I started to play guitar quite late, and I was at the age of 18 when I bought my first guitar, so it has been 14 years since then. And I have been singing for around eight of them. I remember I was inspired by some of the local bands at that time, that was really cool and I wanted to do the play like them.

You've been in a few bands throughout your career, what sets Communic apart from the others?

I think that we have found a unique sound of our own, as we are three totally different persons with different influences that we have combined in some way that gives us the sound and feeling that has formed our sound. Sure people will hear some influences from the music that we grew up with, but we need those comparisons to let the media and others to know what to expect, but I don't think its easy to describe our music.

Who or what would you say has been your biggest influence?

I think that thrash metal like Megadeth, early Metallica, Testament and Slayer, and later on Fates Warning, Psychotic Waltz, Queensr˙che, Sanctuary, Dio, Pantera, and many more has left their mark.

Most recently the band released its debut "Conspiracy In Mind", courtesy of Nuclear Blast. I've read that you got signed off of a 3 song demo, was it really that easy?

I don't see it as easy cause we have had our time in the underground with some other bands prior to Communic, and maybe it was a bit of luck this time, but we sure had a different strategy this time around. We wanted to make a totally professional demo with nothing to spare. It had to have the BEST production that we were able to give it, at whatever price it cost. We knew that the songs where good, and the result of the demo in the end was really good, but we printed only 100 copies, and didn't make it available for sales, and we managed to get some really good reviews, and sent it to a few contacts that we had, and suddenly the demo gained the "Demo of the Month" in Germany's biggest magazine, RockHard. I think that our name ended up on a few notebooks, and suddenly we had several different labels that wanted to work with us, and we are really pleased that we ended up on Nuclear Blast. They have done a really good job for us already. Even though we are a small and unknown new band on the label, I like the fact that we have to prove that we are worthy of the support and work our way up.

How has life changed for you since signing to a major deal? Do you still have a day job?

Nothing has changed at all. We still have our day jobs, and I guess we will continue to have it this way for some time. I don't think it easy to make a living out of playing heavy metal, but sure, going on tour and into the studio demands some kind of freedom to take time off and so on, so it's not easy.

"Conspiracy" has been receiving rave reviews worldwide, what are your thoughts on the warm welcome?

Its just amazing. You know, we didn't dare have any expectations on how people would react to this album, and especially the media, because it's not mainstream, and it has quite long songs and everything, so it's really cool to see how much attention the album has received and all the great feedback the we have seen so far.

The disc only has seven songs, yet it's close to an hour long! Is there a specific concept you were trying to convey to the people, or was it the best songs that you had written at the time?

We didn't have any leftovers for this album. And we didn't have any more songs written either, cause we trashed the ideas that we didn't like in the early stages. I don't like to work on stuff that won't be used, so every song on this album was planned. We didn't have any bonus tracks planned either. It is not a concept album but I think that people will find a thread binding the songs together, and they all fit together in some strange way.

Which of the seven songs is your favorite and why? Also which song best represents the band as a whole?

My favorite seems to change now and then, but "Silence Surrounds" is a really cool song and it's also a challenge to play live, so it's one of my faves in there, but also "They Feed On Our Fear" is high up there, together with "Ocean Bed". I think those three songs represents best the sound of Communic.

As a three piece, what do you think you have to offer the world as opposed to you being a quintet?

As for now, it has worked really great to be a "power trio" and it leaves much room for every instrument and also lets the bass parts stand out as something unique. We tried out another guitar player an an earlier stage of the band, but it didn't work out. We felt that we lost some of the dynamics that we had as a trio and everything ended up a bit messy. And the band sounds more tight when we are the three in the core, but we have been thinking about bringing a keyboard player into the steady line-up, and not only session as we have done now in the studio and also on a few of the live shows. But we don't want to much keyboard in our music either so we don't really know what to do about it yet. The fact is that the less people in a band, the less mess you get. Maybe it makes it a bit easier to keep the focus and the band together. And it's cool that people wonder how we will be able to do this live, but it works!!

You've completed a few European tours, how has the crowd reaction been for you so far?

We have been on one European tour that lasted for three weeks, and it was a good experience for us. We met some great bands and the feedback from the audience was really good as well. Also the gig that we did at the RockHard festival was killer with loads of people in the audience that totally kicked and left us with a good feeling. Hopefully we can get another tour going this fall to support this album, before we sit down and concentrate on making a follow up album.

Is there a certain tour package, you'd like to get on?

I don't really know. I would have liked to support for any Ayreon show, Opeth or Candlemass maybe...

How much longer before we see the band in USA?

Right now the album should be available in the USA and if the feedback over there is good, I hope we would be able to tour in the USA. That would be just amazing and I really hope that we will experience that sometime soon.

When you are not concentrating on music, how do you spend your time?

There is always a thought flowing concerning music in my head, but work during the day takes a lot of time. I usually listen to music and spend time with family and friends.

How long do you see Communic being around ... 5, 10, 20 years?

Wow, that's a tough question, but I hope that within 5 to 10 years that we have managed to put out 5-6 killer albums and still are being able to work with music even after that.