What a long, strange trip its been. First saw Tom Englund's troupe at the old Power Mad festival (can one really call it that? A festival?), in suburban Baltimore. Later, the lanky, bearded frontman/guitarist sported a BraveWords logo jersey onstage at Wacken, invited me to the listening party for The Inner Circle, at their rehearsal room, outside Gothenburg Sweden and played one of our magazine sponsored 6-Pack Weekend concerts, as well as meeting up at various other gigs throughout Europe and the States. So I leapt at the opportunity to sit down and discuss the stellar, return-to-form, Hymns For The Broken (which reunites the band with drummer Jonas Ekdahl and guitarist Henrik Danhage) and the current state of band and man.

The scene was backstage at (or more accurately, beneath) ProgPower USA, with a band playing overhead. Something of a home away from home for Englund and Evergrey, the annual Atlanta con-fab allowed them to re-connect with a number of their core North American supporters, industry-types and fans alike. For this marketing trip (members sold t-shirts for the still unreleased album, as well as conducted two full days of telephone/in-person press), the singer was joined by the returning Ekdahl. As we began the interview, both were visibly drained from the lengthy multi-day work/play schedule.

 

 

In a masterful stroke of self-promotion, the "announcement" of the returning pair was surreptitious, including them in the "King Of Errors" video, first single off the new record. The black and white clip sees Englund getting his Bear Grylls on, wading through streams, running up hills and atop a shipyard crane, for which it took them eight years to get approval! "We filmed for eleven days, but I felt it for a hundred and eleven," claims the singer. "It was a lot of work. Me and Johan (Nieman, bass) are afraid of heights, so every three minutes it was like 'Ah!', then 'Action!'" "And the wind," reminds Jonas, his drum set was not tethered during the filming.  "At some point, I had to put two cymbals together. It gets a little heavy, playing that way, but even with two cymbals together, they were still swaying in the breeze." "We had to take the keyboards down, between takes," adds the guitarist.

 

 

At the conclusion of the triumphant clip, Englund precariously sprints towards the end of the skyscraper, with an unfurled flag overhead. "It was like 100 meters long and with the flag, the wind took it. I had to do that ten or eleven times. At the end of the day, I felt that for a couple of days (afterwards)." The flag bears the slogan, "From solitude to multitude," something of a motivational saying for the band, going beyond the veiled reference to their second album, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy. "It's pretty much what we've been trying to do with Evergrey, from the start," offers Englund. "It's sort of an underlying theme."

With the Jonas and Henrik returning, people are already reading into the song titles, like it's the story of the band: "Missing You", "Grand Collapse", etc., but it's really a more introspective examination. "Very much so," concurs the band's founder. "The album is really about my transition from losing myself to trying to find myself again. I ended up getting caught in an exhaustion/depression, beginning from the release date of the Glorious Collision album, and my fight from that period to where I am now. The songs are actually like psychological diagnoses. We use the war analogy because that's what it's like going on inside me, Chaos." Ekdahl admits he only learned of his friend's situation once he rejoined the band. "The weird thing is, I'm not going through the same thing, but I can relate, since I'm dealing with some of the same issues now. It's a long recovery and a lot of thanks to this guy, for encouraging me to deal with my problems. (heavy sigh)"

 

 

 "It was not like old times," says Tom of the contributions of the returning guitarist and drummer, "but Jonas wrote a big part of the new album. He had been writing during the whole time he wasn't in the band, not necessarily with Evergrey in mind, but it came out as Evergrey-ish music. We met up and Jonas had like 27 song ideas, everything from small bits and pieces, to full songs. I think 'King Of Errors' is pretty much as it was. The difference this time is that we went through everything together. Each and every chord progression and note has been though the filter of all five of us, So there's no way anyone in the band can say they aren't satisfied with what we produced." "Everyone was contributing and so eager to do this," enthuses the drummer. "We were all pumped up and I think it shows, I think you can hear it on the album. There's a good vibe on the album, something different, compared to other Evergrey albums: a ray of hope, even in the darkest parts of the album."

Asked what was the biggest obstacle to reuniting, Englund is quick to point out, "We had so many long meetings and talks before deciding if we should even get into this again. There was never any big fucking deal. It was just small things that irritates you, or being  unfairly treated throughout ten years, or whatever. We hammered that all out: each and every one of us, not all five of us, but individually, which was great! One on one sessions." "It felt so good to clean the air." says Ekdahl. "We were cautious. We mean a lot to each other."

Not the typical album cycle press admissions, but Tom Englund has been very open lately, even discussing his mental health, although he's obviously in a good place, right now. "Absolutely," he smiles as he agrees. "There's no good word for it in English. In Swedish, it's 'psychological unhealth', but 'mental illness' sounds weird." It's a necessary evil that helps fuel the fire for the creative process that is Evergrey. "That's what has created all these albums. Creativity comes from having this shit inside you that has to come out, some way. It sounds weird to say, but I said to someone the other day that I'm grateful for the shit I've been through. It made me who I am today and I'm happy with who I am today. I wasn't four years ago. had When your in the creative stages, it's something, but after that, it's all work." "We were all pumping each other up," interjects the drummer. "The atmosphere was so warm and full of love. It was needed, because it's so heavy, going through another album cycle."  

 

 

Talk turns to specific songs, in something of a word association game. "'Black Undertow', since I wrote the lyrics, I think about what it means to me," begins the guitarist "Through this struggle, with all these wars going on inside your head, I'd say 'Barricades' was the first battle I won. The next song is 'Black Undertow', my first taste of freedom, liberation, but it scared the Hell out of me and started pulling me down. It was not at all what I expected it to be. It was new and scary." Next was 'Archaic Rage', complete with voiceovers (or Barry White parts, as Jonas calls them) and a choir of children voices, recalls, to these ears, The Inner Truth album. "I didn't think of it like that," corrects Englund. "For me, all the effects we throw in are just things I think the songs needs. Guess Evergrey has always had the choirs and kids and helicopters (he laughs)." 'The Fire' is a very dynamic number. From single, sporadic keyboard notes and understated vocals, the hallmark of the Evergrey sound has always been changes in dynamics. "Very much so now," agrees its creator. "Jonas wrote most parts of it," deflecting the question to the drummer, who answered "I've been doing lots of writing, lots of genres. Some things for me, where I tried to sing and Henrik and I did Death Destruction. That's the first song I wrote where I had Evergrey in mind, where I felt like I was missing writing Evergrey songs. I had a Recreation Day, 'Blinded' vibe in mind, then we got Tom's daughter and her friend for the choir. Everything I was writing was in that vibe, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go there again." Thankfully they all agreed.

Now Englund is set to begin a new effort, as author. He was approached by Barnes & Noble to write a compendium, where he talks about his lyrics. "I got a publishing deal for a book, about the lyrics and my thoughts outside and around the lyrics. It will be a print book and an e-book, maybe an audio book, where I read it. I'm just hammering out the contract right now. It will have all the lyrics, some behind the scenes photos that have never been seen and my thoughts about how I work. Not memoirs, more like episodic dairies. They approached me five years ago, in San Francisco. They say I have a way of writing in English that is remarkable considering its not my native tongue. It's a lifelong dream of mine. I also wrote a book, that they want to translate. For me, that's fucking huge!"

If he pours his soul into the literary realm with as much passion as he does music, look out Best Sellers List.