Sweden”s Fatal Smile have recently put out their 4th (that is if you count 2002's “Beyond Reality”) studio effort entitled “21st Century Freaks” and are about to embark on a tour in support of it that will bring them to the Coq Rock stage on July 7. The album has so far been greeted with positive comments and also here at Sleazenation it was given thumbs up. More than enough reasons I'd say to have a little one on one with band...

The main purpose of this interview is to introduce Fatal Smile to those who haven't heard about the band yet. Since the formation of the band more than a decade ago there have been several line-up changes and also musically you have made quite a progression when youcompare the debut to your newest offering "21st Century Freaks". Can you give us a short introduction to Fatal Smile and its music?

MR.Y: Sure, we´re just a bunch of kick ass motherfuckers from Stockholm that finally got together in Sweden´s most notorius band: FATAL SMILE!!! I started the band back in the day and we´ve been raising hell all over the world since our debut album "Beyond Reality" was released in 2002... Since that was a decade ago I´m really pleased that you actually hear that we have made a progression with our new album...:-)

I mean, everything changes in your life...for better or worse... And if you´re not 100% dedicated to rock´n roll & to achieving "world domination" you simply have nothing to do in FATAL SMILE, period!!! That´s simply the explanation for the several lineup changes during the years... Our music is simply a mixture of classic "in your face" hardrock with huge fucking balls blended with the essence of the 21st century...

There's a 4 year gap between your previous album "World Domination" and your latest fruit of labour. In a 2009 interview done at the time when you were touring a s a support act to Lordi you nevertheless said you would probably start working on new songs after the summer with a possible release of the follow up in early 2010. What caused the delay of the record?

Philty: Just a shitload of touring!!! After the Lordi tour there was another tour with Queensrÿche and after that it was festival season and then another tour in the fall…We did like 360 shows with the "World Domination" tour so I guess that explains it pretty much...And hey, we’re a "21st century touring sideshow" and nothing really goes as planned, ever!!! Fuck, Blade’s house burned down to the ground and Alx’s leg almost got ripped off after falling off the stage in Copenhagen, Denmark and there´s some other shit that happend... Like we always say: if there’s a little risk that it can backfire – It sure will!!! I guess that´s what you call "Bad Karma"...

Describe the songwriting process within Fatal Smile for us. Since you spend most of the time on the road I can imagine many song ideas are born while being on tour.

Blade: Yeah there´s lots of jamming and throwing ideas on busses, in hotel rooms, dead drunk in bars and in one case- on an airplane. Usually MR.Y throws us a riff and me and Alx start throwing back lyrics and songs. Based on that there´s recordings in our separate studios. We share an online drive where we throw all the stuff on and the riff master MR.Y picks out the very best of it and makes a rough demo and we lay down our parts after that...

You've toured with a lot of well known acts including WASP whose front man Blackie Lawless announced that he will never tour with you guys again. Can you tell us why he said that?

Blade: I don´t think Blackie likes us he he…. He needs serious bands that don´t party & raise hell all night long...I guess. But hey, he has hired us as a "Special Guest" for W.A.S.P. for five tours already so he has the right to be fed up with us ha ha….. But we hang with the rest of the band. As a matter of fact guitar player Douglas Blair is playing a solo on our latest single and he´ll be coming to spend time off at my house in a few weeks. As he has done every summer for years…

As just mentioned you have already shared the stage with many bands over the years but is there any band/artist you haven't performed with but hope to in the future?

Blade: Hell yeah…. I can think of tons of great bands we´d like to tour with… Mötley, Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Guns´n Rose, Whitesnake, Kiss, Motörhead… I mean this list could go on and on…

Because you're musical exploits are at the heavy end of the rock spectrum I never really gave your music the attention it deserved until recently. What put you on my musical radar is the striking image you have adopted and the spectacular video you shot for the track "Welcome To The Freakshow". How many elements of that video will be incorporated into the new live show?

Blade: All of it! The new live show is totally based on that video! But then the video is totally based on us and our live show…

MR.Y: Hell yeah, we wanted to change our image since we were fed up with always getting comments from press & media like "good looking/ pretty boys" so we simply said fuck that shit & let´s do something totally different... And here we are, ugly as hell & with even bigger balls...Balls of steel!!! :-) Our live show includes fire, bombs, smoke and kick ass music delivered straight in your face!!! Some of our shows will also include the "freaks" that you can see in thet video...

For your newest release production, engineering, recording and mixing was done by the band in order to achieve the perfect sound. Is this how we can expect the band to sound on future releases or are there still changes you would like to make?

MR.Y: Yeah, since we´ve been working with legendary producers like Michael Wagener who has done almost all the records that we all grew up listening to...like everything from Accept, Ozzy Osbourne to Skid Row and Mötley Crüe, and Stefan Glaumann famed for his work with Rammstein, Clawfinger, Backyard Babies just to name a few...And we learned a lot from these legends and we thought that the time was right for us to do it all on our own to make the "ultimate FATAL album". It took almost a year to record and finish and I´m really fucking proud of it, we all are!!! We think that this album "got it all" and you can listen to it a million times and still be able to hear some new things every time, without getting fed up with the songs... That´s what I call an EPIC FUCKING ALBUM!!!

Next month you are headlining the Coq Rock festival. Had you heard of the festival before and how were you approached to be part of the bill?

MR.Y: Yeah, that´s gonna be fucking awesome to play Coq Rock festival, since we´ve been getting the offer to play the festival every year since 2009...but things never worked out with our schedule... So now it´s finally time for us to play and we´re really looking forward to kicking some major ass and raise hell...So be prepared!!!

You have tour dates planned until the end of October including an appearance at Paunchy Cats with none other than Bang Tango. Are there any other (head) line dates in the pipeline?

MR.Y: We´re working on more dates for the "Freak Show Tour" during the fall so yes, there will be a lot of more dates coming up so stay tuned for that and make sure to check our website www.fatalsmile.com for updates...

We've already talked about the gap between the last 2 albums but do you think there will be a similar period of time between "21st Century Freaks" and its follow-up? Any chance of a live CD/DVD before the next studio effort?

Blade: Well, since we are FATAL SMILE, you never know! I´d love to see a live DVD. We started work on that with a film crew following us in the Checz Republic but never finished it since our drummer dropped out due to the "hard chains of love". You can see some of that footage in our video for “Run For Your Life”. Check it out on youtube!

Philty: No! It shouldn’t take that long but for now we’re all just so thrilled to be done with this album. 2011 was a long fucking year, that’s for sure!!! Yeah, a live DVD would be in order for sure! We’ll hopefully start that process during our "Freak Show Tour" this fall...So make sure to catch this mayhem coming to a venue near YOU!!!!