by Martin Popoff
Swinging through 2001, Pain Of Salvation look to balance work (computer jobs, music instruction) as well as university study, with the increasing demands of a band rapidly ascending their growth curve. Select live dates will occur through the summer, likely none in North America, followed by work on the next album, which, judging from the mountain of effort, elaboration and result thickening The Perfect Element, won't rear its head until 2002.
"We are actually only recording when we do the albums," offers Daniel, when asked about potential one-off recordings for other specialty products, offering also a glimpse into the methodology that resulted in such a freewheeling record. "For the first and second albums we did demo recordings for almost all of the songs. For the new album we actually never recorded the full songs, which was an interesting new thing for when we went into the studio. We were recording the songs for the first time. And the other guys in the band hadn't even heard the vocal melodies for some of the songs, which was really strange. It made it more interesting but it was a very happy feeling in the studio because we got to see the songs grow from just the drum rhythms through to full compositions, whereas with the previous albums it was more like trying to recreate the good things from the demos and trying to depress the bad elements, as well as trying to exchange some of the old ideas for new ideas. It was a lot of comparing, and with this album, it was pure creation."