After four decades of relentless metal, Protector’s Martin reflects on the journey, from the early days of excitement to the present-day gratitude of still being able to play. Join us as he shares stories of unforgettable gigs in Poland and exciting details about Protector’s 40th-anniversary plans.
Interviewed by Marta Antosz
MA: What are the memories of your gigs in Poland?
Martin: We played so far in Warsaw, Katowice and Gdansk. Warsaw was amazing. It was incredible. It was sold out, like 400 people in the club. And in between almost every song, the people were shouting like, „Protector, Protector!” It was awesome. That was really cool. Cool gig. I think the location was called “Hydrozagadka”.
MA: So, next year will mark 40 years of Protector. Can you tell me what are your favourite memories? What would you do differently? And maybe what do you have prepared for fans as a surprise for the anniversary?
Martin: My favourite memories, of course, you have to divide it into two, because it was the early time when I was in the band and the time now with my Swedish band colleagues (Michael „Micke” Karlsson – guitar;Carl-Gustav Karlsson – drums; Mathias Johansson – bass guitar). Like 20 years in between for me. But in the early times, of course, it was all this excitement. Everything was new to me. Being in a band—I had been in smaller bands, but not like this: playing a lot, recording albums, and stuff like that. So, it was excitement, I would say. The first time coming around, meeting fans and other bands.
And now, the second time, now when I play with my Swedish colleagues, I have a little bit more experience of what it’s like to be playing live. But it’s still incredible. Here it is also a kind of excitement, but more gratitude—I would say—that I have the possibility to do this again, to play with Protector again and play the songs of Protector. And so that is, so it’s the first one. The first time was excitement, and the second, I would say, gratitude that I had the possibility to do this again. Next year, on May 2nd, we will play in Protector’s old hometown, Wolfsburg.
Our special gig. We have never played more than 60 minutes, because I’m old (laughs). This time we will play 100 minutes. We will play songs from every record. We will have at least one, two, three, four, five special guests, um, and, uh, that will play with us, and, there will be old band members that will join us on stage for some of the songs.
So that is the main thing. We will, like, try to get also a slideshow that will be on the televisions outside with the story of the band. So, there will be some smaller things, but mainly the gig.
MA: And how about the current band? How did you come to “reanimate” Protector? How did you find the guys, and how is playing with them? How do you like it so far? What surprised you, and what was the biggest challenge?
Martin: The whole thing started in 2005. Or, let’s say, it started a little bit earlier, around 2003 or 2004. I got more and more contact again with my old band members. In the 90s, I had almost no contact with them. But I started getting contact with them by mail, or even when I was in Wolfsburg personally.
And then a Swedish record company, I Hate Records, put out two compilation CDs, and that showed me that there still was some interest in Protector. I thought everybody had forgotten about the band. And then, in 2005, at a Niflheim show in Stockholm, I was honored to be at the after-show party at home at one of the guitarists. And there I met a guy who did the merch for Niflheim at the time, Jonas Svensson, and he and I sat all night. Everybody was, like, falling asleep or going home, but we sat all night and talked about heavy metal in general, and all of a sudden, it was Jonas, actually, who came up with the idea: if I couldn’t try to redo a reunion with the original members—but I knew it wouldn’t be possible because Michael, our original drummer, unfortunately died in 1994. And Hansi, who formed the band together with him, the guitarist, he didn’t want to play, at least not want to play under the name of Protector without him.
So, I knew that already, that it wouldn’t be able to do this. But I said, but maybe we can do a cover band. And then Jonas said that he would go to Uddevala where he lived at the time, and he would pick some guys for me that he thought were old school, like this kind of music, and were good at playing this kind of music. And about half a year later, he contacted me again and said, „Yeah, I found three guys, and they are already rehearsing, and you have to come.” And in February 2006, I think it was, I went. I came there and met the guys for the first time, and it was amazing. Directly from the start, I knew that Jonas had found the perfect guys for this—at that time, project. Um, and we called it “Martin Missy and the Protectors”, so it was uh, maybe only a cover band. We played all Protector songs, and sometimes a cover by, like, Sodom. We played in Germany and the Czech Republic, and Finland. And then in 2011, the guys, uh, asked me if it would not be possible to do it officially as Protector again, because they had some ideas for songs and stuff, and I said, „Ah!”. So, I went and met Hansi in Wolfsburg and talked to him, and he said he thought it was a great idea that the legacy of Protector could live on through this, so he gave us his blessing, so to say, and that was all I needed, then, for that. We started, and we did a demo, and then since 2011, we play as Protector officially again. Um, so 2006 I met the guys, so we will also have, like, an, uh, anniversary next year—it will be 20 years, so to say, of these guys of the new Protector playing, so it will be 40/20, you say. Yeah, fantastic.
MA: Looking forward to it. Could you tell me a little bit about the last two albums? So, “Excessive Outburst of Depravity” and “Summon the Hordes”? What was the inspiration behind them? You mentioned already the guys had some ideas, but how did you come about, like, writing vocals and writing lyrics? And how different was it, maybe, from your creative process in the past with, you know, with the so-called “old Protector”?
Martin: Of course, it was easier back then to write music because we all lived in the same town in Wolfsburg, so we could rehearse together and have this, what do you say, this Austausch— exchange in the music.
So that was easy, of course, because the guys live, like, in Uddevalla. That’s on the West Coast. I live on the East Coast in Stockholm. It’s, like, 500 kilometres between us, so it’s not just for me to jump into the car and go there every weekend to rehearse with them. But they rehearse the music there, and they write the songs there, mostly, and I write the lyrics. I get recordings from them, and then I write the lyrics in Stockholm.
Sometimes I have ideas for songs as well, but because I can’t play a guitar, I have to sing the guitar riffs on the mobile phone and send it to them. They will have to try to put them into riffs. So, I have also written some of the music on every album. I had at least one song on each album that was from me. And for “Excessive Outburst”, I think it was, like, a process. At the first album, “Reanimated Homunculus”, we were still trying to find steps forward to our sound, and I think we found it, somewhere between “Cursed and Coronated” and the third album. Some kind of thrash metal with death metal influences, I would call it.
So that is how all this worked out. And when we recorded “Summon the Hordes”, the guys went down to Berlin and recorded it with Harris Johns there. I recorded my vocals in Stockholm in a little studio. Harris came up for a day and produced the whole thing there. Then it was mastered by Engel, who is the guy from High Roller Records, who does all the mastering for the label. And at the last album, that was, I think, the coolest thing, because then we went into a studio in Stockholm with Robert Persson, who is also a very good guitarist and has his own bands. He recorded everything—all the music, all the vocals there—and that time, Engel from High Roller Records did all the mixing as well, the mixing and the mastering. So that time it was, to compare, you could say, really some younger guys that we recorded with. They were about 40, 45 years old, almost exactly the same age. So we got, maybe, a little bit of a younger touch, if you want, on the excessive record.
I like all of our records, and usually it’s—what do you say?—um, it’s a cliché to say, „Oh, our latest album is our best album,” but I think we have really worked our way forward to this album “Excessive Outburst of Depravity”. Um, so I really think that is our, uh, um, our best album, so it will be really hard to, uh, get up to that standard again, I think, for the next record, but we will see.
MA: Are you already working on something?
Martin: The thing that was good with, or the fortunate thing, in that way, in that perspective with Excessive Outbursts—was that it was a lot of, around the Corona pandemic, so we couldn’t play any shows for, like, two years, I think. So, the guys had a lot of time to sit in the rehearsal room and write songs, and that was, or maybe also why, it came out so good—that they could, like, work on every song, on every riff. Now, it is more difficult because we have, like, shows. We don’t play so many shows, but they are, like, in April, some are in July, now we will play in December, and we will all the time have to keep up the set list, so we keep that fresh in mind. And then it is difficult to write new songs in between that because Micke, our guitarist, is working. He has a job as a car mechanic. He has a little daughter; he’s married. Carl is married and has a little daughter; he’s working, also. Matte, he has no family, but he’s also working in shifts as well, in a fish factory.
So, it’s difficult to get a new album together, but I think it will come. We have four songs, maybe, ready, but we want at least ten. It will take some time. We had always three years between every record so far from the new record, but this year it will be maybe five or something, because it will be more difficult to find time to write all the songs.
MA: How do you think the audience likes the new songs, like, when you play live, because I can see people are really, like, digging it, like singing both old and new stuff? How did you like the summer tour so far?
Martin: I was really surprised, yeah. In the beginning, I was a little bit worried that the people—the fans—only wanted to hear the old songs, and maybe it was soin the first years of the new Protector, but the more records we put out, the more songs we played live of them. But we usually don’t play more than two or three of the new songs because then we, of course, know that they mainly want to hear a lot of old stuff, but we also could play some new songs. And after a while, like now at Brutal Assault, it was exciting to see that they, not just when we played the new song, were standing still and watching, but they were, like, celebrating them just as much almost as the old songs, and that I thought was amazing. And we have realized that—we have seen that also in the past years at our gigs—that also the new songs are received well by the fans, so I’m really happy about that as well.
MA: Is there any musician you would love to record a Protector song with, or even a record?
Martin: Still living, of course? (laughs) No wish list for people that are in heaven, already, because that, of course, would have been Lemmy. Cliff Burton would have been cool. But, yes, with living people, it would be cool to play with Hellbutcher, the ex-singer of Niflheim—that would be awesome, he’s a nice guy—and it would fit, also, as well, very good to our songs and music, of course. Tom Angelripper, but that will be difficult because of the distance to Germany, but maybe he could record something on there. If he would do that, I don’t know—maybe, because as far as I’ve heard, Sodom wants to stop now playing, so maybe he has some time to do that. But that would, of course, also be cool to do something with Tom Angelripper. So, Tom Angelripper from Sodom and Hellbutcher that would be awesome.
MA: How do you think your sound is now influenced by being in Sweden versus, the times when Protector was a band from Wolfsburg and was really tied to the German scene at the time?
Martin: Back then, it still was a kind of—we still were, also, involved in this kind of race that a lot of bands were in, like, ’84, ’85, ’86, and then we came in, ’86, ’87. It still was, like, this race of being the most brutal band, so speed, heaviness was incredibly important. I tried, also, to, um, to adjust my voice to this brutality, and so on. The first record I made; I was happy that I could sing something brutal because it was the first time in the studio. But then, for “Golem” and for “Urm the Mad”, I tried really to sing almost like a death metal voice, very deep and stuff like that, because it should be as brutal and heavy as possible. Now I don’t care so much; I just sing. I just go into the studio, in front of the microphone, and I sing. I would rather say it sounds a little bit more like the misanthropy times than the darker, darker death metal song of “Golem” and on “Urm the Mad”. That is probably the biggest, uh, difference, that I don’t care so much about—it should be absolutely super brutal, deep, and dark, and everything. I just sing, like I do; I enjoy it myself.
MA: And how do you think the scene has changed from the fans’ perspective? Do you see, like, a big gap between the old so-called “old fans” and the “new fans”? What is condition of heavy metal, death metal, trash metal is in general, from what you’re observing at the gigs?
I know you are a fan yourself, as well.
Martin: Yes, of course there’s a big difference, always in heavy metal—a development. I must admit that I’m pretty old school, so, of course, I mainly like to listen to the old bands I listened to back then as a fan, but also if there are new bands that, at least, sound like old school, I like to listen to them as well. But, of course, I know that the scene has developed. There are all kinds of thrash metal, modern thrash metal, new wave of thrash metal—I’ve heard that there is.
But I think the scene is still very cool and alive and has a lot of facete, a lot of styles, a lot of directions, but I think there are also a lot of younger ones. Yes, I would say our audience is, like, 75%, 70, maybe, older fans—maybe that already were listening to thrash metal or to Protector in the ’80s and ’90s. But there also are, at least, 25% or 30% younger people who weren’t even born back in the day, and that I think is awesome, that we also can inspire younger fans to listen to our music, and that is great.
I think that, of course, we love all of our fans, but it’s cool that there also are younger ones that are appreciating what we are doing, both the old songs and the new songs. Yes, so I think there is still, quite, what do you say, a new generation coming in, so metal doesn’t die with the generation who listened to it in the ’80s, ’90s. I think it’s cool. And here in Sweden, you see so many kids, like 20, 25, who have vests and patches and look exactly like we did back in the ’80s. That gives me also a great pleasure always, to both go to concerts as a spectator and see all these fans and to see them when we are on stage. That there are also many young people who, yeah, as I said, who look exactly as we did back in the ’80s and mosh around and headbang, and that’s, it’s great.
MA: And you said you’re mostly into old-school stuff, but was it any new thrash or death band that you got pretty excited about, like, in the last couple of years?
Martin: Oh, to be honest, it’s not so many new bands that I listen to. But there is this German band called—now I have to think—Hellish Crossfire, they play a kind of thrash black metal. But they are also around, already, for, like, 20 years or something. But let’s say I enjoy going to concerts, and when there are bands playing thrash metal or newer bands, maybe, I don’t have their records, but I enjoy listening to them and seeing them live on stage at least. But I have to admit that when I put on a record at home it’s mostly, like, “Bonded by Blood” by Exodus or “Reign in Blood” by Slayer or something, like that.
MA: With the recent Passing of Ozzy, how important was Black Sabbath as your musical influence?
Martin: I started listening to them in ’85, ’86. I listened to a compilation album that an older cousin of mine had… But I think when it comes to Black Sabbath, because it’s no trash metal in that way, but, of course, the heaviness, maybe, I would say, was inspiring from Black Sabbath. This sound, and especially the riffing of Tony Iommi, I think was amazing, so that was probably that that inspired most when it came to Protector, I would say, to my own kind of music. When it comes to my own style of singing, I would say it was mainly Jeff Becerra from Possessed and Tom Angelripper from Sodom, of course, as well, Tom Warrior from Celtic Frost and Michael Hasse, our first drummer and singer who sang on the first demo. He was also a big inspiration for me personally, for my style of singing.
MA: Have you ever thought about writing a book about your presence on the metal scene, about Protector?
Martin: I have actually written—it was not a book, but a kind of magazine – “Apocalyptic Chronicles” about the story of Protector, but not so much about myself and, like, a biography, or what do you call it, autobiography or something, but more, like, from the outside, about the story of Protector. And that will probably be done—a new version now with all the things that have happened in the last years for the anniversary show—but a book, oh, yes, why not? It would be interesting because I always like to write. One of my dreams when I was younger, was to become a journalist. I wrote for school magazine, for a school paper, and stuff like that, so I like to write myself. So, it would be awesome, but I know it’s a lot, a lot of work. Just this little magazine I put together with, I don’t know, 50 pages, I think, was a work of, like, one year to put together all that stuff. And then, if you’re working, you only have time in the evening or on weekends to write stuff. So, we will see, but it would be really interesting to write a book. See if there’s anyone interested who would put it out.
MA: What are you passionate about outside of music?
Martin: One of my biggest passions is, of course, football. I played for a long time, both in clubs and as—what do you call it?— in the Sunday league, when you, like, play just for fun, not in a, not in a, like, a real club or something, but also watching, of course, both on television when there are games that interest me—or going to matches, if possible, in the stadium to experience the whole atmosphere. My favorite teams are in Germany: Wolfsburg, in Sweden it is Öster Växjö, um, which I support most, so to say. But, yeah, of course, and when there’s a World Cup or European Championship, I always follow that, and also other matches from other teams, from other countries—I try to follow as much as possible when there’s a big tournament going on.
So, football, yes. And history—I like to watch historic movies or documentaries. There is also a big interest that I have: science fiction. Reading books or seeing movies, and that is all the stuff maybe not so much football, but history and science fiction that I put into a lot of lyrics that I write when I write.
MA: What was the book you read recently that you would recommend?
Martin: The thing is that the last years I have mainly, what do you call it, listened to books, audiobooks. And there was this series, a science-fiction series, that I liked a lot. I think they have, like, 15 books or something. It’s called Expeditionary Force. I can recommend that very much, especially in the audiobook version where this guy—I can’t recall the name, but he’s great. He’s so great in doing all the voices, and, uh, reading. His voice is cool, um, so “Expeditionary Force”, I would say, but There are so many books, I could say, that are worth reading. I also like old science fiction books, like “War of the Worlds”. For example, Jules Verne, but that was a long time ago now that I have read. Nowadays, I have a book waiting for me at home—I forgot to bring it here on my holiday. It’s called: “The Forever War”. And I also listened to—after seeing the television series— to “The Witcher”. I also listen to the audiobooks because, of course, there’s always maybe a little bit more information and stuff in the books or the audiobooks than there is in the television series, and I like, but I like both really a lot; they are awesome. So that I would say also as well. “The Witcher” was great to listen to.
MA: With the anniversary approaching, what do you wish Protector and yourself for the next 20, 40 years, hopefully?
Martin: 20, 40 years, yeah (laughs). We take one year at a time or two years. We have gigs booked now for 2026 and 2027 now, so we take it one step at a time. And just the big wish is that we all stay healthy and that we can play together as long as possible and play so many shows as possible to still give the people the live experience of Protector. And how long that will be? – I don’t know. We have no plans yet to stop playing, so we are looking forward to at least five years, maybe ten years, and then we will see if it will be twenty or forty, as you said.
MA: Fingers crossed, and I wish you all the best. Thank you so much, Martin.
Martin: Thank you.