Sweden Rock is a classic metal magazine from Sweden, written in Swedish. Here is an interview translated to English.
BATHORY
By THOMAS VÄÄNÄNEN
Thomas Ace Forsberg was born on February 17, 1966. As Quorthon, he came with his BATHORY to push boundaries and single-handedly create genres that decades later are still built on the same foundations. In the process, he became a sometimes reluctant legend. On June 7, 2004, the unique musician abruptly left this world due to a congenital heart defect. In this article, we look back with the help of people who were close to Quorthon at different times or who had brief, unique insights into his work. First up is the most important collaborator in his longest interview about Bathory. Quorthon's father, producer and record label boss Börje Forsberg alias: BOSS
Who would you recommend I talk to in order to make the most complete article possible about Bathory?
– Actually, there is only one and he is no longer alive. He talked more to a few journalists he knew a little bit. I don't think there is anyone you can find out anything very relevant from. Ace was concerned about his privacy, so he didn't really talk much about his private life or anything like that, and the few he was close to knew that such conversations would stay between them. I very rarely comment on Bathory, because my role was that of the record company. Ace handled all that interview stuff even though he wasn't really into it.
In the biography that was published on the website and that is also included in the 2006 memory box »In memory of Quorthon«, a lot of different names are mentioned. A drummer named Stefan Larsson, for example, is said to have been frequently used.
– I don't remember who Stefan was. The lyrics in the box and on the website are Ace's own lyrics and I don't have a full grasp of all the people mentioned in them.
People ran in and out during the first few years to audition as drummer or bassist. The drummer in Sodom (Chris Witchhunter, 1966-2008) was up and auditioning at the same time as the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant happened. Then he got spades and wanted to fly home to Germany. After that, not much more came of it. But it could have become something, they got along well.
Quorthon tricked him into going to the German embassy in Stockholm: »Get your pills so you don't get cancer and die. I took my pills this morning.«
– Ace was just joking with him, but he took it seriously and got on the plane. Ace had a great sick sense of humor. He could be very sarcastic; so we had a hell of a time together. I remember when we were going to the USA from Finland in 1987 to do some promotion and landed at JFK airport in New York. When we were eating in the market hall in Helsinki, Ace saw some big beef bones in the meat counter and he went for them straight away. He was supposed to have them for a photo shoot. They were so big that they wouldn't fit in any of our bags without sticking out, but we still got them on the plane. When we landed, I was dressed in a suit as usual and Ace looked like he usually does with rivets and a cartridge belt. We were stopped right away. For half an hour I explained the situation and showed press clips to get us through. They ended up shaking our hands and one of the customs officers said that he had definitely heard Ace's album. After New York we went on to Los Angeles. Ace did a photo shoot where he stood on a roof and was breathing fire. Suddenly we saw sirens from both police cars and fire engines so we had to quickly run down the spiral staircase and escape. The night before we were supposed to fly home, we partied at the house of some of the girls who worked at the record label New Renaissance, which distributed Bathory. There was quite a lot of drinking, talking and laughing during the night before we suddenly realized that we were in a hurry to get to the airport. One of the girls gave us a lift and once we got there she was kind enough to take Ace's bag but she tripped in her high heels, fell and her calves flew out and slid across the terminal floor. What looks we got! People took a few steps back.
A person who came into the picture later is the producer Rex Gisslén (Candlemass, Therion, Edge Of Sanity).
– Rex recorded Ace towards the end of his career but he only worked in the studio. The first six albums were made by Ace and myself. I was both a technician and everything in between. Rex came into the picture for Ace's solo album as Quorthon, »Album« (1994). When we had an office for Black Mark in Germany I didn't have time to sit and record so Rex did it and then I mixed. Micke Moberg from Mimo Sound was a technician in the studio during the recordings for »Nordland I« (2002) and »Nordland II« (2003). Both of them are great guys.
Tell us about your record label background and how Black Mark developed.
– I first worked for Grammofon AB Electra in Sweden. I wasn’t employed by them, they hired me as a producer. I first worked for SOS in Huddinge, but because I was moving to Electra, I got my own office space and was able to use their sales organization, exchange, warehouse and billing system. All for a cheap rent so I could do my own things at the same time. For Electra, I produced, among other things, »Vackra damer« with City and »Var ska vi sova i natt« with Perikles. I was doing hard rock myself, including OZ's first two albums, »Watch out« with Trash and »Headline« with Zero Nine. Then I started distributing European record labels in Scandinavia via Electra. I distributed Century Media, Nuclear Blast and Noise for a few years. Noise had an employee named Antje who was really good and when she got bored working for Noise she wanted to start something of her own. I then suggested that she take care of Black Mark. At that time, Black Mark was really just a label for Bathory's records, not her own record label. But it developed and when it started to involve a lot of money I moved down and started the business. We signed contracts with a lot of new bands and eventually we also had offices in Canada, France and England.
– I spent ten years in Germany because it was the biggest market after the USA. In 2000 I wanted to go back to Sweden for good and we moved the record label to Småland. It was supposed to be temporary and in 2003 we started planning to move back to Stockholm but after June 2004 my energy for big moves was pretty broken and we stayed in Småland. In 2006 Black Mark moved from Eksjö to Bruzaholm outside Eksjö. We had distributors in over 30 countries and everything was going well, the vinyl records got a permanent place in the catalogue and we expanded the merchandise range. In 2009 we transferred all distribution to Plastic Head in England and then I could start to take it a little easier. My wife Klaudia still handles some of the administration and the entire mail order business. I have a hell of a lot to thank her for over the years, not least for her hard work during the years when my then German distributor tried to blow me off real bad. We won a legal case against them in 2007. Klaudia has a hell of a lot to thank for Black Mark's success.
It was a demanding business for a while.
– At the same time I was supposed to record things but there were fewer and fewer production jobs. I did Bathory all the time, though, except for »Requiem« (1994) and »Octagon« (1995) which Ace did himself with Rex Gisslén.
You selected bands and produced the compilation album »Scandinavian metal attack« which was released in January 1984. How did Bathory get a place on it together with OZ, Trash, Zero Nine and Spitfire?
– Bathory's participation was not planned at all. »Scandinavian metal attack« was a commission from the record company RCA and it was to be distributed by Electra. Since I worked with hard rock, Electra wanted me to put together a compilation as a kind of marketing project. At the same time I was working on the OZ album »Fire in the brain« and then Ace asked me: »Dude, can't I come down to the studio with my band and record something?« At the time I barely knew he had a band.
But you knew he could play because you were the one who bought him the instrument.
– Yes, he sat in his room day and night playing. It was a distorted and unknown type of metal at a crazy speed that I had never heard before. He would come out of the room so that I could listen to something. »That sounds really good«, I said. You couldn't hear any direct songs in what he was playing because there were no melodies, I thought with my schlager background. But it was really raw and it was going at a crazy pace. I still said he could come to the studio at ten o'clock at night because we would be finished with OZ by then.
What do you remember from the recording?
– He and his two friends looked pretty funny, all three of them. Real muppets. They threw their stuff up and it was a real live show in the studio. Ace had been in the studio with me since he was little, he had even slept in the studio. But he had never been behind the microphone. We recorded two songs but there was no thought behind it. I thought it was cool though. I had never heard anything like it. OZ was a decent move but this was ten trips worse. It was something completely new and I liked it, so I thought I'd include them on »Scandinavian metal attack«.
Above all, Quorthon's vocals were something completely new. How did you react to it?
– I thought it was supercool!
Did you tell him that?
– Yes. Yes, damn it. »Good!« There are distorted guitars at the end that scream and on regular recordings you tone it down and make it look a little nicer. When I was going to do it on these songs, I was told: »No, no! Leave it alone, leave it alone.« There were a lot of things that were new, but then I thought we should include them.
How was Bathory's music received?
– Even after I had decided that Bathory would be on »Scandinavian metal attack«, I was a little unsure about my decision. The album came with a survey where listeners were asked which band they wanted to hear more of. And it was Bathory they only wanted to hear. Then I told Ace that we had to make an album.
How did he react when you told him about all the records that had Bathory on them?
– I just asked if he had any songs. »Yeah, hundreds«, he replied. So we did it without pre-production or anything. We recorded the album in two days and that's enough.
Quorthon's first thought when you heard from him was »but I don't even have any band members anymore« because drummer Jonas Åkerlund and bassist Frederick Melander from the first recording had left him.
– He got to play quite a bit by himself there. He did most of it himself.
But were there any others during the recording?
– A few guys came and went and did some stuff. There was never a band. A guy came in whose name I didn't know, he did his thing and then it was goodbye. It was really just the first recording for »Scandinavian metal attack« which was a band, but they didn't want to go as hard as Ace wanted. They wanted to play a little more heavy metal. He had ideas that he felt wouldn't work with the two of them.
So in a way, Bathory was a solo project from the self-titled debut album (1984)?
– You could say that. With a few people wandering here and there. At times he tried to put something together.
The cover has gone down in hard rock history as »the yellow goat«.
– When he was going to make the cover, he had a goat that he had made. He inked it and cut it up. »That could be good«, I thought. Then he had a pentagram for the back. I understood what it was for but I just said »yes yes, if you want it then so be it«. He wanted the goat printed in gold but when we got the records from the printer it was yellow. It looked too damn bad! We thought it was unsustainable to have it that way.
How do you feel about the fact that the first pressing of the record today sells for over 10,000 kronor?
– Then it was fair of us not to make any more yellow ones? After a while, people started asking if we had any more yellow goats left. Then we felt that it would have been a shame for those who collected Bathory to press more. Then those who have come across it know that there is little value in the yellow goat. That it could go for so much money many years later was not on the map!
You only printed 1,000 copies of the first edition.
– Yes, I thought it would be a success if it was possible to sell so many of such a new thing. The Heavy Sound store was always keen on new things and sold records for export, so they bought about 100 copies. It wasn't long at all before someone from Germany called and asked: »Do you have this band Batlord?« I explained that the band was called Bathory and asked how many records he wanted. 5,000, he replied! »Okay, but we've never done business together before so you have to pay in advance.« He sent a check so we pressed 10,000 more copies but made that ugly goat white instead. The German company alone ended up buying 25,000-30,000 copies. Then came distribution agreements and licenses to a bunch of other countries.
But before all that, you had a domestic market to take care of.
– When the record was finished pressing but before it was distributed to the stores, we had a sales meeting at Electra. We always had meetings on Fridays where the salespeople would kindly present what they were going to be working on in the near future. Someone would come with Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and really nice music. Another came with something else nice and a third with something Swedish. Then Börje Forsberg came there with Bathory's first record. There was a guy at the meetings who always worked the gramophone and he would put the record on. You should have seen the faces of the salespeople! One was really old and was about to retire. They thought I had gone crazy. »What the hell, are you really going to release this? Is this going to sell?« I replied that »this will sell like hell«. »Now Börje has completely lost it.«
Were you really sure of your point then?
– Yes, I really thought this would sell. I had a feeling that told me so. One Saturday night a few months later, that salesman who was approaching retirement age called drunk. »Hi Börje! You were right, it's selling really well.« It was brilliant! He was still quite positive afterwards, because I was in charge of Noise Records in Scandinavia and he got to sell Helloween's successful records on commission.
What was your contribution to Bathory's music?
– I have recorded, mixed and had ideas for most of the records. When Ace came to the studio for the recordings, the songs were just fragments. We built everything together, it's created piece by piece. Ace has always had the structures but we have always been able to discuss different solutions to arrangements. He was very good in the way that he wanted to try things even though I trusted his way. There are artists who have such big egos that they don't want to listen to anyone else and that's not good. It's better to listen to others because then you can still decide for yourself if you still think your own idea is better. Ace was very artistic and thought it was exciting to try new things. When it comes to all the effects, my background in the music industry has been of great benefit to me. At least later when we moved into the Heavenshore studio owned by Peter Himmelstrand.
The Schlager guy who wrote, among other things, »Det börjar verka kärlek banne mig«.
– He had a studio in the basement that he called the Musikfabriken. But we didn't want people to understand where we were, so we called it Heavenshore. We got our own keys after a while so we could come and go as we pleased. It was a very simple studio with only 16 channels. If we needed anything extra, we had to rent it. All the effects, for example on »Hammerheart« (1990), were created in the studio and not taken from any effect discs.
How did you end up there in the first place?
– I knew Peter from before from when we had both been involved in the music industry and Peter also wrote for Expressen. I had visited his studio with some other band whose name I can no longer remember. Even though Bathory's music may sound simple, it took a hell of a long time to create it. It didn't work to buy a few weeks in a regular studio and just slam a record. We had to try our hand at it because we were creating things in the studio. We spent several months working on an album like »Hammerheart«.
Did Peter ever come and listen when you were recording?
– He came down and stood there coughing like a madman. He smoked so much that he had a smoker's cough (Himmelstrand died of emphysema in 1999, aged 62). He didn't say anything, he just looked straight in with a look that said »what the hell are you doing?«. When we listened to what we had done, we turned down the lights in the studio to get in the mood, to be able to see the music in front of us like a movie. I think one of the reasons Bathory's music has been successful is that there is imagery in it. I don't think Peter understood our thing, but he was absolutely not against it. He got the records and maybe looked at the pentagram a little extra long. But that was just a fun bonus.
But the second album, »The Return……« (1985), you didn't record in Heavenshore, but then you went back to the Electra studio.
– I don't remember exactly why. It could be because it was busy at Himmelstrand but free at Electra. »The return……« is a bad fucking record! It's like knives that cut, and that was also what it was supposed to cut.
Quorthon claimed that he was drunk during basically the entire recording. Do you remember that?
– No. He drank very rarely. It's possible that he was standing there sipping a little whiskey. I do remember, however, that he got spades when he was about to put a solo on a song and threw the guitar at the wall. You can hear on the recording how it bangs and the loop comes. Ace wanted to keep that. I think that's pretty cold.
By the time of the third album »Under the sign of the black mark« (1987), the records had started to sell a bit and you should have been able to get a budget for recording in a studio with more channels. Yet you chose Heavenshore again.
– I don't remember how much we had sold at that time. Sales were so spread out with distribution and licensing. The first time I counted everything up was 1996 and then we had sold 1.7 million records. I haven't counted it up since then but we must be up to more than two million records sold today.
Regardless of whether you didn't have exact figures, the record company must have started to believe in you by now, right?
– Yes. It was just that Sweden was still such a small market compared to Germany, England and Canada. We didn't attach much importance to it.
On »Under the sign of the black mark« you start to discern the epic elements that would later take over.
– Yes, that's where the further development came from. I thought that was really great. It was like turning a hand but still very right. I remember that I thought the song »Enter the eternal fire« was a masterpiece already when we recorded it in the studio. The guitars are put on several times with a variator to get that sound. Then he also tuned the guitar in a special way. He also played the keyboard on the record himself. He could play almost any instrument, as long as he touched it he could play it. That recording was quite special.
Did he play drums on any of Bathory's albums?
– Yes, he plays drums on some of them. I'm an old drummer but I wasn't allowed to play. But we could jam for hours! Damn good memories when I think back. We played a little more bluesy so that I could keep up. It couldn't go too fast. When you've worked very focused for a long time and feel like you can't do it anymore, then it's nice to just sit down and let it all out a little. During periods when we were working hard, especially with »Hammerheart«, we could sometimes feel as if we were putting the key in the studio door that this was not going to work. Then we just went home.
What kind of music did Quorthon listen to?
– What he listened to before he started playing himself was Kiss. He was a real fan. He also listened to a lot of Kate Bush and Toyah Willcox. But Kiss was the biggest. When he was ten years old, I gave him a drum kit and he played along to their songs. He played along to the drum solo on »Alive!«.
The cover of »Under the sign of the black mark« is also very special.
– The photograph was taken at the Royal Opera during the intermission of »Carmen« in a crowded hall. When we had called there and spoken to the janitor, we were initially told no, but when we explained that they would get a penny, it went well. This Mister Universe guy (Leif Ehrnborg) who is posing on the cover injected some kind of petrol into his veins to make him swell up. It was really cool. Then he put on that goat mask and we had five minutes to take the pictures before it was time for the next act of »Carmen«. We dragged in a bunch of mannequins that were supposed to represent naked women, but they are not visible on the cover. Ace was there with his chicken legs around his neck while the actors ran around and thought everything was quite entertaining.
Before this album, Quorthon got into classical music.
– He did that quite early. He went down to the library in Vällingby and borrowed records that he then recorded on old demo cassettes that he got from me. He had an incredible collection of cassettes with classical music. I have never been interested in classical music, but it was rather he who then made me listen to it. He drew a lot of inspiration from that later in his career. He was at the library a lot and read a lot. That's where he first read about Countess Bathory.
What do you remember from the recording of »Blood fire death« (1988)?
– It was also an incredibly pompous production. Some songs were an incredibly hard job. We only had 16 channels so all the choirs and acoustic elements didn't fit. We had to sit and pre-mix and put the choruses on separate tapes, for example, which would then be started at exactly the right time. It also caused some funny delays. The choruses came in with a slight delay because the machine started a bit crappy, but it just made everything much better, real and authentic.
Around this time you signed a licensing agreement with Music For Nations.
– It was a big deal. They got the license for everything we had released up until then, but their agreement expired just as I was moving Black Mark down to Germany.
Did you and Quorthon discuss business issues together or did you make such decisions on your own?
– Until 2001 I ran the company myself and since then Klaudia and I have been taking care of it together. Ace always got reports on how things were going and of course we discussed certain things. No agreement was ever made with anyone if he objected to it for some reason. That's why we left Noise.
What was the reason for that?
– There was a fuss when we released »Hammerheart«. On the back there is a sun cross which in our opinion is a Viking symbol that goes with that record. The Germans wanted to connect it to something else and it was a hell of a ride. We stood there screaming at each other. I thought they could take their history and stuff it up their asses. We are from Scandinavia and this is a Viking record. We never removed the sun cross but it was a big deal. We couldn't handle that German paranoia about the war. It had nothing to do with our record. There was so much talk about how they had messed up history.
What was Bathory's relationship with the Swedish press?
– There was no relationship. We didn't work to create one, we didn't even send any review records to the major Swedish newspapers. We were focused on fanzines, especially foreign ones. It was more important to spread the name through fans and fanzines like Kick Ass in the USA or Kerrang in England. In Sweden, however, Lennart Larsson did interviews in Backstage early on. But Ace didn't even want to answer everything. He had the biggest problem with the German press. He thought they were too interested in everything around that had nothing to do with music. "What did you have for breakfast? How's your stomach today, have you had a shit?" Even the German reviews are strange. They mostly write about everything else and dwell on the record companies' affairs instead of reviewing the album itself. Klaudia, who knows German, had to translate many of the German reviews and we never understood the point of these strange reviews. Swedish and American music journalism are completely different, it goes deep into the music itself and analyzes songs and lyrics.
Quorthon instead received large amounts of letters directly from fans.
- Absolutely! He tried to answer everything he could and he was always in close contact with the fans. We had moving boxes filled with letters from fans that we marked with the senders' home countries: Poland, Germany, USA. We kept in touch with them.
You tried very hard to keep your relationship ’by blood' a secret.
– There was nothing to talk about because we didn't feel like father and son when we worked. I didn't work with him any differently than what I did with any other artist. The only difference was that I produced the records. He didn't benefit from our relationship, maybe the opposite. I was rock-solid with my stuff and it was no different than when I was with Morgana Lefay or Edge Of Sanity. It was rare for anyone to suspect anything either. We were down in Berlin doing interviews and no one understood that he was my son. That's what I think anyway. There was nothing in my behavior that would reveal anything like that. He was booked into a hotel like any other artist. I never called him Ace when we were out, but then it was Quorthon, and he called me Boss. It was very nice to have it that way, it became more professional. We were both rodents and watched AIK in both football and hockey and then it was a completely different thing. At home we were father and son. We were almost more like friends. We were pals.
The two songs that you first heard with Bathory were called »Sacrifice« and »The return of the darkness and evil«. What did you think as a father about titles that could be perceived as satanic and dangerous?
– Oh, I didn’t think much about it at all. I’ve never thought about such things, but whatever the band was, I thought they should be responsible for that themselves. When we worked together, he was like any other artist. It sounds strange, but it was that simple. I never took that satanic thing seriously because I don’t think Ace did either. I saw it more as a theatrical thing. I look at the big picture and don’t skim through lyrics with any band. The energy and how it sounds are what’s important.
Quorthon started helping you at work when you were young, right?
– He worked for me on a few small jobs from a very young age. He was introduced to the record industry early on and then started to make a living at Bathory quite early on. Thanks to a royalty payment for »Under the sign of the black mark«, he bought a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy in cash. Then you can roughly understand the level of the situation. He probably lived quite well at Bathory.
While you were secretive, you must have felt enormous pride in your son.
– Absolutely. I had never thought that he would become an artist on my label and then everything happened so quickly. There was that »Scandinavian metal attack« recording and then it just rolled on. There were maybe four, five people who had known us before who knew how it was. The guys in Trash, for example, knew about it. When they had been on tour in Finland, Ace took care of the smoke machine, lights and such. He worked for me when my bands were on tour. But at the same time, Trash, for example, also knew that we didn't talk about our relationship. They never felt that I should have spent more time on Bathory than I did on Trash. Ace probably thought that I spent more time on Trash, and that was probably the case at times. There was a lot more traveling involved when it came to them.
Bathory never gave any regular concerts. As a record company person, were you never insistent that they should do it?
– We planned for it and that's when I got a rehearsal space for Ace to audition with musicians. I promised to put in a lot of effort to make it happen. But when that didn't work out, he thought we should just keep going as we have been doing, let the albums speak for themselves. For four or five years we had a standing offer from Wacken Open Air and they offered us a lot of money but Ace always turned it down. In 2003 my wife Klaudia got tired of answering "no" like a robot every year, so she asked Ace to elaborate on his answer. He gave a long and detailed explanation of what a concert with Bathory would have looked like, and that with his perfectionist attitude it would have taken at least two years to prepare the stage show. At that time it felt logical to say no. At that time he was also already working on material for a new album. I actually remember one time when the first set was supposed to play live but were thrown out. The owners thought they were some ordinary pop band so they only had time to start and then immediately stop again and leave. It was at a club in the suburbs, some shady place.
After »Twilight of the gods« (1991) there was a three-year break.
– There had been so much Bathory for a while that Ace needed to catch his breath. Then he made the solo album »Album«.
Was it his own idea?
– Absolutely. I had a lot of work at that time and traveled a lot. Then he wanted to make the albums »Requiem« and »Octagon« with Bathory without any extras or frills, just record them straight. They weren't big successes. Of course they sold some but not like the previous albums. At the same time we saw in letters from fans that they wanted something more in the Viking style or something really edgy. I thought he was going to try to write some kind of sequel to »Hammerheart« and all of a sudden when I was at his house he said: »Damn, come listen to this.« That was often how it happened. He would record things on his portastudio and that's how I heard it. Then he played some stuff from »Blood on ice« (1996) anyway and there was no question that we would make that album. It was really good stuff. Later we made the »Nordland« albums in the same style. He came by train to Eksjö over a weekend, played songs for us and then it was clear that there would be an album of that stuff too.
But in between came the album »Destroyer of worlds« (2001).
– I remember when that album came out but I don't remember anything about working on it at all. It's uneven. There are three songs too many on it and if we had taken a few out it would have been really good. Many people like the album because there are some really quirky and awesome songs on it. The album sold well. An album was to be made in 2004 and Ace had already given the sketch for the intended cover to Kristian »Necrolord« Wåhlin. Kristian completed the painting in the summer of 2004 and we were instead allowed to use the motif for the box set »In memory of Quorthon« and on T-shirts.
What kind of music was supposed to be on the album that never got off the ground?
– He had only gotten a little bit into the work, but one song was very symphonic. A bit like »Blood fire death«.
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| Quorthon and Boss in the studio in 1985 during the recording of »The return……«. Quorthon's guitar is an Ibanez Destroyer and he used it from the first recording of the songs »Satan my master« and »Witchcraft« in May 1983 until the recording of »Octagon« in February 1995. |
Is there anything about Bathory that you regret?
– No, it has given so much. And to so many.
Is there anything in particular that you feel most proud of?
– One thing that I have reflected on is that he received such recognition upon his death. There were many big articles in the rock press around the world and a belated recognition. People who I could not have even dreamed of being fans of Bathory told me about how they had grown up with the music and had the records. More than anything in the world I wish he had received that recognition while he was alive.
What is your favorite album?
– »Blood fire death«, especially the title track. And »Under the sign of the black mark«.
That album really set the framework for how black metal would sound and still basically sounds.
– It has appeared high up on several lists that have ranked important albums in hard music. As a source of inspiration, it has probably meant a lot. However, the one that I think has the most charm is the debut album. I think it is the coolest to listen to, even though it may not be the best. I don't think it is as brutal today as I thought it was then. Today it almost sounds a little nice.
Did the family keep track of Quorthon's career?
– The immediate family knew it, of course, but it wasn't something we talked about. He didn't want anyone to get involved with Bathory. That was our thing. Most of the family knew that Bathory existed and that there were tough demands, but they didn't say much about it. Ace was Ace. He had a charm and his own personal style with his leather jackets and chicken legs.
You have lived and run Black Mark in small Bruzaholm in Småland since 2001. Do people in the area know about Bathory?
– Well, people know about Bathory in the area, even on the small street where we live. Usually someone catches on by chance, like when a Bathory shirt is hanging out to dry in the garden or a local supplier comes in and you see a bunch of vinyl records… Then the talk starts. The fans in the area come and talk about Bathory, at least the ones who »dare«. People here are quite shy. We even got a mail order order for a Bathory shirt from a girl on our street once. It was supposed to be sent cash on delivery even though the girl lived just a few houses from us. There is a lot of hard rock down here in the highlands. We had a warehouse break-in here once, which wasn’t exactly fun because we got rid of a lot of shirts, but in the weeks after, people in Eksjö showed up wearing them. It was really funny when they had the stolen shirt with the »In memory of Quorthon« print. We have had visitors come here in caravans from both the USA and Germany, but it has never been a hassle, and people are really nice. We usually invite them for coffee, chat for a while or a whole day and let them take a shirt or record with them if they want. Some write to us regularly, year after year. There was an American fan who Ace was good pen pals with who came here two years in a row with his wife and children. They got to stay here for a few nights and then went up to visit Ace's grave.
You must be reminded of Bathory and your son every day.
– Yes.
It was a touching moment when you presented the Bathory set that Watain played at the Sweden Rock Festival 2010.
– It was a bit difficult. But it turned out really nice. Those guys are doing well, huh?
Very good. 30 years ago, you wouldn't have thought that this kind of music would be awarded a Grammy, which Watain did in 2011?
– Hell no. We can still partly thank Bathory for this genre finally getting a Grammy. Thanks to Watain and everyone who took the step forward! So damn heavy!