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Hi Uffe! I'm running with one of my best friends an underground fanzine Stygian Shadows and I have thought about to do a MORBID interview. Would you willingly answer my questions?
Uffe: Sure How old were you when MORBID was formed? By whom, when and how was the band formed? Which bands have had an effect on you? Uffe: I was a kid (16) back then. I guess it was Dead and a guy called Slator that formed the band around 1986 sometime. I was the last guy to join the band after a lot of guitar players. I was just the guy that ended up playing on the demo and did some final arrangements of the songs.... I guess we were into bands like Celtic Frost, Mercyful fate and Bathory back then. What did mean the name of the band? What was the line up of the band? Uffe: It was Dead who came up with the name. I guess he got from Celtic frosts Morbid tales ep. The line up was: Dead-vocals, Dr schitz-Bas, Drutten-drums, John Lennart-guitar and Napolion pukes(me)-guitar. Some earlier guys were:Slator-bass, TG-guitar and Klacke-guitar. How often did you rehearse? How were your rehearsals? Did you play own tunes or covers too? Uffe:We rehearsed a couple of times a week. We were pretty serious when we rehearsed, didn´t get drunk or whatever. We never did any covers at all. By whom were the lyrics and the music written? Who were the main songcomposers? What were all about it the lyrics? Uffe: Dead wrote the lyrics I don't really know what they were about, sorry. I guess the Me, John Lennart, Klacke and TG wrote the songs. Mostly of the basics were written by TG.
As far as the fanzines of at that time, about which ones do you remember? Were there many fanzines? Did you often give interviews? Uffe:The first fanzine that wrote about MORBID was Slayer mag. There was a lot of zines around but the one I remember is Slayer mag. Did you became popular or known in the underground scene? Did "Death Execution" draw the fans attention to the band? Uffe: We were never popular. We had some friends that supported us the few shows Morbid did. This was before the Death metal thing got big overhere. We played with a band called Tribulation a few times. Magnus(drummer) got us all into a bunch of cool stuff later. Your third demo was "Last Supper" (1988). What must we know about this tape? Did you develope compared to the previous demos? To what did refer the title of the demo? Uffe: I don't really wanna call this a MORBID tape. The real MORBID was allready broken up. We were 3 from the band who kept on playing and we didn't really find a new name. My regrets! I guess Morbid kind of died when John Lennart quit the band. It was hard to find another guitar player and then Mayhem asked Dead to Join... etc. How was the Swedish underground scene at that time? Which bands were active? Did you taken part in the tape trading? Tell us please detailed about it! Uffe:When Morbid was around... Bands like: MEFISTO, CANDLESMASS, TRIBULATION. NIHILIST were just about getting together, I guess. I got into the tape trading thing a bit later like '88. We had like 100 bands going at that time... NIHILIST, CORRUPT, BRAIN WARO, etc. It was magnus from TRIBULATION who got us into a lot of the cool stuff like DEVASTATION (IL), MASTER (IL), REPULSION, etc. In your opinion, why have had death metal a strong background in Sweden? Uffe: It was not really strong in the old days. We were a bunch of outsiders who didn't belong anywhere. We hated school and to work. In these days It was not all about Death Metal. We were into old hard core punk bands also. I guess the reason why it turned out to be Nihilist/Entombed or the Death Metal thing was that what we got the biggest support from. People seemed to like that stuff. The Death metal thing exploded like 1991. How often did you play live? How were the early MORBID shows? How msut we them imagine? Uffe: Morbid only played like 5 or 6 times live. It was real hard to get gigs. All the shows were at Punk squats kind of. They were the only ones that put up with it. Morbid was not a Jeans and T shirt band. Dead wanted evertybody to have an alias... He wanted to put on a show. It was hard off course cuz the band couldn´t even fit on stage. At one point we had a coffin for Dead. But we had to put it behind the stage. He was still in it before the show. Wierd? Was MORBID a black or a death metal band? Were there borders at that time between death and black metal? Uffe: No one talked about if its Black or Death back then. We played some kind of metal, that's it really... maybe dark metal...? As I know, Dead was the first person who has used corpsepaint. What was the importance of using corpsepaint? Do the using of corpsepaints belong to black metal? Uffe:I don't think he was like the first guy... He was early but... like I said... we never thought we played Black Metal... that was VENOM back then. This Black Metal scene came years later. How would you charakterize Dead personally? What kind of guy was he? Why did he commit suicide? Uffe: He was cool to hang around with, always something wierd to talk about. I remember him as a nice guy really. I think he died cuz he was not happy! I don't believe in this thing that he wanted to joined the other side or whatever. It's always fucked up when someone kills him/herself. It's fucked up!!!
Uffe: John Lennart left the band and it wass hard to find some other guy. We didn't know what direction to write new songs in... I guess Dead thought that this was it and fuck it, you know! Lets go to Norway whatever. I never knew Mayhem. I only met Hekkbutcher once like 3 or 4 years ago. He seems cool. Too much fucked up things happened to that band. It´s sad Really!!!! In 1997 was released "Live From The Past". Whose idea was to release this record? Was it an official reelase? Do the fans often search for MORBID songs, releases? Uffe: I don't think there are any official MORBID release. I haven't been involved with it anyway. Too be honest I don't give a fuck! I would have rather seens this as something for people who was around back then. They know what MORBID was all about. All this Legend shit is fucked up! It was the first proper demo all of us ever recorded. It was not meant to be killer or whatever. It was for us we did it. In 2000 both "December Moon" and "Live In Stockholm" were released. What could you say about this materials? Why was "December Moon" re-released? Was it originally a split release? Uffe: I wish I got a copy at least... What's your opinion about the soundquality of the live stuffs? Were they remastered and remixed? Uffe: Really. I just hope that whoever put this stuff out is doing the best.....so its not a rip off. Well, they rip us off anyway....whatever
In my opinion, you were a cult band, do you agree with me? What does it mean for you to be cult, to reach a cult status? Uffe: I don't think MORBID would be a cult today if Dead didn't died. For some wierd reason people think stuff like that is cool or whatever. But off course I think it's great that people like something I was a part of for a minute so many years ago. It feels strange. This was when I skipped school and was 16 years old, you know. A kid that young don't think about this stuff. Do you often listen to nowadays the MORBID demos too? How do you remember about the career of MORBID? If Dead would live, would you reform the band? Uffe: It happens that I put my old tape on. Its mostly Peter (drums - ENTOMBED) who put it on sometimes. He got it on CD. It's always fun to hear. I get surprized that I actually play on it. I've recorded much worse things after that. I just kind of joined MORBID, did a show, did the demos and then we broke up. I don't think we would have reformed the band but I think that we should have done a few more shows. That would have been a lot of fun anyway! Uffe, thanks a lot for your answers, I wish you all the best and good luck. Please close the interview. Interview: David Laszlo more infos about MORBID |
