Interview с Månegarm : DARKSIDE.ru

April Månegarm released new album “Ynglingaättens Öde”. My belated congratulations!! As the title implies, the album is dedicated to the ancient family of the Scandinavian rulers of the Ynglings? Is this a concept work? Why did you decide to cover this topic?

- Thank you so much! Yes its’ a concept album and is based on the old Norse poem ”Ynglingatal”. This poem details a Swedish old Norse dynasty of rulers/kings of Uppsala and about their deeds, their rule, and above all - their deaths. The house of Ynglinga claimed to have divine origin as the offspring’s of the Norse god Freyr and the kings were religious and military leaders and did often die in mysterious, grim and sometimes even unnatural ways. Really cool stuff here and Jakob has done a great job writing the lyrics about these fascinating kings :) It was Jakobs idea to make a concept album of this poem and the idea was born many years ago, before the last album “Fornaldarsagor”, when Jakob, during his university studies of old Norse religion, had the honor of having professor O. Sundqvist as a teacher, who had written a dissertation on the field. At that time it was just an idea, no lyrics were written. Later on, when I started to compose some new Månegarm songs, we felt that the music had the right variety and feeling to finally make this idea come to life.

How successful this album in your opinion? How was it received compared to your previous works?

- We are very satisfied with the album. The songs are good and the sound and production turned out great as well. I rate this album very high; among top 3 of our albums I would say :) The reviews have been great so we are happy about that.

How was work on the album?

- I compose and arrange the songs and then Jakob write the lyrics. We have recorded the drums and rythm guitars at Studio Underground (where we have recorded nearly all our albums) and the vocals, violin, lead guitars and bass are recorded in our own studio.

I was a bit surprised that the first song on the album is the ten

minute epic "Freyrs Blod". Usually such long songs take place at the end or in the middle of the album. But they rarely open an album. Of course, if it's not prog or Bathory “Twilight of the Gods”. I understand that most likely this decision is connected with the concept of the lyrics. But still, did you have any doubts when you made this decision?

- Yes, at first it wasn’t that obvious that this song would be the opener of the album, I mean, who starts an album with a 10 minute song!? But the more we worked on the songs we realized that this song in fact was a VERY good opener because it has so many Månegarm elements; fast parts, mid-tempo parts, melodic guitars, an epic chorus, soft and clean parts.

Both last albums you recorded as a trio. How much has the work changed since the departure of second guitarist Jonas Almquist - how did his passing affect the writing and recording process? Did it take a long time to get used to the new band format?

- I can surely miss what Jonas added to the songs and one must not forget that he’s one of the founding members of Månegarm. But it was a pretty easy departure though. The album ”Månegarm” (2015) was Jonas last album and on that album he only contributed with one song, I did the rest, so it was no bigger difference when we later on started with the next album ”Fornaldarsagor”. On stage we have some fantastic help from Martin Björklund and Tobias Rydsheim and they’re like members of the band since they have been playing with us for 6-7 years now. The energy and feeling in the band has never been better so changes aren’t always for the bad. Things can get even better :)

Amazing staged videos were shot for "Ulvhjärtat" and "En snara av guld". These videos show a high artistic level and look cooler and more convincing than some of historical movies. In addition, you yourself took part in the filming! Please tell me more about these videos.

- Thanx a lot! We are very happy with these two videos. We had some fantastic help from Svartna Film who directed and filmed t

he videos, they really did a great job. We had a few ideas but Svartna Film has made the overall script since they know what is possible to do in a music video.

Lea Grawsiö Lindström took part in the filming of "En snara av guld". We hear her voice on the album as well. I heard it's your daughter - is that true? Tell me about the idea of your joint cooperation, and how does she feel about your art?

- I have both my daughters in this video. My youngest daughter Lea (15 years old) sings and my other daughter Tuva (17 y/o) plays the role as the girl Skjalv in the video. They don’t listen to metal at all but they think that it’s pretty cool that their dad plays in a band and is playing festivals and gigs all around the world. I am SOOO proud of my daughters and both of them did a great job here :)

When I watched the Månegarm-dedicated edition of Napalm Next Door, I really enjoyed your acoustic jam with Martin Björklund. Sounds great! How often do you have these jam sessions? Would you like to play and record an acoustic concert like this?

- We don’t jam that often but it’s really fun so we should to it more. We like to play our accoustic stuff and on our own festival; Månegarm Open Air, we start the festival by playing an acoustic set for an hour! Really fun :) Maybe we can record it next time, that would be a good chance to do it.

I also watched your “Hometown Tour” and I really liked your connection with Norrtälje. You know, a lot of rock/metal musicians are like gypsies - they're constantly moving somewhere, looking for a new place to live. You seem to be a different story. Tell me about your connection to your hometown. Have you ever wanted to move somewhere?

- Hahaha we are totally different, we’re bound to Norrtälje! I have lived here for all my life and I will never leave this place! But that’s just the way I want it, I can’t see any better place to live and to raise my kids than this town :)

This year was the Månegarm Open Air festival. How successful was

it? How was the work on the fest, what difficulties did you have to face?

- It was totally awesome, I would say that it was a great success!! Everything went so smooth and we didn’t really face any difficulties at all. We have an awesome crew, everybody are working their asses off but we do it with the biggest smile on our faces! To organize this festival is the best thing we’ve ever done! So fun :)

As far as I remember, this is not your first festival. How did you come up with this idea? Do you plan to continue?

- We did the first edition in 2019 but the COVID came and 2020 and 2021 was cancelled. The idea was born a few years back, maybe in 2015-2016. We thought that it would be cool to do a metal festival in our home town and after we thought about it for quite a while we finally decided to give it a GO in 2019! As I said earlier; that was our best decision ever! We will definitely continue :)

Please tell me about your musical roots – what inspires you? And what are your sources of inspiration besides music?

- Sources of inspiration is nature and mostly the sea/ocean. In that element I feel alive and healthy. Me and my family have a small island in the archipelago so I’m kind of raised by the sea! Really like it there.
Music-wise I have listened to a lot of music that have shaped me as a musician. When I was young there was a lot of death metal like Entombed for example. Motörhead and Running Wild are two band that have been so important to me and I guess that can be heard in Månegarm music sometimes. Hope it does because I really love these two bands. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are two other favorites…. there are so many great bands out there and that’s awesome! Music is the best thing in life!

Where do you get these folk melodies, which have become part of the Månegarm sound for a long time?

- It depends on what melodies you mean. If you mean the more ”metal” inspired melodies, you have the answer on the previous question…Running Wild haha! But when it comes to the more

”folky” melodies I don’t really know since I barely don’t listen to folk music. These melodies just come to my head and fingers when I’m fooling around with the guitar, maybe it’s in my veins or something ;)

The band is 27 years old, it’s just crazy! When I discovered Månegarm for the first time, you just released "Havets Vargar". What drives you all these years? Has your feeling of the band or attitude changed over the years?

- Yes, it’s totally crazy…27 years!! What drives us is the passion for music and to be able to do it with your best friends. In Månegarm I have my 2nd family and my best friends. To do what we do and to have what we have together is a great privilege and that is so important to me. I can’t even picture my life without the band and the music!

How often you have to sacrifice something for the sake of the band interests?

- All the time I would way! My daughters live with me full-time since 6 years, so time with the band means time away from my family. But I have an understanding family (I live with my new wife and her two sons since 4 years) and the thing is this: my music makes me a better person, a better father and a better husband. If I couldn’t play my music I would probably be a total wreck haha ;)

You touch on quite a deep layer of culture and history in your lyrics. To write such lyrics for so many years, you need to be very deeply immersed in this topic, right? It seems that sometimes you have to do a little research to explore and interpret a concept for an album. Could you tell me more about this part of the work? What sources do you use when working on lyrics, where do you get new ideas?

- Jakob is the one that writes the lyrics and he knows a lot about these topics, so much more than I do. He is really interested of course but he also teaches history/religion at the university. Jakob does a lot of research before writing the lyrics just to get it right. Månegarm has always been about the Norse mythology and Viking era and we will stick to that. There are so many c

ool stories to write about so that won’t be a problem for future albums :)

Don't you think that the Viking Age is just the tip of the iceberg? The theme of Old Norse paganism is much deeper, older and wider, and the Vikings are only a small part of it both culturally and historically. The Viking Age was a bright page in the history of Scandinavia, but in historical terms, this is only a small part of the Scandinavian culture and heritage. Don't you think?

- You’re right and as I said earlier, that means that there is SO much more to discover :) On our album ”Fornaldarsagor” (2019) and on this new album we detail stories and myths from Vendel age (500-800) and early Viking age so we’re trying to dig deep in the historic soil :)

Fatalism is at the core of Norse mythology. The world is doomed too. “The links of this chain were forged a long time ago”. How do you feel about this approach? Are you a fatalist yourself, do you believe in fate?

- Not really, even though I guess the world is pretty much doomed…I’m a pragmatic person and believe you’re creating your own destiny in many ways. I like when things are ”down to earth” and realistic.

In Nordic mythology, being a hero is a curse. However, this also applies to other systems of mythologies: we remember Hercules, Jason - the leader of the Argonauts, Beowulf, King Arthur, etc. Their end was sad. What do you think is the reason for this doomed regularity? Why has it so happened in the system of archetypes that being a hero and being happy are incompatible things?

- I don’t think that happiness and ”heroicness” are incompatible. I guess you could be a happy hero right? ;) Heroes of the past and heroes of today are heroes simply because they achieved great things. They did heroic deeds and they knew, and know, that the cost can be death but it is still worth the fight. And who say that death is a sad end?? We meet and drink in Valhalla as the heroes we are!

Please tell me what is this decoration that is present in the design of each album? What does it mean and where is this thing stored?

- This is an amulet that our former bass player and lyricist Pierre found/bought many many years ago. We thought it was a really cool symbol and we have had it on every album. I guess Pierre still has the original amulet.

Before the second wave of black metal, in the early 90s, Sweden was famous for Swedish death metal. But when the local death metal scene got fed up, it coincided with the rise of black metal. In my opinion, Månegarm's debut album perfectly captures that transitional period: a black metal album recorded by star death metal producer Thomas Skogsberg at the legendary Sunlight Studio. What do you remember about those times, what was the atmosphere like?

- It was great times. We had so much fun creating new songs and it all felt very inspiring and ”fresh”. We thought that we had some really cool ideas with the violin, flutes and female vocals that really added something special to the type of black metal we played. It feels pretty cool to have recorded stuff at the famous Sunlight Studio. We also recorded our 2nd demo there actually. Tomas is a really cool dude, I met him a couple of weeks ago outside the grocery store. He lives pretty close to where I live.

Have you ever been a part of the death metal scene, or did you immediately join the black metal scene?

- Me and Markus had a death metal band before Månegarm. We played Entomed and Dismember songs but also wrote a couple of songs ourselves. The name was ”Dark Infinity” something…hahah :)

And finally, tell us about your plans.

- In jan/feb we’re going on the great cruise ”70 000 tons of metal” which will be awesome. Then we are dealing with some festivals so lets see what happens. Månegarm Open Air is happening 25-26 August with a really cool line-up!

Those were all my questions. Thanks for answers! Although not really. )) So, are you ready to play Viking metal for another 30 years?!

- Hahaha another 30 years??!! What??!! I don’t know man, but I can tell you this; Right now it definitely feel that way! Playing in a band is the best thing you can do and I never wanna stop doing it!! :)

21 дек 2022 the End