Text and photography: Anne-Marie Forker
You’ve also just played 70000TONS of Metal. How was that and how were the new songs received live?
Great, actually. That part was great. We had some ups and downs with that festival, actually, to be honest, and to our big surprise, we were not the only band that had issues. The issues were connected with local problems. For example, at the first show, because we performed twice, our instruments didn’t arrive in time. So, we had them on the cruise already, they were, but no-one could give them to us. We had to start, so we had to borrow a bass, borrow a snare and the guitars came ten minutes before we thought we were going to have to cancel. It was quite stressful, to be honest.
Yeah, that sounds pretty stressful.
Then, the second time, it was a late show, it was at 4:30am, the people were quite tired, the local equipment was not working properly. Of course, devices are just devices, and they can break, but I feel like certain things could have been looking into better by the crew, and because it was so late, everybody was quite tired, and that gave us some issues with the sound, and obviously we were quite desperate because we wanted to perform for exposure and new people and new bands. However, we had some really nice moments. We had an early album listening with some fans on the boat, which was about ten days before the album came out.
Great timing!
It was a really cool, hangout party type of thing, and everybody was so supportive. Also, I feel like we finally had the opportunity to hang out with other musicians and music lovers, because normally at festivals and shows you’re always in a hurry to go somewhere, but here you don’t go anywhere – you stay all together for four days. So, that’s why I’m saying there were a lot of ups and downs. We wished that when it came to the shows themselves, things had been a little bit smoother, but it is what it is. We did our best.
The album-listen sounds fantastic. How did it feel, how does it feel now playing live with Alice as a four-piece?
Actually, we’ve been playing together for a while now. She’s already done around a hundred shows with us. She joined us May last year, so we had almost a hundred shows last year and already some shows this year. So, we feel great. It’s a great balance on stage and off stage is quite nice.
Now, this is your sixth album. And I’ve noticed you tend to release them every two or three years.
Every two years, yes.
Does that help creativity to put a bit of pressure on yourself with that time limit or is that not part of it?
We don’t really put a specific time limit on ourselves, it just felt quite natural to do it like that. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the rule, you could do it even more seldom but not more often, because then you don’t give enough time for people to listen to your album and you’re already releasing a new one. So, I feel like we got into the routine, and it feels quite natural for us to have a full year, year and a half of promoting the album, and then slowly starting to put ideas together for the next album. It’s not necessarily planned that way, specifically, but it was good.
What inspired the album title “Time”?
Actually, Vidik our guitar player had a couple of ideas when it comes to the name. I remember I also had a few ideas. But this simple word, just four letters is so simplistic, so minimalistic, but at the same time such a complex word, it’s a term for something we think we know so well but in reality, we don’t know it that well. We know the general idea about it, but that’s it. Time is so unique for each person, but at the same time it’s the same for each of us, and it’s the only thing that makes us equal. I mean right now, not in the future, because obviously everybody has a different life length, I’m talking about the present, like right now, me and you we both are sharing a moment together, we are talking, and we are equals because we are in the realm of time that exists but also doesn’t exist because we’re having a conversation. It’s really interesting. We looked into that and apparently, it’s one of the most frequently used English words. We don’t even pay attention to how much we use that word. “It’s about time…. Next time….”
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. The first thing I said to you today was “Thank you for your time”. I didn’t even think about it.
Exactly.
Did you deliberately set out at the start to write a concept album about time, or did that come later?
No, it came later. We started composing and I believe we were already at song number three or four, and lyrically and also musically I feel like we were actually going that way without knowing what the title would be. I feel like it was the time for us to realise time, in a way. We had a major change over in the lineup, and we’d already released five albums prior to this one, so it feels like to we did need to put something together, almost like parentheses after these five albums, and somehow, even though the songs were quite different, the main concept was still there, and even in the songs that have other themes, you can still hear time being something very important in the song as well. It is our first concept album, to be honest, and we didn’t plan it from the start, just that when we started putting things together, and then the title, and then the songs, and then first music video for “Dying Light” we did in a place where long ago I had a photoshoot. And I thought – what if each member could have a different mechanism of time, and I can use that one – so someone has an hourglass, someone has just the numbers, and that’s how we came up with the idea for “Dying Light”. Eventually, when we were thinking what to do for the music video for “Never To Return”, we also wanted to use some creatures which had obviously had a big impact on, so we are like almost zombies, but at the same time, we almost don’t look human, so it’s almost like time doesn’t exist where we are. So, the more we got into it, the more we loved to add the time idea in the music videos, in the concept, and in the artwork.
There’s no song on the album that feels like filler. Did that make it hard to choose which songs should be singles?
Yes, kind of. In fact, we didn’t go very light on this album, we filmed a lot of music videos. Another one is coming out this year. We were so in love with what was coming out we decided to go for it and just film music videos.
A song that struck a chord with me was “Because I Let You”, particularly that lyric “Cut me open and see / The raw version of me”. The video is emotional. Can you tell me more about writing that and about making the video?
Yes, absolutely. I often write a couple of ideas down when I go through something in my life or when I have some sort of emotion I need to put on paper. So, unfortunately, life is very interesting for many people, and I had a quite difficult time in my life where I felt like this beautiful sensation like love, that we often we feel towards a friend or a family member, is often abused, and I was a victim of that as well. So, I have so much to talk about. It hit me really hard, and it was quite difficult even to record it, and I knew that even doing the music video is going to be difficult. But I think what happened is also – the whole atmosphere of that room, we filmed it in a real mortuary room – and I was laying on the mortuary table for many hours to have this special effect done on my belly. It was an extremely uncomfortable cold table. When finally it was my turn to film, we had a small take and then that actual first take they put the camera above me and I had a panic attack, a real panic attack. It was hard on me because I thought I had ruined the entire filming day. But they continued filming and then, when I finally calmed down, we filmed a few more things that didn’t actually become part of the song. They kept that entire first take. The take where I cry is a bit longer but what I’m trying to say is – that’s it. We had to move on and start filming other things that were necessary to film. It was quite difficult, but I’m not going to lie, it’s quite difficult to perform it live.
Because you find it hard to not feel it, deeply, when you sing it?
Correct. I have certain songs like this from my career that are significant for me and emotional for me, but honestly even though it is quite difficult, even brutal sometimes, I prefer it that way because I feel like it is the only thing that really helps me go over it or live with it in a sane way.
I think you’re also, if I may say so – helping other people as well.
Thank you, thank you. I hope that other people can relate.
One of the parts I enjoy in that song is your clean vocal. Is the clean vocal something that you have worked on with Melissa Cross?
I actually work with Melissa for all my vocals. There’s no difference, really. That’s the moto of her class – “You speak as you sing, and you sing as you speak, and you scream as you sing just as you sing as you scream.” So basically, what she is trying to bring out there is – yes, there is a technique, but it shouldn’t feel more painful or shouldn’t feel more painful or wrong, the sensation is the same. That’s why I am able, thanks to her, really nice screaming parts with singing parts and vice versa. It adds so much emotion when I sing something, and I can just scream a word or two in that singing part. It happens often during live shows more than in the studio because I’m getting so overwhelmed by emotions that it just comes naturally. I am talking to you, and I have goosepimples right now! It’s quite an emotional job I have – let’s say that! [laughs]
[laughs] Yeah, I can imagine. And she teaches emotion, conveying that with the voice?
No, no. She actually teaches to accept yourself the way you are, and that helps me a lot to not feel discomfort when it comes to certain topics, and she teaches you how to manage those emotions because metal, in general, quite an emotional genre. She often says that you have to remain in control of your body no matter how emotional you get, because that emotion can come out though your voice in the wrong way sometimes – our body is our instrument. So, she really teaches you how to still feel it and instead of thinking about the notes, actually be the notes and be the music. It’s really beautiful because no-one else prior to her ever brought that up, and at least in my career and my experience, so I’m really grateful to her. She is a dear friend of mine.
I’ve seen some of her talks online, and she seems fascinating.
She is, she’s absolutely amazing, yes. The way she encourages me to sing, the way she encourages me to be me, I don’t think anyone else did this in my entire career. So, I tell her every time – Look, I made another album, it’s thanks to you.
Speaking of the album, which was the most challenging song to finish, and which was the easiest, that came very quickly?
I don’t know to be honest, if I had any of either/or. I worked on all of them for quite a long time, but I think the one that was a surprise to me was the song “Game Of Blame”. In that song, I feel like I made many changes last minute and composed the melody for the vocals quite last minute, already in the recording studio, with my musicians, with Vidik and my producer. Because it was the only song we were not quite sure about, but I knew that I just needed an extra minute I didn’t have, and I’m so happy we did it because it’s quite a different song. It has very long lyrics, probably the longest lyrics I’ve had in one song and there’s not anything that repeats. That’s interesting, and that’s the only song I can really underline as being different. Other than that, all of them require time, they require work, they require time.
So, have you started writing or recording the next album yet?
No, not yet. It’s quite soon! But we put ideas down all the time – we don’t just wait for the time to record, we just put ideas down and eventually – oh, I had this for so many years and I finally put it in words.
Interview originally published in Norway Rock Magazine 2024 Issue #1 – SUBSCRIBE HERE