The Project Hate MCMXCIX is a Swedish extreme metal band that have been quietly carving out a niche as one of the most innovative bands in modern music. Combining elements from a wide variety of different and at times seemingly disparate genres, Lord K Philipson has crafted a sound that is truly his own. He was kind enough to lend his time to Powerline.

Tell us about The Project Hate MCMXCIX (who shall be referred to as TPH going forward), how it came to be, and some of your initial inspirations for starting the project.
Lord K Philipson: I have played and created music since 1987 or so and all the time I have toyed around with different influences in what I do. Since I listen to so much music and different genres I felt that I needed to create something that no one had really done up to that point (and still that rings true to this day since what we do truly is our “own”), something that would incorporate everything I love with music into one entity. This became TPH. There are not many bands around who can claim they do something that they can consider their own unique style. We can, and that is all that matters to me – that i am able to create the best damned music I have ever heard, with influences from everything that I truly appreciate in music – without losing the brutality that is so important to me.

There were no particular bands that inspired me to do this, it was just a thought of mixing everything together, from the most brutal death metal to the electronic aspects I find so enjoyable and have those lovely female vocals in there as well. Safe to say it’s worked out quite well, as expected.

Let’s talk about your musical background. When did you first begin playing music and with what instrument? Have you received any professional training or are you self taught?
Philipson: I am going to take the easy way out on this one, for one reason and one reason only: you need to read this interview made some 9 years ago:
http://www.theprojecthate.net/media/spudd_interview01

The reason I am sending you over to click that link is becoz, even though the interview is some 10 years old or so, it’s covering everything you would wanna know about this; how I started out, why, influences, etc… Just go and read it coz it’s a great read though it’s not exactly brand new.

TPH have a very specific, unique sound as a result of incorporating industrial and electronic sounds into extreme metal. How did you come up with this concept? Was it brewing long before TPH or was it more of a spontaneous creation?
Philipson: It developed over the years when drum machines and stuff entered my life. I used to play drums in various bands and they were all plain hard rock or metal, nothing groundbreaking about them, no experimenting or anything. That came later when keyboards and whatnot made it possible to develop my own ideas as far as mixing alot of styles together. I always knew I wanted a band that would have everything that I listen to in music in that one band. This concept’s taken some time to perfect, but I feel I am finally there. Now it’s just about enhancing it and making it even more powerful. And that’s what drives me. To always challenge myself and top myself composing-wise. It’s a lovely journey to create music for TPH, but it’s also an incredibly demanding one. It’s my fucken life.

Let’s talk a bit about your composition process. TPH has some seriously intense songs, both in length and complexity. How do you take these ideas and translate them to reality? Many musicians have trouble creating a four minute song that sticks, and yet you create songs that rarely drop below the six minute mark, frequently break ten minutes, and have an unholy density about them.
Philipson: As I briefly touched upon in the last question, writing and recording TPH is no simple task. I have said it a million times, but I am sure that there are not many people out there who work as fucken hard with their stuff as I do. To say that an insane amount of hours/days/weeks go into perfecting what you hear on the albums is an understatement. It’s way more than that. When people think they have a song completed I am probably at 10 percent of completion for TPH. It is a fantastic process, and a demanding one as well. But that’s how I like it. I want to put everything into this and really burn for what I create. There are so much stuff in our music that demands your complete attention. If you dive head first into it and don’t look back – it will be incredibly rewarding. If not – then you are fucken deaf. I saw someone saying that we are one of the worst “Pro-Tooled” bands ever. I find that funny as hell, and a compliment, considering we don’t even use Pro-Tools, nor do we “clean up” our shit much. I have made sure to play as good as I fucken can and I have also bought myself some great equipment for my guitars meaning that I have a noise suppressor that really is fucken amazing, so I need not to cheat and clean up my guitars to make them tighter or anything. I don’t like working like that. I take pride in playing everything and not cheat. If I have 2 sections in a song with the same riff, I don’t copy/paste. I play it twice. With at least 4 guitars. Simply becoz I want to know when I hear it that I haven’t copied anything.

I like to write long songs with tons of stuff in them, simply becoz I want each track to be a journey for myself. And if it’s a journey for me, who wrote it, I definitely believe anyone who listens to it (and understands it) will have a blast experiencing it as well. You can’t give us 2 minutes of your oh-so precious time and think you know what we are doing. That’s just not happening. Our music is not for you.

It’s fucken insanity to create for TPH. I love it. I absolutely love it.

Do any other members have a hand in the writing process or is it entirely your efforts?
Philipson: Music-wise, the big work is all mine. When guitarists Mazza and Anders were in the band they both contributed with riffs and whatnot, but putting it all together and making it the final product is always me, and will always be me. The other heroes of this band come up with fantastic ideas as far as vocals and drums go, let that be known – but since this is my vision I prefer to have it done my way since TPH is created for my personal satisfaction and peace. I couldn’t do it without Jörgen, Ruby, Tobben and Dan Swanö – those people are making my vision come true, and I can never thank them enough for granting me this.

Lyrically TPH is anti-Christian at its core, and there is an impressive amount of (for fear of being redundant) hatred directed at that particular group. Does the band (or will it potentially) represent or explore any other lyrical concepts as time goes on, or does the hatred for Christianity provide enough fuel to burn indefinitely?
Philipson: I don’t think there will ever be a lack of disgust for Christianity, so on that account I feel pretty fucken safe to be able to spew forth more blasphemy in our quest to destroy it all.

Seven full length albums with additional releases in twelve years? How do you find the time to create so much music? This isn’t half assed shovel-ware material either.
Philipson: I seriously do not think we are that productive but when I think about how long it takes to create and perfect this – it’s not too fucken bad to have this many albums out. I never have a plan as for when to start writing for an album or anything, I wait for it to dawn upon me and take it from there. Usually when it starts it takes up most of my time and I just dive deep into this world of creating for TPH. My girlfriend does not think I am the best fucken guy in the world when I do this, which is quite understandable since I live, breathe and shit TPH during this time. But this is what I need to do, this is what I live for.

TPH has always been a bit of an underground sensation. With the release of your last few albums your exposure appears to be increasing, even as the record industry is dying. Is this going to affect the band in the long run? Despite decreased record sales across the board and no touring, TPH soldiers on.
Philipson: I don’t know about increasing exposure… Fuck knows we deserve more recognition though. What we create is not easy to understand, we are not your average band. Perhaps this is holding us back, but then the question pops up “Am I creating this for you or for me?”. I think you know the question to that one. In these times when record sales go down the drain, it’s a miracle that Season Of Mist were willing to take a chance and release our latest opus. That is the only thing that bugs me a bit, record labels not being willing to take chances and release albums by bands who deserve it. I can’t finance the recording of TPH’s albums by myself, I simply have no cash for that. I just want to create music and have it released so people can buy it and experience it – the problem is people don’t buy albums anymore. I must soldier on since this is not a hobby to me – this is my fucken purpose in life.

Again on the issue of the industry, you release albums through Season of Mist, and offered the newest albums for sale direct from the band as well. What kind of relationship do you have with your label? In an age where many artists are choosing to self release their music, what does Season of Mist offer you that you could not provide yourselves?
Philipson: Distribution and money for the recording of the album. They have the possibility to actually get the thing out there and make it available to people. SOM’s been all cool. They have their bands that they concentrate on promoting, bands who tour and whatnot – we are of no priority, I guess, and it’s fine by me. I just hope they get the invested money back and decide they should release another TPH masterpiece upon the world. The world deserves it.

Response for your Bleeding the New Apocalypse (Cum Victriciis In Manibus Armis) is incredibly positive thus far. Are you satisfied with the reception? How much do you invest in the opinion of others, and do bad reviews affect you at all?
Philipson: The only think that affects me if given a bad review is that most common fact that the one who listened to it clearly didn’t listen to it. As I said, you can’t give us 2 seconds of your time. We are not your fucken average band, you know. I have no problem with people not liking us, we are not for everyone, clearly. If you have valid points as for why you can’t understand what we do – that’s awesome. But to talk without knowing what you are actually talking about it makes absolutely no sense to me, and that pisses me off. When idiots say that we play operatic metal, or goth metal or whatever… that is just mindblowing. You don’t like female vocals, you don’t like electronics, you don’t like brutality and blasphemy? Well, then maybe, just maybe, TPH isn’t really what you should listen to… The reviews have been as I expected them to be, as I always expected them to be – great for most parts and some normal, boring ones – written by people who obviously do not understand what we do. And that’s fine. We were never intended to be for everyone. We are aiming higher than that.

You have a new female vocalist, Ruby Roque. Despite enjoying your previous vocalists, Ruby brings a level of technical and emotional presence that really elevates a notch above the others to these ears. Let’s talk about how you got together with her, and what she brought to the table that enticed you enough to bring her into the TPH.
Philipson: When it comes to Ruby, I heard her old band Witchbreed and was floored by the chick singing. I decided to interview her for my website www.globaldomination.se and she turned out to be an extremely cool girl as well behind those excellent vocals. This led me to think about using her for some guest vocals, but it eventually turned out to be a plan of a greater scale. She needed to be in TPH, not just do some guest stuff. I felt that we had come to an end with Jo’s voice in my vision as for how I want TPH to evolve and sound today. With Ruby we finally have a girl who can do it all vocal wise (and she brings one thing we always lacked in this department of female vocals – power), and it dawned on me that she is the one I needed to fulfill my vision. I am so happy to have this girl in the band. And I hope she stays with us for as long as we exist. She deserves to be in TPH – she’s that fucken phenomenal.

There are a number of guest appearances on the new record including the always fantastic Christian Älvestam. What is the selection process when choosing artists who will add their flavor to the mix? Do they come with their own ideas and perform or do you have what you want them to do in mind beforehand?
Philipson: I never plan the guests in advance, I do that when the songs have been pretty much completed, coz that’s when I know what I want to be done where and so forth. While writing lyrics and picking out our vocalists’ individual parts I might find a proper section to use some guest vocals or a guitar solo by someone I really want to have on there. Christian’s a great fucken vocalist and a cool guy, and since he asks to be a part of TPH’s recordings from time to time it’ easy to get him on board, haha… Will he be on future albums? Maybe, maybe not? It depends on if I see a need for him. Guest spots are secondary to me, they are just a nice add to the mix. Except for Mike Wead – he is fucken crucial since I can’t play solos myself, so it’s better to use the fucken world champion in this art, haha…

As stated and proved above, you keep yourself quite busy putting out an enormous amount of material for TPH. Do you have any other projects or aspirations as a musician? Any other musical endeavors you want to see come to fruition?
Philipson: I have wanted to do some other things for quite some time but I always end up spending my valuable time on TPH and Torture Division. Maybe one of these days these other ideas will come to fruition but it’s of no priority right now.

Any final words/thoughts?
Philipson: Thanx for the great interview and for the support. It’s always nice to talk to someone who understands The Domination.

For more information, go to www.theprojecthate.net

— Interview by Marc Garrison