I N T E R V I E W

Interview Vidar (face to face)

Thank you for answering these questions for auxportesdumetal.com.

Thank you!

Your music is very hard to categorize. Where does this mix of styles come from?

Hum, it comes from all the bands and music we listen to and that we like. It’s as easy as that. And we listen to a lot of different stuff. We try to bring out all the cool stuff from what we like to our songs.

And do you think that this mix made your success?

Yeah, I guess so. I think it’s a big part of what people liked in the band in the first place. I personally think that had we made something more conventional, we would still be playing in Norway.

How do you feel working with Roadrunner now?

It’s been very good. We’ve been very happy with them. So yeah, they are very professional. It’s getting another record out, worldwide, they helped us a lot. And we have a really good relationship with them. They work hard, and they love the band, at a kind of personal level, very much. Everyone we've met has been fan of the band for a very long time before we signed a contract with them. That’s really cool for us to have a label which likes the band.

Some people thought that working with a huge label like Roadrunner would change your music. How do you feel about that?

When we signed with Roadrunner, the record was already recorded and made so, when the record was done it’s when we started to talk with roadrunner, so they couldn’t really influence anything, even if they wanted to, they couldn’t. That’s never been a problem. It’s gonna be, like, people will not have to worry about that.

All of your lyrics are in Norwegian, and out of Norway, a few people can understand it. What are your lyrics about?

On the first album, it was mostly about northern mythology and stuff like that. Everything was based on that. On that record, it's more about everything like being on the road, and more like science-fiction inspired, some kind of things like judgement day and afterworld. We cannot stay on the same topics forever.

And why the owl?

Oh it's just been with us since the first stuff we recorded in 2006-2007 and needed a front cover and our bass player said "why not an owl?", and it has stuck with us since. We made the first t-shirts with it and these t-shirts became very popular. So we have decided to stick with it, it's cool to have a mascot, it's easier to identify the band, like Iron Maiden's mascotte Eddie, we have the owl.

According to you, what made your music out of Norway?

I don't know, a lot of touring, since we put up the record in 2010 we have been touring almost constantly. We have been lucky to tour with a lot of good bands, and you know it's a clich but music is an universal, if you can write catchy hooks and people get into it, it doesn't rally matter where you are from andwhich language you sing in.

So the people who said that because your lyrics were in Norwegian, it wouldn't work, they were all wrong?

Yeah, definitely (laughs). I think that we proved them wrong.

Did you always want to be a professional musician, or did you have other projects before becoming a huge band?

Hum, no, not really. Everybody always had music as a hobby, I mean all of us have been playing since we were pretty young, not on a professional level, just being into music and playing instruments but we didn't really haveany ambition from the beginning other than playing good shows, maybe go to studio and do a record, we could never hope for suddenly becoming professional musicians who make money. So yeah it's a dream come true but it's not something that we set up to do from the beginning.

What do you think of the Norwegian metal bands these days?

Yeah, I think they're very good. Especially - I'm more about the rock bands maybe - the bands that we brought out on this tour, Gerilja and Arabrot, which sound like a weird mix between S-F band and Van Halen, Faith No More and Darkthrone, I really like them. Arabrot, which is heavier, just put up a second record, which I like a lot. There's a lot of really good bands these days in Norway, both rock bands and metal bands. I think it's really really good.

How the fact of coming from Norway influenced your music?

I don't really think it has, because you know we listen to a lot of different music, and a lot of this music comes from America or England... I would say on the first album, on songs like Fossegrim and Liegthorn for example we had some kind of folky metal riffs inspired by both black metal and folk music. Apart from that, I don't think of anything else, except the lyrics in Norwegian of course.

It's a bit of a cliché, but Norwegian metal is always thought of as being black metal. Does this make you angry?

Not angry, just tired (laughs). Maybe we can change that, make people understand that Norwegian music is not just Black Metal.

What bands do you currently like to listen?

Right now, before the Gerilja album, which probably was my favourite album lately, there is one Rory Gallagher's album, whose name I don't remember (laughs) I need to check that up (He takes his phone). I only use Spotify nowadays, which is kind of shitty, because before you had your records, and you knew everything about these records... Ha and there's also Doomriders, that's the latest one on Spotify. That and Gerilja.

You played in Japan in September, how was it?

It was amazing, especially the show in Tokyo was really really good, a lot of people came up. It was amazing to be there. I had a vacation two weeks before and travelled around Japan before the shows. I had never been to Japan before. It's just an amazing country. Yeah, it was mind blowing to be there, really really cool, so we will definitely go back as soon as possible. Japan is a new level of touring, like Australia. It's not the same as Europa and Scandinavia. People take care of you in a way they never do in Europe. It's very very cool.

What can you tell me about Norway?

It's a good country. I think we're one of the richest country in the world, so people live good lives there. I think the music scene is pretty good. It's a bit too cold most of the year, and dark, maybe that's why we like dark musics, black metal, so much. Lots of oil. We come from Straedlinsk, on the west coast, which is kind of the capital of oil of norway. So we went really smart on the seventies and kept all the oil for ourselves. Now we're proffiting from that. Is there anything special you want to know?

You said in an interview that the government gives a lot of money for culture and arts...

Yeah that's really good. We just had a change of government, that might be a little less now but there's still gonna be.. They support a lot the bands that tour, for example. And sport clubs. It's a small country, so they give support to everything which contributes to the cultural reputation of Norway. They help you find out when you want to record something, you get support to pay for the album and stuff like that. It's a really good country if you are a musician.

Some time ago, a Norwegian airline company wanted to put the face or Euronymous on a plane, what do you think about that?

Funny, he actually had a lot of votes but they just took him out of the contest, because they couldn't really put him on a plane, I don't know who ended up instead. But yeah, that would be awesome, I'd love to see Euronymous on a plane.

What do you personally think of your latest album?

I like it a lot, I think it's better than the first one. It's more rock'n roll, and I like rock'n roll! I think that the guitar is better, more dynamic, more interesting to listen to as a guitarist ; the songwriting is better, but I like the first too. I think we're a more grown up band on this record.

Do you plan to write some songs in English, or something other than Norwegian?

No, we're gonna stick to the Norwegian, it's part of our band. If we did a cover version of an English song, for example, it would be in English. But it's not something that we have talked about.

Thank you very much, do you have any last words for your fans to conclude this interview?

Thank you for all the support, France and especially Paris, the last time we came here was really good, like the highlight of the touring so it would be cool if we could continue like that, because we really enjoy coming to France. Thank you, merci beaucoup!

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