An interview with Yusaf Parvez "Vicotnik" of DØDHEIMSGARD | Retumba

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this engaging interview, Yusaf Parvez, also known as Vicotnik from the band DØDHEIMSGARD, sits down with Alfonso of the Mexican blog RETUMBA to discuss a myriad of topics including the release of his new album 'Black Medium Current', his experiences in the black metal scene, and the journey of artistic expression in extreme music. Yusaf reflects on the transformative nature of his music and its power to evolve and challenge traditional black metal boundaries. Additionally, he shares his excitement about DØDHEIMSGARD's upcoming performance in Mexico, personal anecdotes, and philosophical insights into the world of artistic creation.

Highlights

Yusaf reflects on the lonely and obsessive process of music creation, seeing the successful and sincere reception of his work as a profound achievement. 🤘
Discussing the evolution of the genre, Yusaf explains the shift from early provocation in black metal to exploring emotional and intellectual themes. 🧠
He candidly talks about the personal and cultural influences that shaped his music, mentioning his bicultural heritage and its impact on his artistic expression. 🌍
Vicotnik discusses the pitfalls of genre constraints and the importance of avoiding commercial motivations, staying true to an authentic creative process. 🚫
Yusaf's anticipation for performing in Mexico for the first time highlights the band's desire for global connection and exchange through their music. 🌎

Key Takeaways

DØDHEIMSGARD's new album 'Black Medium Current' is receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback, showing a more immersive and complex lyrical and musical approach than previous works. 🎵
Yusaf Parvez, aka Vicotnik, shares his journey of understanding and challenging the metal genre, striving for innovation while staying grounded in sincerity and emotion. 🎸
Vicotnik expresses a philosophical approach to music, describing it as an exploratory journey of emotion and thought, rather than fitting into commercial or genre constraints. 🤔
The interview reveals the importance of artistic integrity, with a focus on creating meaningful connections and experiences rather than adhering to traditional black metal norms. 🎤
There is a strong anticipation for DØDHEIMSGARD's upcoming concert in Mexico, marking a significant cultural exchange for both the band and Mexican fans. 🇲🇽

Overview

Alfonso from RETUMBA engages in a deep and fascinating conversation with Yusaf Parvez, known on stage as Vicotnik, the frontman of Norway's avant-garde black metal band DØDHEIMSGARD. They dive into the release and reception of 'Black Medium Current,' exploring how the album challenges norms and provokes thoughts, proving Yusaf's dedication to expanding the genre's artistic boundaries.

Yusaf shares his personal journey, touching on how different life experiences, including his bicultural background, shaped his music and philosophical approach to the art of black metal. He expresses the need for sincerity and emotional depth in his work, discussing how reviewing his music's reception adds another layer to his creative satisfaction.

As DØDHEIMSGARD prepares for their first-ever performance in Mexico, Yusaf's excitement is palpable. The interview concludes with reflections on the future of black metal, the importance of innovation over replication, and the profound personal connections that both he and his listeners share with his music.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview In this introductory chapter, the speaker recounts a conversation with Alfonso covering a wide range of topics about art and life, delving into how art reflects life and the other way around. There is also a mention of planning a visit to Mexico in the fall and the playful dilemma of choosing which guitar to bring along, hinting at a backdrop filled with musical instruments.
01:00 - 02:00: Meet Yusaf Parvez "Vicotnik" The chapter introduces Yusaf Parvez, also known as 'Vicotnik,' in an interview setting. Hosted by Alfonso from Bratumba, a Mexican blog dedicated to extreme music, the session begins with Alfonso welcoming the audience to a new interview session. The chapter sets the stage for a discussion likely centered around Vicotnik's experiences and perspectives within the realm of extreme music.
04:00 - 05:00: Discussing "Black Medium Current" In this episode, the host introduces a special guest, Mr. Joseph Parvis, who is popularly known as Bigotnik. He is the founder, leader, frontman, and main composer of the band Heimsgard. The conversation is centered on Joseph's new work, 'Black Medium Current,' which was released two Fridays ago. The host expresses anticipation for an engaging discussion about this new release.
07:00 - 09:00: Artistic Vision and Provocation The chapter 'Artistic Vision and Provocation' explores the artistic process and the feedback received from it. The speaker mentions the overwhelming positive feedback they've received for their work, highlighting the unexpected nature of such reactions. The creator reflects on the solitary nature of creating art, noting the challenges and isolation often involved in the artistic journey.
12:00 - 16:00: Origins and Musical Journey The chapter titled "Origins and Musical Journey" delves into the intricate process of creating music, highlighting the paradox of being intimately connected to a piece over years of dedication while simultaneously feeling detached from how it will be received by others. It portrays the artist's obsessive need to complete a musical work, despite the uncertainty of personal taste after being immersed in it for so long. This internal conflict forms a critical part of an artist's journey, where passion meets persistence amidst self-doubt and creativity.
21:00 - 23:00: Defining Black Metal The chapter explores the reception of black metal albums, focusing particularly on how they are perceived by both the public and critics. The text suggests a mix of admiration and misunderstanding, noting that while the albums receive positive reviews, sometimes the reasons are misplaced. This chapter highlights the intrigue and uniqueness that sets these works apart from more conventional offerings, indicating a genre that is both appealing and misunderstood.
28:00 - 33:00: Evolution and Personal Growth This chapter explores the theme of evolution and personal growth, particularly through the lens of a music album. The album is described as beautiful, immersive, and unusual compared to typical releases in the genre, indicating a new direction and development both for the artist and within the genre itself. The chapter reflects on how people perceive and use adjectives that emphasize these qualities, suggesting a broader appreciation and a shift in how such music is consumed and understood.
37:00 - 41:00: Challenges in the Genre The chapter 'Challenges in the Genre' discusses the inevitability of receiving positive and negative feedback as an artist. It emphasizes the importance of accepting others' opinions when you create something publicly. The speaker mentions not feeling anxious but rather being open to feedback and learning from it.
44:00 - 57:00: Avant-garde and Experimentation The chapter titled 'Avant-garde and Experimentation' delves into the author's excitement and anticipation in receiving feedback and reviews on their musical and lyrical works. The focus is on understanding how others perceive and articulate the various nuanced and experimental tangents intentionally embedded in their work. The author expresses particular interest in seeing if these tangents resonate with the audience, especially from those they have never interacted with, and if they describe the work using the same specific terms intended by the author.
68:00 - 73:00: Creation Process and Influences The chapter discusses the creation process of music and its influences. It highlights the experimental nature of creating an emotional and immersive album with a psychological substrate. The success of such an endeavor is evidenced through reviews that analyze various aspects of the work.
78:00 - 90:00: Live Performances and Stage Persona This chapter discusses the importance of sincerity in stage performances and live shows. The speaker emphasizes that it is more important for the performance to be genuine and thoroughly executed than to worry about whether journalists like it or not. They believe that music and stage presence should have a purpose or goal to provoke thought or emotion in the audience.
96:00 - 103:00: Themes in "Black Medium Current" This chapter discusses the theme of provocation in the context of the music genre around 1999, particularly with the album '666 International.' The speaker reflects on the feeling of stagnation within the genre and the intention to challenge or 'provoke' established norms and trends at the time, as many bands were simply copying each other.
107:00 - 108:00: Longevity and Passion This chapter titled 'Longevity and Passion' discusses the speaker's initial mindset and approach to music creation. Initially focused on challenging the genre and provoking thought through innovative music, the speaker acknowledges a shift in their perspective. While still interested in innovation, the desire has evolved from provocation to evocation. The conversation reveals an ongoing passion for creating music that resonates personally while still pushing boundaries in a less confrontational manner.
111:00 - 116:00: Views on Black Metal and Society The chapter discusses the emotional and intellectual responses to black metal music. It highlights the tendency for music fans to use generic praise such as 'badass' or 'cool' when describing what they enjoy. The speaker aims to move beyond these clichéd expressions, striving for a deeper understanding and articulation of their appreciation for music. The focus is on avoiding superficial descriptions and seeking a more meaningful connection with the music.
118:30 - 122:00: Artwork and Visual Elements In the chapter 'Artwork and Visual Elements,' the focus is on the immersive and creative analysis intended for listeners of the album. The artist expresses satisfaction with the reviews received, noting that reviewers approached their critiques as small artworks themselves, showing dedication and thoughtful engagement in their writing.
129:00 - 132:00: Anticipation for Mexico Tour This chapter discusses the excitement and anticipation for an upcoming tour in Mexico. The conversation delves into the idea of using music to provoke deep reflection and articulate emotions more precisely. The speaker enjoys the challenge of reviewing albums and pushing their audience to express their feelings in more nuanced ways, finding joy in the process of describing and understanding complex emotions through music.
139:00 - 143:00: Cultural Perspectives and Conclusion The chapter starts by exploring the speaker's self-reflection on the process of finding the right words and ideas, emphasizing the evolution of thoughts even when initially incorrect. This serves as an introduction to broader discussions about their work and career. The focus then shifts to the speaker's origins, particularly how early-life experiences influenced their career in video.

An interview with Yusaf Parvez "Vicotnik" of DØDHEIMSGARD | Retumba Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 foreign talked with Alfonso today we touched on many different subjects pertaining to both art and life and where art imitates life and vice versa we're also coming over to Mexico in the Autumn of the year please join us which guitar should I pick along on the way I had some guitars on the wall I also have yeah too many guitars
00:30 - 01:00 take care now [ __ ] off [Music] [Music] hello everyone welcome to another interview I'm Alfonso on behalf of bratumba a Mexican blog about the new era of extreme music
01:00 - 01:30 today's with me a very special guest Mr Joseph parvis also known as bigotnik the founder leader frontman and may composer of the heimsgard hello Joseph welcome and thank you for being here how are you today hello also uh honor the biggie here so I can't wait for the chat perfect well of course I invited you here to talk about your new work your new release black medium current which released just two Fridays ago via
01:30 - 02:00 visible records uh how how we so far the response how are you feeling with with the overall feedback and to be honest with you I haven't seen any negative feedback at all so it's actually been quite overwhelming feedback and you know you never you never count on it especially when you know making music yeah or making any art I guess you know like it's a very very lonely process in many
02:00 - 02:30 ways so you're kind of stuck stuck with it for years and after years of working with it you know it's part of you but you you don't know how it how it's going to be perceived anymore because you don't know what you like it yourself you've been just around it for so long so you're kind of blinded by it and at the same time you're obsessed with it and and needs to finish it you know so then you know for most part you know all
02:30 - 03:00 our albums with the Rhymes card has been quite well received by by both the public and and also the the magazines and and the journalists and reviewers and whatnot but and I guess some of the albums have maybe been gotten good good reviews for the wrong reasons sometimes that people find it interesting or uncommon or ungeneric so
03:00 - 03:30 to speak whereas this album it feels more like the people are also using other adjectives as beautiful and immersive and stuff like that in in in addition to being a a record that's also a bit unusual compared to like yeah the general releases that that are coming from the genre so in a way you don't enjoy indulge yourself with the idea of okay this is
03:30 - 04:00 perfect and this is all going to be positive reviews positive feedback you are nervous somehow no I'm not nervous I accept it and this is something you know um I think maybe this this is a a good lesson for for artists is that if you make something publicly everybody's allowed to have an opinion about it and you must accept that you know so I'm so I'm not anxious I'm always looking a bit
04:00 - 04:30 forward to it in a way getting all the perspectives and what I enjoy the most is if I know that I put certain tangents into the music and certain tangents into the concept and the lyrics so I'm also very excited when reading reviews from people's I never talked about in my life if they will use the same kind of words that correlate with the tangents I put into
04:30 - 05:00 the music and that's quite a fascinating kind of thing because that means if they do your experiment is successful you know so if you you're you're bound to make a very emotional immersive album that has kind of a psychological um substrate to it and then when we start reading the reviews you you see all these reviews talking about all these different aspects then then I deem
05:00 - 05:30 that a success even more so than if the journalist writing about it likes it or not as long as it comes across in a sincere and uh thorough way I guess yeah it's my belief that you also your music your creation has like a certain um way or or goal to to um provoke people you know it's not just
05:30 - 06:00 simple it has like something behind to provoke yeah I I I I I guess with 666 International if we go back to 99 uh one of the big subjects uh and Prospects was to provoke uh because we felt already then and even handheld for a few years that that the genre was getting very stagnant in a sense that that you know like the dog from copy bands were
06:00 - 06:30 popping up 13 a dozen basically you know so um so mindset was really or you know making good music of course and music we found interesting ourselves but also as a side note we wanted to kind of challenge the genre I still want to challenge the genre but my my I'm not that obsessed with promo provoking anymore but I would want to evoke yeah and I want to evoke some kind of
06:30 - 07:00 like both on the emotional level and also on the intellectual level and I think you know like a lot of a lot of releases you know when people like them it's like it's so um the words that are used are so generic sometimes you know like yeah it's it's really badass or it's really cool or it's really you know I wanted to avoid all these words and and instead of uh getting those kind of places I really
07:00 - 07:30 wanted people to immerse in into themselves and bring out kind of uh um a more creative way of analyzing the album this is what the album is meant to give you as a listener so I was very happy reading a lot of the reviews I got for this record Being small artworks being small pieces of artworks themselves you could see like the writers had really really taken the time putting their work to to the paper so I
07:30 - 08:00 was really really happy about that yeah in a way is uh to elevate the the reflection of inwards but why is this an experience the music exactly and instead of like evoking you know like from the listeners saying yeah this is badass you're challenging him to find better words to describe the emotion the person is feeling yeah and personally that's one of the things that I enjoy the most about doing reviews for albums you know find
08:00 - 08:30 that challenge aspect of myself to get to that proper idea even if I'm wrong just to find the right words that correlate in my mind perfect or even correct okay so over the course of this um conversation is my intention to touch base on several aspects of your work your career but uh first I would like to start with your Origins with this question um how early in your life did video
08:30 - 09:00 discovered your spark for characteristic expression and was it always channeled through the form of music or extreme music itself I I think you know you you you uh um for me like to take it from the start I grew up with music basically not not with musician parents or anything but I grew up with parents that enjoyed music which meant you know I grew up with a record player in my home you know sometimes luckily for me the TV was off
09:00 - 09:30 and they were playing records instead there was always music in the cars I always was a music lover but you know there was a it's a long stretch from being a music lover into being a content creator so I didn't know that at that point that this is what what I wanted to do and then you kind of you have to kind of um take these humble beginnings and you have to kind of place them somewhere in an environment in my environment I
09:30 - 10:00 always felt sort of like the outsider wherever I lived you know like if it was in India I was the white guy if I lived in Scandinavia I was the the guy with foreign parents and then even even even internally in my family you know even if it was um on purpose or not I felt like you know like I didn't 100 belong in a sense you know so to rectify this you know you you have no
10:00 - 10:30 experience you have no um you have no means of um Independence you have no uh money to kind of explore around so you try different things I guess you know to figure out what's missing and and that can be something like tennis you know you buy a record and and you think okay I'm going to be a tennis player you know like uh is this what I'm searching for and you play tennis for a while and you
10:30 - 11:00 think ah well this wasn't it then you throw the record uh rackets away you know and and then you try football and you find out you suck at it you know and and you you go like no this was it and and all the while you you your your environment is also filled with music and then maybe and the books and movies and stuff like that things you enjoy and and uh and suddenly you get get a guitar you know and then everything kind of fell in place the first thing I did was
11:00 - 11:30 making a song it was a shitty song but that was the first thing I did I didn't sit down to to learn uh Accord I didn't sit down to learn another artist's songs or anything I just sat down and tried to write a song but basically the first thing I did the first time I had a guitar in my life and and uh and it fell in place you know and then I'm also Lucky in the sense that a lot of things was happening kind of in the underground music scene in in Norway at the same
11:30 - 12:00 time or or at least maybe a year later like come 91 92 a lot of stuff was going on and instead of being far moved from it you know you find yourself being in the midst of it you know so it's not me admiring uh grunge in Seattle which would put me geographically very far away it's me admiring underground and
12:00 - 12:30 harsh extreme music in Norway and in Scandinavia and not only in in Norway like yeah the Mayhem rehearsal place was 20 minutes from where I lived you know so so stuff like that that also um kind of made you um realize that this isn't something untouchable it's not looking at Iron Maiden or
12:30 - 13:00 Metallica posters and seeing these gods that are Untouchable it's basically your neighbor you know playing in a metal band inviting you to underground show which which was like mad ass and crazy and and so it it it made it tangible and real basically and and from there you you you try to build your legacy I guess so from the start you you have this um
13:00 - 13:30 let's say passion to emit something out even even though you didn't learn to play the guitar but you started doing your own pieces and yeah black metal was your context your your medium your the most approachable the black metal context was my medium because it was very local exactly exactly so but I think you you know you can throw in some other stuff
13:30 - 14:00 in there as well the thing that the need to express oneself you know like being from True cultures for example uh you know and and my two cultures always knocking heads with each other you know and me kind of in the middle of it all it it needed me to kind of form a language that I didn't have and I I realized like okay all these kind of frustrations all my kind of um all all of my kind of thoughts that are
14:00 - 14:30 driving drowning in the conflict or in in the kind of Whirlpool of emotion I have no language for it you know so I needed to kind of find the language for it and to begin with you know and that correlates very good with the records as well because to be to begin with uh you know my records are primarily anger my demos are primarily anger and frustration and you know like in some way or another and and obviously or as
14:30 - 15:00 time moves along you get more experience and and you know you you become an older human being you find other other ways to express perhaps more deeper underlying thing the things that are underlying format basically yeah and anger is like the most Primal emotion behind black metal or one of them um yeah um so I guess you you you didn't
15:00 - 15:30 um make any mistake while to to immerse yourself in black matter because you have dedicated most of your life or your entire adult life too these are the artificial music and being attached to Black Metal as an entity uh because Nick so I guess my question and I very interest uh into into your opinion what is like what is black metal for you nowadays for me for me and I don't say it necessarily has to be this for
15:30 - 16:00 somebody else but for me black metal is a place and a time obviously black metal is also musical genre you know you can play Black Metal using this and these instruments using this and these four season this and this makeup using this and this you know you can build it but I'm not interested in that aspect of black metal what I'm interested in is like what black metal is for me it's a place and time and this place and time it contains and quite a
16:00 - 16:30 few individuals I don't know maybe 50 maybe 100 maybe 200 people you know and and and that is black metal and like like I said in a couple of interviews already and I am black never you know I'm I'm not I'm not the musical genre as we kind of uh analyzed it to be in retrospective I am the story you know and I'm still still around to tell the story
16:30 - 17:00 you don't separate yourself from it to this day no you know it's given me so much so you know part of making an album like black medium current is getting back to it and the way I give back to it is by still challenging myself and and developing my skills in how to make music in so that I can expand the understanding of what black metal can be
17:00 - 17:30 yes um also because you mentioning um you talk about growth and the change as an artist and time and place that belongs to a period on time especially your records so my question to that would be in what ways uh has changed your purpose to emit something out write new music play it because also I want to mention that we are very um uh forward to answer your fans questions
17:30 - 18:00 in social media so yeah for me you are not one of those artists to continue to to in the loop just for the paycheck no you know like um I I think sometimes um black metal can be more um worried about their facade and that it's not very black metal to answer their fans but I I think that it's it's
18:00 - 18:30 a fallacy basically because the the fans are the reason why you you you're there in the first place so it's it's a very easy um easy problem in the sense that the fans are showing their appreciation and I want to show my appreciation back and I think also this is a genre where it's kind of idiotic to talk and Define the
18:30 - 19:00 people who like your music as fans you know we're not Beyonce for [ __ ] sakes you know a bit of the reason for for creating this journal in the first place was to avoid kind of the the commercial tropes called you know having a higher and a lowercase so yeah like so basically I'm just interacting with the people um that like my music basically and we
19:00 - 19:30 probably have a lot in common when it comes to various records that maybe many of us grew up on you know so I I don't feel anything um I feel it more rewarding this way and it also gives me you know like um Sometimes some trolls come around and it also gives me some opportunity to talk with them and you know like I'm not saying I will always have the time to answer
19:30 - 20:00 every single uh um message left for me but when I do and yeah I think it's the respectful thing to do basically someone invests time in you you know money in you wear your clothes buy your album play your album promote you online you know the the the the the smallest thing you can do is say thank you you know uh so in what way your does the
20:00 - 20:30 appreciation uh from the beginning to nowadays has your motivation your your purpose to continue making music uh has changed oh harsh stay the same it's basically the same the thing is that like you find you you get older so you find more ways to reach what you're searching for you know like when you're when you're a kid
20:30 - 21:00 you know like um the Rebellion is is great you know like an an anger is great and you know because these are very empowering feelings you know but like let's face it I live in Norway I have nothing to rebel against in that sense so I I need to find another substrate to connect to you know and and uh you know mental conditioning behaviorism you know like psychological Darkness these are quite interesting for me after
21:00 - 21:30 a pretty long life you know like yeah and and that's you know a pretty hard Road so this is also a therapeutic thing in the sense that when I'm doing this when I'm writing these lyrics When I am making this music hour by hour day by day month by month year by year I'm also in a process where I'm analyzing myself and what I really think in regards to
21:30 - 22:00 certain things you know so in that sense you know it's not only music making it's also a process in which you grow basically you get a better understanding of yourself and on a practical level that you know that can help you in in in in in the Practical life as well to be a good father and and you know to um be morally righteous and and and and and
22:00 - 22:30 and try to do the best you can basically yeah so in that sense it's not only a Gateway but also a way of enriching yourself as a human being yeah because you know you know this is the language I have for that you know I I I I don't have a therapist and you know and and cutting bread making food won't cut it you know this won't give me the answers you know jumping out of the window
22:30 - 23:00 that's not an option so you know like what what what tools are you left with yeah this is the artistic expression because the artistic expression works on so many levels you know a painting can be uh uh you know like you can admire it for for its colors you can I admire it for its realism or you cannot admire it for for the atmosphere or you can admire it for it so it works on so many levels you know as does music probably more
23:00 - 23:30 abstract way yeah uh so back to the conversation of like about black metal from the Orthodox way of the genre with its own taboos and conservatism to the modern sounds and of the genre and the I don't know more of uh marketing product placement nowadays for the genre do you think black metal as a smartphone has diminished over the years
23:30 - 24:00 yeah you know I I I feel it's a very difficult question to answer you know it's very easy to say yes in my position but the truth is I haven't listened to enough new records to really say that but I think the motivation has changed I think you have to look at this as um what what is historically different and and if we can can can find certain
24:00 - 24:30 things that are historically different from black metal in the past and black metal now they will also probably be some definable um differences in the art itself or the output of the art and how you present the art you know and my understanding is this that the most [Music] um the biggest difference from the past to the present is that the present has the
24:30 - 25:00 parts to build on whereas the past didn't have a past to build on which means that in the present when you create a band today you can look at other bands and you can say this was successful I think I'm going to try that that the hammer kind of way of things looks like a [ __ ] success I think I want my band to sound like them you know like whereas we didn't have all that back in the 90s there weren't that many
25:00 - 25:30 comparisons you know and there was also kind of a um there were no festivals that admired us to play there there were no really interested record labels so people from the scene created the first record labels instead because nobody else wanted to release this music so we didn't have the external motivation basically so that's why I think if you go back to the products it's a very very conscious choice on the con that the
25:30 - 26:00 content had to be kind of individualistic it had to kind of be a representation of yourself whereas today I think a lot of players I'm not saying all of them are also considered considering what's important for the market you know how what can we do so we will get a record deal what can we do so we can play this and this Festival what can we do you know so we didn't have
26:00 - 26:30 those comparison levels because there were no record labels there were no festivals they were nothing like that so it was only the music only the music but for example your band or your projects over the years hasn't correct or course correcting that pathway to to Market Market your music so you have stayed in the way of you know the the alternative part but yeah yeah I think you know like
26:30 - 27:00 that's why I'm saying that not like the question you asked um five minutes ago like what have changed from from you know like I said nothing basically it's still the same mindset like it's still I'm still working from the same model the thing is I have more equipment now I have more skills now I'm older now I am more experienced I have more to talk about you know I have a bigger understanding so this has changed the
27:00 - 27:30 quantity of what I possess has has changed but the mindset is basically the same your tools at your your disposal basically has has grown and expanded exactly okay uh my my electricity is kind of bleaching so if I lose you it's this um but can you can you give me please an email to to send you a link if that happens for to regain the conversation
27:30 - 28:00 yeah I let's see is it a chat here why do you think black metal as a general has always been one of the variants of extreme music or metal which lends heavily into Innovation and keeps experimenting and moving forward aside from other styles of music heavy music yeah I think a a part of the reason there is kind of
28:00 - 28:30 this the initial starting point of black metal if you one thing is that a lot of us black metal guys in the 90s we started doing black metal because we felt death metal was becoming so generic basically so in one sense it's a response to that and you know when you think about also the few um like 20 25 first dance they are all unique so then you have this treasure
28:30 - 29:00 grow you know of all these that that basically is the starting point you know like the the Mayans and the persons and the dark Thrones and and later the satiricons and you know uh all all bird and all the bands you know they all sounded uniquely different so having done as a starting point it kind of set it was set from the start that this is a genre you can experiment quite a lot in
29:00 - 29:30 and still be in the same genre you know which makes it very interesting in the sense then because I think a lot of other genres has teslax expandability basically you know like uh um yeah yeah that is interesting some some genres are kind of dependent on their swing and their time you know like uh um like a certain form of dance music and stuff like that so you can't have
29:30 - 30:00 that variation because it need that needs that same beat to be defined as that music so when a music form like black metal is more abstractly defined then sometimes more defined by the content in the lyrics than the actual output of the music you know then then that gives for a lot of creative freedom but it's interesting because well at least for to my perception um black metal started being very constrict in itself very much without
30:00 - 30:30 much room for Flex stability there but over the years for example bed ruins and like was a starting point to make the switch for new territories new banters in the genre so it's funny that you mentioned I mean it's a I I think you know like even even if that buildings and and third time start I think both fans released their first album in 95. we had been into the black
30:30 - 31:00 metal scene for years already you know like I started playing black metal in 91 and you know like a lot of my friends that's the year they popped up basically um so we we still work from that mindset even if like our our album is out in the mid 90s we kind of worked of the uh outset of being originality being a big part of this art form you know because
31:00 - 31:30 this art form is not only to serve you know like the listener with music it's also telling the listener who we are basically so that's why we always kept the identity and you know like yeah I think like I said earlier than the more generic forms of of black metal you know like a few bands were more visible than the other bands so when the big like hundreds and thousands of people came
31:30 - 32:00 into the genre it was easier to pick up on the the bands that were visible like I think the dark brown style is probably copied a million times basically you know like this and still to this day so um because Nick and Dr heimsgard by association gravitates heavily around a lot of avant-garde over the years so my question is what or how was the first time you Associated extreme music to the concept of avant-garde you know
32:00 - 32:30 yeah I didn't I never did and for me I'm only making music and I think like sometimes it's it's a bit of a futile task to Grant yourself titles so I've I've always said I play Black Metal because that's where where I'm from the avant-garde monik here it's been given to us by other people you know and but but I respect that it's given out of love and respect so I have no problems with that but I've never
32:30 - 33:00 kind of considered what I do I'm a God because on on one notion the the term is so at you know the term is so wishy-washy you know it's it's like talking about a soul you know or for us you know that something is spiritual what the [ __ ] is it you know it's like one word that can be used in a million different ways so it doesn't really tell you much you know but like I said I'm really appreciative because it was given
33:00 - 33:30 to us and I think like people like me and Carl Michael from Victorian Center would kind of looked at the the forefathers of avalanchard now so which which is a great honor for us to have this yeah and I I permitted me for me also is like um a very volatile notion or or untangible the avant-garde aspect of music because it depends of one's perception if if you
33:30 - 34:00 find it or not but just have the notion so um and drugs you take it you accept it so the the the aspect of avant-garde music extreme music um do you think it it holds weight meaning behind it I mean that that that's my problem with the definition because as time went on we're going into the 2017 2010s and and whatnot you know
34:00 - 34:30 you see all these this music being labeled as avant-garde and it really isn't you know it's still good yeah so um it's just like 20 20 year old copies of of uh or copies of 20 year old albums that were made in the past so that's why I felt like this this term doesn't really hold any weight anymore so um so in that sense it doesn't mean much to me you know
34:30 - 35:00 I understand I understand that it is sort of a classification but the only thing this classification is saying now is that this is black metal but it's a bit different so it's not saying much more than that a Debian form a black metal yeah yeah and and a lot of the projects aren't even there you know like yeah and that's exactly my my thought about it okay so back to my point of avant-gardeism
35:00 - 35:30 um I I concur with your opinion because it can be wishy-washy I wish you turn or it can become a gimmicky uh Association of music like one band from this year uh came out using I don't know reference to your music from 20 years ago and just because it was called avant-garde many years ago nowadays it doesn't have like the same [Music] um
35:30 - 36:00 meaning or or value I would say yeah I think like the term kind of loses its value if a band that it's is deeply inspired by for example with blue and Zenna and sounds exactly like baboons and that with the small differences if this is also called avant-garde then I think kind of the the the term loses its value basically
36:00 - 36:30 because you know then I don't know for me then it's then that's just a metal band that sounds like a business and it's not really an uncondable but you know like a term like this is also hard to use because [Music] um it promises much more than it can deliver you know and and in the classification of music and you need solid terms basically you need pop you
36:30 - 37:00 need drop you need techno you need all these terms to make sense of it but then I'll rob it you know then then I guess we're kind of a a metal band basically you know that's that's where we come from yeah and drill and struggle yourself with the the idea of is it or not Northern black metal I mean there is experimentalism there but that's also the difference between experimenting because from one artist one other it it is different the the the aspect or the
37:00 - 37:30 effect or the phenomenon or experimenting while Savant guard it it um holds value in in all of the the the the the world of that sort of Niche you know and I have an observation about your work your music in general that I hope to place it correctly I didn't write the question but uh for me your music I mean there is like a pattern which why would
37:30 - 38:00 you put something out every eight years um and every eight years starting from 66 International you kind of use the the tools around music at the time like industrial electronics and also the the chaotic way of expressing uh a mixture of ideas or textures but eventually with time you polish that
38:00 - 38:30 idea and also present something that in the time context was still relevant still Innovative still new and now and this year 20 000 23. the correct and okay so this year you came out with a new album and and you know for um at least for me that I I would like to consider an observant
38:30 - 39:00 of what happens around history music um I think the value of of Chaos uh has lost weight or meaning and the most Innovative bands have found a way of creating something new avant-garde let's say with a different value a more restrained music more inward uh employee inflection for example oranti passus with the last
39:00 - 39:30 album I don't know if you are familiar with with their work but uh they create something that is not chaotic I mean for me it's like listening to The Beatles simple drum patterns but with uh like this sort of alien entity into their sound and this is what I found in in your new album is not all chaos it's more emotion but the the way you can joined all of the ideas it still has this um
39:30 - 40:00 a strong quality to be called Innovative in the current landscape is what I'm trying to tell yeah because I think you know I don't know when but it suddenly at some point it dawned on me that that the thing people are really conflating Innovation with is actually uh higher and higher technical level and more and more kind of distorted chaos and and and
40:00 - 40:30 it seemed at some point that this was kind of the only reference point for Innovation and it didn't really sound very Innovative anymore it just sounds more and more kind of saturated and and a bit like the Mickey in a sense you know like you're covering up all these you know like you you you're trying to be crazy so hard it's not even a collective yeah and there's no sincerity left there it's
40:30 - 41:00 just like a um that you're running so you're just trying to outrun the the person in front of you and this is an external motivation so I I you know I was very conscious about this time like that let's [ __ ] all these external motivations you know and and uh and try to kind of unpack unpack what is um beneath all the the the distracting chaos basically and and and
41:00 - 41:30 just try to carry that forward and see if that holds water in the sense you know and and this gives room for a lot of other stuff you know like uh like all the layering on the album and and the vocals and and how to kind of Express the lyrics because now I had so much naked space basically you know that wasn't oversaturated oversaturated with a lot of noise basically so um no but I think that's that's the thing you know
41:30 - 42:00 maybe as you grow older you you kind of learn to be more and more honest about you know what you put out you know like yeah and maybe fantasy albums doesn't cut it anymore you know fantasy albums like yeah I'm going to stand on the demon Tower and hail my Lord Satan and cut you in half maybe you know at some point that you know it gets old basically you know like there's no substance there it's just storytelling you know so so yeah I try to dare to
42:00 - 42:30 kind of make something that I I wouldn't know the expectants to you know I didn't know if people would be impressed or embarrassed reading my lyrics this time because they are so sincere basically but I thought that that is the brave thing to do as an artist you know not just go to the the well-established tropes and redo them over and over again until we finish this would you say that you remained
42:30 - 43:00 observant of the landscape of your your music um or how do you stay informed on on the the music that or the elements that you decide to put into your music for example the electronic yeah I listen to a lot of different kinds of music I haven't for a few years now because I've been too cooked up in the studio and you know like too many hours working with music then you don't want to go home listening to music but so but um in in this uh
43:00 - 43:30 um years when I'm creating content I do listen to a lot of music not only metal of course there there are metal influences as well but music in general a lot of alternative rock music a lot of classical music a lot of metal as well of course and and whatever will come my way to sound interesting you know and it's also um I think after internet now now there's a lot of
43:30 - 44:00 big genres basically that are not pop genres that are still not popular music but they're really big so um because they are big on YouTube or whatever so you can find really interesting music that has a lot of followers you know and you know you get pieces and bits of ideas there and you also get bits of pieces of ideas from the past your own past basically you know like uh um atheist music 90s music there's a lot of nostalgia in there as well but the
44:00 - 44:30 important way of using Nostalgia is kind of um wrapping it in in today's context you know like don't make a 80s albums you know but please use the kind of the know-how and the technology from that era to reinvent it basically you know so I never wanted to make an album sounding like Pet Shop Boys but there's some Echoes of their albums I like to use you
44:30 - 45:00 know like and I I want to form because we are dependent on things to make music you know I need a guitar I need a drum kit I need so and in the abstract world you're similarly dependent on on input faces all sorts of influences in a cryptic or abstract way or even in a more transparent way into your music I mean yeah you can upload it like that
45:00 - 45:30 you have direct influences and a lot of influences you're not really conscious about them it's not like yeah you sit down and you say yeah I'm going to just sit on YouTube for five hours now to see if I can find some influences some influence are just there and they come out when you make music and then then you know there was another influence here as well because I knew what the lyrics were going to be about you know even before I wrote them my new kind of what subjects I wanted to touch on so
45:30 - 46:00 that's a direct influence on the music as well you know because having these topics I I can't make service music right so yeah you know so it kind of guides me in the way that okay having having this and this in mind kind of um to find the general term kind of explore psychological Darkness basically not mythological but psychological Darkness what what sounds should accompany that if I'm trying to find the
46:00 - 46:30 factory in emotion or moods which sounds ex describes this mood the best way so this is also a directed place and you do a sort of try an error I mean how do you approach the making of a new album the mood the tone the concept that's why it takes a long time because first couple of years it's you know first the year or whatever it's just
46:30 - 47:00 thinking basically thinking thinking thinking you know like is there any more can I do something else you know like and then then when the idea suddenly forms in a sense like okay I think I know what what I want to do I'm not 100 sure but I think so then it's a trial and error thing you know you try you record yourself and you know you write and stuff like that and you listen back to it and it was like no this isn't it this has nothing to do what what I'm
47:00 - 47:30 searching for rubbish and you know and then it can take maybe a year and then you get your first maybe half of a song it's like this is demo you know this is the emotion I'm putting in and now when I'm listening to the speakers this is the motion I'm getting back so now now you kind of have a blueprint basically that you can build on the work work isn't nearly done now it just
47:30 - 48:00 started and you're like it's two two and a half years already you know that's strong but so you you um actively and consciously search for something different or something that you may stumble upon even by accident uh but it's something that resonates with you yeah with what you want to do yeah and I think it's also a conscious choice because I don't want to make another album that sounded like the previous album in the sense it's also
48:00 - 48:30 out of respect for the previous album because if I duplicate it duplicate it duplicate it I lessen the value of it yeah yeah that's the way to go in my opinion um so you don't recycle all ideas or just start from scratch always I I think you know if you're a musician you're yourself you will hear that I do recycle a lot of ideas but I like to I like to I
48:30 - 49:00 I don't haphazard or I don't just recycle them you know like if I'm a big Baroque nerd you know so a lot of my my my themes Follow That kind of that notion you know like but I I like to present things when I take a theme back or something that is similar to a theme I already made I want to present it differently or in a different context or you know so that
49:00 - 49:30 there has to be some sort of familiarity there you know so but I I take that familiarity and put it in a new context this way I can use a familiarity of language but I can tell a new story there because now you have your own language and you expanded from it exactly I mean that's the experience for over three decades of making your own music yeah
49:30 - 50:00 um so enabled to kind of tell the new story instead of retelling the previous story I need to take the familiar language and put it into another contextual kind of world basically and and you know sometimes it's it's just small two weeks that makes a big big difference you know like the the guitarists or whatever they can basically be the same you can slow down the tempo you can amp up the tempo you can add different beats to them you
50:00 - 50:30 can use other layers like synthesizers you can expand on your um your your vocal choices you know and and uh and and suddenly you have a brand new rep representation of your kind of previous articles um I have one question before we move forward fully into the new album um about Umbra Omega and your dissonant vocals I I believe there's a a name for
50:30 - 51:00 that technique it's British time in German yeah and I I didn't do the vocals on aumbra Mega okay but I did the production for them and Engineering the I think you um the pitched vocals is basically just an added effect so it's it's basically
51:00 - 51:30 um um yeah basically an effect it's something you add to the voice it's not an actual voice basically it takes the actual voice and it distorts it okay okay because I kind of found some resemblance in one song in in black medium current um maybe it's the the I have not I have not used any pitch shifters uh on my voice on black medium current I wanted the all all the vocal representation to be kind
51:30 - 52:00 of my voice basically organic so but you know there are effects on the vocals there are reverbs and there are delays and stuff like that and that kind of gives the voice a bit of steroids and a bit of help basically but uh but in the end I didn't want to um distort the voice basically I want to talk also about your life
52:00 - 52:30 stage Persona um your plants like mannerisms and the shadow type of painting in your face does it have a symbolic weight in your performance all these movements and the pain the pain is basically just an abstraction of where I'm from basically I'm a Norwegian guy with an Indian Heritage you know you can put more into it of course like one can go down that
52:30 - 53:00 rabbit hole and discuss it but you know it's it's not a supernatural thing or anything it doesn't give me you know like uh demonic powers or anything it's just like yeah um maybe uh in a sense an artistic representation of the person uh and and when it comes to the stage performance it's basically you know for many years when you do live you're you
53:00 - 53:30 know the you're kind of nervous you know when you don't have the the stage experience and and and to to kind of learn how to avoid that nervousness you play more Concepts and then you also study other method guys you know you you see how they stand and how they kind of uh how they act and and stuff like that so at some point I was like [ __ ] that you know like what you know it seems
53:30 - 54:00 like it's always the same leg on the Monitor and all that yeah [ __ ] poor so I think okay what what can how can I do do my live performance like get the nervous nervous uh um tweaks out of the way and at the same time not just going through the [ __ ] old stupid boring motions so so I I thought like the immersiveness in the music you know and being kind of a physical representation of what is going
54:00 - 54:30 on musically lyrically you know like try to kind of be a translator for that it made the most sense to me because then I have to be so focused all the time this you know so so this is how that came about it's like a sweet to to enter into your baconic persona and uh well I may be wrong in my reading but I've seen your videos uh hopefully I will see you this this year in Mexico
54:30 - 55:00 um but I've seen your videos and the the idea that I get is some sort of spirituality like I mentioned trends like you know like in messenger yourself in that mindset yeah and you know and I do that through the music I hear on stage and knowing the topics of the lyrics you know like what are the lyrics trying to tell a lot of you know like like uh I guess a lot of our stuff has been dealing with
55:00 - 55:30 certain kind of mental conditions you know like for for for uh since 666 International at least you know like yeah and that kind of I I try to bring that sort of behaviorism on the stage that will kind of re represent the content of the lyric and and kind of the um the output and outpouring of the music so this means I you know I'm basically 100 focused all the time so
55:30 - 56:00 I'm never kind of worried or what should I do now should I put my put on the the monitor again should I go to the left side of the crowd because I'm totally immersed in it basically yes and if whatever happens it happens it's oh it's not even improv it's just your impulses right like while you are standing there yeah that's it um so this experience or while you are creating music gives you also some sort
56:00 - 56:30 of guidance and to okay maybe this will be cool or interesting uh while I missed I'm standing in the stage to make this passage in the songs you you do this sort of tweaks in your music I didn't catch the question I'm sorry uh so uh if the thinking of of these songs the new songs uh how will they be presented on a live
56:30 - 57:00 performance also gives you guidance into creating them if you consciously make choices yeah you know um I understand what you mean that uh but I think I didn't actually think a lot about it I think this is a problem we will solve later and I knew you know the the album I've been most conscious about live performances is super will
57:00 - 57:30 not passed hmm and because on that album I made short forms I made kind of rookie songs they had choruses and verses and stuff like that so that was kind of my conscious way of thinking I want to make this song so they belong on the stage so Omega and black medium current I don't want to think like that anymore because I think it inhabits the Music Creation if you're going to think about something
57:30 - 58:00 in one context as it's belonging to another context so I need to stay focused in the context of being a creative person in the studio like on the creativity itself itself instead of worrying how this will turn out on the stage but I know also you know back in my head then it will be all right we will figure it out we'll sort it out you know like and a lot of things will give
58:00 - 58:30 themselves and we also live in a time now in 2023 where there's a lot of Technology available you know and and if you compare to 20 years ago you know the prices today of buying the things you need to to make everything right and sound good on stage it's it's like a fraction of what it used to cost you know foreign yourself creatively I no I think yeah that that's what I
58:30 - 59:00 mean you know I think like if I'm too worried about like how these songs will work on a stage then I'm kind of inhibiting the the the the the creative process so it's more like okay let me focus on the creativity now and have no boundaries to that and let that uh this phase take me wherever it's going to take me and I'll worry about the the other contexts later basically okay so moving on to uh uh question
59:00 - 59:30 about the album itself I haven't listened to any music since two days ago the person on my dog lost her by the way was his name beautiful beautiful dog and I wasn't expecting his debt you know it was unexpected just one morning he was dead under my bed and uh um but I heard black medium Korean today for preparation for the interview I went I mean again I was I have listened
59:30 - 60:00 before um so this album will be forever my my associated with his memory of his passing and yeah you know I have one album associated with him a rival him coming into my life out of nowhere which is why I took the name for him for that band and now I have this album for for you know years to come to be to remember him you know that memory will stay there I don't know till when but
60:00 - 60:30 um my question for you in that regard um uh at what time of your life did you find this album or this song Found You The Emotions the approach the orbital process or the the third process behind yeah first I want to say I'm sorry and like like I told you um before we started interview I had two dogs myself or over my lifetimes I I
60:30 - 61:00 know exactly how you feel and uh and if it's it's seems like a a silly way to say it but you know like I I'm I'm glad in the sense that um this album was there because it really really correlates with that kind of stuff basically you know like
61:00 - 61:30 um yeah I had a lot of um friends you know like dead dead friends visiting me like over the last few years in my head of course they're not really there it's just like they're psychological imprint on me like people I've lost over the years so I really wanted to make this album in a sense together with them you know like yeah um and I I read another comment by by a
61:30 - 62:00 person as well that said he lost his father two weeks ago and this album kind of uh um translated with all of his emotions really well so it felt like a soothing comfort in and like I said this is this is this album it is about that it's about the psychological Darkness it's about realities we have that crumble you know because this this this is uh the the Perpetual state of the human existence is that it will break down and
62:00 - 62:30 it will break down in Parts you know and uh and you know we we don't talk about this in our normal lives basically we have no kind of expression for it so I I really want to kind of take the tacticity of these moods and make them into sounds basically okay well uh I'm sorry also for the loss of your talks thank you he was my my
62:30 - 63:00 life partner essentially you know we do all how long did it happen seven years seven years um I don't know the word mixed sort of race yeah I mean he he was abandoned uh in front of my street there's like a forest there and one night I was in my garage doing some cleaning and she was abandoned I didn't power it but he was a puppy and
63:00 - 63:30 he walked across the street to my garage and I found him sniffing in my sneakers while I was standard and the rest is history I took it I and yeah he lived with me for seven years but um it wasn't expected like I'm telling you and this album also gives me Comfort and I'm glad for having this album having this sounds to channel the emotions I don't I don't I didn't have the I don't
63:30 - 64:00 have the lyrics I will search him later but I want to understand it better you know because it's it's already a special record for me and well thank you for your honesty thank you thank you um have you at some point run out of gas let's say and consider quitting music making music yeah sure all the time but it always draws me back you know like you know
64:00 - 64:30 this isn't a undivided treasure you know it's given me a lot of things in life but it's also costed me a lot of things in life you know so it's not like it's just a joy you know yeah so and but I think this is just what I do you know it's it's who I am and what I have become basically if if I I if I cut this out of my life it will be
64:30 - 65:00 like cutting my head off you know and then just walking around walking to the story you know so I I guess that's the best way I can describe it yeah but it's a it's an important thing that for me at least to express that I I don't like my my primarily goal or or reason for playing in bands isn't because I think it's fun you know like it it it it it it has a deeper kind of
65:00 - 65:30 resonance or reasoning behind you have to demand something of yourself yeah it's very demanding you know and and and and sometimes for for very little you know like and you know like I'm not trying to put down all the great things you know and reviews and all that you know but it's still eight years of my life I put into it and how how can you measure that how can you measure eight years of your life please Priceless yeah so you don't so that's
65:30 - 66:00 why you just accept it you accept that this is who you are this is what you do and it's sometimes it's fun sometimes it's horrible sometimes you know sometimes you you want to do it other times you just want to quit and and that's just how it is I guess every important thing everything that's important is complicated yeah it's a challenge and challenge is where brings interesting results in life yeah
66:00 - 66:30 I will say [Music] um okay these are just general questions um what are the things about extreme metal or black metal that you don't subscribe as an individual yeah one more time sorry yeah what are the things about black metal as a whole that you wouldn't subscribe to as an individual what I don't subscribe to yes
66:30 - 67:00 let's say I don't know that's understood yeah no not really so we're talking about the genre like extreme metal and if even you know like yeah it's the standard stuff you know for me black metal is an art burn so obviously you know like when it comes it
67:00 - 67:30 you know it's an easy genre to kind of make into something it is not you know because it's a male dominated genre yes it is you know and it's uh predominantly white genre no no not historically speaking not where it comes from basically come as well if you go historically long far enough back it's black music as well but so you know we have a lot of racial connotations in in
67:30 - 68:00 uh in certain parts of of the black metal world you know which uh which is something that I don't subscribe to you know like uh I I think uh um the race and racism is probably the worst idea somebody ever came up with you know and and in fact there is nothing that there is no such thing as a race there is no no biological
68:00 - 68:30 thing that you can point to that can divide us into races there's not like uh something inside a body it's just like Sun Sheltering basically it's a production of you know an enzyme in the skin you know because because so it won't make damage to to your to your skin so I guess when when bands become you know like more more focused about
68:30 - 69:00 spreading their political word or when bands become too dogmatic you know like like they're trying to be a cult or whatever like that then I think they're missing the points yeah in the sense for me black metal was kind of uh coming over all that kind of adversity in the sense that a lot of us from the black metal early days we come from quite small towns outside the big
69:00 - 69:30 centers you know like and where um where where we came from and where we lived there there was a very narrow-minded culture that we didn't fit into so kind of black metal was an antecedent towards that you know like the the kind of the the remedy to the poison so to see like then black metal take out 180 and suddenly become in many
69:30 - 70:00 ways what it initially fought against you know seems a bit stupid and then you have the elitist black man like it doesn't make sense to me because you know black metal is made from the middle class basically you know it's a response from the middle class what I truly enjoy is seeing uh black metal bands in Iran and India and you know all these places where the social struggle is still going on you know yeah for me that's black you have an
70:00 - 70:30 Iranian person you know hiding his T-shirts because he will be killed if if somebody sees him he has to book a rehearsal room in secret to practice his songs otherwise he can be arrested even probably killed you know this is black this is black metal before we we move into the an important part of this conversation which is your visit to Mexico the next month and I want to talk
70:30 - 71:00 about the album artwork I find it interesting that you always choose something I don't know if the word is elegant or just different from what is out there how do you work maybe the symbolisms the colors came do you have something in mind or was in at all attached to you yeah I I pretty much knew what I wanted this time with the spectral spectral emissions with the colors and uh and
71:00 - 71:30 mostly mostly space basically you know mostly open openness you know like um you use the word Elegance you know and you know I can that's sort of what I'm aimed for you know with the at least the two last album covers you know and I think also it's a good good representations of the music in the sense that
71:30 - 72:00 um the the cover is abstract in the sense that you can get lost in it and you can also get lost in the content of the album so they they kind of suit each other very well and then you know the spectral colors that kind of a is a a representation of our physical reality basically something tangible something you can feel see taste touch whatever you know whereas the the blackness in the background is basically just the the vast potential of everything that can be so even if it's just a Blackness back
72:00 - 72:30 there it's it's a it's very full in the sense it contains a lot of things even if it's empty depth and uh there's no uh there is no not just one answer to it to to find the quality do you believe in synesthesias sorry yeah please yeah I think you know like this is one you know what I want to do like
72:30 - 73:00 um on the artistic level when it pertains to the music and the lyrics as well that it it it has some uh abstractations of content but the listener has to kind of fill in their own experience to it and and like when we were talking about the passing of your dog in the sense that that fits into the album but you know you're not the author of this album but still you could kind of place your experience and
73:00 - 73:30 your emotion into this album and it made total sense and and I think that that that's very valuable and from the perspective of uh you know artistic expression basically you mentioned the color palettes of the vote albums um and I'm produced if you believe in synesthesia the the ability to to hear colors with the music you have to kind of repeat the the the
73:30 - 74:00 the the color scheme on both albums the polish games yeah um it's not a conscious choice in relation to why I did uh the colors I did but definitely I I I I think I read um uh red about an another artist the other day that said he he um every song he made he started with a color in his mind you know and uh and maybe
74:00 - 74:30 one color or two colors or and then he made the songs from from that perspective you know so uh in that sense of course it's the other way around but that that sense he's trying to recreate hearing color basically and after the album was finished and you hear you heard the the full work did you see those colors because to me
74:30 - 75:00 it has some sort of blueness to it that's just my read yeah blue is kind of repeated theme in the ramsgard since uh um since the satanic art EP which was blue and I painted myself blue for many years I I use a blue whale today and I you also use a blue kind of suit and and stuff like that so um and I I used to
75:00 - 75:30 play just a small stint I used to play a little bit of theater in Stockholm in in the end of the 90s so I kind of put took my blue Persona and put into that theater and performed also this Persona basically in a theater setting for I don't know maybe 20 25 um it shows something like that you know so um so it blue has kind of been a uh
75:30 - 76:00 reoccurring kind of theme we use a lot of blue colors in in also on the stage lightning and stuff like that but I'm I'm not sure why maybe it's the depth of the color basically that it comes it contains so much light and so much Darkness basically at the same time it seems like blue can go to Black at any moment but blue can also go to Daylight at any moment so yeah yeah not to mention is like
76:00 - 76:30 blue is the one color I think about space and space I mean yeah exactly between light and darkness it has those potential uh social potential duality right like a element to it it's almost like like you say space and at the same time it's water you know like it's just just a color that's that's three three-dimensional in a sense yeah so okay now it's part of your
76:30 - 77:00 identity and your visual aesthetic identity as well well the dinosaurs um okay now in the coming months you are coming to Mexico for the first time in your whole career uh are you excited about playing here for the first time very and it's some part of the excitement is is the unexpected basically because uh now now I'm going out of my kind of playground and and
77:00 - 77:30 coming into another part part of the world where where things are both the same and and different at the same time you know so I'm really excited and the yeah maybe maybe the gig I'm most excited for this year not not trying to to [ __ ] on my other audience but so it has nothing to do with that it's basically just uh will be very interesting to to visit a new place basically and I can tell you that for us is one of the most important gigs in
77:30 - 78:00 this year the the visit of the heimsgard uh how well do you have represented to you was it your first invitation at all yeah I think so I think maybe maybe some management has been working on stuff like this before that never happened but um but this was um maybe I think the first time we got an invitation to Mexico where it felt like okay there's a big chance this this
78:00 - 78:30 might happen and I was also really Pleasant pleasantly surprised because when it got posted I saw so many comments in Spanish you know saying you know and and at that point when seeing them on Spanish I I was thinking they probably say who the [ __ ] are they and and then I translated a lot of the comments and they were so cool well overwhelmingly positive it's like it's like it's a Synergy there in a sense like it's almost like the Mexican people
78:30 - 79:00 that that discovered that we were coming there also understand how difficult it actually is for us coming you know like yeah so they they also see that side of it you know like and and that makes it also a special event for them you know yeah and we as the audience the Mexican audience are very much used to to repeat in visits from the same bands and you
79:00 - 79:30 know you have three decades of work and this is your first time so that tells you how how much are we used to not getting the many different fans here yeah yeah but we are so also very excited yeah yeah yeah I think it makes it very very special you know because it it is one of those things that actually might be once in a lifetime yeah for sure you know you you one one say that about a lot of
79:30 - 80:00 things but for the most things one say that about is is [ __ ] but this is actually one of those things that potentially actually can be one once in a lifetime so really really looking forward to it here here is an event and not just one concert but an event and also you coming with a new album which happens every eight years I mean the enlightenment is special if anything yeah and and that's what I'm kind of hoping for and and you know like
80:00 - 80:30 I haven't been there and so I never been on a concert uh to a concert in Mexico either as a band or as an audience you know but I'm hoping like in my mind I picture it as not being as complacent or as spoiled as the European audience that I used to you know having all bands coming through their kind of major cities at least all the time and I think that will have a physical kind of expression you
80:30 - 81:00 will see the difference yeah the energy will definitely deliver for the band I I can I can assure you so no expectations at all or maybe big expectations without trying to find them but I I'm I have one question about Mexico uh you made one joke about coming here uh yeah which which I mean Mexicans are the first one to mock of ourselves and and the the the the
81:00 - 81:30 current state as a country you know all of the problems the issues but uh um and I saw in the comments that the the people that that triggered about your joke are weren't even Mexicans you know so is that political correctness that is nowadays uh very much present yeah yeah and I I think I think and when you start using political correctness as
81:30 - 82:00 a damaging weapon in contexts where it's actually an unrelated issue it's very destructive you know so um but you know there was nothing you know my comment there's no race in there so um so um yeah you know it's the the time we live in I I think I think this will pass because it's a bad idea and there's coming a lot of literature out now explaining why cancel culture is really
82:00 - 82:30 really damaging basically and I think these people on the internet they are waiting just waiting for for comments that they can you know be because I think they get some kind of pleasure out of of it basically so it's a very selfish act you know yeah just attacking somebody randomly for for for nothing basically and you know Norwegians you know Norwegians we always make fun of
82:30 - 83:00 ourselves as well you know so it's uh you know when it's it's a difficult time where you have to be very careful and what what you joke around with but I think like joke joke and humor is basically a very good way of of uh talking about our Social Challenges and it has been that for many years you know like this is how we not only talk about
83:00 - 83:30 them but this is also a way of venting frustration you know how you can live with the thing and that is bad but at the same time also laugh at it that's kind of empowering in a way you know it's a good starting point and that not that you mention it is essentially that's what we as make as Mexicans do in power be empowered by it but I generally curious about your perception as an Oregon citizen about Mexico as a country
83:30 - 84:00 if you could share your your take no problem yeah yeah you know and of course Mexico when you live in Norway you you don't get all the good news about Mexico you know you you have all the the fast kind of fast tracks to Mexico you have the the Mexican and American Border you know so there's a lot of uh kind of struggle tied to to to it and so as a Norwegian
84:00 - 84:30 unless you're kind of into geography and history and stuff like that and you have all these bits and pieces that make out Mexico for you you know like it like I said the Mexican North American Border or U.S border I mean you have uh um I think it was in 1986 you had uh uh world championships in football there uh obviously we know what Mexican food is
84:30 - 85:00 but we have a kind of our own version of it you know uh tequila we know so it's all these bits and pieces you know and often also kind of you have Mexican characterization in American movies which we watch a lot but I thing like um most Norwegians at least that would will consider or want to travel to Mexico
85:00 - 85:30 they can put all that aside you know we all know that that has nothing to do with the country it's kind of a parody in a sense you know it's an exaggerated version and uh um so we understand that this country is as complex and multifaceted as any other country in the world basically of course of course well I hope your your experience here is Pleasant at least I hope you can go now beyond the the show
85:30 - 86:00 to to take the time to see places if you want yeah and we are very much looking forward to the gig um it's the black the Mexico black metal Fest uh you are going to be headlining that night and sure it's going to be special one last question which I always do oh I always ask if you could compare or
86:00 - 86:30 connect relate assimilate just for the sake of answering my question this album with a northern form of another existing piece of work or form of art beyond music a book painting a movie which will it be and why oh that was a very difficult question and it's difficult in part because I haven't thought about it but um
86:30 - 87:00 I've always kind of enjoyed Cinema so cinematography has a big place in my music you know that's why it's so visual in a sense you know yeah so um and I always enjoyed David Lynch's way of telling stories you know be Twin Peaks or or blue velvet or something because they're he always kind of has
87:00 - 87:30 something in his movies that are on the surface it's very normal you know it's a normal neighborhood it's neighbors it's a hotel you know and the hotel has guests and then there's that underlying current there you know which kind of uh kind of uh always challenges the established reality like an underlying underpinning darkness that in many ways are more real and then the surface level reality
87:30 - 88:00 because we kind kind of come to realize that the surface level level reality you know the the Green Grass and the lawn the flowers the the balcony all these are constructed it's just constructed for our comfort it's not real it's just you know to keep us keep us up not keep us too worried or too um full of an anxiety so you know in lack for a a total kind of emission into
88:00 - 88:30 um another piece of art I would say that I like David Lynch's mindset of presenting some kind of familiarity but distorting it so yeah I have to go with David Lynch okay I like that phrase familiarity but distorted yeah that's that sums it all quite well well Mr bigotnik stage stuff thank you for your time I have a
88:30 - 89:00 pleasant conversation I was very much looking forward to spending this time with you um I have one favor to ask you please if you just just say the words in Spanish hello friends of ratumba for the intro the interview and then invite them to listen to your album or to where to wait for the the the the your your show here or even invite them to to have to join us in this conversation in English
89:00 - 89:30 of course but the phrase is hola amigos de ratumba and then the rest okay maybe we'll do a few takes of course okay uh let's go where it's spacious hola amigos correct okay let's get some lighting some makeup
89:30 - 90:00 I had a pleasant talk with Alfonso today we touched on many different subjects pertaining to both art and life and where art imitates life and vice versa we're also coming over to Mexico in the Autumn of the year please join us which guitar should I pick along on the way I have some guitars on the wall I also have yeah too many guitars
90:00 - 90:30 take care now [ __ ] off that was perfect thank you thank you um hopefully I have the chance to say hi when you come here to Mexico yeah well so search me up on uh on my messenger your message oh Facebook you mean Facebook yeah find me and and um actually I I do I I I add you a couple of maybe a week ago and we are friends
90:30 - 91:00 already then we are there so when we travel we can keep when we come to Mexico we can keep in touch and we can meet up for a beer and a nice talk perfect well again thank you for your time I know it took much of your time tonight but uh it was necessary well no part thank you and and thank you good night see you soon bye-bye