Adept: “Now It’s Truly Fun Again”

You played at Sweden Rock this year – what does it mean to you to stand on one of Sweden’s biggest hard rock festival stages?

It is a real bucket list thing. We talked about it beforehand – we have been around for so long and played so many festivals in Sweden, even ones that no longer exist. But Sweden Rock in particular has always been difficult to get into.

That probably has to do with the fact that the festival previously had a fairly niche profile and maybe did not want to bring in too much scream-heavy music. Then they started broadening things five, six, seven years ago, but by then we were inactive and did not really exist as a band anymore.

When we came back and got the offer, it was just: “Let’s do it.” We said yes straight away. It was incredibly fun.

You went on already at 12:30 on Friday – how do you prepare to deliver full energy in the middle of the day?

That is breakfast time, haha.

But the response from the crowd was enormous. I really think the people who were there gave so much of themselves. It is not easy to play at 12:30, but we are really happy with the response.

The audience was legendary. It had been raining, it was cold, people had slept in tents – and still they got up and delivered the way they did. You get a lot of energy from that.

It is always give and take. We want the audience to be engaged, but we also get fired up by them. They give us just as much energy as we give them.

Is there any band on this year’s lineup that you would like to catch yourselves?

Absolutely. Foreigner, for example. That type of music sits somewhere between my heart and my parents’ hearts. That is where we meet musically.

I am also a big Iron Maiden fan, but they played yesterday and we only got here this morning, a few hours before we were supposed to play.

Then it is of course fun to see bands like Helloween too. Seeing them do a 40th anniversary show is pretty powerful.

Adept has always had a strong live reputation. What is most important to you when you step onto a festival stage?

That the technology works.

I get so damn stressed beforehand. I am like a stressed-out mother hen. If something does not work, I immediately think the whole gig is ruined. That is why we need to have people with us who know the technical side.

The others may be a little more chill, but I can really get worked up. Today, for example, we did not have any risers at first, and then it became: “Stoffe, fix risers!” In the end it worked out anyway. It usually does.

Adept has been around for a long time now. What is the biggest difference between the band today and when you started?

We wanted so damn much back then. We wanted to play, party and fit into the image of what a band was supposed to be. I think that took over sometimes.

Today we enjoy it more. We maybe did not do that in the same way before. Now several of us have kids. Filip had his children with him today, and we have had our kids with us at Broken Summer. It brings a different kind of maturity.

Now it is truly fun again. We were not an active band for quite a long time, and I think the passion drained out for a while because everything became too intense. Today there is not as much pressure. It is a few gigs here and there, the family is with us, and it is fun in a different way.

I appreciate the music more now than when we were at our biggest, somewhere between 2009 and 2016. Today we have jobs on the side and music becomes more like a big hobby. Then we can meet up and it is just fun.

Has your view of success changed over the years?

Yes, absolutely.

When you are younger, you put a lot of pressure on yourself. You have to live up to your own expectations, other people’s expectations and maybe also the record label’s expectations.

When we got signed, I was around 21 and the others were even younger. Back then it was easy to end up inside someone else’s idea of how a band should look, talk and sound. We do not have that today. Now we are more secure in who we are.

You come from the Swedish post-hardcore and metalcore scene – how do you view the scene’s development since you broke through?

It is completely insane.

There are so many great bands today: Imminence, Thrown, Orbit Culture, Aviana and many more. It is crazy what bands Sweden has produced.

I hope and believe that maybe we were part of opening certain doors, because we were early in doing our thing. But these bands have taken it further to a completely different level. All credit to them. We are really impressed.

Many fans have strong memories connected to your older songs. How do you balance nostalgia with the desire to move forward?

It is difficult.

We want to play the latest material, but that may not always be what everyone wants to hear. At the same time, it is often what we ourselves most want to play.

It becomes a balance. At Sweden Rock we played several songs from the first album, but also newer material. I really understand that people want to hear the older songs. We have influenced many people with them, and when you play the old songs you notice how the nostalgia kicks in. A very special energy comes from the crowd then.

What made Adept find its way back after the break?

I think the pandemic played a big role.

We played a festival in Germany in December 2019, and then the pandemic came shortly after. We were not prepared for it, but in some way I think it became good for us as a band. We did not have to perform. We did not have to be an active band.

We focused more on family, careers on the side and life in general. Music almost became a thing of the past for a while. But after a few years we started missing it.

We always stayed in touch, even if sometimes a longer time could pass between messages or calls. We had never said that we had quit, but we also did not post anything on social media for several years. Eventually we found our way back to the passion again.

When you write new material today, does it usually start with a riff, a feeling, a lyric idea or something else?

It can start in many different ways.

Someone might have a strong lyric line. Gustav or Casper might come in with a great riff. Someone has an idea and then we just feel: “Fuck, let’s go.”

In the past, you would go to the rehearsal space with a bag of beer and riff together. During the pandemic everything became digital, and that probably did not suit us very well. Teams and webcams were not really our thing.

Once we came back, everyone had gathered ideas. The kids had grown older and life looked different. Then we could start making music again in a way that felt natural.

Adept has often mixed aggression with melodic parts. How do you find the balance between the brutal and the emotional?

For me, a lot of it comes through the lyrics.

I have always been drawn toward the emotional side. I come from the emo and punk scene and have always loved bands like My Chemical Romance. I have also always liked poems, strong lyrics and the written form.

I studied journalism for three years, which may sound contradictory since journalism is often about short and structured texts. But I love how you can express yourself in writing. That has carried over into how I write lyrics.

The emotional side has always been important to us.

What makes a song an “Adept song”?

It is probably the red thread.

There is a signature in Adept – the mix of the aggressive and the emotional. It is heavy, but there is always feeling there. Even if the sound develops, that core remains.

With Blood Covenant, we found a sound that feels fresh to us. People online may say it sounds nostalgic, but to us it feels more like we have found our way back to something that sounds right.

Is there any musical area you still want to explore more?

We will see.

We wrote enough songs for more material, maybe for another album. But right now we are very happy with the sound we have found.

I do not think we feel that we have to try to do something completely different just for the sake of it. This is what we know, this is what we do, and this is what many people want to hear from us.

You have a very loyal fanbase. What do you think has made people stick with Adept over the years?

I think we have been fairly undramatic.

We have not been too caught up in ourselves. In the band world, prestige can easily creep in – that everything has to be perfect, that you need the world’s best backdrop, backline and all that stuff.

I think we have mostly just walked out and had fun. We have stood in the crowd at the same festivals as our fans. We are part of the same scene. I think people like that sense of recognition.

Which song usually creates the strongest crowd reaction live?

“At Least Give Me My Dreams Back, Secrets!”

It is definitely one of the songs that gets the biggest reaction. People know it, and I really understand that. When you go and see a band you love, you often want to hear the songs that mean the most to you.

The nostalgic value has an enormous impact.

What is the first thing you do after a really intense show?

Shower and drink a grogg.

There is almost nothing better after a gig than taking a shower and having a strong grogg. You meet up, talk a little, take a shower and maybe drink a beer. It is usually hard to beat.

When there are three songs left in the set, you almost start seeing the shower in front of you.

Who in the band is the most organized on tour – and who is total chaos?

Organized: Gustav. Chaos: Filip and Robert.

What always has to be backstage for you to be happy?

Food is always great. Snacks too.

And gin, haha.

If Adept were to do an unexpected cover, which song would fit best?

We have actually done an unexpected cover before. We were part of a compilation album where all the bands were supposed to do covers. Many chose huge songs, but we chose Crashdïet’s “Riot in Everyone”.

I would also really like to do “Ordinary World” by Duran Duran.

What happens for Adept after Sweden Rock?

We will see.

There are possibly plans for China/Japan this autumn, and also something in South America being discussed. We have not played in South America before, so that would be really cool.

We have toured a lot in China before, but South America would be something new. You have seen how the fans there can be – completely crazy in the best way.

Is there anything you still dream of doing as a band?

Vans Warped Tour would have been one of those things. How have we not played there?

Download Festival and Rock am Ring or Rock im Park would also be dream shows.

Then we would like to support Killswitch Engage. They are one of the best bands in the world. We listened to them on the way down and it is still insane how good they are.

Can fans expect more music in the future?

We should not tempt fate, but yes, there is material.

We wrote more than enough songs beyond the latest record. Whether there will be a new album, we will see, but the material exists.

When you look ahead – what do you want the next chapter for Adept to feel like?

I think we want to continue in the sound we have found now.

Blood Covenant felt fresh to us. There is something there that feels like Adept, but still new. We do not want to do something completely different just for the sake of doing something different.

The red thread will always remain.

Is there any unexpected detail, habit or internal band thing that fans do not know about?

Robert was the first person in Sweden to beat Mega Man 2, which was featured in Nintendo Klubben’s magazine. Casper placed an impressive sixth in Guitar Hero at DreamHack 2008.