Borknagar
“Epic” is the sixth
studio release for Borknagar and we had to wait 3 whole years for its realization.
So, now that it’s released, Behind The Veil couldn’t lose the chance of
having a conversation about everything related to the band. On the other
part of the phone we found Lars, the band’s keyboard player, who proved
to be a very pleasant and talkative person. Here’s everything that he told
us!
1.FIRST OF ALL, COULD YOU POINT OUT THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND’S HISTORY?
-
It’s hard to pick specific moments you know. I
think that the history of Borknagar contains so many different things,
so many twists and turns… We’ve been fortunate enough to work with 3 of
the best vocalists of this genre. So, turning points in the band’s career
would be each time that we changed a vocalist. I mean from Maelstom being
our vocalist in our first 2 albums to Simon who was our vocalist for our
next 2 and to Vintersong on these last 2. But the good thing is that we’ve
managed to develop, each time, our musical expression in every album. Also
the fact that we are back with a new album shows that we must be doing
something right! Hahahaha!
2.IF I ASKED YOU TO PRESENT THE ALBUM YOURSELVES,
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL ME? WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK DESCRIBE “EPIC”?
-
I think the title describes it… It’s epic! We’ve
been trying to create an album that would contain lots of musical information
and that takes time to come through it, to decide for it, to find all the
parts that it consists of. If someone comes to me and asks me “what kind
of music do you play?”, I would start by telling him that we play metal,
because this is the base of our music and then I’d probably continue my
description of our music by telling him that it is extreme, but progressive.
So, a suitable description would be extreme progressive epic metal. Something
like that! Would this work? Hahahaha!
3.YES! IT’D WORK AND YOU KIND OF ANSWERED MY NEXT
QUESTION…SO, YOU STILL ACCEPT THE TERM “EPIC METAL” FOR YOUR MUSIC. IS
THIS WHAT THE TITLE OF YOUR NEW ALBUM INDICATES?
-
No, it indicates more than that. I mean it indicates
that we describe our music this way, but at the same time I think it also
describes the connection among all the albums that we have released. We
don’t see Borknagar as a band that just releases fragmented albums, so
to speak. We see all our music as a whole, as one big piece of Borknagar
and everything is connected, so the reason why we called this album “Epic”
is that this is the latest chapter in the epic tale of Borknagar. And that
is also why we try every album to pointing at every former album we’ve
released. That’s why on “Epic” you can find a song titled “Quintessence”,
which is also the title of an album we’ve done. So, we do things like that
to link every album to each other and to show to the people that this is
not only fragmented music, but a part of a bigger piece of music that is
also Borknagar
-SO, YOU WANT TO SHOW THAT BORKNAGAR HAVE A CONCEPT
BEHIND THEM…
-
Yeah! This is the Borknagar concept!
4.YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUM WAS RECORDED AT FAGERBORG
AND TOPROOM STUDIOS. WAS “EPIC” ALSO RECORDED THERE AND DID YOU DO THE
PRODUCTION ONCE AGAIN YOURSELVES?
-
Yeah it’s been recorded there and we also did
some recordings in the home studio of Asgeir. We did produce it this time
also ourselves. We have found a really good way of working in Toproom studio
and also not needing to do everything within the time for instance of 4
weeks. I mean we were in the studio and we did the basic things and then
we had a week off and then we worked some more. We did things in a more
relaxed way and we had more time to evaluate and see the new music within
the system of the rest of our music. So, everything goes the way it is
supposed to go. It’s recorded in Toproom and in Fagerborg and as usual
I did the grand piano and the hamond organs in Fagerborg and the bass was
done in the home studio of Asgeir, which he still continues to build. So,
it is a combination among studios.
-ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FINAL RESULT OR IS THERE
ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
-
No, we are really glad with the way things came
out. It took lots of time to get this time. It almost took as 3 years to
create “Epic” so it’s good to have it out now. We’ve been working on it
for such a long time and we are really pleased with the way it came out.
Still it’s too early and we’ve been working on it for so long that it is
hard to see it objectively. When I hear the album I can still see the mixing
table and the keyboards and such stuff. So, maybe if you ask me in 2 years
time, I might want to change something. You always have a basic feeling
when you finish an album. You have a good or a bad feeling and I have a
really good feeling for this one.
5.DO YOU AGREE THAT YOU DWELL IN AN INTELLECTUAL
PROGRESSIVE PATH THAT SEPARATES YOU FROM THE REST OF THE BANDS AND DRIFTS
YOU AWAY FROM THE STRICT FRAMES OF BLACK METAL?
-
At least we are trying to make a long leash in
the metal environment. We don’t pick a music from the same inspirational
sources that most of the bands pick their sources from. We don’t take our
lyrical vocabulary from the same sources that most of the metal and black
metal bands get their inspiration from, so in that respect we may be a
bit on the side of the whole black metal environment. Borknagar pays much
attention to the progressiveness of music and to the idea that the music
should challenge you as a listener, which means that an album like “Epic”
is an album that takes some listening to reach through to. You don’t hear
everything the first time you listen to this album. We paid a lot of attention
to detail and we tried to put things down in layers, so that it should
be as interesting when you hear it the first time and when you hear it
the 4th – 5th time you can still explore new stuff in it. I guess that’s
what we ‘re trying to do and we hope we can stand out from the rest of
our metal environment.
6.THIS IS YOUR SIXTH RELEASE. DO YOU CONSIDER
IT AS THE BEST BORKNAGAR ALBUM EVER OR DO YOU PREFER TO BELIEVE THE BEST
IS YET TO COME?
-
We always want to think that the next album will
be even better than this one. The focus of the band has always been that
we have the basic expression that is Borknagar and every album should be
made in connection to this basic expression. However, we should always
try to push further the ways of expressing this in a better way. Which
means we should try to develop and move further each time we create a new
album. In that respect I’d say that “Epic” is the best Borknagar album
to date, but the next one will be even better! Hahaha!
7.CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE MAIN
TOPICS BEHIND YOUR LYRICS? JUDGING FROM THE TITLES THEY MUST BE IN THE
TECHNOLOGICAL-COSMIC-MYSTICAL AESTHETICS. AM I CORRECT?
-
Yeah in a way! The lyrics are very much linked
to philosophy and physics. With Borknagar the deal was always to try to
draw the lines back to the old Nordic ways and the old Norse culture. The
idea of treating the others with the same respect they treat you, the idea
of developing your mind, expanding your horizons, seeing yourself as part
of the world you are in, of the universe, the idea of an expanding universe,
where everything’s possible, where you can always develop and make new
things that are better for yourself and your mentality. Those are the basic
topics of the new album as well. The lyrics do dwell in a lot of the things
you mentioned as well as being linked to the old themes Borknagar has been
about since the beginning. As I told you about the old Norse cultures.
-HOW IMPORTANT ARE LYRICS FOR YOU AS A BAND?
-
Oh they are very important! They express the Borknagar
sentiment in a different way than the music does. I think the most powerful
way of getting lyrics and music through is when the 2 are combined and
form a unity, which means that I think that our music is the best whilst
you listen to it and read the lyrics at the same time. However, I really
hope that our fans can enjoy our music without the lyrics as well as enjoying
the lyrics without the music. Still the most powerful combination is having
them together.
8.THE COVER IS ONCE AGAIN DESIGNED BY ASGEIR.
I SUPPOSE YOU WERE QUITE PLEASED WITH HIS PREVIOUS WORK. ARTISTICALLY IT
LOOKS IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH ONCE AGAIN AND IT GIVES US THE SENSATION THAT HE
IS REALLY TALENTED. ARE THERE ANY HIDDEN MEANINGS IN THOSE BRANCHES OF
TREES, WHICH ALSO WERE IN THE “EMPIRICISM” COVER?
-
It is sort of related to the previous things I
told you about earlier. We try to link things together, we try to link
different albums. So, we have aspects on this album that lyrically are
pointing back to our previous albums and also visually with the cover pointing
back to the other albums. Like you said these branches are the same branches
that were on the “Empiricism” album and they are sort of linking these
2 together. At the same time we have a half way hidden book in the middle
of the cover, representing the idea of an epic tale, the idea of Borknagar
being on an epic musical journey that has just began and there is still
a lot to come. The branches coming out of it represent the idea of creativity
and the willing to push things further in order to tell this musical tale.
So, that’s the basic meaning of the cover. So, this album is virtually
linked to “Empiricism” and also to the “Quintessence” album. So, everything
Borknagar do is linked to what we did in the past.
9.ABOUT THE LINE UP NOW, WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN
A SENSITIVE FACTOR IN BORKNAGAR’S CAMP. YOU HAD ANOTHER DEPARTURE… JAN
ERIK TORGERSEN OR TYR AS HE IS MORE KNOWN IN PUBLIC LEFT THE BAND. WHY
DID THIS HAPPEN?
-
It’s actually a kind of a sad story because that’s
one of the reasons why it took as so long to get the album out. We recorded
most of it and we finished most of it last summer and we were waiting for
Tyr to put down the bass and he didn’t do it when he was supposed to and
when we called him he told us that he hadn’t been able to do it yet but
he was going to do it pretty soon and that he had to focus on other aspects
of his life. Time passed by and we called him again and he told us this
will take some more time, but I hope you’ll be able to wait and I’ll do
it…
-SO, HE WAS POSTPONING IT ALL THE TIME…
-
Yes, he was postponing it, so we kept waiting
until January and we told him that your last chance is the first week of
January. If you won’t record the bass until then, then that’s that! So,
he called us on the first of January and he told us that he was sorry but
he wouldn’t be able to do it, which of course is really sad and he is still
a good friend of us and there are no bad feelings, but sometimes these
things happen and he had to focus on a different thing in his life. We
just had to respect that and we had to tell him that we had to move on
and that we can’t wait any longer and we have to get this album out. So,
we said to Asgeir to play the bass, who is also a very good bass player.
-AND WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR BORKNAGAR TO STICK
TO A STABLE FORMATION? IS IT DUE TO MUSICAL DIFFERENCES OR SOMETHING ELSE?
-
No, I really don’t know! We just call it the Borknagar
curse! Hahahaha! We really don’t know what’s causing it. On every album
something happens with the line up, but I think the 4 of us in the band
now are really stable and nothing’s gonna happen to us. We have been working
so well together and we have the same musical visions, we are such good
friends and we have so good contact and even though we are 4 members on
“Epic” there are no members that didn’t also play in the “Empiricism” album.
Hahahahaha! I’m asking myself these questions regularly, what is this happening
all the time? I really don’t know. I don’t have an answer!!!
10.ARE THERE ANY OLD MEMBERS YOU’D LIKE TO BE
STILL IN THE BAND?
-
Yes! It’s always sad to lose people you know!
I wouldn’t change anyone in the band now for someone that has been in the
band in the past, but at the same time I wouldn’t change those people when
they were in the band for anyone else. Hahahahaha! So, it’s like that!
It’s hard to say. Like with the 3 vocalists we had… I really enjoy the
work that all 3 have done and I wouldn’t change any of them. I think the
best thing would be if we could have the 3 of them! Hahahaha! However,
there was a time during one of our live shows that Simon got on stage and
sang along with Vintersong. It was really nice!
11.IS IT GONNA BE A NEW BASSIST IN THE GROUP OR
ARE YOU GONNA USE A SESSIONIST FOR YOUR CONCERTS?
-
We are gonna use session members for our live
shows, at least for the time being and we will see what happens. They might
disappear as well! Hahahahaha! If we find someone special, then we will
think about including a 5th member in the line up. The way it is now, the
4 of us work really well together and we compose music together and
everything works out perfectly, so there is no reason in changing that.
The easiest way to get going is to hire session members for the live shows.
12.OYSTEIN G. BRUN, FOUNDER AND MASTERMIND OF
BORKNAGAR, IS THE MAIN COMPOSER OF THE BAND. HAS ANYONE ELSE CONTRIBUTED
IN THE SONG WRITING ON THIS ALBUM?
-
Yeah all 4 of us have contributed in all the songs.
The way we write music is different from most of the other bands. What
happens is… Oystein writes the basic structure of the songs, which means
he makes a musical skeleton of the song and then he sends the songs to
us and we listen to them, we discuss them, maybe we arrange something and
then we start working with our instruments on it. I start working with
the hamond parts and arranging the keys and synthesizers, then I send my
stuff to the others to listen to and they discuss that… It’s just an ongoing
process like that until the songs are finished. On this album I made the
basic structures of one song, Vintersong made the basic structure of another
song and Oystein made the basic structure of the rest of the songs and
then everything is finalized and written with all the instruments with
the help of the whole band. So, everyone is involved in the writing process.
-SO YOU ARE FREE TO ADD ANYTHING YOU WANT IN THE
SONGS OR EITHER WAY YOU PREFER DISCUSSING IT WITH THE REST?
-
We always discuss everything with each other and
when Oystein comes up with something we don’t like, we tell him. “Sorry
this is not good enough!” Hahahaha! And then he has to throw out his thing.
When I come up with something and Oystein says “You know Lars, this sucks”
I have to throw it out too! Hahaha! So, we always discuss everything along
the way and it’s really never a problem. It’s always good discussions in
order to make the music better. We always try to make our music as good
as we can, so these discussions pretty much contribute to the songs we
get on the albums. It’s a very good and healthy process! We have the chance
this way to look into every detail and evaluate them!
12.”EPIC” IS THE SECOND ALBUM FOR VINTERSONG AS
A VOCALIST. YOU TOLD ME THAT EACH OF YOUR SINGERS CREATED A DIFFERENT ERA
FOR BORKNAGAR. SO, VINTERSONG BROUGHT FRESH AIR IN YOUR SOUND. HOW? IN
WHICH FIELDS?
-
I think the way Vintersong sings is pushing the
musical expression of Borknagar in a more progressive direction. I mean
he is very much into orchestrating vocals, which means that he often has
a lot of different voices, a lot of “new ways” of arranging vocal patterns,
or contrasting the raw vocals and the clean ones, so I think that Vintersong
has absolutely contributed to the progressiveness of Borknagar, of pushing
the band more into the progressive area and giving us more of a taste of
the progressive musical movement of the early 70s. At the same time he
brings more roughness to the hard parts of Borknagar with his black metal
vocals. Besides, Vintersong is such a nice guy to work with, because he
is so open to the other’s suggestions and ideas and he is really good in
listening to the music and bringing out the best elements of it. I think
he has added a lot to the expression of Borknagar and to our music!
13.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU’VE GOT
THIS FAR?
-
Yeah absolutely! We’ve got some great feedback
and we actually entered the Norwegian charts for the first time in our
history! Hahaha! So, we’ve gotten lots of good feedback and the album is
selling well and that’s really nice!
-WERE THERE ANY NEGATIVE COMMENTS FROM SOME OLD
FANS OF YOURS PERHAPS?
-
There are always negative comments from some people,
some fans of Borknagar that only liked the first albums! But it doesn’t
really bother me that much, because they have found their part of Borknagar
and they like that part of Borknagar and I don’t see a reason why they
shouldn’t be allowed to or why we shouldn’t accept this! We are not trying
to force anyone into our music. We are just happy seeing so many people
liking our stuff. I think it’s much better if someone hates all our albums
except for the first than other people who are indifferent to all our albums!
Hahahaha!
-YES INDIFFERENCE IS NEVER GOOD FOR A BAND!
-
Yeah and as long as we can evoke some feelings
and meaning in people that’s a good thing! We have developed a lot and
the musical expression you find in “Epic” is different than the one on
the self titled debut album of Borknagar. I can understand that not everyone
can like the way we developed, but then again you can’t please everyone!
-WHICH STATEMENT THAT YOU READ, DO YOU THINK DESCRIBES
YOUR MUSIC THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY?
-
The best description… Hmm… I read a description
of our music from a guy that compared it to a painting, an expressionist
painting and I think it was a very beautiful and clever way of describing
it!
14.WELL, THERE IS A QUESTION I LIKE TO ASK ALL
THE BANDS… IF YOUR MUSIC WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW? WHAT DO YOU
HAVE TO ANSWER NOW?
-
Hahahahaa! Odd similarity! Hahahha! Great question!
It would probably be one of the expressionist paintings! It would be a
motive that you could recognize, but still things would seem different
if you’d see it elsewhere. So, it would be a sort of altered version of
the world, an altered version of what you see normally! I think that’s
the most precise answer I can give to your question!
15.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE?
-
Ohhh… I think it would be a gathering of emotions.
I don’t think I can pinpoint only one. We build our music basing on contrast,
so there is also a contrast of emotions as well, so it would be anything
from sadness to aggression to happiness to longing… We always try to use
a specter of emotions when we write music. I really hope that our music
can evoke all kinds of emotions in people!
16.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC?
-
Ooooh!!! You are done with the easy questions!!!
Hahahhaha! Well, I think one of the best things in our music is the vastness
of it, the fact that it contains so much, that you can find so many things
within our music and in a way I think this is the biggest weakness as well.
The fact that the music is so packed with so many things happening at the
same time makes it hard to the listener to get through the music from the
first time you listen to it. So, I think quite a lot of people give it
up before they really listen to our music. I definitely thing that’s the
best and at the same time the worst part in our music.
-WHICH IS THE TRADEMARK IN YOUR MUSIC?
-
I think the trademark is the gathered expression
that we have and the fact that we have the progressive style linked to
the old Norwegian black metal movement and at the same time we are trying
to push everything forward. I think that’s our trademark. Contact with
the past, pushing for the future!
17.A WEIRD QUESTION NOW… IF YOU HAD TO BE AN IMPORTANT
PERSON FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE AND WHICH PERIOD OF HIS/HER
LIFE WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE A TASTE OF?
-
Hmm… It’s a hard one!!! I think I’m gonna stay
clear with all that has to do with politics to avoid everything and everyone
related to that! Hahahaa! I think I’d pick art, which means that I’d love
spending one day as an American poet, called Emily Dickinson. She was one
of the first sort of impressionist poets of the States, living a very strange
and secluded live. She wrote poetry that I’ve never read anything like
this! I’d love to have the chance to think like her for a day, to see how
she was able to do the things that she did and how her mind worked.
18.YOU EXIST SINCE 1995. HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT
FOR A BAND TO BE KNOWN BACK THEN? DO YOU MISS THOSE TIMES AT ALL?
-
Well everything was much more underground and
things were much smaller! Hahahaha! There was more idealism when dealing
with music in the mid 90s. It was a good time to be doing music, but I
think both things, working with music that way and working with music the
way we do today, has its charm. It’s just different ways of attacking the
same artistic vision. Still trying to do the same visionary work that we
tried to do back at those days, so I like both periods though they are
different in many ways!
19.ARE YOU FOLLOWING THE LATEST BLACK METAL SCENE
AND WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ABOUT ITS CURRENT SITUATION?
-
I think there’s a lot of interesting things happening
in the black metal scene, especially in the more experimental parts of
it and I also enjoy some of, let’s call them, retro black metal bands,
back to the basics black metal bands. So, I think the black metal scene
is very much alive and healthy and many interesting things happening both
in the traditional black metal branch and the avant garde black metal that
is pushing the limits of what black metal is supposed to sound like.
20.ARE THERE ANY OTHER KINDS OF MUSIC YOU LIKE
TO LISTEN TO NOWADAYS?
-
Oh yeah! Absolutely! I’m always listening to all
kinds of music. I do listen a lot to metal and black metal, but I also
listen a lot to progressive music from the late 60s and early 70s, bands
like King Crimson and so on. I like quite a lot of the more avant garde
electronic music. Hmm… I enjoy some sort of classic music, I enjoy a bit
of jazz and I also listen to mainstream music, like straightforward pop
and rock. Sometimes there are some nice things coming out of these genres
as well. I try not to limit myself when it comes to enjoying music. If
I am able to enjoy it then I try to enjoy it!
21.THE BAND NAME WAS INSPIRED BY A NORWEGIAN ANCIENT
MYTH. AM I RIGHT?
-
Yeah in a way. I mean that the sound of the band
name has a lot in common with the sound of the old Norse names, but we
wanted a name that didn’t exist before. We wanted a name that was ours
and only ours. If you search for the word Borknagar in the web, then you
can be sure that every page you’ll find will have to do with the band,
because there’s nothing else called Borknagar and that’s a good thing!
Hahahaha! It was absolutely inspired by our heritage.
-HOW INVOLVED ARE YOU WITH THE ANCIENT MYTHOLOGIES?
-
I’m interested in all kinds of mythology…
-WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE?
-
I find pleasure in the parallels among the
mythologies. I like the Norse mythology, the ancient Greek one, the ancient
Roman one. They all have so much to say about the people and the environment
in which these myths have been created.
22.ARE THERE ANY UPCOMING TOURS PLANNED YET AND
IS THERE A CHANCE OF VISITING US HERE IN GREECE?
-
I really hope so! I’ve never played in Greece
before so I’d really like to meet our audience there! We haven’t set a
tour yet, but in all probability we will be doing a European tour in early
2005, which means that this half year we have to try to find the right
session members and have a good set of rehearsals going and then I really
hope we can hit the road and also come to Greece in early 2005.
23.WHICH IS THE STRANGEST QUESTION SOMEONE’S EVER
ASKED YOU?
-
Well, you’re coming pretty close to mentioning
your questions in this answer! Hahahaha! So…
-SO YOU WILL MENTION SOME OF MY QUESTIONS…
-
Hahaha! Yeah perhaps the question about the painting!
Hahaha! It’s strange but a good one though!!! Makes you think of music
in a different way! By all means it’s a good question, but a strange one!
It’s good to have some of those questions in between, cause when you are
doing so many interviews, it’s boring saying the same things again and
again, so it’s nice having something else to talk about as well!
-SO, IS MY QUESTION THE STRANGEST YOU’VE EVER
HAD?
-
Yeah and I had some other strange questions as
well. I had a question once “3 of your band members are standing on a mountain
top. You have to push 2 of them down, whose life would you spare?”. Hahahahaha!
This was a really strange question! Yeah but you are coming pretty close
with the painting question as well! Hahaha!
-OK! HAHAHA! I’M SECOND IN THE ROW!
24.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING
AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
-
No, I think we’ve just about covered everything!
It’s been a pleasure talking to you, because you asked me some really great
and different questions! It’s nice having such questions as well! You did
a very good job!!
25.CAN YOU LEAVE A MESSAGE TO YOUR FANS?
-
Yeah! I really hope that we can be able to come
over there and meet our fans face to face and really give something back
to you for buying our albums and following us all these years. So, thanks
a lot, cheers and see you on tour!
Vaso “Necromass” Prassa
Christine Parastatidou
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