THE HAUNTED’S PETER DOLVING AND METALSUCKS: THE PHILOSOPHY SESSION INTERVIEW
I should’ve known that my interview with The Haunted’s Peter Dolving would come off as more of an armchair philosophy session than a by-the-numbers band interview. But that’s where I was hoping the interview would go, and that’s where it went. Dolving is your atypical metal frontman, as anyone who reads his blogs on the regular should be able to infer. Dolving was thoughtful, measured and articulate in his thought, pausing frequently to make sure the words he uttered carried the meaning he intended, and was anything but the macho metal man you might expect if your only exposure was seeing him perform on stage with The Haunted.
Dolving sure had a lot to say. He spoke about why touring musicians are inherently dysfunctional, what he did while the brothers Bjorler toured with the reunited At the Gates (“Cried a lot… I really did spend a lot of time last summer in a little crawled up package whimpering with a lot of snot involved.”), what it was like for him to go through therapy, what he hopes to accomplish via his controversial writing, the interactive nature of the Internet and how that affects communication, the haters on Blabbermouth (“… there is so much ignorance involved in the internet community.”), and the difference between having knowledge and being smart. Like I said, a philosophy session.
I’d eaten a “special” cookie a couple of hours before the interview that took a while to kick in, and I was kind of worried I wouldn’t be able to hold it together… but I think I pulled it off. This was the interview I was most looking forward to at the festival, and I’m quite happy with the results. Read our whole chat, after the jump.
I’m a big fan of The Haunted and you personally. It’s very cool to talk to you.
Thank you.
This isn’t your first Metal Fest or is it?
I think we did a Metal Fest back in 2001 or 2002, something like that.
This is part of a tour that got fucked up beyond belief with the lineup changes and everything. How has it turned out?
Yeah over and over. It’s turned out well. People are coming out and having a good time. We thought that we were going to be in trouble as far as attendance wise, but it’s worked out. We are looking to do another tour this fall. I want to do something with Coliseum, and if we’re lucky maybe we could get the Nachtmystium guys to go with us. The thing is we really want to do a tour with them, and Coliseum is a band that we bonded with really well.
I saw them today. They were really good.
They kick fucking ass. They really kick ass, and they have brains.
Do they?
Yeah. They have brains. It’s wonderful.
That’s great to know.
So yes, absolutely. We’ll see what happens. We are definitely set about doing something. All we can do is try, and we’ll see what that brings.
So how is the tour going so far? Is this the very beginning of it right now?
No, I think we have 9 more days or something like that.
So it’s Marauder and The Agonist now.
I guess they’re [The Agonist] babies. They have an extremely talented vocalist and a band that I’m sure they have a bit to go, but they have talent. They write songs. I’m looking at it from a very general perspective. They’re not the perfect diamond in any way, but they’re definitely a band that can really do something if they can keep on touring. They’re so talented.
You guys have toured like crazy always. Do you think that’s responsible for how far you’ve gotten?
I don’t know. I’m not sure we’ve gotten that far. (laughs)
I’m not just jacking your chain. Here in the States, I can’t speak for Europe; it feels like you guys have risen up to the top tier of bands that people respect.
Oh, that’s cool. Well that would be touring, I guess. It is a craft. It is an art. You can’t go out there and think you’re God’s gift to whatever. It takes work. I guess the work will give you the necessary humility and the necessary balls so that you can have a balance. It will make you understand if you love it or not – really love it or not because that is something that takes time. Everything is fun in the beginning, but you have to go through some really harsh times and tough moments. I think that goes for any band that has longevity. You have to really understand why you’re doing it, how you want to do it, and you learn how to make that happen. Work and time gives that. We’re fortunate to have gotten to do that. That’s not something you can take for granted. A lot of work and a lot of love from people around us have helped out. You don’t do it alone. That’s not how it happens.
What fuels your discipline as a person and as a band to work through those tough spots?
Group relentlessness where one person will step in when someone falls back. We do have a very strong dynamic as a band that way because when someone is worn out or gets bored, there is always one of us who . . . we’re kind of cute and loving. It sounds really cheesy, but we really care for each other and we really respect each other. We care enough and get involved enough in each other’s lives that if someone is going overboard with something, we’ll step in to each other because we want the band. Everyone wants the band in the band. Everyone in the band has been outside of the band at one point or another for whatever reason. It’s one of those things. We’ve all seen The Haunted from outside The Haunted. We’ve all kind of done the “oh, I want to be in that again, I really want to do that,” because that’s what it feels like, at least for us. For us five it feels like “oh goddamn, they’re so good,” about the other guys. So it’s a joy to get to play with them.
You said onstage today that you’re “dysfunctional,” though.
(laughs) Well, it’s true. Why in the world would anyone do this, this much? The main motivator, you know, to get up on stage over and over and to try and do something well enough where other people will get enjoyment enough to give you applause or approval. That’s pretty fucking dysfunctional. That says a lot about the general sense of self esteem or self knowledge. If you’re fortunate enough, you kind of come to terms with yourself along the years. I think that’s something that’s there with a lot of people that do this because it is a strong motivator. It keeps you coming back for more, and in a way, it’s kind of addictive for good or bad. It is what it is.
What did you do on your time off while the rest of the band was doing At the Gates?
Cried a lot. It was an intense summer and spring last year. We finished the record.
I got bits and pieces of it through your writing. You didn’t write a lot during that time.
No, I didn’t because it was one of those intense times of revelation. I’ve been going to therapy and working with myself to get some really nasty shit – not out of the way, but to deal with it and to come to terms with it. So I really did spend a lot of time last summer in a little crawled up package whimpering with a lot of snot involved. It was cool because I came out on the other side feeling a lot more, I don’t know, stronger and human and part of the human race. I’ve dropped a lot of alienating bullshit that I’ve had going for many years, and I’m really fucking grateful. Thank God for modern psychiatry and psychology. That stuff is great.
That’s great to hear.
Yeah, it is. It’s good for me to be able to say it.
About your writing, do you intend for the writing to be one with your identity as Peter Dolving from The Haunted or do you do it more as a personal thing? Do you want the connection to the band or do you not want that?
I do not know. Honestly, I have not gotten that far. I don’t really know. It all really kind of flows… I do it and it just flows together. I don’t really know. Part of it is really too personal when it comes down to it, but it goes together with the stuff that’s kind of out there. I don’t even know where those borders go, and that’s okay because I enjoy that. It makes it open, and I get feedback from it and I learn from it. Sometimes it’s really scary because it’s like “whoa, was this too much”.
You pay attention to people’s responses. You read all of those?
Yes. I think that’s part of the blogging thing. It’s not just writing something and putting it out. You learn from it, and you bring that with you and that’s so cool. It’s interactive writing. It becomes a part of what you just wrote – what other people write to it.
It becomes part of the whole story.
Yeah, it does.
The whole story isn’t finished until everyone is.
It didn’t used to be like that but this medium gives us that way of doing that. I really enjoy that. I think it’s so cool.
Who would you say that you are writing to? Is there a specific type of person in mind?
It depends on the blog.
Is it the kids on Blabbermouth who go and say “fuck this guy. Why does he write this fucking shit”?
It depends. Every piece is different. I think style-wise that is pretty obvious. Some are really intended to be directly provocative. Some are just observational and pretty introverted. Some are more on a friendly level. I think stylistically it’s something that comes off pretty clear as you read it. Mostly, something that I’ve noticed and gotten feedback when I’ve put the writing together and have people read it all the way through, is that it is very direct as a whole. It really depends on which piece because like I said, some are meant to be provocative. I do try to provoke consciously with some subjects because I think provocation is necessary when it comes to a lot of subjects because there is so much ignorance involved in the internet community. I don’t know if there is an internet community, but it has a very young kind of demography. The thing is that people are very young and smart motherfuckers, but that doesn’t mean that they know a lot. It just means that they are really fucking smart. So if you provoke them, they’ll get pissed off, and five years later they’ll start thinking because they got pissed off. It’ll be in there. It will just nag away and a couple of years later, suddenly you have that little awakening and that’s cool. So provocation is important as a means of communication. It also freaks the fuck out of people when they react, and I write them back. I’m not hostile. “But I told you to fuck off and I want you to die,” and I’m like “I guess it’s good for you that you can say that, but I’m a human being.” It does freak people out, and it inspires people to hit with something more. Like another step and another step. I think that’s the cool part with this type of writing and communicating. I love it dearly.
It reads almost like philosophy. Is that its intention, to affect some little kind of social change even on the smallest level the same way music is meant to be sort of a personal experience?
Yeah. I think when it comes to much of what I write; it touches on moral philosophy a lot. I think for me personally it’s more for me to try and understand. What I write is more of writing things in a question way because I don’t always know. Sometimes I think I know, and I realize just because I think I know, it doesn’t mean jack shit. I need to write about it in order to further see where the logical lapses are and where it really doesn’t hold together. Writing will state more questions and prove whether my trail of thought is coherent and holds up. When it doesn’t hold up, I’m amazed. I’m like “wow that’s cool” because I’m understanding something new. It’s though provoking and it’s inspiring. I’ve stated that it’s not very clear in what I write. I don’t know. I do not have the answers. What I write is not the absolute truth because there ain’t none as far as I’m concerned.
I think a lot of people take it as “this guy is trying to impose his beliefs upon us,” and they react the way they do.
Absolutely. I should probably have a disclaimer at the beginning of every blog. Here’s the disclaimer, read this first, and then read the blog. I guess I’ll accept the misunderstandings, that’s fine, I’ll write people back. About a year ago I got into this really nasty exchange of writing with this kid who got really nasty. Finally he started threatening me. He was literally saying that he was going to kill me at this place and that my family was going to get killed. That was very uncomfortable. I actually went as far as getting the police to do an investigation. We know where the guy is. We’re not going to press charges, but it was weird. I understand that I pushed him too far. I was being too much of a smartass to someone who didn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with what I was giving. He was being a tough guy, but he wasn’t being a smart guy. I just pushed that a little too far. I understand that. As I said, there’s a lot of ignorance. Sometimes being fairly knowledgeable doesn’t mean that you’re right. That’s something that I learned from that.
It’s not the knowledge, it’s what you do with it.
Yeah. I need to kind of hold off and be a little more cautious in how I treat aggressiveness. I think it was a good piece of knowledge to get as well from that.
-VN
[Top photo credit: Cindy Frey]
