Rounding your week up – and on a holiday no less – with some lovely doomy death music courtesy of miserable Swedes Soliloquium…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from Stockholm, Sweden.
How did you meet?
Me (Stefan, guitars and vocals) and Jonas (bass) were already members of the death metal band Desolator when we started Soliloquium to experiment with the death/doom metal genre in a whole new project.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We started Soliloquium in 2011. The first EP When Silence Grows Venomous came out in 2012.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
I was looking around for interesting words connected to the meaning of the band. I found Soliloquium which means something like “inner monologue”. It’s really fitting for the band’s introspective themes and lyrical content, for sure. Not the catchiest, though.
What are your influences?
The main influence has always been Katatonia. Early day Soliloquium also had a strong similarity to Scandinavian death/doom acts like October Tide, Slumber and Rapture. On the latest album Contemplations there is also a lot of shoegaze, post-rock and post-metal influences.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I think it’s the fact that we’re open to influences from any type of dark music. Soliloquium stopped being a “regular” death/doom metal band a long time ago. Our lyrical themes and topics are also one of our strongest and most unique points, in my opinion. We tackle some rather serious, personal stuff like mental illness and isolation in a specific, down-to-earth style. I want the music to hit close to home, so I’m actively trying to do it that way.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
In the early days of the band, it was a lot about depression and personal struggles. On the two full-length albums, I think Soliloquium’s lyrical themes grew. It’s a lot about the growing mental health epidemic in society; more specifically being an outsider, feeling alienated and misunderstood. A lot if it also revolves around questioning things like materialism, conformity and other twisted values that have a strong negative grip on people’s lives.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We have never played live. We have actually never even rehearsed as a full band. It’s always been a studio project. Me and Jonas from Soliloquium do play live with our death metal band Desolator though. If we would get a great offer at some point, we might rethink it and play with Soliloquium.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
There has been some pretty crazy stuff at the local shows we have done with Desolator. We’ve had underwear and raw bacon thrown on stage. The whole crowd once stormed the stage during the last song. Some pretty random stuff usually goes down every time.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
The guitars I’ve been using for Soliloquium is my ESP Ltd F-400FM for the C#-tuned songs, and my Jackson Dinky 7-string for the B-tuned songs. An Empty Frame (2016) was played in C# and Contemplations (2018) in B. The only exception is the song “Eye of the Storm” that was played on the ESP in a drop B tuning. I’m back to the ESP, my favorite, on the upcoming album.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Soliloquium is in the middle of recording the third full-length album, but we’re still doing our best to get Contemplations out there. We’re still getting reviewed once in a while and we’re always open to do interviews and other types of promotion. I’m posting a lot of metal content on the Soliloquium website https://www.deathdoom.com to promote the band. Check it out!
What are your plans for 2019?
Doing all we can to get the new full-length album released as soon as possible. We’re really excited about the new one, and we’re already sure it’s best thing we’ve written so far.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
The headlining band is obvious: it would be Katatonia! Our main influence and my personal favorite band. I think it would be fun to bring Somnent as an opener, a really good new death/doom metal band from the U.S. that just started playing live. Somnent’s debut album Sojourn is a really good one!
Soliloquium: official | facebook | bandcamp
