eMP: How was your recent tour, Metal for the Masses with The Haunted, Into Eternity and Scar Symmetry?

Niklas Sundin (For Dark Tranquility): It went really good, thanks! Everything was very professionally organized and a lot of the shows were sold out, so it was a great success.

eMP: Your latest album "Fiction" is a mix of your last few albums, was that a conscious effort or something that just happened?
Niklas: We never plan too much in advance for an album, so in a way it just happened - but at the same time we were all eager to create an album with more variation and diversity than "Character".

eMP: Are you satisfied with how the album has turned out?
Niklas: Absolutely! We're very pleased with the result, both song- and production-wise.

eMP: What are your thoughts on your album being available in India?

Niklas: It's really cool! I don't know much about the Indian scene apart from the band Kryptos that I made cover artwork for some years ago, but it'd be extremely nice to be able to get to your country to play some day. I know that Enslaved did this a while ago, so hopefully it's not totally impossible.

eMP: How has your approach to song writing and creation of your new album differ from the approach you used on any of your previous albums?
Niklas: There's no bigger difference to be honest. We've been playing together for so long, and this is our eight full length album, so we've found a writing process that works for us. Everyone contributes with basic riffs and ideas, and lots of time is spent in the rehearsal room perfecting the arrangements and song structures.

eMP: Europe is a hotbed for metal bands at the moment especially Scandinavian countries. Could you tell us what could be the reason for this?
Niklas: I'm not really the right person to give a good reply to this; in my view there aren't *that* many good bands from here, and the success of a lot of artists probably has more to do with marketing, touring and business strategies rather than anything else. There are a lot of bands here, and many of them have high professional standards.

eMP: It could be said fairly easily that your European fanbase is much larger than your American fanbase, probably caused by the large mainstream abandonment of most heavy metal genres. Why do you think this exists?
Niklas: I don't know if the European fanbase is that much bigger anymore, the US is picking up pretty quickly. To be honest, I'm pretty clueless about these things - I have zero interest in the music industry as such, and I have no idea what are the components that come into play and how they differ between the different territories. Your guess is as good as mine, ha ha!

eMP: How do you think the modern trend of digital music and file sharing has affected your band? Do you believe this form of word of mouth leads to more listeners in lieu of lesser radio play in recent years (specifically in America)?
Niklas: There are both pros and cons. I used to be very skeptical towards downloading and file sharing, but in recent years I've met so many people that first got in contact with our music online and then proceeded to buy all the albums. As a promotional tool, file sharing can really work well, especially for bands without good distribution and promotion. It's clear that things are changing quickly, and no one knows what the whole music industry will look like in a few years from now.

eMP: Does your band communicate with fans via the internet, through forums, myspace, etc? And if so, how do you think this benefits your band and fans understanding of your band and its musical output?
Niklas: We're active on our forum to some degree, but there just isn't any time to answer to every single message. 95% of what people ask can be found with a quick Google search in less than a minute anyway, so there's no need to encourage lazyness. We all have day jobs, families and so forth, and it's already hard to get enough time for the bands, so replying to questions via email isn't a high priority. As for the second part of your question, I don't really think that people should need anything else than the albums themselves to understand our musical output; everything else just isn't relevant, and we want to keep a certain privacy.

eMP: You have performed in various parts of the world with your band. Which place has been your favourite yet?
Niklas: Hard to tell...it depends on so many factors, but generally speaking it's of course always interesting to play in countries that differ as much as possible from what we're used to. The more exotic, the better - Korea, Japan, Mexico, Australia...

eMP: Is there any part of the world that you haven't toured to yet, for whatever reason that you wish you could play?  If so, where?
Niklas: Iceland would be interesting, and needless to say, India would be great as well!

eMP: Now since your album "Fiction" will be available in India and since you already have a large fanbase here, what kind of fan support do you think would be required for you to be able to play a show for fans in India?
Niklas: I have no idea; all it takes is a decent offer from a serious and professional promotor, but I don't know anything about the status of D.T. in India. Hopefully we'll get the chance to come over someday.

eMP: Thank you for answering all our questions. Do you have any final words and thoughts??
Niklas: Well, thanks for the interview and hope to see you soon!

- Tom & Peter