Exempt interview

Originally published in ‘zine issue #5, 1992

Joel Andersson is the bassist for the Swedish death metal band Exempt. His band released a demo last year called Wake Up. Joel also puts out death metal compilation tapes entitled Infanticide. Here he gets to chat about what’s been up lately. Drop him a line.

D.U.: What’s the story on the new Exempt demo, and how does it differ from the first one?

Joel: It’s more heavier and much better sound. The music is more technical, heavier, and brutal. And we’ve got more death metal influences on this new one.

But we don’t know if we are going to release this as a demo now because we planned to do a promo tape for labels, etc. But I don’t know because I want to release this tape.

Why did you decide to start a compilation tape? How has the response been?

Well, it was like this. When I got first letter from a guy who asked if Exempt was interested to feature on his comp tape, and we send our demo to him. After a while we got our copy and I thought, “Wow, it’s cool. I want to do one too.” So I began to write to bands, etc. And Volume 1 was ready. And now I have Volume 2 out.

And the response has been okay. If any bands wants to feature on my future releases, just send me your promo stuff (demo/7”/bio/logo/etc.), but please no rehearsal tapes and noise. You will get a free copy.

Do you think that the death metal scene in general is more concerned with making money than the hardcore/punk scene?

I don’t know. Maybe. Death metal scene is bigger than hardcore/punk scene. But most of the bands play because they like it and they like to stay underground. They aren’t New Kids on the Block or Michael Jackson, etc. I say, make music, not money!

What do you think the next big wave of extreme music will be? Will noise be the next big thing?

Hmm … hard to say! I think that it can’t be more brutal or faster than death metal/grindcore. Who knows, maybe noise will be a trend? Who knows? Maybe black metal. It’s more and more black metal bands now. I think black metal will be big.

Photo of Exempt performing

Any last words?

Yes. Mega-ultra-thanks to you, Richard, for this interview. Your ‘zine rules. If somebody is interested, we have t-shirts for $15 USA. It’s one-sided white print on black shirts. Only XL. Cheers! ■

Photo: Exempt (courtesy Joel Andersson)


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