Borknagar Interview

Many bands are comfortable in their own niche, and carve out their spot in Metal. Motörhead, Krisiun, Accept, Exodus, Cannibal Corpse, and Obituary just to name a few, are bands that, while still interesting and do release good material, don’t deviate a lot from their core formula. Now, I’m not one to start calling them off for it. I rather a good, true to form Death Metal record than a hokey pokey ultra progressive every-trick-and-its-mother ordeal album any day. Yet, Borknagar is one of the few bands that manage to walk the line between oldschool and innovative with grace, and not become pretentious. With many great (and a few not so great…) albums under their belt, Borknagar are back with Urd. Urd, their newest opus, seems to put together the beauty of their early days alongside the progressive and interesting parts of their more recent work. So, without further talk- here’s my interview with founding guitarist, Oystien G. Brun

Hello Oystien! How are you?

well I’m, a lot of interviews a lot of talks about the new album, drinking a beer, having a good time

So, with the release of Urd in the very close horizon, what’s your final thoughts about the album?

Well, I’m really satisfied and proud, I’m happy with the good feedback from journalists and the internet and stuff like that. You know, also the production on the album is very rich. Sounds like it should sound, so, good times!

You can really pride yourself on the fact Borknagar is a band that tend to evolve and is one of those bands that you can’t really take two albums and be like, well these two are almost the same, how do you feel Urd is set apart from the rest of the albums ?

Well I think it’s, a huge leap of production, , I think the sound of the album is brilliant. As I said it before, we ended up with a really suitable production for the album. Of course we have a really nice line up, everybody was a having a good time and worked really hard on this album.. The mix really allowed us to express ourselves and was amazing. Yeah, I think that’s the best thing about the album.

You said a lot about the mix and production work, but what about the core material?
Well, it’s better written. We spent so much time on this album. One of the differences we had when making this album in contrast to older ones, is that now a day we have the equipment to express ourselves properly. WE could play around way more in studio, and do all that stuff, we could do way more. We were able to not just be good guitarists, or a good drummers, but a good ,overall well produced unit. It felt good to have a song written on the album, and we could really bring the whole production to the mix table by ourselves. It’s definitely an awesome album. Songs are a bit shorter.

What approach did you take to create this album, did you go for a more raw exposition.. or something more reminiscent of your previous other works, or something all together different?

I don’t really, for me, it’s not like I’m “ok guys, lets start working on this album”. We’re always working. We’re always making music, even symphonies from time to time. I write continuously. It’s not “ Ok I have ten new songs now.” We listen to one song. Maybe we write more songs if we feel the need. It’s a continuous process, on this album we definitely wanted to polish it. To make each and every song shine. We really worked hard on it. We wanted to incorporate , new sounds to the material. New progressive rock elements, and other varied elements. I think in the end of the day, it’s all about following your instinccts. Follow your gut feeling, you don’t just work on some material . I don’t have too many thoughts about the album, I don’t want to limit them by some recipe. I just want to make music I feel like making.

what are some of the lyrical themes explored on this album? I’m guessing George Fisher and you don’t see eye to eye as far as lyrical writing goes…

Well not really “laughs”, It’s more about philosophical issues, it’s more about, music, about nature and scenery. It’s very much about our history and where we come from. What’s the place of mankind in this world from a philosophical viewpoint. Existential philosophy.

M- care to elaborate how it plays in? philosophy in particular? It’s nice to hear an intellectual level of lyrics as well as of music

It’s not in the realm of philosophy, I like to deal with the connection between man and nature. I think it’s so much embedded within Norwegian culture. It’s like we want to be a documentary about northern forests,, but I want to capture and project the poetry of the northern nature and forests. And the forces, the amazing things that happen in nature, and between nature and mankind. Life and death,. The beauty of life and death. For some people, death is a bad thing. But death is also something beautiful, there’s something beautiful about it.

What does the album cover symbolize? What’s the meaning of the name?

Yeah the title, first and foremost, it’s a nice analogy for roots or heritage, or path, or history. It’s all about the past kind of things. That’s why were here. We are nothing without our history. I am fundamentally misguided, because I’m always looking back at the good ol times, as a child Sometimes I think the past is more interesting than the future. I always feel like that. It’s kind of an analogy, secondary it’s this, Urd is a name from mythology, I wanted to dedicate the whole album to Norwegian heritage, to our pagan roots. Urd is a very Norwegian title and it fits our attempt at showing the Norwegian nature. There’s also a more complicated sign of things. Beucase, the Pagan, or Vikings, whatever they’ll call it, weren’t really about religion. Mythology was their way of doing science, their way of trying to explain things and finding correlation between , why are we here? Why are there oceansoceans? Why? That’s something I respect and find really interesting, that’s why we used an old fashion Norwegian name. There’s the whole philosophical name, Urd is representing the past and the idea of past as the origin of the future. The three weeds, the last line of mankind. I find this an interesting analogy. I think because of DNA, the whole idea of this album is to look back, where do we come from? Where do we go? And ETC. I think it’s a nice one, about where we’re leaving. Kind of a cool way expecting that kind of thing. When it comes to the cover, I never want to have a cover or album title that is too obvious. I don’t want to have a album called shoot yourself. I want to have an album or album title where the listeners get their own experience and make up their own mind. I want to capture the atmosphere of the music and lyrics, and that’s the whole point of the lyrics. That’s the whole point of the cover, to pass a feeling or emotion or feelings by the cover. It reflects the content. Has this wooden carvings, looks Norwegian , looks old and rough.

any favorites on the album?

Oh man, foo foo foo foo, that’s difficult. Probably, I think, I am not sure. just no. “laughs” Maybe the song Winter Eclipse. Maybe not the best song, but I think that’s the song, that’s the soul of the band, a very traditional Borknagar song.

What were the beginnings of the band? How do you feel inspired or that you’ve learned from them?

Oh man, it’s so many things. It’s, different, I’ve learned the whole music business and how it works. Contracts, and of course the musical side of things. Hopefully I improved as a musician. I learned from my mistakes, we have made mistakes in the past, and have made them less apparent. But maybe the most important thing for me has been realizing how important music really is for people. For me, it’s my passion in life to create music. From all the feedback, we’ve been doing this for years. All the response, it’s good to know you’re music means something. Basically music is nothing, you have a pencil paper. You can make something out of nothing, it’s just an idea, a sound. To actually be able to release an album to actually make an album that has an impact that means something to people. I learned from it as years go back, I’m humbled by it. In the early years, I didn’t really care about what people thought. We got good responses, but then I was like yeah, whatever. I appreciate it much more now, I don’t know, it’s a lots of things. Doing music for such a long time. You learn so many things and meet so many people. It’s nice to hear it. Even calling to Israel, I have friends all around the planet. I can go all around the world, and meet someone I have been in contact with. It’s an adventure. I learned to appreciate it more, it’s a nice adventure in life.

Now lets dig back a bit, I know this is going to be a bad thing to say, but I also really love the self titled album and The Olden Dimension, what drove the change away from those type of albums?
It’s gradual evolution I guess. I don’t want to repeat myself, I don’t want to be a recycled band. I don’t want to re-record the Archais Course. I’d retire. I feel driven to make new things, to challenge myself as a musician. I feel that we have songs that are really aggressive and raw. To me it’s all about contrasts. It’s all about being able to create slow beautiful part and do brutal speed parts, for me it’s boring to have the same thing over and over. So many bands that release an album entirely in 200 BPM a, it’s almost like running a marathon. It’s not music, it’s not art, it’s boring. To me, music should be bottom line should be about doing art, to me emotions and trying to portray emotions and stuff like that is more important. That has become more important to me now, maybe not more important than before but now it’s the reason why to do it now a days. Maybe I’m just not that angry, anymore. I think it’s a natural evolution.

Also discussing the retrospective of the band, Borknagar has had sort of a revolving door of member, ICS Vortex was in and out and in again, you had Garm of Ulver as well as Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved, how do you feel that effected the creative process of the band? I know you get this question every fucking interview, but I guess it’s a must.

I get the question a thousand times I guess, what can I say. I feel one of the reasons in the beginning, we had most of this. It was because, first album we had just really famous musicians and me. Like Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) and Infernus, and in the beginning it was more like a project than a band. But I thought we should do something more serious and do something more than just one album. I realized I wanna do something more than just a project. The other guys of climbed off the band wagon. Generally speaking, the music business is hard business. Now a day it’s the closest to thing to slavery. We have sold almost 4000000 records, over the year and we have basically no money. Of course, as you grow older, you can’t, you have to pay for this you have to feed your family. In the end of the day, you have to have the passion for metal music. If you won’t, you won’t love this music for a long time. There are so many things in life, I have so many things to dream about. I’m antisocial almost, I have to skip a lot of things in life to do all that stuff and have energy. Some people aren’t able to give it up in the long run, unless you get a lot of money. My philosophy, I never did it for the money or to be a rockstar, I just want to make great music. It might be as trange attitude, some people aren’t, in the long run, are able to keep up with it. It’s a lot of hard work really.

Also speaking of ICS Vortex, did you see him evolve as a musician? How is it different to work with him now compared to the times before he was in Dimmu Borgir and before he had a solo album?

Oh well, he, I think first of all, he’s a more mature musician, he learned a lot in the business and about the music and stuff like that. I mean he’s a brilliant musician, but now a days he’s also an experienced musician/. And that’s a great thing, as I said before, it’s a rough business, you really have to know your shit to keep around. It’s really good to have him back in the band, and I’m looking forward to making the next album. What can I say, I’m just happy.

Yet, here we are, speaking with the original member of the band, who recorded classics like Quintessence, and Borknagar, and came up with ideas for all of the 9 albums, how do you keep yourself fresh? How do you not run out of ideas?

I don’t know, for each and every album after we do it. I get so tired, I feel so drained, I felt six months just doing nothing. But it’s just like give me a few months and I’m like, I’m back. To me it’s my way of surviving really. Actually it’s to have a profession, a job. I have a job, I don’t just make music. It’s a good thing, I have a job. All the guys, we live in Bergen and work and stuf like that. When we grow tired of work, we do band stuff. And vice versa. I can just jump into the world of music and then I can drop back into the normal life as well and be more secure.. It’s really about being able to control myself to distance mysrelf from music and vice versa. Or do something for some time, to not always do this kind of thing. A nightmare for me actually would be to be living for music and be pressured to write a new record all the time. And be monitored, to be able to pay for my food. Music is my haven, my music is the place where I can just be myself. I can kind of relax, I can have some relaxation. So I have my technique, I’ve been doing it for such a good time. It’s a nice band. After each album, I am like I need a rest before I do it. Then I go like I have a new song, lets go. You have to protect yourself a bit.

I think so too, if I just lived music, I need to find some inspiration. I need to do something in life that will live of me, and stimulate me in a different way. When it comes to inspiration I don’t sit down and listen to music, I go to the mountains, or walk around there instead. That’s how we find inspiration for music and ideas. It’s uh, yeah, it’s just a normal arrangement.

Also, what brought on Origin? A whole acoustic album, although very different than most BM’s acoustic folk albums like Sword Song by Skyforger and Kveldssanger by Ulver?

Um, I always wanted to do an acoustic album. The very first song I wrote for the band was acoustic. The songs on the first album. Borknagar was an acoustic band in the beginning, and I still write a lot of music on acoustic guitar. I had the idea of an acoustic album for many years. But century media were like that’s commercial suicide. So we didn’t really do it before 2006, and to me it was a bit too late. I really wanted to do it as a third album, so that’s the story. I really wanted to do it, and we just did it basically and that’s it. I didn’t wanat to make a folk song album, I just wanted to do a black metal album without the amps, lets make the new album. Now lets just turn off all the amplifiers and get guitars. That was my basic plan. The songs are usually metal songs, but a lot of the songs we have on the metal album were developed from acoustic songs.

Aso, in today’s seen, it seems there is a rise of unorthodox Black Metal. Albums like The Archaic Course, Quintessence, as well as later Enslaved helped pave the way for such bands. What do you think about Black Metal’s modern state?

I DON’T THINK ANYTHING ABOUT IT REALLY. I don’t really care, I mean, the stuff is interesting. There are interesting bands. I prefer the more progressive bands. This whole, Black Metal label, tr00 bands and people who try to recreate Under a Funeral Moon by Darkthrone. But why try make something like this now? For fucks sake, it’s done. I don’t know, music should be a statement of it’s time. For me, I’m completely uninterested in doing something oldschool black metal. I dont’ find it interesting really, I don’t find a point. The best records are already out, I respect bands doing it. But for me as a musician, it’s completely uninteresting. I want t o move forward and do certain things. I mean why not? That’s the beauty of music!

where do you get inspiration to your riffing and to your lyrics? What inspires Oystien to write? What individuals do you find inspiring?

what is some music that inspired you
Man, all and everything. I listen to everythign from Pink Floyd to Immortal to whatever. I don’t. In my holidays, I used to listen to Bathory , Hammerheart and Twilight of the Gods, before that I was really big fan of Thrash and Death, Kreator and Metallica. It’s a mixture of everything. Now a days I’m more like, I don’t find inspiration in music anymore. I try to,listen to an album I like, but I don’t find as much to enjoy in them. I dont’ want to dissect anymore. How do you play this riff? Wow that drummer is cool, lets try that. I don’t do that anymore really, now a days I just listen to music. And as for inspirations I find it in anything else. Just daily life, my kids and my whatever. It’s um, yeah. It’s actually, I can’t pin point any specific inspiration anymore. I’ve been through everything from Iron Maiden to Metallica to Testament to Death Metal the whole thing, I grew up with this music and of course I’m inspired by it. Today i’m more like whatever. I find my inspiration elsewhere.

Any last words to the Israeli Crowd?

Well yeah, a hello to everyon to all fans. I have a lot of good friends in Israel, I was sight seeing in the early 90’s, and I met with Kobi Farhi. I also remember YIshai Sweartz back in the old days, in the early 90’s, I was in contact with him, I remember he was in a band called Betrayer. Hopefully some people will check out and like the new album, hopefully we will play a good show there some day. Chcek on the new album, Urd!