The new record is called Faith. Faith in what? What do you – or the other members in Rise And Fall – believe in?
Bjorn: We decided to go for Faith as an album title because it is strong and powerful, and open to interpretation. “Faith” can signify different things to different people, myself included. Faith in the religious sense, faith in yourself and your loved ones, lack of faith in humanity as a whole etc etc. You get my drift. All these things have proven to be re-occurring themes in our lyrics and that is another reason why Faith is a title that fits this album perfectly. As for myself, I don’t believe in a lot of things. I believe in Rise And Fall. I believe in my close friends and family. As most people I’ve come to realize one must be careful when it comes to believing.
I’ve come to understand that the writing of Faith went somewhat easier than writing Our Circle Is Vicious. Does it get easier, writing records? What was the biggest difference for you between making OCIV and Faith?
Bjorn: I wouldn’t say that writing records gets easier. As musicians and human beings, growth is important to us. With every record we’ve done, we have always tried to make it a little different and a little better, we want every record of ours to be able to stand on its own. Obviously there’s some stress involved with that. Writing and recording Our Circle Is Vicious was anything but an easy ride, for a slew of different reasons. One of the main ones being that the chemistry in the band wasn’t really what it should have been. That era in Rise And Fall’s existence changed the band forever and resulted in our old drummer JP leaving the band. When we started writing songs with Wim on drums it felt like we were a band reborn, kind of. Things just clicked and the creativity that you need in order to write songs seemed to come a lot easier than before. “Deceiver” was one of the first (if not the first) song we wrote with Wim and we were so stoked on it that we started playing it right after we finished writing it. So the line up change was definitely one of the biggest differences between writing Our Circle Is Vicious and Faith. In a way though, the fact that Our Circle had been such a challenging experience and the fact that we explored a lot of different ground and different ways to being a “heavy” band on that record helped us feel unrestrained when it came to writing these new songs.
What would Rise And Fall anno 2004 have to say about Rise And Fall 2012? How have you changed over the years?
Bjorn: That question is really hard to answer. Rise And Fall had always been the band that played the songs that we would want to hear ourselves. Inevitably, we have morphed into a different band throughout the years, but at the same time we have held on tight to the band’s identity. We’re still us. Slightly different line up, with a lot more experience, but it’s still us. I’m guessing people outside the band would have a better view on how we have changed. In 2004, there was no way in hell that I would have thought we’d still be doing this band in 2012, nor would I have believed that we would have that many releases and tours under our belts.
As you guys grow older, the priorities in your life change. Some would say that people grow up. How do you plan to keep the balance between ‘real life’ and Rise And Fall?
Bjorn: Just the way we are swinging things now. We all have jobs, like most of you guys, we all have our other responsibilities, but we love doing what we do, and no matter if we’re touring or haven’t played or practiced in months, this band always haunts the back of our minds. It all comes down to making sure we plan things really well and make the right choices.
What are for you some the key moments in the 8 years Rise And Fall has been around?
Bjorn: 1. Our first show, which was in March 2003. We played 4 songs
and a Ringworm cover. I was throwing up. Our demo was released
that day and AK (one of our original guitarists) played a guitar that had images of a bunch of planets on
it. 2. A show with The Promise in Holland in 2004. We played well, had
a steady line up at this point and I realized we were able to capture
the attention of a crowd. 3. Deathwish deciding at a certain point in
early 2006 that they wanted to work with us. They released Into
Oblivion in the U.S. and we’ve been working with them ever since. 4.
Wim joining the band in late 2009 and changing the dynamics in Rise
And Fall. 5. Coming up: Faith LP/CD release show in Kortrijk,
Belgium on March 17th. It is really hard to pick just a few key
moments, but I feel like these stick out in my mind right now.
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