Borknagar Interview is up 1/07/2010








Answered by Øystein G. Brun, January 2010

1. For those of us that have missed Borknagar why has there been so many yrs between Universal and last release?

---- Different reasons. First off, time flies as you may have noticed as well. But the most important factor is the fact that we work according to our own schemes. We don’t rush anything just in order to get an album out and so forth. This time around we basically needed the time to re-organize the band as well as the mental side of things. And we did not rush into studio before we were sure that we had a great album up the sleeve. I am pretty sure the gap between UNIVERSAL and the next album will be way shorter. We have already started to work on new songs.

2. You left Century Media and now working with Indie Recordings how did this come about?

---- When we released ORIGIN our deal with Century Media Records was fulfilled. CM is by all means a great label in many ways, but I somehow felt that we came to a dead end with them. I had been working with the label for over 10 years and I just felt the urge to “climb another mountain”. On the other hand Indie recordings came up with a deal that in general terms suited us much better, both economically and artistically. Also we have known the Indie guy’s for ages as they have been our main distributor in Norway since the beginning of our career- and did a great job! So considering all the options we had on the table in front of us, the choice where pretty obvious. So far Indie recordings have done a great job and I am sure they will do as well in the future.

3. Borknagar seems to be a family again with some members returning into the fold even if just a vocal track (like ICS Vortex)

---- Yeah, we are all a big happy family…haha… Even if Mr. Vortex quit the band about ten years ago, we have always been good friends, before and since. So when we finally decided to record “My Domain” this time around we had to get Vortex to do that. The song was written back in the mid/late ’90 and he has always been digging that song, so it was totally natural to ask him to do it….

4. With Universal it sounds like a band has come back full circle with the sounds that are the most powerful since The Archaic Course and Quintessence. Did these 2 amazing releases come into mind with Universal release?

---- Yeah, you nailed it there! This time we really allowed ourselves to be inspired by ourselves. It’s not that we wanted to jump back to the ’90 and repeat ourselves in any way, but I really felt the urge to somehow rediscover our musical core so to speak. The album really belongs to 2010 but you’ll definitely find some nerve that is reminiscent of our past career. In fact, I have always thought of this album as something between “The Archaic Course” and “Quintessence”…. Also I must admit that the song UNIVERSAL really inspired the whole album, atleast on a personal level.

5. Vintersorg vocals sound so brilliant on Universal for the 1st time I can hear his full range from clean to growls. I always knew that he was the right guy for the Borknagar job and with Universal he truly shines was anything do different this time?

---- Hmm… I think the main key here is the fact that we were all very focused on what we wanted to achieve with this album in terms of music. When it comes to the vocals Vintersorg and I had long discussion on how we should do the things. For this album we simply decided to think of the grim vocals as the main vocal and the clean vocals more as an addition instrument. Pretty similar to what we did on “The Olden Domain”…

6. Is there a story line or theme the Universal release??

---- This is not a concept album, personally I don’t like that. But the album definitely has some sort of underlying theme, even though the songs have a different approach lyrically. In simple terms you can boil it down the album title. I have always between interested in the encounter between man and nature, in different manners and perspectives. One of the songs on the new album, WORLDWIDE, deals with the fact that nature play by its rules whatsoever. Man can think, believe or acts however they want. Different cultural or geographical background and so forth, it does just not matter. The point is that nature play by its own rules whatsoever; there is no compromise or remorse. Man basically has two options in life, to play by these rules or not. You may say that this is an attitude or perspective that underlies the album in some or another way.

7. Will Borknagar be coming to USA for shows in 2010 at all?

---- We have no specific plans, but there are some options we are looking into right now. I have a vague but positive feeling that we’ll actually manage to cross the sea this year…..would be cool!

8. Are you working with The End Directly for North America or is that just an agreement with Indie Recordings?

---- Indie Recordings has a distribution deal with The End records for the US territory, so it is first and foremost a general cooperation between our label and The End. But still, we in the band have regular contact with them in order to work out the promotion in the States. First time for us working with this label, but so far the cooperation have worked really well, so looking forward to the rest..

9. There is a strong string and organ element on this release again I really think that works so well with the very Avant/Progressive guitar sounds. The sounds are so layered this time. How was Universal recorded at a band or part at a time?

---- The album was mainly recorded in Toproom studio during from January- May 2009. We did most of the recordings there but Lars (keys) and Vintersorg (vocals) did their work in their respective home studios. They felt more convenient doing that. The music being multi-layered was fully intentional from our side, so that was basically something we worked out during the pre-productions. I would definitely say that the album where recorded as a band this time around. During the period in studio everybody came by studio to work in one or another way, even though Lars and Vintersorg did most of their recordings at home.

10.Your official website has not been updated in a while do you feel MySpace is the place most goto these days and just need to update that??

---- Well, we have planned to mute and redirect the official site to our official myspace site for a long time. Of some or another reason we had some troubles doing that, even our former webmaster tried to redirect the site, but it would just not work. But then our previous drummer Asgeir Mickelson popped up the other day and fixed it….haha… Right now we’ll just focus on the MySpace site, which seems to be the thing these days!

11. There will be 4 different packages for Universal I see The Dragon and Vinyl packages look amazing. It nice to see a band care to put out an amazing vinyl product the sound on record is just amazing esp with a great record player. How limited are the Dragon Box set as well??

---- Yeah, we really wanted to spend some time and money on a great package this time around. It comes in 4 different versions, which all looks amazing. But personally I thing the LP really is the highlight. It comes with double vinyl’s to make sure the sound is optimal and gatefold, a really goodie for the good old veterans like me…haha… The Dragon Box set is limited, but I am not really sure yet, I think it is 3000 copies worldwide or something like that. I would argue that it is a must for every long run BORK- fan….it will be so great!

12. Thank you for your time any closing thoughts here?

---- Greetings to all our fans in the US! Make sure to check out the new album when it arrives, I am sure you will enjoy it! Take care folks!


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