Joakim Brodén Interview

Jason Saulnier interviews Joakim Brodén, vocalist and frontman of Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton, on September 9, 2026.

In this interview, Brodén discusses Sabaton, the band’s music and their upcoming Legends on Tour, bringing their powerful combination of heavy metal, storytelling and history back to the stage.

Known around the world for their epic live performances and songs inspired by historical events, Sabaton have established themselves as one of the most recognizable bands in modern heavy metal.

SABATON – LEGENDS ON TOUR

Wednesday, September 23, 2026
7:00 PM

Special Guests:
Pop Evil
Wings of Steel

Tickets & Event Information

Tickets start at $49.50 plus fees.

All purchases are subject to an additional $4 per order fee. Pricing is subject to change.

Ticket Limit: 8 tickets per person/account/credit card/address.

All Ages Show: Attendance is at the discretion of patrons.

VIP Packages: VIP package options are available for the event.

Platinum Seats: A limited number of Platinum Seats are available. These tickets are made available by artists and event providers and are dynamically priced based on demand.

For complete event details, VIP information and tickets, visit the official Scotiabank Centre event page:

https://www.scotiabank-centre.com/events/sabaton-legends-tour

During the conversation, Jason Saulnier catches up with Brodén ahead of the tour to talk about Sabaton and what fans can expect as the band returns to the stage.

Interview conducted by Jason Saulnier on September 9, 2026.

Stay tuned to Music Legends for more interviews with legendary and emerging artists from the worlds of rock, hard rock and heavy metal.

Yes — this is exactly what I needed. I cleaned up the YouTube auto-transcription, corrected obvious errors such as “Yukim” → “Joakim,” “Scotia Bank Center” → “Scotiabank Centre,” “Puppy Evil” → “Pop Evil,” and separated the conversation into speakers. I’ve kept the wording conversational rather than rewriting what was said.

Transcript of the interview

Jason Saulnier:
Hey, how are you doing, Joakim?

Joakim Brodén:
Pretty good. And you?

Jason:
Very good. So, we’re talking about Sabaton coming to Canada. That is an awesome thing. I’ve been looking forward to it.

Joakim:
We’ve been over doing one show here and there for the last couple of years when we’ve been supporting, but it’s good to finally do a proper tour.

Jason:
And I see Legends on Tour. You’ll be with Pop Evil and Wings of Steel. It starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 23rd, and then you just keep on trucking to the west side of Canada. So that’s going to be awesome to see and follow the progress.

Joakim:
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Both, as I said, being able to do a proper Canadian tour—not only a date here and there while jumping up from the U.S.—but also, especially as you make your way, let’s say, halfway westward, the nature and everything opening up. I absolutely love it there.

Jason:
When was the last time you came to tour Canada? Was it a few years ago?

Joakim:
Yeah, but unfortunately, the last couple of times, we only went up with Priest, I think. They did one show in Montreal in the last couple of years. But when you’re the support band, you’re not deciding the routing. [laughs]

Jason:
Of course. And you were supposed to come to Halifax also with Judas Priest at that time, I do believe, and it just did not happen.

This time, we do get Sabaton to come to Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the Scotiabank Centre. That’s a big stage. How big is the production going to be for this show?

Joakim:
As big as we can make it and afford. [laughs] Unfortunately, we can’t bring the whole castle thing we brought in Europe because we’re doing quite bigger venues there. But we are bringing every tank we can fit on stage.

And I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but there might be more people on stage than just us as well.

Jason:
Okay. What I find amazing is the new video footage on YouTube—Rock am Ring and Hellfest. Some great performances there. Very awesome visuals and the performances are very good stuff. You must be really proud to see this stuff released properly.

Joakim:
Yeah, I’m happy about it, but I’m mostly proud of our crew and what they achieved. Making huge tanks fly in the middle of a show, synchronizing that with video and pyro, and making all that happen.

For us, sure, it’s fun. I’m not complaining at all to do all that. But in many cases, when it comes to those production things, we might have been involved in the planning stage, obviously, but that huge production—everything from logistics to making that show happen—I mean, a lot of these people are up the night before the show, after the headliner the day before, to build and make it all happen. To make tanks fly and fire shoot from the roofs.

Jason:
Keeping healthy while touring as a musician, and keeping the crew in good shape, how does that work on a big-scale tour? Because sometimes you get a break, but then sometimes there’s no break and you just plow through the tour.

Joakim:
Yeah, you’ve just got to watch out. Being in the music industry, it’s sort of a given that either if you’re a musician or a crew member, you’re going to have a really tough couple of days.

When you’re a younger band or crew member, you’re going to have those days more often. Hopefully, as you age, you’re growing as a band and getting bigger, so you can afford not to push it.

It’s not like a lot of bands are running their crew or themselves into the ground because they want to, or because they’re cheap. It’s more a situation of being on tour, especially these days with a big production and everything. It’s going to cost a certain amount of money.

For us, it’s a luxury to be in that position. Sure, we’re not the biggest band, but we don’t have to run ourselves and our crew into eight shows in a row, one day off, ten shows in a row, one day off, and such things.

Jason:
And for your voice itself, how is that keeping up when you’re on tour? It can be demanding.

Joakim:
Yeah. I would say as long as I’m not affected by anything else, I’m cool with a totally normal touring schedule, which would be about five shows a week for us.

If I don’t get sick for some reason or have to be in a loud environment and scream for hours, then I’ll be fine with it.

But I’m not sure if I can do it like we did—I think we did 30 shows in 33 days once. I’m not sure I could do that these days. [laughs]

Jason:
That’s a lot of demand on anybody.

Joakim:
Yeah, but I was way younger and we were the support band, so shorter shows.

Jason:
As a support band, you have to work harder in a sense. Bringing Pop Evil and Wings of Steel, how’s that going to go?

Joakim:
I hope it’s going to go well. We met Wings of Steel at Hellfest, actually. They came and said hi because they were there playing as well.

They’ve got a Swedish singer, so that was fun. I didn’t expect that. I knew it, but I forgot about it. So when he started speaking Swedish, I was like, “Oh yeah, right. You’re from Gotland, the island outside of Sweden. One of the big ones.”

So I’m looking forward to that.

And Pop Evil—I can’t reveal anything now, but we’ve got a bit of a surprise coming up with them soon. So it’s going to be fun.

Jason:
That’s awesome. We’re promoting the Legends tour and the Legends album. Do you guys keep working on new material to keep stuff prepared for the next release?

Joakim:
Yeah. I thought you were going to go with Music Legends Online on top of that. [laughs]

Well, we’re always working on music, but it’s not until we hit songwriting mode where we go all in.

Everybody in the band likes music. I’m the main songwriter, and it never really stops. I’m always playing around with music because it’s fun.

Maybe I usually take a break for six months or so after we’ve recorded an album because, being part of the pre-production and songwriting and then all of the recording and mixing, I’m pretty blown out by music at that point. So I usually don’t write or do anything for six months.

But after that, I start getting ideas. I might not finish a song, if you know what I mean. I’ll write half of a song, and if I hit a wall, I’ll just say, “Okay, leave that for later.”

It’s fun to gather all the ideas and inspiration, and then I start working with whatever I’ve got when it’s time to make a new album.

We’re still touring on this one, but I have some fun ideas. We don’t actually know what we’re going to do with the next album theme-wise because we usually have a theme with our albums. We’re still trying to figure that out.

We have a bunch of ideas, obviously, but which one we’re going with, I have no idea as of now.

Jason:
The band’s been going on for such a long time now. It seems, at least in Canada, we’ve been getting the albums for, what, 20 years? Time passes quickly.

Are there certain albums in your back catalogue where you go, “This is just great,” and find that it keeps up with the times? Or is it every album getting better and better?

Joakim:
It’s different. When we make the album, the way I’m okay with every song is that I know that I tried my best, at least.

If I listen back to some of the first stuff from the first album, yeah, I wouldn’t do it that way today. [laughs]

I think any songwriter would have the same problem. In the beginning, you might have the ideas but not the experience to make it into a song.

These days, the trouble is more getting that unique, cool idea. If you have that great idea, it’s really easy with 20-plus years of experience to make that into a Sabaton song.

So there are advantages and disadvantages. But I guess, both from a songwriting and production standpoint, there is a slight uptake.

I also realize that since we’re not a revolutionary band, but we are an evolutionary band, there might not be too much difference between album four and five. But if you listen to album two and eight, there’s been some evolution going on.

So I guess it depends on what era of our songwriting or the sound we had that people prefer.

And it goes with any band as well. If you discover a band, let’s say, in your late teens, whichever era that was where you discovered that band and whatever blew you away, that’s always going to be your era of that band.

Whatever came before, you might discover that, or what came after, but there’s always going to be whatever it was you discovered that artist with. And that’s hard to compete with.

But I guess as long as we try and do our best and actually enjoy what we’re doing, we can live with it. Hopefully enough people are going to enjoy it so we can keep doing it.

Jason:
Because there are fans who will prefer certain stuff, like you just mentioned, because certain eras of their youth envision that product as the best. Maybe now is even better, but they’ll still go for that same era.

Joakim:
Yeah, and there’s nothing you can do about that because, in a sense, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

Let’s say Helloween, for example. Some people love what they did with Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I and II, and they moved on musically and people didn’t like that.

On the other hand, if they would have stayed there, people might have liked that for one more album. But when they made the next one, people would be like, “Ah, shit, it’s the same.”

So it’s tricky. Our way has been to have a slow evolution going on. We’re not going from death metal to pop in one album.

Jason:
And it works out very good.

Joakim:
Well, thanks.

Jason:
Absolutely. Great. We’re limited on time because you’re super busy today doing interviews. I’m sure doing lots of interviews in a day to promote a tour is work.

Joakim:
It is, but it’s okay. I mean, it could be way worse. I’m not complaining at all.

Jason:
Well, I really appreciate you taking the time with me today, and I wish you the best tour you can get for Canada. Then you’ll be in the United States very soon also, October and November.

Joakim:
Yeah. Thanks for having me, man.

Jason:
All right. Well, you take care and see you.

Joakim:
See you. Bye-bye.