Lugnet has a new album out. Interview with Fredrik Pukka Jansson
Heavy riffbased rock played on a Gibson SG guitar through Orange amps.
It could be a fitting discription of Black Sabbath and Toni Iommis musical gear. It could also be a fitting description of
what many retrorockbands of today sees as stadard equipment. In this day and age the music of the past seems to meddle a lot in what many bands play, how they sound, what they should look like and what gear they should use. When you play music influenced by the past, how much should you let the past control what you do in the present?
To find out I had a chat with Fredrik Jansson Pukka, drummer of Lugnet, and to snoop around a little bit about their
brand new album Nightwalker.
How did the process of writing and recording “Nightwalker” differ from the selftitled album from 2016?
On our first album everyone in the band was more involved in the writing while on the new album it was mainly me.
Not like a band-Hitler, it just played out that way. Our new guitarplayer Matti Norlin stepped right into the roll as producer/mixer and gave the album a great lift with a lot of ideas and details. There is more high creative spirit and spontaneity on the new album than the first.
Compare Lugnet in 2016 and 2019.
We have a lot more focus now and we are a better band. All members are pulling in the same direction which helps
a lot if you want to get somewhere.
Discribe the new album in three words.
A pure masterpiece
Who recorded the album and where?
It has, as most parts of the first album, been recorded in a studio in Tungelsta called Studio Heavy Electric Sound
under supervision from it´s owner Kent Sjöberg.
Recording music that has a retro feel to it is for some bands associated with using speakers, instruments and equipment from a specific period of time. What are your thoughts on that?
Off course old instruments are more fun to own and play on. Often sounds better too as long as they don´t start to malfunction. It can be a nightmare to have an old Ludwig snaredrum that drops the tuning and becomes eggshaped after half a song. We are not that strict about using other equipment than from the seventies. We have some new stuff in our arsenal as well.
What are your thoughts on the doom/retrorock/stoner-scene of 2019? Those music genres has seen a huge rise in popularity in the last couple of years. Will this continue dispite an oversaturated market? What are your thoughts on that?
The bands who brings their own sound will continue to play a while longer. No problem. While those who will plagiarize something already done will soon be forgotten. That´s not specific to those genres you mentioned. It goes for all genres in music.
You have a new singer on “Nightwalker”. How did that effect the album?
Johan has had a huge influence. He´s a cunning devil when it comes to writing really good choruses and choral arrangements. That can really take a band to a whole new level. No diss to our former singer Roger who was fantastic but now it´s more eleborated and you can really tell by the result in the end.
Evil, the occult, H.P Lovecraft, flirting with satan, witchcraft, magic, cults, and drugs. Clichéthemes used by many bands from the genres I mentioned earlier (Doom/Retrorock/Stoner). What are your thought on the lyrics of Lugnet? Is it important to use themes that are typical for the genre?
Surely it´s important for some to have the right theme for their music. People can be very pretentious with that kind of thing. Me I think norms and rules exists to be broken. Our lyrics are more down to earth. Life and death mainly. And about stupid people you know. Writing lyrics about haschwizards climbing mountains we leave for someone else.
Oneeyed characters on your albumcovers. Coincidence or planned theme?
Hahaha. Pure coincidence. I haven´t thought about it until now. You have a keep eye.
