Liv Jagrell Q&A
This weekend Metalholic hooked up with Sister Sin‘s powerful vocal Goddess, Liv Jagrell. The band just released its fourth studio effort, “Now and Forever” and this February the band will join the legendary Doro for a North American tour. In her final interview before going under the scalpel this week for nodes on her vocals chords, Jagrell talked about her upcoming surgery, the new album, her duet and tour with Doro, who she’d still like to do a duet with, and what her worst phobia is.
Surgery for vocal nodes is fairly common among singers, and Jagrell revealed she’s been having issues as far back as 2007/2008 when she endured a nine-month period when she could not sing. Still it was hard for her to see the band cancel some winter dates, and with the date of her operation this week, she was admittedly concerned as well:
“I’m very nervous actually. Of course since it’s the voice I’m worried about something going wrong or something like that. I mean it’s an easy surgery and I know that a lot of singers have been forced to do this, so it’s an easy surgery, so I should not be so worried. But I can’t talk for four days and I think that’s going to be hard because I love to talk.”
Last month the band released, “Now and Forever” which finds Sister Sin continuing to solidify its signature, with a powerful and aggressive album. The record offers a more expansive sound than 2010’s “True Sound of the Underground” and I asked Liv if that was the band’s goal of if it just happened as part of the process:
“I think it’s kind of both. We can’t do another ‘True Sound of the Underground‘ or ‘Switchblade Serenade‘. Not that kind of record, because we need to improve. We need to change a little bit. So we felt like we had to try out new things or get outside our safety box and experiment a little bit. We tried to be a little bit more diverse and dynamic on this album too because we know that ‘True Sound of the Underground‘ is just a punch in the face. So we wanted to do something that is not exactly that. So we were conscious of what we were doing. Then of course in the process the songs worked out the way they are today.”
With regard to choosing “End of the Line” as the album’s first single and video, Jagrell says that was something of a label decision. The band offered them three potential choices and that was the song Victory Records selected:
“I think it was a good first single. It’s a subject that’s really important now because it’s kind of about the people telling us that the judgment day is coming and it’s going to end in 2012 which is now. So I understand why they chose that song, and it’s also a very good song to do a video for.”
“Fight Song” is an aggressive jaw-snapping beast and Liv shared that she absolutely loves to perform it live. Jagrell also talked about a couple of the other tracks on the album that are particularly close to her heart:
“‘Chosen Few’ is one of my favorites. Cause I really like the melodies in ‘Chosen Few’ and the lyrics also. It’s very up-to-date, yeah, very good lyrics. And ‘In It For Life’ of course, cause that song is like our experience. It’s about us in the band.”
Listen to the entire interview below as she discusses eating on the road, who was originally supposed to sing “Rock and Roll” with her last year, her desire to meet a Twisted Sister, what her worst phobia is, and much more. Also check out the new video for “End of the Line”.
Check out our review of “Now and Forever” and our previous interview with Liv.
