Rockezine.com interview with Koldborn on Oct 24, 2006

with Lars on Oct 24, 2006


		Hi there, could you please introduce yourself to the rockezine.com reader? Hello everybody. My name is Lars, I’m the singer of Danish Metallers Koldborn. I’m glad for this opportunity to speak. Thanks!
		Could you tell me a bit about the history of Koldborn? For my own part, I wasn’t a part of Koldborn to begin with but let me see what historic outline I can remember, haha. Koldborn was formed by drummer Rasmus and guitarist Heinz (also shredding for Danish Death-Thrashes Hatesphere) in 1998 and released their first demo in ’99 which landed Koldborn a deal with the great Danish label “Die Hard Music” in 2001, which ended up with the debut album “First Enslavement” in 2002. I joined the band a couple of years ago and we released a mini CD “The Devil of all deals” in 2005 on Ancient Darkness Productions. We headed for the studio in 2005 with Jacob Bredahl (Singer of Hatesphere) behind the glass, turning the knops, to record our current album “The Uncanny Valley”, which is out on mighty Listenable Records, and Bredahl has done one hell of a job. Our current line-up looks like this: Henrik “Heinz” Jacobsen on Guitar, Rasmus Salskov on drums, Jakob Nyholm on guitar and Lars Bjørn-Hansen on vocals. Right now we are considering various people to fill the empty bass spot.
		Why did you choose the name of the band to be Koldborn? I think it was Heinz who came up with name and I’m pretty convinced that the reason was that it sounded cool as hell (or hot as hell or cold as ice, I don’t know, ha-ha).
		Your album starts with a sample from the film “Donnie Darko”. Why did you choose that sample? It’s a hell of a movie, love it. The voice is strange and eerie and it complements the main theme and the somewhat pessimistic and yet realistic atmosphere of the album very well. Maybe there are a few people out there who are going to read the lyrics, I’m sure they will have a likely experience. I hope so anyway, ha-ha.
		Can you describe the creative process of making this album? (How did the songs get written, arranged, produced, the lyrics, who does what in the band?) About the song writing: Most frequently our guitarist Heinz brings a couple of riffs to a rehearsal and we are building up a song bit by bit. We are trying to be as open as possible so that the creativity gets as much space as possible. There is really no particular way to go about it, sometimes a great song comes to life in half an hour at others it costs a great amount of blood and sweat ( hopefully no tears, ha-ha ). When the song is more or less finished I will bring it home and apply lyrics. That’s about the way we usually do it. The recording process. Well, like everyone that have tried to record an album know it’s all ups and downs. Some days everything is going well and everybody is “up there” and digging it. And then there are the bad days where nothing seems to go your way. Technical problems, performance problems (hmm), you name it. All in all we had a blast though, and personally I like the recording process because everything can happen and in the best case, you can surprise yourself. And like I said earlier, metalmonster Jacob Bredahl was the guy behind the glass pushing the buttons and you can’t wish for a man more suitable for the job. Good vibes and a lot of metal and beers. Yehaaaaaaaa!
		From your point of view, what is your favorite track on the new album and why? That’s a hard one. It kind of changing all the time. In the beginning I liked “A Destiny Predicted” the best because of its straight forward groove and in-your-face aggression. Then I favored the title track “the uncanny Valley” due to its relentless pace and intensity followed along by lyrics that bears the message of the entire album. Now at the moment I just love “Relativity” for it’s not-at-all typical approach. It’s aggressive in a punk/hardcore/Death Metal kind of way.
		What is the biggest compliment you read concerning your latest album and what is the biggest bullocks? Actually all the reviews I have read so far has been in a language that just left me puzzled, ha-ha. No, there was this one guy from a German magazine who thought that “The Uncanny Valley” is a Death Metal “best of” album that is combining the best elements from the last 20 years of metal. That’s a pretty big compliment, ha-ha! The worst must be a thing concerning prejudice: I read a review and the guy said something about that he didn’t really feel like giving the album a spin cause it looked like a typical Scandinavian release (don’t even know what that means) and he even said something about us being metalcore. I haven’t got anything against that scene at all but I’m pretty sure that we’re not part of it, ha-ha.
		Why did Koldborn choose for Listenable Records. Weren’t there any other labels? There actually were quite many offers but we just respect Listenable Records a great deal. Just take a look on which bands they’ve got and I will say no more. OK, I will say a little more, ha-ha. They seem to be very interested in the bands musical abilities and the standard is way way up there.
		How do you promote the album and the band? I think the best way is to play as much live as you possibly can. We haven’t done it that much due to a lot of things all concerning that there seems to be too few hours in the day. I really hope that this will change and I’m sure it will. Other than that it’s about being a stand-up guy and not bitch about everything (unless you can use it to scream your lungs out, ha-ha). The opportunity to give this interview is great promotion as well, Thanks!
		What are the future plans for Koldborn? Hopefully to play our asses off live and we are already starting to work on new songs (itchy metal-fingers, ha-ha). Just enjoying doing the stuff we like and hopefully please some of all your Metal Heads at the same time.
		Do you agree with labeling your music as death metal? Why (not)? I think it’s as close as you get but as always when you’re labelling things, something is lost. But if I were to label us anything it would be aggressive modern Death Metal, focusing on catchiness.
		What is the most overestimated band in the scene, which band is most underestimated? I’m not going to be the one to decide which bands aren’t as great that everybody think they are, it’s all up to the individual. But I have to mention two bands that in my opinion deserve all the respect in the world (and maybe they already have that). Those be French Gojira and Swedish Nine. There are a lot of bands I could put out there that are just awesome but these two bands I particularly admire right now.
It’s definitely important		How much fun and how important is it to do these kind of interviews? Ha-ha! It’s definitely important I’m not so sure about the fun part, ha-ha. Its ok, I mean you can always spice it up with a couple of beers and feel like a rock star or something, ha-ha. Maybe dress up for the occasion, not with spikes though, that would be expensive in new keyboards.
		What is the most embarrassing album in your own private album collection. (How/why did you get it?) Oh no! I’m not good at the lying thing so here goes: Koldborn “The Uncanny Valley”! No, I don’t think I have any CD that I’m embarrassed about. Of course the list is long with the albums I don’t feel strongly about but every once in a while I’m cleaning out in the collection so it doesn’t become a sight for sore eyes.
		Did you ever visit www.rockezine.com? If yes, did you like it. If no, why not? Yeah, I have visited the site a couple of times and I like it a lot. Especially I like your review section. Always a lot of reviews to check up upon, I hate when news sites don’t update often.
		My last question: Is there something I forgot to ask? Yeah! “What I’m wearing?” god damn it! I know you would like to know. It’s getting hot in here! Ha-ha! All the best your way and even more so to all the metal boys and girls out there.
		(Jeroen Habets)