MEZZROW
CONNY WELÉN AND ZEBBA KARLSSON
Zebba: We were a five-piece Thrash Metal Band from Nyköping, Sweden. The line up was Steffe Karlsson on drums, Conny Welen on bass, Zebba Karlsson on Rhythm guitar, Staffe Karlsson on Rhythm and solo guitar and Uffe Pettersson on Vocals. Steffe and Zebba are brothers.
Conny: It was very confusing in the beginning when I started to play in the band. Everybody had similar names. haha
Zebba: Like all bands did that time we recorded demo tapes and send to underground fanzines and to record labels. It was on the second demo tape The cross ot torment that Active Records responded and got us that deal, which actually was for 5 years and 3 albums.
Conny: Active got a video… yea, it was like this old VHS-cassettes back then… and saw that we kicked ass live. I think they pretty much signed us for that rather than being such a groundbreaking thrash act from Sweden.
Conny: No, not really. But when you´re that young you perhaps have a bit of high expectations. We thought we were going to be stars. Hehe But Active sure could have put a lot more effort into it I think.
Zebba: Everthing sounded nice at the time with the deal. But as everyone in the music business knows, it s a lot of talk and no action. We were promised promotion things in England and going out in Europe as support acts to Bay Area Bands like Exodus and Vio-lence among others. We recorded a video for the song Then came the killing that was going to be played on MTV. That never happened and nothing really happened at all except some small weekends tour here in Sweden.
So, No we were not satisfied with Active Records.
Zebba: I don t think any of us in the band were satisfied with it. It sounded more thrashy and raw before we went to Stockholm Recording Studio and mixed it. It has this bass sound laying in the background also which is disturbing. I remember they (Active Records) wanted it to sound as Ride The Lightning.
Conny: Yeah, it was quite sad once we got to record an album and then it turned out to sound more lame than our previous demos.
What do you think about the cult status the album has? and that it's still remembered as a classic even if you only recorded one LP.
Conny: It´s crazy! We´ve been receiving mails from all over the world ever since the record was released.
Zebba: Yeah, it s amazing that people still talking about it and still want to get hold of a copy even after so many years. It’s nice to leave some kind of legacy of something we really liked to do at that time.
Zebba: That was a small tour during some weekends with bands from Active Records so it was with Hexenhaus and Kazjurol with different support acts. It was called Active Thrashes Scandinavia, but we only played in Sweden haha.
Conny: Even soooo, we had a lot of fun. I´ve got many crazy memories from the tour.
Zebba: We printed our own T shirts and we called it The Schizophrenic Disaster tour after we released the record. So the merch we made ourselves with help from friends, haha crazy if you think about it. A record deal, a small tour and no merch from the label.
Conny: We´d always done our own merch before so it was natural for us to do the T-shirt ourselves. Like now a days, it was a good income for the band.
Zebba: That was our biggest gig we ever did and it was great to be the support act to Candlemass when they recorded their video. To bad our gig was not recorded, there is only a homemade videotape, a bootleg around.
Conny: Many of the filmed gigs we´ve got is actually recorded by fans. You know, back then you had to have like a really big and expensive VHS-cam to record and not many people could afford that. It´s different today when everybody can record in HD just with their cellphone. Crazy when you think about it.
Zebba: Ohh, it s so long time ago, lets see. We played the same gigs as Entombed, Meshuggah, Fallen Angel, Krixhjälters, Rosicrucian, Midas Touch and bands that I cant remember at this point.
Conny: And Candlemass of course… haha
Conny: Well, it wasn´t actually a comeback…
Zebba: We did a reunion gig in 2005 when the music house we used to rehearse in had a anniversary party. They asked us and a couple of old timers to play and we did.
Conny: I joined Hexenhaus on bass around 1991 I think and after a while Staffe left the band. For some year or so Mezzrow were a four piece band with Uffe playing bass and did the vocals.
Zebba: We had a friend - Peter Rosen - from another Thrash metal band called Mortality on lead guitar. We did a couple of songs and a couple of gigs together. Then Uffe joined Rosicrusian. The reunion gig was the last thing we did together. Now a days we’re just living normal lives with normal work and families and I think Conny is the only one working with music as a second choice to his work, as a producer and songwriter.
Conny: Yea, right now I´m co-writing a new album with the Swedish doom metal band Sorcerer. It´s going to be a killer album, no doubt about it!!
Zebba: That DVD Conny put together for us in the band as a cool thing to have as memory. He sold just some copies to some hardcore fans I think. It wasn’t meant to be for the market.
Conny: I constantly had to make more and more copies ´cause I received mails from all over the globe from people who wanted it. But I finally had to say no. It took to much time making all the copies and sending around the globe. I mean, the band was dead a long time ago… haha
Mezzrow - Then Came the Killing (Music Video)
Zebba: We were so into the Bay Area scene and wanted to sound like the bands did over there. Mostly I think it was a mixture of bands like Testament, Exodus, Vio-lence. Metallica and Slayer was also big influences of course.
Conny: …and bands like Death Angel and Forbidden.
Conny: It must have been the Candlemass gig. Or the gig in Denmark perhaps...
Zebba: Hmm, I don t think we had so much of highlight at all. The gig with Candlemass, a gig in Aarhus Denmark with Esben Slot Sörensens band DesExult. To have a record done perhaps... But the biggest rewards were to getting mail from people around the world wanting the demos.
Conny: Yea, and now we´re talking about handwritten letters!! With pictures, stickers, flyers and so on. It was a very big underground movement back in the days, sending and trading stuff. Very cool when you think of it. I had piles with flyers from all over the globe at home and every time I posted a letter, a handwritten letter, I put one of each flyer in the envelope.
Zebba: There was not much Thrash metal bands at all here in Sweden. We had a few like Agony for example, they were really great. There was an all girl Thrash metal band called Ice Age among the ones I mentioned earlier. I think there was bands rehearsing but the scene was pretty small here. Yeah the scene was on the way to change already when Then Came The Killing came out, the Death Metal scene was on the way to make a breakthrough with bands like Entombed, Unleashed and Dismember. Later on bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates began to play a more melodic Death Metal.
What's your plans for the near future? Any plans of more Mezzrow shows or perhaps a new album?
Zebba: We are working on a reissue of Then Came The Killing with a record label, re mastered and with the demos as bonus. Maybe we will do a couple of gigs to that release but there will not be any more than that.
Conny: Yea, the record company is really cool. They understand that Mezzrow is a piece of the Swedish Metal History and want to make a re-release of the album. Perhaps even on vinyl and with old merch reprinted. But we´ve just started to discuss this so you have to wait and see… hehe
Conny: Not at all. We were a bunch of really nice, silent, peaceful and goodhearted kids just playing together after school…. Haha Seriously, we have to do that over a pint or six.
Any last words for our readers?
Conny: You Haven't heard the last word from Mezzrow yet. hehe
By/Ruthless
(24-04-2014)
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