Culture
Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth talks Viking lore, artistic progression, and touring with Ghost
By: Nicholas Kobe
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CINCINNATI, Ohio (WOUB) – Amon Amarth was formed in 1992 in Sweden, and since then they have become one of the most well-known melodic death metal bands. The group is also known for their lyrics, which mostly center around Old Norse history and mythology. Their live show reflects these lyrics with Viking garb and props.
Amon Amarth performs in Cincinnati later this month, supporting fellow Swedes Ghost on their “Re-Imperatour.”
WOUB Culture spoke with vocalist Johan Hegg ahead of the group’s stops in our region. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for length and clarity, below. Listen to the conversation in the embedded SoundCloud link above. Find a full list of tour dates at this link.
This interview contains language some may find offensive.
If you had to describe Amon Amarth in one sentence, would you say?
Johan Hegg:
<laugh> Wow, that’s a good, I mean, one sentence? Amon Amarth is a death metal band with roots in, classic heavy metal, that sings songs about Vikings. That would be the simple way, Vikings and Viking lore, I guess. It’s a little bit more complicated than that, with the vocals, with the lyrics. But to, to just sum it up in one sentence, I would say that.
Nicholas Kobe:
Elaborate that a little bit. What do you mean by a little more complicated lyrics?
Johan Hegg:
Well, for me, the Viking, his history and mythology and everything has always been a big part of my life. And I use a lot of that stuff as backdrops to other things that I kind of wanna discuss. It could be personal things or world events or just things in general.
Nicholas Kobe:
Why do you think that? How do you think history works as kind of like a framing device for more modern issues?
Johan Hegg:
I mean, we have to realize that the people who lived like a thousand years ago weren’t that different from us. They may not have been as well read or well educated, but emotionally, psychologically, they were pretty much the same as we are. They already dealt with a bunch of these problems. In the mythology and the history, I think there’s a lot, a lot of inspiration to take from that. It’s hard to explain it, I think, in just a few words. If you have the interest and you go through it, and you look at it from different angles, you’ll see that the way of thinking of our ancestors from a thousand years ago weren’t really that different. So I think in that sense, especially with Norse mythology, which fits me very well, the philosophical aspect because it is a Norse tradition you really understand it, as being a Scandinavian you kinda understand the mentality of the people that day because of it.
“I mean, we have to realize that the people who lived like a thousand years ago weren’t that different from us. They may not have been as well read or well educated, but emotionally, psychologically, they were pretty much the same as we are.” – Johan Hegg on why Amon Amarth’s Old Norse themes are relevant to contemporary audiences
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. That makes perfect sense. So speaking of this last record The Great Heathen Army came out a year ago, pretty much almost to the day. Now that you guys have kind of about a year behind you on that record, what’s some things you learned from that record? Any just particularly fun memories you have working on that album?
Johan Hegg:
I think the absolute highlights working on that album was when Biff Byford from Saxon came to the studio to record Saxons and Vikings. That was awesome to watch him work and it was a lot of fun to watch him and Andy work because they know each other so well and they were kind of bitching and <laugh> at each other and being f*cking <laugh> hilarious. So that was a lot of fun. He is a great singer and he’s one of the legends. To have him and Doug and Quinnie on the album playing the solo is a true honor. So that was, that was loads of fun.
Nicholas Kobe:
How long have you guys known the guys from Saxon?
Johan Hegg:
Wow. It’s a while actually. I would say we first met them maybe like 20 years ago. We haven’t toured together, but we met them a bunch of times off and on and always got along really well with the guys. So it’s always been a pleasure to hang out, and chat with ’em. It’s kind of weird ’cause it’s one of those bands that I listened to growing up. So for me it was just insane <laugh>.
Nicholas Kobe:
That you’re actually meeting them and now you have them on one of your albums.
Johan Hegg:
Exactly. Yeah.
Nicholas Kobe:
Are there any other musicians that would be like, dream collaborations for you in the future?
Johan Hegg:
I never look at it that way, actually. For this album, for instance, we had the idea of the Saxons and Vikings and it was obvious that it should be a duet between Biff and me. So we asked him if he wanted to do it, and he said, “yeah, I’ll do it.” We kind of wrote and developed the idea from that perspective, but we had an idea about doing Saxons and Vikings, and then we asked him if he wanted to do it, and then we started writing like the lyrics and everything.For me, it has to be a great idea first.
Johan Hegg:
Then it would be awesome to invite this guy for this or this woman for that. Like, like we did with Doro as well. On the Jomsviking album. There’s so many legendary artists out there that could really do a lot of good stuff with the music that we do, but it’s hard to pick one in particular. If it’s the right idea, that’s the most important part.
Nicholas Kobe:
Alright, well, you guys are currently on tour with Ghost, how are you guys feeling about that?
Johan Hegg:
Oh, it’s awesome, man. We had the first show last night in Concord, outside San Francisco. Amazing show, amazing first day up. We’ve been to many big tours like this, where the first day is always a hassle. It’s hard to make everything fit on time but it just ran smoothly. It seemed like everything just locked into place right away. The crews are working well together and the bands are <laugh> doing well together as well. So I have great expectations for this tour. I think it’s gonna be an awesome experience for us. Obviously most of the fans coming out of the show are gonna be Ghost fans, but by the way they reacted last night, I think, we really came across really well to a lot of these fans who I’m sure have never kind of experienced a band like ours before. So that’s kind of fun.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah. ’cause you, and you and Ghost are quite a different stylistic pairing with each other.
Johan Hegg:
Definitely.
Nicholas Kobe:
At least based on the one show that you guys have played at the time that we’re talking, they seem to get into it?
Johan Hegg:
Yeah. It’s always the fact that when you’re an opening band and you play for a band that’s bigger and draws a lot bigger crowd and all that stuff that, the reaction in the beginning is more like, “Hmm, I wonder what this is.” Then after a while they get into it but it’s always cool to see that happening. I think we had a great show last night. The fans were awesome, so we really enjoyed it.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome. Obviously, you guys have a pretty robust live show, filled with all sorts of really cool things. Looking to the future, what would be a dream idea that you would love to implement for a live show that you just haven’t gotten to do yet?
Johan Hegg:
I mean, we pretty much did more or less everything, but there are always little things you want to improve. That’s also another thing about touring with bands like Ghost, you kind of see what they’ve done and it can inspire you to expand your live set a little bit. You get inspiration from all over the place. I wouldn’t say that there’s one particular thing that is this big thing I want to do, but one idea that I had that I I think could be cool if you could pull it off, is to have like screens or projectors at some point, and do Saxons and Vikings live and have Biff [Byford] on the screen performing the song with us. That would be awesome, but it’s a bit of a hassle.
I think it would be easier to make it happen with projectors because of how our stage is set up. It would be cool to do something like that, implement a little bit more of that, stuff like that into our show. Personally, I’m not really a big fan of video screens, or at least not the overuse of them. So for me it would have to be like a one time thing in a show, and then it comes off and we go back to our normal show.It would be cool to be able to bring a full pyro show to, to the United States and tour with it the way we do in Europe. Right now we’ve been able to do pyros at certain locations like New York, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto, but it would be cool to be able to tour with it properly and that’s where we’re doing this. Hopefully this will help us grow and that we can go big into bigger arenas in the future here in the United States.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. Considering the Scandinavian historical aspect of your lyrics, how do you think that connects differently with audiences in Europe versus the United States?
Johan Hegg:
Wow, that’s hard to say. I think in one way, actually in the United States, the interest in Norse mythology is really big. A lot of people are really into it. You can tell when you meet fans and they wanna talk to you about things like mythology or history, that they’re actually quite well read and they know what they’re talking about, so it’s not such a big difference. But in any event, I think the way we write our lyrics is basically, you could either just take it as entertaining stories or something deeper. That’s the way it should be, I think, because it doesn’t necessarily have to be educational. It has to be entertainment, you know? So that’s kind of what we do. We try to make great songs where the lyrical themes fit and the people can get into them and enjoy a good time without actually having to think too much about it. <laugh>.
Nicholas Kobe:
You guys are definitely entertainers, first and foremost. Last year you guys did a headlining tour in the United States. I can’t remember, was that your guys’ first headlining tour in the States?
Johan Hegg:
We’ve done quite a few headlining tours, but it was definitely the biggest one.
Nicholas Kobe:
Any particularly fun moments and memories from that tour?
Johan Hegg:
There were quite a few big moments, I would say. I think a couple of shows stood out extra. And I would say that the Montreal show was one of them. We played at, like a hockey arena, and it was just packed. We could do the full, the full show with Pyros and everything. Then of course we played the Forum in Los Angeles, and that was also amazing to have played that venue and to have headlined it. It was great. So for us, that was a huge experience, and a great opportunity again, to bring the full production to a massive stage in a massive arena.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. You guys have been a band for quite a while now. Are there any parts of your pretty lengthy discography that you think are kind of underrated over the years, or you wish got a little more love?
Johan Hegg:
No, I don’t think so. It’s nothing that I really thought about. We’ve always been a band to go “how can we improve this? How can we do this better?” After each album we kind of wanna make the next one even better. We always try to take another step, and I think I think the old albums, the back catalog are always kind of weird because it represents the best we could muster at the time, production wise and music wise, but it was a great learning experience for us. So we took that experience and brought it into the next step where you start working with proper producers and you build on it.
So I wouldn’t say that any part of our catalog is underrated or anything like that. It’s just that people have different favorite albums. I would say that if any album perhaps deserves a little bit more attention, in my personal opinion, I think it would be maybe Deceiver of the Gods. But then again, I think it is quite a popular animal album in its own right.
Nicholas Kobe:
Everything kind of builds onto the next album?
Johan Hegg:
More or less. I mean, that’s the way we’ve always tried to do. Whatever experiences we’ll make with the last production, we kind of try to take that and take those, so those lessons and bring it into the next, next production and try to evolve both as musicians and songwriters.
Nicholas Kobe:
Definitely. For you guys what’s something that’s allowed you guys to stay interested in the creative process and has just kind of kept your passion going for music and making great albums all these years?
Johan Hegg:
I think a key element is for us in the past couple of years, is that we’ve been able to take some time off in between writing processes, because it used to be basically write an album and tour, tour, tour, and then go straight back into writing the next album and then tour, tour, tour. It’s like a constant circle of writing and touring, basically writing, recording, touring, writing, recording, touring. That was fun and great but, to really kind of let yourself breathe a little bit in between touring and another writing process for me anyways, has been very important. It’s not always been easy to find inspiration for, writing a new album lyrically, but those things often come to you when you start just sitting down.
I try not to force my creativity personally. It kind of has to come to me, the creativity. That being said, though, some of the best song lyrics I’ve written have definitely been really under pressure! <laugh>.
Nicholas Kobe:
What’s a song that’s an example of when you were really under pressure?
Johan Hegg:
Right. The Way of Vikings is definitely one of those songs. I had nothing for it. I knew it was part of a concept story for the whole album. I knew what the song was gonna be about, I just didn’t have any idea how to write it. Nothing came up. So I kept pushing it and leaving it and leaving it. Then eventually it was like, “well, it’s going on the album. You have to write something.” So I think I sat for two days with that song on repeat, and then I got, a line in my head and I said, “this is great. This is awesome.” And then I could build from that. It all came together with just that one line. It’s crazy! <laugh>
Nicholas Kobe:
It’s the first great idea? Just grab onto it and kind of go from there?
Johan Hegg:
Yeah, exactly.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. One more question I have for you. What do you think the future of Amon Amarth looks like?
Johan Hegg :
We have a great album now that we’re touring on, and right now it’s great to be back on the road after the whole Covid situation. I feel like we’re growing everywhere and that we’re able to play bigger and better shows, like everywhere we go. So I definitely hope that we have a bright and long career ahead of us still. But it’s a fickle business. You never know, things change. At the moment everything looks great. I think we have a good thing going and we’re continuing to build on it to build a brand of Amon Amarth, so to speak.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome. That’s pretty much all I have for you. Have fun out there on the road. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Johan Hegg:
My pleasure. Thank you for having me. We’re gonna kick some ass on this tour!