MYRKVEDR interview

I interviewed Thurisaz, Hagal and Runar from MYRKVEDR, mainly about their debut album out since october 30th.

01. Hi MYRKVEDR ! October 30th was released your Debut-album entitled « The Sons of Muspell ». Are you satisfied with the result ?

Thurisaz: Very much so indeed! Myself and the others are very excited about this album. It contains several music styles that we all like personally, Folk metal, Death metal, Black metal and dare I say even a hint of Power metal.

Hagal: Yes, the result is very much as the original vision for the band. Heavy, dirty, non-commercial and filled to the edge with bravery and epic awesomeness!

02. Where was recorded, mixed and mastered the album ?

Hagal: The album has been recorded and mixed at Tåget Studios in Borås, Sweden. The mastering actually took place in my private studio.

Thurisaz: Unlike the previous CD, we decided to record, mix and master everything ourselves this time.

03. Have you already experienced studios-recordings in past, with another band ? How did the whole process happen for MYRKVEDR ? Did it happen well or have you met some difficulties with it ?

Thurisaz: I personally haven't got so much experience as some of the others in the band, in fact, the "Tryms Kväde" record was my first time recording in a proper studio. When we write material, the process for us in MYRKVEDR isn't what most bands do I suppose, since we don't jam. More often than not, William or Simon have written a complete song in GuitarPro, and show it to the rest of the band; and if we all like it, we take it in to the rehearsal room and iron out the kinks while mostly William and/or myself will write the lyrics. The writing of new songs went really well for this album, the guys were spitting out material at a incredible rate. The problems came when we entered the studio... First of all, since we wanted to do everything ourselves, much time was "wasted" on learning stuff the hard way, nothing big but everything adds up. Then after some weeks of recording came the hardest hit and that was that some of us had begun to suffer quite severe difficulties in our private lives, which meant that we had to take a break from recordings to deal with those issues. After a few months we were back on track however, and just pushed through it and finished the album.

Hagal: My first studio recording took place in 2004 with my first band SANGVILONENT.  We recorded a few songs for a demo where I made much of the recording and mastering. After that, I have made a few recordings but none especially worthy to mention. Sons of Muspell was a great challenge I must say.

04. You have entitled your first album as "the Sons of Muspell” that means those fire giants in Mythology. …Would you like to be one giant being then ? 

Thurisaz: Well, I AM a giant... sorts of, hahaha, but no, I don't think so.

Hagal: No.

05. Why ? 

Thurisaz: i am perfectly fine being a human.

Hagal: I think the lesson is not in trying to be something, but to tell and show people the ideal of personality. I believe that people need to grow with tales of heroes and bravery to be better persons themselves and as the worldwide heathen foundation pillar of elemental balance, there can be no heroes if there are no villains.

06. Two years ago was released the demo of the band. How was it perceived by the people ?

Thurisaz: Mostly positive reviews, there are always some people who doesn't like it, but hey, that's life. Although if people could be so kind and stop calling the music we play "Nazi" music I would be happy. None of us in the band holds those views.

Hagal: Well, let me put it like this. It was perceived much better than I would have guessed today. We heard comments all between “Worthless” and “Awesome”. We got some quite interesting statements as “Fucking Nazis, but overall it felt like the folk-audience in general was in need for a new folkish, massively bearded heavy metal act.

07. This demo was more related with that cold world “Nifleim”, one other of the nine worlds of the Yggdrasil… Thus I wonder, will the future MYRKVEDR records be always related with one specific world of the three by album or not ? 

Thurisaz: Well, that may be a possibility, although we don't really think thematically when writing the songs. But we intend for the next album to be more of a thematic album with a red line going through the songs.

08. Why have you chosen that bandname and not….I don’t know “Jötunheim” for example ?

Thurisaz: That is quite easy to answer; Myrkvedr was the only norse sounding name that wasn't used already by another band. Although, some weeks afterwards, we noticed that there is a finnish Black metal band namned Myrkvidr, but then it was too late to change.

Hagal: When you choose a name for your band there are three questions to answer.

First, “what kind of music is it about?” in this case folkish heavy metal, therefore something non-modern preferably in some, for the region, fit language as Swedish, German or Icelandic. Second, “What reaction do you want to mediate with your name?” Our concept was about mysticism, heathen legacy and a rather dark approach of the world itself.

Third, the hardest of these questions: “which of our nominated name suggestions is not already used by a handful of bands?” As Thurisaz said, we honestly thought that Myrkvedr wasn’t used at all. Except this little misjudgment, the name Myrkvedr, Mirkwood, holds all the aspects we searched for. We are even mentioned in J.R.R Tolkiens Lord of the rings.

09. Can you tell us the lyrics content for each track of the album ? 

Thurisaz:

Sons Of Muspell: Intro, sets the mood for the album, not much to say here.

Odens Prophecy: Odens vision of the last fight of the gods, inspired by the "Lokasenna" passage from the "Codex Regis".

Urdarbrunnr: Tells the story about "Vidfarne" who finds himself by this legendary well without knowing how he got there.

The Fiddler: A sad story about a Nordic mythological creature called the "Nix", who dwells by rivers and plays magical tunes that lure innocent listeners to drown in the rivers.

Bölvun Buslas (The curse of Busla): A short song inspired by a passage from " Herröds and Boses Saga", where Busla curses king Bose for the death of her son.

Men Of The Longhouse: A song about leaving your troubles behind and join in on the fun in life, like drinking, plundering and general viking stuff.

Sindres Saga: Jörmungandr: A retelling of "Hymers Kväde" where Thor and the giant Hymer go fishing for the Midgaard serpent.

Brynhilds Call: A song about giving everything your best, even for impossible odds.

Balders Död (The death of Balder): Inspired by Snorri Sturlassons tale of Balders fall by the hand of the treacherous Loki.

Hel: A song that is about the godess of death, Hel.

Cerdic: Tells the tale about the saxon king Cerdic and his hardships growing up and later his conquests.

Voosum: A song about a viking raid gone wrong.

Axes and mead: A real party song this! It tells the tale of shipwrecked vikings who proceeds to drink their troubles away at the local pub.

Gjallarhorn: Outro, the end of the record... or is it?!

Vandraren: No it wasn't because we have made a cover of Nordmans famous song Vandraren also. Now the album is done. Thank you for listening.

10. Is the album self-released ?

Thurisaz: Yes, we are not signed as of yet.

Hagal: Yes, the label phenomenon has yet to prove its overrated area of use. 

11. Do you have some gigs planned ?

Runar: Yes, one gig in Stockholm by the end of this month, then back to Gothenburg for another gig, then back to Stockholm again for this year's last gig.

12. Have you already shared the stage with some other folk metal bands ?

Runar: Loads of bands: Fejd, Svartsot, Black Magic Fools, Midvinterblot, Grimner, Falkhan, Särimner to name a few. We also look forward to play with our friends in the German folk metal band Rabenwolf this winter.

13. What is your best memory from gig ?

Thurisaz: For my part I don't know if it's the BEST memory as such, but the one that stands out the most is the one where we were supposed to play with Grimner in their hometown Motala. And being the nice guys they are they invited us to come to their singers apartment before the gig to chill and have some beers and the like...We in the band got so completely wasted on alcohol that we barely could stand, which led to the most failed gig we EVER have had. Simon barely remembered how to play guitar and William mostly stood and shouted nonsense.. It was quite horrible to be there, but now it serves as a lesson to us to never get drunk before a gig again. 

Hagal: A long time ago we played at a venue in Gothenburg called “Valand”. This is a really good venue. But as we made preparations for entering the stage, a female bass player from one of the bands we played with that evening entered the room and said “what's that smell?” to which we replied “Oh, it must be the blood!”. She said “But it´s not real blood, right!?” and we answered, “Of course it´s real blood, it's from an ox!” Another person from her band entered the room at this point, she screamed something about “Disgusting, I will never play with these guys again!” to him and stormed out of the room. We went on stage and made one of our best performances so far. That was a great gig!

14. You already announced some videos with lyrics will be online as promotion for « The Sons of Muspell » album. Do you plan other things to promote your album such as some gifts for the folk metal listeners or maybe one official video ?

Runar: Yes, the 2 November we will start the filming of a music video for the song "Axes and Mead".

15. Have you got positive comments on your trailer ?

Thurisaz: Yes, we have actually. To my knowledge the comments have been overwhelmingly positive.

16. Are your songs in Swedish ?

Thurisaz: On this album, the majority of the songs are in English, so people outside of Sweden can sing along our songs. Only 4 songs are in Swedish and 1 of them are in Icelandic while 15 songs complete the album.

17. One part inside Sword Chant is dedicated to official and translated lyrics. This exists for everyone to understand better the lyrics content of songs –- That is the goal. Would you be ready to share your lyrics here or not ?

Thurisaz:  Of course.

18. What are the biggest influences of the band ?

Thurisaz:  Quite a lot of bands influence our music, such as: Amon Amarth, Thyrfing, Tyr, Fejd, Svartsot, Ensiferum, Finntroll, Alestorm, Hammerfall, Falconer, Waylander etc...

Hagal: As Thurisaz says, we have a great variety of influences. I think that’s because we don´t say that we shall sound like “bandname”. We are open minded and write what we feel like, whatever genre or band it could be referred to.

19. This one is for Runar. What was your first instrument and how did you evolve to other instruments ?

Runar: I Started playing the saxophone at the age of ten. I took lessons at the local cultural school for about six years but then I got bored with it and I stopped. By that time I had discovered metal music and the saxophone did not strike me as an instrument fit to use for playing the music I liked. When I was 20 years old I had started to listen to a lot of folk metal and found my fathers old recorder. The basic fingering and technique of the saxophone and the recorder are very similar so I learned to play some of my favorite folk metal song within a few days. The more I played the more I got interested in folk music, historic instruments and so on and I started dreaming about playing the bagpipes. Today, five years after finding my fathers old recorder, I have a collection of more then 100 historical and odd musical instruments of with around 50 are flutes/whistles.

20. Thank you, MYRKVEDR!  The last words are yours.

Thurisaz: Well then we would like to thank Krissy and The Sword Chant Forum for their excellent support of the Folk metal scene, people like you are the lifeblood of the metalscene in general. And we would also like to raise a horn of mead to our loyal fans that have supported us over the past 3 years, it has been a really good experience to meet you all at the gigs and we hope to see you there again on our future gigs. Heres to 3 more years of viking badassery, SKÅL!