In a new interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal’s Metal Global, KATATONIA frontman Jonas Renkse has opened up about the band’s recent parting of ways with founding guitarist Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström — a major change for the long-running Swedish metal act.
Renkse, who co-founded KATATONIA with Nyström in 1991, acknowledged that while the departure may have come as a shock to fans, it wasn’t entirely unexpected from within the band’s inner circle.
“It’s been on our radar for quite some time,” Renkse admitted. “To us it wasn’t really a surprise at all. It’s unfortunate things like that happen… Change, it happens to everything at some point. And this is just the way it is.”
“But I usually think about it like I’m so happy that we had so much time together to do and create all these memories that we have that’s connected to the band and the things that we have achieved,” he continued. “We had 30-plus years to do it, which is longer than most marriages probably. So, I try to look at it in a different light and try to see something positive coming out of it. So that’s the way, for me, how I’m dealing with it. And the rest is just — I mean, I wanna continue making music. That’s my drive and I’m still hungry for it. It’s something that I — I invested so much time in my life to do it, and I’m in a place where I really like to be, so I just wanna go on.”
Renkse also hinted that Nyström’s departure may have stemmed from some of the behind-the-scenes realities of band life — something often invisible to fans and outsiders.
“People probably don’t understand or have the capacities to see what’s going into being in a band,” he explained. “It’s a lot of work… If someone goes to a concert and sees the band perform — and this includes me as well, because when I see other bands perform, I think, ‘Wow, they have such a splendid life. They just go up there and play a show and that’s it. And then they have a bottle of champagne waiting for them.’ But it’s not always like that. That’s a rare occasion.”
KATATONIA will release their new album, Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State, on June 6 via Napalm Records.
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