helps the fabulous compositions sound even greater. How much time did you spend in the studio recording the album?

We went in the studio last fall and had then a little break over Christmas, then we went back in there and didn't came out until it was finished in may this year.


-The guitars remain heavy still and, from what I noticed, the overall guitar work is more affected and every single guitar passage, acoustic or distorted, is well put in the songs. Also, gothic rock references in the guitar work are present, but they are being expressed in a heavier way showing that Beseech are a metal band.

Yes, we wanted to get the best sound out of the guitars and we experienced quite a bit in the studio to find the best sound for each song. It turned out really great!


-The line-up of Beseech has remained stable from Drama and on with one addition, the guitarist Manne Engström. Do you think that the fact that no-one left in the meanwhile and the addition of Manne helped Beseech into becoming stronger and work better together?

Yes absolutely. It feels like we hade found our niche and Manne has been a great inspiration and has came up with a lot of good ideas to the new album. He is not only a great guitar player but also a great composer and handles the lyrics very well! And he's a real fun guy hanging out with as well!






-What is really wonderful about Beseech is the team-work of this band. Everyone contributes in his own way, either musically or lyrically, and the overall outcome is really a quintessence of everyone consisting of the band and it seems that from album to album the team work becomes stronger.

Working together as a team is what we strive after and when you do it makes everybody feel involved in the music and the out coming of the band. Even if it can be difficult at times as we are so many in the band and everybody has their own opinion of how it would sound like. In times like that you just have to agree some how! But mostly we endeavor the same way.


-I find "Sunless Days" as the album where you and Erik Molarin have poured yourselves totally into the magic of your music, giving meaning to every single word and evoking emotional pictures surrounding the listener. I think that you are one of the strongest duets nowadays in the world of gothic metal. What do you think?

I must say that Erik and I have given our very best on this album! Erik has found new levels and expressions and so has I, and we really do complement each other in the studio as well on stage. Not only our voices but also our appearance and looks! I believe we by now have found our way how to work together that will bring the very best out of each others and for Beseech.


-Also, amongst the songs lies a beautiful and doleful ballad, "Lost", a song composed by you, musically (along with Mikael Back) and lyrically. Would you mind telling us a few words about this ballad? It fits the overall feeling of the album and it seems that "Sunless Days" needed this emotional piece.

Mikael and I worked together with "Lost" and find it very easy to work together. We both had separately been through a rough time and felt we needed to expose our mutual feelings with the help of music. It can be almost as therapy for you and the outcome become this beautiful ballad. And I would love to work more together with Mikael and compose more songs!






-Concerning the lyrics of "Sunless Days" now, for one more time they are deeply emotional with an intense sense of inner tragedy, struggle and melancholy. Since the very beginning of Beseech their lyrics have been a strong part of them, poetic and well-expressed, touching and filled with emotion.

Yes and I think we have taken the lyrics a couple of step further with this album. More emotional and maybe better written this time. We have worked more with the lyrics and we believe that they are as important as the rest of the music.


-Concerning your cover song on Danzig's "Devil's Plaything" you succeeded into passing your personal identity to the song, something not everyone succeeds. Why did you choose this song and what does Danzig and generally the 80s scene, whether it is gothic rock, dark wave, punk etc, mean to you?

We had been talking about doing another cover for quite some time and when Manne in the band came up with the splendid idea to do "Devil's Plaything" we all agreed that it would be a great song for us to do. And I believe it came out very well!


-Which is the period of Beseech you prefer the most? The "From A Bleeding Heart" - "Black Emotions" period or the "Soul's Highway" - "Sunless Days" one?

Each period and album has it's own charm and meaning to the band. For me for example does the Black Emotion album mean a great deal as it was then I joined the band! Souls Highway received great response from the press and the fans and now the latest album Sunless Day's means a lot 'cause it's recently finished and therefore lays closest to my heart.


-Why did you choose to release a remake of the fabulous "Manmade Dreams" coming from "Black Emotions" on the limited edition of "Sunless Days"? Was it the fact that you wanted to lend to it the magic of your nowadays modern sound?

Yes that was one of the thoughts but not as much as that it is a great song and one of the songs people seem to want to hear the most when we're playing live. And we wanted to have it with our new sound and with Erik and I behind the microphones as the original is with the former singer Jörgen Sjöberg. And we were very pleased with the result of the song on the new album!


-How difficult was for Beseech to reach the position they hold nowadays being a very important name in the world of gothic metal? I guess your course up to now wasn't a bed of roses judging from the fact that your debut album that has been composed around 1995 didn't see the light of day until 1998.

Well, we have had our share of working together with difficult labels and you might say we really have struggled to get where we are today. Not only with hard work composing five albums, but also struggle and negotiating with different labels a long the years. Not forgetting the changing in the line up now and then.






-You continue under the label Napalm Records. How does it feel being a part of this label for some years now and what are your relations? You continue dynamically with them, right?

We signed a deal of making 3 albums with Napalm Records and with this latest album it is the last one. What will happen after this is nothing yet decide, keep an eye on our website for more news to come about that, www.beseech.net.


-I guess a tour is ahead for Beseech. What should someone expect from Beseech on stage? Is there a chance passing from Greece for a live show? I'd love to see the band perform on stage someday.

Yes, we are in the middle of planning for coming tours and gigs. Perhaps there will be one in Greece as well! I hope so, we have never played there before and it's about time, don't you think?!


-I'd like to thank you for your time and this interview. Close the interview in any way you like including a Beseech lyric?

Don't forget checking the website out for up coming gigs and news! www.beseech.net. See you!