KATATONIA'S NICO ELGSTRAND TALKS INSPIRATION, TOURING AND PIZZA

If you know me, you know I’m a longtime Katatonia fan after my dad heard 'JULY' on ABC’s Rage when I was six. I’ve kept close tabs on albums and tours since, and my christmas gift from the hot and heavy show was an opportunity to interview guitarist NICO ELGSTRAND.

Katatonia’s most recent album, NIGHTMARES AS EXTENSIONS OF THE WAKING STATE, landed June 6th, 2025. They’ve been hustling ever since, and we are expecting them back in Australia in early October. During my brief time with ELGSTRAND, we discussed the previous album, playing live, and how it feels to be a part of KATATONIA.

ne: Right now, tiring... No, it's good. We are at the end of a 6 week run so we're very tired but it’s good, I think we’ve got a good vibe going. It’s been a couple of years, so both me and Sebastian are fairly comfortable with it.

K: Had enough? Ready to go home yet?

Ne: Kinda, I need a little break now, definitely... particularly at this time of year, you know, and [it’s snowing in Europe] and I mean it’s the same at home, but it’s difficult to be travelling... It’s exhausting in a different way.

With Ander Nyström’s official departure in 2025, Elgstrand was officially announced as one of Katatonia’s new guitarists, alongside Sebastian Svalland. The Swedish metal scene is very close knit, with so many musicians moving between bands, I had to know how ELGSTRAND ended up in Katatonia.

Ne: That’s a good question… I helped for a crazy gig in fucking gig in Hobart, Jonas calls me up and says “Hey, want to learn 25 songs and travel 3 days to Hobart, play one show and then go back home?” [Jonas] says “I know it’s bananas but I gotta ask” and then this is straight after covid. Had it been before it would have been too much work for it, but then I hadn’t played a gig in a year and a half so I said “Yeah, let’s do it”, so we did it then, then we got along really well, which is the main part in any band. So then down the line, a year later, when help was needed full time, they just asked me and I said yeah!

For those who aren’t aware, Katatonia played a DARK MOFO event in 2022, alongside CONJURER (UK) and BLACK SHEEP WALL (US). DARK MOFO is an annual two-week festival held in Hobart, Tasmania, where they put art features around the city and hold live music, from EDM, indie artists, to black metal. bands are often international and it's usually an exclusive show, so it is your only chance to catch them. This was the second time I saw KATATONIA (the first being in 2016), and I have seen them once since, but that show was the best performance I’ve seen, with the best possible setlist. Part way through, vocalist JONAS RENSKE mentioned that their gear had gotten lost and they were using borrowed gear.

Ne: We found it eventually, and that was also super stressful… I rehearsed on that freakin peddleboard, and then [when we arrived] all the gear was gone, come on man. So i had to use something i’d never used… so yeah, that was intense, but I've been told that most first gigs with katatonia are horrible for everybody involved. For some reason the gods decided that if you do your first gig with KATATONIA, they’re just gonna just mess as much as possible up for you.

K: It has to be the test right? If you can get through your first gig with Katatonia, you’re set.

Ne: Yeah, totally. If you can do that and survive and be okay, then you can do more. So yeah, that was pretty much it. I was just substituting and then I got the gig.

Elgstrand’s career doesn’t start here, playing guitar for Entombed (2006-2013) and Entombed A.D (2014-2019), so I was really curious to know more about how his death metal experience compared to melodic Katatonia.

Ne: Not really, I mean, no, it’s a bunch of idiots with three jokes each that we keep telling each other, and even though the music is very serious, so to speak, it’s a very unserious group of people. So I don't know, I would say it’s pretty much the same. nonsense, constant nonsense.

K: [You’ve all been playing music for a long time], do you think that’s what helps keep the spark alive after 25 years?

Ne: you have to be able to take the piss of everything everywhere, just to survive. There are very rough patches regardless of what level you're on, you will have to work for it and I would say that most musicians really are a very unserious bunch of people, just because you have to in order to survive.

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K: So obviously the new album was out in June, reception seems to have been pretty good from what I can tell, how do you feel about it?

Ne: Yeah, good, it’s been out a while now and we’ve played most of the songs live at one point or another, it feels good. It's fascinating how different it feels when you play a song live. You have a certain idea of how it turned out, but then it kind of changes when you play it live and it turns into another beast and I really like that. I’m also already kind of thinking of the next one. every album recording is so exhausting in one way or another, and then afterwards you’re like “fuck that I’m not doing that again”. Then you’re like hold on “just the one [song]”, then off you go, and I'm kind of at that stage no. We are happy with it and it’s a solid album, and it's nice to play the songs live, so all in all I am happy with it but kinda keen on making another one.

KATATONIA was initially a gothic/doom band, they transition to new sounds smoothly and graciously. Their mid-late 2000s releases became more alternative, with THE GREAT COLD DISTANCE (2006) becoming their most popular release to date. Through the 2010s, they leaned into a more melodic sound, less bleak and hopeless, while maintaining their dark ambience. FALL OF HEARTS (2016) really marks a stage in their sound. An incredibly far departure from their 90s sound.

K: Katatonia's sound has been so consistent for such a long time, right from to DEAD END KINGS (2012), so when i heard ‘A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES’ it actually really surprised me, especially pairing it up with that KARIN PARK remix, like it’s one of the more diverse KATATONIA songs I’ve heard in quite a while, especially compared to that stuff from 10-15 years ago. What inspired that song?

Ne: Nothing in particular, Some wise fella said that it’s 9 parts desperation and 1 part inspiration, and very rarely it’s that you sit down on a beach and look at the sunset and think “ooh i’m inspired to write a song”. That’s very hard to tell what inspired my part in that I think desperation is more of a key than inspiration really when you come up with songs. You just fucking lose your mind a couple of times then you have to come up with something and it;’s very rare that you’re like “yeah, man this is the one”, you’re miserable and you think this is not even a song. Then you fix it and then you fix it, and then all of a sudden it's “hold on, maybe this is something.” 

K: [Do you think this sound is something Katatonia will continue to explore?]

Ne: I hope so, I talked to Sebastian about this and we are here to screw things up in a good way hopefully. I mean, everybody is always searching for something new, something better, regardless of what you do, but maybe the intention is not to change what is there, but more like to enhance or make it better. I don't think anyone has a conscious idea of a start to make this band sound more like this or that, it’s more like you welcome different mindsets.

Ne: [It’s like trying] to make your pizza kinda different this time. People say it’s better to sound new than to sound good and I’m not sure, you want it to be good or you want it to be good. If you’re a pizza or baker you want people to be able to tell it’s pizza, but you also don’t want to be serving the same friggin pizza over and over and I hope that we are going to take it to a different place. [Jonas and I] listen to a bunch of different music that has nothing to do with KATATONIA and it’s nice to know when you can evoke all the spices in the kitchen, so you’re allowed to use everything. in the back of your head you know what you’re making so you don't want to go too crazy. But it's inspiring and that's the main part.

With the new album out, six weeks of touring nearly over, more touring and music to come, there has to be something that keeps ELGSTRAND motivated, what is the thing in Katatonia’s future he is most excited for?

Ne: The most exciting thing is that I can give them shit everyday when we are on tour. no, it's a tough one, I think all parts are exciting in some way. Obviously playing live is the most exciting thing…at that point where we are now after six weeks, it's not as exciting. Yeah, I guess playing live is the most exciting thing, cause there's like 24-33 hours of travelling then one hour of playing. That's been exciting for a long time and that’s probably not going to get unexciting any time soon, so that has to be it. The live deal. Being in that space and playing the songs and playing the songs, that's what we are doing.

K: Is it just that rush of adrenaline?

Ne: Yeah, it’s a weird mix of adrenaline rush and nervousness, there’s this little dude inside you going “okay you have to remember this part”... there’s a management part of your brain which is like “we cant muck up here” , it’s stressful, but at the same time, you can’t be looking all concentrated. you’re here to entertain so it's a really nice mixture of adrenaline and focus. It’s a lot of emotions at the same time… which is why we love it, it’s everything at once.

With everything that I learnt about ELGSTRAND and KATATONIA from this interview, it was great to see that he must look forward to time with his bandmates and some of the previous tension seems to have been removed. With that in mind, and his eagerness to continue to write music, it does not appear that KATATONIA will be slowing down anytime soon.

Tickets for their upcoming Australian tour are available NOW!!

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