FCG: Who is The Great Deceiver today (i.e. 2007)?
Tomas Lindberg: The Great Deceiver 2007 is a bunch of angry men who just want to bash out some aggressive hardcore. Sometimes you just have an angry album in you, this is one of those times. We feel we kept our basic sound intact and stayed true to what people expect from us artistically, but still move forward.
FCG: The signing with Deathwish Inc. was a little bit strange to my ears! What do you wish from this relation and what exactly made you sign with this label?
Tomas Lindberg: This is a label of friends, we know what we want to do, and they know what we want to do, it is a fair straight-up punk deal and I have a lot of respect for Jake and a lot of the bands on the label. Me and Jake go back a long way and this just felt right from day one.
FCG: The new songs are great. I enjoyed a few online previews just before the entire album got out. It is an album which mixes even flavours from Deathwish Inc.’s list of bands, such as Converge and A Life Once Lost. What are your views on the album “Life Is Wasted On The Living”?
Tomas Lindberg: It feels kind of like a comeback record. The record in our back catalogue which reminds me of the most is our debut, so I guess this means we have gone full circle, you know one of those deals where a band moves forward using what we learned from the previous records. We are very happy with it and we are eager to start slaying these tunes live.
FCG: I believe the cover was done by Jacob Bannon. Did you have any ideas for this one or did you just let the mighty Jacob follow his visions?
Tomas Lindberg: Well, we have a very good artist in the band in Kristian, so he sent some stuff over to Jake, together with the lyrics of the album, that he worked on to give the cover the best of two artists, we are happy the way it turned out. Jake is brilliant and we have tons of respect for him as an artist.
FCG: Did you collaborate with the same producers each time? Why do bands change producers when they write a new album?
Tomas Lindberg: This time we went back to the guy who did our first two records, we know what this studio can give us, and we have more of a say than we had working with Bergstrand, the guy who did “Terra Incognito” with us. I guess a band switches producers to see their music through another guys’ or girls’ eyes and ears, sometimes this works out, sometimes not, this time we are very happy with the result.
FCG: Are you dedicated entirely to music or do you have another job as well?
Tomas Lindberg: I am studying to become a high school teacher here in Sweden, this is not the kind of music you can live off, and it is not why we got into it in the beginning either, this is just supposed to be a lot of fun and it’s still like that if you stay on the right labels, where people care about the bands.
FCG: This is my chance to ask you something about At The Gates as well. They influenced all the extreme metal bands of these days. Have they influenced you as well, although you were their singer?
Tomas Lindberg: I think everything you do influences you for the rest of your life, I am proud of what we achieved as a band and how our legacy is perceived today.
FCG: How much do you care about “the new scene”?
Tomas Lindberg: For me there is really no new scene or old scene, it is more like one scene which keeps changing… I might have been more connected back in the day, but today I still feel that the scene gives something to me and I am proud to be a part of it.
FCG: Which are your favourite new acts?
Tomas Lindberg: I am dead into these “new” bands, for an example: Tragedy, Cursed, Pig Destroyer, Trap Them, Annihilation Time, Fucked Up, Lords, Baroness, Transistor Transistor, Modern Life Is War, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Doomriders, Kylesa, Mono, Torche, Coliseum, Young Widows, These Arms Are Snakes, Envy, etc.
FCG: What song do you wish to be played at your funeral?
Tomas Lindberg: “The Black Angel’s Death Song” by The Velvet Underground… Of course!
FCG: What do you know and think about the place where I live, Romania?
Tomas Lindberg: I think it is a lovely country that I really would like to visit, I have not been there yet, but I am really interested, hopefully we can go there on this record!