When Gothenburg band Dead by April embarked on their Russian tour five days ago, they had never in his wildest dreams have imagined what awaited. Pontus Hjelm, the band’s guitarist, tells of a noisy line from St. Petersburg on the incomprehensible journey.
When metalcore band Dead by April stayed in Samara on his first tour stop in Russia, everything was as usual, and during the concert happened nor anything remarkable. Some time after they got off the stage, it took not long before the peaceful existence was shattered.
– Suddenly dröser it into heavily armed soldiers in the room, dressed in bulletproof vests, and with grenades, pistols, soldier helmets, face masks, the whole kit. It was bizarre. Three of them took us to a closed room where there sat a bunch of bureaucrats. They asked us for our passports and visas, asked a lot of questions about our texts, if we had political texts or were Satanists. It was completely absurd. Surely we were left there for four or five hours before they finally released us. Then we would have had to leave our fingerprints and sign a few papers, says band member Pontus Hjelm.
It was an exhausting experience, says Pontus Hjelm, and they looked forward to continuing the journey with no more incidents. They had, after all, made clear his plans in the country, which was to play their music for their fans.
But at the next stop, Volvo Grad, occurred again. This time the band members abducted by Russian officials associated FMS (the country’s equivalent of the Swedish Migration Board), and asked the same questions again and had to write a paper (“always this paper,” says Pontus Hjelm, “it is comical”).
When the band arrived in St. Petersburg, they were stopped a third time.
– This time they were very brusque and shouted that they wanted to see our passports within one minute, otherwise they would bring us to the airport and deport us directly. They threatened the organizer of our concert with a fine of SEK 300 000 if we played, so the concert was canceled and we had to go on.
For Moscow bar journey – where the band stopped by soldiers and was called in for questioning a fourth time. At the time, however, there was an official from the Swedish Embassy in place, according to Pontus Hjelm made to the Russian soldiers did not dare to be just as tough.
– We have been treated like terrorists, which is completely absurd. None of our lyrics are political, and we’ve been straight with all the time that we are here to play music. We wondered if it might be the word “dead” in our name that has led them to react, that people somehow have taken offense at it, but it seems not so likely.
Could it have something to do with the band that accompanies you on the tour, Demotional?
– No, they are not political at all, and it is only we who have been called in the interrogation. It’s really weird.
GP has previously interviewed the band about the incident. Then it was still unclear if Dead by April would play in Moscow. It made the following very ifs and buts finally do, says Pontus Hjelm, in addition, they heard from their Russian promoter that their story has spread through the Russian media. It has received FMS in St. Petersburg regret their behavior and withdraw the threat of fines. So when the GP when the band a second time they have just rigged the scene in the city and is ready to go.
– We have been in Russia five times previously. I really do not understand what has gone wrong this time, says Pontus Hjelm.
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