When the Drunken Prophet met Clawfinger

Zak Tell is the vocalist for swedish Rockers Clawfinger. Their album Deaf, Dumb, Blind is one of my top ten rock albums to drink to. I've seen them live a couple of times and let me tell you they ROCK! I caught up with Zak in my favorite Stockholm bar The Pig and Volvo. Graciously he gave me an interview. We chewed the fat and I bought him a couple of drinks to celebrate the fact he had just become a Daddy (a real DADDY!)

How's it feel to have just become a father?

It's the best thing to ever happen in my life without competition! Seeing your own flesh and blood right there in front
of you goes beyond everything and it's impossible to describe the mixture of pride, happiness & responsibility that
you feel when you realize that it is your job to make sure that he has a safe enviroment and that he grows up to be a
loving caring individual!

What plans do Clawfinger have for the Future?

Right now we are writing and recording new material for our 5th album, at the moment I guess the plan is simply to get
as many songs done as fast as possible so that we can release a new album before the end of the year! So far we have
about 10 songs that are more or less ready and another 4 songs that are half done so there's still a lot of work to be done!
being a dad has delayed things a bit but were back on track now and we're shooting from the hip;-D

Nine years after the release of Deaf, Dumb, Blind where do you see Clawfingers position in the heavy metal scene?

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a path of our own! I've never felt that we've ever had anything in common with
other bands in the metal scene musicwise, especially not with the rapmetal scene as most of those bands just follow the
obvious formulas and don't dare to go in new directions and the ones who do dare don't get any attention anyway as they
don't fit into the MTV format! There are a lot of good bands out there though so don't get me wrong;-D I'm happy though as
we've had a great following from day one and we've always been able to sell out the rock clubs around Europe!

What's your favorite Clawfinger song?

Well I have different favorites all the time depending on what mood I'm in but if I have to chose one song from each album
here and now then the lsit would be as follows:
1. I need you
2. Tomorrow
3. Two sides
4. Are you man enough

Ask me again in a week or two and I'll give you a completely different answer;-D

Two Sides (off Clawfinger) denounces religion. Do you hold any religious or spiritual inclinations?

I think it's important to question everything you believe in, be it politicians, religion or history! To me there is as much truth in
The Lord of The rings as there is in the Bible! Blind belief in dangerous as it can get you killed and in this age and time it often feels like people believe in a god because they don't believe in themselves and I find that highly dangerous! Instead of achieving their own goals they put their trust and belief in a make believe god and hope that will be good enough and that god will forgive them for their sins and life just doesn't work that way! I think there a bits and pieces of a lot of different religions that can be applied to my life and that can help me in different ways but I'll make no subscription to any one religion....remember that god backwards is dog & every dog has it's day;-D

When was the last time you got so pissed you puked up?

It only happens about once every second year & only when I mix beer, wine & hard liquor, I can't even remember when
the last time was but let me guess that it was at some festival somewhere a few years ago, late at night after we had gigged, I usually fall asleep before I get to the puking stage of drinking though...thank god!

What beers would you recommend?

There's a London brewery called Fullers and they have the best beer in the world, the tastiest one is called ESB but they
have a large variety of delicious brewskis! There is also a great Swedish porter called Carnaegie Porter that I can strongly
recommend but I have no idea if it's available outside of sweden, if you find it then have it with chocolate cake & cream, it
makes the perfect desert! If none of these are to be found then a Guinness will also do just fine, it's a classic stout! Last
but not least pretty much any beer is good enough, if I can be picky then I am but otherwise almost any draught lager will
do the job;-D

Your walking through the desert. There's a turtle lying on its back. Why are you not turning it over?

Why make the pain linger on for longer than necessary, he'll die faster lying on his back than walking around in the desert
desperately looking for water that doesn't exist!

Die High (off Use Your Brain) is an anti drugs song. What's your stance on the drug use/abuse issue?

Any drug taken for the wrong reason will simply fuck you up even more and take you even further down, the stronger the
drug the harder the fall! On the other hand drugs taken in the right enviroment with the right people around you as a form
of relaxtion can surely be mind expanding & inspiring, I still think that you should be careful though and learn to listen to
your body and not your friends! legalizing is totally uninteresting as the laws that now exist do not apply to people who live alternative lifestyles anyway and they were definitely not made by the younger freethinking generation! So I guess what I'm trying to say is that drugs can be great and drugs can be totally fucked up and it all depends on why you're using them and if you control the drugs or they control you! As for me well the only drug I use is booze as I find that dangerous enough for my well-being, different strokes for different folks!!

I saw you play at Rock city on the last date of the English leg of the Use your Brain tour (supported by Misery Loves Co.).
You got your dick out. How does it feel showing a packed crowd of people your crown jewels?

I can't even remember doing it but if you say so! First of all I have to say congratulations to the crowd that was there as it
never happens on stage normally but this was the last gig of the tour and there were a whole lot of weird things going on
that night;-D I remember that we tried to play Warriors og Ghengis Kahn by Bad News and that Misery Loves Co wrapped
me up in plastic and sprayed green goo in my hair...all in the name of rock'n'roll;-D That night was a good laugh for sure so
it's all good!

The Clawfinger web site can be found at http://www.clawfinger.de/