A Dirty Dozen with FRED FORSBERG from MASS WORSHIP – February 2022

According to a recent press release: “MASS WORSHIP release the music video for their new track “Orcus Mouth” off their upcoming album Portal Tombs. The video clip accompanying the release is the logical continuation of their previous track release, “Revel In Fear.” Watch the video, which was self-produced by the band in true DIY style with their live guitarist Niklas Sandin. Despite spending a big part of 2020-2021 locked inside, writing and recording new material, Stockholm based MASS WORSHIP did complete a highly successful tour in support of Polish death metal legends Vader. Meanwhile, MASS WORSHIP are primed and ready to unleash their second full-length assault. Portal Tombs is a terrifying but electrifying exploration of the gloomy depths of human nature: a monolithic manifestation of the musical force that is MASS WORSHIP. Drawing inspiration from bands such as At The Gates, Mastodon and Meshuggah, MASS WORSHIP could be likened to many bands, but somehow forge their musical identity into something exceptionally distinctive and transcendent, and with enough confidence and conviction to win over even the most orthodox fans of the genre. MASS WORSHIP is Gustav Eriksson (guitar), Dadde Stark (bass), Claes Nordin (vocals), and Fred Forsberg (drums).” We get drummer Fred to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

We always intend to build our music and lyrics in layers, and it’s always quite hard to find the right balance between making it intricate enough to discover new things over time, and not overwhelm the first-time listener with information. On this record in specific, I’d say there’s a lot more melodic and progressive layers than with our previous endeavours. It’s also a record that has a very specific sound — I’d say it’s more like a hand-crafted house with all it’s quirks and details and less of a production line product, it really doesn’t sound like anything else. For diehard fans, you can expect us to bring you even further down the dark world that is Mass Worship.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Yeah, I remember doodling around with an electronic piano my family borrowed at a very young age. In particular finding this combination of keys that just brought you into a completely different dimension of reality. At the beginning it was very rudimental, like you can play stuff that makes people feel happy or sad, and at a later point I understood that you can actually create whole complex worlds inside of music, and that music can act like a door into the subconscious in ways language can’t. And I think to this day, this is what interests me the most with music — world creation, twisting and turning, creating new dimensions, and giving people new perspectives. That’s also something that drives me personally in general, the search for new perspectives, expand my understanding of all things and how they relate to each other.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

Early on it was punk, and that goes for all of us in the band. Some of us are more into classic Swedish punk and Crust, some of us are into Black Flag and all that, and some of us are into the more melodic side of it — but punk most definitely was the driving force early on for us all, and guided a lot of what we do today -it’s an important building block of this band. Aside from that, anything that is emotionally ambiguous is right up my alley, again, I want to be dragged into another dimension when I listen to something, I want music to make me see things from a new perspective — and there’s been so many songs, bands, live shows etc. over the year that have sparked a new vision.

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

For Mass Worship, I’d say something like Mastodon, Meshuggah, At the Gates, Gojira and Opeth are the major ones stylistically — a mix of old and new, traditional and progressive, brutality and emotionality. But other bands in completely different genres, as well as other types of art probably have a bigger influence on the actual writing.  If metal was the only influence for Mass Worship, we would definitely not sound the way we do.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

We’ve had our great share of collaborators — Barney of Napalm Death, Jonas of At the Gates and Jonas of Katatonia are all doing stuff on our new album which is totally mind-blowing and already a dream in of itself — but if I could dream a little bit more for future releases, it would probably involve getting something in from one of the guys in Mastodon, or get Jaz from Killing Joke to do a couple of lines.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

Overwhelmingly dark, heavy and monolithic — metal, with the urgency and confidence of punk. It seems like people in general are struggling a bit to categorise us, which is something we like. Everyone’s got such vastly different set of references that I think pretty much anything anyone throws at us is both entertaining and weirdly accurate in one way or the other — very hard to disagree with anything anyone has to say, it’s their interpretation of our band.

7. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

No one cooks, Claes picks up the delivery food and the beverages, Gustav is the acoustic guitar singalong star.

8. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

Me and my girlfriend went to see High on Fire, and we were casually standing outside the venue talking about what an absolute hunk of a man Matt Pike is, when all of a sudden we realised he was standing right next to us grabbing a cig, hooded up without a shirt underneath. I so hope he heard the entire conversation!

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

Best part about being a musician is the never-ending rabbit hole of music, learning and trying new things, the ability to express yourself, and again, create worlds out of thin air. If I could no longer do music, I think any other creative activity would suffice — writer would probably be my first pick.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I always love conversational type of interviews rather than questions — when you drift in and out, and it’s allowed to go deep into topics. Mass Worship is about reaching deep inside and try to communicate your inner truth through music — the translation of some of those ideas into communicable language is sometimes hard, and it’s easy to miss important nuances, especially when you get questions like “What is the meaning of X”.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over”, even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Not really, I just wish I stuck to my gut feel in more situations, and explored without compromise.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Oh, hard one! I can’t pick one, but: Spontaneously I’d say something like Queens of The Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf or any Dessert Sessions session for the creative ambience, possibly some of the early The Mars Volta stuff for the personnel (especially Jon Theodore), Metallica – Black Album primarily for the production. I mean this list could go on and on, way back in time too. Too many records that mean too much to me.

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Category: Interviews