#shjsdjksjf

brother of mine! Let’s start our journey into the world of Thorns with several including questions. How do you do at the moment? How nearly everybody knows, you are imprisoned since over two years now. I want to know the reason for the custody, and I will not ask any questions about your deed, because if anybody is still uninformed about that, then he shall stay without knowledge. Please try to describe the first days behind the walls. Did you think that your whole life got a drastical change and did you already have some imaginations concerning your further future? I guess you can share my thoughts when I say that during the first time behind the walls my mind was somehow empty and I had no clear imagination concerning the things which would happen to me.

Ave Hendrik. Well, I'm doing ok really, at least concerning the circumstances. I have at this time (March 1996) been over 2.5 years in prison, so time’s going. Well, the first days behind the walls, I actually spent on the main police-station in Oslo where I was the first 5 days. I was left in a completely naked cell and its pretty safe to say my mind was as naked as the cell, I think. I was in some sort of coma and I don’t remember much from those 5 days, staring at the wall 24 hours a day. After those days had passed, I was transferred to a prison called Ila where my situation was turning towards the better I would say. I got a real bed and also real food and they had a library as well which could supply me with books, so that made things look better really. 

Today, few years after the time of your first days in custody, what do you think about the time that is gone and  the time which has to come? Could you describe in few words the daily life behind the walls? A lot of people outside the jail have wrong imaginations about the things that happen behind the walls. Many people have seen “Lock Up” with Sly Stallone and carry over these circumstances to European jails, but I have to admit that we don’t have such hard time in jail like Stallone had in the mentioned movie. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things which we dislike on our momentary “homes”… I just think about things like “brain-washing”… can you mention some things which you dislike on “your” jail (apart from the detention), and what do you think about the influence these circumstances will have for yourself?

Looking back on my life, I usually look on the things I’ve done as great memories. I’m quite a nostalgic guy and I live pretty much in the past, so my memories are as worthful for me today as when I experienced them. So I often “escape” from here by dreaming about adventures from my pre-prison-life. A normal day inside here? I think we are at the core of the matter here; there are no normal days inside here. Sure, the same routines go on day by day, but you never know when or where the guards have got shock-raids, you never know what argues are gonna end up with, or you never know  if your mail is disappeared or confiscated. Each day brings always something new, but mostly this “something new” is bad news, so that creates a quite much negative atmosphere. But an average day inside here is that I’m attending school from 8 to 3 and after that I don’t do much, except some training, reading, or writing letters. Life is boring inside here. Naturally there is a big difference between American and European prisons, but honestly I don’t think American prison-movies are that exaggerated, because those places are really some of the most violent places you can get. But sometimes I’m convinced that psychological warfare is just as bad as physical warfare, so in that case European prisons are no better than the American ones (at least not Ullersmo). That’s actually what I dislike inside here, the psychological warfare (as I call it). It seems like they use every opportunity to fuck you up, be it related to your visits, your mail, your behaviour inside here, what you’re convicted of, what you have in your cell etc. etc. etc. I try not to think too much about these things, but sometimes it’s hard not to do. It will eventually make me distolerant for authorities in general and I won’t say it’s a successful rehabilitation if this is what they accomplish with inmates. 

Tell me something about the public opinion concerning your person and your deed, short time after your arresting and today. Do you think the public opinion did change during the time, or is it more the way the people/media let their interest in your deed and your person? If yes, does it make the custody easier for you? Well, by the way, can you tell me in short all Norwegian “Blackstars” who are imprisoned at the moment? Is anybody of them imprisoned in the same jail like you, and if yes, are you in touch with him?

I can’t say that I know too much about the public opinion about me or my deed. As I take it, the public was more than shocked when the news broke out in Norway in August 1993 about the murders, the burning and so on, but from that point I guess it has calmed down a little bit by now. There have been made some contacts by magazines and newspapers around for interviews but I prefer not to promote myself too much in the average media, simply because I felt no need to. My time inside here is easiest when the medias leave me alone I’d say. People from the scene who are imprisoned (whom I know of) are Snorre, Samoth, Vikernes and a guy called Grim Lindberg. There is also a guy here at Ullersmo who’s in for the burning of a church, but I doubt he’s that much into it. It was more a fashion-thing for him I believe. I know there are some other imprisoned guys around as well, but none I know. 

Ok, let’s come to Thorns… you founded the band together with Blackthorne (if I am informed right) many years ago. Why did you have the idea to found a band, and what was the intention behind Thorns in those days? I know that Thorns already released a kind of rehearsal-demo that is still very famous, can you tell me about the conception for the demo? How do you view it today, are you still satisfied?

The truth is that Thorns was formed in 1989 by Snorre and another guy. I didn’t join before early 1990. Back then the band was called Stigma Diabolicum and the intention was to make something different than the usual type of band. This was when the big Death Metal-boom came (in 1989) and the need to create something different was of course present. The same year, a demo called “Luna de Nocturnus” was released in 25 copies only. I must admit that the demo is very obscure, but it doesn’t mean much today I think. It was just a sort of beginning for the band. 

I think it’s a very hard thing to keep a band alive inside the jail. Do you have the possibility to rehearse, and if yes, does something like a censorship what you can play and what is forbidden to play exist (for the reader such thought might be strange, but for a captive it’s reality)?

As Snorre is in another prison than me now, it means we can’t rehearse of course, but we will see if we take it up again one day. We never rehearsed steadily here either so to speak…

[And unfortunately that's it. There was a few more answers and questions, I don't have the rest. But in the same zine, here's a part of the Burzum interview lmao:]

I was somewhat surprised to see that Samoth was credited for playing the bass on "Aske". Was it your intent to complete the line-up at that time?

[Varg:] No. Burzum is a one-man band. Samoth will never be let close to any of my doings again.

Why?

Samoth wimped out when the storm got too heavy.