Doomed Confessionary: Johannes Forsberg (Grand Delusion)
Hailing from the northern part of Sweden, Grand Delusion have been making heavy sounds since 2011. The riff-filled songs are based on heavy and progressive seventies rock, mixed with stoner, doom and heavy metal.
The band just released their fourth full-length album »The Unspoken« on June 3rd, 2024, available now on all major streaming platforms.
Grand Delusion are Anders Holm (vocals), Johannes Forsberg (guitars), Per Clevfors (guitars), Mikael Olsson (bass, keyboards) and Mikael Linné (drums).
Can you say a few words about your band?
Well, we are a band that live so far up north in Sweden, so we have no other option to survive the freaking winters, then to tune down our guitars and play a lot of guitar riffs to stay warm! We come from a lot of different musical influences as a background, and have merged that to the sound that you can hear in our latest album »The Unspoken«.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
The biggest challenge can sometimes be just to find time to rehearse. We all work full time jobs and can be occupied by that and our families. But I think we also found a strength in this; that we have learned to go forward even if not everyone can participate right there and now. We still keep trying ideas in the rehearsal, post it on our drive, and everyone can contribute with ideas and opinions when they have the time. But for the most part, we find a way to regularly rehearse and write.
What can you be most proud of so far?
We had a talk in the band after the last album »Before And After The Flood« and we all agreed that we wanted to step up a notch in everything. All from the quality of the songs to the production. And even if I really believe that the last album is good, it feels like we took steps forward to that goal, not only in the production and quality of the songs, but also how we performed them live.
What was your biggest regret?
We signed a record deal with a label for the last album »Before And After The Flood«. We wish we hadn’t done that. No more details then that right now.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
It was actually in our hometown just 10 days ago (7th of June) when we played the whole record and 5 other songs from other albums for the first time. It was a very nice evening with a lot of music, and the crowd was in a very good mood and really gave us energy to use on the stage.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Oh that’s a hard one! For me as a Dream Theater fan it must be that Mike Portnoy returned though it was at the end of 2023. Mike Mangini was a real machine and was great during the years with DT. But for me, who started to listen to them when Portnoy was in the band, it just feels right that he is behind the kit. I also enjoyed watching a band like Electric Callboy just explode in popularity. I found them kind of early, when they still had their old band name and weren’t very famous.
For Anders Holm the biggest surprise is that Ozzy Ozzborne is still alive, haha.
Mikael Olsson has a good one also; That everyone is talking about Taylor Swift but he hasn’t heard a single song of her. I just must take a moment and spin off on the same theme. I saw that a music paper had listed her the 8:th best guitar player in the world for the last 20 years. Taylor Swift? For fuck sake! She could probably not even play an intro that we have made, haha. It’s a freaking strange world sometimes. And then we have all the monsters of guitar players out there not even mentioned.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
I listen to various metal music but I also asked my band members what they listen to now. In my playlist it’s everything from Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Mick Gordon, Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, a Swedish prog rock band called A.C.T and so much more. You will get a different answer to this question based on who you talk to in the band.
Anders Holm looks up to Corey Taylor and has him as an important influence, but listens to many melancholic metal bands from Finland.
Our drummer Mikael Linné listens to the Scandinavian punk genre right now. The bands that have a lot of energy.
Our other guitar player Per Clevfors listens to a lot of stoner/doom, bands like: Lowrider, Tuber, Karma To Burn. Mikael Olsson, our bass player, listens mostly to Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride at the moment.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
I’ve studied music in highschool and also one year after that. I got a lot of advice from my teachers and they all wanted me to learn more and practice more and to think of this and that and so on. But for myself, nowadays, I practice by playing the things I like and when I create music. When I listen to musicians that inspire me, that gets me in the mood to learn. Then I can sit down and practice, not because anyone told me to, but because I want to. When I’m inspired, I want to get better. So my best advice is to have fun. Do the things you love and find inspiration in/and joy from others. And if you love to practice. Congratulations to you! I wish I also would like that, haha. I wasn’t a very good student as you can assume.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Oh I just love gaming. Right now I’m on my third or fourth playthrough with Fallout 4. I’m also a huge hockey nerd where I follow many leagues but specifically my favourite hockey team MoDo Hockey in the Swedish Hockey League.
Can you say something more about the music scene in Umeå?
Umeå has a rich music scene. And we have a lot of bands and musicians that found success from this town: Meshuggah, Nocturnal Rites, Cult Of Luna, Mats Öberg (keyboard player), Morgan Ågren (the drummer), Persuader, Naglfar, Refused and many more.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
The honest question to that is that right now we don’t know. We are going to take a break for the summer holidays now in July, but hopefully after that we can present where and when we play live next time.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
We want to come out more and play live, but we also have some plans for 2025, but we will present this after the summer.
How can people best support your band?
For a smaller band like ours, it means alot when people that like our music share it with others. And of course things like You do mean a lot for us as well. And hopefully if we play close by, you can drop by and have a nice evening of heavy music with us!
Do you have any message for your listeners?
We want to give a huge Thank You to all people that support us. That means everything! We also wanna wish everyone a great summer! Cheers!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well