interview by: Roberto Martinelli

With their godly debut album, Lost Horizon, to paraphrase and adapt James Earl Jones in the movie "Field of Dreams," have shown us what is good about metal, and what could be again. No band this year has embodied heavy metal the way Lost Horizon does on Awakening the World: pride, honesty, unashamed cheesiness, and musicianship to back it up. What an honor then, to be able to converse a bit with Christian Nyqvist, drummer for this most essential of power metal bands.

Maelstrom: Hello, Christian! I was totally stunned at how marvelous your debut album Awakening the World is. Where did your band come from? Do we know about Lost Horizon's band members from other bands?

Christian Nyqvist: People often reacts this way and wonder how the hell we can produce an debut album like this. Well, first of all you have to know that we’ve been around for quite some time. We have been playing this kind of music since the beginning of our musical lives. Another important aspect is that Lost Horizon has been around off and on for ten years but then under the name Highlander. A lot of the material on this album is the result of songs that Wojtek wrote almost ten years ago. That should eliminate all the questions about what bands in the Metal scene today that has influenced us!

Wojtek has previously been active with his death metal band Luciferion together with Martin and Daniel was in a band called Conviction but he never performed on any recordings with this band.

Maelstrom: Before listening to your album, I must admit I was prepared for yet another pathetic effort by a Euro power metal band trying to be Helloween. However, Awakening the World is as true as a metal album can get. Were you conscious of trying to avoid the trappings that so many high-profile metal bands from Europe seem to fall into? 

Christian Nyqvist: I’m glad that I’m dealing with a professional that can hear the difference between the True and the Pathetic. We were very conscious about this when we made this album. Since we’re all professional cliché-detectors it wasn’t a problem to avoid the “abyss of the pathetic” where so many bands went before!

Maelstrom: How long has Awakening the World been in the works? How long did it take for you to compose and make the album?

Christian Nyqvist: The re-arrangements of Highlanders old material took almost one year and then a couple of months of extremely hard rehearsing and then five insane months in the different studios that we used.

Maelstrom: Your singer, Ethereal Magnanimus/Daniel Heiman, has an excellent voice. Although he can hit stirring highs worthy of the power metal genre, he uses them relatively sparingly. In a genre that cherishes high vocals as much as power metal does, why did you choose the vocal arrangements that you did?

Christian Nyqvist: The vocals together with the rest of the composition are arranged to perfection. It would be impossible to arrange the music in any other way without loosing the total Metal-experience. It wasn’t a choice… it’s just the way it has to be!  

Maelstrom: The production on the album is certainly one of the things that make it shine. (I am especially thinking of how the drums were mixed). In fact, even judging by the high quality glossy booklet and photos, it seems that your band had quite a large budget. Please tell us about who produced the album, and where. Are you satisfied with the results?  

Christian Nyqvist: Well, as a part of the insanity during this production we produced it ourselves. Everything about this production is coordinated by Wojtek Lisicki, Lost Horizon and Baskim Zuta who is the executive producer along with Martin Furängen. This, we felt, was the only way to get the album exactly as good as we wanted it to be and yes, we’re very satisfied with the result. The budget wasn’t small but not extensive. We just found way to maximize the use of it. Good to hear that you like the sound of the drums. They were recorded at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg. Fredrik Nordström (owner of Studio Fredman) is a phantom when it comes to studio engineering. We used him for the technical settings during the whole process and the mixing was also done by him and Lost Horizon. The rest of the production are recorded in four different studios in the Gothenburg area. We rented rooms in these studios and recorded guitar, bass, vocals and keyboards on our own Pro-Tools System that we bought.  

Maelstrom: Part of what I enjoy so much about your album is the unabashed bombastic quality of it - its pure, proud, exaggerated cheesiness. How important do you feel that the over-the-top metal image that your band cultivates is? Is being over-the-top your full intention?

Christian Nyqvist: We don’t see the point in doing something half-hearted. This is what Metal is about!!! Full power all the way! The world hasn’t seen anything yet! Just wait and see… 

Maelstrom: Do you think that the perceived cheesiness of metal is in fact an indispensable aspect that makes metal what it is?

Christian Nyqvist: We do not look upon ourselves or our music as cheesy. We’re very serious about what we do! All the aspects of Lost Horizon is to enhance the Metal experience. Lost Horizon isn’t something you just listen to. You experience it with all your senses. All this will become very obvious once you see us live!

Maelstrom: Where does your band draw inspiration from when writing the lyrics?

Christian Nyqvist: Our own philosophies about the world, the mind and the spirit. From the Earth and it’s natures. From books, movies, music and life- experiences. Anything that appeals to us intellectually and spiritually.

Maelstrom: Where so many power metal bands, especially coming out of Europe, are often on labels such as Nuclear Blast/Century Media. I was happy to see that Lost Horizon is on Music for Nations, as this choice of label helps to break the mold that so many of the bands on the previously mentioned label seem to be cut from. Were you approached by other labels? What made you pick Music for Nations?

Christian Nyqvist: To sign with a label who would give us priority #147 was not even an option for us so we never sent any material to the band-collecting labels with a hundred and fifty bands in the same genre. Music for Nations is a respected label with a few bands with different musical approaches. No internal competition. From the very beginning they’ve had a very sincere belief in us and, unlike others, understood our sincerity and potential. There were interests from other labels, but they treated us like just another cliché power-metal band so… FUCK ‘EM!!!

Maelstrom: Please tell us about the national origins of your band. It seems that most of the people who worked on the album are Swedish, but the band leader, Wojtek Lisicki, is of Polish descent. Indeed, Lost Horizon's music doesn't sound like its Swedish power metal counterparts, such as Hammerfall, nor does it sound like the multitude of German power metal bands performing today. Can we attribute the difference in style to being affiliated with the very rich Polish metal scene? If this is the case, why is the Polish scene seemingly so concentrated on death and black metal, do you think?

Christian Nyqvist: The underground music-scene in a country often says a lot about the state of that society. The music reflects the frustration the people feel about the situation they’re in. It’s a healthy sign though! It’s a matter of rebellion! A must to keep the “virus of conformity” distanced! The reason why we sound different from most other bands in this genre is that we and especially Wojtek who writes the music, uses a much wider musical and spiritual perspective than most other people do in their composing and arranging. I don’t think Wojteks polish origin has that much to do with it. Except for him our new keyboard player Attila Publik has his root in Hungary but is grown up in Sweden. The rest of us are from Sweden.

Maelstrom: Speaking of black metal, it was interesting to note the variety of bands that you mention in your thank you list. There is indeed quite a number of death and black metal bands that you either honor or say hello to, along with perhaps more obvious power metal influences, but also some surprises, such as Enya, Wu-Tang Clan, and Prodigy, to name but a few. I think it's refreshing that a band such as Lost Horizon, with sung vocals of excellent quality, can also pay homage to Immortal and Morbid Angel, even though you don't sound at all like those bands. I think it’s a pity that there is as much division between the power metal/extreme metal camps. I think all metal fans should support all true forms of metal. Do you find that there is division amongst metal fans? If so, what are your opinions on that?

Christian Nyqvist: You have to be pretty stupid if you limit yourself to listening to one music genre. As I’ve said before; Metal is so much more than just the music itself. It’s about who you are and where your mind is at. Not about being true to only one music style! There’s magic, emotions, thoughts and messages to explore in almost any kind of music if you just know where to look. The commercial music-scene is not the place, that’s for sure! It’s the same thing as looking through the garbage, expecting to find diamonds!

Maelstrom: You mention that your hate list would be too long to include in the current album. Who or what displeases you the most?

Christian Nyqvist: The ignorance of Humans. The blindness in this World. The hypocrisy that surrounds and infect our Minds… bla, bla, bla… I could go on forever…you’ll have to wait for The Book.

Maelstrom: We thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions. Please finish this interview by telling us about your band's future plans, or any final thoughts you would like to express. We wish Lost Horizon the best of luck.

Christian Nyqvist: We’re all very burned out after the whole process of producing and promoting this album and getting all the pieces together so we’re going to rest up during the summer until it’s time to perform at Wacken the 4th of August and then EuroRock the 5th of August. After that we hope to be confirmed for an European tour during this fall and winter and of course we strive for performing live in the US and in Japan and any part of the world that hungers for some Metal-enlightenment! We really need to get out on the road to gain some energy and inspiration for our next album.

Check out our website: http://www.oncelosthorizon.com for upcoming events!

The Quickening is here!

Christian Nyqvist – Preternatural Transmogrifyer of Lost Horizon

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