Hammerfall made a majestic return to North America this spring/summer, following their successful 2017 run with 2018’s “ReBuilt to Tour” as Flotsam and Jetsam filled the spot of special guests along for the ride. One of Hammerfall’s stops along the way was at NYC’s iconic Gramercy Theatre, and shortly before the band took to the stage, I had the chance to sit down with founder/guitarist Oscar Dronjak for an interview, during which we covered everything from the recent ReBuilt to Tour run and new music that’s on the way, to hockey, whisky, and champagne – an all-around good time and fun chat.

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You’re currently on the ReBuilt to Tour 2018 North American run, following up on your last time in the US with Delain. I heard that you actually postponed the release of your next album in order to come back to the U.S. and Canada this time around?

Yeah, more or less. We were supposed to record it a couple of months earlier, but that would not have given us enough time to…if we wanted to do this tour, that would have clashed with the songwriting period. I mean, I’m still writing songs – I actually finished one two days ago on the bus, which was a first for me ever in my entire career. So we decided that if we were going to do this tour, which we wanted to, we’d have to move the album release a little bit, and that was fine with the label. 

Nice, I had heard that you guys really wanted to focus on the chance to come back to the U.S., following up on how successful it was last year. Were there any particular cities or venues you’ve really been looking forward to returning to?

Among our favorite ones, audience-wise – to be perfectly honest, the last tour? If it had not worked, we would probably never come back again, that’s basically what it was. We’ve done 5 tours – 4 before that – over the years, it’s been spread out over 15 years or whatever it was. But still, nothing really took off for us. I guess you would have to tour more, and not wait five years to come back, and do it a little earlier. But this was make it or break it for us, basically. And that tour was so fantastic that we said, “We’ve got to come back right away”. Just to try and see if it works again, you know? The first time we ever played in Baltimore was the last tour, and I have no idea why we haven’t done that before, ‘cause it was absolutely fantastic. And we played there two days ago and it was just as good then. It felt like coming back was a really good idea. Canada is always great, and New York City is always really good for us – for some reason, that has been since the beginning. L.A.’s always L.A., but we’ve had really good experiences there, we usually record the vocals to our albums in L.A. because we work with a guy called James Michael, producer and singer of Sixx A.M., and Joacim really likes working with him…and James clearly thinks it’s pretty fun too, otherwise he wouldn’t do it all the time. *laughs* So we go to L.A. a lot, and L.A.’s more like a second home in that respect, if we have any here in the U.S. 

I did see on social media that you guys were in L.A. earlier this year, or rather, Orange County, since you went to NAMM and the Hall of Heavy Metal History Induction – how was that?

Oh, that was a lot of fun. We had a really packed schedule. The first thing was, we wanted to go to NAMM, so we tried to get a show during that time which, it’s very difficult to play in L.A., but we did a show in San Diego since it’s not that far away, and we didn’t play San Diego on the Delain tour that we did last year. So that was the first time in a really long time for us. And then we had another show come up just the weekend before in Colombia, so now we had two shows plus the NAMM show we could do, and then Joacim just filled up our schedule, *laughs* so it was just the most intense ten days ever, we didn’t have any break at all. But it was fun, it made it feel like it was worth it, not just lounging around for the sake of it.

That’s great. And then, of course, you’ve also been touring alongside Flotsam and Jetsam this time around, and it’s kind of “classic thrash meets classic power metal”, so how has that been so far? 

Oh, it’s been great. We met the bass player during NAMM – we didn’t know he was going to be there, he just said hi, and that’s really good to have met him, he seemed like a really nice guy, which they all turned out to be, so we’re having a really good time. Like you said, it’s a classic thrash, and a classic…I don’t want to use the word power metal, because I don’t…

I was going to ask you about that too, actually, a lot of people say Hammerfall is “power metal”…

Over here, you do. 

…But I’m curious if you guys even associate with that at all. 

No, not at all, not even one second. There’s a lot of reasons. Mainly because when I formed the band in 1993, and the only power metal that existed, at least from where we were, we called it “U.S. Power Metal”, which was like Savatage, Omen…that type of music, which we weren’t at all. We were more like Manowar, Judas Priest, that sort. So for me, that was heavy metal, we always wanted to be a heavy metal band. And when we started recording albums in ’97, there still was no such thing as power metal until the power metal movement came a couple of years later. I guess we had something to do with it, but I still think Hammerfall is different from the bands you would normally put into that category. Just because we have a song that’s called “The Dragon Lies Bleeding”, doesn’t mean we were a power metal band, you know what I mean? But then a lot of people lumped us into that category, and I don’t like that at all. The main reason I don’t like it is because when we started playing in the mid 90’s, there was so much backlash…well, not backlash because we weren’t famous or anything, but anytime we were doing anything, people were like “hehe”, snickering and laughing like, “Are you really going to wear those leather pants?” “Don’t you know it’s ’95 now, it’s grunge”…whatever, all that bullshit. 

Oh, got it. I mean…I have leather pants on and it’s not the 80’s. 

*laughs* Of course, well, times have changed now. But this was back then, and because people didn’t take us seriously, we said “fuck you, we’re doing what we want to do”, and we embraced the moniker of heavy metal. So it became a badge of honor instead of anything else. So that’s why I don’t like the power metal name, I don’t want to associate. Not that I have anything against it, a lot of bands I like, like Stratovarius, I think would be considered power metal. Edguy, for example, a lot of European bands which I think are really good. But I think that Hammerfall is different from those bands. 

Well, that makes a lot of sense. People do tend to put a label on something and say “This is all it is from now on”, but I see where you’re coming from. 

Well, I like to do that too. When you read a review of something, it’s always easy if they put whatever type of music it is, even if it’s not really that type of music. I mean, if somebody were to say Hammerfall is power metal as opposed to, say, thrash metal, then I go, “Okay, I can buy that”.  But if you’re going to go specific, it’s got to be heavy metal. 

Heavy metal, that’s right. You were talking a bit about the songwriting for the new album, and you know, Hammerfall does have a distinctive and iconic sound, is there a process or a go-to method you guys have, or it really just kind of comes about however it does?

*laughs* Yes and no, I think, in this case. The previous albums, many of them, that was just “Well, whatever happens”, because we wrote the music that we loved, and we still do. But this is going to be our 11th album now, after so many songs, you think about it a little bit differently, especially now that I’m 20 years older than I was when we released the first one. So, I learned a lot during those years, and I think it’s more like…the actual music, or riff that comes out, it just comes out from within, basically. But the songwriting, when I’m working on the songs, and just the small variations in details, those are much more thought through now than they were before. 

Now, a little off-topic from music here, you guys are very active on social media, which is great, you immerse fans in whatever you’re doing at any given time, but I’ve been seeing a lot of fuss lately over the IIHF, the Hockey Federation, and Sweden just won a World Championship there, so you guys are big on hockey, it seems. 

Yeah, Sweden is a big hockey country. We have, of course, football, or you call it soccer here, that’s the biggest sport, but hockey is not far behind, it’s really, really popular and has been since forever, basically. So we are big fans of that. We actually sponsor a hockey team in, it’s the Swedish version of the highest leagues, it’s the NHL for Sweden. It’s from Joacim’s hometown, and we have our logo on the inside of the ice rink.

That’s awesome!

It’s really cool. 

So it’s the SHL that you guys are involved in, but do you have any interest in the NHL, when you come to the states, ever catch any hockey games here?

Yeah! Well, I don’t think that we have as a band, but I’ve been to games before, yeah. And we were actually discussing, we just had dinner now, and we were discussing if we were going to try to make it to Vegas for one of the Stanley Cup Playoff Finals. I don’t know if that’s even possible to get a ticket or whatever, but we were just discussing the option, because one of the games is on an off day for us. So theoretically, we could fly in in the morning, watch the game, and then fly back to the next city the next morning. But it’s a bit difficult, it’s going to be expensive and a really long flight, because we’d be playing Toronto so we’d have to stay over there and fly to Vegas. 

That’d be a long way, yeah.

8 hours with a layover, I just checked it, so it’s probably not going to happen. I mean, if we had tickets, yes, for sure, we’d do it, but that’s the next step, we’ve got to get tickets if we even could get them – you know, Vegas, hometown, first season for them ever and they’re in the finals. Probably going to be very hot tickets. 

I’m sure. Maybe next time around, you guys can catch something. 

We’ll watch it from here. 

So something else I caught on social media, you guys have some new merch on the way as well? 

Yeah, we have a new webshop, we never had that before, if you can believe that, in all these years. We had a really good merch shop with Nuclear Blast, our previous label. With Napalm, it hasn’t worked as well, because they’re a smaller label and we do move a lot of merch. So we wanted to take charge ourselves, which we did, and I’m guessing you’re referring to the ice hockey t-shirts ‘cause we were talking about it, it’s hanging right there *points to merch table*. We brought it for sale and it’s doing really well, people seem to think it’s really cool. 

People love hockey and they love Hammerfall, so it’s the perfect combo!

*Laughs* Exactly! 

And something else, in terms of products with the Hammerfall brand on it, is the Hammerfall Champagne…that’s definitely a step outside, something unusual, for a metal band, especially. 

I think it’s the first time anybody has done that as far as I know. We got a whisky before, we did that, but Joacim is a big champagne guy, he’s really into it, he studied how you make it and stuff. He did make the champagne, not himself, but he was there when they put the stuff together, added the sugar, whatever the hell they do. But he was really into it, really focused on tasting it and making sure he liked the taste of it. So he was really invested in that. I’m not a champagne guy, I drink it, but it’s not my favorite thing. But this champagne I actually like a lot. I think it tastes really good. And it’s not the cheapest, it’s a proper champagne, from the region Champagne in France, so it’s the real deal, basically. But I really like it.

Well, if it’s got the Hammerfall logo on it and all…

Well, you never know. *laughs*

*laughs* I would hope the band members would like it, with the name on it.

It would be difficult. But on the other hand, the whisky, it seemed people loved the whisky, we did two different versions of it, and people said they tasted really good, but I hate whisky. So I would never drink it, I haven’t even tasted it. Well yes, I have tasted one of them, actually, just to have tasted it, but I had to rinse my mouth afterwards. *laughs*

Also, the champagne is primarily marketed to Sweden, but will it be available in the States at all?

No, I don’t think so. First of all, it was a very limited edition, just one…whatever they make champagne in, like 5000 bottles or something like that, it was very limited. But second of all, the Swedish alcohol laws are very strict for exporting and stuff, so it’s very difficult. I know that the importer in Sweden who helped us get everything done is working with some…French? Well, of course, French since it’s champagne, but also with some German or something, and maybe our label in Germany also had put in an order for it, I’m not sure. But, so there are some places where they could get it, because they have the connections already, but it’s not something that’s going to be worldwide, unfortunately. I mean, a lot of people ask about it, but we can’t do it, you know?

Right, you personally are not going to bring it. *laughs*

We even had to buy the bottles ourselves, you’re not allowed to give bottles away, unless you bought it from the beginning of course, but from the distributor, they couldn’t give us anything, we had to buy it. Got a discount, but still. But it’s worth it. My mom loves it, she’s not a champagne drinker either, but she definitely doesn’t drink whisky, so at least now we have something she can actually taste. 

Back to the present day tour, you mentioned you just finished up a song earlier, I just want to hear a little more about what you guys have got in mind, plans for the next album?

Yes, we’ve got a pretty good outline already, which, I mean, Joacim is a good planner, so he always thinks ahead. 

That’s convenient.

Yes! Because I’m not. So it works really well. To be honest, I don’t know where I would be if he wasn’t as driven with these things as he is, planning ahead and making sure that we do things the right way, like booking the studio in time, and stuff like that. So what we have planned is, we’re going to do the festivals this summer in Europe, we got a second market tour going on in Europe as well, places we haven’t visited in many years, sometimes never, so that’s going to be fun. And then we start recording January of next year, that’s the time – to release, about August, I think it was. It’s not set in stone yet, but it’s probably going to happen. There would be something drastic to change that, I think. Kind of looking forward to it, but at the same time, not, because I’m not at the point where I feel comfortable with all the material yet. I haven’t gotten used to the songs yet, I can only trust my gut instinct if it’s good or not, I have to listen to them a lot more. But it’s very difficult to listen to the songs that you have done when you have to start working on the next song. I don’t want to listen to this and then write something that’s very similar to that. So there’s a balance that has to be upheld a little bit. But I’m getting there. Right now I have 6 songs from my part, I write the music, Joacim does the vocals, for the most part, and the lyrics, of course. But my part, in 6 songs, I can safely say is done now. So now I can listen to those, go back to them, and maybe add some details and tweak them a little bit if necessary, and then start working on the rest of them. We still have plenty of time this year for that. 

Yeah, the whole rest of the year to go.

But I almost panicked when we started talking about when the album was going to come out, because I wasn’t ready at all! Not at all ready to start writing stuff, ‘cause that’s a whole different mode for me to be in, songwriting and performing live has been two very separate things for me, always, and I never thought I could combine them, but…it works. I mean, I didn’t really write a lot of new stuff, but I worked on the song for a couple of hours, like it wasn’t ready, but now it is ready. I moved stuff around, you know, “Ah, this needs something here”, stuff like that. And I was very happy about that. Normally when we do the tour, you’re kind of sick of music, don’t want to deal with Hammerfall stuff because I play this stuff every night. But I have to say I’m a lot more mature now than I was 20 years ago, now I take things a little bit more seriously.

Well, I know you’ve got to kick off the VIP Meet and Greet in a few minutes, so since you’re about to meet some fans, let’s wrap things up with a message to your fans.

First of all, I would like to thank the people who read this, because like I said in the beginning of the interview, the people who supported Hammerfall in the last years, and especially on the last tour, they are the reason why we came back. It seems like we made the right choice, because it’s been going really great, and we are infinitely grateful for that, actually, to be able to do this. Because for a long time, we didn’t think we’d be able to have a future, like we didn’t consider this as a potential market to go to, we have to be able to come home with, at least, to not lose money, and if we do a long tour, we have to come home with something, because this is our jobs, basically. So, by coming to the shows and buying the merch, and supporting us in that way, that gives us a chance to do what we love, and come back and perform for you again. I can say already that we will be back again, a lot sooner than 8 years or whatever it took between the last two tours. So, to everybody, thank you so much, you are the true Templars of Steel. 

Excellent, well, thank you so much for sitting down and talking with me, it’s been a lot of fun. 

Thank you, it was a fun chat.