Interviewed by Marta Antosz, photos by Romana Makówka
What are your best memories from gigs in Poland and with Polish fans?
Christopher: We always have a really good time in Poland. It’s one of our favuorite places to play. I mean it — I’m not just saying that, it really is. We have a lot of friends there, and I feel like every time we play a show in Poland, people stick around after the show and there’s always a really cool party. One of the things that sucks about being a headlining band is that when the show finishes, everybody goes home, and we’re all offstage buzzing and excited, and there’s nothing to do. It kind of sucks. But in Poland, people stay, there’s a great atmosphere, and it’s always a really nice time. So yeah, I’m hoping that’s going to happen again this time — that we can have good fun with friends and a nice after-show party.
Thank you, I’m really glad to hear that. So tell me about your last album, The Thunderfist Chronicles. How was the creation process for you? How do you think your fans liked the album? And how do you feel about it now, a few months after the premiere?
Christopher: Yeah, it was kind of surprisingly quick to write that one. We’d just released that EP, The Voyage of the Dead Marauder, which came out in April or May 2024. And then, like two months later, I’d suddenly written a bunch of songs out of nowhere. And I was like, “I think we can do another album.” So we did this whole thing last minute — got a studio booked, and I somehow managed to squeeze out 45 minutes of music. It’s all quite cool, a lot more metal and heavy. I wanted more melodic death-metal influence in some of the riffs, and I feel like it sounds nice. It came together really quickly, and we recorded it well. People like it — which is good. We’re playing four of the songs on this tour and they’re going down really well. People sing along to all the melodies. It’s really cool. Our last show was two nights ago in Athens, and it was such a cool atmosphere, people singing along to all these new songs. It’s really nice to hear — it feels good to know people actually like the new stuff. After almost 20 years, most bands reach the point where people only want the classic songs and don’t care about the new ones. But it’s nice that people are enjoying the new stuff, so that’s great.
So do you think the more melodic or heavier metal approach is something you’d like to pursue in the future?
Christopher: Yeah, definitely. I’m personally getting really bored of the sort of mainstream European metal bands — , every song is the same three-and-a-half-minute song. I don’t want to do that. I want to write weird stuff. I like it when our music is weird.I know we’re famous for some really stupid, simple songs, but we always have more complicated stuff hidden in the albums. We want to do more of that. I don’t want to be making disco metal forever. You’ve got to keep changing, keep doing new sounds. I really enjoy these heavier riffs, so there’ll be more of that in the future.
Talking about you wanting to do “more serious stuff,” who are or were your biggest musical influences?
Christopher: Yeah, it’s weird. No one in this band was ever really into power metal very much. We liked heavier and more diverse music. Bands like Children of Bodom were a big favourite — you can hear some of that in the new album. My favourite band of all time was this English band called Bal-Sagoth. They had all this symphonic black metal with keyboards and narration and all this crazy shit going on. That’s the kind of music that makes me excited. It’s hard to write — really complicated — but maybe it’s time to commit career suicide and make weird music that most people don’t understand, but that makes me happy. So, whatever.
When you talk about wanting to make weird music… how did you your journey with the „pirate metal” start?
Christopher: It was an accident. I guess it’s like 20 years ago now — crazy. I was sitting in a little music practice room in high school, and I started playing a song that turned into the first song we ever wrote: “Heavy Metal Pirates”. We went to rehearsal — our band had just started because some friends said, “Let’s start a metal band.” I said, “Okay, I’ve written this song, it’s about pirates.” We played it and everyone was like, “Yeah, that’s a cool song!” So then I wrote another song about pirates: “Over the Seas,” which became the first song on our first album. And suddenly, before we knew it, we were a pirate metal band. We played our first ever show and everyone came dressed as pirates. I was like, “What the heck is going on?”, I guess we’re a pirate band now. And so we just got stuck in this crazy world of making songs about pirates and drinking. But it’s great fun. It’s fun music to play, really enjoyable to go on stage and do this every night.
Are you already working on new music?
Yeah, I’ve got a little folder of music on my computer — some new songs. I’ll tell you, I’ve got some working temporary song titles. They’re really stupid. Let me see… I’ll open my little folder of magic.
A song called „Don’t Take My Grapes Away”.
A song called „Fill My A*** With Candles”.
There’s one called „F***.
And one called „Huge Wet Octopus”.
I don’t think these titles are going to stay. I think F*** will stay F*** — it’s a bit of swearing, but it’s a good song. So yeah, that’s the situation. I’ve got maybe half an album. But it’s too early — we only just released the new one. I’ll sit on this for a year and see what happens.
Pefect (laughs). Since Christmas is coming, do you have any Christmas music you like or absolutely hate?
Christopher: I like a lot of the classic UK/Scottish Christmas pop songs, especially from the ’80s. Our bass player is here looking at me — he thinks he knows what I’m talking about. It’s an instrumental one. This weird song that was a Christmas number one — sort of prog-rock pop. Is it in Latin? I keep wanting to say In Nomine Satanas. That’s not right at all. That’s not Christmas. I feel like in mainland Europe people know totally different Christmas songs. I was going to write a new Christmas song — I really love Christmas songs. I made one once called It’s Time for Christmas Time. I also did a whole album of Christmas music and it was terrible. But I think I want to write a new Christmas song soon. We did an Alestorm Christmas song at one point — a bonus track on our previous album.Dulce Jubilo by Mike Oldfield. In Dulce Jubilo. Good song. That’s a great Christmas song. In Dulce Jubilo. Not In Nomine Satanas (laughs). Anyway — Christmas. Love it.
So, how is this tour going so far?
Christopher: It’s really good. We’ve been in Austria, Hungary, one show in Romania, Bulgaria, two in Greece, and now we’re back in Romania. Most of the shows have been sold out or really big — it’s really nice. I feel like we don’t come down to this part of the world enough — Southeast Europe. And it’s incredible. The way people sing along… it’s so good. Sometimes, when we play crowds can be a bit boring — they just stare at you. But down here people have such a cool time, they’re singing along, the atmosphere is great. So yeah, we’re having the best time.
And if you were to summarize this year, what would you be grateful for, musically speaking?
Christopher: I’m so bad with new music — I don’t even know what I listen to. The whole Spotify Wrapped thing came out and everyone was talking about it. I looked at mine and the top 10 things were just my own songs, because I was practicing along to them for the tour. I need to listen to more music. It’s terrible. I should do better. Though, there is this band, Labyrinthus Stellarum — a cosmic black metal band, I think Ukrainian. They’re really young kids. It’s really cool, cosmic, symphonic black metal. That’s a good album. Listen to them.
Going back to your writing process: how does it go for you? You mentioned a few songs on your computer, but are you mainly writing the music, or is it a group collaboration?
Christopher: Most of the guys in the band don’t really write songs — they just play. A lot of it is me, and I have a couple of friends — Mike from Gloryhammer, and my friend Matt who’s in some cool underground bands. The three of us collaborate a lot — we send ideas online: riffs, tabs, melodies. We’ve built a cool collaborative system. The last Alestorm album, Gloryhammer album — all of them were written this way.At the end, I just send everything to the guys and go, “Here you go, here are the songs. Practice those. We’re in the studio in six weeks.” We work with our producer Lasse Lammert — he’s been with us since forever. He knows our sound. We go in and record an album in two weeks, and it’s cool.
Fantastic. What is the most difficult part about making music or being in a band?
Christopher: The pressure — to make something as good as the last album. We’ve done some songs that have been quite popular, like “Drink,” and fans expect every new album to have a song as good or better. If that pressure wasn’t there, I could write albums all day long. But you’ve got to write a good song. That’s the hard part. Everything else — touring, recording — is easy and fun. But if your next song sucks, people stop listening. Fans are fickle. If they don’t like the next song, they go listen to someone else.
Yeah, it’s very competitive out there for musicians.
Christopher: It’s weird — music shouldn’t be a competition. But when you start becoming a popular band, touring with a big crew, it’s a whole operation. We have like 15 people with us. And I keep thinking: if our next song sucks, they don’t have jobs anymore. It’s the commercial nature of music. It’s weird and I’m not entirely comfortable with it, but we do it anyway.
Since you mentioned the crew — I feel they don’t get enough credit. Tell me a little bit about your crew.
Christopher: Oh my God, such a great question. No one ever asks about that. We have a very solid crew — they’re all our friends. You treat everyone like friends and family, and you have a nice time. Our sound guy, Badger, has been with us for like 12 years. He’s from Florida, loves country music, wears a cowboy hat. Our drum tech Paul puts on a shark costume and raps for us when we play “Hangover.” Our tour manager is from El Salvador — the chillest guy in the world. Our booking agent Christoph runs our merch. We even mention him in our song “S*** Boat” — we have jokes about everyone. It’s a cool gang of people. And the crazy part? The crew drinks way more than we do. People think Alestorm must drink a lot — no, it’s the crew. Sometimes we’re in bed early and they’re up till 5 a.m. pounding whiskey. They’re hardcore.
What drives you outside music? What are you passionate about?
Christopher: I like gum. Weird answer, but music has taken up so much of my life that I don’t know anymore. I love traveling, which works well with music — sometimes we book tours just to visit fun countries. We’re doing a South American tour next March — you don’t make money there, it costs money, but it’s fun. Going around the world with your friends, hanging out in Costa Rica or Colombia — it’s cool. I like „stupid” cars. I drive a big, „stupid” American sports car. And video games — I waste so much of my life on video games. I’m a bit of a nerd.
What are you driving?
Christopher: A Dodge Challenger. It’s metallic purple-blue, changes color. It’s stupid — way too big for the roads, it gets caught everywhere.
So what do you have planned for the end of the year or Christmas? Family gathering? Friends?
Christopher: I haven’t been back to my family in Scotland much. It’s cold and miserable. I usually try to go somewhere warm — I get that winter depression thing pretty badly. When the sun sets at 4 p.m.,
I hate it. I need sunshine. But this year… I don’t know. I might just sit in the snow and chill. I’ve traveled too much recently — been all over the world. I think I need to sit down and rest. So probably a quiet Christmas with family and friends.
Do you have a message for the Polish fans before the Polish gigs?
Christopher: I hope you all come out and have a nice time. We’re going to have the best time, I know it. We’ll probably drink a lot — that’s what happens in Poland. We always get that cinnamon, Christmas-tasting vodka, Żołądkowa Gorzka — I love that stuff. I could drink it all day. I’ll probably drink too much of it, make a fool of myself on stage, and put on the show of our lives.
Thank you so much, Christopher. I wish you all the best for the rest of the tour and the end of the year. Looking forward to seeing you on the road soon.
Christopher: Thank you very much. Cheers.
