SOURCE – First of all congrats on the early response to the new album Red In Tooth And Claw. It’s getting great word of mouth. Did you had a specific idea in mind of what you wanted for this album before entering the studio and how close did you come to that original vision?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – Thanks! Yeah, the response thus far have been really great and that warms the heart after putting so much soul, time and effort into it. We’ve been very curious to what people would think and it’s a great relief that a lot of people seem to love it like we do.
I think we knew that we wanted a less polished and more to the point album than with Eight Ways. More grit back in the guitars and making everything more in your face and closer to what we actually sound like when we perform. We knew that the human element should be the main focus. A straighter line from our minds and hearts to the listener’s.
SOURCE – Red In Tooth And Claw is your 6th full-length album now and is absolutely fantastic. Many people are saying it’s your best release to date. Would you agree with that?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – Wow, that’s a great compliment from people and yourself! I’m not shure how to answer that, because there are so many memories attatched to every single album that it kind of takes on a different form than being just albums for me personally.
These albums are a huge part of who I am. I can retrace my own life back in time with each of them. But yeah, I do feel like it’s our best release! I think we managed to unintentionally draw from all the other albums and also put a new spin on it.
SOURCE – This album definitely rocks. So many great songs (Blood On The Sand, Fallow Season, Pitfalls, Parasites etc). But to narrow things down a little bit, is there a song that you feel particularly close to that you count it as one of your favorites from this disc and if so, could you talk about why that track stands out to you?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – Again, thanks! Hmm, that’s a bit like choosing between your children. To me, the one most close to the heart probably is “If I Could”. Maybe since a lot of the ideas for that song has been with me for such a looooong time. It connects me directly to the moment the ideas where born and the state of mind I was in at that point in time. Maybe obvious, but it wasn’t the best place to be, but sometimes that catharsis makes for some great music. Also, the vocal delivery and the lyrics of course contribute greatly to the impact of the song as well.
I do however feel guilty for just writing about one song since they all truly hold a special place.
SOURCE – Reaching audiences usually involves reaching out to the press and possibly working with a PR company. What’s your perspective on the promo system? In which way do music journalism and PR companies change the way music is perceived by the public?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – I don’t think we are the best band to talk about such matters, since we’ve been pretty bad at it, hehe. We do of course realize that the PR part is a big part of reaching people, but we’re best at being creative and performing musicians.
One thing I’ve had a hard time understanding up through the years is that it for the most part is a huge disadvantage to be original. Often it seems like record labels and at times the press have a hard time when there’s no definite “tag” to put on a band and the promotion can really suffer from that.
That you can get lost easier in the jungle of bands because you’re unique just doesn’t make sense to me. When I look for music, old or new, I want it to be something of its own. Not a third generation clone of another band. I think that this is slowly changing and that people in general are less focused on specific genres and perhaps listens to a broader variety of music. To me, there are only two important genres and classifications – good or bad.
Sometimes we get a review where it’s very obvious that the reviewer have just shuffled through the songs one time and made a judgement based on that. To me that’s very unfair considering the effort and thoughts going into the making of an album. I’m fine with people not liking it, but not without listening properly.
On the other hand, when journalists and PR-people get that you’re trying to make something different and invest their time and effort in understanding it, it’s very rewarding and will also greatly benefit in how people perceive you as a band and communicate what you intended to communicate.
SOURCE – How do you feel about the music scene at the moment as compared to how it was when you first started as a band? What’s some of the biggest changes you’ve seen since you’ve started in how music has evolved and is presented to listeners?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – It’s a brave new world, that’s for sure. Budgets are nothing now for a band like us compared to say 15 years ago. That means that since there’s no money for anything it’s all pretty much DYI for a smaller band. That can be a good thing, but I do think a lot of albums could’ve done with better production. Being a sound engineer I think good studios, engineers and equipment should still have its place.
Social media, of course, is a totally different beast now and plays a very big part promoting anything. For the most part that is great, because it’s easier to reach out more directly to the listener. The downside is the extremely short attention span it creates and the speed of it all. There’s so much information constantly being thrown at you that things get old very quickly.
SOURCE – Do you see the sort of negative impact that culture of immediacy has specifically had on the music industry? Has the artform itself been affected from your point of view?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – Yes, I do think that music with true heart and soul actually needs time and attention from the listener. It’s very sad if people can’t appreciate more than 3 minutes of music before they move on to the next thing. Then I think people lose something very important. Reflection, concentration and absorbing new ideas can be time consuming, but that’s how we grow. Reading half a sentence on Wikipedia and reading an entire book on a subject is not and will never be the same.
Sure, you may catch the headlines and the general idea, but anything remotely deeper gets lost. The same with music. I truly hope the album format survives.
For us, our music is built to last. By that I mean that we’ve put years of our lives into making these albums and making sure that what we release is the best we can possibly offer. It’s not about all efforts put into just one song, but the same amount of dedication and devotion put into making a cohesive album where every single second of each song is equally important.
SOURCE – With more and more musicians creating than ever and more and more of these creations being released, what does this mean for you as an artist in terms of originality?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – That’s a good thing, I think and a good thing about the music business compared to earlier. That it’s easier to make your own music accsessible and like I said before, connect more directly to the listeners. Also, maybe people won’t see us as the weirdos anymore. Hehe.
SOURCE – How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?
Well, I see it as a very important aspect of making an album. As both a musician and a sound engineer I see the composition/song as the driving factor. The idea is to convey our line of thoughts, being the composition including lyrics and performance, as direct and honest as possible to the listener. That determines how the space should be defined. How close or far. How silent or violent.
SOURCE – Do you have a musical vision that you haven’t been able to realise for technical or financial reasons – or an idea of what music itself could be beyond its current form?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – That would be to tour more. To get out and play for more people. Sadly, the financial factor often makes that pretty difficult. But, we’re hoping to turn that around with this album. We do have quite a lot of ideas that won’t happen until the finances allow them to, like stage-production ideas. Personally, I would really like to try and write for an orchestra some day, but that requires technical skills that I’d have to overcome.
It’s very difficult to predict what music will be in, say, 50 years. Technology is moving faster and faster and the way people listen to music will change, for sure. Instruments and the way they’re being played will evolve. But, I think the roots of the musical language won’t change that much. The dream would be that it’ll be less computerized and more human, even though that’s extremely unlikely.
In general, who knows what the world will look like in the future. I think we’re heading in a very ugly direction. If the climate changes like it is predicted to and the world gets to overpopulated, maybe there won’t be a place for music other than very basic instruments and singing? Maybe that’s far-fetched or maybe it’s not that unlikely.
SOURCE – Anything you want to add about what’s coming up for Madder Mortem that we should be looking for?
BP M. Kirkevaag (Guitar) – Hopefully, touring! We’re also well on the way with writing the next album and we promise it won’t take as long with the next one.
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