Welcome! Here is the long-awaited Dark tranquillity FAQ. The main
reason behind it is that we're getting way more emails than what we're
able to handle, and the vast majority consist of the same questions. In
this section, we're able to give much more detailed replies that what
would be the case if we were to reply individually to each and every email.
- WHEN WILL YOU PLAY IN [INSERT TOWN/COUNTRY HERE]? This is by far the most common question we get. Short version: Check the homepage regularly. Longer version: We're usually willing to play anywhere as long as we get a serious offer and the timing is right. There are lots of places/countries (England, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Israel, USA etc etc) where we know that we have a large following and sadly haven't been able to play yet or have only played in once or twice. The main reason for this is that we haven't had any serious offers. It's a common misconception that bands simply decide that they want to play in a certain country and then just go there, but of course reality is far more complex. While we're by no means a small band, we still have a long way to go before we can just point at a map and play where we want. If we don't get any proposals from trushworthy promoters, there simply is no way that we can do a gig. Also, we're not a band that are able to tour all the time either. We all have day jobs, families and other obligations which makes it impossible to take every gig opportunity that's being offered or to take on a tour on really short notice. - I HEARD THAT YOU'LL PLAY [INSERT LOCATION HERE] LATER THIS MONTH. WHY ISN'T THERE ANY INFO ON THE HOMEPAGE? It's probably a rumor then. As soon as a gig or tour is booked, we let you know via the homepage. If there isn't any mention of the gig in question on the homepage, it's very likely that you've been given false information. Given the unstable nature of the music business, it's not at all uncommon that venues advertise gigs before they're actually confirmed or booked in order to gauge the interest. As soon as a new gig or tour is booked, you can read about it on the homepage. If you hear about a gig, and there's no info to be found here, it's either just a rumor or a case where our management is in negotiations with the promoter, but nothing is signed yet. The same applies to all kinds of information (tour dates, song titles, whatever) that can be found elsewhere on the Internet days or weeks before appearing here. The official homepage contains verified information directly from the band as opposed to speculations or things still in the planning stages. If we were to post about things that are in the pipeline or things that _might_ happen given this and that circumstance, we'd have to make revisions virtually every day, so only confirmed information will make it to the homepage. On a related note: Just because something is being reported as "official" on other sites doesn't necessarily mean that's the case. Sites like Blabbermouth are a great resource for the latest industry gossip and news, but a lot of what's reported as official news or press statements are nothing but speculation and leaked information of questionable validity. It has happened that something is being presented as "Sweden's Dark tranquillity have now officially confirmed that...", when it's just some unconfirmed info that has leaked out from a promoter, record label or something. WHY NO USA-TOUR YET? We've had lots and lots of US tours planned and cancelled in the very last minute due to various reasons; sudden money problems (the In flames tour 2000 - we were even on some of the posters for that one), lack of time for getting visas in order (the Cradle of filth/Nile tour 2001 that we were supposed to join; we got the offer about a week too late and the application fee for visas is non-refundable even if you don't get them in time), no current album available (the Moonspell/Lacuna coil tour late 2001) and so on. During 2001 we said yes to five different US tours and none of them have finally happened, so we're pretty annoyed with the situation too. If it would have been up to the band only, we would have made the debut US tour years ago, but as you know from the earlier ranting, there are lots of different factors that decide weather a band eventually gets included on a tour or not, and unfortunately it's almost always beyond our control. Update - now we've finally made two US tours, so.... - WHY DIDN'T YOU INCLUDE [INSERT HOMETOWN/-COUNTRY HERE] ON THE TOUR? We sometimes get angry mails from people wondering why we chose to ignore certain cities or countries on tours. In reality, everything is taking care of by the booking agency, and we don't have _anything_ to do with the choice of where and when to play. Our input regarding the route of the tours is close to zero, especially when we're touring as a support band - which we've done every time so far except for the "World domination" tour in '97 and on the European tour 2002. Bands of our stature are rarely sitting down with the booking agencies deciding where to play. The usual procedure is that you agree to do a tour and are then informed about the dates on a "take it or leave it"-basis. We're the first to agree that our touring routes have been a bit strange at times, but it's nothing that we can be responsible for. The logistics involved are far more complex than what people usually think, and us not playing at a certain place doesn't mean that we've got anything against it. I WANT TO MAKE A D.T. FANSITE. IS THIS OK WITH YOU? Of course! It's very flattering that someone would take the time and effort needed to make his own D.T. page, so we're more than OK with it. Send the URL when it's up and running, and it'll be added to the links section of this site. One respectful request: You may use whatever images you want from the official D.T. site, apart from graphics that was made specifically for this site but PLEASE mention the origin and give proper credit to the photographers. Same thing with text and other material; feel free to use what you wish, but do mention where you took it from. If planning you use live photos from this site, you must contact the credited photographer and ask for permission first. Also, please note that we won't be able to call your site "the OFFICIAL [insert country here] D.T. page" or something to that effect. Something being "official" implies that the band is 100% behind the content and presentation, and thus we can't grant that title to any other page than this. This is especially true for homepages in other languages than Swedish or English. - IS THERE AN OFFICIAL DARK TRANQUILLITY FAN CLUB? Nope. Most probably, there will never be one. We really appreciate the proposals we get from time to time from people wanting to start something up, but it'd simply be too much work since any fanclub venture would require lots of involvement on our part. Also, is there really a need? Ten years ago, a fanclub was a good way of providing interested people with the latest news and updates, as well as functioning as a community, but now there's the Internet instead. - DO YOU HAVE ANY GOOD ADVISE FOR ME AND MY BAND? Lots of newer bands are mailing hoping for some inside information on how to "succeed" in the music business. Unfortunately, whatever info we may have is pretty obsolete since it's more than a decade since we had to rely on self-promotion, and things have changed a lot since the days when you had to ship 30-40 self duplicated cassettes per week to 'zines and other bands in order to get noticed. There are lots of good resources on the web, both regarding band promotion in general and within the metal scene in particular, so a couple of Google searches is your best bet. - DO YOU HAVE ANY COPIES OF THE OLD DEMO/7" EP'S FOR SALE? Nope. They've all been sold out for many years, and we only have our own personal copies left. We often get emails from collectors looking for original copies, and the only advise we can give is to regularly check at second hand stores and ventures specializing in rare albums. There are probably plenty of websites and online networks devoted to collectors' items, but we don't have any further info or links. Another good idea is to check on Ebay (www.ebay.com). Every now and then, original copies (as well as dodgy bootlegs) of our early releases are being auctioned out. The prices vary a lot; we've seen people pay everything from 10 to 250 USD for a demo or 7" EP. - WILL YOUR OLD DEMO AND 7" EP MATERIAL BE
RELEASED ON CD? - CAN WE TRADE LINKS? Sorry, but we don't do any "link trades". The reason for this is not that we're an elitist bunch of assholes thinking that we're superior to all other bands, but simply because that we for reasons of clarity want the links on this page to point to sites we're somehow directly affiliated with and that have a relevance within the D.T. context. Linking a page on the sole premise that they've linked us back isn't enough. We get 10-15 link requests per week, and if we accept one link trade we have to accept all others as well. It goes without saying that a link archive of those proportions quickly would outdo its purpose. Also, with webpages changing URL's or getting disbanded at a frequent pace, it'd be too much work to keep a massive link database up-to-date. There are lots of excellent link resources and band/zine/label databases on the web already, so there is no point for this site to provide a band/magazine index. - WHAT INSTRUMENTS / EQUIPMENT HAVE YOU USED ON ALL YOUR ALBUMS? We tend to try different equipment setups out and then go for the combination that sounds best. None of us are tech freaks, and at least one of us is incredibly clueless regarding the technical aspect, so we don't really recall what specific guitars, amps, drumkit etc we used on the various albums. There is an old Engl amp in Studio Fredman that has played a prominent role in some of the recordings. The amps we use live have never been the primary ones on the albums, but some guitar tracks have been recorded with them. All albums except "Haven" have dubbed rhythm guitars, and then we've used different configurations for every track. - WHAT GUITAR TUNINGS ARE USED ON EACH ALBUM? - WHAT STRING GAUGE DO YOU USE? - IS THE INTRO TO LETHE PLAYED ON BASS OR GUITAR? It's played on 5-stringed bass. - WHAT SORT OF MUSICAL EDUCATION DO YOU HAVE? Apart from one or two "rock guitar" lessons in the late '89, we're all mainly self-taught.
"Trail of life decayed" - demo 1991 For more in-depth info, please check out the discography section. For additional info on bootlegs and different pressings of the releases, visit www.dark-tranquillity.nl. - WHICH SONGS HAVE YOU PLAYED LIVE THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER? This list should be fairly accurate, but it's not impossible that one or two tracks are forgotten... Enfeebled Earth Beyond Enlightenment Soulbreed Nightfall by the Shore of Time Of Chaos and Eternal Night Punish My Heaven Dreamlore Degenerate FreeCard Misery in Me The Wonders at Your Feet Final Resistance Bringer of Torture (Kreator) - WHY DID YOU CHANGE VOCALIST AFTER "SKYDANCER" AND WHY DID MIKAEL MOVE FROM RHYTHM GUITARS TO VOCALS? There were some differences in opinion between Anders Fridén and the rest of us regarding the musical direction and the position of the band, so it was decided to have a vocalist change. Mikael had been doing backing vocals since the very beginning of D.T., so we knew that he had the capacity to deliver the goods. For some time, he tried coping with singing as well as playing the rhythm guitar, but it was evident that we'd get the best result by letting him concentrate solely on the vocals and get a new second guitarist instead. Fredrik Johansson had been a friend of the band for quite some time, so it was natural to recruit him to complete the refined line-up. Anders Fridén progressed to sing with CEREMONIAL OATH and joined IN FLAMES a year or so later.
Compared to most other bands that have been around for 10 years, we've had a very solid line-up, with only two main member shifts. The first was in 1993, when original vocalist Anders Fridén departed and our at-time rhythm guitarist Mikael Stanne took over the screaming duties. The vacant guitar slot was filled with Fredrik Johansson. This line-up remained intact until 1998, when Fredrik left the band. Instead of getting a new guitarist, we let our bass played Martin Henriksson switch to the six-stringed axe. New bassist Michael Nicklasson was recruited along with keyboardist Martin Brändström to complete the current line-up. An overview: Current members: Mikael Stanne - vocals (rhythm guitar 1989-1993) Previous members: Anders Fridén - vocals 1989-1993 - WHAT COVER SONGS HAVE YOU RECORDED? "My friend of misery" - Metallica Some of these have appeared on tribute albums, whereas some were recorded for
the purpose - CAN I FIND THESE RECORDINGS SOMEWHERE ON THE WEB? Sure, they're available on lots of fansites as well as through Kazaa, Direct connect and other file sharing communities. For copyright reasons, we can't publish the cover songs on this page. - WHY DID FREDRIK JOHANSSON LEAVE THE BAND? Due to family and work commitments, he didn't have so much time to devote to the band anymore, so he was asked to leave. He now plays the bass in the rock 'n roll act THE ROCKATEERS. - WHY DID MARTIN HENRIKSSON MOVE FROM BASS TO GUITAR AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF FREDRIK JOHANSSON? WHY DIDN'T YOU GET ANOTHER SECOND GUITARIST INSTEAD? Martin has always played the guitar as well as the bass, and when Fredrik was out of the band it was natural to let Martin switch and take care of the guitar duties and instead get a new bassist - WHY DID YOU LEAVE OSMOSE PRODUCTIONS AFTER THE RELEASE OF "THE MIND'S I"? After having recorded "Projector" and listened to it a couple of times, it was obvious that it wasn't Osmose material per se. Since the album was so far removed from our earlier stuff, it probably wouldn't have been a good match either for us or Osmose to continue the deal, so it was mutually agreed that we should find another home. - DID CENTURY MEDIA INFLUENCE THE SOUND OF "PROJECTOR" SINCE IT'S SO DIFFERENT (SOFTER) THAN THE OTHER ALBUMS? Not at all. We'd never let a record label interfere with the songwriting process. "Projector" was recorded before we had any thoughts about changing record lables, and almost six months before we even decided to sign with Century media in particular, and it would have sounded the same regardless of who paid for the recording. Some people assume that C.M. "push" their artists in a certain direction since several bands have cleaned up their act or undergone a more or less radical style change after having signed to them, but that's not the case at all. We have complete artistic freedom, and the record label usually don't hear a single note of the material until after an album recording is full completed. - WHY WAS THE SONG "UNKNOWN", THAT WAS FEATURED ON SOME PROMO COPIES OF "HAVEN", REMOVED FROM THE FINAL VERSION OF THE CD? The song is called "Cornered" and wasn't featured on any promo copies at all. Somehow the track leaked out from an unmastered CD-R copy of the album unto the Napster network. How this could happen is shrouded in mystery, since there only were a handful of people, including the bandmembers, that had access to the CD-R (which was taken directly from the studio), and the few friends that borrowed it for a quick listen of course promised not to spread the recording further. This act of idiocy could have jeopardized the whole Japanese edition of the album since the "exclusive" song was all over the net and was even available on the bootlegged Russian version of "Haven". "Cornered" is included on the Japanese version of "Haven". - WHY WERE THE SONGS "WHITE NOISE/BLACK SILENCE" AND "THE ENEMY" NOT INCLUDED ON THE "DAMAGE DONE" PROMOS? - Because you downloaded it via Kazaa, Audiogalaxy or a similar program. The album leaked out unto the net weeks before the real promo CD's were even manufactured, but for some reason these two songs were excluded from the illegal versions. The proper promos feature - surprise - the whole album. - WHY ARE BANDS ALWAYS PUTTING EXTRA MATERIAL ON THEIR JAPANESE VERSIONS OF ALBUMS? The Japanese labels usually demand bonus material in order to agree to release an album on licence. The reason for this is that import albums are a lot cheaper in the stores than their licence-printed equivalents. If there weren't any extra songs on the Japan made versions of the CD's, everybody would buy the imports instead. Therefore, the Japanese version of an album is very likely to feature bonus tracks, stickers, posters and exclusive artwork - all in order to make the fans buy it instead of the cheaper import version. The bands can't affect this. If they want the album to be licensed in Japan at all, they usually _have_ to contribute at least one bonus song. Considering that Japan is the only place in the world that treat touring metal bands as royalty and let them indulge in luxury, we're obviously eager to please. :-) - WHY WASN'T THERE ANY BONUS TRACK ON THE JAPANESE PRESSING OF "PROJECTOR" THEN? That's a different story. "Projector" was actually released in Japan before there was a European version of the album available, so there wasn't any import album to compete with. The packaging is pretty extravagant, featuring an extra booklet with rare photos, but the actual CD is the same as the Euro version. - WHY WASN'T THE SONG "EXPOSURE" INCLUDED ON ALL DIGIPACK VERSIONS OF "PROJECTOR" AS ORIGINALLY STATED? WHERE CAN I FIND IT? Due to some printing fuckups, only a rare few copies of the digipack actually feature "Exposure". The existence of a "Includes bonus track"-sticker on the cover is no guarantee for the CD actually featuring the song either. Also, we know of several cases where a normal cover has hidden a CD with "Exposure" included - so it's all very confused and messed up. Anyway, the song can be found on the recently released compilation CD "In the eyes of death vol.2", out on Century media records. It's all over the net as well, so there shouldn't be any problems to find it. - IN THE PROJECTOR ALBUM BOOKLET, IT'S STATED THAT FEMALE VOCALS ARE PRESENT ON TRACK #4, BUT I CAN'T HEAR ANY. IS THIS A PRINTING ERROR? Yes, it is. The credit refers to track #3. Another typo on the same album: Fredrik Nordström's co-writing credit actually covers "Day to end". There are a few minor mistakes in almost all our booklets, but most of them are easy to figure out. "denspring" being "Edenspring", for example. - IS MY COPY OF "DAMAGE DONE" FAULTY? SOME SONGS SEEM TO BE ABRUPTLY CUT OFF A FEW SECONDS TOO EARLY. This was a very unfortunate and annoying error that plagued portions of the first pressing of the album. If you were one of the unlucky people to buy a defective CD, chances are that you already know about this, but Century media offer to replace your damaged disc with a correct one. Contact them for further information.
The lowbrow Swedish tabloid press tried to make a "scandal" out of what essentially was a writing error. The person responsible for making the nominees public stated "The gallery" instead of "Projector" as our album of nomination. This caused two-page articles in the biggest Swedish newspapers about the incompetence of the jury and their degrading behavior towards a poor metal band. In traditional entertainment fashion, our words were turned and twisted and taken out of context, making us appear as a bunch of whining idiots, but at the end of the day it meant lots of free publicity for us. It later emerged that the jury in some of the other categories _had_ been screwing things up, but this was unrelated to us. - AND THAT MENTION ABOUT BEARDS...? Due to a major communication fuckup between our record label and our swedish distributor, the production office responsible for the compiling the Grammy presentation hadn't been given ANY material at all. No music, no video, no photos. A day prior to the deadline, they realized that they weren't getting anything in time, so in an attempt to solve the situation they visited our official homepage in order to download a band photo, just to have something to show. This was during X-mas time, where a retouched photo with the band members in santa claus-clothing and huge white beards was proudly displayed on the index page. The production people, obviously unfamiliar with the band, didn't get the joke and used that photo for the presentation broadcast which was shown on national TV and viewed by at least a million people. In the tabloid coverage of the "faulty" nomination, some journalists hinted that this was also some jury error, but that was of course unfounded. - WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE TOUR DIARIES FROM THE 1999 AND 2000 TOURS? WHY WEREN'T THEY FINISHED? It probably sounds lazy, but we never got around to finishing them. When having toured for a while, it takes a huge effort to drag your hung over, miserable self from the coffin of the tour bus in order to find a place to set up a computer in and then start writing something witty and informative about last nights' events...We're sorry, but we haven't managed to complete it so far. Perhaps next time? Or maybe not... - DOES D.T. HOLD AND PARTICULAR POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS VIEWS? None whatsoever. - WHAT OTHER BANDS HAVE THE D.T. MEMBERS WORKED WITH? What comes to mind right now is: - ARE THERE ANY CURRENT SIDE PROJECTS FEATURING D.T. MEMBERS? Luciferion have a new album, "The apostate" out on Listenable
records (September 2003), with Michael Nicklasson on guitar and vocals.
Ceremonial Oath have reformed and will record a new album in the near
future, featuring Anders behind the drum kit. The written credits in the booklets of the albums didn't turn out 100%
accurate, but this is the correct info: The jester race" - all lyrics
and vocal arrangements, "Whoracle" - all lyrics, except for
"Episode 666", which was translated from a Swedish original
text by Anders Fridén. "Colony" - translations (Swedish
to English) for a couple of songs. - WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE TYPEFACE USED FOR THE D.T. LOGO? Industria. It can be purchased at www.adobe.com. If you need the logo for some reason, it can be downloaded in a variety of formats here. - WHERE CAN I FIND D.T. GUITAR AND BASS TABULATURE? ARE
YOU GOING TO Writing to us in any other language than English or Swedish is pretty
pointless. It puzzles us how - WHY CAN'T I PLAY MY "THE GALLERY" AND "THE MIND'S I" CD'S IN MY COMPUTER? Osmose productions introduced a copy protection system on all their albums a few years ago, rendering the more recent editions of "The gallery" and "The mind's I" impossible to play in most PC's. For the record, the band had nothing to do with this and wasn't aware of it at all until the "what the fuck..?" emails began coming in. While it's understandable that record labels want to take strong measures against piracy, this isn't an ideal solution since a lot of people use their computers or car stereos as their main CD players. Unfortunately, it's not clearly stated on the sleeves that this copy protection is present, so potential buyers should be aware of this before purchasing. - I FOUND AN MP3 FILE FROM THE NET CALLED "DARK_TRANQUILLITY_FROZEN.MP3". IS IT YOUR SONG? No, it's not a D.T. track at all. As anyone that has spent any time searching for music via P2P software knows, mislabeled files are very common. If in doubt whether a song is by us or someone else, just check the discography section of www.darktranquillity.com. If a track isn't found in the songlists of the albums or among the covers we've recorded, it's probably not a D.T. song. The exception is the never released track "Misery in me", which we played on a few gigs some years ago and therefore can be found on live bootlegs.
We don't mind discussing our lyrics when someone poses more detailed questions regarding a track and the references/influences therein, or proposes own interpretation of the contents, but we're not too keen on explaining or analyzing our own words in response to a general question like this. Rather, we'd encourage the listener to think for himself, read between the lines and indulge.
It's basically Studio Soundscape before they got decent equipment. Back then , there wasn't any name for the studio, so we simply wrote down the first that came to mind for the booklet notes.
- I'M INTERESTED IN BOOKING D.T. FOR A GIG/TOUR. WHO SHOULD I TALK TO? Serious and professional organizers/promoters are free to contact DIRECT MANAGEMENT (fax: 32482394). Please don't contact the band directly, as we will just forward it to our management anyway. The band members aren't in any way involved in booking matters. - I HAVE A ZINE/RADIO SHOW. CAN YOU SEND ME SOME PROMO MATERIAL FOR FREE? Please contact Century media for all promo/freebie requests. We don't have any material available apart from what's in our private collections and are not able to provide something for you. Same goes to the people asking for free merchandise and instruments (!). If you knew how truly poor we are ourselves, you wouldn't have the nerve to ask. - I WANT TO DO AN INTERVIEW WITH D.T. WHO SHOULD I CONTACT? For email interviews, just send the questions to hq@darktranquillity.com along with info on your deadline. We always try to give high priority to inties, but the actual time needed to answer depends on how busy we are with other obligations. If you feel that you've waited for far too long, just send a reminder and we'll hurry up. For phone interviews, please contact Century media to set up an arrangement. - I SENT AN EMAIL TO YOU SOME TIME AGO. WILL I GET A REPLY? We would love to be able to reply individually to every single mail we receive, but there simply isn't any time for that. The choice would be between spending our precious time writing music and rehearsing or to sit at the computer answering mails. We try to read every message, but aren't able to respond to everyone. This FAQ hopefully covers the question(s) you had, and the replies given here are way more elaborate and extensive than would be the case if we'd respond personally via email.
|