Status: Single
City: Gothenburg
State: Västra Götalands län
Country: SE
Signup Date: 8/6/2006
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Thursday, April 10, 2008
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MySpace Interview with Jonas EkdahlJonas Ekdahl took the time to answer some fan sent questions for this MySpace interview in April 2008. Read up on how he started drumming, who is he influenced by, what he would be if not a rock star and a lot more! Thanks to all the MySpace friends for sending in the good questions.   Question: When and how did you discover that you had talent at playing the drums? If you took lessons, what inspired you to do such a thing? (Question from MySpace user " L") Jonas Ekdahl's answer: I had my first band with a couple of friends from school when I was 10, I think. I played saxophone at that time. (And no, I can't play it anymore. Not even "Smoke on the water".) The guy who played drums in the band kept his drumkit in our garage, and sometimes I tried to play. I thought it was really fun, and told my friend, who suggested I joined him for some drum lessons. So I did, and took lessons from that teacher for 5 years, before I applied for a music- and percussion high school.
Question: How long did it take you do actually learn how to drum as well as you do now and would you change anything about your drumming skills? (Question from " Cameron") Jonas: It has taken me almost 14 years, and I'm still working on it, hehe. I feel that there's always something I can improve or do better with my playing. But one thing I would change is that I'm kind of lazy with practicing sometimes. But I'm working on that too. 
Question: Was there a defining moment where you suddenly realised that music was your life, or had you always known? (Question from " Budz") Jonas: I have been interested in music my whole life, I started to play the clarinette when I was 8 or something. Then I switched to saxophone before I fell in love with drums. But I think that when I was in 8th or 9th grade, music and drumming became something I couldn't be without and wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Question: What bands influenced you growing up and what specific drummers shaped the way you play today? (Question from " Leon") Jonas: KISS were my first influence when I started playing drums. Peter Criss, Eric Carr and Eric Singer were all big influences to me, and I loved to play along to KISS records. Then I got into bands like Metallica and Pantera (Vinnie Paul rules), and I discovered Red Hot Chili Peppers, and really liked Chad Smith's groovy playing. I use ghost notes all the time when I play, it doesn't matter if it's metal, pop or funk. They're always there when I play.
When I got older and started high school, I started to listen to more of the technical drummers like Terry Bozzio, Virgil Donati and Mike Mangini, and listened to Steve Vai a lot, as well as an American band from Dallas, TX, called Haji's Kitchen (now called Haji). That drummer is really good and has really style and approach to his drumming. But I also listen R&B and Soul. I think Amir Questlove playing is absolutely awesome. He plays drums in the band Roots, but has also played on a lot of other records, with artists like D'Angelo, Nikka Costa and Joss Stone. So I keep my mind as open as possible. At the moment I listen to a lot of metal and I'm a huge sucker for both Dirk Verbeuren in Soilwork and Derek Roddy (ex-Hate Eternal).
Question: Does the side project DeathDestruction still exist and if yes, what's in the planned future for it? (Question from "Tini") Jonas: Yes it exists. But we all have had a lot to with our own bands, so there has not been time for any of us to do anything new with DeathDestruction, at the moment. But I hope we will go into the studio and record an album some day when we've got time, because we have a lot of awesome material laying around.
DeathDestruction started as a really playful project. Me, Henrik and Rikard did one night in the studio while we were recording "The Inner Circle". And we realised that the songs where actually really cool, so we kept writing that kind of songs. All of a sudden we had 14 songs that we recorded in the studio. At that time Rikard, (who actually was the lead singer) thought we had taken DD too serious, so he decided to leave the band. Instead we found Jimmie Strimell (Dead By April, ex-Nightrage), and also our friend and previous Evergrey bassplayer Fredrik Larsson, who's now also in Hammerfall. There, now you even got a small biography as well.
Check out DeathDestruction on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/deathdestructiongbg
Question: How is your "partnership" with fellow rhythm maestro Jari developing, and what do you think he has bought that is different to add to the Evergrey sound? (Question from " Wooks") Jonas: We are complementing each other just great! He's an unbelievable bassplayer, and I feel that we make each other tighter as a rhythm section. He makes me want to play better. And when you have that impression on someone, it's a pretty good rating. Especially, since he's "just a bassplayer"..haha. (I hope my Swedish "irony-humour" is getting through the screen. ) I remember when we had our first jam with him, or audition if you want to call it that. He came in with his bass, and as soon as we started the first song we all felt that this was the guy. And I actually caught myself with having one of the biggest smiles you can have. Jari is playing amazing on our new album as well! It was fun to record the album with him, because we got a chance to rehearse the songs just the two of us, and that was a really good thing for us to do.
Question: The teasers (which sound mindblowing) got me wondering: Will "Torn" be a concept album? Or more like a record based around a theme, like "Recreation Day"? (Question from " Esopen") Jonas: No, "Torn" is not a concept album. Ask Tom about the lyrics. I'm just the drummer, I'm glad if I can read the setlist during a gig right.
Question: My question revolves around your involvement in the songwriting process for Evergrey. With "The Inner Circle", you were credited on a few songs ("Ambassador," "The Essence of Conviction") and on "Monday Morning Apocalypse", you had more credits (including "Obedience" and "Closure"). How much were you involved with the writing process for the upcoming "Torn"? (Question from " Past and Future Secret (Chris)") Jonas: I have been involved in the song writing a lot more on Torn than on any of the albums you mentioned.
Question: If you weren't a rockstar, what would you be and why? (Question from " Robson Netto") Jonas: I like food and cooking a lot, so I think I would try to be a chef or something like that.
Question: Besides your hometown, where is your favorite place in the world you have played so far? Also, what has been your favorite show you've played so far and why? (Question from " Shellikinz") Jonas: That's a tough one.. There's no place like home, but I really like Spain, Holland and the United States. Of course, the DVD gig has been one of my favourite shows, since it was a mark in Evergrey's history. We recorded it in Gothenburg and had all of our friends and families there, and the whole thing with the choir and the string quartet on stage was very cool. We did a show in Belgium on our previous European tour with 800 crazy fans. We had a lot of fun on stage, the crowd was great. A great show. And speaking of Belgium, the Graspop festival is always awesome to play at. We played in Helsinki recently, and that show was also really really good. In 2004 we did a North American tour with Iced Earth and Children of Bodom, and we played a show in Toronto, Canada. And from the second the intro went on the audience turned crazy. It was great!
Question: Although you've been the Evergrey drummer for a while now, I've always been wondering, do you ever change up the drumming when you play older material live? (Question from " Hardcore Cafe") Jonas: It depends. I used to do that a lot before, but now I try to nail almost everything as much as possible. But some days I just have to do something different. Not on the most vital parts that are very important for the song, but like on small fills and stuff like that.
Question: What is your favorite song (or songs) to play drumwise? (Question from " Sober and Irrelevant") Jonas: I have always loved "Obedience". It's so dark, heavy and groovy and it really fits my style of playing. Other favourite tunes are "Mark of the triangle", that song has a lot of cool parts in it. It changes from slow and powerful to heavy and melodic. And the crowd likes that song to. It's pretty cool to see them jump up and down on the heavier parts. I like "Monday Morning Apocalypse", because it's "straight pipes" as you would say in Sweden (raka rör). In other words, it is really straight forward. "I'm Sorry" is kind of a favourite song as well. It's so simple to play drummingwise, and I feel that I really can play powerful instead of playing fancy technical stuff. Because that just would have ruined the whole song, in my opinion. "Fear" is the first song we have played from "Torn" and that's a really cool song to play live, even though we've only played it twice so far. But it's so heavy and I am playing doublebass stuff throughout the whole song, more or less. We have lots of songs on the new album that are really going to be kickass to play live.
Question: Would you consider releasing a drums DVD with lessons, a drum solo, and also samples from Evergrey songs with the explanations? (Question from " VP-1480") Jonas: Haha, well no, not yet. I think will take a while before (and if) I would release a drum DVD. That's not in my plans at the moment. But who knows, maybe some day there will be a DVD with all the "Evergrey chops from hell".. haha
Question: What's the most difficult thing about being a drummer? (Question from " Makntak") Jonas: That is very individual. But for me, it's a lot of things, haha. The most difficult thing is to make the brain tell your arms and legs to do all these co-ordination stuff, and at the same time you want everything to groove. So when you practice you're not only sitting there, feeling like a stupid marionette puppet with your brain trying to pull all the right strings at the right time, you have to do it with feel as well. I can really go bananas on those exercises. Not to mention hearing and taking all the crappy "drummer-jokes"..
Question: How much of your drum sound on Evergrey records is acoustic drums vs. triggered sounds? Also, when you use triggers or sound replacement, do you use samples of your own acoustic drums or do you use ddrum samples or some other sample library? (Question from " Mike Gerbitz") Jonas: We have used both triggers and sound replacements on the Evergrey albums I've recorded. We like to mix the acoustic sound with sound replacement and sometimes triggers. We had some triggers on "The Inner Circle", but not on "Monday Morning..". On "Torn" we have triggers just on the bassdrums, but we have mixed it with the acoustic bassdrum sound. And it's divided like 70% acoustic sound and 30% trigger, I think. The trigged sound comes from my old Ddrum module from -92. Old school stuff, and it sounds great. For toms we sound replaced them with my toms, and we divided the sounds like we did with the bassdrums, 70/30. Just to give it that extra punch and attack.
Question: How do you cope with the fact that you are younger than the rest of the guys from the band, was it easier or harder for you to fit in with the rest of the guys? (Question from " Rhaegar Targaryen") Jonas: In the beginning it was maybe a little harder, but it wasn't anything I thought about. I've never felt that I'm that much younger than the rest. And now I definitely don't think about it, because I'm starting to get old too. Sad but true. But the good thing is, that I will always be at least 10 years younger than the rest of the guys.
Question: What made you drum the first time - I mean, any song, situation that made you to drum on a desk or something? (Question from " .black.orchid.") Jonas: The drum solo Ian Haugland from Europe did on their video "Europe in America". He had only a snare drum onstage during his solo, and he did a call-and-response thing with the audience. I really liked Ian when I was little, because he always looked so happy when he played. It was really contagious. I was 4 or 5 years old and I thought what he did was really cool and fascinating.
Question: Double bass drumming is a very complex and exciting part about being a talented drummer in metal. What do you recommend for amateur drummers learning double bass as far as technique and endurance is concerned? (Question from " Ralphy") Jonas: When you start out with learning doublebass, make sure you practice in tempo that you are comfortable with. Also, practice with a metronome, or play along to your iPod or CD player so you're not losing the tempo. Also make sure that your feet are playing equally, both in power and speed. If you want to develop your doublebass technique a good tip is to take a lot of rudiments and just try to play them with your feet. Double strokes, paradiddles, flams etc.. You can also for example do those exercises I just mentioned, but instead of just using both feet, exchange one foot to one of your hands. To develop speed and/or endurance, there are no shortcuts, you just have to practice, practice, practice. And play in a fast tempo for as long as you can. Play until your feet/legs burns, and when they do, continue until you just can't go on anymore. Take a break and crank up the tempo and play for as long as you can again. But it is really important that you warm up before you practice speed and endurance. And you should also stretch your muscles afterwards, just so you don't strain yourself.
Question: Some drummers may find rudiments tedious and boring, but I love to practice them. What are your favorite rudiments and how important of a role do you feel they've played in developing your skill overall? (Question from " Cory") Jonas: I used to do a rudiments, but I rarely do them anymore. I wasn't really that good at practicing rudiments, because every time sat down to practice them, I always ended up jamming along to my favourite tunes on my CD player. That was way more fun. (Again, the lazy practice attitude.)
I want to thank all of our fans for supporting us and I'll see you on the road!
Stay tuned to our websites for updates.
All the best,
/Jonas
9:50 PM
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