Interview with Michael Amott from Spiritual Beggars

By Psychonaut

Which surprises can we find in this eighth album?

Michael – I am not sure if Spiritual Beggars is a band that offers surprises in that way… We have been playing the same kind of music for 20 years now. It’s heavy rock

In a way ”Earth Blues” is less heavy sounding, still a lot of jamming, but less heavier in sound, in terms of production it’s a very ”real” sounding album.

What’s the meaning of the cover of Earth Blues?

Michael – There are many different ways to interpret the album cover and title, one is that the music we play is hard rock that has it’s roots in the blues music and that the sound of the band is very organic and ”earthy” on this record. Another meaning of the title is more of a melancholic feeling about how we, the human race, is treating our planet.

If the earth itself could sing a song about how it’s feeling right now, I sure it would be a blues, it wouldn’t be a happy song.

Whats the story behind the bands name?

Michael – I can’t remember – it’s long ago now! I think we had a long list of names and somehow SPIRITUAL BEGGARS stuck in our heads as a cool and different name for the band…

What’s the main difference between Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars lyrically speaking?

Michael – Arch Enemy is angrier, darker, more dramatic… Lyrics go hand in hand with the music…

How hard is for you to write a new Spiritual Beggars album after you finish an Arch Enemy tour? and how much time did this one took you?

Michael – It’s a rather slow and lengthy process to start with, I don’t force ideas. I wait until I feel inspired, then I write, make some demos of ideas alone and with Ludwig (drums) and later on with Per (keys). I do this in between tours I’m doing with Arch Enemy. It’s a case of just getting ideas down when they happen. When we have enough ideas for songs we start jamming as a whole band in the rehearsal room, and that is when things really start jelling and happing faster. The actual recording process of ”Earth Blues” was one of the fastest we’ve ever done. We worked with a great engineer in the northern part of Sweden that is great with capturing live sounds in the studio and that really got us excited and we got a lot done in a short amount of time. We did some overdubs back home in Halmstad in various small studios and also mixed the album there with Staffan Karlsson. Looking back at the whole process I can say it was a challenge as always to write high quality music, but the recording and mixing process was one of the fastest and most enjoyable ones we’ve done as a band. I am very pleased with «Earth Blues» and I hope the fans will enjoy it as much as we do.

SB is a kind of swedish superband, do you feel it like a real band or just like a side project?

Michael – To me, Spiritual Beggars has always been a ’real band’. The band has been going since 20 years. We have eight albums out now. We have toured in Europe and Japan many times. I guess that’s real enough? Another thing is I try to never have expectations. I just work as hard as I can and I wait to see what comes out of that. To be honest, to me the music we make is in itself is a success – the fact that we actually created it and had a great time making it. That is enough for me in a lot of ways.

also working with this talented musicians have helped you to get some feedback

Michael – Yeah, I love playing with these guys – they’re all very talented

in their own way and bring a lot to the overall sound of the band. Everyone contrubutes a lot to the music even if they’re not actually writing the songs… It wouldn’t be Spiritual Beggars without everyone adding their flavour to the sound.

where do you feel more comfortable in the Stoner or death metal?, do you feel like SB is the place where you can express the ideas that doesn’t fit in Arch Enemy?

Michael – I don’t really consider Arch Enemy to play Death Metal or Spiritual Beggars to play Stoner RockI feel very comfortable in both situations. My natural habitat is maybe the style that I write in with Arch Enemy. That’s closer to the music I grew up on and learned to play when I started out. But I really do enjoy stretching out with my guitar playing and songwriting a little with the different style that Spiritual Beggars has.

If you could have a superband with the members of: Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars, Carnage& Carcass, who would be on your line up?

Michael – Well, to be honest I think the line-ups of Spiritual Beggars and Arch Enemy are perfect as they are now…. I don’t wanna change anything!

So far SB have had 3 different vocals, why so many changes in such an improtant role?

Michael – Well, it was never by choice..the situation with the singers has been out of hands really. It’s been a case of that the rest of the band wanted to continue and singer left or wasn’t available. Our first vocalist left the band himself. The second singer wasn’t available to do Spiritual Beggars anymore in 2010 when we were gettimg ready to record the ”retur To Zero” album. That’s when we found Apollo…which has been working out great – so far, haha!

Sweden is one of the most important bands when talking about Stoner, why do you think is that, when is a musical gender that is more british because of what Black Sabbath did at the beggining.

Michael – Sweden has a lot of music in all styles, and a lot if becomes succesful internationally… I think Swedes, like the Japanese are good at copying something and making it better.

what do you prefere Kyuss or Queens of the Stone Age?

Michael – They’re both great bands, even though its not what I listen to that often. Kyuss was fresh and exciting when they came out in the early 90’s and Queens of the Stone Age have made some great music too. I like their album with a red cover from 10 years ago a lot.

Have you considered to start a tour with Carnage?

Michael – No, actually not. That has never been talked about… I guess not many people would want to see that or it would’ve come up at some point. Seems like everybody else in ”death metal” has re-formed, haha!

In your bands you have never ever done some collaboration with any other artists, you don’t like it, or you just feel that your potential is enough that you don’t need it?

Michael – That’s true… Well, I for instance I would never invite guitar players to do guest solos as I enjoy doing them myself you know? Also, I think sometimes there’s too many guests on albums nowadays. I prefer to hear the band members play and see what they can do – for better or worse!

The band’s evolution is so notorious that have moved from 3 members to 5, are u happy with the current result? is this the direction you planned 20 years ago?

Michael – We expanded into a four piece quite early on when we included Per Wiberg on keyboards in the late 90’s. Our first singer also played bass, so when he left it was easier to find a singer and a seperate bassplayer…so we became a five piece band from the ”ON FIRE” (2002) album onwards.