Prolog:
Anders Johansson ist einer meiner absoluten Alltime-Favorite-Drummer - seit langer Zeit. 1985 wurde ich beim Kauf der Yngwie Malmsteen Schallplatte "Marching Out" erstmals auf sein imposantes Drumming aufmerksam. Zusammen mit seinem Bruder Jens (Keyboard) spielte er nicht nur die verkaufstechnisch erfolgreichsten Malmsteen CD´s ein, sondern auch die musikalisch stärksten.
Nach seiner mehrjährigen Bandphase bei "Yngwie Malmsteen´s Rising Force" und diversen Welttourneen wirkte Anders zusammen mit seinem Bruder auf drei CD´s unter dem Namen "Johansson (Brothers)" und vielen weiteren internationalen CD-Projekten mit. Herausragend dabei die CD "Heavy Machinery" mit Allan Holdsworth, sowie das unglaublich vitale mit Jonas Hellborg aufgenommene Album "E" (Hellborg, Jens und Anders als Metal-Jazz-Fusion-Trio), das in Sachen Power, technischer Finesse und Spielwitz die Ohren der werten Zuhörerschaft mächtig durchspült.
Auch Solo-Outputs unter eigenem Namen, wie die im Modern Drummer vorgestellte "Red Shift"-CD oder das gänzlich ohne Drumset auskommende, ethno-percussion-lastige "Shu-tka"-Album, deuteten bereits vor Jahren seine musikalische Variabilität an.
Nicht unerwähnt bleiben darf, dass Anders neben seinen Tätigkeiten als Band- & Projektdrummer seit Jahren ein kleines CD-Label namens "Heptagon" unterhält. Dieses widmet sich zum Teil auch dem musikalischen Vermächtnis seines Vaters Jan Johansson, dem namhaften Jazzpianisten der sechziger Jahre. Abseits des Jazz tragen wir ihn alle im Herzen: Das Lied "Pipi Langstrumpf" entstammt aus der Feder von Jan Johansson in Zusammenarbeit mit Astrid Lindgren, die den Text beisteuerte. Wie klein die Welt doch ist - und wieviele Querverbindungen letztendlich irgendwann zusammenführen...
Seit 1999 ist Anders der Drummer von „Hammerfall“. Deren Tonträger (die Band bezeichnet ihren Musikstil ironisierend als "German Metal played by Swedes") sind entgegen vieler kurzlebiger Trends seit 10 Jahren sehr erfolgreich. Dies spiegelt sich neben augenreibend hohen Chartplatzierungen, ausgedehnten Tourneen und aufwendig produzierten Musik-Videos auch in der engen medialen Verzahnung mit schwedischen Nationalsportarten inklusive der Einbindung außermusikalischer V.I.P.'s wider.
Die Kehrseite der Medaille ist auch von anderen Bands oder anderen Lebensbereichen bekannt: Wenn die Bassdrumanzahl (gegenwärtig 10) proportional mit den CD-Verkäufen steigt, sind Spötter, Neider und die Musikerpolizei nicht weit.
Zum Verständnis des Interviews:
Im Rahmen von 1 - 2 gemeinsamen CD-Projekten lernte ich Anders vor einigen Jahren persönlich kennen und freue mich seither über jede Möglichkeit, ihn im Rahmen seiner Tourneen wiederzusehen. So auch vor wenigen Tagen im Zuge der diesjährigen Europatournee von Hammerfall. Wie das Leben so spielt, wurde die Band von einer schweren Erkältung heimgesucht, die auch Anders nicht verschont ließ (siehe Interview-Eingangsfrage). Ungeachtet der Physis und obwohl just jenes Konzert in Langen vom Hessischen Rundfunk für eine im Mai anvisierte Radioübertragung aufgenommen wurde, nutzte Anders mehrere Solospots der Kollegen und Songintros, um vom Drumriser zu eilen und am Rande der Bühne den Drummerplausch mit mir zu suchen. Auch sonst ließ er (wie immer) an diesem Abend in Sachen Gastfreundschaft vor und nach dem Gig backstage nichts vermissen. Herausragend!
Das Interview entstand einige Tage nach unserem Treffen online, während der Tourleerlaufphasen. Es gibt den ein oder anderen Hinweis auf seinen allgegenwärtigen Humor, ein selten anzutreffendes Maß an Bescheidenheit (neudeutsch: grounded) und ein massives Pfund an Selbstironie.
Apropos Selbstironie: Spötter beklagen sich oft und gerne über schlechtes Englisch im Sinne von Unprofessionalität. Diesen "Orden" hefte ich mir gerne ans Revers. Ja, ich kann es nicht wirklich besser und tighte Zeitpläne lassen auch keine Förderung meiner begrenzten Femdsprachenfertigkeiten zu. Ich entschuldige mich ausdrücklich bei allen Kritikern und gelobe, sofern gewünscht, keine weiteren Interviews dieser Art durchzuführen 
DAS INTERVIEW:
Thanks Anders for taking the time for this interview. It will be posted at http://www.drummerforum.de. This forum is an independent, non-commercial platform. It's the biggest drummerforum in Germany, reaching thousands of drummers (from rookies to pro's). Aside this colleagues from Switzerland, Austria and some other countries join the forum also. Although mainly in German language, contributions in English language are allowed too Let´s go for it!
1.) I hope you have survived your cold. How are you actually, Anders?
I'm fine now. I was the first one to catch one. Now everybody else in the touring party has got it. But what can you do...the show must go on. I usually take some pain killers and play.
2.) Hammerfall is quite successful and gained more and more public attention in the last years. You joined the band in 1999. What were your expectations concerning the future of the band?
I had no idea it would last and grow like it did. Thought it would be a fun short thing for me.
3.) Your drumkit at first sight offers an inflationary number of bassdrums and lots of octobans. A closer look reveals a Pearl free floating brass snare, the May-System inside the shells and the DDrum-4 for triggering. Please give us a more detailed insight concerning your drum-equipment:
Drum-Setup: Premier shells. Goth series. These cheaper shells seem to resonate a bit better.
Heads: Evans G2 on everything
Snare(s): Pearl pedals and snare.(Old habit).
Cymbal-Setup: Meinl Amuns
Hardware: Tama rack
Sticks: Promark 5B
Electronics:
Microphones:
Pedals:
And the rest you pretty much covered.
4.) The concert audience enjoys your concept to play evergreens with octobans a lot. A great entertaining idea... when was it born?
I think when I played them the first time. It was natural to look at them as a tonal instrument. It feels a bit like a simple keyboard (maybe a pan flute).
5.) To me as a drummer your drumstyle is very impressive because of several facts:
- very complex polyrhythmic ideas between snare, bass and splashes/crashes/ride etc.
- fast, powerfull!!! and precise single strokes
- lots of improvisational moments played at high risk but always mastered flawless!
How would you describe your drumming?
Ha ha...if you say it so... well, thanks. I would probably say since I come from a fusion tradition I have a tendency to have an easier time improvising and playing polyrhythmically.
6.) Tell us something about your "drum-socialisation". The starting point and early influences.
Influences early age: Ian Paice. Louie Bellson. A bit later Terry Bozzio.
7.) Please let us know about your drum inspiration nowadays.
Indian drummers.
8.) I remember sitting in a studio years ago with an engineer comparing wave-files of your drumming with the click signal. We were shocked how precise your drumming was to the click. Even if we zoomed closer and closer. There was no detectable latency. Really impressive. Did you do a lot of click-training in earlier years or is your time-stability just a gift of god?
Thanks again! My father was a musician (jazz piano player...composer...he wrote Pippi Longstrumpf for example), his father was one...I guess we have it in the genes. And the recording you heard was also put together from a few different good takes
9.) Over the years you worked and recorded with several well known engineers. From Jeff Glixman to the somehow anachronistic "Nashville-Metalist" Michael Wagener to name just a few. Any anecdotes concerning differences in working atmosphere?
Yes, but it's probably not wise to print these stories Different guys, different vibes. Both these two you mentioned were trying to get commersial results so I played accordingly, steady and simplistic.
10.) How has drum recording & drum engineering (as far as you were involved) changed from the "old days" (for "Marching Out", "Trilogy" or "Odyssey") to recent CD's with Hammerfall?
More cut and paste nowadays. More worrying about single beats rather than the whole picture. More samples. I like the old way, but the new way is of course easier on the drummer. Back in the eighties you had to play the whole track in one take. Feel was more important than precision. Nowadays they even can correct timing on a microscopic level with pro-tool...I don’t know if I like this. New drummers will get used to be corrected so the won’t have to develop precision and timing.
11.) Since your first international appearances with Malmsteen in the mid of the eighties until today you were always endorsed by many firms and shown in ads & catalogues. Can you tell us some thoughts of working as an endorser?
You get free stuff! It's great! And they put your pic in mags....a win win situation.
12.) You share some music related video-stuff of your personal archive on youtube (and also your neighbour seems to post some :-). Please tell us something about your intention of doing this.
I think it was for drummers mostly. A lot of people asked me...”-How did you play this. How was it to play with Shawn Lane...what did it sound like?”...etc. So I put it out. I like Youtube.
13.) Which youtube link represents your drumwork best?
Hard to say. Maybe with Jonas Hellborg and brother Jens...
14.) Which youtube link represents your personality best?
Maybe the same But there are some silly ones...maybe when we wreck Stratovarius dressingroom -)
15.) You are an extremely relaxed live-drummer with a great sense of humor during playing (also behind the stage :-). Even when switching from standard beats to tricky hand-foot-combinations, high-speed-fills or poly-rhythmic-concepts, you master this fluently with a smile on your face. Aside your drumtechnical abilities this indicates an impressive mental strength and psychic stability! Very uncommon in the often diva-like rock circus. I remember seeing you with Malmsteen 1999 at the Music Messe/Frankfurt. You didn’t play your own drumset so the cymbalstands did not stand the power They were falling one by one... several times again and again. You just played on, unimpressed! I remember also a Hammerfall concert backstage some years ago. Your drumtech informed you a few hours before the show that he was unable to fix the broken ballbearings of your kickpedal. You just answered: "It doesn´t matter to me," and mastered the concert bravely with impressive double-bass-drumming - not worried about the dysfunctional kickpedal at all. What made you become so relaxed and grounded?
Thanks again!! Especially coming from you...a really fast and precise and skilled drummer! I think I have played so many gigs so it is second nature now...maybe that's why. And I have played with many different musisians in many different situations...it has helped.
16.) I have never seen you doing any drum-warm-ups before a gig. But I´m sure you do warm-ups...
Not really...a but lately for the groin. I injured it a year back in Taekwondo. So I need to get it warm...I don’t do anything for the hand...just the leg. Bouncing it a bit before the gig.
17.) What about a name- and word-association game? Please answer as spontaneously as possible:
Alan Holdsworth: Number one
Jonas Hellborg: The Bass monster
Marcel Jacob: Groove
Mark Boals: Pitch and range secure
Yngwie: Aggressive and scale secure
Ian Paice: swing...first idol
Buddy Rich: Swing and number one
Silver Mountain: Swedish metal pioneers
Techno: Steady mechanical
Jazz: Improvisation
Nightliner: Touring
Family: Home
18.) If someone discovered your drumming recently for the first time, maybe on "Threshold" - where should he look next? Which CD of your career reflects your drumming best?
A solo record of Jens called: Fission. Maybe something else we put out on Heptagon Records.
19.) When listing to the CD "E" with Jonas Hellborg, the Johansson (Brothers) CD´s or "Flume Ride" with Benny Jansson one thing on all these CD-Outputs is obvious: an extremely close musical connection and "transfer" between you and Jens. Your drums and his keys sound like a symbiotic alliance. I have never experienced something like this as a listener before (one exception: the magic rhythm-section Murray/Paice on their records in the early eighties). Your timing and the rhythmic phrasings are very tight und well balanced. It fits like a glove. Until 1999 I was convinced the reason must be: twinbrothers. But in fact you ain't twinbrothers Do you have any explanation what makes your teamwork so special and symbiotic?
Same genes. And he is a master of adapting to different peoples timing...
20.) Please share your best musical experience in your career with us... and also the worst.
Best to be able to record with Holdsworth. Worst...he he... maybe some weird gig with Jonas Hellborg where everything was strange but in the end it’s something we laugh about now).
21.) Your career offers a wide range of musical styles, many CD´s and tours with the premier elite of rock & fusion musicians. In fact a lot more than some Hammerfall critics may imagine. Are there any dream-teams left for you?
Not really. But it would be fun to play with Hendrix when it’s time to leave this world.
22.) What happens next after the Europe tour? Any concrete plans?
Japan, South America and Australia and the festivals in Europe. Then it starts over with recording an album and another tour.
So here we are... thanks for taking the time for this interview and all the help in the past.
All the best for the future... und bis nächstes Mal
Gerald
All the best!
Anders
