“It’s not angry by any means,” he explains. “I mean, it sounds angry, but lyrically it’s actually very uplifting. That’s the interesting thing, that’s what I wanted. It sounds like the lyrics would be very angry, very pissed off, but they’re actually the opposite of that. But it is definitely ‘fired up’,” he agrees. “That is a good word, I like that a lot!”
Nielsen was happy to go into further detail regarding the album’s lyrical themes, and the contrast that he had already touched upon. “It’s just about hope and love and being positive really, and creating a positive environment for yourself and the people around you. And transforming yourself through…positivity!” he laughs.
“But it’s definitely different than anything we’ve ever done, than any other lyrics I’ve ever written. They’ve been very depressing and sad, and I didn’t want to do that any more. So I changed it up. Except the record’s really heavy. It’s weird because our records in the past have been very poppy, but the lyrics have been very dark. This time the lyrics are very light-hearted, but the music is very heavy.”
It has been the process of maturing and gaining more perspective on life that has inspired the change in his lyricism. In short, he is not an angry young man anymore. Nielsen is becoming more philosophical and it’s coming across in his words.
“At some point you start–” he hesitates. “I don’t want to say ‘grow up’, you just start to realise that the world doesn’t revolve around you, and you start to appreciate things. Your world view starts to change when you realise that life’s not just about me, you can live for other people and there’s a lot more to this life than either my happiness or my sadness. And that’s like a weight off your shoulders.”
And it was the album’s title, Renacer, that seemed to encapsulate the new attitude and the album’s lyrical themes. The word is Spanish, and its English translation is ‘reborn’. Plus there has been a marked change in sound from the album’s predecessor, 2011’s The Fire. The concept of being born again seemed very fitting.
“It just sort of tied everything in,” he says. “I think the record is about rebirth through a different sort of mindset. And it’s basically a new band. If you ‘A-B’ any of our [previous] music and this, you’ll notice that it’s very different.
“It’s sort of a new beginning,” he goes on. “We’ve come out of a lot of hardships as a band, we’ve been through a lot. We’ve been very successful and then we kind of declined. We hit a peak and then sort of declined since then. This is our sort of our ‘fuck it, I don’t give a shit any more’ album. I want to make music like I did when I was 18, that had a fire to it and a passion to it. I don’t give a shit what people think about it, and I don’t care if it’s successful, because I don’t rely on the band for money, and there’s something freeing about that.
“When you rely on the band for money, it almost becomes not fun because then you judge yourself based upon your band’s success. You should never judge your self-worth based upon who likes your band, it’s stupid,” he says.
The band have a long list of tour dates coming up in the next three or four months, across the States, the UK and Europe. They have toured Australia on two previous occasions, and in news that will be music to fans’ ears, Nielsen is extremely confident that they will be back. And sooner rather than later.
“I can almost guarantee it,” he states emphatically. “I don’t have any exact dates, but we’re gonna be down there, definitely. I love Australia, and if someone would give me a job there, I’d move there for ever,” he concludes, laughing.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
