Lord K. Philipson of The Project Hate MCMXCIX
Interviewed by Ty Brookman on 1/8/2004
Transcribed by Ty Brookman
The Project Hate MCMXCIX’s latest record, Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate is nothing short of everything Sweden used to stand for before the obsessive quantity of melodic death bands and their pathetic clones tainted the once mighty Swedish standard. I personally do not think there is another band out there that could even come close to cloning this band. So say goodbye to the sappy harmonies and the happy rhythms because The Hate Crew will surly nail their pansy ass to the fucking cross. HDCE is vehemently hate-filled, dark as fuck, lyrically abrasive, heavy-fucking-weight Swedish metal. For those lucky enough to have gotten their hands on this album in the states know exactly what the fuck I am talking about. The press and fans alike have nothing but praise for TPH and HDCE. Yes my friends, this album is that good! Mia Ståhl’s more than competent replacement, Jonna Enckell sings with shattered grace and ultimate beauty while Jörgen Sandström barks venomous death-gnarls of meatfuck rotting flesh. The guitar dual of Lord K. Philipson and Petter S. Freed spit forth absolute mighty riffs of bone shattering crunch that punish the listener without an ounce of regret. My only complaint is that the synths can be a bit overbearing at times but it’s nothing that even comes close to ruining the listen. The name of the game when it comes to any recording artist in the business is to best their last album and TPH have done so with what seems to be nothing short of absolute ease. So for you fucks caught in the rut of blast beats, speed riffs and complete walls of noise, you may want to tune in and check out what the rest of us have been enjoying to the ultimate fullest!
Diabolic: The name of your latest opus is Hate, Dominate, Congregate, Eliminate. Since it rolls right off the tongue, what can you tell me about the decision to use this as the album title?
Lord K. Philipson: It’s a catchy phrase and a sum of how we feel about the Christian movement and all that is holy. We hate them, we dominate them, we will congregate them and eliminate them. We got this title suggested by some fan, and after working a little on it and changing a few things, we decided to go with it. I love the title. 4 simple words, 4 more nails into Jesus. We have plenty of them nails left for future use, be so sure. Providing nails into the flesh of the whores never gets boring.
D: Let’s go straight to the guitar tone which is just fucking outstanding. What gear did you use for the recording and all in all you have to be overjoyed once again with the mix that came out of Soundlab Studios?
LKP: As far as the guitar sound goes… We just used my Jackson Rhoads guitar (as on all previous recordings) together with Forms’ (guitarist of Swedish rock stars Millencollin) excellent Mesa Boogie amp. We used that amp on the previous album as well and I just love the sound I get out of that one. Mieszko (studioowner/mainman in Nasum) knows his studio real well and is excellent with guitar sounds. On “When we are done…” we used the exact same gear and it took about 20 minutes to sort both of the guitar sounds for that album, so we knew the stuff was trustworthy. Or so we thought. We had some problems with doing the guitar sound this time really. We plugged in the shit and it sounded just like that, shit. Couldn’t really figure out why the hell the same equipment would sound so bad this time. We tried out a few different amps without finding what I was looking for and we started to get real pissed. Then we decided to use our second guitarist Mazzas’ amp so I went to get it. When I come back to the studio, Mieszko is sitting on the floor, doing various shit to the Mesa amp we originally wanted. Like attaching the screws on the back of the speaker and whatnot and voila’… I plug in the guitar again and there it was, the sound we were looking for. I love how it came out and a lot of people seem to appreciate it. It will be fun trying to get that sound all over again with the next album, but we’ll go about with the same procedure. Plug the Jackson in, turn on the Mesa, curse a little and then find the fucken sound we want, haha… And yeah, I can definitely say I’m chuffed with how the album sounds. Mieszko did a wonderful job with it to say the least. It turned out better than I thought it would and I see it as one of the albums with the best bass-sound ever. Loud, clear and upfront. I couldn’t be happier. Now it’s up to Mieszko to top this one next time, and I’m sure he will. He’s one talented mofo that little fuck.
D: So time to toot your own horn as they say, since you produced much of HDCE how much of its superior production would you accredit to yourself? (Laughs)
LKP: Hahaha… Well, Mieszko deserves most credit for it I think. But I do decide how I want it to sound, but he’s the man sorting it. It’s a collaboration of course. He helps out with a lot of various sounds and all that crap, but I’m not letting anything leave my hands that I’m not satisfied with, you know. Producing can be a tricky thing… A producer generally interferes with the material, comes up with ideas and all that shit. I don’t need that, I know how I want my shit to sound. 
Mieszko did this on a very small level, like coming up with a few ideas as for what to add in a few parts where it needed something according to him. After trying it out and seeing it worked fine, we went for it. I love recording with Mieszko coz I don’t have to see him that much when we do. He comes there, sorts the sounds and whatnot and then I tell him to go home as I can record everything myself. Its better he gets some time off to watch porn on the net. I prefer being alone with guitarist Mazza, trying out shit. Then Mieszko comes back for the mix with fresh ears and as you can tell, does a fucking amazing job. The new album is one of the heaviest productions I ever heard. I can’t believe not more bands record there as that studio has an ass-load of potential.
D: From a keyboard point of view how do you approach your tracks? I mean certain tunes are very much driven by the synths and actually if I do say so myself at times a bit much.
LKP: You may say so, it doesn’t bother me for shit. We have always sounded like this, very keyboard-driven, downtuned, brutal and beautiful. That’s what we do you know. There’s always Cannibal Corpse for the ones not being able to deal with it. All fine with me. I like the fact that you are stating some criticism, even if it’s small. Most people doing interviews just bring up the regular praising and standard-questions which is as fun as jacking off with a bonesaw, you know. The songwriting usually goes 2 ways. Either I come up with a keyboard thing or a guitar-thing. That’s how it works. A lot of times I can have a part of a song completed without keyboards, then I try the same part out with something on the keyboard and most of the times it just adds something extra to it that makes it sound better, to me. Coz that’s what counts, that’s who I write for. myself. People appreciating it is a bonus, I’d do this anyway, you know. I’ll always bring in more to the stuff we do. The simplest song originally, eventually ends up with a lot, and I mean a lot of keyboard-stuff in it when it’s completed. That’s how I work. It all varies, just listen to “Burn” from the new album. Our longest song ever and it’s probably one of the less keyboard-driven ones we ever wrote. A song is finished when I think I can’t add anything more to it, simple as that.
D: Now from an overall composition point of view the tracks within HDCE are meticulously arranged. Could you give a little insight into your writing process and just how much work goes into each track?
LKP: I covered this a bit in the previous question I guess but I’ll go deeper into it. The latest album is so worked on compared to the other ones, its called development. Or better equipment, take your pick. haha… It usually goes like this: Me and Mazza jam a few riffs together, enough to cover a regular 4 minute-song I guess. Then the fun part starts. He leaves my place and goes home and I start to re-program the basic drums I did for those riffs, the drums we used just to try the riffs out you know. Then I go thru some keyboard things I have lying around, or just compose a few things and add them to the song. Still it’s pretty much just a rough sketch of what is to come. When I consider myself done with a thing more than a rough sketch, I start to go into details, adding some extra layers of keyboards, getting some sub basses in there, working on some drum fills etc etc etc… Eventually I end up sitting there the whole night, completing something you could call a song I guess. Then the real work starts… Checking all the notes so they are hit as hard, adding a few new fills and perhaps some new parts I see as suitable for the song, looking for places where I possibly could use some of the drum and bass or jungle beats if I feel like it. Then, when I view the song as completed (for this stage, it’s not completed to me until it’s done in the studio, a lot can change until then) I put down guitars for it with my digital 4-tracker and then listen to it. Just to notice that some guitar-stuff doesn’t fit the song, a keyboard-thing is not really relevant in a certain part, a drum fill could be better or whatever. Then I go into the song again and change the shit and possibly add something more to it to make it longer so J (vocals) can complain some more about the songs being too fucken long) haha… Then I record it again with guitars and it goes on like that until I feel it’s what I wanted. This is the shit we can enter the studio with. About how much time it takes, that’s of course is very different from time to time. A song like “Blessed are we to be lied upon” was done in some 30 minutes from scratch to finish, while a song like “Dominate” took weeks. It’s always depending on what the song is going to be like you know. I think in general a song takes about a week to finish from scratch. The hard part is to come up with the rough sketch, coz if it doesn’t sound excellent already at that point, I find no interest in working on it for hours and hours. Luckily Mazza knows what shit I wanna hear when I’m out of guitar-riffs myself, haha…
D: What can you tell me about track 6, Burn? At roughly the 6:30 mark the fucking heavy burns through with ultimate pain.
LKP: *checking 6:30* Yeah, I suspected it was that part you were talking about. Caligula from Dark Funeral and Mogge 
from 2 Ton Predator are having a vocal-war with J for a few minutes. One of the more intense parts of the album I think. It’s a really old part actually, which was originally featured on another recording I did back in 1997 or something. I knew I wanted to use this part again sometime, and when we wrote “Burn” I felt it’d go perfect within that song. It’s definitely played faster than it was originally, but that makes it even more intense. Sometimes I dig out that old recording and compare the two just for laughs. I just love how the vocals shift in this riff. It’s completely intense and the lyrics are sweet as fuck. “Burn” came about in a quite funny way actually… Me and Mazza sat here at my place discussing some shit… We came to the conclusion that we never wrote a song over 10 minutes, we had to do that someday. Eventually it ended up being a 12 and a half minute song, and it’s one of my all-time favorites with TPH. This song was written very easily, I think we did it in a day or 2 really. The riffs were just there, we had a good flow in writing it and it seems like it’s one of the fans’ fave songs as well. I don’t think we’ll ever play it live though, coz that means we can play like 2 more tracks and then get off stage, haha… 12 and a half minutes, I don’t think we’ll ever top that. But then again, we’ve never wrote a song that’s 20 minutes… Hold on, I have to call Mazza on the fucken phone…
D: Have you been taking any heat from any of the lyrics within HDCE which are quite abrasive at times but Christ, what the fuck do people expect when your band’s fucking name is The Project Hate?
LKP: Hahahaha… It’s not been that bad really. I think a band like Cannibal Corpse is having a harder time thanx to their lyrics. Some Christian retards have mailed us and told us “Jesus will save you. Turn to the Lord” etc… I AM the fucken Lord for fucks sake. I usually tell them to come to my place and discuss it further. My door is the one with 3 golden 6’s on it and a sticker with a gun pointing saying “Go to hell you cocksucking, assfucking Jehovahs”. Photo attached. Fuck me sideways how I despise those insects. We are not Satanists, we are just not very Christian…
D: Why all the secrecy on the movie sample on Deviate? Just tell us already dammit! (Laughs)
LKP: No secret at all really. I just find it far more fun to let people go out of their way to try to find out where the sample is from. If you have seen the movie, you should recognize it. The thing is, what we use are parts from a pretty long dialogue, mixed into a shorter segment. Nope, I won’t tell you what movie it is. If the company responsible for the film finds out, they’d probably sue our asses for stealing it haha… It’s not exactly legal to steal stuff from movies you know. We could use that money for buying guitars instead… It’s one excellent flick anyways, lemme tell you that.
D: Why was Mia Ståhl let go and replaced by Jonna Enckell, who subsequently filled her shoes and then some?
LKP: I so agree with Ms. Jo obliterating Mias’ ass. They are 2 completely different vocalists to say the least. Jo’s got everything Mia lacked. I love having this chick in the band. She’s extremely talented and brings in a lot of ideas and harmonies Mia was never even near of. Mia was kicked because I couldn’t stand her and her attitude any longer. She became a fucken farce in the end. I consider the firing of her one of the best things we ever did, coz it brought Jo into the Hate and we made a perfect album with her onboard. I have extremely high expectations for Jo with the next album. “HDCE” was just the introduction to Ms. Jo. She has grown into the band and can take it a lot easier with the next recording now. We know what she can do and I’ll make sure we’ll push her even harder next time. I hope she’s going to be with us for the rest of this career, coz she is exactly what I’m looking for. She has the power needed, the range needed, the softness needed and the attitude towards the material that I crave. She’s devoted and extremely gifted. I don’t know her that well and I don’t fucken care. As long as she performs great on stage (One of Mias’ biggest downfalls) and provides excellent vocal-lines in the studio, I don’t need to fuck her every day to know she belongs with us. We only played one gig so far since she came aboard, and then we played nothing from the new album as it wasn’t out yet. Our best gig yet and she did excellent. She performed the older songs with so much attitude and professionalism we couldn’t believe it. And she met J for the first time a few hours before that gig… Imagine how the future-gigs will be like now that she’s comfortable with us and all… I’m looking forward to the next gig when she will perform the songs she did her own vocal-lines for… And it doesn’t hurt that she looks good, coz fuck knows we need some beauty in this band considering the looks of Mazza, J and myself.
D: Have there been any problems yet working around Jörgen Sandström scheduling with Entombed?
LKP: Of course. We’ve had to turn down like 5 gigs the past months as J has been out with Entombed touring. I know J feels bad about this as he thinks he’s holding me back. He is, but then again, I wouldn’t want anyone else as a first choice for vocals. If this is what it takes, then so be it. J is my best friend and is unchallenged when it comes to growling. We might not be doing plenty of gigs as long as he’s with Entombed, but that’s something I have to live with you know. Hopefully they are done touring for a while now so TPH can make some appearances. It’s about god damned time. Thing is that I knew 
this from the start that Entombed is J’s job and first priority. I understand him, it’s what gets him food and pays the rent you know. We’ll just work around that busy schedule of his and take things as they come. Not really anything else we can do as for now.
D: Of course I have to ask what’s up with touring. Anything planned and even though I pretty much know the answer, is there any chance of hitting the states?
LKP: I’d love to tour for sure and we’ve gotten so many requests from the States about it from fans. Thing is, that it’s not up to us to set up a tour there. We need someone to do it for us you know. And I don’t think J is very much up for it seeing he tours with Entombed all the time. At least Entombed are at a level that gives them some luxury and all, we can’t do that with TPH just yet. I don’t think J would like the fact that he’d have to travel around to play places on worse conditions with Entombed. We’ll see what happens later on though. Hopefully we’ll come there one day. And to every other country as well.
D: Onto the American distribution of HDCE, what the fuck is going on? The word is Threeman is doing a hell of a job getting the disks out across the world when ordered directly from them but what is the actual hold up for American Distribution?
LKP: It seems like a huge label will release the album there in February so just keep yer eyes open for it. Threeman is definitely doing a hella job getting the album to people ordering it directly from them. I think we had a schedule for the release in some of the countries around, at our site some month ago. Lemme see if I can find it… This was written back in October so it’s kinda out-of-date but here goes:
Greece – Cosmic Storm will handle the album there and it should be available in approximately 2 weeks as the promos just arrived.
England – Plastic Head will release it in approximately 3 weeks.
Benelux – Berus handles it there and it should be out right now.
France – Deal is made and it will be available there very shortly.
Italy – 2 companies wants to have it there, so it should be out in 2-3 weeks.
Australia – Seems like Modern Invasion will take care of it and it should be out there shortly.
Germany – 3 interested parties, deal should be closed next week.
Spain – Answer real soon.
Japan – Disc Union, U-Pop and World Chaos Distribution handles it already.
Russia – Going thru the deal as we speak. Probably a license-deal.
USA – The deal is almost completed, some small things to change in the contract, but if everything works out alright, the album will be released there in February/March 2004.
D: What can you tell me about God Amongst Insects, which I see the material is complete and just needs recorded. What sound can we expect from you sick fucks?
LKP: We have completed the material for the God Among Insects album now and are currently looking around for a studio to record this piece in. There's a pretty huge chance that we'll do this album in the Abyss Studios with Tommy Tägtgren in mid-March, 2004. We are just waiting for the budget from Threeman Recordings so we know what we have to move around with as far as cash goes. The album is yet to be named, but the songs planned for the album are entitled:
1. Headless Nun Whore
2. Uprising of the Rotten
3. A gush of blood
4. Legions of Darkness
5. Wretched Hatching
6. Chainsawed Christians
7. Severe facial reconstruction
8. Purified in Carnage
Line-up: Tobben Gustafsson from Vomitory on drums. Tomas Elofsson from Santification on bass.Emperor Magus Caligula from Dark Funeral on vocals and myself on guitar. It’s some groovy, old-school death metal, so downtuned it’s almost silly…
D: One hell of a line up there I might add, how did the project come to light in the first place?
LKP: I just ended up writing some death metal tunes that didn’t really fit what I do with TPH, so I decided to start this thing as I dug the material too much just to throw it away. It’ll be a good album to say the least and I’m proud to work with the guys involved. Their respective bands are all excellent and I know they will provide some killer-work for this. We’ll do this album, do one gig, and then terminate the band. You should quit when you are at the top of yer career haha…
D: Good to hear that it looks like Abyss studios will be handling the recording, not as easy to get into Pete’s fucking sanctuary nowadays.
LKP: Yeah. I haven’t been in Abyss just yet so it’ll be a fun experience for sure. 10 days booked in March, from the 20th and forward. I called Peter up and asked how his schedule looked… he’ll unfortunately be on tour with Hypocrisy when we get there so we’ll do the album with his brother. Cool thing is that he promised to look into the studio as he’ll be home like a day or 2 when we are there. I have met Peter a few times and he’s one excellent fella to say the least. He and Caligula are good friends as well and Caligula knows his brother too, so I know this will be a fucked up recording. In a good way!
D: What’s the word on Devilsun, again with what is another kick ass line up, will this project see the light of day?
LKP: It’s of no priority of mine whatsoever. If the other guys (Leif of Candlemass, Peter and J from Entombed, myself and probably Mike from Opeth) wanna get this thing going, I’m with it for sure. I know Leif really wanna do it and all, and so does J. I think it’d be fun, I don’t care too much about it though to be honest. We’ll get together when the time comes and sort the album.
D: How much writing are you doing these days? Any great lessons learned since the demise of Hypnosia Magazine?
LKP: Lessons? Nah. Same shit as always, I only got better with age. I write for various websites and a magazine here in Sweden. I love the interviewing/reviewing thing. I’m actually thinking about starting up a site with a few trusted friends, and make a really good music-site as far as interviews and reviews go. Hypnosia was fun times. I was young at the time and got to hang with a lot of cool people thanx to the magazine. It was widely known in the underground and sold quite a large amount of copies. I miss how things were back then really, there’s nothing left of that scene today.
D: I was just scrolling through your website and you mention that basically you have two new tracks in the can for the follow up to HDCE. Do you foresee this record being completely written and recorded before the end of 2004? Which I am sure the states won’t see until 2006?
LKP: 2006? More like 2020 I guess. Yeah, the plan is to record the new album in August 2004 or something like that. I’m 
sure the material is ready long before then though. Yeah, 2 tracks completed and the third is in the works. At the moment I’m concentrating on the God Among Insects album and the upcoming gigs I will do on bass with Dark Funeral. After that we’ll be back on track again with the songwriting-process for TPH, though we do write shit all the time. Good to have sketches of tracks lying around you know.
D: Lastly than, could you give a brief run down of albums that actually impressed you in 2003?
LKP: Damn, I can’t remember what came out this year really but lemme think a bit… Oh, the Sanctification album is a killer, it’ll come out in a few months this year. There’s not many bands out of Sweden that sounds all American you know, Sanctification is one of the few though. Check out that one. The Evanescence album is one of my faves thanks to Amy Lees’ vocals. Unbelievable vocalist. Facebreaker will have their debut out this year and the advance is excellent. Killer death metal with the old Edge of Sanity-vocalist Robban. The Vital Remains album is a fine piece of christbashing metal. I’m sure there’s a lot of albums I have forgotten about, but these you should definitely check out. That was it, thanx a lot for a thought-out interview, it was a pleasure doing it. Keep up the great work guys. For all the latest info on TPH and God Among Insects, visit the site at http://www.theprojecthate.net/