Tribulation Guitarist Reveals Band Considered Breaking Up After Jonathan Hultén’s Departure
Tribulation guitarist Adam Zaars was our recent guest on The MetalSucks Podcast to discuss the band’s new album, Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, his own academic studies, and more.
One of the biggest issues in the Tribulation camp lately is, of course, the departure of founding member, guitarist and primary songwriter Jonathan Hultén. Zaars spoke in detail on that topic, revealing that the band considered calling it quits when Hultén, who wrote the majority of the new album, announced his plans to leave.
He explained:
“As we’ve done on previous albums, me and Jonathan kind of split the writing. We’d been working on our own, sending demos mostly. He was quite early with doing everything and he can write songs in a much quicker way than I can. He luckily did that [on this one].
“I think he wrote 13 songs for the album, I only wrote three for this one. On ‘The Children of the Night’ and on ‘Down Below,’ we pretty much split it between us 50/50, but it was really good that he had written all of that material [this time] since I didn’t deliver as much as I probably should have.
“But that didn’t really matter in the end because we always had the idea that it’s still Tribulation regardless, and of course this [writing relationship] between us has been important for the overall sound, I think.
“Might be a challenge in the future since he’s of course no longer with the band.”
Zaars explained that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue in the band when Hultén announced his departure, saying that if Joseph Tholl, a longtime friend, hadn’t agreed to join in Hultén’s stead, he’s not sure the band would have stayed together:
“At first when he told us, we weren’t even sure, or I wasn’t even sure at least, that I wanted to continue because he’s been such a big part of the band from the beginning. But then, if Joseph, our new guitar player, hadn’t said ‘yes,’ I don’t think we would have continued. Jonathan suggested Joseph, we had been talking about Joseph in the past, if this was ever going to happen. Luckily he wanted to join.
“We’ve all known him — well, me and Johannes [Andersson, vocals/bass] at least — since we were kids. I had my first band with him when we were 13. We’ve been playing a lot throughout the years. We all admired his songwriting, Jonathan as well, and he knows the band. Both the band and the music, he knows what we’re about.
Zaars added that he’s not worried about what Hultén’s absence could mean for the band’s future, and that he’s already looking forward to writing new music and starting a fresh chapter:
“At the moment I’m not really worried about it. I’m more enthusiastic about it to be honest. Not that Jonathan is not there, but that I think we can create something new and fresh and something that’s still very much Tribulation. That’s kind of what I want to do now. It feels bizarre in a way that the album is not out yet because this has been the longest year in history. It already feels like old news, at least to me. Because of all of this with Jonathan and Joseph. But I what I kind of want to do now is just start writing some new material. We will hopefully get the chance to play these songs live before that happens. I mean, we might start, but we’ll see what happens. I’m looking forward to it at least.”
You can listen to our full chat with Adam right here or below.
