Swedish metal mastermind Peter Tägtgren has worked with almost every metal musician in Europe as a songwriter and producer including Rammstein's Till Lindemann, Immortal, Sabaton, Marduk and countless others, along with his own bands Hypocrisy and PAIN. We had a chat with Peter about the upcoming first-ever Australian PAIN tour, other projects he's working on and what it's like playing with a family member.

So you're coming out here for a tour with PAIN soon, and the project has been going on for a little while - but this is the first time you're bringing it out to Australia! What's taken so long?
I don't know, ask the promoters (laughs). I can't invite myself, that's the biggest problem. Maybe we're not big enough, I don't know, but it seems like now we've announced that we're coming there's been a lot of buzz around and pre-sales have really started to escalate so it's gonna be cool.

On your recent European tour, you actually got your fans to vote for the setlist. Was there anything they voted for that really surprised you?
Umm...not really, I mean we ended up taking the top 15 of what people voted and we added like 3 more for ourselves. But I would say that it was around 50% things we were already doing and we got a new 50% of songs that we didn't do for a long time or never did. They actually did the same thing in Australia as well so I'm waiting for that list to come in.

What are you looking forward to most about coming out to Australia?
Just meeting the people; talking and hanging out, and of course, trying to kick their arse when we're up on stage and hoping we get good feedback!

Looking at your career, it seems like you've been involved in almost every European heavy metal record ever! If you can recall, what's been the most fun project that you've worked on?
Oh, that's so hard to say. It was pretty interesting working with Till from Rammstein on that Lindemann album we did together; we had a lot of laughs on that one. But also, to do an album with Sabaton or Immortal... there are so many bands I enjoy working with.

So about that new Immortal record you've been involved with; how is that sounding, is there anything you can tell us?
I don't wanna say too much, but I think it's a really good comeback. You would think it would be totally different without Abbath. But for me, it's a little bit more like the primitive, earlier albums but it also has some really heavy songs. It sounds really cool, I like it.

What's next for you? Is there anything you're working on that you want to tell us about, or maybe something going on that you can't tell us about?
Yeah, I have 2 other secret projects that are in the works, I can't give you any names unfortunately but we'll see when they are done (laughs). But also, we're taking off this summer and only doing a handful of festivals in Europe, and then I'm gonna spend the rest of the time writing music for Hypocrisy. I've already started and have half an album but it's not 100% yet because I want to write more and throw away the weakest stuff because you can't really write good songs the whole time; there's always gonna be some shitty songs but you need to get it out of your system to move on.

Looking at someone like you who's been involved in a million projects, got your own recorded music and worked with other musicians, what advice would you give to young metalheads who want to get involved with music production and don't know what to do?
I would say like me, I've been learning by doing. There was no YouTube tutorial to see where to put a mic in front of an amp to get the best sound or anything like there is today. It was all a learning process by doing. Some albums turned out great, some not so great but I think you have to explore what you like and what you want to hear. Just like music, you write what you would like to hear and see live. You have to always follow your heart.

Is there anything you've been listening to lately that you want to recommend to your fans here to go and check out?
No...not really, I've been going back to more 70's and 60's music to try to make my brain starve from metal while I'm writing music. So if I starve my brain of metal then it's just going to pop out of my fingers and then we have more songs (laughs). So right now I'm listening to anything from country to Shania Twain, Zeppelin, you name it!

What's your most prized musical possession?
I'm not sure! I kind of collect old Sonor drum kits from the 80's; those are worth a lot of money (laughs). That's my weird hobby.

I see that you're touring with your son on drums - did you ever expect that one day you would be touring other countries in a band playing with your own son?
Yeah, that's a crazy thing. When you listen to Suicide Machine on Pain's Rebirth album then afterward you can hear my son's heartbeat when he was in his mother's belly. I sampled that sound and put it on the Pain album and now 19 years later he's playing drums for me, it's crazy.

We've been talking about this Australia trip for almost 6 months now, we're so excited. Hope to see everybody at the shows - let's go bananas!

PAIN Australian tour dates (w/ Witchgrinder)

Wednesday, May 23 - Badlands Bar, Perth

Thursday, May 24 - Fowlers Live, Adelaide

Friday, May 25 - Max Watts, Melbourne

Saturday, May 26 - Bald Faced Stag, Sydney

Sunday, May 27 - The Zoo, Brisbane

Listen to PAIN now.