Rockezine.com interview with Anorexia Nervosa on Oct 30, 2001

with Hreidmarr on Oct 30, 2001

In light of their new release “New Obscuriantis Order” singer Hreidmarr was prepared to give some extra background concerning the band and their new album. Although this was the last interview of the day- he had been giving interviews since 12:00 and this interview started at 23:40 at night, Hreidmarr was more than willing to still answer the questions I had in store for him. After a small hour of telephone conversation this was the result.
		First of all, congratulations with your new release “New Obscuriantis Order”; I enjoyed it very much, although one can’t actually speak of enjoyment; the lyrics are very nihilistic and have a depressive view on the world.
		How does Hreidmarr experiences his own music; what does he get from it. I still see the music as entertainment. We as a band have all been enjoying the rock-and-roll of the eighties that was purely focused on party’s, but nowadays the world isn’t a party-place anymore. We are headed for self-destruction, wars are breaking out and terrorist attacks are numerous. Rock music shouldn’t be so naļve as it was in the eighties, these are more serious times that require more serious lyrics.
		But if you take this “doom”-point of view to far, we create a “suicide-doom” generation, so there should still be room for entertainment to compensate this. The perfect music should be a mix of entertainment and serious music; that’s why I like the music of “Marilyn Manson” so much. We try to incorporate these elements in our music as well. It’s entertainment for us but the lyrics help me keep a realistic point of view on society.
		After the “Exile” album the line-up changed because the band was headed for self-destruction as a result from their nihilistic way of thinking.
		Now after “Drudenhaus” and the new album “New Obscurantis Order”, has this nihilistic climate changed or what is the atmosphere within the band? The problems we had during “Exile” are no more. In those days there was a difference in opinion between the band-members on how to go further. Some wanted to keep the nihilistic way, as others wanted a milder form of “doom”-thinking. After the change in line up, things changed. We now all have the same idea as where our music should go and this is a question we keep asking ourselves after every new album. The general point of view is the same, apart from some discussions over details. There is a good musical atmosphere and we’ve become more of a group of friends making music.
		Where does the band stands right now? Actually, we don’t know! After every new album we’re a little bit afraid of potentially added pressure on the band to make every new album more perfect. Right now we are very satisfied with the result and although the future is uncertain for us, we think that we have reached an own identity that won’t change dramatically in the upcoming years. A strong musical identity is very important to us, especially because we’re from France and we want to show our “romantic 19th century French” identity. We are very proud of this piece in our country’s history.
		France hasn’t been a big metal supporting country, has this changed over the years? As I said, we have a strong French identity and we hope that this will contribute to the popularity of metal-music in our country. We are trying to change peoples minds, especially the professionalism of music in our country.
		There is no identity within the French metal scene and especially the lack of professionalism keeps the genre away from the big public. We feel we have to prove ourselves to the public and show them that French people are capable of making high quality metal music that has an own French identity which people in our country can relate to.
		The new album contains three tracks that have French lyrics. If you want to prove the French identity, why only three tracks and not an entire album in your native language. I personally find this language very suited for the kind of music AN makes... I don’t plan in which language a new song is going to be in. It just comes to me when I write the lyrics. Some lyrics are better expressed in German (for instance aggression), others should be in Latin and the more romantic “doom” ones are best expressed in French. So it varies on every album how many different languages I’m going to use. But I won’t rule out the possibility that in the future an entire album will be sung in French.
		In the past AN was compared a lot with Cradle OF Filth. The band clearly didn’t agree with this point of view and didn’t want to be compared with COF. But the last sentence of the promo leaflet said: “As old masters fall, new one will rise”.
		Taking that AN will be the new masters; this is a comparison with the old ones. In my opinion COF and Dimmu Borgir are seen as the “old masters” of this genre. Care to explain this contradiction? This is just promo-shit. The comparison with COF stops with this new album. And we don’t mean really one particular master, but more THE masters in general. It’s more that we want people to think that we want to be masters as well and that we’ve come a long way of achieving this. But it’s a little bit awkward formulated.
		There’s going to be a limited edition digi-pack with a bonus track which is a cover from Candlemass (titled “Solitude”). Why did you chose this particular song? For us Candlemass is one of the biggest cult bands of our youth. We admire them very much and we like the atmosphere within their songs. It suits the atmosphere that can be found in our own music. The tricky part however was that “Solitude” is a slow song and AN plays fast, so it took some adaptation in the way we played to get this right.
		I also heard that there would be a cover of Judas Priest titled “Metal Meltdown” on a limited vinyl version. What’s the story behind this? This will be a very limited collectors item for the real fans. This is why it is going to be on vinyl. The record will also have the cover of Candlemass on it. “Metal Meltdown” is a track that we used to play at our live shows and it always has been a very powerful song which did very well with the public.
		There were a lot of requests by fans to put this on an album. But because it didn’t fit in to well within the atmosphere of the new cd, we decided to put it on a special vinyl version as a collectors item for the real fans.
		Apart from the usual black metal, your musical taste includes bands as: Placebo, Skinny Puppy and Marilyn Manson. What attracts you in this totally different music and can we find something of this attraction back in the music of AN? I just like all sorts of different kinds of music, if a band touches me emotionally. Especially with “Placebo” the lyrics are superb, they are simple short sentences and susceptible for all sorts of interpretation. I admire the way that they build progression into simple sentences.
		COF is just the opposite of this with very long sentences and that’s also the reason why comparison of COF with AN is nonsense. I try to make short sentences as well with different kinds of interpretation; nothing like COF. So short but still complicated lyrics is something that I look for in music.
		Personally you mentioned that technology is one of your biggest passions as well as one of your biggest enemies. Tell me more about that please... As a band we depend on the current state of technology. We have two technical engineers within the band that produce our records that can’t do without modern technology. Also with the internet and computer as a new medium to promote and sell our cd’s we have to follow the new technology. So far technology as a friend. As I said earlier; we are also admirers of the 19th century French romance, which includes poetry and books and this has nothing to do with modern technology; it’s the complete opposite.
		The computer has taken up so much importance in society these days, that people don’t think for themselves anymore. They only act with their mouse. This kills the romance within the society and this also kills the atmosphere we want to create with our music. Therefore modern technology is also one of our biggest enemy.
		Concerning the tour. There was a European tour planned with Enthroned and Infaustus. On the Osmose Productions internet site it was mentioned that this tour was cancelled due to an arm injury of guitarist Stefan.
		Is this a rumor and why didn’t you decide to still do the tour only with a temporary replacement? I don’t want to give any comment on the details of the injury, but the tour has been canceled as a result of this. We didn’t have time to rehearse because of this and we only want to play as a full band and with no replacements. We want to give a good impression and therefore want to rehearse properly. Do it right or don’t do it at all. So in our case It has been postponed until we can do it right. But there will be a European tour.
		As a last question how are you planning to get the orchestral sound right in a live enviroment. Are you going to use arrangements or will you be using a real live orchestra like Therion sometimes do. We want to be as real as possible so we don’t want an orchestra on tape. We only have one keyboard player and he can’t play 4 instruments at the same time so it’s either use of a tape or a real live orchestra. Unfortunately we aren’t big enough yet to afford the latter one so tape seems the only way. But this is not an option because we want to be as real as possible so we decided to rearrange all the keyboard parts and simplify them until they can be played by one person. We still kept the main keyboard lines.
		Well, thank you for your time and see you on tour...
(Matthijn Vos)