George Heron: I want to cut to the chase and ask you about the new album. How’s it coming along?

Jerry Sahling: Fine. We’re working on demos. We haven’t recorded demos since pre-‘Today’s Report’ (A.C.T’s first album). 1997 was when we did our last demo. It’s very good to record demos and I regret we haven’t done it before as now we can listen to them before we record the proper album. We can correct stuff and everything surrounding it like arrangements, hopefully avoiding having to go back in to the studio and thinking, “Why did we record that?” (laughs). All the drums are recorded and we have recorded about 12 songs, with keys [recorded] on 4, bass on 4 and guitar on 4 so now it’s Herman’s (Saming, Lead Vocalist) turn to do the vocal stuff.

GH: When will the album be released?

JS: Hopefully we will go into the studio early next year. It’s always hard to say. It’s up to the label and everything. I think this album will be recorded pretty fast. We’ll just go in there and speed through it. But I don’t have any dates.

GH: Are you working with Pelle Saeter again (producer / engineer of all of A.C.T’s albums

JS: We haven’t decided quite yet. Pelle was not strictly the producer, WE produce our albums. He acts more as an engineer, a very good engineer [at studio underground, near Stockholm]. We are not going to record in that particular studio this time. We want to do something completely new and have a real producer with us this time.

GH: Is all the music from scratch, with the band altogether contributing ideas?

JS: I write all the music and then we rehearse it and then we start to arrange it together during the rehearsals. I have all the basic structure and feeling of the music but I don’t write the words.

GH: Who does the lyric writing?

JS: All the others do except Thomas (Lejon) the drummer.

GH: What direction do you feel the music is going with this album?

JS: It’s always hard to tell yourself. I play the songs to by brother, my mother, my girlfriend, all my closest ones and they all say it sounds like A.C.T and I’m like ‘no it’s not.’ I think it’s kind of different. But you can still feel that it’s A.C.T. We don’t have as much proggy stuff in the new songs

GH: More on the melodic side as opposed to the technical side?

JS: There’s more melody in the whole thing. We do not have any instrumentals in this one.

GH: Are there going to be more orchestral parts?

JS: Yeah, of course. We are going to have a new conductor on this one. He’s more experimental than the last one. It should be cool.

GH: Is the orchestra going to be fully incorporated into the A.C.T sound (a la Nightwish and Rhapsody) or will it just be a supplement?

JS: It will be similar to previous albums. There are 2 songs with only orchestra and vocals. I wrote one of these songs in 1992. We have never played it live and have only played it in front the band in a jamming session one time. It’s never been recorded and I’m really looking forward to it and will include a female singer.

GH: Will it be the same one from ‘Last Epic’ (Sara Svensson on the song ‘The Effect’)?

JS: Very probably, she is great to work with in her ideas, approach and everything. I have talked to her about it and it will probably be her.

GH: Sounds good to me. Have you got any concept in mind for the album?

JS: There is no concept for the album, just straight-up melodic songs.

GH: Are you going to try and reach a bigger audience?

JS: That would be cool (laughs). We never try to write radio-friendly songs, so we’re not selling out in any way. This is the natural direction of this band. If you listen to ‘Today’s Report’, it is very proggy but then you listen to ‘Imaginary Friends’ and you can notice the pop creeping in. Then with ‘Last Epic’, the songs were even shorter and now with this one they’ll be even shorter (laughs), but it’s a natural process.

GH: Are there any albums from other bands that have inspired you during the making of this album?

JS: Yeah, I rediscovered the Beach Boys. I heard that Brian Wilson had finally released ‘Smile’ and I loved that. But I try not to listen to other albums when I write songs. I only try to write songs that are in my head. I had to mention the Beach Boys as I’ve been listening to that every day. Brian Wilson’s taste of melody and his arrangements have always inspired me.

GH: Do you plan to do anymore singing on this album than in the past? You have got a great voice.

JS: Thank-you very much. I will, but also Ola (Andersson, Guitars) is singing a whole track on his own.

GH: Are there going to be a lot of vocal harmonies on this album? Being a Queen fan, I love my harmonies.

JS: I love Queen too. There will be a lot of goodies that you’ll like on the next album, I can tell ya – vocal-wise.

GH: Great to hear. Is the live DVD back in the pipeline after Herman’s illness cancelling the previous attempt.

JS: We were really afraid there for a while when Herman got ill. He wasn’t looking after his vocal chords properly during the Saga tour (early 2003). He was ill yet decided to carry on singing anyway and he shouldn’t have done that. He had to rest for a month or two and then take lessons to learn it all again. But he’s fully recovered now and he’s stronger than ever and we are absolutely going to do a DVD.

GH: Are there any special features planned for the DVD?

JS: We have asked the fans on our forum what they want. We have lots of interviews and footage we could put in, but it depends what everyone wants.

GH: I’d like to ask you about the story in your last album, ‘Last Epic’. There are some parts I’m a bit confused about. Did Ted kill himself?

JS: That’s the thing, right? I must say this but I’m not going to tell the whole story here as the guys will be very mad at me. But this character Ted, he MAY come up in the next album. I’m not gonna tell you any more about it as Herman would kill me as he has written that lyric (laughs). But I’m not the one to ask about the lyrical concepts anyway. I like to concentrate on the music side.

GH: Do you not like the progressive tag that a lot of people put on you?

JS: I don’t mind as progressive is a very positive word. That’s great but the only thing about it is that ordinary people who listen to ordinary music are afraid when they hear the word. They still think of the old mastodon bands like Yes and Genesis and think, ‘oh not that old shit.’ Progressive rock isn’t big enough anymore but in the 70s it would fill the top ten. But I don’t mind the term progressive at all.

GH: Do you practice every day on your keyboard technique?

JS: I really don’t practice that much as mainly I concentrate on writing songs. But when I have a technical idea in my head I’ll practice then until I can play it right, as it shall be in the song. I did most of my practicing when I was 17-18 years old. The onus is always with the song-writing.

GH: Have you ever thought of doing any side-projects away from A.C.T?

JS: Sure. I’ve talked a little bit with Sara, who we talked about before and there could be something happening. There are loads of songs that don’t fit in with A.C.T.

GH:What kind of songs are they?

JS: Poppier songs. Intelligent pop like Jellyfish and maybe ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) as well. We’ve talked about it, mostly when we were drunk (laughs), but there’s no plan at this moment.

GH: Are there any Artists you’d like to collaborate with in the future?

JS: There’s a lot of musicians in Sweden that would be great to work with. I would especially like to work with my brother again as we were in a band together in the early 90s. He’s a great song-writer. I love all the things he’s done.

GH: Are your fellow band mates ok with each other doing different things outside A.C.T or do they prefer for all members to stick solely to all things A.C.T?

JS: No, our drummer is with Andromeda and he likes that for all the technical stuff. That band is ultra progressive. Herman has always got other stuff on, he puts on shows with other singers. Ola plays in a couple of cover bands.

GH: Everyone seems to get on so well in A.C.T. There appears to be a great unity within the band. Do you EVER have any arguments?

JS: Yeah, sure. Mostly between Ola and Herman (laughs). But everyone always ends up hugging each-other. We all love each other so it never gets too serious.

GH: Your website hasn’t been updated in a while. What’s happening with that?

JS: We have been a bit lazy with that. Not lazy as we have been working our asses off on the album but lazy in updating on what we are doing. We will change that. We had a meeting last week and are coming up with loads of stuff like a video diary for the making of the album and the demos and stuff in the form of 1 minute clips on the web site. Peter (Asp, bassist) and Ola are doing the site at the moment and we are thinking of getting a dedicated webmaster for the site. This will all be discussed in a band meeting right after this interview.

GH: Cool. You tend to be very jokey live...

JS: We always like to keep the jokes around us. We all love Monty Python. Apparently the Swedes and the British have the same sense of humour according to John Cleese, which he has said in a couple of interviews. His jokes went down really well in Sweden.

GH: …Are there any pranks that you’ve played on each-other in the studio?

JS: Lots of things in the studio. In the re-release of our second album, ‘Imaginary friends’, there is a bonus video showing us messing around with a plastic pooh. It was everywhere in the studio. It was on the keyboard, the mixer, everywhere. This crazy little pooh (laughs). I know magic as well. I can fart with my hand (laughs). So when we meet new people or are at business meetings I always fart.

GH: Are there any songs that feel really good to play? Either an A.C.T song or a cover.

JS: We don’t play covers. We did one time on an anniversary gig of the Beatles’ ‘Sergeant Peppers…’ album and that went very well but we don’t do them anymore. ‘Manipulator’ (‘Last Epic’) is always fun to play, lots of cool stuff going on in it and ‘The Waltz with Mother Nature’ (‘Today’s Report’) that’s a great song to play. We’ve played it over 100 times live and it still feels good.

GH: Any songs that you would consider covering to A.C.T-ify them?

JS: There is a UK-based band called City Boy. They are from the 70s and they did a song called ‘5.7.0.5’. They have a sound between 10cc and Queen. You really should check them out (I have since and was well impressed). A particular song called ‘Ambition’ sounds very much like A.C.T. I think we would have done that great.

GH: Are the hats going to be a permanent part of A.C.T live?

JS: Oh yes, and I can tell you the story of where they came from. It was in 1995, our first year with Herman. Everyone in the band had long hair except Herman and we felt with his short hair he had to put something on. So Herman said, ‘I’ll put on a hat.’ So he’s doing all sorts of funny dances with these hats on stage and the crowd loves it and we thought, “We’ll go ahead with this.” It has developed since then – loads of hats now. The story of the hat.