First, can you introduce yourself and Bokor for those who don't know you yet ?
Well, we’re a band from Norrköping, Sweden. In january 2007, we released our first album Anomia 1 on Scarlet Records, and so far things have gone pretty good for us. We have great sources of inspiration such as Tool, System of a Down, Porcupine Tree, Rush, Pink Floyd, Soundgarden among many others, but it has also been said that it’s kinda hard to define our sound or to classify us. Another record is in the making, and will be released this year…

Yourself sang in several pop bands, maybe among other projects ; how did you and the others join Bokor ?
As for myself, I was grown up on a mixture of rock, hard rock, metal and different kinds of pop… My own bands in the beginning were all very metal, ranging from music in the style of Rainbow and Dio to more thrash and industrial metal style projects in the early 90's. Thomas and I actually had a metal band that released a demo sometime around 1993… But to me, hard music kind of outgrew its attraction for me then, so I went down other paths inspired by stuff like Mike Oldfield, Tori Amos, Queen and much else. I’ve also done a lot of stuff for my singing, like practising musicals (never acted in any, though…) and worked as a singing teacher/coach. Basically, all the members in Bokor are friends and great muscicians at the same time, and through some member changes, we still have a chemistry that makes up a creative environment all the time.

All of you seem to like many styles of music from 70's rock to black metal, but it's prog-rock and stoner that first come in mind for Bokor. Was it something 'natural' from the start, or did you take time to find "Bokor's sound" ?
Yes… Thomas were, at the time when Bokor was started, a long way into stoner territory with the bands he had by then. But I guess he felt a little confined by the genre, and also in the need of getting an outlet for more of his creativity. Bokor was already up and running when I joined them, so all I had to do was to get the vibes of where the songs where heading and do my stuff, which I think goes for most of the members. Everyone in the band have had periods (or big parts of their lives) dedicated to progressive stuff, so it has felt very natural to expand the structures of the songs a little.

As the songs are based on guitar parts by Thomas, was it a long process for all of you to become satisfied ? (like Tool, who's often used as a reference in the reviews of Anomia 1)
The songwriting in Bokor takes some time, there’s no doubt about that. We like to return to stuff again and again, to pick things apart and refine them.

For the lyrics, was it difficult to mix your interests in litterature - classic but also people you named like Neil Gaiman - with those of Thomas, which are here voodoo-related ? (like also the name of the band)
Hmm… no, actually not. The thing is that in this band we have kinda like a good mooded and very healty creative competition, I think. Somehow it was implicit all from the beginning that everyone went into this band to expand their own limits… to impress the others in the band by coming up with new strange stuff and to use all the sources we have to do stuff. We don’t want to do tricky stuff just for its own sake, though… I personally hate that kind of music when you hear that it’s complex only because the musicians want to show off or whatever. Thing is that it’s not that hard to play tricky music. It’s hard to play tricky music and make it sound easy and groovy… The same thing goes for the lyrics, I think.

For "Migrating", where your interest for WWI comes from ? Are you fond of history ?
Absolutely, history is among other things a main source of interest for me, and for other people in the band too. I’ve always had something special for WWI… like how armies went out to fight the last of some medieval battles, with honour, pride and all these old measurements, and found themself stuck in the mud of a long industrialized and very technological war all of a sudden. WWII has been done many times, but there’s a tendency to forget how much WWI meant for the whole development o f the last century. How much it paved way for everything that came afterwards.

Do you have other sources of inspiration, lyrically as musically ?
As for me it’s psychology, especially in the neurologic and social cognitive fields right now. I know there’s a lot of people out there fascinated by parapsychology, ghosts, spirits and things like that. I think it’s pretty cool too, don’t get me wrong on that. But to me, the biggest mystery and the ultimate question of all is how on earth the electrochemical activity in neural cells can result in consciousness, in intelligence, in social behavior, emotions and feelings. The brain is such an amazing thing, for all we know right now it’s the most complicated thing in the universe. How does it work, how has it evolved ? How do we go from the neural connections in the brain to the complex human culture ?

You said the band has got kind of tired about music business. I suppose your experiences taught you some things to do or to avoid to do ? Do you think the Internet can make the difference about the way bands can be known ?
Yes… the Internet is a great thing to get your music out. Still, to reach a certain amount of progress you need other channels too, like magazines, TV, record companies, booking agencies ; all the people that are dedicated to music and interested enough to promote the things they like. Bands promoting themselves still has a little sour feeling to it in my opinion. At least for the near future. I mean, the great thing about the metal audience is that they’re being supportive to musicians by buying records. I think it may be because they know how much effort that goes down into a good record. And that's also a little bit scary. After all, what you want is that someone halfway around the world should fork out hard earned money to buy a piece of plastic with your music on it. Whoops, means that you shouldn’t be too sloppy when you do the music. However, people aren't buying enough to fully cover our drug habits, so do a favor for you fellow Bokor muscician now and buy Anomia 1 and the next album. What’s the point of being a rock star if you can't live like one ?

What can we expect from the next songs ? Will they be in the following of Anomia 1, or will they go further, maybe in a different way ? (like the change going to come expressed in the title of the album)
Yes… I think the new material is like "more of everything". It has been some busy months when we’ve refined the songs and rehearsed new material right now. There's no big change in style, I think, just development and refinement. With that said, I also think that the new Bokor songs are some amazing stuff, and I’m really proud to be in this band.

What are your wishes after such a great 'beginning' with your debut album ? Is a tour about to come in Europe ?
We certainly hope so ! We want to do a lot of shows in the future, especially after the next release. Still, we don’t want to rush anything…

Thank you for this interview. The last word is up to you :
Thanks to you too. It’s always great to get a chance to talk about what we do. And we also hope for a release of the second album sometime soon, so keep a look out for us !