Interview by Brian McLean
Viral Infection: An Interview with Hypocrisy’s Peter Tagtgren
For the last several years Sweden’s Hypocrisy has been building their American fan base show after show, one tour at a time. The tours have ranged from support slots at small and mid-size venues with Soilwork, Children of Bodom and Dimmu Borgir as well as North American bands like Nevermore and Cannibal Corpse. There was even an appearance at the coveted Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles Festival in Cleveland during their spring tour last year.
Whatever tour opportunity presented to the band, founder Peter Tagtgren and matets have capitalized by successfully recruiting more members to the Hypocrisy legion by the end of their set, no matter how long or short.
For the veteran metal head in attendance, Hypocrisy is no stranger. The band has 13 releases to their credit dating back to 1993 with 11 of those being studio efforts. With each release, the band continues their climb up the hierarchy of metal.
The latest Hypocrisy tour has the band as main support for North Carolina based headliners Nile on a six-band bill that’s currently making its way across the states. It’s the largest American tour thus far for Hypocrisy with the potential of exposing the band to a more diverse audience.
Combined, there are three death metal acts, the headliners and then Poland’s Decapitated who just happen to be sharing the tour bus with Hypocrisy. Add to the mix New Orleans based Soilent Green, the UK’s Raging Speedhorn and With Passion from Sacramento.
Tagtgren is pleased to be on the tour in the main support slot but would be prefer to be with a bigger band. Unfortunately, with six bands on the bill the set times are slim and for Hypocrisy even as a main support will only be allotted 40-mintues.
“I thought it would be more but whatever”, said Tagtgren.
He added when Hypocrisy headlines in Europe, they play 90-minute sets. At the 40-minute mark for their stage time on this tour, Hypocrisy hasn’t even warmed up and then the band leaves the stage.
For the night, Hypocrisy will be touching their debut ‘Penetralia,’ ‘Abducted,’ ‘Hypocrisy,’ ‘Catch 22,’ ‘Arrival’ and their latest release, ‘Virus’ on Nuclear Blast Records.
“We are under a lot of pressure. We leave the people really hungry and I hope that no one gets pissed but we will be back.”
The tour will consist of 26 dates with five days off. Tagtgren considers the heavy show schedule a good thing.
“The problem with us, we have to face it. We are the drunkest band in the world. It’s good if we don’t have days off. We should be like dogs. Dogs like to work. We don’t need to relax and think about stuff. Things would go crazy.”
When the tour concludes on February 12 in Fort Lauderdale, Hypocrisy will head back to Europe for a month off. During that time, Tagtgren says he will spend time working on his Electro Metal project called Pain. It’s something he really isn’t able to do while on the Nile tour even if a studio built into a lap top computer was present.
“Somehow I really can’t concentrate, sit down and write music but when I go home and have some free time, it’s no problem. When I am on tour, I just want to concentrate on playing music and doing interviews.”
After the summer European festival circuit winds down, Hypocrisy plans on returning to America but as headliners.
Tagtgren says there are discussions who will tour with them but nothing is set in stone. The candidate is a band that hasn’t toured America in years though.
And judging from the crowd response for this Swedish melodic death metal band on this night, the second night of the tour, the fans are ready for a headlining set courtesy of Hypocrisy.
The band is set to spread the Hypocrisy virus throughout America whether as main support or as headliners which should be the case upon their return in the fall.