|
First
off I want to congratulate you on your new album "Conspiracy
In Mind".
How
would you describe your music for an outsider?
Oddleif - Thanks!
That's a tough question. Actually I think its hard to describe and
compare us to one particular band or style as you'll find power,
thrash, progressive and a bit of doom and groovy metal, but that
is if I break it up in pieces - metal in some experimental form,
yet progressive, moody, mellow and emotional?
I hear some
references to Sanctuary, when I listen to your music both
musically and vocally – do you take that as a compliment and to
what degree would you agree on this statement?
Oddleif
- That
is for sure a compliment. How many bands out there is compared
with Sanctuary?? I don't think we sound like this, but I
understand, that some will try to compare it vocally to Sanctuary
and Nevermore, but I don't think to much over it. I always try to
do my own stuff, and I always have, both vocally and musically.
Who has
inspired you musically?
Oddleif
- The
music in Communic is a blend of the musicians involved. If there
was another drummer with another playing style it would have
turned out in a different way musically for sure. Tor Atle on
drums is more into modern, brutal and extreme metal, always on the
search for the perfect groove. If there was another bass player,
this would have turned out in some other direction as well. Erik
on bass is a fully fledged Manowar freak, who plays loads of
chords and strange stuff on the bass, that stands out quite
special. When he play, he creates a massive wall of sound. I
merely have my interest in the prog and metal from when the 80's
turned into 90's like Fates Warning, Psychotic Walts, Megadeth,
Testament, Death and so on, but I think we have found a unique
combination and a "style of our own". Im also a huge fan
of Arjen Lucassen and his work. When I first heard Ayreon's "The
Final Experiment" it totally blew me away.
What kind of
topics do you deal with lyrically?
Oddleif
- I
don't have any rules, when it comes to the lyrics, but everything,
that affects me in the daily situations may end up as a lyric
inspiration or something. Some of the lyrics comes to me as
personal issues and stuff that irritates me. Some inputs comes to
me from watching the news and issues in the world today, and a bit
of modern technology stuff is always interesting and makes a
special twist to it, the ocean and the moon inspires me as well
when it comes to writing lyrics…
Jacob Hansen
has produced the album – how was it to work with him?
Oddleif
- I
was really looking forward to have the production done with Jacob
Hansen. Up front I did quite some research on some of his previous
work trying to figure out if this was the right choice, and in the
end I really felt that he had something to offer to our kind of
music and to help us getting THE sound that pays respect to the
songs. Also that he liked our demo and was interesting in working
with us felt good. We had never been in other than some minor
local studios, when we had done previous stuff, so it was quite
frightening as well as exiting. I knew what sound I was after and
I think we came pretty damn close. Maybe Jacob is into more
extreme music, but he has a good ear, and was easy to work with,
and did whatever he could to meet our criteria's, ideas and crazy
stuff, that we made him suffer for. Also that we could work alone
at night, recording guitars and stuff on our own, overtime was a
big plus. Can't say that Ribe is the most exiting town I have
spent 3 weeks in, and I guess we all gained some pounds poring in
on "almost free" danish most famous beer, some dvd’s
and frozen pizzas every evening, but it was worth it....
Listening to
album now – is there anything you would have done differently?
Oddleif
- I
think we are pretty satisfied. It was a bit hectic the last days
in the studio, and we had to travel home before we had the final
mix settled, and had only one chance to correct stuff in the mix
afterwards, before it went into mastering and Nuclear Blast had to
have the master on a scheduled day, so there is a few tiny spots
in the mix, that could have needed some more work, but other that
its close to what I was after, but I'm way to picky when it comes
to this. I don't think I ever will be satisfied, but I learned a
lot this time and I know what we have to do different next time,
and hopefully we can work with Jacob next time as well.
Any future
plans for touring with the new album? Perhaps we will be able to
catch you at some the festivals?
Oddleif
- Until
now we have said NO to all requests on playing concerts, cause we
wanted the album to come out first, but now we have started to
book gigs and some of them are confirmed already. Hopefully we get
out to tour as support shortly after the album is out, and are now
working on some more gigs for the summer, maybe some festivals,
but we'll see.... We are really looking forward to get out and
play live. That's what its all about.
Peter Jensen (ex-Sinphonia)
joined up with you to record the album – did he have any
influence on the songs or were they complete going into the studio?
Oddleif
- All
the songs was complete and the keys was the last thing we did
before we started to mix the album. Most of the parts and ideas
was something that I had in mind, and Peter had some other ideas,
that we used as well. He had more stuff, that we could have used,
but we didn't have the time to experiment any more, since we only
had one day to finnish up the recording of the keys and other
effects.
Peter will be
touring with you, but will he also take part in writing songs in
the future?
Oddleif
- I
don't know how this will turn out, but Peter will join us on gigs
if he has time to join us. Those where he cant, we will play as a
trio. Hopefully he will join up with us on the next album as well,
but most likely the songs will be ready up front and, just try to
ship some ideas back and forth this time, and have some better
time on it.
Over the
last few years, a few very unique progressive metal bands have
emerged in
Norway
– why do you think that is?
Oddleif
- Well
how can that be… hmm… Everyone is expecting Black Metal, when
you say you are a band from
Norway
but there are a lot of other styles in this country as well. It
has always been easier to get signed I guess, when you say that
you are coming from
Norway
and plays black metal. Today there are to many extreme metal bands,
that sounds the same, and it's not so "special" anymore
that you paint you face with corpse paint and dare to stick you
head in a bucket of blood!!! There are a lot of metal and styles
going on over here, but it takes some time in the underground to
get reckoned for "your own" style, but it's just about
making enough fuzz so that someone maybe look your way and pick
you up….
And how do
you feel about the Norwegian metal scene in general?
Oddleif
- I
think the Norwegian metal is being more varied nowadays, and you
see more bands that manages to take the final step and emerge from
Norway. The black metal scene is on a downhill course and fading
at the moment. There are only a few really good black and death
bands (in my ears), but this scene will still stay on a high note
for a long time, so I don't think we can expect a sudden burst of
progressive metal from Norway, but time will show. There are quite
some good acts already that have worked hard for a long time so we
have more to offer I think...
Any famous
last words?
Oddleif
- Be
sure to check out the album once it's out and we hope to meet up
with some of you when we comes to Denmark to play live. Then we
will have a some cold ones for sure.
Until then…
CHEERS!!!
Oddleif Stensland
Communic
"Skål"
to Oddleif - do follow up on his suggestion and get this brilliant
piece of metal, when it's released. It's absolutely worth it ...
might be the best new band of 2005!
|
