Anders Johansson

Our bus

2011-12-07T19:03:00.003+01:00

Our bus has only 2:nd, 4:th, 6:th and 8:th gear. And no reverse which makes things kind of tricky sometimes. So it is called Apollo 13 now.

Keith Moon impersonation.

2011-12-05T00:44:00.003+01:00

Passau Dreiländerhalle.

Nuno Torres a.k.a. Towers-Nuno

2011-12-04T12:35:00.006+01:00

This is Nuno Torres (Towers-Nuno). Our guitar tech. He is from Portugal. This is a great pic of him, he is actually way uglier (just kidding).

Everyday he brings us some guitars for the dressingroom just for having around if someone wants to practice a bit. He even brings me my fretless bass even though I'm the drummer and just have this new idea to learn how to play the bass. This is extra work and probably annoying for him, but he is a nice guy. Nuno of course does a lot of other things all day as well. Like setting up amps and re-stringing and tuning the basses and guitars.

Ljubljana

2011-12-04T12:25:00.005+01:00

In general on this tour the "eastern" countries have been really great. Way better than at least I expected. Facilities backstage were always top notch, showers had always hot water and the catering was perfect. Not like how it used to be years back. Number one price for loud and wild audience was grabbed by Ljubljana, Slovenia. Even though the other countries came really close.

Döden.

2011-12-01T20:19:00.003+01:00

Antonius Block: Vem är du?
Döden: Jag är Döden.
Antonius Block: Kommer du för att hämta mig?
Döden: Jag har redan länge gått vid din sida.
Antonius Block: Det vet jag.
Döden: Är du beredd?
Antonius Block: Min kropp är beredd, inte jag själv.
Antonius Block: Vänta ett ögonblick.
Döden: Så säger ni alla. Men jag lämnar inga uppskov.
Antonius Block: Du spelar ju schack, inte sant?
Döden: Hur vet du det?
Antonius Block: Åh, jag har ju sett det på målningar och hört det i visorna.
Döden: Ja, jag är verkligen en ganska skicklig schackspelare.
Antonius Block: Du kan ändå inte vara skickligare än jag.
Döden: Varför vill du spela schack med mig?
Antonius Block: Det är min sak.
Döden: Det har du rätt i.
Antonius Block: Villkoret är att jag får leva så länge jag står dig emot. Spelar jag dig matt, friar du mig.[Block räcker fram båda sina händer. Döden pekar på en av dem och får svart.]
Antonius Block: Du fick svart.
Döden: Det passar ju bäst så. Inte sant?

Night train to Bucharest.

2011-11-30T13:53:00.043+01:00

We had a journey of 830 km on probably the worst roads in Europe ahead. So we decided to take a night train from Budapest to Bucharest. 15 hours. It started strange right away. The conductor was drunk, had missing teeth and was really fat and ugly (looked a bit like Leif Boork but 100 times worse). And he wanted bribes. He tried to tell us we only had paid for one ticket etc etc...the normal crap. He even draw on Oscar's pillow with a pen trying to explain to us. Joacim and Pontus had paid extra to be alone in a "cabin" of their own, but then came this guy with the biggest moustasch we'd seen in ages to join them (strange how they could resist and reject him). They bribed the drunk fat guy and they got their own personal space for two (lovers?) in the end.

They went full speed with the door open. The train was shaking and wobbling so it was of course very unsafe.

Me in the corridor. The train was fairly new, but everything really small and only half working. My bed was 180 cm. I'm 194. You do the math...
The train driver had this strange and annoying habit of blowing the horn every 30 seconds, all night long. We had the car (waggon) next to the locomotive and our cabine was all the way up front, so our ears were a few meters from the horns. Even though there was nothing out there for miles he kept hooting. Hooting with one horn, with both, the other one. When meeting other trains they were saying hello to each other by hooting loooong ones. Maybe it was some wolves or vampires on the tracks in the Transylvnian mountains? One cool thing was that the power connetcor for the locomotive was creating unbelievable much and big electrical sparks. It lit the whole landscape that otherwise had no lights whatsoever up.

Some travel food I got in Hungary. The sausages were awful. Intestines (bowels) full of meat dough with some grizzly fat chewy bits. Maybe I should have heated them? Fred bought some coffee. Ice cold. But who cares? It's the caffeine we are after. The Boci strawberry chocolate was fine. And orange flavoured Tic tacs are always a hit.

Ozz and Fred. I was all the way up over Ozz.

Budapest and x-mas in bus.

2011-11-29T13:51:00.019+01:00

My kit fell again. I have to start playing softer.

We tried to create some x-mas feeling in our bunks. In this case outside mine. You can see Daniel Schindler's x-mas balls and garlands just over my lights.

Every night I take a pic of the audience. This one from yesterday in Budapest. I am the one responsible for taking the pic and for sending it to Oscar. He is putting them onto the HF's FB. Two days ago in Trencin, Slovakia I drew Hitler-beards on some fans as well as putting Hitler in the audience. He caught it in time unfortunatelly :-) (Pic below, unaltered pic on Hammerfall's Facebook-page)

Winter coming.

2011-11-28T17:26:00.004+01:00

From last winter. The drain pipe froze, I think.

Road 101 in a blizzard.

Various travels lately.

2011-11-23T09:25:00.035+01:00

Stayed at a one star hotel with Fullforce in Berlin. We started to wonder when they told us to park the bus a bit away from the hotel windows. Later we understood why, the guests puked and threw bottles out the windows at night.

Frauenparkplatz = Women parking. The Germans know who drives badly (or at least parks badly).

Saw this after drinking the water...

In Transylvania, Romania. Biggest room so far.

Drakula's airport.

OK, that's what the band "Kalapacs" name means.

Eastern travels somewhere. (Hungary probably).

We ask for Australian wine and here they got Italian wine and just wrote "Australia" on the bottle. Yes, it fooled us...not! The wine was fine, though.

Some problems on the train from Denmark to Sweden. Don't remember exactly what the problem was, but the passengers were upset.

Hotel Moskva, Zlin, Czech republic. We usually go to the pizza and bowling-restaurant.

Romanian airlines? Czech?

Double bass!

Hammer-force one.

Pain!

Jill Johnson.

Moreaus´ TV-show.

On the way to the Moreaus´ TV-show. Oscar bought everything with alcohol in the train restaurant. Bad idea.

POO!

Some asshole train conductor told me to take down the suitcase from the overhead rack. So I did, but I refused to have it out of sight.

New bus due to temperature swings.

2011-11-20T16:38:00.029+01:00

For you that might wonder how we sleep. Here is my bunk. It's a space roughly 190 x 70 x 80 cm. I'm 194, sleeping diagonally is required. Our bus has 18 bunks usually. Crew and band all fits.
You usually, depending if it's a top or bottom bunk, have an outlet (mine had broken plastic but worked. See: middle top in pic), a fan and a light. On my bed there are:
2 x bottles with antiseptic alcohol for hands
1 x harmonica
1 x bootleg HF-hat
1 x reflecting band for arm
1 x computer with case (PC)
1 x old Nokia phone (I'm the only one without Iphone or Mac computer)
1 x fairly new Nokia phone (N8 from Katching)
2 x pillow
1 x blanket
1 x thermometer

Fred "DD" Lars, our bass player, suffering from hypothermia. He was fully clothed with hat and hood, and throusers and the works but still his vital signs went down to a minimum. Joacim, Fred and I had the most aft bunks and there was some sort of temperature problem with the last bus. One night we had visable breathing exhaust and actual frost on the metal parts in the bunks (while Joacim waa boiling in hell). We got three thermometers. One night Fred had 11, I had 12 and Joacim 25. Then all of a sudden Fred had 28 and I had 29 and Joacim 34. Before getting them we had way lower temperatures near the freezing point...that's why we got them in the first place, but we never got a "recorded" freezing notation.. It was kind of random.

It's hard to sleep on busses if you are not used to it, which I fortunatelly am.. Imagine a sleeping train and magnify it by 5. Bumpy roads (eastern Europe is really interesting), driver slamming on the brakes. Driver having a hard time with a gear. The whole thing shaking and wobbling. The bus feeling like it's running into a ravine. Driver feeling sleepy and driving onto side of the road. Band members screaming and shouting (partying) all night, band members and/or crew snoring. Band members or crew having terrible nightmares and screaming in agony. Loud bangs from doors when bus is parked. Loud music at all times.

We have gotten a different bus now...I'll report later how it's going.

Jumping fast from 3 degrees to 29 withing 10 minutes (at 13 in the pic). Better with the cold than the heat somehow.

Seb and the heads.

2011-11-16T00:37:00.005+01:00

Seb is drawing on the used drumheads. They are becoming more and more elaborate. We're thinking of selling them to the highes bidder online somehow and give the money to a good cause. Now I throw them out into the crowd every night.

Praha

2011-11-14T19:19:00.011+01:00

The kit after the show. Good thing it's a Tama so it will hold up during some abuse. I've had some issues lately of which level of (over)playing I should put into HammerFall. I come from a jazz/fusion-background and sometimes forget to hold back. I tried the old towel-over-the-head-in-a-complete-song-trick. But that just made it dark. Then I thought of the old holding-one-foot-on-one-bass-drum-in-a-complete-song-trick, but it got boring. So I just knocked the kit over in pure happiness and excitement.

Some Czech freaks after the show. I always take a pic of the crowd afterwards. You'll find them all in the HammerFall's facebook page.

What is this? Seems like it's a common light-sign in the old Czech republic official buildings.

Our bus driver Andy did his best to keep the bus on the Czech and Polish roads which are in serious need of repair. This night Joacim, Fredrik and my bunks were about 4 degrees above zero centigrade. I'm not kidding. We had all our clothes on. It was still freezing. We are buying sleeping bags tomorrow.

Walking with Joacim.

2011-11-13T14:39:00.005+01:00

Took a walk in Luxenbourg. We found a factory, a train locomotive and a hole.

This, in Europe, familiar sign is a bit different. Seems like the man is fat.

Dummers point of view.

2011-11-12T16:10:00.004+01:00

This is what I see night after night. Being a drummer is somewhat like being a half-musician, half-crew person. When the band is supposed to thank the audience after the gig (and I have to climb down and go in front of the drums) I feel shy and want to go and hide again.

Anderas "Metal" Schöwe

2011-11-12T16:05:00.002+01:00

This is our friend Andreas. He is from Germany and has been with us on tour for four days now. He is a journalist and photographer extraordinaire.

Wien

2011-11-11T14:44:00.012+01:00

Oscar and his Olivia.

Jenny and I had a day off in Wien. Here in a candy shop. We asked for Hitler-kugeln. They only had Mozart-kugeln.

At Aida coffee shop. Cakes and tea/coffee.

Stefanplatz at night.

Ian Paice and I.

2011-11-11T14:26:00.005+01:00

In the concrete were Ian Paice's hand-inprints (Gasometer in Wien). He is my first and only idol. I met him once and had the chance to sit down with him in a bar but I was too shy and felt speechless. Funny thing is that his hands are half the size of mine.

Befofe the gig in Paris.

2011-11-06T17:00:00.008+01:00

Oscar getting in the mood singing..."I was in the mood."
In the background Pontus and Joacim.

Ahrrrgh! Fred, Jugge (Jörg Zaske) and Joacim behind.

OOOOOOOOOOHhmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOH!

The two bandleaders.

Answer eye-question number two.

2011-11-06T16:58:00.003+01:00

New eye-question.

2011-11-06T12:08:00.002+01:00

Answer eye-question.

2011-11-06T12:06:00.002+01:00

Who's eye is this?

2011-11-05T16:58:00.002+01:00

Answer tomorrow.

Seb, the drum-tech.

2011-11-05T16:15:00.005+01:00

Here is Seb. He prepares a used drum head every day for me to throw into the audience.

Voila!

Oscar's battle-face.

2011-11-05T00:15:00.003+01:00

A few seconds after playing Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany.

Day off in Oberhausen.

2011-11-04T15:26:00.015+01:00

There is a train track near the Turbinenhalle where we play. I left the shutter open for a while when a train went past. It was actually pitch dark when this picture was taken.

Two guys from Deathdrestruction. Henrik "Hinken" Danhage and Jonas "Lillen" Ekdahl. We were hanging out outside the bus. It was really warm for being in November. So the two lovebirds found each other in the night...see how cute they look when they do "Lady and the Tramp".

Our tour bus. It went thru a wash machine yesterday. I was sleeping and dreaming about being chased by aliens. The sound of the brushes came nearer and it sounded like alien space ships closing in. It was scary and nice. Then ther sound became too loud and I woke up.

On tour.

2011-11-02T14:55:00.008+01:00

Our friends from Holland.

Hiroki "Rocky" Oda from Tama came by yesterday. Always nice to meet Rocky. Rocky enjoyes more progressive drumming so I did some of that to make him feel comfortable. The band kind of looked amused/puzzled at times:-)

Seb "Bas" Blaize tearing down the Tama-kit, Meinl-cymbals, Evans heads and the Pro-mark sticks after the gig.

Gothenburg

2011-10-29T13:00:00.005+02:00

Two happy guys. Stefan and Magnus. Visited us backstage, drank everything they could get their hands on. I have a feeling they don't feel like a milion bucks today.

The Gothenburg crowd, some of our closest friends.

Various pics.

2011-10-28T11:40:00.014+02:00

Jens playing the church organ in Anderslöv. Yes, all them pipes work. Di di diiiiiii. Di di di di diiiiiiiiiiii di!

Oscar not liking the wine in Västervik. This is a common sight backstage. Last summer we played the Mora-Orsa-eus show and Oscar de-peopled the hotel-hang-pre-party with this sort of behaviour. Jill Johnsson and her band left like cockroaches when we entered the party. Later she and her band warned Lisa Miskovsky, whom was supposed to stay at our hotel, to avoid it like the plauge if she wanted to sleep at all. In the end we sat there all by ourselves with no other guests. It turned our pretty OK in the end.

You can tune a piano but you can't tune-a-fish. Jens trying to make something playable out of my piano.

This guy seems to show up everywhere lately. Björn "Bear" Gelotte.

This guy is a car mechanic from the Swedish riviera. Would you want to meet him in a dark alley?

Fred "DD" Lars and his longtime girlfriend Mia. This was at Fuzz guitar show in Gothenburg.

Me making an ass of myself trying to be funny.

Summer on the Swedish riviera.

2011-10-28T11:29:00.004+02:00

Paul partying in the southern atmosphere of the Swedish summer.

Growing some exotic fruits. Only possible on the south side of the garden.

Jenny witrh som carrots.

Stefan och Edward samt turnestart.

2011-10-25T18:16:00.012+02:00

Seb and Daniel. A French guy and a German. Hopefully they don't start ww3.

Fredik with his new rig. Sound great. Look at his proud face.

Two managers, Jörg Zaske and Tomas Jernberg. Tomas does not look happy about the numbers.

Edward Jansson (tour booker) and Stefan Elmgren. Discussing Fullforces new tours. Edward was happy about the previous tours outcome.

Art metal-band line up picture

2011-03-20T10:51:00.005+01:00

Jonas Hellborg (electric bass), Yours truly (acoustic kit drums), V. Selvaganesh (kanjira), Jens Johansson (electric keyboards) and IA Eklundh (electric guitar).
Check the height difference between the drummers. No, there is no chair or the like I'm standing on. The pic was taken outside IA's Guitar camp houses.

FULLFORCE - None Of Your Concern (Photo video)

2010-12-27T13:29:00.000+01:00

Snow

2010-12-03T11:28:00.003+01:00

Our street. Yesterday it was snowing all day.

Our plant covered sun screen thing made out of wood couldn't handle the weight of the snow. It did with and awful sound...

Bench

2010-12-03T11:24:00.001+01:00

At the gym. William and I do powerlifting. Here I lift 158 kg or 348 punds. But I never go past the 90 degree angle or the sholders will pop.

Leaf and snow

2010-12-03T11:19:00.003+01:00

It's been snowing lots lately. This a few days ago. More has come since.

Jenny got an autumn leaf on her hat (cap or whatever you English speakers call it) without noticing.

Drum clinic

2010-12-03T11:16:00.002+01:00

This is the poster Magnus did for my drum clinic at his place. He thought I looked like a criminal. I agree. And he thought the drum sticks I'm holding were baseball bats.

Anders trying to hang with rockstars

2010-11-29T15:30:00.003+01:00

This is me hanging with some friends/rock stars. Everyone else looks really cool. I look like a freak of course. I really never had a clue about clothing or style. Check Joey Tempest out. Or Yngwie. They knew what to put on. A fun note is that Joey has a pink land line phone. Cells were not comon back then (1988). This was from John Levéns apartment in Upplands Väsby where we all grew up. The skirt I'm wereing was from my mother. "Here, Anders...some clothes before you go on the next 14 months world tour!" Well, I now understand why I never had any girls or groupies. But in general our band (Rising force) played the wrong kind of music. We had a 100% male audience since we played musician's music. When we did videos we hired girls to be in the audience pretending to be our fans.

Drumming in Studio Bohus

2010-11-24T23:27:00.003+01:00

We are almost done recording. Today was pretty hard work. Next HammerFall album will have some fast songs for sure. But also a bunch of the normal stuff.

Drumming in Kungälv.

2010-11-24T23:24:00.004+01:00

Me and my drums and cymbals.

The drum producer, Tobbe

2010-11-24T23:20:00.002+01:00

At work in studio Bohus. Abba was here as well as Status quo. One of the recorders has an Abba reel (Arrival) still on.

Jens

2010-09-26T21:31:00.006+02:00

In the middle of the night you might hear strange thumping sounds, maybe a loud bang, some low monotounus hum-swish and last night a power tool outside the house late at night. I took this pic with a strong flash. He was "caught in the act". :-)

Power sanding away all night long.

US-weekend

2010-09-26T20:21:00.002+02:00

Atlanta, Georgia. John Finnberg and Joacim Cans, tour-booker extraordinaire and HammerFall-singer extraordinaire, having a few drinks. The drinks were actually flouresent. I'm not kidding.

Finnish people

2010-09-26T20:11:00.002+02:00

In Finland people buy cheaper and therefore weaker beers in the bars and then mix in 96% pure alcohol (ethyl alcohol), which they brought with them into the bar secretly, to make it stronger.
In the pic: Jens Johansson, who is only half Finnish, that's why he brings only half a bottle of alcohol.
Another odd thing. People bring spices like curry and Tabasco with them to restaurants since the food is often un-spicy and somewhat tasteless.

Jenny and I sold some fish.

2010-09-26T20:01:00.002+02:00

Here they swim at the zoo shop, Akvarietjänst in Malmö. Jacobfreibergis (not seen here) and some Red Zebras. The Red Zebras are a mix from our own and Åke Unger's price winning zebras caught in the wild.

We went to an Indian restaurant afterwards.
Jenny had some picled gouramies.

X-mas i coming.

2010-09-26T19:59:00.003+02:00

I try to beat everyone to be the first one to put up some x-mas decorations. This year Paul and Anette won.

Ukraine/Russian trip with Hammerfall.

2010-09-07T13:16:00.012+02:00

Kiev's Mc Donalds. A Porn-Burger maybe? Everyone was a bit worried if they would develop three eyes (four eyes) or/and start glowing after eating. Chernobyl is just outside Kiev.
Porn means: Royal.

A typial "eastern looking car" This is a Lada. They are always in really bright and strong colors.

Our (cross)dressing room. "Primadonja" it says. Yes, I know the Cyrillic letters a bit.
Maybe Primadonja means artist in Russian?

Kiev Railway station. Everything in Ukraine and Russia is big except the cars. The cars btw you will see breaking down (or broken down) at all times. If you go ten miles on any road you will see at least 50 broken down cars at the side of the road.

On our way to Moscow.

Oscar and my train compartment. It was a twin room with no heater control. It was probably 30 degrees in there. Oscars bed to the right (with all the beers and wine). Joacim was directly on the other side of the thin wall bunking with Fredrik. They try to get the calm ones together and the wild ones separately. The band and crew had a whole train car to ourselves almost. A few other poor bastards where there as well. I guess they didn't get any sleep either since Oscar and some of the crew were in party mode. Between the Ukraine border and the Russian border it was a three hour train ride. A bit odd.

In the 80-ties we toured the Soviet Union with Rising Force for six weeks once. The trains where similar then but I think they hade open fire heaters in our car. We sold 15 millon records in Russia with one album (Trilogy) and got a bunch of coal and oil stocks as royalty. I personally didn't get any coal just a bunch of Borscht soup...

STOP-KRAN. Emergency break handle.

Jazz concert

2010-09-02T10:01:00.002+02:00

Bobo Stenson (not seen) on piano, Stefan Kärfve bass, Sammy Rimington sax/clarinet and yours truly on kit drums. We played swing and standards for an hour and 20 minutes. Jazz musicians are so different than rock musicians. No rehearsals almost, even though no one had ever played together before. Music is like a language, with different dialects. I speak many different dialects.

Strange thai dish

2010-09-02T09:57:00.002+02:00

Number two (excuse the pun). Gay Toad crap.

Fredrik

2010-09-02T09:53:00.002+02:00

This was taken at Gästis in Anderslöv.
Some beers later...

Paul and Anette

2010-09-02T09:51:00.003+02:00

Different personalities here. Paul is extrovert.

And Anette is shy. I have 25 pics like this one of her. She hates the camera.

Horse show

2010-09-02T09:45:00.002+02:00

Jenny and Tina Mollington took me and Sören (Vettu-Fardvik) to a horse field competition. They were galloping (cantering) at full speed over sturdy and sharp obstacles. If they mess up it's quite dangerous since the obstacles don't collapse at all.

Jens

2010-09-02T09:41:00.003+02:00

We tried to go to a somewhat fancy restaurant with Jens. He was making really loud puking sounds while having dessert. I mean, it was LOUD! Really embarrasing. He kept going on and on and on...seemed like an eternity.

Tommy Lee Bass

2010-09-02T09:35:00.002+02:00

We played at Sonissphere this summer. We played before Mötley Crüe. This is their drummer's bass drum. It was raining a lot that day. When we played it was a light drizzle mist but when we were done a terrible down pour started for hours. It created a small lake wher the 48 000 people were standing. The worst weather at a festival I've ever seen in my 30 years as a musician.

Party at Paul and Anette's.

2010-08-01T19:01:00.004+02:00

Jenny and I drank people's beers. It's a weak beer you can buy in ordinary shops. It's better than the strong stuff in many ways. With strong alcohol at least I start misbehaving and do stupid things as well as feeling like crap for days. Paul and the rest were drinking "Stockholm 7.0's and Rekorderlig cider 7.0's" Paul with popcorn in his face.

Party on!

Diaper.

Dancing the night away. Martin to the far right. Behind him you can almost see Anya.

Boating on the west coast.

2010-08-01T18:50:00.003+02:00

Krister at the helm.

Kalle stearing and getting lessons in seaman ship by Krister.

Niklas and I was in the smaller boat. Smaller but still very fast. Niklas was doing "donuts".

This boat, a zodiak, had to be mended first. A propeller accident had punctured it. It took some glue and patches and it was ready to go again.

Wipers breaking down

2010-08-01T18:43:00.003+02:00

At the possible worst time the windshield wiper motor broke. Luckily Jenny's father found a few used ones on the internet by a scrapheep-online-site. I mended the motor temporarely but in pouring rain on the E6 it stopped completely. Had to get it started again at a gas station by fiddling with the motor. Our fried Tina helped out and drove and got a used motor for us as well as baking a nice lemon curd cake. Her boyfriend Sören, drummer in Plantera, helped to install it.

Cruising for burgers

2010-08-01T18:38:00.003+02:00

Kalle ate a huge burger at Snapparp road diner in Halland.

I ordered a tripple Whopper in Svinesund (swine-straight). The guy had a hard time at first understanding the concept of adding an extra slab of meat.

Trying to impress :-)

2010-07-25T22:12:00.002+02:00

Limberness is not my thing, being stiff as a tree trunk, but I have been getting the roundhouse-kicks a bit higher lately.

Italy, Switzerland and Germany

2010-07-20T15:33:00.005+02:00

We hung out with Chris Tsangarides. Chris has done like a million records. And worked with a lot of the biggest bands. I know him from doing a Yngwie Malmsteen-record. Backstage in Balingen, Germany.

Pontus cooling off after the gig (in Hutwill, Switzerland).

Henjo Richter (left) and Daniel Zimmermann (right) after thier gig with Gamma Ray. They were in a good mood. Pistonia, Italy.

Daniel Zimmermann's hi-hat pedal has a funky name.

Mikael Stanne, Dark Tranquillity. The DT-boys can really drink. Late night at Bang your head, Germany.

Tolmin, Slovenia.

2010-07-20T15:24:00.004+02:00

We headlined so we got to put our bus next to the stage. It was so loud from all the other bands it was impossible to sleep. The bus was special. Had all sorts of nice features.

Next to the gig there was a nice little creek of ice cold and clear mountain water.

Oscar having a drink, self serve style.

Arvidsjaur, Northen Sweden

2010-07-20T15:14:00.004+02:00

Fredrik is putting on mosquito repellent. Up here you need a lot. There are billions and billions of mosquitos here!

Midnight sun.

In my hotel room there was a sauna (behind El Guapo in the pic). Never seen that before.

Swimming in a water filled abandoned bedrock-mine

2010-07-20T14:51:00.005+02:00

Jenny thought it was a bit cold at first.

Paul diving. Some guy died two week here since there was a sharp rock under the water surface. Sometimes people dump bicycles, cars and other things like dishwashers here.

Oscar, Paul, Martin, me and Viktoria.

Reindeers in Northern Sweden

2010-07-20T14:44:00.004+02:00

Near Arvidsjaur. A herd of reindeers crossing the 110 km/h-road. They don't move if you honk your horn. They just pass on by in their own time.

Andy Siri

2010-07-20T14:38:00.002+02:00

Our man in Germany from Nuclear Blast. This was in Tolmin, Slovenia. Andy is famous for being musically open minded and have a good sence of humor.

HammerFall in Germany

2010-07-20T14:23:00.003+02:00

Because we play: "German metal played by Swedes" we get to headline.

Karate injuries

2010-07-08T14:59:00.004+02:00

BBB: Brown Belt Blood. Stoffe was up and fighting in no time, though.
When I ran to my bag to get the camera everyone thought I was a nice guy and went for band-aids...

BBBH: Broken Brown Belt Hand. Christer's injury was a bit more serious.
Interesting fact: Christer competes with mail pigeons. Pretty unusual hobby, I think.

Japanese feet

2010-07-08T14:56:00.003+02:00

My foot compared to a Japanese woman's feet. Picture taken with candid camera under the table on a train to North Sweden. You know what they say: Big feet...

Mora weekend

2010-06-28T13:50:00.015+02:00

After a 10 hour journey we ended up at Joacim's place. Having midsummer dinner. I had my hood on. Protecting me against mosquitos.

A more normal pic (look further down) of Oscar. Girldfriend-Olivia in the background.

The gig we did was located on top of a mountain. We had to take the ski-lift to get there. A first time for me...as you can see from the worried facial expression. Behind me Joacim and Fredrik.

Joacim and Fredrik getting off.

The gig. The view has gotten three stars in Guide Michelin.

Oscar's bedroom eyes.

All girls think Fredrik is the best looking one...

Oscar after getting back down from the mountain late night. He sang all the way down. Really loud. You could hear it over the Mora-Orsa-Rättvik area

After party in our log cabin. Sabri, Joacim (the Amarant singer), Fredrik and Mia.

Oscar partying.

Street signs in Skåne (Sweden's best state).

2010-06-21T21:57:00.005+02:00

Duck crossing.

Nudist beach ahead. I didn't know if one was allowed to be un-naked so I whipped the monster out just to be safe.

East side/west side.

2010-06-21T21:40:00.005+02:00

In our village we have a small river, mostly in a duct. It runs thru our garden. It divides the village in two sides. East and west side. I live on the west side and Paul on the east side. He invented these signs for the different sides. He demonstrates where he belongs by looking at the east-sign.

Answer.

2010-06-21T21:37:00.001+02:00

The spinning solar powered light.

Question.

2010-06-21T10:00:00.000+02:00

Anybody that understand what this is exactly?

Germany

2010-06-18T10:58:00.001+02:00

I got this stupid hat in a gas station in Germany somewhere. Seemed like a great idea at the time...

Swedish Radio show

2010-06-18T10:34:00.008+02:00

We were broadcasting four hours live last Saturday. Quite a few interesting guests. Here is Mike Åkerfeldt from Opeth comparing the music industri and the musicians playing from before vs. now. Was it better before? In the background: Liv Ungermark, the producer.

To the left: Jens, my brother, was the "headliner-guest". They had a keyboard for him so Jens and I played some jams live (I usually have a drumkit in this radio show). It was interesting to just play whatever came to mind live in front of about 700 000 listeners. We kept it going for about sex minutes. Then again, we are trained professionals and should be able to anything musically after 30 years as pros. He also talked about his years with Dio and told some very funny stories.

Andreas Matz, the host of the show, in corpse paint. He was happy with his new look and is now thinking of getting it on a more regular basis.

Here is a link to the Radio channels webpage.
http://http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2602&artikel=3695508

Rock am Ring

2010-06-18T10:22:00.004+02:00

We were playing Rock am Ring (at the formula 1-track Nürnbergring). I never realized how large it is.

The markings at the end of the asphalt has a hight difference between the red and white of 10 cm. Must feel unconfortable running them over with a F-1 car in 300 km/h.

Gravel

2010-06-18T10:10:00.004+02:00

This pile was 15 metric tons. Seemed hopeless at first.

Had to get rid of all the weed behind the house so we put out a covering cloth and then the gravel on top.

Pranks my brother and I used to do as kids.

2010-06-02T23:11:00.018+02:00

1. Before piano lessons: smear fingers with bicycle chain-grease. Hiding the black oil under the fingers until it was time to play the home assignement. Voila! Simultaniously soiling and playing the keys.

2. Digging down a 150 feet long gardenhose near a sidewalk and turn the water on when passers by happend to...pass by. They didn't see where that came from.

3. When our mother had guests.
A. Put extra spice in the food.
B. Itching powder. At all times!
C. In the guest room she had in the attic, where there is a crawling space just outside the insulation of the room, we mounted speakers (we took from used radios and tv-sets) on the walls. We played airplane sounds or burning sound. Sometimes after each other. The effect was pretty amazing.
D. Made a hole just over where they slept so we could lower cables into their faces, and we ran a generator we de-mouted from an old crank-phone, thru their nose and mouth. Good chock-effect.
E. I stole a traffic light, the kind that blinks at night. We de-mouted the light and put a beeper instead as well as a delay circuit (Jens did this). When they put out the light and just fell a sleep 10 minutes later it started to beep. When they turned on the light the sound disapeared. Impossible to find. So they had to sleep with the light on all night.

4. Re-wirering peoples cars so the turning indicator would go to the horn. Well, you understand. Turn left: beep beep beep!

5. On tour with our teenage-band: Laxatives, laxatives, superglue, circuit breakers, laxatives, itching powder and laxatives.

6. Weed-killer powder or liquid in peoples lawns. Writing discusting words. It showed up weeks later. Delayed effect.

7. Getting weedseeds from a nearby field, by the bagfull, and planting in the neighbours flower beds.

8. Rotten herring in public places.

9. Ink in the lock of the classroom. Teachers got blue hands.

Karate kid.

2010-05-31T21:40:00.002+02:00

Mike C took the pic. My leg was on it's way down when it was taken.

Oscar practiced a back kick.

2010-05-31T21:38:00.001+02:00

An ex-bench.

Joacim's problem.

2010-05-31T21:35:00.001+02:00

How will he get out?

Unusual flight seat.

2010-05-31T21:30:00.003+02:00

On Czech airlines you can sit the "opposite way". I took this pic from my seat. It feels strange starting backwards. Normally you get pushed back in your seat but now it feels like you're hanging in your belt. Looking down on the ground enhances the "bad" feeling.

Four-beard.

2010-05-31T21:26:00.002+02:00

Sabaton's Daniel Mühr, keyboards, with his four-beard.

Amon Amarth and the bicycle stand.

2010-05-31T21:16:00.005+02:00

The big Swedish vikings, who already played the festival we were playing the next day, "warned" us about the backstage. "-It's unusuall, let's put it that way!" They explained. They wanted it to be a surprise, so we didn't get any more details.
Amon Amarth are really nice guys and a great band.

This was it. Outdoors and full of bicycle stands.

No problem for road dog like us, but Swedish Deathstars wrecked their backstage completely.

George, the main dude for the festival, asked me: "-Were they angry?" No, they were drunk, I told him...and probably happy.

Pontus' sandwich.

2010-05-31T21:10:00.002+02:00

Pontus likes hot food. For breakfast he put half a can of strong potent Hungarian spicy stuff on his sandwich. The gulasch-soup itself was very strong tasting as well.

The French and Portugese are taking over.

2010-05-31T21:02:00.003+02:00

Celine might be a small (compare her to the normal sized pizza) French girl, but she is our lighting director and has a big personality.

Fish (Portugal) instructing Seb (France) how to mount the drum pedals.

Strange beard and houses.

2010-05-31T20:53:00.003+02:00

A Dutch train conductor. With a funny beard.

In Amsterdam the houses are croocked by 15-20 degrees sometimes, some are falling down.

Pictures of drummers

2010-05-18T11:45:00.003+02:00

An exhibition of Swedish drummers by Peter Olofsson.

Lund 21:st of May, between 12-18.

England tour.

2010-05-09T16:02:00.030+02:00

A typical backstage sight. Someone was so drunk he dropped his beer.

The bus was previously hired by Europe. They had put their stickers everywhere. I sometimes (one out of ten times) sign my bunk for other rockers/crew to find. "Anders Johansson was here!" Maybe I should do it every time? Might be fun if others started this too. Or maybe not? Might be awfull to know you are in the same bunk as some well known slob/masturbator us to soil.

My bunk from the inside. It has a fan, some outlets, a curtain and sometimes a little window. Also known as "The Sacrofag". Sometimes they are not long enough (kind of often). And not so high in the "ceiling". Nothing for claustrophobics.
A bus might have anything from 1 to 18 bunks. This one had 13 bunks plus one for the driver under the stairs.

Joacim found a huge bag o' chips backstage.

My in-ear monitor amp and reciever. It was Klaus Meine's before I got it. I didn't change the name (well, not the one on the white tape, the one in the little window). It was kind of cool to have his. He is the lead singer of Scorpions. If you would boil and make tea out of it it would probably be some strange weirdo who would buy it.

From a toilet somewhere. No fan or any ventilation in it. Kind of typical.

Jez is giving a sensual massage to his gimp (Fish) in a very sexual way.

Hanging in the pub with Dream Evil. Pete Pain, Pat Power and Fredrik from HammerFall.

Kind of strange. Or maybe not in case you want to try how it is to drive a forklift or harverster.

This is strong stuff! In the background photographer Peter "The beard" Olofsson.

HammerFall's manager Per "The knife" Kviman. Don't mess with me, his face is saying.

This confused all of us. It's scary with the left hand traffic. Us, being used to drive on the right side, have it in us strongly to look the "wrong" way. No matter if they write signs on the roads, it's still confusing somehow.

One of Paul the neighbours many inventions. A cup of milk with instant coffee, a minute in the micro...voila!

Paul last night after a few cold ones.

As Paul says: "-I pass out every night and I come around in the mornings!"

Last night he invented a few words for naturally girls where the collar matches the cuffs: Blond pond, Brunette pet and Brown frown. Blond pond might take off like Ginge minge.
Paul always comes up with jokes. He told his mother the other day, who doesn't like foul language: "Then you like a big black cock....espaniel." (She has two).

"I like my coffee like I like my women...broken on the floor with white stuff inside."
"My forskin is too big...sorry my threeskin is five big."
There is many more but they are more harsch and not possible to write here...

http://news.fightmagazine.com/hammerfall-gets-nailed-at-bas-ruttens-elitemma-video-4901/

2010-05-04T00:47:00.003+02:00

Karate party

2010-04-25T17:27:00.014+02:00

The book of your promotion tests, results and rank looks like this. Like a passport. Might work as one in all the Shotokan-dojos in the world.

Harald Barret, one of the young talented students.
He also plays guitar in "Imminence".

The Shotokan-teachers want to get the Taekwondo out of me. I studied UTF-Taekwondo for a while. This is a typical Taekwondo downblock. I can see it myself looking at this pic.
Shotokan and Taekwondo is really similar. To simplify it crudely: Tkd more kicks, shotokan more hands. But it is up to the fighter in the end.

But I became this happy after passing my grading test.

Robban was talking about his "ippon" that he landed on a 3:rd degree black belt's nose.
Björn Frid, the victim of this Kisami-tsuki, wasn't that happy and swept Robbans both legs a second later...All in the great fun of Shotokan.

Micke had a few beers or 10 as everyone else. Hard fighter! Nice guy.

Two really experienced fighters from England. Sir Geoffrey and Sir Bob. Six degree blackbelts both of them. World champs, European champs and Universal champs...you name it. We were lucky to have them train us for the weekend.

Ulf Tengeborg, a gentleman, 3:rd degree black belt and the main boss for The Trelleborg Karateklubb. Great competition record. Swedish champ and more a few times.

Anders Olsson and Christopher Book in the background having a great time. Anders is the father of Martin. Stoffe one of the teachers. I was sure I took some pics of Daniel Olsson as well, but somehow they got lost. Might have been operator error from the camera guy after all the beers.

The young table. Great guys and mean fighters all of them. Stoffe 2, Erik Billgren, Martin and Harald. Linn is behind Stoffe. Is that green tea in Haralds glass?

Godfrey and Smith. English steel.

Blower.

2010-04-20T12:58:00.003+02:00

This is something I don't understand. They build and sell blowers powered by gasoline to blow dust and leaves from the sidewalk. Well, three minutes later the normal wind has blown it back. A waste of gas, environment and time. You have to pay the guys that operate these things as well. I could understand it if the machines collected, rather than just move the unwanted things.

Daniel Svensson-In Flames.

2010-04-18T13:12:00.003+02:00

Playing the Daniel Svensson-kit.

Same kit-different drummer.

I have this idea: Daniel Svensson, the In flames drummer, and I will meet at an airport before a day of summer-festivals. We will exchange our flight tickets. Then show up th the "wrong" festival, I at an In Flames-festival and he at a HammerFall-festival. We will wear each others clothing and hide from the bands all day. Then at the gig we will play with the "wrong" band. We will see if anyone will notice. Might be fun and interesting.

End of the tour.

2010-04-18T07:56:00.019+02:00

The bus outside a gig in Arizona. No bathroom, no shower. Sometimes I wonder if our bookers would put up with it. The local guys were great, though. As always. But they shoul be, getting nice tall good looking well hung viking-dudes hanging out playing Europeean metal. And playing well, well sometimes.

The thief:

"-I'll take your bike! But since I couldn't get the front wheel, I'll bend it so You can't use it either! Ha ha!"

A P.A. from a gig somewhere (I know where but don't want to badmouth the place since they are nice people). A bit smallish wouldn't you say? P.A. means "public Address". Some people think it means Power Amplification. Most people don't care.

I'm glad they didn't allow guns. No one checked, though.

Me with my new orange t-shirt I got from a friend. In front of a Saguaro cactus.

I tried to look like one, without much success.

Hmm...why not?!
One wonders what goes on here.

Fish doing some coke.
This restaurant served the most digusting food we ever had. A new record!

We tried to get Fredrik to come out of his shell and join us for a beer for once. He hates alcohol and rarely wants to party. But no luck this time either. He almost puked by the stench from his beer.

Gig toilets. Pink for the ladies so they would feel more comfortable and not go the wrong ones.
The gig was half outdoors.

Our headline stage in Texas. It was getting a bit more strange the more south we got. One member in the band didn't feel too hot so he had a bit of a problem during the gig and had to leave the concert rapidly since he soiled himself. And the band played on...

In the 80-s people tried to get a line. Now they want to get online. The guys are constantly online with their Iphones. I'm the only one with a Nokia and a PC. They are playing games. Sneezies mostly. Hours and hours, day by day, night after night look like this.

The "cat walk" to the backstage somewhere. Outdoors and full of garbage.
Just the way we like it! I like new experiences though, this was one for sure.

The toilet door. The hinge was ripped off so one had to lift the door in place. Again...I wonder what the bookers would do if we like booked equally bad hotels for them and had them living there for six weeks. Then again it's our own decision to go ahead and do these territories. Even though circumstances were a bit shady we were in a good mood and had a great time.

Did I mention the toilet was clogged?

On the Lufthansa-flight back. We had these really annoying kids behind us. They travelled with their mother but she didn't have them in check and didn't do anything about their behaviour. Don't you hate this!? They banged on our chairs constantly and screamed out loud. We told them off many times, in a very harsch way even. I threw a package of (opened) butter on them at one point and it only took a few seconds and it came flying back, into Fredriks head. The flight started out funny when Oscar was stuck in the middle of Fredrik and Joacim. He started freaking, elbowing the seat vigorously 10-15 times before Joacim, the daddy, stopped him by offered him his aisle seat (as you can see in the pic). It is horrible to sit for 10 hours when you can't move at all so I understand Oscar well.

West coast etc.

2010-04-01T20:53:00.029+02:00

They made gold cans for the Canadian people since they won the gold in the olympic hockey. Next time Sweden wins (again) we want gold cans also.

Pontus is always happy about the food and easy to please (so am I). Joacim is more of a connoisseur. But this meal passed thru Joacim's filter. The saddle ranch on Sunset boulevard in Hollywood.

Pontus was interessted in this huge and loooooong Canadian freight train (so was I). Somewhere in the Canadian Rocky mountains.

Fish always has problems at the borders. Every time. He looks like a criminal for sure.

He had spit out some snus (tobacco to put under your lip) during the night in a box for his headphones. The border inspectors were interested in it to put it mildly. When he explained what is was they stopped poking around in it...-It's my spiiit in there, man, Fish said. (Imagine a Portugese accent for more realism).

Drive thru coffee. In Medford, Oregon, where we had a day off.

Potato sallad in tetra brick-containers.

A fat American, so fat he had to lend an electrical vehicle to be able to shop at all.
The wheels made a strange sound from trying to carry the large weight.

Germanchökolätekäke.

To get people out of a heart attack. You see them here and there. This one in a movie theatre.

Swedish bread. Who's behind it? Hint: He is the third tallest in the band.

A syringe welcomed us outside the bus in San Francisco. HIV-infected possibly.

Jenny came over for a few days. At Denny's having orange-strawberry juice.

Amercican breakfast. 10 000 000 calories!

Jenny's they type that's always happy and positive about everything.

We rented a car and took a drive to Vegas. A Toyota Tundra V8. Really great. Big and powerful, easy to handle. Not bad on gas either.

Yngwie has big hands. You should see his feet...

Mikkey Dee has a long middle finger (maybe it was Lemmy's...hard to tell).
Mikkey came to the Los Angeles-show. Got a bit drunk. In the end he just screamed: -Anders Anders! with a really hoarse voice. I don't think he remembers this. He's always a fun guy to have at a party and the musical backbone in Motörhead. Without him this band wouldn't be half as good.

Tour in progress.

2010-03-22T08:30:00.034+01:00

Fredrik wrote this...

A very un-common sight. A cross walk. Most (99,5%) people don't walk anywhere. If you don't have a car it's nearly impossible to go anywhere, and dangerous to try to cross 10-lane streets.

Drive thru banking...only for the really lazy. You don't even have to get out of your car. Very common in the States.

An ATM (automatic teller machine or cash machine) inside a restaurant. A common sight also in stores. In porn films ATM means something else.

Oúr man in Kansas, Dave, came up to Plymouth and had a bbq served from his truck bed.

On tour you have to go to laundromats. Coin operated. This one in Winnipeg.
I was the only one going, the others (most of them) wear their underwear and socks three-four days before changing...bluurk!

Something that bothers me a bit: A drummer seems to be a non-person in a band, like a referee in sports (who looks at him or her?) or a door man... As a drummer you can be placed behind a pole like this and everyone thinks it OK. Or light people (the ones flashing the lights more or less out of time when a band plays, Celine excluded) often just don't bother to place lights on the drummer. This has always pissed me off since I think it takes some real talent and skills as well as physical stamina to play the damn things. This gig was a bit rudimentary in general though...look at the back drop with the band logo :-)

The backstage door. It was litterar 40 cm (1,3 feet).

Hanging backstage. Who said it's always glamorous?

Joacim was just goofing off. No one needs Anus-ol. We just thought the name was a bit funky.

In Canada they say: Walk when the man is white.

Hockey and curling is huge in Canada. This was shown in a shop window. Some game between Sweden and Canada. And not with the "normal" Swedish team.

Edmonton, Canada. A fire in progresss. I think this was when it just had started. Later big flames came out but that pic was out of focus.

A huge strawberry. My hands are pretty big as well as my...feet. It was like a small apple.

The States

2010-03-16T20:37:00.018+01:00

Less than 80% peanuts. Hmm...so there is 79 % peanuts then... four out of five nuts is a peanut.

Second special dinner: Chicken balls.

They have some really awfull sodas here. Dr Pepper is one. Rootbeer and Cream soda are two other ones.

Wrigley Fields. Seen the movie "The Blues Brothers"?

Guitar player from Powerglove. Nintendo-metal...what on earth will they come up with next?!

A collector (Cristopher?). He now has his complete Rising Force set. It will go for about 15 000 dollars on the collectors market, but he will not sell. Note how everyone has signed with a different colored marker. I got pink:-)

A typical sight. A three quarter working toilet.
Oscar has a small ass so he didn't mind.

Now they made them bigger...Third pounders. I got one + a double cheese burger just now for breakfast.

Fish (Portugese backline tech) with "our" drum kit. It is actually In Flames' Tama-drums we have borrowed which they always use in The States. Fish says I hit three times harder than their drummer. But I guess I'm three times bigger and heavier. I'm a super heavy weight according to olympic boxing rules.

Tonight only. Live web broadcast from "The Rave club". It's the smallest gig place so far. A bit typical that we will broadcast from there.

Oscar wrote this...
It sum things up sometimes. :-)

Pro-Mark, the best drumsticks in the world.

2010-03-13T00:30:00.003+01:00

http://www.promark.com/community/profile/4446/

The HammerFall-guitar player in the mood.

2010-03-11T23:04:00.001+01:00

USA/Canada

2010-03-11T19:02:00.018+01:00

On top of the Rocky stairs. It was easy to run up. Please check www.hammerfall.net for a movie of Oscar running up the stairs.

Potbelly café. You'll get a Potbelly for sure!

230V is hard to get on this continent. We have amps and the like running on 230V so our toothbrushes get to borrow some of the voltage from the transformers.

Typically. Dessert is religion. Who cares if you get fat?

I'm over 6.3 for sure...

Our litte monitoring packs. See how they socialize.

Our home for five weeks.

C-up, a 7-up rip off (my mother thinks it's called zup). C-up in Swedish means: Look up (as Oscar demonstrates).

Canadian beer with 10.1%. The more north, the worse the alcoholics.

Ketchup chips, a Canadian favourite.

A typical backstage sight.

Soundman Tom Kubic.

Healthy. Green tea and V8.

Fish, backline-tech from Portugal.

Jez, tourmanager.

USA

2010-03-05T21:23:00.010+01:00

Little cars to take oversized people around the stores (shops) when they do their shopping.
If you are fat you should be walking instead one might think.

Flu-shot anyone?

Supersized margarita. Must have been 75 cl. Pontus and I hade one eache...cpouldn't even finish them. The were strong as well.

Reese's eggs...never seen them in Europe.
Huge as everything else here.

A shop's sallad-dressing section...oversized.

Oversized onions.

Undersized snow-vehicle.
About a quarter the size we use in Sweden. Then again, we are closer to the pole and have more snow accordingly.

You can get this snow-t-shirt in XXXL. Oversized.
They had some snow lately and this t-shirt was after this.

Good idea: A little coffee set to go.