Arts
RUS
Search / Ïîèñê
LOGIN
  register




Èíòåðâüþ
Interview
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #


Einherjer



Dear whale, sorry about the plastic bag



Prologue
EINHERJER is a renowned band. In the mid-90s, along with Enslaved, these Norwegians stood at the origins of Viking metal, recording a number of dazzling classics for the genre. It should be emphasized that, unlike a number of other Viking bands, those guys have never been banal role players, giving a serious and consistent vision of their art. Despite the fact that EINHERJER is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the band does not stand still and regularly releases excellent albums, intelligently experimenting with their own sound. With their black metal roots in mind, over the years the Norwegians have come up with their own, “Norse Heavy Metal”. So I didn't have to look hard for a reason to contact Gerhard Storesund, one of the founding members, composer and drummer of EINHERJER. It’s been a long time since I had so much pleasure talking during an interview, I must say. Gerhard is a wonderful interlocutor, and also very witty. On top of that, we dug up rare fact from the early history of EINHERJER, which, apparently, had not been published anywhere before, or, at least, was already quite forgotten. Well, get comfortable and read.
Einherjer
Hi Gerhard, how are you? First of all, please tell us what is happening with the band now, what are the main news?

Hi there! Well, right now we’re in the rehearsal room, working on some epic stuff for this year’s festival season. We have some cool gigs coming up this year. We are also in the process of laying the groundwork for the new album.

You have returned to concert activity this year. What was it like returning to the stage after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic? What are your feelings?

It is fantastic really. It’s like a dystopian fog has been lifted, and people dare to go outside again. It’s nice to see happy, inebriated men and woman hugging and taking part in a good party again. When we are at festivals now, it’s like the past two years never happened at all. Just erased from history. Just as good really. It was a tragedy for many people. But hey, I just earned an achievement. I lived through a pandemic. At least that’s something.

In the midst of covid, you released a new album “North Star”. How did the audience react to album, what feedback did it receive? Can we say that “North Star” completely meet your expectations?

We’ve been receiving great feedback from “North Star”. It is basically following in the same path as it’s predecessor “Norrøne Spor”. We definitely hit a tone there as well. Well, we never even release anything that doesn’t meet our expectations anymore. We now record at Frodes own studio, and we can basically work on the next album until we die of old age if we want to. Which isn’t too far ahead, when I think about it If you mean expectations in terms of feedback from other people, I don’t really have any. It’s completely out of my realm of control how other people will react to this. We can’t do anything but our best, and the rest is up to fate. The only downside about the release of “North Star”, was the timing. We didn’t get the chance to follow it up festivals and stuff like that.

Given the impressive discography behind you, do you feel the pressure of your own legacy? How hard is it to deal with the influence of albums like "Dragons of the North" or "Norwegian Native Art"?

Not anymore, because I know there is a lot of nostalgia linked to those early releases. We cannot recreate that, and we don’t want to either. We just make what we want, We don’t try to please anyone at all. That’s how all our albums came into being, including the two you mentioned. Then again, some of our most requested song are actually from newer albums, so there are a lot of younger people picking up our music as well. People that do not have the strong connection to our first stuff, and get into it at a later stage.

How was the writing and recording process for “North Star”?

The writing process is pretty much carved in stone for us. Me and Frode sit at home writing music, and present it to each other, when we think we have something good going. For me personally, new music rarely comes up when I sit down with an instrument. Sometimes, but not so often. It is something that is conjured up in my head over time. I can go weeks and months grinding on the same stuff in my head, before I’m ready to even record a pre-production. I have a normal day job. I don’t do any hard calculations and I don’t walk around on stilts, and that gives me time to think about music at work. As on the previous album, “North Star” was both recorded and mixed at Frodes “Studio Borealis”. We prefer it that way. In fact, I don’t think we could do it any other way. We’re grown-ups, and we don’t have the opportunity to synchronize our time to take a month off work to get into a studio somewhere else. It just isn’t a viable solution for us anymore.

It seems to me that “North Star” combines to a large extent the coldness of Nordic metal and elements of heavy metal. It is very harsh and at the same time melodic. In a way, this is a hit album. How would you comment on this?

Yeah, it’s like no matter what we do, we still have one foot in early 90’s Black Metal, and I guess there’s a cold aura around what we do because of that. Even though we took a different turn than most bands at the time, we still listened to the same bands. So, some sense of Black Metal will always be a part of our music. It’s just that we took those influences, among others, and dragged it into classic Heavy Metal. This is where my heart lies.

Please tell me about the “West Coast Groove” song. As far as I know, this song means a lot to you.

Well, I’m not sure it means so much more to me than any of the other songs on the album. I guess the topic of the song means much to me, or us I would say. It is to me a homage to the place where we grew up, and where most of our memories are made. That being said, I think all our music is inspired by this place. Even more than any form of music, I think this place is our biggest inspiration. And that attachment only gets stronger with age

Last August your new live album “Norse And Dangerous (Live… From The Land Of Legends)” was released. Please tell me the story of its creation, and where was it recorded?

I think it basically boils down to us not wanting to perform streaming gigs. I know many bands did that, and had success with it, but we weren’t comfortable with that. Certainly not me. And life is too short to do stuff you don’t want too. So there were a slight opening in restrictions during the pandemic, that gave us a chance to do a gig in our hometown. At the time we were allowed 200 people in the venue, but at the time of the show, that number decreased to 100 people. That meant we had to do two gigs to give everybody their m
Einherjer
oney’s worth. I like the idea that our only live album was done in our home town, and under very abnormal circumstances.

I have to admit, releasing a live album is quite an unexpected decision. It is not the most popular thing today. It seems that the days of great live albums like “Maiden Japan” by Deep Purple or “Live After Death” by Iron Maiden are over. What motivated you to record a live album and is it commercially viable?

Well, don’t forget “Live Evil” by Black Sabbath and “Staying a Life” by Accept. Yeah, I know, live albums are not really a thing these days. But this is something we always wanted to do, so we did it. And the setting was perfect! It is not commercially viable at all really. Then again, this is a very limited release, and the risk is very low. It’s just nice to document that something actually happened during the pandemic as well.

The band's roots are in black metal. At least one of those roots. In the early years, Einherjer was associated with this genre. But then you moved on to a more traditional metal sound and now you call yourself Norse heavy metal. Please describe the evolution of the band's sound. What is your vision on this?

Yes, as I said earlier, this is something we can never escape. It is ingrained in our very fibres. It’s not something we try to get rid of either. It’s just something that stuck with us, and never leaves. Both me and Frode grew up on classic Heavy Metal, but in the early 90’s, we were introduced to Black Metal and Death Metal and that changed our mentality completely. At that point it was all Black Metal, and nothing else. There were a few years there, when everything was Black Metal, and that still stick like a slice of cucumber on a car hood. What really did it for us, was when Bathory decided to mellow down a notch. The album “Twilight of the Gods”

Drums have always been one of the Einherjer 's strongest points. To be honest, your complex playing style reminds me more of progressive rock/metal. How have your drumming skills changed over the past 30 years? Has your approach to instrument and playing style changed?

Well, we have since the beginning had a wide range of influences. Everything from Black Metal, classical music and film music, classic Heavy Metal, traditional folk, prog rock and prog metal. It’s virtually impossible not to become at least a bit musically schizophrenic as a result. Now, I’m a self tought drummer, and back in the day we just listened to our favorite music, and tried to recreate it behind the drumkit. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to “Beneath the Remains” by Sepultura and “Extreme Aggression” by Kreator. There were no YouTube back then, so I’m not big on paradiddles, paradoodles and schmaradoddles. I hit the drums. I appreciate great modern drummers, with lots of wrist action and techniques, but sometimes I just want to watch Dave Lombardo destroy the drums.

As a drummer, you are Einherjer's main composer. It is very curious and unusual. How do you compose songs? Can I assume that you play other musical instruments as well?

Well, these days, both me and Frode compose music, so I wouldn’t say I’m main. Phil Collins once said “I’m not a vocalist who plays a bit of drums. I’m a drummer that sings a bit.” Well, I’m not a drummer who compose a bit. I’m a composer who plays a bit of drums. Now, composer sounds a bit drastic and pompous. I write songs. Not that I don’t like playing drums, as I’ve had a lot of bad energy purges doing that. I HAVE a couple of guitars, I HAVE a bass and I HAVE a keyboard. Can I play them? Well, it’s mediocre, at best. As I said earlier, most of my songwriting starts in my head, and I can grind on that for a long period of time. I work in Cubase, and I’ll record it there when I feel I’m ready. It’s just that I’ve developed some kind of fear of putting the tracks down, because sometimes the result is underwhelming and doesn’t sound at all like the stuff I had in my head. That’s why things take longer these days. I need to have everything mapped out, before I start recording.

Why did you decide to split the band in 2004, and what was the main reason for the reunion in 2008?

I guess we were just tired of the whole thing. I remember that Frode said “If I see another Viking, I’ll kick his fuckin’ ass!”. At the time, it wasn’t really meant to just be a break. We were done. Finito! We started a Thrash Metal band called Battered along with some local friends, and we had the chance to blow off some serious steam. But it’s a funny thing. After some years, we started to miss it. It’s like staring at a painting one inch away, and you can’t see the connection. But if you take a few steps back, you can see the whole picture. We had a little fling, and it was fun. But it was time to go back to what we knew.

You and Frode have been together since the early days of the band. What has been holding you together all these years? It must be a special feeling playing together for so many years. Do you always manage to come to a compromise in conflict situations? Or have you never had conflicts?

Me and Frode grew up together. We were neighbours since we were kids. Playing in a band has been the plan since we crapped our pants almost. At least long before we even put our hands on any instrument. We grew up listening to the same bands, getting the same influences and basically gaining the same world view. We both know in general what is a go, and what is a no go, just from experience. We need to agree on what material to use, so there is usually no conflict about that at all. I never throw anything away, so an idea that doesn’t fit now may turn into something epic in the future. An older me might interpret that idea in a complete
Einherjer
ly different way.

Now let's go back to the very beginnings of the band. Your demo “Aurora Borealis” was released in 1994 and became a real landmark release for both the genre and the band. For the first demo of a young band, it sounds unbelievably great and convincing. Please tell me how did you manage to do it then? How was the work on the demo and, if possible, describe those times in more detail.

Well, I have to admit the whole thing is a bit of a fog. The whole era to be honest. It’s an interesting time to think about. Everything has changed so drastically. Things were a lot more hands on back then. We had to meet up in the rehearsal room to actually exchange ideas. I like the idea about that, even though things are a lot simpler now, and more efficient. None of us had any recording options at home, except to record some riffs on a cassette. Just so we didn’t forget about them. I remember writing my riffs down on guitar tabs, and made some kind of layout of the songs that way on paper. I still think “Aurora Borealis” still stand the test of time as a debut demo. This is where we really took a turn away from the mass of Black Metal. I don’t know if any of us mentioned this in any other interviews, but there is in fact an earlier version of “Aurora Borealis”. A completely different form, and a lot more Black Metal. I think this was when “Hammerheart” and “Twilight of the Gods” by Bathory really kicked in, and gave us a new perspective and a new purpose. And also “Blood Fire Death” to some degree.

When you started with Einherjer 30 years ago, could you imagine this will be so long and in the future Einherjer will be a classic Viking Metal band?

No, I don’t think we had anything like that in mind at the time. We were young at the time, and we just wanted to play in a band. We didn’t have any prospects at all. But now, after all this time, it’s more than a lifestyle even. It’s part of our very being. Sometimes I just want to sit by the sea and drink some coffee and do some fishing. But if I quit this now, I’m not sure I would even know who I was anymore. 30 years is a long time, and it really forms you as a human being. But just so everyone knows; being a classic band, doesn’t necessarily make it lucrative. We still have to work to get food on the plate.

What were your first impressions when you first visited the US and Canada? How have American fans received you?

Americans are very hospitable, and Viking stuff really hits it out of the ballpark for them, to use an American expression. The only tour we did over there, was in Canada. And even though the venue standards were subpar at best, it was a great experience for us. I want to quote a Swedish poet called Stig Johansson. “All these days that passed by, little did I know they were life itself.” Maybe not a perfect translation, but the message is the same. If we weren’t in Canada, we would be at home, working. We have an experience for life. I still think about the drive from gig to gig, on the seemingly endless snowy plains listening to great music. In the States, we’ve only done a few festivals so far, but we’d love to do some touring there as well. The problem is that the immigration/visa situation there is a nightmare these days. But if there’s a viable offer, we’ll definitely go over. There’s something very classic about Rainbow Bar and Whiskey a Go Go. Just on my “before I die bucket list”.

Please tell me about your experience of performing in China and Japan. After all, this is a completely different world! How did this become possible?

Yes, it’s definitely a different world. It’s a different culture, but the people are the same. They just want to listen to some good music and have a great time. There were people puking outside the venue, just like any other place. Even though we probably won’t go to China again anytime soon, the people there were fantastic. If the geo political situation calms down a bit, I’d gladly go back there. For a guy from a small town on the west coast of Norway, Shanghai was completely absurd. Japan obviously have more experience in accepting foreign bands, and things seemed a lot more professional. It’s very far away and the flights are becoming ridiculous, but we’re definitely want to go back there. Although Tokyo is about 5 times the population of my entire country, it felt calm and very safe. Bear in mind, we’re not used to this shit. We freak out in subways and huge intersections. The nice thing about Tokyo, regardless of it’s sheer size, is that there’s room for green areas and sacred shrines. I loved it there, and people were very respectful.

Doesn't it seem strange to you that your very specific music, originally based on the Scandinavian culture and mythology, is popular in places so far from the northern domains? How do you think why? It's a completely different cultural code.

People love exotic things. There are a shit ton of people that have a fetish for Japanese stuff. If we look away for Metal for a bit, and take a look at Irish Folk. It’s something that’s popular all over the world. Then you have the Mongolian band The Hu, Israeli Melechesh and Irish Cruachan among others. I like the idea of some kind of cultural exchange. I would like there to be more of this. That would be a serious counterweight to all this Tiktok crap. Viking stuff is in the wind these days, a lot because of shows like “Vikings” and “The Last Kingdom”. I guess that has a lot to do with this situation, even though this is a very stylistic version of the Viking age. I even met people who tattooed Travis Fimmel on their arm. It’s almost like if a Christian person tattooed Ewan McGregor on their arm.

You're right, we're seeing real Viking hype in pop culture right now. But I t
Einherjer
hink it's too fake and cartoony. For the most part, all this has little to do with historical realities. Mass culture washes away all the content and meaning, the essence. Now some kind of “modern replica” is being created, and Viking metal bands are also “guilty” of this. How do you feel about such an over-popularization of that era and images?


Yeah, I mentioned the “Vikings” series, and “The Last Kingdom”. Even if they’re loosly based on historical events, I consider them hipster Vikings. They didn’t dress like that. People have a very short attention span these days, so this interest will soon be over. People throw themselves at hypes and trends like there’s no tomorrow, but they have a collective bad memory. Next month there’s something else trending. And then next month after that. I think it’s safe to say that we did this before it was cool. But we also had our inspirations. Bathory, Manowar and Ym:Stammen among others. It didn’t come out of thin air for us either. Basil Poledouris’ soundtrack from Conan had a big impact on us in the early days. And I still listen to it to this day. To answer your question, I don’t mind this at all. I know who I am, and I don’t care what other people do. People these days have the attention span of a gold fish, and will quit when it’s not trending anymore. We’ve been into this for 30 years now. Don’t expect us to follow trends.

Until the mid-90s of the last century, Norway was a comfortable country in the north of Europe, which few people were interested in. But over the years, thanks also to the explosive growth of the local metal scene, Norway has become famous and even “fashionable” country. Now it's a brand. How do you feel about it?

And it’s all thanx to torching some churches! Well, and the odd murder. Even if I don’t condone any of these actions, I acknowledge the PR value. People from a distance might think this is cool, but it’s really not. Even though I don’t care for Christianity and their churches myself, these are places people laid their family members to rest. It means something to a lot of people. It’s easy to forget that. It’s not like it made any difference. A lot of Black Metal people are fond of quoting Nietzsche’. But he also had a quote that said “What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger”. All this stuff only made them come more together as a community. Ultimately, we also benefited from these actions to a certain degree. Obviously, these days Black Metal accepted in the mainstream. Lyrics about killing Christians, and burning their children on the pyre are simply not taken seriously anymore. Everything was better before, when we had to chew rocks for breakfast.

Last year a new Candlemass video called “Scandinavian Gods” was released. Commenting on the song's lyrics, Leif Edling said the following:
“It’s about heritage and future and the fact that It is sometimes absolutely necessary to leave or at least doubt your old gods. It’s about the hardship in this, and the irony in the fact that you see yourself being drawn back to them over and over again, into these black circles and the forgetfulness of the past. What shall we believe in? Do we need them to build a better future?”
How do you feel about that? What do these images mean to you? What is the place of the ancient gods in your worldview?


I don’t believe in Gods. You’re talking to the biggest atheist apart from Ricky Gervais It’s just something we created, because we’re so fucked up at the prospect of death. We’ve been thinking about our own demise since the beginning of time. Death is something very personal, and each and all of us will meet it one day. We needed a cure, and more cowbell didn’t do the trick unfortunately. And then some smart folks found out it could be weaponized to control other people. That’s part of what the song Ascension is about. We’re trampling all that down with knowledge and science. We’re basically dragging those old secrets out from behind the trees and expose them. Give us some time, and we will be Godlike ourselves. We just have to protect ourselves from ourselves. There is a lot of wisdom we can take away from that time. “Håvamål” is one of them. A lot of common sense from REAL people back then, that seems to be lost now. It almost have a Stoic sense to it, which Is right up my alley. Odin also say “Do as I say, not as I do”, and I’m not a big fan of that. It sounds like our politicians these days. Odin is still king though!

Do not you think it ridiculous that our modern advanced and high-tech civilization is extremely fragile? Technology has a weak point: figuratively speaking, it is enough to pull the plug out of the socket, and all will go to hell!

Well, civilization ends when the lights go out. It’s as simple as that. Then we’re thrown right back to the animal kingdom, killing our neighbours for food. Everybody is turned into panic stricken monsters. I can picture it. It’s extremely fragile in my eyes. Especially these days, when everything in the world is uncertain, and we feel we walk on a knife’s edge. In my humble opinion, self-reliance should be tought in school, and tik tok should be banned. I feel my brain dissipating just by thinking about tik tok.

Well Gerhard, thank you for your time and your answers! Please tell me what would you write on the headstone of the world? Or perhaps you have some advice on how we can get through these difficult times? Do you think there is still room for optimism?’

“Dear whale, sorry about the plastic bag.” There’s a headstone for you But yes, there is still room for optimism. Always! I don’t know what the world will look like in 5-10 years. But if you stop wasting your time, and concentrate on the important things. Family, friends, music or other stuff that is important and fun. Then you can go to sleep, knowing you had a good day. If you don’t wake up, at least you had a good last day. If you wake up, you are excited to at least wake up. I think a bit of Stoicism, some optimistic Nihilism and a touch of dark humor is the key to even tolerate this shit. And I’ll leave you with that. Stay strong!

(Band photos by Jørgen Freim)
19 ìàð 2023
the End


ÊîììåíòàðèèÑêðûòü/ïîêàçàòü
ïðîñìîòðîâ: 4058




/\\Ââåðõ
Ðåéòèíã@Mail.ru

1997-2024 © Russian Darkside e-Zine.   Åñëè âû íàøëè íà ýòîé ñòðàíèöå îøèáêó èëè åñòü êîììåíòàðèè è ïîæåëàíèÿ, òî ñîîáùèòå íàì îá ýòîì