SMASH INTO PIECES on RockOverdose: ‘We’re Bringing the Full Smash Experience to Greece for the First Time!’”

In anticipation of their first appearance in Greece, the Swedish Smash Into Pieces are bringing their Armaheaven Prophecy Tour to our country this September, and the excitement is building up!

Athens and Thessaloniki will welcome the band for two unique nights filled with intensity, fire, lasers, and futuristic visuals. In their interview with RockOverdose, Smash Into Pieces share what’s in store, preparing us for a show that will leave its mark and deliver incredible surprises!

Interview: Vivi Zapantiotou

RockOverdose: First of all, welcome to our pages, rockoverdose.gr. We are really looking forward to your show here in Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki. It will be your first time here. How does it feel to finally bring your live show to our country? And what are your impressions of the Greek audiences so far?

SMASH INTO PIECES: Yeah, it will be the first time for the band and also the first time for me, like going to Greece. And, you know, Greece is like a place where, for Swedes, we usually go to vacation or it has a lot of cool history, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the country and meeting the audience for the first time. It’s really cool because we’ve been a band for quite some time now, and I think it’s about time we finally come to Greece. So, we’re very excited.

RockOverdose: With this Armaheaven Prophecy Tour, you are launching Chapter 5. How did you decide to bring your vision to life in such a cinematic way? Was it difficult or easy for you?

SMASH INTO PIECES: I mean, for us, being creative is all about writing music, but it’s also really cool to create a movie or vision for the songs. I guess we’ve always wanted to do that. It’s sort of like childhood stuff, playing Nintendo when you were young or watching ’80s action movies, and then putting everything you like into one big red line. We put the music where we want it, and we add the cinematic stuff, and everything just comes together. So, for us, it’s not that hard. When creating music, we also see the movie at the same time. It’s just fun to enhance the music with that cinematic aspect.

RockOverdose: Can you walk us through the design process and the technical preparations for this show, which promises fires, lasers, and futuristic visuals?

SMASH INTO PIECES: Well, that’s the Smash experience. I’m kind of a tech nerd myself. I love gadgets and new stuff, so we’re always trying out new things. We test out holographic stuff and other tech, and we love experimenting with what we can do on stage. Of course, we have to keep the budget in mind, so it’s about finding ways to make it work on a smaller stage without using 500 people. It’s a puzzle to get everything we want on stage, but we like experimenting and creating a small but cool show.

RockOverdose: Your two songs, Six Feet Under and Heroes Are Calling, are definitely some of the fans’ favorites. How has the Eurovision experience impacted the way you write and perform music?

SMASH INTO PIECES: Eurovision certainly changed a lot in Sweden after we participated. Before that, we were playing rock clubs and our audience was mostly rock fans. After Eurovision, we got a much broader audience – young kids, their parents, and even more families. It was a big impact. Eurovision, especially in Sweden, has a lot of power. But when we go out in Europe, it’s more like what we’re used to – rock nightclub vibes. For us, it was important that we stayed true to ourselves and did our typical Smash Into Pieces thing when we competed, and it worked pretty well. We’re happy about that.

RockOverdose: The press release mentions that you will have signing sessions after each show. How important is this connection with your fans, especially during a tour that’s so visually demanding? Is it something you feel you must do, or is it something you want to do?

SMASH INTO PIECES: It’s something we’ve been doing since the beginning. After the show, it’s just nice to sit, sign stuff, and talk with the fans. It brings us closer to the people who came to the concert. Of course, if you’re someone like Justin Bieber, you can’t do that because you’d be signing for 16 hours, but for us, it’s manageable. We like to give fans the chance to talk to us, say hi, and just exchange a few sentences. It’s a nice thing to do.

RockOverdose: Armaheaven imagines an AI-born reality, threatened by its creator. How do you see art and music mirroring these themes of creation and destruction at the same time?

SMASH INTO PIECES: When we started the Arcadia project, it was just before the pandemic began. We were talking about an isolated world, kind of like a video game, where people were isolating and only getting information from social media. The power that someone who controls that information has… it’s a scary thought. In the Arcadia story, we’re focusing on the future, where humans have stopped evolving, and AI takes over. Humans are becoming like dinosaurs, slow and old. The development is now in the hands of AI. It’s kind of like nations going to war, but instead, it’s AI fighting for power. It’s both exciting and terrifying to think about. Armaheaven is about the future and how humans tend to destroy beautiful things, whether we want to or not.

RockOverdose: What can Greek fans expect from your shows here? Any surprises or special moments planned? Will you play older songs or mostly focus on the new material?

SMASH INTO PIECES: Since it’s our first time in Greece, we want to give them the whole spectrum of Smash Into Pieces. Our music is pretty diverse, from heavy metal songs to poppy ballads. We like to experiment, so we try to create setlists that showcase who we are. There will be a mix of older songs and new ones. We’ve done so many albums now, so it’s hard to choose what to play. But we’re trying to give a full range of what Smash Into Pieces is on this tour, introducing ourselves live for the first time in Greece. We hope you’ll enjoy it!

RockOverdose: Finally, do you have a message for your Greek fans about what they should take home after your concerts?

SMASH INTO PIECES: I’m really looking forward to seeing the energy of the Greek people. I have a feeling they’ll be really wild! Hopefully, when the show is over, they’ll be hungry for more and tell their friends about it. When we come back, we’ll grow together.

On behalf of RockOverdose,

Vivi Zapantiotou