Devil's Gate Music
Related Articles
Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, rock trio Pressure consists of songwriter and lead guitarist Simon “Siirpo” Forsell, vocalist Olof Jönsson, and guitarist Emil Salling. Olof talked us through the origins of the band, as well as his own personal musical memories.
What are the origins of the band, how long have you been playing together?
It all started years ago when Simon became Emil’s guitar teacher. They found each other pretty fast and started playing in a cover band together with different constellations and a lot of different gigs. After a few years, they got tired of playing covers and started rearranging and rewrite and translate the lyrics of a lot of known and popular rock/pop songs to spice things up. By this time, they realised that they also wanted a lead singer and they found me, Olof.
When I joined the band we first worked with Simons and Emil’s rewritten covers. But pretty fast we did our first own song, and as soon we started walking that path there was no going back. No more covers. It has taken us about 1-1,5 years to find our sound. We are really proud of it and will probably keep working and develop our sound as time goes on. We have been playing together for 2 years now.
How did you feel performing your first gig? And how was it?!
Our first gig together was at my and my wife’s wedding reunion. Little bit like a warmup, hehe. So, it felt great. Had a lot of friends in the garden and it was an outdoor gig in the garden. Everybody was in a really good mood despite Sweden lost against England in soccer that day and got thrown out from World Championship.
What should people expect when they check the band out? How would you describe yourself?
You can expect a heavy sound with a lot of guitar melodies and a lot of vocal harmonies. I think our sound is a mix of a lot of different influences. If you take the vocals from Rammstein or Volbeat, and the backing vocals from Queen or Aerosmith, mix it with the guitars of Bon Jovi, Guns ‘n Roses, and Motley Crue and add the drums of DIO or Whitesnake and the lyrics of Skid Row or Bob Dylan and add the bass of Metallica or Korn, and finally add a little bit folk music into that mix.
The new music scene is bursting at the seams with fresh talent, in what ways do you feel that a band has to stand out from the others trying to build a name?
First of all, I think it is our sound. It’s pretty hard to put us in only one genre. We do write our own music and all of our song lyrics are self-experienced or experienced by someone close to us. We put a lot of work into our lyrics, we want to tell a story that sometimes can help people through normal day life. Our songs are about different kinds of pressure, hence our band name Pressure. The pressure can be good or/and bad, it depends on how you intrepid our songs. We always try to write our songs, so they are open to being interpreted in different ways by different listeners. Finally, we write all of our songs in Swedish, some of them we translate into English and some of them into German. No German song has been released yet, but we have started recording.
What are you working on at the minute that people can check out?
If you go to our YouTube channel you can check out what we are working on right now. We have just started to post videos, (like a video diary) from our rehearsal studio. There you will get exclusive material and get to know what we are working on for the moment, don’t forget to subscribe. You don’t want to miss anything.
What band out there at the minute do you feel that you would be best suited to open for?
Sabaton. They really go into their music and we just love their heavy and direct sound.
Who do you feel is the next band to break out?
I sure hope it’s us.
What are your first musical memories? And what was the light bulb moment that made you go “I want to do that”?
My first musical memory was from when I was 7 years old and I went with my parents to try out different instruments. That day I decided to start to learn how to play the trumpet. Many things have happened since then… and many light bulbs have been lightening.
What was the last gig that you attended as a fan?
I attended a local show with local bands. It’s important for us to support local bands so we get a good and vibrant live scene going.
The album that you have in your album collection/Spotify playlist that would surprise most people?
Haha, I don’t really know, I listen to almost all kinds of music. But for the people how don’t know me and has only seen the work we done with Pressure would probably be surprised to hear that I got “Westlife Coast to Coast”.
Although 2020 was a year to forget for many reasons, there was some incredible music released; what would be your album of 2020?
Ah, I just love AC/DC ‘Power Up’!
How active are you on social media and where can people connect with you?
We are pretty active and hope to be even more active. You can get info on Instagram, Facebook, and our YouTube channel. And like I said before, don’t forget to subscribe.
