Vola: "Playing and singing music should bring you peace"

Vola is a band that’s constantly getting better with each new release so it’s no surprise that their fourth studio album "Friend Of A Phantom" is an amazing work, once again. Fueled by the success of "Witness", the band builds more on its songwriting character and delivers a group of dynamic songs, catchy and challenging songs.

Then the band’s main songwriter, lyricist, guitar player and vocalist, Asger Mygind proved to be one of the nicest and friendliest guys I’ve ever interviewed when I had the chance to chat with him about "Friend Of A Phantom", the meanings behind the songs, his influences and aspirations. And to be honest, it made me appreciate even more some things about his songs…

So, don’t miss a chance to check their new album and if you like it (which you’ll surely do) read the interview below and maybe you’ll love it even more.

How are you Asger? I'm glad to meet you. It's the first time we conduct an interview together and I'm very happy about it.

Yeah, me too. I'm good. A little bit tired. I just had a child four months ago, so…

Oh, all the best wishes!

Thank you. So, it’s less sleep than usual, but it's a nice experience overall.

I'm wishing all the best and to live it to the fullest!

Thank you! (laughs). How are you?

I am fine! And I was thinking that it's quite an unusual time zone, unless you're in Australia. Musicians won't put an interview early, on a Monday morning… But I’m an early morning guy so that’s ok…

(laughs) Nice! I just had some coffee also, so I'm good.

Perfect! Now, I want to congratulate you for "Friend Of A Phanotm"! Since I loved your previous works and especially "Witness", I expected something really good. And, of course, I wasn't let down. It's great!

Awesome! Nice to hear!

We are approaching the end of October and for us music nerds / music lovers, so we start to collect the albums that we loved during the year. And I can't see how "Friend Of A Phanotm" won't be on my top list of 2024.

Cool!

So, I'd like to know how you feel as it's approaching its release?

I'm feeling good. It's been a lot of hard work to create it. A long songwriting period and a quite long recording period also that we divided into two parts, so that we could release a single early on, "Paper Wolf" and sort of keep the momentum. So, yeah, it feels like it's about time that we release an album… (laughs) So, I'm excited about it.

The title is a metaphor for following a certain idea in life or an addiction or a conspiracy. Something that is dangerous to you and something that can lead you down a path that's unhealthy, but it might also be somewhat comforting to you

Let’s start from the basics and talk about the title of the album. Where it's coming from? It's not a title track and you don't tend to have albums album titles taken from songs in general. So how did you end up with this title and what's the meaning behind it?

Well, it's it was inspired by the songs and the album cover. To me, it's a metaphor for following a certain idea in life or an addiction or a conspiracy… Something that is dangerous to you and something that can lead you down a path that's unhealthy. But it might also be somewhat comforting for you, because it might be the only thing you can rely on as a stable thing in life. So, even though it hurts you, it's also something that feels strangely familiar and somewhat comforting. So that can be, for example, drugs or it can be alcoholism or it can be following a conspiracy… Something that's solid, that paves a certain path for you, but that path will lead you into something that's not good for you.

It's a phantom, because it's something that can be difficult for the other people to see, like it's hard to see if someone is struggling with addiction. So that's why it's a phantom. It's something that the subject only can see and it feels like a friendship with this phantom because it is something that's very close to you. Like something that follows you in your everyday life, but it's a friendship that in the end is going to lead you into trouble.

Alright, understood. And then you said that it's also linked with the album cover and I'd like to know more about the artwork, because it's really beautiful and somehow different than the previous ones. What does it represent and how did you end up with it?

Well, the way we like to find album covers is actually to search for images online, so we usually spend a lot of time on Instagram for example, trying out different hashtags and just exploring what's out there. That's what we've done for all our full length albums, that’s all been images that we have found and then asked if we could buy the rights for them. And it was the same with this one, we just stumbled upon it. It's an artist called Aykut Aydoğdu. And we just fell in love with it. I really like how it has these birds that fly in one direction and then there's this person who seems to be sort of stuck in time, not following the drift of the birds. But this person looks like he or she is sort of intimidated by something. And I view that as being that phantom that the person sees, that is hitting an obstacle for this person to fly away with the birds.

Usually, we write and record the whole album and then we decide what the singles should be. But this time we took sort of a leap of faith...

OK. Now it says somehow strange that you released the first taste of the album with "Paper Wolf" about a year ago, but then there was no information regarding a new album. It seemed like a standalone single. But it's on the album, and it should be because I think standalone singles tend to get lost sometimes. So, how did it work for you to release a single so early?

I think it worked quite well. As I mentioned earlier, the songwriting process for this album was quite long, and that was partly because the "Witness" album cycle was so fragmented in terms of the touring aspect. Because the pandemic came, so suddenly we couldn't tour like we used to. So, everything got pushed and we knew that it was going to take a long time to visit all the countries that we wanted to with that album. So, we had to start writing to get something new, to get some new music out there. And to keep momentum in all of that, we decided to release a single, without really knowing how the rest of the album would be like. I think we had written about half of the album when we recorded that song. So, it was a new way for us to do things. Usually, we write and record the whole album and then we decide what the singles should be. But this time we took sort of a leap of faith and decided "Paper Wolf" to be single even though we didn't know all the material. But, I'm happy about how it turned out.

Yeah, it's a different interesting approach. Quite unusual. But it worked well. You know, it kept us on our toes regarding a new album. Like "is it coming out soon? What are they hiding?"

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, exactly… (laughs)

So, the second single came about four months ago with the "Break My Lying Tongue". And although it sounds 100% like Vola, it somehow brought my mind vibes from bands like Bring Me The Horizon, you know… they keys in the intro. I don't know if I'm correct or wrong, so I was wondering if a band like that could be part of your music vocabulary as well?

Yeah, yeah. It's a band we have begun listening to a bit since "Witness". They've been hard not to come across. They're such a huge band now. I haven't listened to that much of what they do, but I found some really cool things in it. I believe it somewhat inspired, "Break My Lying Tongue". It also just felt like a fresh approach to us, having that keyboard thing being such a big part of the song. And also, maybe relying a bit more on power, instead of having a melodic chorus, then having a chorus that is more grounded in being energetic. So that was also interesting to do.

Yeah, I agree. And it brings me to the billion dollar question, which is "What music do you think Vola play?"…

(many laughs)

I'm sure you get this question a lot…

Oh, yeah…

We are welcome at Prog Festivals, but we're also welcome at festivals that are a bit more like old school metal and some of that are more alternative metal. It seems like we can play all those places, so it hasn't really felt like a hurdle to me

cause you're considered part of the prog movement - and I'm fine with that because I'm a progger and I like you - but you're not a typical prog band. How do you deal with everyone wanting to label your music somehow? Is it more blessing or a curse that you that it's not easy to be labeled?

I really don't mind it actually, because it seems we are welcome at Prog Festivals, for example, but we're also welcome at festivals that are a bit more like old school metal and some of that are more alternative metal. It seems like we can play all those places. So it hasn't really felt like a hurdle to me. But, yeah, I think we have a strong foundation in groove based metal. And then we have elements that are very like proggy. And then we have elements that are more electronic and some that are more ambient. But, I feel like our base is in groove based metal. You can argue if that is djent, but that's how I see it right now.

Well… if we can't decide what they're playing, let's put them in prog, because it's a big melting pot…

Yeah, exactly.

Another question I'm sure you get a lot is how you ended up having Anders Friden on the opening track of the album "Cannibal"? What's the story behind this song and this collaboration?

We actually met him the first time far away from Scandinavia. We played in Los Angeles last year, as a part of a tour in the U.S. and prior to our show we got a message that Anders and Bjorn from In Flames wanted to meet us backstage before the show. And we were, of course, up for that because we're fans of their band. That was a huge thing for us. And we talked with them and realized they were big fans of us. That was very special.

And then when we got home from touring we had to record the "Friend Of A Phantom" album, we had only done drums at that point. And we started discussing whether the song "Cannibal" would grow from having guest vocals. Like on the demo track I had done some screams, but we thought that it could benefit from having some screams that were more aggressive. Then when we started brainstorming on who it could be, Anders’ name was one of the first that came up. And it was quite easy to reach out to him, because we had just met him in the US. So, we wrote him and h was up for doing those vocals. He recorded them in Sweden and later came to Denmark to film the music video with us. So, it all happened very organically, I think. It was a very nice experience and he's a great guy, so we feel fortunate.

In Flames and Soilwork were big influences in terms of that Swedish sound and in terms of using synthesizers and creating these larger than life choruses. And going from screams to clean vocals

He's a fan also, so it goes both ways. And I was wondering, cause you said you’re fans of In Flames if you have any favorite albums or songs that you had in mind when you thought that Andres would be a fitting guest…

Not in particular, actually. I like almost everything they’ve made. But, some of them had a big impact on me. For example, "Reroute To Remains" and "Come Clarity". Those came out when I was like in my late teens or something and they really helped in shaping my songwriting approach. Especially, In Flames and Soilwork were big influences in terms of that Swedish sound and in terms of using synthesizers and creating these larger than life choruses. And going from screams to clean vocals. Those things have been major inspirations from them.

I imagined that I was John Petrucci for ten minutes, figuring out that it's impossible to play like him....

Cool! And talking about inspirations, what about prog music? Have you been also a fan of more traditional progressive metal bands like Dream Theater, while growing up? Or was it other kind of prog bands that were more attractive to you?

Yeah, I listened a lot to to Dream Theater! Especially, "Scenes From A Memory", that was a big album for me. I tried to learn the guitar parts at some point, but it's really difficult… (laughs) I just imagined that I was John Petrucci for ten minutes, figuring out that it's impossible to play like him...

Well, I never even tried…

It's difficult material. They also played a big role in shaping my songwriting and my way of writing songs. After them, I discovered bands like Porcupine Tree and Opeth for example and I got really into that a bit more melancholic vibe. And that's been dominating since. I just love when it sounds sad, but comforting at the same time. They're really good at that…

Sad music is not always depressing. It's more comforting than depressing…

Exactly! Yeah! It's like you if you recognize the feeling in the music you hear, you realize you're not alone with that feeling...

Yeah, it's about sharing the sentiment...

Yeah, yeah. Exactly!

Back to the album, my favorite track so far is "Bleed Out". Man, what a chorus? But what is this song really about? And why is it not a single?

To me, it's about two brothers growing up. Like, they're born just before and after midnight. That's why it says "We were born one day apart". So, it’s these twins that grow up and just choose very different paths in life and also have very different personalities. One of them is very aggressive and seeks conflict and the other one is more peaceful and seeks diplomacy.

And then this song is about how this more aggressive brother breaks the peaceful brother down the road. Like, how you can't escape family ties even though you might want to. So yeah, it's about how other biological bonds will affect your whole life essentially. And bring you down another path than what you had imagined.

Playing and singing music should bring you peace

I was thinking that your lyrics overall seems somehow poetic and abstract, and they remind me the way that Jonas Renkse of Katatonia writes lyrics. Because, the feeling I get is that I like them very much, but I'm not sure all the time what you're talking about. But, they’re well written and they seem to be important to your music and to your overall approach. Are they that important as they seem to be for you?

There has to be a like an emotional connection between me and the lyrics before I can sing them in a way that's convincing, but also in a way that it feels comforting to me. You know, playing and singing music should bring you peace in a way. I write that way because it brings me peace to sing the lyrics.

But, yeah, I never really know what the songs will be about. There are usually a couple of sentences that emerge during the demo recordings. Those sentences will eventually shape what the song will be about and will also survive until the final product of the song. And it usually evolves around relationships not working out in different ways. And through characters. I can see what you mean in terms of Jonas from Katatonia also having somewhat the same approach. But that’s what comes to me, naturally.

Yeah, I'm telling as a good example. I just draw a parallel…

Yeah, it's really cool. I love Katatonia!

To light it up a little, why did you have to declare that you will not disband? Is there maybe an inside joke in there?

(laughs) Again, that is seen from like from the perspective of some characters in the song. Yeah, I could be singing about the band, but it really is about a group of people that are living their youth to the fullest and having this notion that youth will last forever and the future is full of endless possibilities. So, I think it's a celebration of that period in life where everything feels eternal in a way.

And then seeing from a distance, like when you grow older, you know that this period will change eventually. It will turn into something else. So singing it and listening to it, I can feel like a bit of melancholy in terms of knowing that I grow older. But, the song itself is very much the celebration of youth, I would say.

When I do vocal harmonies, I always have Steven Wilson in the back of my head

Yeah, I get it. Now, regarding your vocals, you have a very distinctive voice and the way of singing, which I like very much, so I'd like to know which have been your main influences as a singer and how does that evolves as Vola’s music evolves in time?

Steven Wilson is hard to ignore here. He has been a huge influence. Both in terms of... Like when he just sings the lead vocals, I really love the emotion in his voice and how he can sound fragile, but also when he layers his vocals… When I do vocal harmonies, I always have Steven Wilson in the back of my head. Just as a reminder of how full it can sound. I just love that wall of voices – if you could call it like that – that you can create.

Then Bjorn from Soilwork has also been a huge influence. I also talked a bit about him earlier. Again, I love how full his vocals sound, his clean vocals. And I love that shift between the screams and the clean vocals. And I have to mention Anders Friden also in that same sentence. He's awesome as well. Then, Jens Kidman from Meshuggah…

Oh, ok!

When I try to scream, it's often I have him in the back of my head, because I know how aggressive he can sound. I tried to learn to do that. I can't do it like he does, but I've spent many hours trying to scream to Meshuggah songs and see how see how close I could get to him and to his sound… (laughs)

That’s nteresting…

Yeah! Those are the names I just have at the top of my head at least.

OK, that's cool. Now, I've never had the chance till now and I'd love to see you playing live. So I'd like to know if there is any indication that maybe you'll come to Greece in any time soon. Has it ever been on the table? Have you seen any indication that Athens, Greece is among the potential locations to visit?

I would love to come there. I've been to Greece many times as a tourist and I love the country, so playing there would be would be awesome. I don't think we've had the right offer yet maybe. It's something that we all want to do, but we're just waiting for the right offer and the right time basically, just everything to merge in the right way.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the new album will lead to this direction. I think there is a good reception of your music and this new album is a no brainer… Many people will like it and it will be a good chance to have you here and we’ll be very happy to have you here.

That would be cool.

I don't expect anything to go viral for us and suddenly have 10 million plays on YouTube. But as long as I see us growing from album to album, I'm happy

Last question. "Weakness" has been a significant move to make Vola a bigger band. And now "Friend Of A Phanotm" has the potential to take you another step forward or another level up, if I might say so. First of all, I'd like to know if you agree with the statement that I made and then how do you see all this struggle? You know, trying to evolve step by step and to be able to succeed in the music business and make it happen?

Well, yeah, "Witness" was a big step up for us. Both in terms of how big of a reach it got, but also in terms of how it sounded. I think the songwriting was also better. I love all our albums, but maybe it was a bit stronger on that album. Maybe a bit more focused at least, a little more to the point. But, yeah, that album really fulfilled many of the dreams I have, about how an album can sound and how the songs can be.

And I think this new album has many similarities with it. It sounds similar as it was mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen, who also did "Witness", and he also engineered the drum recordings. So, there's a very clear connection with "Witness", I would say, but with a more diverse sound. It has more aggressive moments and it has more mellow moments, so it's a wider spectrum. If you like "Witness" but you’re curious about us expanding our sound a bit, I think you will like "Friend of a Phantom also.

I'm just happy about it going upwards continuously for us. There has not been any sudden success for us, it's just been a slow but good progression from album to album. And I don't expect anything to go viral for us and suddenly have 10 million plays on YouTube. But as long as I see us growing from album to album, I'm happy. Cause it goes in the right direction. I'm comfortable with that and I just want to continue that way. But, of course, I wouldn't mind if we got a huge hit on the radio… (laughs) But, I don’t need it.

Yeah, I share the same thoughts and feelings with you. I see you evolving and progressing in a very natural way and in a very well deserved way. And of course I wouldn't mind if more people knew Vola. I’d be more than happy with that. But I think they're here on a nice path. It means that better things are coming! And I can only wish that for you...

Thank you very much! I look forward to the future thanks for taking the time to talk with me!

I have to thank you! It was a pleasure talking to you! I liked our conversation very much.

Likewise!

Let’s hope next time we meet in Athens!

That would be awesome!