Greenleaf Interview with Tommi Holappa: Altitude Attained (Plus Video Premiere!)

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One would hardly call the ascent of Swedish heavy rockers Greenleaf sudden, considering their self-titled debut EP was released in 2000, but there was a clear point at which the band decided they would become a full-time act. It was sometime after 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here). That album was the band’s third for Small Stone after 2007’s landmark Agents of Ahriman (review here) and 2003’s Secret Alphabets, and while for years Greenleaf had existed as a side-project for Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa and a number of other compatriots — among them early Dozer producer Bengt Bäcke and Truckfighters vocalist Oskar Cedermalm — the band very clearly decided it was time to hit the road, and to hit it hard.

This required some shakeups. Cedermalm out as singer, Greenleaf brought in vocalist Arvid Jonsson and drummer Sebastian Olsson for 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here), which offered an approach far more stripped down than its predecessor but was a crucial reset for the band in light of 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here). Their first for Napalm Records and recorded by one-time drummer Karl Daniel Lidén with Dozer‘s Johan Rockner on bass — Hans Fröhlich now has the role — their sixth album overall reinvents the band’s context, building on what Greenleaf was before to shape what they’ll become going forward. What’s without a doubt one of the finest heavy rock outings of the year, it’s marked by a standout performance from Jonsson as frontman and by the consistency of Holappa‘s songwriting, which has always served as the uniting factor in Greenleaf‘s work.

When I spoke to Holappa about the band, they were just off the “Up in Smoke” tour with My Sleeping Karma and Australia’s Mammoth Mammoth (both labelmates), and the guitarist talked about the lineup shifts in the group, the prospect of their making a long-awaited US debut live early next year, his view of the relationship between Dozer and Greenleaf at this point, establishing Greenleaf‘s dynamic and beginning the process of moving forward from Rise Above the Meadow.

It’s all the more fitting that the band should focus on their live presentation in their new video for “Tyrant’s Tongue,” for which I’m happy today to host the premiere, as they’ve become so much a live act and that’s a decent portion of where my conversation with Holappa was geared. About the clip, the band said, “This is a display of what we usually do on tours. Just in case you where all wondering. Hope you can dig it!”

Please find the video below, followed by the complete, 2,600-word Q&A of the interview, and enjoy:

Greenleaf, “Tyrant’s Tongue” official video

Greenleaf Interview with Tommi Holappa:

How was the “Up in Smoke” tour?

The “Up in Smoke” tour was really, really good. Especially, yeah. Two cool greenleaf 2bands, My Sleeping Karma and Mammoth Mammoth, us. It was three different kinds of bands, but it all fit really well together. I think we had seven out of 11 shows sold out.

After Greenleaf wasn’t ever a full-time touring band for so long, it’s great that now you’re getting out and doing that. Have you gotten any gauge as to the response to the material?

I think the response has been good overall. I don’t know how many reviews we’ve got so far but it’s been a whole bunch, most have been really good.

How has the process been for you, of taking the band out on the road? You had to rework the lineup, can you talk about putting Greenleaf together to the point where you can go on tour?

You know how it is, we’ve been changing members (laughs) I don’t know. Especially after Bengt left and when Johan joined the band, it was like, “okay, this is the lineup.” I told him that we would tour a lot, we would have a lot to do next year when the album comes out, he said “no problem, I will work it out.” He’s studying, has two kids and he has a job also. But he said he would work it out, so I said, “okay you’re in.” He was in the band for like six months and then it was more like, “can Bengt do this show? That show? I can’t really do this show,” and so on, so we had to sit down and talk with him and say this really didn’t work for us because we need to/want to play a lot. So that’s when we, yeah, we contacted Hans from Grandloom because we’ve known him for a few years. He’s a great guy and an amazing bass player. When we asked he said yes right away. At the moment, I think this is, I will not say this is the lineup that will last for a few years but I hope so (laughs). It feels really good at the moment and Hans is totally into it. He really wants to tour as much as possible, write albums and songs. He’s totally dedicated to Greenleaf now. That’s what we need, we need four guys that are dedicated to do this, this Greenleaf thing.

After Nest of Vipers, when you brought Arvid in, was that something you did building towards getting the band to be more full-time?

Yeah, me and Bengt have talked about that. We did one tour with Oskar. It was sometime after we release Nest of Vipers. We did one tour with him and we felt like, yeah, this is fun we should do more touring with Bengt! Sebastian had just joined as well for that tour. So we said yeah, let’s tour more. We knew that OsKar is yeah – Truckfighters all the time pretty much. So just before Arvid joined the band we asked if greenleaf 4he’s ready to tour, and he said yeah, sure. As long as — he was still in his other band at the time. The Humphrey Bogarts, the more pop-rock band he had. But he said he can be in two bands. I don’t know if they really toured but they did a bunch of shows in Sweden. He said we can organize that we tour and then they do their shows when we don’t tour, you know what I mean. Then we said that yeah, you can join the band if you want, and if you can tour, we will do it.

The thing that struck me most when listening to Rise Above the Meadow was how much it really built off of Trails and Passes.

I think that kind of happened naturally for us, because Trails and Passes was the first album with Arvid and Sebastian on drums. That was when we started to get to know each other pretty much. We wrote a bunch of songs and now this feels good, we were really satisfied with Trails and Passes and then we started writing songs for Rise Above the Meadow — we’ve been together for a year at least, almost. So we knew each other and Arvid brought in more of his influences. I guess it’s just natural growth for the band.

Do you feel playing more shows has been a part of that too? Solidifying that chemistry with basically a new lineup?

Yeah. I think that’s — playing a lot of shows, of course we get to know each other or musically getting tighter, working out better. Playing shows and songwriting, yeah, I don’t know (laughs).

How was the time in the studio for Rise Above the Meadow compared to Trails and Passes? Bengt wasn’t on the album or he was?

No.

Was it weird to be in the studio without him?

Not really because I’ve been in the studio with Johan so many times. (laughs) But in a bit, it was because when Johan joined the band, we had already written pretty much half of the songs with Bengt in the band, he joined the band — in the studio — yeah, we didn’t have as much time to rehearse as we wanted to, so some songs he knew and some songs he had to improvise a little bit on in the studio, so it took a little bit longer time that we were used to. Bengt usually knew exactly what to play when he got into the studio. Bengt is a machine. He knows that — I don’t know if I can say this but he knows that you’re supposed to rehearse and be prepared when you go to the studio (laughs). But I know [Johan] was busy with studying and kids and all that. It all worked out fine in the end. Maybe took a few hours more than we were — because we were on a tight schedule. We had four days in the studio and I’m the last one — we recorded everything live, drums, bass and guitar and then when that was done, we go back and fix the bass if there greenleaf 3are any mistakes, we’ll redo the bass if there’s any mistakes. Then after the bass, it’s the guitarist. So the longer the fixing the bass takes, the less time I get (laughs). So usually I have the last hours and last half a day in the studio to stress out the solos and everything.

So a little pressure.

A little bit, hopefully next time we can afford to have one more day in the studio (laughs).

You can’t argue with the results.

I’m really satisfied. The experience for this record, it was all a good vibe in the studio. We all had fun and you can hear it on the record, I think.

I like Trails and Passes, and I’m a fan of your songwriting. I feel like Rise Above the Meadow has more energy to it, which I was attributing to the band being more of a live presence. It’s interesting to hear you say that you recorded mostly the basic tracks live, it really comes across.

We did that with Trails and Passes also, recording it live, but it might be like you said — if we played more live, there you have it. Maybe that’s the way the real live song comes from this time. I haven’t really thought about it, but it could be.

The title, Rise Above the Meadow I know is from “A Million Fireflies,” was there something more particular that made you guys take it as the title?

Arvid wrote the lyrics for “A Million Fireflies,” he sent them to me and I saw the line “rise above the meadow” and thought that’s a good album title. I wrote him and asked what he thought and he liked it too. That’s why we chose it. It felt right at the moment as the album title.

Was there any significance to it? Something that made it stand out?

We were talking about still continuing in the same, like the trails and passes — it’s about forests and there’s a mountain on the cover. We still wanted to have the same theme, so when we decided the album would be called Rise Above the Meadow we thought about, yeah, we should definitely have a bear on the cover. It didn’t start with a bear but some animal on the cover because, yeah, we’ve walked into the woods and now we want an animal and then we decided on a bear. After we decided that Sebastian Jerke was doing the cover art, we told him our idea and gave him the albumgreenleaf 5 title and song titles, lyrics and of course we don’t have any imaginations and we said yeah, meadow and a bear and he was like. That’s a good idea, give me a couple of days, is it okay if I put a little more of my own ideas in there and be a little more psychedelic? Yeah sure. Do whatever you want. Then he gave us a rough sketch of the cover and I was blown away by it. For me, the album cover is really — I don’t know, have you seen the vinyl?

No.

It’s amazing. There’s a 16-page booklet in it and everything, all the artwork he has done for it, every song has a different picture, it’s amazing. You should tell Mona from Napalm to send you one.

Will you be touring this summer?

Last summer we did so many shows. I think I had one weekend off in like, two or three months last summer. So this summer we will have four weeks off in the middle of the summer, just to keep our girlfriends happy (laughs).

What will you do with that time?

Vacation! I love fishing and I will actually try and fish something. Last year I only fished twice I think. Back to your question, we have some festivals in June and then in August also but in July, maybe one or two shows at the end of July.

I don’t know if you’ll be able to sit still that long.

We’ll see! But it’ll give me some time to write new Greenleaf songs.

Ah! There it is.

I can’t stop playing. We don’t have full songs but we have riffs for four to five new songs already. Keep working (laughs).

What’s the relationship in your mind between Dozer and Greenleaf? It’s almost like they’ve switched where Greenleaf is the centerpiece project.

That’s how it is now because with Dozer, I told the guys whenever you want to do something I am there. If you want to do a tour, we can do that, but Fredrik [Nordin, Dozer guitar/vocals] is not really into doing a tour. So it’s pretty much up to Fredrik what we would do with Dozer if he wants. When he’s up for doing a few shows hegreenleaf 6 just tells us or if we get them like we did Up in Smoke, or if we get a good offer I ask Fredrik if he wants to do it, he says yes or no and that’s it. I know we did Desertfest in Belgium last year and Johan and Olle [Mårthans, Dozer drums], they were like we should write some new songs, we should really do something. I was like sure, we can do that. They talk to Fredrik after a few beers also, (laughs). Frederick was like yeah, we can try. Then we decided — Johan, me and Fredrik we live in Borlange all of us and Olle lives in Örebro so we told Olle just — and his parents still live here. So he’s here every once in awhile, contact us when you’re here and let’s rehearse and see what happens. But, nothing happened. (Laughs) He didn’t contact us, but we will see. We have been talking about maybe writing, we will not do a full album but maybe a few songs and just release it digitally or maybe do a 7″ or something. I think we need to do that, if we want to do more shows we can’t just keep on playing the same songs over and over again. We’ve done that now for three or four years, three or four shows a year. Time to give the fans something new. I think it will happen, but it will take some time. Maybe not this year, or next year.

But having built Greenleaf as the focus, do you feel like there are lessons you’ve learned on how to manage a band internally that from Dozer that you take to Greenleaf?

Of course I’ve learned a lot with Dozer. How to do things and how to work with other people (laughs). In the early days there weren’t discussions between band members — you do too much stuff! You decide all the time which riffs are good and which are bad. But with Dozer, those years were — it was the same feeling we have in Greenleaf. We do everything together. That’s how you keep everyone in the band happy, just writing songs together. I come up with the riffs, then we play it, jam it at the rehearsal room and if it feels good, it feels good. If one person is not happy with the song, than we will not finish the song. When everybody feels it’s good, that’s a new Greenleaf or a new Dozer song. Try to keep everybody happy and everybody involved, and then everybody will be.

Any chance of a US tour?

With Greenleaf, yes. In [early 2017].

I heard a rumor of Greenleaf and Clutch.

That’s probably rumors but I know that Clutch have invited us to come, if they are on tour when we go there, yeah they invited us to play with them but I don’t know if they’re touring because we got the dates. If Clutch isn’t on tour at the time, maybe we can do some shows with them. I know we’ll do both coasts and everything in between. More than that, I don’t know.

Glad you’re coming over.

Finally. People have been asking us for two years, maybe next year. greenleaf rise above the meadowBut finally we have decided, let’s do it now. It’s about time.

Will you do more in Europe before that other than the festivals?

Yeah, we’ll do a headline tour in September / October — a four-week tour, a lot of shows. I think we have the four-week tour, then three weeks at home and then we do the US tour after that. I don’t expect to make a lot of money to do the US tour so we have to play Europe to be able to pay for the US tour.

Bring a lot of t-shirts to sell.

Yep. We need to bring a lot of merch to pay for the flights.

What is the timeline on writing?

Yeah, hopefully. Then, I know after the US tour, it’s not confirmed yet but we might go to Australia in February next year. But after that, we will take two months off and finish our new songs. I’m pretty sure there will be a new Greenleaf album next year, after the summer sometime. That’s just my guess, but after the summer next year.

 

Greenleaf on Thee Facebooks

Greenleaf at Napalm Records

Rise Above the Meadow on iTunes

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3 Responses to “Greenleaf Interview with Tommi Holappa: Altitude Attained (Plus Video Premiere!)”

  1. Jose Humberto says:

    Im about to quit waiting for a new Dozer and Lowrider album, not that im not buying any new album (if one or other ever see the light)

    but I will release myself from expecting anything from those bands ,it’s exhausting :(

  2. Ryno says:

    Trails and Passes is one of my favorite albums of the last 5 years. I didn’t think Rise Above the Meadow could top it. But after at least a dozen thorough listens, I think it’s as good or better. And it’s a bit of a different vibe, but still follows wonderfully in Trails and Passesfootsteps.

    I dig these guys. Wasn’t big into the previous albums but these last two are rock-fucking-solid efforts that will be played for many years to come. I love Dozer and Lowrider, but this is where it’s at right now and I couldn’t be more stoked.

  3. Head Ov Metal says:

    Rise Above The Meadow has been on solid repeat. Really dig it. I hope to see them live!

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