It was one winter Thursday night, when my phone rang and I heard long awaited Craig Nielsen from Flotsam & Jetsam on the other side of line. Why it is as hard to give exact genre to this band as it is? What is new album about and why was it released 5 months sooner in US than in Europe? This and much more was theme of this call. Let´s read the answers of those questions… 

There was 5 year gap between your last two albums. What was the reason of that gap?

When we finished the tour for “Dreams of Death” we weren´t tacked with record contract as our company crashed and was in process of reopening and it took some time. So that took over…probably a year after we got on tour. So, then they formed our label, then they gives contract and then we got to set a day into the future to record for some man and then engineer got hired by him to go on tour with him to promote his solo record so our engineers got caught in this process for a while… Then, we got to schedule record, mix, re-mastering and re-art, then release day. This is all…..it really supposed to be this way.

So you got a lot of time…

We have more time to write and arrange. Definitely more time than we have on many records since last 14 years.

“The Cold” is last album with Mark Simpson after 13-years-cooperation with this guitarist. How do you feel about this farewell with Mark?

Not good. You know, Mark and I were hired in the same day to replace Kelly Smith and Michael Gilbert. You know, it was very same day. I personally feel bad. It’s not a good thing. We´ve done so many good things in this band together and we got so many great experiences together, in this band. It will take for a while to get over that he isn’t here… But I know that it was needed, it was for long term security of band. But it´s gonna be a little weird without him… 

On the other hand, the band invites Michael Gilbert back to Flotsam & Jetsam. Was Michael obvious choice or was the band thinking about some “new blood”?

The Michael was obvious choice. We had already know that because Mike had come up a few times and shows and he came on stage and played a song or three and he is always playing for a different bands in a Phoenix so he never put his guitar down ever for a once in last 16 years so he was very ready to go, he loves the band, he was part of it and get its success. He writes a lot of song that were loved by fans. Flotsam & Jetsam is very much part of his life in past and now in future as well.

Let´s get back to “The Cold” and let´s start from the top. When I look on its cover, I see a lot of darkness and pessimism. That is quite unusual for trash metal bands. What makes you to have this kind of cover? 

It wasn´t really by way that we were thinking how to be dark and have dark cover. The fairy in the woods in is dark. We got the image and costumes and we really like it. We hired Travis Smith – the artist – because we really like how he put it around and he came up with the idea of fairy in the forest like that and we say “Yes, it´s more different than anything ever but whatever.” We like the image and we already got the song called “The Cold”. When we saw that idea from Travis, we thought that the whole record should be called “The Cold” because that cover looks like….well…the cold. It´s just coincidence. Really. We didn´t walk around and think how to be as dark as possible. We just get good image from the artist and we like it and we use it J

How satisfied are you with this album?

Quite satisfied. It doesn’t sound like anything else. That’s out today because we don’t play one style through every record like majority of bands today. You know, if they play trash, they are trying to play just trash in every song. But ´AK´ is too talented for that and he would waste his talent if all that we did was trash song every single time. Because…he is the strong point of the band. We think that we really captured ´AK´´s style very well on this record. We feel that it´s the best he sang ever. We are pretty happy with it. Of course, band gets a lot of press valuations like album of the month and album of the year. It looks like it was the right time to let it out. 

Let´s try to describe us point of “The Cold”. Is there some kind of general point in the album? What are you trying to say to audience with this album?

You know, it´s question for ´AK´ but I´ll tell you right now that he doesn´t write song about some global problems. He writes about his experiences, about things he see. He writes about nightmares, for example. His daughter woke up and told him about her nightmare and he writes song about it. He´s not trying to seize the world and change it like, you know, Pink Floyd with The Wall. He is writing his own lyrics that are not about global point.

So he is inspired by everything he sees and experiences, no government problem or something like this?

 There were never lyrics about government problems before Dreams of Death ever. He did 8 records and he wasn´t lyric writer basically, but now he is. You have to keep that in mind. His last two records are the first two records where he is true lyricist. However you find his spark, you know, like if you listen to “Better Off  Dead” and think that ´AK´ is suicidal? Absolutely not. He is far from things like suicidal and anybody he ever met. If everybody is writing from personal experience, you know, half of heavy metal bands are the Satanists.

OK. Let´s change theme. Why you choose to release your new album in Europe 5 months later than in US? 

Well, we don’t have the European deal. We have to set US release day and we don’t have deal in this time and until after the record came up in the US. So, when we sign with Driven Music, they set off these ideas about European license and distributing, but they didn’t actually have those agreements yet. So, we have to set a time for to be release in the states regardless so. We leave it on label to put together. They said that they were gonna make that happened and it took just longer than we want. But don’t have anything to do with Nuclear Blast that was agreement between labels.

What said American fans about “The Cold”? How they like it? 

They like it more than any records that we´ve done. We can’t really compare it because the styles are not similar. But we seem that we are speaking right to the audience with this record.

Will tour in 2011 hit Europe as well as US?

Well, we toured Europe three times in last two years. We want to go in lot of countries as well as we released on lot of markets. Definitely, because record come out via Nuclear Blast in Europe, I suggest that we´re definitely gonna tour Europe this year, so it´s just a matter of waiting until the record comes out in Europe because than you can get on better tour, you can get better offers etc. All because if the records is doing pretty good (and I think it would) you can go on better plays with bigger bands, play. You know, everything is better when record is doing well. We´re gonna release it before we book any tours. 

Can you compare American and European fans on live concerts?

Sure. European seems to be definitely more passionate about the bands they like. Americans are too but not as much today. Back in the past it was like everybody who is metalfan went on Ozzy Osbourne concert and Iron Maiden concert or whatever it was. But now, some people likes hardcore, some people likes death metal, some people likes power metal, some people likes trash, some people likes old school, some people likes … but that was the way it is here. US become more fractioned. Those fans got base here and those here. They don’t go on all the metal shows any more. They go to the style they like and that’s it. Fans are fans. You know, even in Europe, there are different fans. What country are you from? (Slovakia.) Well, we played Prague once and Hungary once and there were very very wonderful people round there. And great fans. For example, Spain has great fans, Greece has great fans. But not all countries appreciate same way. Japan is funny place to play. They got really loud and then they stop really quickly so if you don’t have next song ready, it´s off. Because they are like AAAAAAAGH!! and then they stop like in three seconds. They don’t continue screaming. You have to figure the crowd out everywhere you go. But in general, when I speak about European crowd, they seemed more attention; they know more of your history, more of your lyrics, more songs. The US crowd isn’t that focused.

Have you got some kind of dream country, where you want to play, but there was no opinion to play ever before?

I´d love to play the Bloodstock in England just because the history of US was shared with England. We have never played in England and that’s not cool. It would be a dream to play a big festival concert in England; it would be a big dream to play in Australia. It would be a dram to play … pretty much we will wanna to play in Europe. We were almost in most of countries. I think we have to play in Slovakia or Slovenia. We were asked to play there in very little festival but it wasn’t possible because of little selling of tickets. Any new audience we can bring it to, we wouldn’t just say no. I like to play Ireland. But the dream is to play in UK. We hadn’t played there before and we really like to. 

Have you any special habits on tour that you have to do every time before you get on stage and play the show?

No. We don’t have any of that stuff. We´re just very casual and very confident. We don’t have to do anything special. ´AK´ got his voice up in the corner, I am playing on my drum pad, the guitar players are tuning and that’s about it. We´re just warming up…we don’t have any special routines.

There is nothing left to say just wishing you luck with your music… is there anything else you want to say to your fans and to our readers?

If you don’t have heard a lot Flotsam & Jetsam  before, than if there was any time record that can introduce you to this band, it have to be “The Cold”. I think, that “The Cold” represents the band as good as it could be at this time and I am very confident that if you listened to you will hear some of the emotions and sanity we put into it. So, try to check out “The Cold”.