Exclusive Satyricon Interview!

  • Exclusive Satyricon Interview!
    POSTED

    By now I’m sure you’ve all had a flick through the October/November issue of the MANIACS zine and saw our interview with Satyr of Satyricon. We could only include a snippet of the interview, so we’ve decided to put the entire thing up here for your reading pleasure.

    With the album being self-titled - is this a statement of where your album represents you in this point in your career?

    In the 70s and 80s when the people self-titled records, most of the time it was to promote the band name because they were a new band on the scene or whatever and in our world the music was exemplified by the use of Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden for example. But in the case of Satyricon, who has been going for 20 years, to do a self-titled record is coming to a point in our career where we feel that you come home you define yourself as a band. Were not just talking musical were talking philosophically, and for us this record is not to be understood in the way that its self-titled because its typical Satyricon, but because this is a very progressive record and its looking into the future. That is one of the things that defines the musical philosophy of Satyricon - is that you are supposed to expect the unexpected. Its a progressive band not a regressive band so I think that even if this is a record thats gonna be quite surprising to some people, that is one of those things that to me is typical of Satyricon. I think that on an emotional level the atmosphere, the dynamics, the energy, the complexity, all of that is very typical of Satyricon and never have to this degree have I felt that weve done anything that represents the heart and the core of the band in such a way as though. It felt very natural this time as a band.

    So you reached a point that you could finally put the Satryicon name to the self-titled album rather it than at the start?

    I am. Its a big thing too because its not just about doing that because when you feel like when you first made that decision its going to affect everything that you do, right? And you want it to be something that is definitely very timeless so you know I even had to say to the photographer who was just taking photos for the record, that although I dont have any knowledge on photography, what I can tell you is its 2013 now and whatever it is that you plan to do specifically as a photographer, what I need is to tell you that I see this record as a potential milestone in black metal, in Satyricon obviously, and what you need to do with your photos is to make sure you can look at these photos 20 years from now and say that these photos still look good. I had to instruct anyone that was involved in this record that such was the plan and to have everyone work in a way that things did look or sound dated on this record. It was potentially the record of our lifetime and they had to help us and do everything they could do to try and achieve that.

    Well those are important elements too to the overall feel of an album the photography, whats in your video, theyre all other artists you have to work with to help interpret your vision as well so I guess that it would be important that you interpret that for them as well if youve got a very clear vision of that. Im sure theyd appreciate that as well rather than give you something other than what you see it being.

    Yeah especially working with the artwork team and it was probably a little bit of a game changer to them when they were sending me a lot of stuff based on the sketches we had sent them and they had to try to add graphic ornaments that looked cool. I said well this looks great now but do you really think that if you looked at this in even just five years and say that this looks great or this looks dated and they said maybe yeah, and I said “lets just get rid of it, cause this is not just a record for now but its a record for the future as well and I dont want to do anything that makes it dated. Thats why in the same way that we did an analogue production on this record, everything was set out to be as organic and natural sounding as possible. Thats not something new to Satyricon but we were really uncompromising to a larger degree than weve ever been before and all of that was because I think it was an ongoing trend. Everything is done very digital, everything is sounding very propheus, not just black metal but rock and pop music as well Ive talked to you know many music producers, managers, A&R people, or record companies that are the opinion that this is something people are going to look back and in a few years and ask themselves what the hell were they thinking? Just in the same way when you look at photos from yourself, depending on when you were born, anyone who was living during the 1980s will look at photos of themselves from the 80s and will think oh my god (laughs). And I think a lot of records that came out in 2010/11 or 12, many of those records, people are going to want to re-master them in 2018 because they sound clinical and sterile and they wont have the livelihood that you need to have in sound to express the dynamics and the musicianship that goes into good songwriting.

    So youre playing a concert with the Norwegian Opera Chorus. How will this add another element to your sound?

    We did a song with them a year and a half ago and it was at a post-event in the main hall of the Norwegian Opera. It was sort of random how that came together but we did it and I thought it was an amazing experience. I said that same night to the conductor that wouldn’t it be great to do a whole show with us and he said yeah, yeah I would love that. I was not aware of how bureaucratic everything was within the opera system so it took about a year and a half to get this one show going. I would have wanted it to be several shows in a row but there was only one date available in the main hall of the opera and that sold out very, very quickly but it will be a good show for those people that are there. Perhaps there will be a DVD - well see. Were working on it as well. What the chorus does, to be honest with you, some songs they add another dimension through a different sound, a different resonance to the tone and the realer basin of everything is really different which I find to be musically different and it just adds something thatwasn'tthere before. On the songs they strengthen something that was already in the song from before, so they turbo charge the actual song from the record. On some songs, they make the whole song better. There are some songs like Dive On My Hand From The Ancient Arrow where I would have wished we did this before wed recorded this song for that album because with the choir arrangements, it transcends the song to a higher level. So theres a little bit of everything, but to me thats the musical outcome in terms of the way it sounds but I also think its an incredible learning experience to work with other musicians from other genres and especially classical music its not just about other music but also about how they conduct themselves. Its about how they work, their procedures, how theyre very interesting in a lot of things we can pick up and use in the daily life of Satyricon.

    Sure, I mean its really an important cultural step forward for the band as well to a wider community to present the music in that way, which must be a very exciting opportunity.

    Absolutely yes. Whats really good to us as well is that we feel that they really appreciate doing this themselves. We even had peoplewho'vebeen at the opera for over twenty years saying its the highlight of their career - they even said it many times! The same guy keeps saying it to me every rehearsal that this is the best thing hes ever been a part of and I keep telling him that this is great and I feel the same way myself.

    Can you just elaborate on some of the themes that youre actually exploring on the album and how that marries with the music. One of your songs is sung in Norwegian, is that right?

    Yes, that is correct. Well, I think a lot of the reason why this record came up the way it did was because I just thought musically and lyrically. One of the things I decided on this record that I was going to try and work in a band environment when writing the music and not sit so much by myself. That was good so that there was more spontaneous interaction between Frost & myself in the songwriting. It was also the fact that I did the majority of the rehearsals and the pre-production and all in the wood stull home owned by a sound engineer colleague of mine. Its a very, very small little cottage, it dates back to 1550. It sounds really good in there actually, the timber is gigantic so the acoustics are very easy to control but its very, very small. Its fine to work there to play drums or to play music and all that but not really ideal for recording drums but we did some drums and some guitars in a more conventional recording studio and then the rest of the record we did in this wood stull. I did write some of the lyrics there, by no means all of them but some of them I wrote there, and I think the ways of working, the message, the place where we were at and how the emphasis was on being in an environment where you find yourself to be in your right element is crucial in terms of the mind frame and the creative atmosphere that went into both songwriting choices that were made in terms of sonics and also to some degree writing lyrics and how the lyrics were born when writing my vocal tracks and stuff like that.

    I think were going to run out of time unfortunately, but thank you so much for chatting with me about the album. Its really interesting to hear some of the processes that have gone into it and I really hope we can see you in Australia soon so we can see it live for ourselves.

    We hope so too. Hopefully we make it over during the first quarter of next year. Its not a promise but its something that were working on. We have at least expressed the will and desire to go to Japan and Australia at some point early next year and then now its up to people if they want us to go there, but the band wants to thats for sure.

    Well Im sure theres a lot of people that would be looking forward to hearing the album live so lets hope that we meet at that time and we can continue the conversation then!

    Absolutely, no problem.

    Check out this live video of the guys, taken by a fan at one of their recent shows in Manchester! Another band to get excited about for Soundwave 2014.


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By now I’m sure you’ve all had a flick through the October/November issue of the MANIACS zine and saw our interview with Satyr of Satyricon. We could only include a snippet of the interview, so we’ve decided to put the entire thing up here for your reading pleasure.

With the album being self-titled - is this a statement of where your album represents you in this point in your career?

In the 70s and 80s when the people self-titled records, most of the time it was to promote the band name because they were a new band on the scene or whatever and in our world the music was exemplified by the use of Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden for example. But in the case of Satyricon, who has been going for 20 years, to do a self-titled record is coming to a point in our career where we feel that you come home you define yourself as a band. Were not just talking musical were talking philosophically, and for us this record is not to be understood in the way that its self-titled because its typical Satyricon, but because this is a very progressive record and its looking into the future. That is one of the things that defines the musical philosophy of Satyricon - is that you are supposed to expect the unexpected. Its a progressive band not a regressive band so I think that even if this is a record thats gonna be quite surprising to some people, that is one of those things that to me is typical of Satyricon. I think that on an emotional level the atmosphere, the dynamics, the energy, the complexity, all of that is very typical of Satyricon and never have to this degree have I felt that weve done anything that represents the heart and the core of the band in such a way as though. It felt very natural this time as a band.

So you reached a point that you could finally put the Satryicon name to the self-titled album rather it than at the start?

I am. Its a big thing too because its not just about doing that because when you feel like when you first made that decision its going to affect everything that you do, right? And you want it to be something that is definitely very timeless so you know I even had to say to the photographer who was just taking photos for the record, that although I dont have any knowledge on photography, what I can tell you is its 2013 now and whatever it is that you plan to do specifically as a photographer, what I need is to tell you that I see this record as a potential milestone in black metal, in Satyricon obviously, and what you need to do with your photos is to make sure you can look at these photos 20 years from now and say that these photos still look good. I had to instruct anyone that was involved in this record that such was the plan and to have everyone work in a way that things did look or sound dated on this record. It was potentially the record of our lifetime and they had to help us and do everything they could do to try and achieve that.

Well those are important elements too to the overall feel of an album the photography, whats in your video, theyre all other artists you have to work with to help interpret your vision as well so I guess that it would be important that you interpret that for them as well if youve got a very clear vision of that. Im sure theyd appreciate that as well rather than give you something other than what you see it being.

Yeah especially working with the artwork team and it was probably a little bit of a game changer to them when they were sending me a lot of stuff based on the sketches we had sent them and they had to try to add graphic ornaments that looked cool. I said well this looks great now but do you really think that if you looked at this in even just five years and say that this looks great or this looks dated and they said maybe yeah, and I said “lets just get rid of it, cause this is not just a record for now but its a record for the future as well and I dont want to do anything that makes it dated. Thats why in the same way that we did an analogue production on this record, everything was set out to be as organic and natural sounding as possible. Thats not something new to Satyricon but we were really uncompromising to a larger degree than weve ever been before and all of that was because I think it was an ongoing trend. Everything is done very digital, everything is sounding very propheus, not just black metal but rock and pop music as well Ive talked to you know many music producers, managers, A&R people, or record companies that are the opinion that this is something people are going to look back and in a few years and ask themselves what the hell were they thinking? Just in the same way when you look at photos from yourself, depending on when you were born, anyone who was living during the 1980s will look at photos of themselves from the 80s and will think oh my god (laughs). And I think a lot of records that came out in 2010/11 or 12, many of those records, people are going to want to re-master them in 2018 because they sound clinical and sterile and they wont have the livelihood that you need to have in sound to express the dynamics and the musicianship that goes into good songwriting.

So youre playing a concert with the Norwegian Opera Chorus. How will this add another element to your sound?

We did a song with them a year and a half ago and it was at a post-event in the main hall of the Norwegian Opera. It was sort of random how that came together but we did it and I thought it was an amazing experience. I said that same night to the conductor that wouldn’t it be great to do a whole show with us and he said yeah, yeah I would love that. I was not aware of how bureaucratic everything was within the opera system so it took about a year and a half to get this one show going. I would have wanted it to be several shows in a row but there was only one date available in the main hall of the opera and that sold out very, very quickly but it will be a good show for those people that are there. Perhaps there will be a DVD - well see. Were working on it as well. What the chorus does, to be honest with you, some songs they add another dimension through a different sound, a different resonance to the tone and the realer basin of everything is really different which I find to be musically different and it just adds something thatwasn'tthere before. On the songs they strengthen something that was already in the song from before, so they turbo charge the actual song from the record. On some songs, they make the whole song better. There are some songs like Dive On My Hand From The Ancient Arrow where I would have wished we did this before wed recorded this song for that album because with the choir arrangements, it transcends the song to a higher level. So theres a little bit of everything, but to me thats the musical outcome in terms of the way it sounds but I also think its an incredible learning experience to work with other musicians from other genres and especially classical music its not just about other music but also about how they conduct themselves. Its about how they work, their procedures, how theyre very interesting in a lot of things we can pick up and use in the daily life of Satyricon.

Sure, I mean its really an important cultural step forward for the band as well to a wider community to present the music in that way, which must be a very exciting opportunity.

Absolutely yes. Whats really good to us as well is that we feel that they really appreciate doing this themselves. We even had peoplewho'vebeen at the opera for over twenty years saying its the highlight of their career - they even said it many times! The same guy keeps saying it to me every rehearsal that this is the best thing hes ever been a part of and I keep telling him that this is great and I feel the same way myself.

Can you just elaborate on some of the themes that youre actually exploring on the album and how that marries with the music. One of your songs is sung in Norwegian, is that right?

Yes, that is correct. Well, I think a lot of the reason why this record came up the way it did was because I just thought musically and lyrically. One of the things I decided on this record that I was going to try and work in a band environment when writing the music and not sit so much by myself. That was good so that there was more spontaneous interaction between Frost & myself in the songwriting. It was also the fact that I did the majority of the rehearsals and the pre-production and all in the wood stull home owned by a sound engineer colleague of mine. Its a very, very small little cottage, it dates back to 1550. It sounds really good in there actually, the timber is gigantic so the acoustics are very easy to control but its very, very small. Its fine to work there to play drums or to play music and all that but not really ideal for recording drums but we did some drums and some guitars in a more conventional recording studio and then the rest of the record we did in this wood stull. I did write some of the lyrics there, by no means all of them but some of them I wrote there, and I think the ways of working, the message, the place where we were at and how the emphasis was on being in an environment where you find yourself to be in your right element is crucial in terms of the mind frame and the creative atmosphere that went into both songwriting choices that were made in terms of sonics and also to some degree writing lyrics and how the lyrics were born when writing my vocal tracks and stuff like that.

I think were going to run out of time unfortunately, but thank you so much for chatting with me about the album. Its really interesting to hear some of the processes that have gone into it and I really hope we can see you in Australia soon so we can see it live for ourselves.

We hope so too. Hopefully we make it over during the first quarter of next year. Its not a promise but its something that were working on. We have at least expressed the will and desire to go to Japan and Australia at some point early next year and then now its up to people if they want us to go there, but the band wants to thats for sure.

Well Im sure theres a lot of people that would be looking forward to hearing the album live so lets hope that we meet at that time and we can continue the conversation then!

Absolutely, no problem.

Check out this live video of the guys, taken by a fan at one of their recent shows in Manchester! Another band to get excited about for Soundwave 2014.


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