Peter Wichers: Soilwork

Do you have any plans to do more producing in the near future?

Absolutely! I'm actually working on a band right now on this tour. I brought my rig with me, so I'm going to continue doing production even though I'm on the road and in-between tours. I love being in the studio. I don't have anything planned as we come home because we are going to start writing very shortly after that. I'm going to put a lot of my focus into that.

Will you be producing the next Soilwork album?

It's definitely a possibility. We've spoken about it. I guess it's kind of early to say at this point, whether or not it's going to happen. It will be announced on the website (www.soilwork.org) momentarily.

What were your reasons for leaving Soilwork?

I was completely fried from touring. It was just way to much for me to handle. It was nine months of touring and they ended up doing five more months after I left. That was it for me. I kind of needed a break. I just wasn't cut out for that much touring.

When we started talking about me coming back, me and Bjorn [Soilwork's vocalist] were writing stuff on the side for a side project and they had a line-up change and after that, they extended an invite to come back. I thought about it, and I said I wouldn't want to do the same kind of touring as before, and everyone was kind of on the same page. Knowing that, and just the way that Soilwork is going to be run now, coming back is definitely a different story now than it was before. Everyone is a little older and a lot of the guys have families back at home so, obviously everyone doesn't want to be on the road all of the time.

I missed being onstage and the guys. I think that we still have a lot of creativity to write another phenomenal record. Also, my wife is very supportive of me coming back. She said, I think it's a shame that you should be cooped up in the studio all of the time, when you like to perform. Having my wife as a support, it was a pretty easy decision. Even though touring is always hard no matter how little or much you do it. I'm glad to be out here, we're having a good time and everyone is getting along perfectly

Soilwork has had quite a few line-up changes, since you first formed in '95. How do you feel about the current lineup?

This line up seems to be the most solid that it's ever been. I told the guys, "There can't be any more lineup changes." It already kind of looks like a soap opera right now, so this will be the final lineup. It's important for people to know that.

So you've just kicked off you North-American tour...

Yeah! I'm actually on the bus right now trying to get everything prepared for the stage, so that's why you might hear engine noise in the background.

So, are you excited to be back onstage?

Yeah, absolutely! We started up in Rochester, NY and played Detroit after that. It was pretty miserable actually. I mean, the kids were awesome but the weather was just so freaking cold! It was right when they had that major snowstorm. So, it's kind of nice to be in Florida right now and heat up a little bit before we head back up north to Canada, where it's one degree Fahrenheit right now.

Do you have any pre-show rituals you do before each show?

Well, we kind of started getting into the groove of going to the gym here on this tour, which is a nice change from previous tours. We are trying to time that right after we do sound check and before we go onstage. Because there's a lack of showers in the U.S. so, we like to go and lift some weights and then have a hot shower everyday.

Well, that's good. Showering is definitely good!

Oh definitely.

You didn't play on Soilwork's last album, Sworn to a Great Divide. I know you get this question a lot so, I'm not going to ask you what you thought of the album, but does Soilwork want to continue to go in that same direction musically with the next album?

We talked about maybe taking a little bit of a different approach for the next record. Having me and Sylvain (lead/rhythm guitar) back in the band, I think that we're probably going to try to do stuff that might be a little more technical. We want to keep the element of the catchy chorus but at the same time maybe have bit more guitar solos than on Sworn to a Great Divide and also let Dirk (drums) get more space on the record for drumming. That was one of the things I think that Sworn to a Great Divide was lacking a little bit. It's a good record but I think that with such talented musicians the next album definitely needs to have more performance.

What influenced you to pick up guitar and what got you into metal specifically?

I was forced at a very early age to take classical guitar on nylon and that was the end of me because I hated it and my parents had to chase me around town to force me to go to lessons. So, I lost interest in guitar for a while and then I wanted to play electric guitar. I picked that up when I was about 15. At that time it was Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses. I think the thing that really made me interested in metal was when I first heard Pantera's Cowboys from Hell. That was it. I was completely sold. That is the very reason why I chose to go on the path of writing metal.

That's a great album!

Yeah! It is great!

What are some of your favorite metal bands now? And also some of your favorite non-metal bands?

My favorite metal band right now would be Opeth. I think there last album Watershed is a masterpiece. I don't possibly see how they can top that record for the next time. But it doesn't matter because that album is absolutely fantastic. I think it has so many different elements of music. It sounds crazy to say, but it's kind of "intelligent death metal" in my opinion because it's such a dynamic sound that I have never heard anyone else do.

I definitely agree.

So, non-metal albums huh? I don't know. I listen to a lot of different stuff. I actually like a lot of guitar music like Tony Rice, and Gary Douglas, a great dobro player. There is an insanely good dobro player from Nashville called Andy Hall I really like. I actually recently got into Stevie Ray Vaughan. I know that's kind of embarrassing to say that I just got into him, but I never really gave him a chance before. I really think that he is amazing. I recently bought some records of his and I'm really getting into them. It's not the most complicated stuff to play on guitar, but he just plays it with such convincing feeling and power. He was incredible and it was a big loss for the guitar world. He was a great singer too.

So, since this interview's for SuicideGirls, tell me about your first -- and I believe only -- tattoo.

Yeah. Well, Soilwork in the past a lot of tattoo artists come out on the tour and everyone had always bugged me, "Why don't I get a tattoo?" So, I kind of got sick of it because I didn't really want one. I was kind of that guy who always found something I thought was really cool, so I would put it on my refrigerator door and if I didn't like it in a month than I probably wouldn't get it. So, finally I said, "Alright! I'll get a tattoo." So I told the tattoo guy, "I want a mole on my ass!" So that's exactly what he did. It only took about two seconds. So now, whenever anybody asks, "Do you have a tattoo?" I say, "Yeah I have a tattoo, but I probably won't show it to you."

That's still my favorite tattoo story of all time!

There you go. Well, I'm glad I can do that.

I know you moved from Sweden to Tennessee with your wife. How long have you been living in America now?

I think it's about four years now in the U.S. and I have been in Nashville for almost two years.

How do you like living in America? Was it hard to adjust?

Not really. We actually [moved] from L.A. and I think that Nashville had what me and my wife were looking for, that L.A. didn't. L.A. is a great place, but it's more of a single town, you know? The traffic just completely killed us! My wife spent probably three or four hours in the car everyday driving to and from work. We said that's not really a quality of life. So thinking about it in hindsight , you want to live in the area where you hang out. If you have friends in the valley you don't really go out there, and vice versa. If you live in the valley, you don't really go to West Hollywood to hang out with people. So, Nashville is a nice town. Great studios, and really friendly people.

How did you and your wife meet?

We met in Spain actually when she was living abroad after she graduated college. She majored in Spanish. We were passing through and she didn't know who I was and I didn't know who she was. She was friends with another band that was out there. So we met, sat down and talked for about twenty minutes and then she took off in a cab and we exchanged emails. We kept in touch and then we did our second U.S. tour and she showed up in the town where she was living at the time and everything after that is history. I fell in love with her and went home and broke up with my girlfriend of six years and have been together with my wife ever since.

Moving forward, would you ever consider doing a solo album?

I would love to do one, but I'm not actually sure what it would sound like and what direction I would take. Because if it sounds very metal, then I think it would kind of sound like Soilwork and if I took a different music style approach, I would want to find someone I could write together with. I wouldn't say that it's in the works. I definitely have thought about it and it's not an impossibility, I just don't know when I would do it.

What do you see and hope for with regards to the future of Soilwork?

After this tour is over, everyone is going to go back home and we're going to start writing the next record. I am very positive that we are going to write the best record to date. That is a very bold statement, but I believe we can do that. It's going to be fun to start bouncing ideas. It's really hard to say when we are going to hit the studio, but I'm thinking that it might be sometime later this year, or the beginning of next year. Because we are really going to take our time and try to really analyze all of the songs and make sure that every song is perfect for us.



Soilwork are currently on tour. Check Soilwork.org for further info.