SOILWORK - It Worked. Page 4
By Martin Popoff

"Bjorn tells us something - which again, is something you guys hate to hear - I know that the lyrics on this album are very emotional for Bjorn. He really took the criticism that Devin gave to him that he needs to express a lot more in his lyrics, what he feels. Because in the past, it's got to sound cool, good melodies, the rhythmic parts have to be good. But this time he puts a lot of his ordinary life in his lyrics. Kind of like Devin does. If you read his lyrics, you can't really grasp what he's talking about but at the same time, if you ask him, he tells you. But I think Bjorn, on Departure Plan, is talking about being tired of this world, where you don't see another solution than to kill yourself. I think he's trying to create how this person feels when they're actually in this deep depression, and then how to get out of it as well. I think he tends to relate to ordinary things that happen in society, the difficult things we face every day. I also believe that Bjorn tries to... this album is actually, Figure Number Five... I don't know if you use that expression in America, the expression fifth wheel. It's like the fifth wheel on a car. And this can be related to a bit of social criticism in ordinary life. There are minorities who don't really feel that they're being appreciated. They always have to step aside because there's somebody else always deciding. And you don't really feel like you belong, that you're a leftover. And I think this is what Bjorn is trying to explain with Figure Number Five, which also has to do with the fact that it's the fifth record, of course. And we also wanted to have a title that wasn't really death metal-ish (laughs)."

What other titles were on the drawing board?

"Well, Sven, the keyboard player, thought Departure Plan was a cool name for the album. But it sounds like we were doing our last record. It's like, 'OK, Departure Plan. This is the last album by Soilwork.' Or it's like everybody's going to commit suicide after doing this record. It's going to be a classic one and everybody's going to kill themselves. And he had some other ideas that maybe it should be called Brickwalker. But I think what we came up with was good because it is the fifth record and it has a connection to ordinary life. We don't like to speak about stuff we can't relate to, like some of the black metal bands do, in my opinion. I don't know if you agree with that but they write about the devil coming down in whatever, July 2010, coming over for a cup of coffee before he kills the world. We like to keep it close to ourselves, something we can identify with."

Look for Soilwork to tour with hugely buzzing label mates In Flames through North America later this spring, after which a return trip to these shores is tentatively planned for summer. See www.soilwork.com for more info.