Dark music wouldn’t be what it is without Katatonia - the Swedish visionaries who have transcended genre, seamlessly blending goth, metal, shoegaze, and prog into bleak, melodic compositions unlike any other. The band, which revolutionised metal with monumental albums such as Brave Murder Day (1996), Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2001), Viva Emptiness (2003), and The Great Cold Distance (2006), first emerged in the early 90s as a pure death/doom act. Its evolution began on day one and has never ceased, making Katatonia one of the most original and influential bands in the scene. This June, via Napalm Records, the band unveiled its 13th studio album, Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State - an intricate, guitar-driven record that is as demanding as it is rewarding. The dark hooks and tender vocals remain, yet the band ventures into unpredictable territory while delivering its heaviest riffs in years. The new album also marks a significant change, with founding member Anders Nyström, known as Blakkheim, departing and two new guitarists, Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland, stepping in. Ahead of the release, we spoke with drummer Daniel Moilanen, who shared some fascinating insights.

Interview with: Daniel Moilanen
Conducted by: Tomaz, Jerneja
Edited by: Jerneja

Tomaz: Hello, Daniel! First of all, thank you for joining us for this interview and congratulations on the new album, which has the longest title of any Katatonia album: Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State. What can you tell us about the album?
Daniel: It's a dark album. According to me, it's the darkest yet in our discography. It's also very suggestive, very introverted, less direct, and might be less friendly to the listener. I think you need to give the album some time; let it grow on you, which is what I prefer with my music - instead of being just an instant gratification. It's still very much Katatonia. It's a dark and moody album, but also very emotional and melancholic. The music is what you can call the modern Katatonia. It's slightly progressive and has many elements that you know and love from our band.

Jerneja: I came across the fact that Legacy Magazine released the EP Lilac. How come? You didn't promote it in any way?
Daniel: We released "Lilac" only as a single. I know that Legacy Magazine was doing something with it, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. I guess it came out as a bonus CD with the magazine.

Tomaz: Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State is the first album you worked on without Anders. I assume the roles within the band have changed, and the composition process was different this time.
Daniel: That's not entirely true. Our singer, Jonas, wrote the entire new album, as the previous albums, Sky Void Of Stars and City Burials. In that regard, nothing has really changed because Anders wasn't a creative part of the band for a while, so this album isn't different from some previous ones in that aspect. The main difference about the new album is that we now have two guitarists who are also playing on the album. In that way, it's different, but the composing of the album was Jonas' work again, so nothing is really different there.

Jerneja: I find it a bit unusual that you replaced two members at the same time...
Daniel: It's true, but on the other hand, it's only officially that we replaced them at the same time. Roger left the band last spring, and Anders hasn't been playing with the band live for a while. Both of the new guitarists started playing live with the band already last summer. So, they've been a part of the band since then - we only officially announced them now.

Tomaz: I always thought that Anders, besides Jonas, was the main man in Katatonia, but - apparently - I've been wrong all this time. Did anything at all change after he left?
Daniel: Nothing, really. He left when we started touring for the Sky Void Of Stars album. We had to keep on touring, so nothing really changed. Jonas started writing for the next album pretty quickly after the previous one was finished. He's always writing music. Anders leaving the band didn't make much difference, except that we had to find someone to replace him.
Tomaz: We've seen Katatonia play live four times... In 2023 and 2024, Anders was gone. Everyone was wondering what happened to the band. Some even speculated that this was the end of Katatonia, but the band still hasn't said anything about the situation. How come you waited until this year to make any announcements?
Daniel: Yeah, because we also didn't know. I haven't spoken to Anders for at least two and a half years already. He only announced that he wasn't going to do the European tour for Sky Void Of Stars, and that was the last thing I heard from him. So, we also didn't know what was going on. We needed to keep playing shows; we didn't want to cancel anything, so we had to come up with alternatives. For a while, it was just the four of us, with Roger on guitar, and the second guitar was pre-recorded. It was one of those things that no one wanted, but at that moment, there were no other alternatives. Do it that way or cancel the show - and we didn't want to cancel at all.

Jerneja: And how satisfied are you with the two new members, guitarists Nico and Sebastian, so far?
Daniel: Oh, we are very satisfied. They are both bringing a new kind of energy into the band. I've been in the band for more than ten years now, and Niklas has been in Katatonia for 15 years already. We had kind of a groove going on; we knew what we were doing, and we were very comfortable playing together. Both new guitarists, Nico and Sebastian, have come very naturally into the process, and they are both bringing in their unique energy and playing style. It has just been a very organic process. We needed only a couple of shows with those guys, and we knew exactly where we were going.

Tomaz: Have you known Nico and Sebastian before? Have you had any auditions or advertising campaigns looking for new members?
Daniel: No, nothing. Nico has been around forever. He's an old friend of Roger and Fredrik from Opeth. Nico previously played with Entombed and Entombed A.D., so he was always around, and when we did the European tour for the Sky Void Of Stars album, Anders stayed at home while Nico was the one who stepped in. We already did that tour with him, and bringing him back was a natural thing. Then, Jonas has a friend who knew Sebastian from before and he just started talking to him and explained what the idea was and Sebastian was very up for it. They met, and everything clicked. I met Sebastian for the first time when we started rehearsing last summer. Personality and playing-wise, they are both really clicking with the rest of the guys.

Tomaz: Let's get back to your new album. Before the album's release, the promotional lyrics suggested that Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State was a continuation of the previous two albums. So, where do you see the connection and differences?
Daniel: It's a continuation - it's the modern Katatonia sound with electronics, some progressive elements, and all that. Stylistically and musically, it's still that. The main difference between Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State and Sky Void Of Stars is that Sky Void Of Stars was more direct - it had more hits, was more listener-friendly and easier to grasp. Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State is much more difficult to let you sink in. You need to give it some time. It's layered differently - instruments and rhythmic leads are a bit different. The first time I heard Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State, I thought we had no hits on the album. There's no single hit song. In a way, it's a very different album, but musically, it still sounds like Katatonia, and it sounds like what we are doing these days. I think, emotionally and lyrically, it's the darkest album ever done.

Jerneja: The title Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State seems quite mysterious and poetic at the same time to me. What kind of nightmares are we talking about, or is it just a poetic title?
Daniel: The entire album is connected - let it be musically, lyrically, the title and the cover. Since Jonas is writing everything, there's a connection with actual nightmares he had, and he wrote lyrics about it, and artwork is also a representation of that. In reality, it's him bringing his nightmares into the waking state. It's poetic, but it's also very direct. His inspirations from nightmares are brought into the album form for everyone to experience in a way. The cover artwork is the artist's representation of what Jonas described to him from a nightmare.

Jerneja: The cover doesn't associate me with any kind of nightmare... I think it's a beautiful artistic creation, but I don't perceive a nightmare, at most, a kind of peace that makes me wish I were there... Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State is Katatonia's second album released on Napalm Records. You were previously on Peaceville Records. So, how satisfied are you with your new family?
Daniel: We are very satisfied with Napalm Records. Obviously, they are a bigger label than Peaceville; they have more muscles and more leverage in the music industry. I'm not particularly interested in the music industry, and I try to stay away from the business side of things. I think that all of us prefer to just play music and do our art form. Nevertheless, everything is a bit easier with a bigger label, and so far, Napalm Records has been nothing but good to us. We are very happy with them.

Tomaz: You've already announced a European tour for November and December this year, so what can we expect from Katatonia live this time?
Daniel: We are working on a slightly different stage production than we had before. It's going to be a bit different from previous tours; besides, we have two new guys in the band who are bringing their energy. We are already talking about the setlists for the tour, and I think it's going to be more intense in stage production and the songs. We hope to bring up a new kind of intensity which is very exciting.

Jerneja: I wanted to ask you about the sound of Katatonia live. We've seen you twice in the last few years, last year in Austria at the Area 53 festival (live report over HERE) and the year before that in Italy at the AMA Music Fest (live report over HERE). In Austria, the rhythm section was too loud and drowned out everything else, especially Jonas' voice, and the year before in Italy, it was even worse. But when we saw you play indoors, in clubs, it was almost always perfect. How is that?
Daniel: We've had the same sound engineer for the last couple of years. I mean, doing festivals is always tricky, especially since we were using backing tracks and trying to get a perfect balance between live instruments, pre-recorded tracks and vocals. It's always a challenge, but I never experienced our live sound as horrible, and I'm sorry that you did. On the stage, we always hear ourselves OK.

Jerneja: So, no one else has told you that you don't sound good when performing live lately?
Daniel: No.

Jerneja: It seems a little strange to me... but OK. You've released some really good videos for the album's singles, especially the ones for "Lilac" and "Wind Of No Change", which are fantastic. How do you enjoy making videos?
Daniel: I don't really care for doing videos, but I understand that they are necessary for some promotional reason. I also think that those are good videos, but still nothing special. For "Lilac", we worked with Patric Ullaeus from Revolver Film Company. For the first time, I worked with him some years ago, and since then, I worked with him a couple of times, so I know him from before. It was a good experience, but for me, making videos is not exciting at all. I prefer just playing live.

Tomaz: Anyway, congratulations on that. I think the videos are very good. You said earlier that there were no hits on the new album, but there still has to be a song that is closest to you or the one you like the most.
Daniel: I prefer playing the opening track, "Thrice", because it's the most "drumming" I guess. It is fairly complex, very energetic and the most fun to play. I prefer listening to "Departure Trails", which is a bit slower, scaled-down and more moody song. Also, the Swedish track "Efter solen" is one of my absolute favourites.

Tomaz: Was this the first time you recorded a song in the Swedish language?
Daniel: No, we had a bonus track, "Vakaren", on the album The Fall Of Hearts, which was also in Swedish. Ok, as a regular part of the album, this was for the first time.

Tomaz: You said that Jonas wrote the music and lyrics for the last four Katatonia albums. What is the input of the rest of you on the songs? Would you have a say if you disagree with something, for example?
Daniel: Oh yeah, of course we do. Jonas writes everything, and then he delivers the demos to us. We listen to them, learn the songs, and if there's anything we don't agree with or there's something we want to change, we have a discussion and try to find ways to see what's best for the song. No one has the right answer; it's always a collaboration. Then, when we have the songs finished, it's our job to make them musical because Jonas writes at his home behind the computer, with his guitar and programmed drums; he writes the keyboard parts and all that. But he doesn't play the drums, that's my role. My role is to make his ideas musical, to make them sound good on the album, to make them interesting and, maybe, to make them more or less complex, technical, depending on what the song needs, and also to make it sound like me. That's my job because I, as a drummer, have a certain feel, a certain groove and timing. So do the other guys; they contribute with their sound. It's not just to play a riff correctly but to play it how we play it, and that is what makes it ultimately sound like Katatonia.

Tomaz: You joined the band Katatonia in 2015. Tell us what that experience was like for you.
Daniel: I've been a fan of the band since the first album. I bought Dance Of December Souls back in 1994. I followed the band throughout its entire career. I was intrigued by all of those progressions and changes in the band's sound, and I often thought about Katatonia as an exciting band. Then, I got to know the guys a couple of years before I joined. We did a tour together with one of my older bands, and we quickly realized that we liked hanging out with each other. We had similar music references from our youth; we all came from a death metal background. So, when I got a question if I want to join Katatonia for shows, it was very exciting because I'd play with people that I like, with the band whose music I like, and got to play drum parts that I like, since I always enjoyed Daniel Liljekvist drumming. It was also very exciting to give a little bit of myself into the Katatonia's sound after I had been listening to them for so long. It was a very exciting experience, and I assume it worked out really well since I'm still here.

Tomaz: I hope Katatonia will have a stable line-up for at least a while, or are there any surprises in store?
Daniel: I don't expect any surprises. The people that are now in the band also want to be in the band; everybody also wants to play live and such stuff. This is what you'll get for a while, at least, I hope so.

Jerneja: What about the production? Did you make any changes regarding the new album?
Daniel: Not any drastic changes. This album has fewer vocals and less vocal layering than previous albums, and also, it was mixed by Adam Noble, who is not a metal guy. He mixes rock music and such stuff. This was also very deliberate because we wanted to see what we could do with the Katatonia sound when different sound production is used. It still sounds like Katatonia, but I think it's less metal and more organic. I think the sound production is a bit different, but nothing that drastic.

Tomaz: Thank you for your time, Daniel. I wish you the best of luck with your new album, and I hope it is well-received by your fans. Is there anything else you would like to say at the end of this interview?
Daniel: I would like to thank our fans for the support they have given us over the years. Keep an open mind and buy the albums. And you two, thanks for having me.

Band photos by Terhi Ylimäinen
Live photos by Tomaz Vogric

Katatonia (2025): Jonas Renkse (vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming), Niklas Sandin (bass), Daniel Moilanen (drums), Nico Elgstrand (guitars), Sebastian Svalland (guitars)

Katatonia links: Official website, Facebook, Instagram