#enslaved interview

  Some mounths ago, I’ve talked with Grutle Kjellson and Ivar Bjørnson from Enslaved. Such nice guys! Here’s the interview:

  Ruído Sonoro: You have recently release a new album, RIITIIR, which has received amazing reviews. In fact, it has been pointed out several times as one of the best albums of 2012. How do you feel about that?

Grutle Kjellson: What can I say? It feels great being appreciated for what you do, especially when we have never constructed any music or lyrics for a certain purpose or for a specific audience. This is 100% honest music, this is made without any sort of pressure from the outside. This is 100% Enslaved, and Enslaved only. It´s about having belief in our own abilities and to dare to just go with the flow and see where things naturally end up. We are really satisfied with the result of our efforts, and it is really cool that the fans and critics feel the same way.

RS: Once again, the album was produced by members of Enslaved, but this time including a member from outside the band. How was it for you?

Grutle: It was very healthy, I think. Iver Sandøy (the fourth member of the production team) is an old friend of us. He is such a good friend that he always dares to be 100% honest, and he clearly points out what he is comfortable with or not. We’re a bunch of stubborn middle aged guys; so it was great to have someone who dared to disagree with us from time to time during the process. Iver’s input was crucial for the final result. He has a unique way to approach music that differs from the way we view music. It was a success, and we´ll most likely include him on the next album too.

RS: At a certain point, the recordings were taking place in three different locations. How did you manage that?

Ivar Bjørnson: It isn’t the easiest of things, but you need a solid plan and hands-on producers to pull it off (which we did for most of the time). There were some minor troubles, to be honest – Arve and Herbrand are used to working in their own studio, and I guess being part of a such a fragmented production with multiple studios, was a challenge for them. So they had to do some stuff over due to misconceptions about what was going on in other studios. It caused minor delays and budget glitches, but nothing big. In our production team, it is my task to be the link to the executive production side of it (management), so ultimately I will have to shoulder the responsibility. it is a learning curve, next time I will have to clearer and more detailed in the info and plans! I have a lot to learn still…

RS: Do you think that the decision of becoming your own producers was an important and decisive step for the band? What made you definitely take the production of your albums into your own hands?

Ivar: Absolutely! I think it might have been the single most important step, besides what we learned from Joe Baressi mixing the album Vertebrae in 2008. He basically taught us, in easy layman’s terms what needed to be done to achieve the sound we were looking for. At the same time I came to the conclusion that we were ready to try out forming the team of producers from within the band itself. I would say that after all the years me and Grutle had refined a vision clear enough, and Herbrand had achieved a strong enough technical know-how. Put together, we were ready to do it ourselves. And that turned out to be the best decision we could have made!

RS: What is the concept behind RIITIIR and why did you choose that name?

Grutle: The title is a little construction of me and Ivar, and it is a made up word meaning something like “The rites of man” in English. The lyrics are loosely tied together in a concept that deals with the common/mutual instincts humanity shared when it came to approach life in the pre-monotheistic ages. We look at the similarities you can find in very different cultures and mythologies all around the world. People from very different places geographically, with no communication with each other what so ever, seemed to share almost exactly the same gods representing the same forces, just under different names. So, it is fair to say that we shared an ancient metaphysical common platform of some sort. We share the same irrational fear, and the same hang to something more divine than humanity itself. So the lyrics are about how mankind have always stretched out in search for a deeper understanding.

RS: This time, you have made a very long album because there was nothing that you wanted to cut off. It was difficult to make that decision?

Ivar: It was actually a little bit the other way around… It was a matter of a lot of elements that felt necessary to include to feel that the album was complete. It was more after the fact I discovered how long the album had become. Then the album was complete and there was no way anything was going to be left behind – every riff and every song had become a vital organ in the whole body that had become the album.

RS: Your sound has become very different from the songs you made, back in the 90s. Have you always wanted to follow a more “progressive” way?

Ivar: It has never been an explicit wish to go more “proggy” or more “raw” or whatever, it is all just results of where the flow went. We’re music-loving people; we listen to all kinds of music and are influenced by it. Our only ambition has been to make the best possible music for our own ears and heads. I guess it just “happened” that the direction we took was taken, as this is the music that felt right for us on a personal level. There has never a point where any specific musical direction was decided and verbalized. I think that is a reason for the music sounding “fresh” and honest - we go where the music takes us and not the other way around.

RS: I know there are a lot of people who are always asking you to play your oldest songs, from your first album and from the EP. Do you feel that there is some resistance to your more recent sound?

Grutle: [Laughs] Isn’t resistance always positive? Well, we play a bunch of those old songs, so I think we kind of satisfy all of the audience. But, the majority of our audience nowadays seems to appreciate all the stuff we play. On our recent trip to the US/CAN now in February 2013, the situation was actually the opposite. The demand for new material was a lot bigger than it was for the old songs. I know that there is always a bunch of dudes that only like the old stuff, no matter WHICH gig they are attending, but I think that is unavoidable… [Laughs]

RS: You have been touring in the US. How are things going?

Ivar: Amazing, really amazing. There has been a superb development for us in the US.  We’ve been lucky to have had an excellent cooperation between our US booking agent (Nick Storch/ ICM) and our management (Tonje Peersen/ Peersen Production) that has been slowly and solidly building our name in North America since 2009. And now it starting to show that their work combined with our efforts are paying off. The last tour we did now in February was amazing in terms of turn-outs and response!

RS: In May, you will play your first show ever in Tel Aviv. Are you excited about that?

Grutle: Of course! We’ve heard many good things about Tel Aviv and the Israeli metal scene, and none of us have ever been in Israel before either, so this will most definitely be one of the highlights this year. We always like to play in countries we’ve never visited before.

RS: Do you have any plans for the future? Do you know what are going to do next?

Ivar: There’s touring in Europe throughout March and parts of April. Then there’s festivals and probably more tours in the fall and winter. And of course, at some point between all this, there will be writing of new material!&nbsp