Swedish metal, Spanish choruses, Nordic collaborations and one very unexpected yodel, Nick Johansson explains why TUNGSTEN’s new album Ashes is about not being afraid to try stupid ideas.
Interview by Paul Marshall
There are probably easier ways to promote a new metal album than spending the opening few minutes of an interview discussing illness.
But then again, TUNGSTEN have never sounded particularly interested in doing things the easy way.
Tonight I’m talking to Nick Johansson, guitarist, producer and one of the creative forces behind Swedish melodic-metal band TUNGSTEN, whose new album Ashes is due for release on October 9.
We were originally supposed to have this conversation the previous week, but the dreaded bugs had other ideas. Nick had been knocked sideways by what sounds like considerably more than your average cold.
“I was sick like hell,” he tells me. “I'm not really sure what it was. It was more like a cold, but extreme. It wouldn't let go. I'm still not 100%.”
I sympathise. I’ve also just been struck down with a head cold myself, so there is a brief moment where this interview feels less like a music journalists and musician discussing metal and more like two survivors comparing battle wounds.
Thankfully, the coughing and sniffing won't be making the final edit.
And once we get into Ashes, it quickly becomes clear that there is something slightly different happening inside the TUNGSTEN camp this time around.
THE ART OF BEING WEIRD
I start by asking Nick what he thinks Ashes reveals about where TUNGSTEN are today now that the album is finished and he has had some time to step back from it.
His answer is surprisingly simple.
The band have learned not to be afraid of stupid ideas.
It is an attitude that can be traced directly back to one of the album’s most unexpected moments.
“Joker” was one of the first songs where they began experimenting with vocal melodies. Somewhere in the process, Nick started yodeling.
Not as a carefully considered artistic statement.
Not because TUNGSTEN had suddenly decided they were going to become Sweden’s answer to the great yodeling tradition.
He simply did it for fun.
“I started to yodel just for fun, because I do this sometimes,” he explains.
His brother suggested they keep it.
And suddenly the joke became part of the song.
There was, naturally, a moment of doubt.
“It’s gonna be silly and not cool,” Nick remembers thinking. “People are gonna think we're just lunatics, and that we're not serious.”
Instead, it worked.
And that opened the door.
“So this sparked some kind of idea to go a bit outside the box and do stuff that is totally weird.”
Then comes the line that perhaps best sums up the philosophy behind Ashes:
“Not be afraid to try really stupid ideas, to be honest.”
For a band working within a genre where precision, musicianship and established musical language are often prized, there is something refreshing about that approach.
Sometimes the idea that looks ridiculous on paper is exactly the one that gives a song its identity.
And if a yodel can make it onto a TUNGSTEN album, apparently anything is possible.
THE PRODUCER WHO CAN'T ESCAPE HIS OWN SONGS
There is another downside to being the guy who produces, mixes and masters the album and then gets involved with the videos.
You hear the songs.
A lot.
“How many times have you heard these songs?” I ask Nick, wondering whether there is one track he was once excited about but has now heard so many times that he never wants to hear it again.
“Yes,” he laughs.
“Since I'm doing the producing and mixing and mastering and also videos, so I think I've heard it a thousand times more than the other guys, so I'm kind of sick of all of them.”
But there is a twist.
He isn't actually as sick of Ashes as he normally is after finishing a record.
And that might be significant.
“Maybe that's a good sign, though, that this album is better, to be honest.”
I tell him that I think it probably is a good sign, particularly because he has spent considerably more time with the songs than the rest of the band.
He agrees.
“Yeah, probably. I never thought about it, but yeah, you're probably right there.”
Sometimes the producer is the last person who should be asked whether an album is good.
But perhaps they are also the first person to know when they have finally made something they don't want to escape from.
A LOVE LETTER TO SPAIN
One of the more intriguing departures on Ashes is “Fuego Del Sol”, which takes TUNGSTEN's melodic-metal sound somewhere we haven't really heard them go before, bringing Spanish and Latin colours into their Nordic musical world.
The inspiration came from an unexpected place: a festival in Spain.
TUNGSTEN played their first show in the country last summer at Leyendas del Rock. They weren't expecting much.
They were playing relatively early, on a tent stage, and Nick remembers the band wondering whether people would even turn up.
They did.
In fact, they turned up in force.
“It was totally packed,” he says. “I think I've never seen a better audience, maybe, to be honest. They were so into this.”
The experience clearly stayed with them.
They wanted to do something for Spain, and the answer eventually became a song with Spanish choruses.
Their singer's wife is from Spain and helped with the lyrics, making sure the language was as accurate as possible.
It is a nice example of how touring can feed back into the creative process. A concert becomes an experience; the experience becomes an idea; and the idea eventually becomes part of the band's recorded identity.
There is also a wider point here.
Germany has traditionally been seen as one of Europe's great metal strongholds, but Spain's enthusiasm for heavy music is increasingly impossible to ignore.
TUNGSTEN have clearly felt it first-hand.
And now there is a little piece of that experience sitting inside Ashes.
THE NORTH WILL RISE
Another new direction comes in the form of “The North Will Rise”, which features guest vocals from Tony Kakko.
For TUNGSTEN, this was new territory.
They had never collaborated with another singer in this way before.
Nick explains that the idea originally came from the label, which suggested that the band consider some kind of collaboration. TUNGSTEN already had the song, and because its lyrical idea was rooted in Scandinavia, another Nordic vocalist seemed like an obvious fit.
Tony's name came up almost immediately.
The connection made sense.
TUNGSTEN had toured with Tony and his band previously, and Nick describes him as not only a great singer but a nice guy.
The result, he says, surprised them.
“We've never done this in that way before, so that was a cool new thing.”
And the most important thing?
“The two voices blend really nicely together.”
It is another example of the band using Ashes as an opportunity to explore rather than simply repeat what they already know works.
WHEN THE STREAMING WORLD DISCOVERS YOUR BAND WITHOUT KNOWING IT
There is an interesting contradiction facing modern bands.
Streaming has made it possible for music to travel further than ever before. A song recorded in Sweden can end up in a playlist on the other side of the world without the band ever having played there.
But that can create a strange disconnect.
People may know the song without knowing the band.
Nick has experienced exactly that.
TUNGSTEN haven't yet played huge numbers of headline shows. Much of their live experience has come through support slots with other bands.
But something interesting keeps happening.
Two older TUNGSTEN songs have become particularly popular on streaming platforms.
When the band plays them live, Nick notices small groups of people in the audience suddenly reacting.
“Oh, you know this song?”
“Yes.”
But then comes the realisation:
They don't necessarily know it is TUNGSTEN.
Nick believes the songs have simply found their way into people's metal playlists.
And perhaps that is the modern music business in one small scene.
The listener doesn't necessarily follow the album, the label or even the artist.
They follow the song.
DOES THE ALBUM STILL MATTER?
That leads naturally to the question of whether Ashes needs to be listened to as an album.
Nick's answer is refreshingly honest.
“No. To be honest, not at all.”
Streaming has changed the way people consume music, and TUNGSTEN understand that every individual song has to stand on its own.
“We had this idea from the beginning, to be honest, to make every song count.”
That doesn't mean the album doesn't have a sense of identity.
Nick believes albums naturally develop their own “red line” a thread running through the songs, because they reflect where a band is creatively, geographically and emotionally at a particular point in time.
TUNGSTEN don't make concept albums.
But they do create albums that tell a story.
And that distinction is important.
When it came to deciding the running order, Nick left most of that to Mike and Karl, who were more focused on creating the right flow.
He had one firm request.
“Joker” had to be first.
Why?
Because if someone hears one song from Ashes, he wants it to grab them.
And what better way to announce that TUNGSTEN aren't afraid to get weird than by opening with the song containing the yodel?
FIFTEEN MINUTES OF TUNGSTEN
If someone gave Nick just 15 minutes to explain TUNGSTEN to a completely new listener, which 3 songs would he choose?
Two come from the band's existing catalogue, with “The Fairies Dance” and “On the Sea” making the cut.
For the third, he turns to Ashes.
“Joker” gets the nod.
It has become something of a calling card for the band.
And perhaps that says everything about where TUNGSTEN are heading.
If you want to understand the band, don't necessarily start with the safest song.
Start with the weird one.
THE MUSIC BUSINESS LESSON
Nick has been around music long enough to have seen the industry change, but he has also had something unusual in his corner.
His drummer is his father.
And his father brought more than just rhythm to the band.
He had already spent more than four decades in the music business and had experience playing in major bands, including HammerFall and Manowar.
When TUNGSTEN started, he made sure they didn't sign something stupid or get taken advantage of.
According to Nick, that meant they avoided many of the classic business disasters.
But there is one lesson he wishes he had understood ten years earlier.
You have to put the work in.
“I thought, like, 10 years ago, yeah, okay, we have a super good album, we have good songs, and yeah, let's record them, and then the label do the rest, and then we're gonna be huge.”
It doesn't work like that.
The music industry doesn't owe you an audience.
You have to build one.
Nick has learned to produce, record, mix and create videos himself, partly because those things cost serious money.
And in an era where tutorials and information are everywhere, he believes musicians have fewer excuses than ever.
“It is hard and it takes time,” he says, “but there is so much free stuff, YouTube tutorials and stuff, and this is how I did it.”
There is an honesty to that which I like.
The romantic idea is that the great song gets discovered and everything else takes care of itself.
The reality is considerably less glamorous.
Sometimes you have to learn how to mix your own record.
Sometimes you have to make your own videos.
And sometimes you have to spend another hundred hours doing something nobody outside the band will ever notice.
FIVE RECORDS ON A DESERT ISLAND
After spending most of the conversation talking about albums, production and the music industry, it is time to lighten things up.
Nick is stranded on a desert island.
One turntable.
Unlimited electricity.
Five vinyl records.
And none of them can be TUNGSTEN.
His choices reveal a pretty broad musical palate.
First up is Meshuggah's Nothing, followed by Vildhjarta's 2011 album Måsstadens.
Then another Meshuggah record Destroy Erase Improve makes the list, alongside HammerFall's Renegade.
And finally, he reaches for Reise, Reise by Rammstein.
It's a suitably heavy desert island.
ONE HOUR WITH GENE SIMMONS
Then comes my favourite kind of interview question.
You're given one hour in a room with any three musicians from any era, alive or dead.
You can't perform for them.
You simply get to hang out, talk and listen to music.
Who do you choose?
Nick immediately goes for Gene Simmons.
“He seems like an interesting guy.”
What would he ask him?
That's where things get slightly harder.
Nick isn't sure.
And that's actually part of the fun of the question.
He then considers a world-famous yodeler before deciding that choosing three people off the top of his head is considerably harder than it sounds.
Perhaps after the conversation we've just had about “Joker”, that isn't entirely surprising.
WILL TUNGSTEN MAKE IT TO NEW ZEALAND?
There is one question I can't finish an interview with a Swedish band without asking.
Are TUNGSTEN coming to this side of the world?
Australia?
New Zealand?
The answer, unfortunately, isn't one I particularly wanted to hear.
“Right now, no, nothing planned.”
But there is a little hope.
“I would love to go there, though.”
And that is where we leave it.
For now, New Zealand remains a destination rather than a date on the calendar.
But if TUNGSTEN do eventually make the journey, there is clearly a story waiting to happen.
Because Ashes sounds like an album from a band becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that the safest creative decision isn't necessarily the best one.
Spanish choruses.
Nordic guest vocals.
Streaming discoveries.
A self-produced record.
And, yes, a yodel.
It all points in the same direction.
TUNGSTEN aren't afraid of the strange idea anymore.
And perhaps that's the most interesting thing about Ashes.
Not that the band have abandoned what they do well.
But that they have realised they can push it further.
Sometimes you need to stop worrying about whether an idea is stupid.
Sometimes you just need to try it.
And sometimes, apparently, you need to yodel.
TUNGSTEN's Ashes is released October 9.
Pre-order & pre-save “Ashes” here.
Track list:
1. Joker
2. Bite My Tongue
3. Fuego Del Sol
4. Supernova
5. Happy
6. Ted The Exorcist
7. Sunshine of Fall
8. The North Will Rise (feat. Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica)
9. For Thee
10. Ruin
11. The Forge
European Tour Dates 2026:
07.10.26 – DE – Herford @ Kulturwerk
08.10.26 – DE – München @ Backstage
09.10.26 – DE – Leipzig @ Hellraiser
10.10.26 – DE – Passau @ Zauberberg
11.10.26 – DE – Karlsruhe @ Die Stadtmitte
12.10.26 – CH – Aarburg @ Musigburg
13.10.26 – AT – Salzburg @ Rockhouse
14.10.26 – DE – Mörlenbach @ Live Music Hall
15.10.26 – DE – Hamburg @ Bahnhof Pauli
16.10.26 – DE – Lingen @ Alter Schlachthof
17.10.26 – DE – Solingen @ Laut und Hart Festival
18.10.26 – DE – Selb @ Rockclub Bayern
Get tickets here.