Rockezine.com interview with Enslaved on Jul 02, 2003

with Ivar on Jul 02, 2003

When I was offered the opportunity to interview one of Norway’s finest black metal bands, I couldn’t say no. Their latest album is a beauty, and I think that I’m even a little more enthusiastic than my colleague Pieke, who reviewed Below The Lights. One problem surfaced however, Ivar could only call me during working-hours, so I would like to thank the Dutch Royal Navy for granting me the time to do this interview, without even knowing or noticing it!
		You have probably told this over and over again, but could you, just one more time tell us a little more about the departure of R. Kronheim and Dirge Rep? Sure, no problem. Actually both are different stories. After our last album Monumension there were some different feelings in the band, one side wanted to proceed musically in the vein of our latest albums, and the other side wanted to do something else. So we did this discussion within the band. What happened is that R. Kronheim wanted to perceive other musical paths, so right now he’s in the demo-stage with a stoner-rock band. He left without any hard feelings. With Dirge Rep the problems were not musical, but pure personal. He just felt that it was his moment to quit. No hard feelings at al, he just felt that it was his time. Plus he wanted to go back to the black metal roots more. A new guitarist was found quickly, but a new drummer seems to be somewhat more difficult, so for now we use some of our friends’ services for concerts.
Osmose helped us in achieving what we have reached so far, so we think it’s only fair that we negotiate with them first.		I think the new album is great and a natural follow-up for Monumension, could you tell us something about the writing and recording process? Well, we wrote the first tracks immediately after the recording of Monumension. For some reason, maybe because of our new guitarist, we really had a lot of inspiration! So for Below The Lights we had a very fast writing process. As soon as the basics were complete, we had lots of time to experiment with different layers in the studio.
		I only received the promo package, without the lyrics. Can you tell us something about the lyrics? I understand that there’s a concept including layout, music and lyrics. And what do the rune-symbols on the cover stand for? Well, there is not really a regular concept. It is true that the music, lyrics and layout are combined, but not in a normal way. It’s more a set of short stories, which are all dark stories. About the rune-symbols, I’m not gonna tell you what they mean (laughs). I’m not telling you because it’s sort of a riddle. You’ll have to be able to figure it out… I’m only gonna tell you that it’s some sort of reference to a certain piece of poetry.
		Can you tell us when and where (more or less) exactly these psychedelic/progressive influences entered your music? What triggered you to use them?
		I think there’s a huge difference between Mardraum and Blodhemn, of which I think Mardraum is the better one, although each album stands for itself and has it’s own qualities. What happened between these records? Blodhemn was more like the aggressive blowout (Sjoerd: a sort of storm before the calm?). After that album we asked ourselves, do we want to continue on this path? After Blodhemn, it’s was just a matter of discovering what we wanted. We made this aggressive album, and we didn’t know if we wanted to continue this. We always had a lot of different influences, but when we recorded Mardraum in the Abyss studios with Peter Tagtgren, he really encouraged us to use them. So we made the choice. And from that point on we just evolved with these more psychedelic/progressive influences.
		Although your music again, is very much “Enslaved” (viking-black-metal with a lot of spherical and progressive parts), I discovered some new elements in your music I’ve never heard before.
		Like the Rammstein-like part in the second half of The Dead Stare and the flute-part in the beginning of Queen Of Night. How did you come up with these parts, and more important, why? For the Rammstein-part, I can see what you mean, but it was not written with that idea in mind. We also listen to some industrial, and we just experimented with that. But I can see what you mean, yes. Grutle came up with the flute-part. We wanted to make a lengthy intro to set the mood for the song, and when Grutle came up with this idea, we wanted to try it. We asked this girl to play it and it sounded really cool!
		How is your collaboration with Osmose Productions? Is it still good? I mean, Marduk and Immortal left for certain reasons, is Enslaved still happy with Osmose? Yes, we’re still happy with Osmose and we have absolutely no reason to leave the label. Otherwise we wouldn’t still be with them, right? (laughs) This is the last album of our contract with Osmose, but we’re going to negotiate with them for another contract first. We just think that this is fair, we’re a loyal band. They helped us in achieving what we have reached so far, so we think it’s only fair that we negotiate with them first. It’s a matter of loyalty.
		Since you’re a relatively old band and I assume everybody who is interested in Enslaved pretty much knows everything about you, I’m gonna ask you some questions, I hope no one ever asked you…
		For instance: What do you do besides Enslaved? You’re practically a fulltime band, a lot of recording/rehearsing, a lot of touring. How do you handle this? Well, I work in a music interest organization, which helps young bands to get financial support for rehearsing and recording, to promote their musical activities. In this organization, I’m the leader of the board. So, in that position, it’s very easy for me to arrange time off for touring and recording. Next to that, I have a small normal job to cover the rent and stuff like that.
		What kind of music do you listen to yourself? 24/7 metal? Or do you have albums in your collection no one would’ve thought you’d own? I listen to practically everything, 70’s music, hard rock, black metal, practically everything. I own Pink Floyd records, a lot of jazz classics but no blues records. Some Wu-Tang Clan stuff may be surprising, but no Eminem, that’s not chaotic enough for me.
Well, I like to smoke crack in the woods with women’s underwear on my head. (laughs)		Can you tell us some things nobody knows about you and that you’re still willing to share with your fans? Well, I like to smoke crack in the woods with women’s underwear on my head. (laughs) No, I’m just kidding! Seriously, uhm… I do some guitar-teaching for women. I do that for like 2 to 8 hours a week, we play Bob Dylan songs for example. Now as my students have progressed, we also play songs from Oasis and Radiohead. I guess that might be surprising to some. (laughs)
		You are originally from Bergen, Norway. A few years ago a whole lot of bands suddenly emerged from that area, but nowadays I don’t hear that much from Bergen.
		Did the scene die? Or are there still great young bands coming from the area? Can you name some new bands that you’ve recently heard, that we should keep an eye out for? No, the scene did not die, I don’t know what happened. But you’re right. Actually I don’t know why. There are maybe some goth-music bands, but I don’t like that, so I really don’t know what they are up to.
		Do you have any plans (tours?) for the future? I heard something about a DVD… The DVD is already out, for 2 or 3 weeks now. It’s released on Metal Mind, a Polish label specialized in DVD-releases. Furthermore, at the moment we are talking about a European and American tour, but I can’t tell you anything about it, ‘cause not all things are arranged yet. The whole thing is scheduled to take place in this year’s fall and winter. As soon as everything is arranged, it will be published on our website, www.enslaved.no.
		Thank you very much for your time. The last words (recommendations, worshipping, commandments, thank-you’s, …) are yours!! Well, the commandment would be that people should put aside a couple of minutes to listen to Below The Lights. Furthermore we recommend you to keep an eye out for gigs etc. on www.enslaved.no, and please come to the gigs! Thanks for the interview!
(Sjoerd van den Berg)