THIS ENDING / A CANOROUS QUINTET : Interview with Linus Nirbrant

Linus Nirbrant, THIS ENDING guitarist (A CANOROUS QUINTET), speaks about the band and their albums, about his studio and about the new incoming THIS ENDING album.

Hi Linus ! How are you and how is THIS ENDING doing ?

Hi, This Ending and I’m doing just fine. We have a new bassplayer (Linus Pettersson) that played with us in A Canorous Quintet before ACQ got signed. And we can’t find our other guitarplayer Leo, he is gone and we don’t know where he is. So I’m gonna do all the guitars on the next album. We have 10 new songs and we have just recorded drums for the new album. So we’re hoping to release it in some way during next year.

Let’s speak a little bit about your introduction to music, how did you fall into it ?

I’ve always been interested in music, my dad listened to Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath. But when I saw a picture of Kiss when I was 5 or 6 in the beginning of the 80s I knew that this is really cool. Then I started to listen to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I still love the metal music from late 70 to mid 80s. When the hair bands came I lost interest in regular heavy metal, the only band that were cool was Guns & Roses so then I started to listen to Thrash: Anthrax, Metallica, S.O.D, Testament, Slayer. Me and two friends started a band but we could not play our instruments so we didn’t last long. But when I heard Kreator, Death and Entombed I wanted to have my own band for real and I learned how to play guitar around 1991. So for a few years I just listened to Death metal.

What was your musician / band inspiration at this time ? What are your musician / band inspiration now ?

I have always been influenced by heavy metal, mostly Maiden & Priest. But Thrash got me interested to play guitar, and death metal to form my first band. When I formed my first band I was inspired by Entombed, Napalm Death etc, later At The Gates when I heard “Gardens of grief”.

Do you remember the first concerts you saw?

I don’t remember the first, but some of my first concerts were different death and punk gigs around 1991-92 with Dismember, Edge of sanity, At the Gates etc.. But the first big concert was Metallica in 1992.

How did you learn music/guitar ?

I tried to take some blues guitar lessons but I found it boring at the time, but I was just 11-12 years old around 1988-89. I wanted to play metal, so I just took a few lessons. Later I formed my own band and tried to learn how to play.

I learned from friends and my dad and a few years later I took some lessons in acoustic guitar.

What was your first guitar model?

My first guitar was a Westone guitar, it’s a quite good guitar, it’s like a mix between a Les paul and SG. When I joined A Canorous Quintet I first played with a Ibanez x series, later a Jackson guitar. And when I could afford it I bought a Gibson SG.

Could you please share information about how you joined A CANOUROUS QUINTENT in 1993 ?

I had a band between 1991-1993, together with Bassplayer Jesper Löfgren (Later ACQ,Guidance of sin, This Ending), we were a trio. Me and Fredrik Andersson became friends in 1991, and we had the same influences and talked about forming a new band. Fredrik had A Canorous Quartet and was the guitar player in that band.

He wanted to play drums, so we formed a new band in december 1992 together with Matte Ehlin (later Sibenburgen) and a bass player. We didn’t have a singer at the time but A Canorous Quartet split up in the beginning of 1993 so we took the name but changed it to Quintet because we were five. And Mårten joined us on vocals. We changed line-up a few times before 1994.

How was the first album “Silence of the world beyond” welcomed by the public ?

Our first release was the mini CD “As Tears”, it was meant to be our demo but No fashion liked it so much so they wanted to release it on their sub-label Chaos Records. And people really liked it. We recorded “Silence of the world beyond” in 1995 and we wanted to release it as fast as possible because it came so many bands at that time, but it got delayed more than a year!

I think we did a great album but it could have been bigger if the release would have been faster.

Why did you chose “No Fashion Records” as label ?

We really liked No Fashion, they released great records by Dissection, Katatonia, Merciless etc.. So we thought we could fit in. And they really liked us when they heard our second demo in 1994.

You choose the famous “Abyss Studio” in order to record this first album, why did you choose it ? Did you choose him or does this studio has been selected by No Fashion Records ?

We wanted to go back to Unisound with Dan Swanö but he couldn’t record us when we wanted. Abyss and Peter Tägtgren had the time, so we thought it was a good choice.

I really appreciate your guitar composition, how do you proceed ?. How do you compose a song ?

I write mostly my melodies on my acoustic guitar, and I always want a sad tone to it. Then we arrange it so it fits the band.

What is a standard guitar warm up / training for you ?

I don’t have any warm up tricks, but I think I could need a few 🙂 I start to play and it sounds like crap for a while, but soon I have the speed and timing that is needed.

What advice could you provide to a new and advanced player ?

It depends on what you want to do. Do you want to become a really good guitar player or a great song writer?

I have never practiced guitar, I write songs and sometimes when I write a riff or solo that is too advanced I have to practice that riff to get it right, that’s how I get better.

On a weekly basis, how much time do you spend practicing ?

In periods I played a lot. In the 90s I could not be without my guitar more than a day, if I was away from my guitar I found a guitarshop and played. Nowadays I struggle to find time to play.

A Canorous Quintet changed their name to “The Plague”, why ?

A Canorous Quintet was not very big, and when we wanted to play together again, it felt corny to do a reunion. So we wanted to start as a “new” band.

Few months later the band name changed as well in order to become “This Ending”, may we know as well the reason of this change ?

We got signed by Metal Blade and they told us that another band had a similar name so we changed it to This Ending.

The style of the band changed over the year and became even louder and quicker. How were those changes welcome by the public ?

I think people liked it, but some of the people that liked us as A Canorous Quintet became disappointed. But I think we have the perfect mix on our new album, it’s much more oldschool, more like A Canorous Quintet but still This Ending.

Could you please share some information about your gear for each album ?

– A Canorous Quintet:

As Tears – Ibanez x series, some Peavey amp Unisound stuido had and a Boss Ds-1

Silence of the world beyond – Ibanez x series, Marshall valvestate amp with a mesa cab, no pedal.

The Only Pure Hate – Jackson guitar, some amp Sunlight studio had, I think it was a small Peavey combo with a Metal zone pedal.

– The Plague:

Gibson SG, Peavey Ultra amp with a marshall cab, no pedal

– This Ending:

Inside the machine – Gibson SG, Mesa Rectifier amp & cab

Dead Harvest – Gibson SG, Peavey 5150 amp, marshall cab and Guitar rig plug in

Systematic Worship – Ltd guitar, Peavey 5150, tube screamer

What is your live rig / studio gears ?

– I have my own studio Audiogrind Studio, check it out on Facebook or check out www.audiogrind.se

I have a lot of pedals, amps and cabs.

You are the owner of AudioGrind in Stockholm, could you please share some words about your activities in this studio ? How did you create it ?

I got interested in studio-work during the 90s so I educated myself as a sound-engineer. I worked in some studios and had a studio with two friends during ten years but things got to complicated and expensive after we had a break-in. So I started my own studio. Check out www.audiogrind.se for more info.

You are active in many bands as producer, recorder and mixer. May we know if you can live from your music?

I work full time as a freelance sound-engineer, both with music in my own studio and with music and TV at other places.

If you will have to give one or two words about each, which words will choose to describe them one by one ?

– A Canorous Quintet:

As tears – Chaos, we could barely play our instruments

Silence of the world beyond – magic, it was the first real record for us all

The only pure hate – Really good songs, but the sound could’ve been better

– Guidance of sin:

Soul Seducer – Best of our demos

6106 – Heavy, really good record

– The Plague:

Let the world burn – It was a great demo and a test if I could record and mix our new stuff

– This Ending:

Inside the machine – Ambitious, I wanted to do the best record ever

Dead Harvest – Ambitious deluxe, I really like both records. Great songs but I think I was too ambitious with the mix, it lacked the soul of the music when everything was too perfect.

Systematic Worship – I tried to find a mix between the ACQ style and This Ending’s perfection. I think our new record will be great and a perfect mix!!

What was the biggest success / sales for the band ?

I don’t know really, I think Metal Blade did most work on Inside the machine, but we did two videos on the Dead Harvest album, Parasites and Dead Harvest.

With A Canorous Quintet it was Silence of the world beyond, because we split up before The only pure hate was released.

Beside that, what is your favorite activities now ? Is it to records albums with some bands or to compose titles for This Ending ?

I love doing both, I record and mix bands all the time. And I compose music for This Ending. I also compose music with my old buddy Martin Sweet for his band Crashdiet. We also have our own project going on. I also have an older project when I got time, it’s called The Dead. It’s with Tobbe Sillman (General Surgery, Vicious Art, Guidance of sin) we have released two MCD’s ten years ago, but we have some new ideas!

This Ending has last released an album in 2009, and a demo in 2012. What is your plan for the next album?

Yes as I said we have started to record ten new songs in my studio. All the drums have been recorded and I’ve just started to record guitars now that Fredrik has gone away on tour with Amon Amarth.

On the other side, what do you regret? The first album “Silence of the World Beyond” was released in 96, from No Fashion Records and was well welcomed. Why do you think you were not able to go on the first rank with some others bands of the Swedish death melo scène like AT THE GATE / IN FLAMES / DARK TRANQUILITY ?

– I think it was a lot of bad luck, we were just before Amon Amarth and Naglfar. We released our MCD around the same time as In Flames debut, but ours got delayed more than a year, and during that time a lot of bands came and our record started to get old, plus No fashion could not give us tour support.

Do you have a last word for the french reader ?

Thank you for your support, I would really like to play in France, it would be awesome!! Check out This Ending official on Facebook for our latest updates.