Interview: Olof Wikstrand (ENFORCER)

Hello Olof, thank you for your time and the chance to make this interview.

Now worries man.

I know that you're quite busy, with a tour starting soon, in like a few weeks time. 

Yeah.

It's the first time that you guys are going to visit Bulgaria. How about that? It's about time!

It is about time, yeah. We're super excited to come to Bulgaria for the first time. We've been playing together for 20 years, and we built a pretty huge following all over the world, more or less, and we're super happy to bring that to Bulgaria. I don't know what other bands of our generation have played there, but we're super stoked to get there and hang out, make friends and see people that we know. And because I know quite a few people have been coming to our shows from Bulgaria, but to international shows.. so super stoked.

Yeah, I actually was surprised that it took you so long, because we even have special oldchool festival, like the Running free Festival, which is based only for old school stuff. So I was really surprised that it took you like, 20 years to come.

Yeah. I've seen those type of shows in Bulgaria, like in the past few years. We've been talking about making it to Bulgaria for a very long time, but it's a pretty small market. And playing these  shows that we do this March. And since it's a small market, we can't really take the kind of fees that we're used to, so we have to adjust. We can't just go and play one show in Bulgaria, because then we will lose money. We have to make sure that we can do a lot of shows in the area to keep the expenses down. So we can make this  run without losing money. So it's more of an economical thing because, obviously these shows don't pay as much, and we have a lot of expenses to come

Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more expensive for bands to tour. The costs are going higher and higher, and it's getting difficult for bands to travel. And people are wondering, why are these bands not coming here? But they don't realize the costs for a band to start even preparing for the tour. 

Yes exactly, even the flight costs have gone up ridiculously. After the pandemic and after the war, it's been insane. I think that travel costs for us as a band in total, has more than doubled since 2019. So even though the promoters are starting to pay more, it's like we're almost losing money on every show that we do, because there's so much expenses involved.

Yeah, even bigger bands, because you presume that they are making more money, but they have even bigger expenses and probably still losing money. That's insane!

Yes. That's why we have to schedule a lot of shows in the same area. We hope that people will come out to see these shows, because we are dependent on that. There's a gamble every time you go to a new place. 

Yeah, I understand. So It’s been over a year since the release of Nostalgia .. The album had enough time to set in. Looking back at it now, how challenging it was to release sixt album, and still be true to your roots. Because let's face it, the world was totally different 20 even 10 years ago?

Yes, absolutely. I think people judge us more now compared to when we released our first, second or third album. Back then.. There weren't a lot of bands playing true metal. It was like literally nobody. So, everyone was pleased with whatever we did, but now that it became like a worldwide phenomenon, with the retro wave, everybody's judging us so fucking hard into detail. Some people are even just ditching us without even listening to us. Just because there's been so many bands in our style coming out after us, and that's the biggest difference. But I try not to care so much about what other people say or think. I just want to do something that makes me happy with myself. I think that with every album we go in a bit different directions, you know. The first one was like a completely “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” worship. The second one, we found a little bit more of ourselves and our sound. Тhe third one was pretty much just a speed metal album. The fourth one is a little bit more elaborated. The fifth one was experimental in some different way. But with this one, I think that my goal was just to make good songs and not focus so much on what direction to take. Тhe most important thing for me was to to make songs that are simple and effective and in our style, I didn't try to experiment much. I just tried to write good songs and that was my only focus for this album. Some of the albums have that feel that they are forced to make, but this one came out very natural. I was in a good place when I wrote “Nostalgia” . It was a calm time as most of it was written during the pandemic. So it was absolutely no external pressure or anything. 

Is that the formula for how to make a good record and good composition? To be totally relaxed and not thinking too much?

Yeah. It's also hard when you compare everything to something that you've already done. But things just have to take their time. 

When we started witnessing the return of this classic heavy metal wave in the beginning of the mid 2000 we saw a lot of these bands from Sweden, Finland, Canada, UK, blasting the classic look and sound but to this day quite few remained true to it like you did .. Why is that? 

I don't know. Which bands do you refer to as having lost their momentum?

Well i don't know.. In Solitude maybe or Cauldron as you are wearing their shirt. They haven't released a new album since 2018. Seven years is a lot for a young band.

It's a tough period to transition from being a high school band, where you don't feel any pressure and just go down to the rehearsal place and rehearse after school. Or when you're in your early 20s, you think that you own the world and just do your thing. But sooner or later, adulthood will come into your life. And it depends how you handle that, with all the responsibilities that adulthood has. And I think we have handled that pretty well. That's the key to survive in this. I'm very lucky because I am the driving force behind the band and it's always been like that. And for me personally, I've been lucky enough to have a day job at the side. I can work whenever I want and I don't have to take that into account when it comes to playing music. I don't have to choose between a job career and a music career, because I'm freelance, working as a sound engineer. So I can take on any job, anytime if I want to make extra money. Аnd that's the first thing. And second , you know, people have girlfriends, people have children. As soon as anybody comes to me, and says “Dude, I can't make this tour because we have a small child at home”, like my brother, for example. I haven't been mad at anyone for coming with that. You always have to treat that with respect. That's fine. We just take in someone who can fill out on this tour. We've been playing a lot like that since 2016 and up until today. We have played a lot with temporary members so we can give the members their space, that they need to do things that they need to do in their life. And also, since 2016 we've decided that we do this because we love the music in it, because we want to have fun. And that's a good recipe for having a band staying together. Instead of having the pressure like you have to make it now, go chase a different career. I think there's a lot of factors to survive as a band and getting into adulthood and all that. The other thing is that we are really good friends. I think everybody in the band also knows their place. There's no competition between us. Who's going to do this, who's going to do that, who's going to be in front, who's going to write songs, who's not going to write songs. We just have a good harmony within the band, we're great friends, and everybody knows exactly what's expected from everyone.  So it's a chill atmosphere. I've seen other bands that yell at each other, and there's so much ego involved in who wants this and that and contracts and stuff. I Don't really care about that. You know, if somebody needs three years off, that's fine. My brother now, for example. He works a lot with film music and has two children. I'm just happy that he can be with us and do shows with us, and I totally understand that he can't always do that. I just want him to have fun when he's with us.

Yeah, “balance” that's the most important thing. 

Yeah. 

You mentioned how we see this return to classic and retro stuff. Not only heavy metal, but also games, movies, even vinyl is more popular now than ever. Do you think that nostalgia has something to do with it? We miss the things that we had before, but did we actually live better back then? Or it's just a fake sense of how things were?

I think it's both actually. I mean, there's nostalgia for the older people, but I think that the majority of our audience and fans are like 10,15, even 20 years younger than us, so they never experienced the CD era or the MTV era of music. With the internet and everything being so accessible, I think that's how they've found their way back to a time when music was more organic and when there were more emotions involved in music. If you compare it to today's music scene, today's so called metal and stuff are completely flat, without any emotions and meaning whatsoever. Because you produce stuff to death, where you remove all the flaws and all originality and everything that makes it feel Real. So I think there's been a built up demand for music that is more real than the modern stuff today. And we can see that because around 2000 to 2010 there was like a huge wave of retro metal bands. Retro death metal, retro thrash metal, retro Heavy Metal, retro 70s occult metal, retro goth metal. And everything is made by people our generation, that kind of wants to take things back to when it was real. As a counter reaction to how sterile and boring music have been in the mainstream area.

Yeah, that actually, leads to one of my next questions. You actually work into sound production for other bands. And yeah, with the technology now everyone can have a home studio nowadays, but occasionally we see downgrading into the production even big bands. And it's something to do with all this wall of sound. It's not like the warm and dynamic sound that we loved back then. Sometimes I stop an album just because my head will explode. Everything is too much. And it is a huge band, with a huge budget and they recorded in the biggest studio ever.. But compared to something recorded in the 80s … sounds like crap. Is it because we forgot how to produce music? Or it's like a new standard? 

Its new standards. And because we have so many tools accessible now. How to quantize drums, how to make every beat perfect, how to auto tune vocals so that they're perfect. And in the end when you polish the recording so much that you remove all the flaws, you remove all the identity. Аnd then you remove all the atmosphere from the songs, from the music. Could be just like modern metal stuff today. It could be just as well computer generated and artificial.

It is a thing already. There are bands that count entirely on AI for their music.

It's been like that since people started to use Pro Tools or like modern DAWs. Because that's when we started to edit music in detail. So we have too many possibilities of making everything perfect. But music isn't supposed to be perfect all the time, because the identity and originality lies in the flaws. What would Van Halen be, for example, as a guitar player, if all the notes were perfectly played all the time, on time, it would sound like a computer recording. That's not why I love Van Halen as a guitar player. I love him because there's so much aggression, rawness, and creativity while playing. And the tempo goes up and down. It's just wild and not perfect in any way. You just get sucked into his guitar playing, because it has so much character.

Is it the same with the pre-recorded tracks used on live shows? I mean, most of the bands now use like, click-metronome and pre recorded samples on stage, which actually, I think, removes a lot of from the dynamic of the songs

Yes, true!

It takes all the possibilities for the songs to “breathe” and the band to be imperfect and have this “character” as you said. 

Yes but I don't have so much problem with that. You can also use technology to your advantage. And that comes with a lot of advantages. But what I don't like, for example, is when big bands are using video projections on stage. I can't fucking stand that. That takes all the focus from the rock and roll show. Because what you want to see is the band. You want to see the raw energy of the band. You don't want to stand there and watch a screen with some random screen saver from Windows 95.

I had that experience with a Judas Priest show recently!

Yeah, I see that all the time. I saw Megadeth last year, and they sounded amazing, but there were all these huge screens on stage playing like something that looked like a screensaver from the 90s. It took away all the focus from the music and the band themselves. And I see so many semi big bands use that. And for me that's worse than any backtracks and anything I seriously dislike that so much. 

I think you and I are about the same age. I was born in 84 i think you are 86. I grew up in Bulgaria and the fact that we were part of the communist block, kept a lot of this eastern style and especially heavy metal away from us. But I remember back in the day how we cherished every tape and magazine that we got. 

Yes! ..

I even remember how I ran from school to get the new Iron Maiden album back then. I was grounded for a week but it was totally worth it. Do you think that kids nowadays are spoiled with all social media and the information around them? They don't realize how close the time was when we ran from school just to get an album, to go to a concert in another city. Or we were saving money for a week to buy a record without even knowing if the album is good.

I can really understand how it was for you. For me it was more accessible growing up in Sweden in the 80s and 90s. But I also couldn't afford CDs, you know.. I could have CDs twice a year. One on my birthday and one on Christmas. So I chase after music and copy my friends' music onto tape. Or calling to radio stations and asking for a song and then taping it. I think the general value of music increases so much when you are limited. When you had to invest in the music and put more attention and pay for music it became more valuable for you. Now when you have access to everything in the world you become more specific to what you want. And that is good and bad of course. From the good side: That is why Retro Metal grew to the point where it is at the moment. If we were limited to mainstream magazines and TV channels to reach out like in the 80s. There would never be a retro wave, because the record labels would not dare to invest in a sound that's old. So, the Internet and this accessibility have made it possible for a lot of music that is not mainstream to develop. And that's the good part. The bad part is: For example, I'm putting out the new album, and I spent two, three years on writing it, and the stuff that people listen to is the one single that I made the music video for. So you really see how the traffic is channeled into one song. And there is also so much competition from other bands. People listen to you way less because there are so many other things to listen to.
So yes, there's both good and bad things about it. But eventually, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the way people consume music these days. 

What kind of music do you actually often listen to? And what is the band that you recently discovered? Because, you know, everyone discovers some new music all the time.

Yeah, I think being a musician, you can't limit yourself to a certain type of music, unless you're like a fan band or a tribute band or something. I grew up with all kinds of music, and I don't really listen to music as a genre so much. I don't care about identifying with a certain genre anymore. I listen to songs that are genuinely well composed and that are generally telling me anything and what genre it is, it really doesn't matter. So I listen to all types of music and I'm inspired by all kinds of music. I'm even inspired by music that I don't like. Like walking around in the mall or something, and you hear the radio in the background. Maybe you hate the artist, maybe you hate the production, maybe hate everything, but you hear a fragment of a melody that works well together. And you can memorize that, and you can let that inspire you in making something that is yours. So I'm inspired by literally everything. But what I listen to, mostly at home, is classical music and fusion jazz music.

What about a band that you discovered recently?

Very good question. Hmm… Band that I discovered lately? Hmm 

Or, I can make it a little bit easier for you. Is there any old band that you're-discovered recently, Because it happens a lot to me. 

Yeah, I would say Foreigner is the band that I discovered a couple years ago. I was completely blown away by everything that they did. I think they're one of the best bands that the world has ever seen.Very musical band that has great songs and great compositions. And you know, you can play their songs either in a full rock fashion, or you can strip them down and play them on the piano, and it would still be a great song. Another band that I listened to a lot this year is Journey. I really, really love almost everything that Journey has made. And they're so incredibly talented musicians and songwriters that I don't cease to be impressed by the stuff that they do. 

That's two bands that I've been listening to, like, almost their entire discography. And like you said. I just keep on discovering songs from them, like on a weekly basis,because they have so many albums out.

Looking back .. half of your life you spent writing and recording with Enforcer and and even more dedicated to music in general. Do you still have dreams to chase and things that you want to accomplish

Yeah, I counted the other days, and I counted that we played in 46 different countries. So that makes it still 100 and something that we never played in.

So that's your dream: To play in as many web countries as you can?

My dream is to build a metal scene in the entire world. In every country of the world, to have a scene that appreciates real music and real metal music. Not the modern crap that's been released and shit like that. That's my dream, to build a strong scene everywhere. We've seen that in different countries. For example: First time we play in one country, you have a bunch of mainstream metal guys coming in, or girls in like “shit” metal T-shirts. And the next time you come back, they have a Judas Priest t-shirt on, and they have a better sense of fashion. And that's how you build the scene. You convert false metal fans into true metal fans. And we've seen that in so many places

So let me, let me take you back to the upcoming show in Sofia. What should the fans expect from the band? What set list are you going to prepare for for the show?

We've been playing around a little bit with different types of set lists, but I don't know what the venues look like yet. But we always try to make a great heavy rock show, wherever we go. You see a lot of bands who just go up on stage and they look down on their instruments, and they try to play perfect. We try to deliver energy to the audience. A vibe and atmosphere, so that the audience always feels included in the show. As a front man of the band, the audience is my main instrument to play with he-he.  So, and I think that's a really important factor that we play with the audience, and we include them in the show. But we do a very intensive show, it's intensive music.

I'm pretty much sure it will be awesome, and the fan reaction will be unexpected for you. Okay, just some final words to our readers, because this interview will be posted just before the show.

We sincerely look forward to seeing the entire Bulgarian metal scene and to do this together with you guys, we're so stoked to come there.

Thank you for your time Olof, we will speak more, when you're here in Sofia. 

Yeah, absolutely.

Author: Nikola Petras
February 2025