Katatonia has at all times been a band outlined by transformation. From their early ’90s death-doom origins to their later forays into melancholic progressive rock, their sound advanced — however the partnership on the coronary heart of that evolution stayed the identical: Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström.
Now, for the primary time since Nyström’s departure earlier this 12 months, Renkse is talking candidly concerning the artistic chemistry that outlined Katatonia for greater than three a long time. In a brand new interview with Sinusoidal Music, Renkse gave a heartfelt look again at Nyström’s significance to the band’s legacy.
“He’s been an excellent vital individual for a few years within the band. I imply, we began the band collectively. He was the primary songwriter at first. And clearly, his presence and the songs that he made, you realize, made the entire basis of the band. Yeah, I imply, tremendous vital individual.”
Renkse described their musical relationship as each collaborative and intuitive, significantly within the band’s youth.
“I imply, we’ve at all times labored on the music kind of collectively. Even when he was writing extra of the music, we might sit down and undergo every part and say—as a result of we had the identical sort of inspirations—we had like a musical language that was very intricate with how we needed issues to sound. And we seldomly had a struggle about it.”
Although Renkse finally grew right into a dominant artistic power throughout the band, he credited Nyström’s guitar work and songwriting with shaping their early output.
“So, I believe it’s been a joint effort. However he was clearly extra… he was a gifted guitar participant. I couldn’t actually play guitar at first. So I needed to inform him what to play and easy methods to play it, you realize. So yeah, positively crucial in that sense.”
Albums like Courageous Homicide Day, The Nice Chilly Distance, and Night time Is the New Day wouldn’t exist of their present kind with out that core partnership. Katatonia’s sound — brooding, layered, and emotionally devastating — owes a lot to the bond between Renkse and Nyström.
The cut up between the 2 founding members earlier this 12 months was marked by a noticeable pressure. Whereas Renkse described the choice as mutual and forward-thinking, saying it was “the most suitable choice for everybody to thrive and transfer ahead with their very own artistic preferences in addition to private schedules,” Nyström supplied a extra pointed response.
“Katatonia may and may have been mutually laid to relaxation whereas exploiting the liberty to proceed in any fascinating course underneath a brand new identify. However with Jonas now regrouping with new members and navigating additional in his personal course, I not want to attend and see which approach the wind is blowing to enter that void and seize maintain of what’s been deserted.”
No matter the place each artists go from right here, Katatonia’s legacy — and its most iconic information — will at all times carry the imprint of what Renkse and Nyström constructed collectively.
