Интервю с Ask от Kampfar

1.  First – congratulations for the new album. How are you today? How are the other members of the band feeling?

Hi, and thanks! Life is good at the moment, just a few days away from our first show since Wacken 2010, the first show with the new songs and the new visual stage presence. Earlier in the week I was in Norway rehearsing with the rest and things are sounding very good, so we are all in a very good place right now.

2.  How much time did you spend in preparing and finishing „Mare“?

We started writing towards the end of 2009, but the real work started in the spring of 2010. We took some time in Dolk’s family cabin in Hemsedal and jammed, wrote, recorded and discussed. It was very isolated, physically and mentally, so it was a prefect way to shape the album at an early stage. From there we worked through the summer/fall and then entered the studio in November. We spent a month there and after that the majority of the work was finishing up the visual expression, and trying to get the label to work with us. We are spread out all over Norway and Europe so we only work in shorter intense periods, which is the best way for us to get the energy this music needs.

3.  What does it mean – “Mare”?

„Mare“ means several things in Norwegian, English and Latin, and for those who wish to research it the answers are readily available. It’s a word that sums up the feeling of the music, the lyrics, the visual art, and they are all strongly interconnected to the extent that the artwork inspired some lyrical lines. In short the album is about witchery, the force of the ocean, the horrors of the night, the negative power of religious leaders and the wisdom of the nature.

4.  And the lyrics? Are you writing them together and where did you get the inspiration from?

All lyrics are as always written by Dolk. He’s a brilliant creator of lyrics, not just the stories, but the musical use of sounds and words. We do discuss many things that end up in lyrics or as the base for a certain song, but Dolk writes everything in his way. On this album there is one exception, though. I wrote and performed all vocals on the song Volvevers and will also do this song live.

5.  This is your fifth full-length album, three years after “Heimgang”. What is different now? What do you want to express with it?

I think „Heimgang“ had many „effective“ songs, in lack of a better term, direct and simple songs with a pretty clean and easy production. Some of them worked very well, others did not meet their full potential at the time of recording. So this time we decided to take more time, and not save on anything. Hence we decided to work with an actual metal producer for the first time, and we decided to add everything we wanted and then rather take things off again, instead of holding back as much as we did on „Heimgang“. You can also see this in the artwork, which for some reason seems to piss certain people off, which is exactly what you get when you do things for art and not for what other people want or expect. This is our band and we always do things the way we want, or else we can’t do this at all. So in the sense that there was a major change this time it was about not giving a shit about limitations and just going by pure instinct and openness.

6.  Many of your colleagues in the black/pagan scene started singing in English? What do you think about that? Isn’t this some kind of “running from the roots”?

I seriously couldn’t care what other bands choose to do. There are no rules, anyone can do what they want, just like we will. If the Pope wants to release a metal album and sing about his collection of hats, I don’t care. If Mayhem decide to write an album about the Teletubbies I would also not care (though I would be amused, for sure), as everyone should do what the hell they want and only they will have to deal with the consequences anyway.
In Kampfar we have a couple of songs in English, and that’s just because that language fits best to those songs. If we wanna sing in Icelandic, French or Polynesian, we will, but I doubt you’ll ever hear that happening.

7.   What is the feeling to work with Peter Tagtgren?

He is absolutely brilliant, a true professional and a very skilled craftsman. I never enjoy the studio process much as it’s a sterile environment, I much prefer to be on stage and live inside that energy that is created between the band and the audience, but with Peter things were much easier than ever before. His studio is located in the middle of nowhere, with just a few houses, a lake and some horses walking around, so there is nothing to do but focus on the work at hand. There are two other studios in the same building, so there were several recordings going on at the same time, which made it quite a cool place to hang out, all that creativity going on around there.

8.   Which are the bands, inspirited you, to become a musician?

I started playing drums at the age of 8, so I didn’t really listen to music for inspiration yet. But I discovered Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and Metallica and then Slayer, Obituary, Morbid Angel and Death, and that was it, then I knew that metal was my kind of thing. Growing up with lots of frustrations and difficult situations on a regular basis meant that metal resonated with me in a way that other music didn’t and therefore it became natural to practice and play metal with whoever could keep up. I’ve always listened to a lot of different music, blues, jazz, straight rock, electronica, prog, some classical music, but metal is what suits my soul the best, it seems.

9.   Are you planning tours, presenting the new album in the future and where?

Yeah, we’re playing the Ragnarök Festival on April 29, and then a month later we go on tour together with Vreid, Secrets Of The Moon and Krakow, two weeks in Europe. Then we’re going to North-America for the first time in August/September, and there are plans for more shows after that, but we haven’t announced those yet. People can keep up to date on our MySpace and Facebook pages.

10.  The Troll is the creature, which appears in almost every album or song ( “Norse” – Troll; “Fra Underverdenen – Troll, Død Og Trolldom; “Heimgang” – Trolldomspakt. ) Is this the creature from the Norse mythology, you admire most and why?

The troll is, in the same way as the mare, a physical representation for a form of energy, a way of describing something one doesn’t understand. The word „troll“ in the word „trolldomspakt“ is not the same as the trolls that turn to stone when they experience sun light, in fact the last word means „pact of magic“. I think that the mare as a physical being is a meanspirited creature that lives in the shadows and attacks you in your sleep, while the troll is a huge, strong being that can crush you easily. In one way they also represent the difference between male and female forces, and they are present through the childhood of anyone who is raised by parents with an awareness of local history.

11.  Who made the cover-artwork of the album and what does it symbolize – men with red robes?

The artwork was made by Robert Høyem, an absolutely brilliant artist. What it symbolizes is to be found in the lyrics and the music, as well as in the actual artwork. As with many things, it’s seemingly simple, but when you start studying it there is a lot more going on, on an abstract level more than symbolically. The artwork is inspired by the music, as are the lyrics, and the lyrics are in turn also somewhat inspired by the artwork. It’s all about contrast, the unspoken, darkness and light, and the illusion of evil.

12.  What music do you prefer to listen, when you are at home, relaxing?

My favourite bands are probably Clutch and Morbid Angel, but I listen to a lot of different stuff. In metal I really like Virus, Code, Dødheimsgard, Furze, Trap Them, Herder, but also other bands/artists like Die Antwoord, Dr. John, Gallows, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Jan Garbarek, Comus, Roky Erickson, William Elliott Whitmore and the brilliant The Shaggs.

13.  Would you like to tell something to your fans in Bulgaria.

We have never actually played in your country, which is a damn shame, but we are working on it, and hope to check out what your country has to offer soon enough. Thanks for the support and interest, keep the banner high!