Deathstars

Deathstars are into their world tour promoting new album, 'The Perfect Cult.' Preparing to come to Australia in February for Soundwave, we caught up with vocalist, Whiplasher to talk about their new album and the band's upcoming visit to our shores.

Hey Whiplasher, how are you doing today?

I am fine, it has just been chaos here, people haven’t been able to get through to me.

Oh well, it happens. So you recently did some touring in Europe and the UK, how has the fan reaction been so far to your new album, ‘The Perfect Cult’?

It has been the best crowd [response] and tour I think we have ever done. At least I think everyone in the band felt like it was the most rewarding to do on a club level. I actually enjoyed it more than ever, I think. So yeah, it was very unexpected. I think the response has been great.

If there was anything you could go back and change about the album would you or, in retrospect, are you entirely happy?

You are never happy with everything. At least we are never happy about everything, that's why we have Deathstars, to complain (laughs). When we did ‘Night Electric Night’ we stressed on it a bit because, you know, everyone wants it to be out. Everyone wants the album to be out as soon as possible and we stressed but we didn’t do that with ’The Perfect Cult.’ I feel better than we usually do, but that's why you continue writing songs, because you always want to make them better but I feel really really good about ‘The Perfect Cult.’

There was about five years between Night Electric Night and The Perfect Cult, what was happening and were you writing the album gradually over the years or was it on and off?

On and off, definitely. The touring was very spread out, we went to tour with Rammstein like two years ago and stuff like that makes everything go very slow and that together with us not being super productive and super efficient then it ends up being a long time. But I think for us, just doing music all the time, it’s counterproductive right now, we need to do other stuff. So we need a break after we have done all the touring but it shouldn’t take five years, hopefully it won’t take ten years for us to get the next album out.

(Laughs) Hopefully not. How have things been working as a four piece since Cat left, did it affect the new album?

No, it didn’t at all actually. Of course it’s a loss not having Cat in the band but that was his decision. He didn’t want to go touring but it hasn’t really affected the band more than personal and private matters, so to speak, and of course the performance on stage, but when it comes to writing the songs and recording it works as it usually does because Nightmare writes 100% of the songs pretty much and I do the rest of the arrangement. It is basically the same though, it has actually felt more natural than to be expected.

You are heading here for Soundwave 2015. What are you expecting?

We have been in Australia for small club tours so it is nice to do some press tours. It’s always exotic to go to Australia for us because we come from Europe. Expectations, I haven’t really thought about it. It seems like a really great festival and experience so we will be coming straight from Mexico I think, from a tour there, so hopefully we are in good shape. Probably will be in bad shape, but you know (laughs).

Are you ready for the Australian summer heat too?

No, never. Since we are from Scandinavia we like it kind of cold but actually I am okay with it, I am starting to adjust to a bit warmer climates but in Australia it’s going to be tough.

Yeah, the summer period can get intense. Are there some bands you are excited about seeing and playing with on the lineup?

Of course, there are a lot of bands. Judas Priest and stuff like that but I think it seems to be a very interesting lineup. It is going to be great to hang out at the festival during the whole period.

Can we expect any signings or sidewaves from you guys?

I don’t know yet actually, hopefully, probably, but I have really no schedule for when the festival is yet. I don’t know about the sideshows, so I can’t really say.

That’s all right. What are your set lists looking like at this point, will there be a lot from ‘The Perfect Cult’?

I think we are going to play a mixture of all the albums but of course it is going to be maybe mainly from the last album. But it is going to be hits all the time.

What can we expect in the future from Deathstars?

Right now we had one month off, then we are going to Mexico in January and then Australia. Then we are supposed to go to Japan and China and then we are trying to go to the U.S. before the summer, before the festivals start. So it’s a lot of touring for now but nothing is really certain, it’s not official yet. But it’s January and February, it’s Mexico and Australia.

Sounds busy, before we wrap up, would you like to say any final words?

I hope as many as possible come to Soundwave festival. It’s going to be interesting to see Australia from a festival point of view, we are very eager to go.

Thanks for talking to us today - look forward to catching you guys at Soundwave.

No worries, thanks for calling.

Deathstars are set to appear at Soundwave Festival 2015.

You can check out our review of their new album, 'The Perfect Cult,' here.