Tobias Lindqvist – bassist of Swedish heavy metallers Enforcer – gives us the lowdown on his love of Iron Maiden and spending a gig surrounded by dog poos.
What was the first album you ever bought, and why?
“The first album I bought was Iron Maiden’s debut album – I was about nine years old. I’d heard a couple of songs with Bruce Dickinson singing and I just had to get a record. At first I was a bit confused that they had different singer but I thought it was great! It’s still one of my favourite records. The first album I was given though, was Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction when I was six or seven and it blew my mind!”
What was the first single you ever bought?
“I can’t remember really, I always bought more albums than singles. It could have been The Trooper by Iron Maiden or some weird punk 7”.”
What was the first gig you ever went to?
“The first real show was Fu Manchu at a local festival. I was really into skateboarding and I’d heard them in some skate video. It was in 1997 so I’ve must been ten years old. I’m preatty sure Joseph (Tholl, guitarist) was at the same show but I did not know him back then. Can’t say I remember much of the show but I’m sure I thought it was good. The first big show I saw was Iron Maiden when they just released Brave New World. They played a sold-out arena in Stockholm and I couldn’t belive how big it was. Slayer and Entombed was supporting. What a line-up! That show was a real life-changer for me.”
What was the first gig you ever played?
“It was in school and me and two friends had a band, we played Black Sabbath’s N.I.B. and some other song. I had just started to play the bass and was pretty nervous. I can’t remember much about it so I guess the gig was okay. We had no singer though.”
How was the first Enforcer tour?
“The first tour we did was a European tour with Portrait in 2009. It was short one, just ten dates. The shows were pretty good although some venues were strange. In Lille, France, there was dogshit all over the dressing room and they served us cold spaghetti for dinner. Portrait were friends of ours and we had a really good time. We really liked their music aswell. There was a lot of mischief on that tour.”
Enforcer’s latest album From Beyond is out now via Nuclear Blast.
