Interview with Ken Kängström and Linda Toni Grahn of Follow the Cipher



Hey there, how are you today?

Linda - Hey!! I´m fine, thanks and hope you too!

Ken - Hello! I´m awesome over here, and hope you are great too!

You guys in Follow the Cipher are about to drop your debut self titled album, are you excited to get it out?

Linda - Yes, we are very excited to finally release our album. To finally show you all what we have been working on since 2014 :)

The album will be coming out through Nuclear Blast Records nonetheless, how does it feel to be releasing the album through what is the quintessential Metal label?

Linda - It feels so overwhelming. We all are truly happy and so thankful for this opportunity. Nuclear Blast are like a hard working label with a family feeling.

Tell us a bit about the album, what is your guys music about? What drives you to create music?

Linda - The theme of the album is Post-apocalyptic. You can maybe feel revenge, power, action, sadness, hope and faith. It´s up to everyone to interpret it how they want.

Ken - As Linda says, it is has a theme regarding a future of destruction. It has some undertones of seriousness reflecting on how mankind treats our planet and all the conflicts around the world. There is nothing better than sitting back and enjoying a song that you just wrote and is are happy with. That feeling drives me for the next experience like that.

This may be Follow the Cipher's debut album, but you guys clearly have experience in what you're doing. Can you tell us a bit about your time and close friendship with Sabaton?

Ken - Well I guess Jonas and I has the history with these guys. Jonas has been an very close friend with Par for a very long time, also helping our Sabaton with various things on tour and at home. I met Joakim many years ago and moved in with him for a short while. We had a lot in common regarding what we considered to be good music and good composing even though we focused on different kinds of genres. Later on I became a sound engineer for Sabaton, and after ending that, I was invited by Joakim to compose music with him for Sabaton.

Who influences you to do what you do? When did you realize you wanted to start making music?

Linda - For me it has been growing through the years. The first person that made me wanted to do something with music was actually my cousin. He worked as a musician and I felt that it seemed to be very interesting, and when I met him once when I was 15 I thought that I wanted to be an artist after that meeting, but I was way to shy to sing so I wanted to be a dancer and went for dance classes in High school. But when I was 21 I started to play guitar and write music in a band and after a while I couldn't resist to start to sing.

So what's next? Will we be seeing Follow the Cipher touring worldwide?

Linda - Next up is two shows in June. The 2nd of June in Czech Republic at Metalfest and the other show is in Belgium at Graspop on June the 21st. We have got some proposals for touring but we don´t want to jump on the first tour we got if it´s not the right tour for us. We want to wait to the right tour comes along. And for sure we want to go for a tour worldwide. We want to play, see the world and meet up with all our fantastic supporting people out there.

Who would you like to hit the road with? Any bands you hope to support or have support you?

Linda - Oh what a good question, but it´s a tough one to answer. Hmm....I would say that it would be great to tour with bands that maybe have the same kind of genre. But I like to think that you can do what ever you want so we will see in the future. We are hoping for a tour in this autumn.

What was the writing and recording process like? Was there a lot of stress in the studio? You hear a lot about bands fighting and getting sick of each other when trying to get the recording done

Ken - We never had any fights, but it a hell of a ride doing this album. We pretty much had to record it twice, due to putting a lot of time to the pre-production of our first drafts, and it also did not help that we live far apart from each other in the band, so the process was both tedious and stressful at times. But we were determined to hang on and focus on an album that we could be really proud of.

Last but not least, do you have anything you'd like to share with your fans, old and definitely now new?

Linda - I will say THANK YOU so much for your support! Hope to meet you all!

Thank you very much for your time, I hope to see you on the road soon! Be sure to pick up Follow the Cipher's debut album "Follow the Cipher" on May 11th through Nuclear Blast Records

Linda - Thank you so much for this interview and thank you for showing the interest in the band :)

Ken- Thank you very much for the interview. We are honored to be invited. =)


pick up the album through the Nuclear Blast Webstore


check out the singles on YouTube
Valkyria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1e4nRzHoaE
Carolus Rex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-3nE5L8vag
The Rising: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJqc7NR1mTM