Eclipse is one of the most consistently great bands in the melodic rock genre. Each record delivers exactly what fans want while never feeling stale or redundant. Eclipse just released their new record, Megalomanium II, a follow-up to 2023’s Megalomanium. Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Erik Martensson recently took some time to talk about the record and much more!
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws Erik Martensson interview –
On if Megalomanium II was written and recorded alongside the original – Yeah, it is a double album. It is a double record. We wrote all the songs. We had, we had all the songs. We split them in two halves. We were actually sitting in a bar in Sydney. We had an Australian tour and we had all the pre-production demos. Victor (Crusner, bass), Magnus (Henriksson, guitar), and myself, we were sitting there having beers and just split them in two halves. Let’s try to make two consistent good albums out of the stuff we had and whatnot to record. So, it is a double album. The problem with double albums, no one is stupid enough to do them anymore, is that it’s a bit too much music at the same time. Especially in the day of age of streaming, people have 24 seconds of interest in a song or something. So it’s we decided to split them one year apart.
On if it was tough to decide which songs went on which record – We put four singles on each album, which we thought were single candidate songs. Not all of those songs turned out to be the singles at all. Which is funny because when you start recording and start working on songs, sometimes they really change the character and the ones you thought were the best ones were not the best ones anymore. We had a lot of songs to choose between. We had like 30 songs, so there was a lot of stuff, and we knew we had a lot of good songs, so we knew it was good enough to make two great records.
On what goes into making a double record – It’s a lot of work doing a double record. It’s actually much more work than doing two albums. It’s so hard to keep focused on so many songs at the same time to make everyone as good as possible. Everyone who’s been making records knows it’s a lot of work to make a record and do a double album. It feels like doing four albums at the same time. But the good thing is that you when you make one record, you kind of stay in the middle and try to be as much Eclipse as possible. But when you have the chance to do a double record, you can go a bit left. You can go a bit, right. You can try different new things that maybe you wouldn’t have done on a standard record, which I think is fine. Every time we’ve been doing different directions that were not the typical Eclipse song, those were always used to open doors to new ways of writing songs, yeah, we can sound like this as well, because we don’t want to end up doing the same albums over and over again. We want to explore new stuff all the time.
On if he’s confident that Eclipse fans are up for new sounds on their records – I think the majority of the fans do that. Some people have very loud voices and complain all the time. I think those people, we can never satisfy them. They fell in love with the first record, Bleed and Scream, and all those records. Those old records, which I love too, but I’m not that guy anymore. I don’t want to, we already wrote those songs. That record is already done. So, if you prefer that record, just listen to it. Then we have the others who really embrace all the new stuff, because when we are out on tour, we’re having our final night on our European tour tonight. We’re in Lindau in Germany, One thing that is noticed throughout all the tours is that the new songs are the one that works best live. It’s what gets the audience going, which is unbelievable that people have that interest. They don’t want to hear the old songs. If we play “Bleed and Scream”, it’s okay, we have some fans who jump up and down and go crazy. But when we played stuff from the previous record, the part one, people go nuts, which is unbelievable.
We want to play the new stuff. Of course, I would have loved to be in Guns N Roses, but imagine, they are retirement age soon and they’re still playing the same songs they wrote when they were like 20, 23, 22 years old. That would be complete disaster for me. I want to add new songs. Even (songs) from the one-year-old album feels like I played them too much. I need new songs now. We play six or seven of the new tracks from the album live, which is asking a lot from the fans, but they seem to be up for the task.
On how he defines success for Eclipse – We’ve got to have a good time doing it. We have one life, we got to make the most out of it. I don’t think, great success and money and all that fame and glory, I think that no one gets happier from that. We have the opportunity to be out playing live. We can do tours. We do tour buses. We travel all around the world. We meet wonderful people and play our music and they enjoy it. What more can I ask? It’s unbelievable. All my friends who played music when I was a kid, we are the very, very few who have the chance to do this. So I consider myself very, very lucky to be able to do this. It’s almost pinching myself sometimes that we can do it. I run my studio, mix records for great bands and I have a life where I can do music for a living. It’s fantastic.
On finally being able to tour the US – We’ve been working hard to get the visas right. We had some problems because we had to cancel a festival called Monsters on the Mountain two times because we couldn’t get the (visas) first because of COVID, the embassy was closed, second time because of COVID, their backlog was so big we couldn’t get the interview times. But now this is third time we got the visas now, and we are coming to a Rock the Locks festival in Oregon on 4th of October. I think we play there this year. But so hopefully next year, cause we’ve got a one-year visa now. So hopefully next year we will have more shows. We have one gig booked at the Whisky A Go Go after Monster Rock Cruise. So it must be somewhere in March. I can’t remember the date. So that’s already booked. People can go and get tickets for that, but there’s going to be, hopefully, there’s going to be more. I know they’re working on more dates for sure.
On if success in America without touring surprises him – For me, it’s like having fans outside the village where I live. It’s amazing that people on the other side of the world (are fans). We go to South America and people sing along to the songs. It’s just unbelievable. As you said we haven’t played there at all, only the Monsters of Rock cruise. We played a few times in Chicago. We played Prog Power, I think, 2017 or something. But it’s more or less nothing. We have done nothing there, which is unfortunate, but it’s unbelievable that people love the music anyway. But we are a very active live band. We play everywhere else except for US, I guess. The problem is not flights, it’s not booking gigs that it’s a problem. The problems are the visas. That is the main problem. Since the beginning of this year, they raised the prices 250% for visas, which means it’s unbelievably expensive to go do a gig. A lot of problems for foreign bands, especially smaller bands. The big bands like Rolling Stones, they don’t, they don’t give a shit. They can pay whatever. We’re not those guys.
On a possible new W.E.T. record – A brand new record is already done. There is a brand new one coming out in early 2025. I’ve lived with it for a while now. I’m willing to say it’s probably the best W.E.T. record so far.
On what he sees for the future – I probably see myself doing Eclipse a lot. I think that’s the main focus. That is the main focus for me, that and mixing records in my studio, which I do for a daytime job for me, mixing and mastering. Eclipse is the main project, has always been. I’d be happy to keep it that way. It’s rock, you make records, you go on tour, you make another record and you go on tour. That’s a cycle of rock music. I think we’re happy to be part of that.
On if he’s already writing the next record – I’m one of those guys that always writes, but maybe I’m not the writing whole songs. When it’s time to write a new record and we need, this is the deadline. So we’ve got to start writing, but I always collect, I had small ideas and we have sometimes where I do a song or two and now we’re at this double record, I was kind of exhausted from all the writing and production. It’s been a album release cycle going on for two years now. Six months before the previous record, that’s when we started and we just toured and then they just released second one, it is interviews again and it’s touring again and like everything has been doubled up so we haven’t been much chance to relax in between and I did a W.E.T. album in between so you know it’s been pretty busy to say the least.
