Borknagar recently released their 11th album True North to rave reviews from both fans and the media alike (Mosh’s review can be found here). One rather autumnal evening recently, founder and guitarist Øystein took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss both the new album, his inspirations when writing music and working with Simon and Lars as the main vocalists.
Borknagar released True North a few weeks ago now. How do you feel the response has been to it overall?
It’s been amazing I would say. From our perspective, the we have been getting from the reviews we’ve read, the label and the fans has been intense in a good way. Almost overwhelming in a sense. Our previous albums have had a good reception but this time it seems like everybody seems to like it. Of course, some people don’t like it and that’s fine of course.
There have been some stellar reviews of it though and we’re really happy with it. It’s matching up with our own opinion of it as well. We really put our heart, soul and mind into the music and did the best we could. We had a really good feeling after we finished it so it’s great to see that people love it just as much as we do.
There was a bit of a lineup change that preceded this album. Did that have any effect on the process behind the album?
Yeah, of course. Changes of that kind change things. I wouldn’t call it a lineup change as much as a transition. The whole thing was very natural and there was no bad blood between us at all. Our previous drummer was getting increasingly busy so wasn’t able to commit as much and Andreas was busy with his private life and work. He also got a really bad injury which is still lingering around. I guess we came to a point where we realised we had to make some decisions on moving forward. Changes like this, for me, are always painful because there’s the friendship there and everything but again, it was more of a transition than a change.
All the material for the new album was written before the new guys ed however so it didn’t affect the writing too much. I always like using the potential of the musicians I work with so there were some changes that I made once the new guys ed. It ended up working out quite nicely and I think overall the change has been good for us.
This album also marks the return of two vocalists as opposed to the three on the previous album. How has that been received?
Having just two vocalists this time around I think made us a little bit more focused on the vocals this time around. This was a good thing for this album I think and I love the way that things have come out. Of course, I’d love to have Andreas along as well but we had to act on reality and the options we had so he’s no longer involved with the band. He’s still a good friend of mine and we’ll no doubt work together in the future.
But yeah, it feels really comfortable having Simon back on the lead vocals. I’ve known him for ages and know his musical skills which really match what we’ve been doing in the band. He’s one of my favourite vocalists and having back in the band is really great. I feel privileged to be able to work with him.
You did most of the engineering and production for this album. Has that always been the case?
That’s something which has been going on for a long time now. In the past, we did use to travel to for the recordings and over-time I got interested in the recording side of things. I’d been trying for the past 10-15 years to get more control over this process and having my own studio has allowed for that. I’ve spent quite a lot of money over the last few years getting my own studio to quite a high-quality level and as such, I’ve been able to work with some other bands and produce things myself. So yeah, everything for this album went through my studio and then went on to Jen Bogren for the mixing and mastering. It felt very good to do that as it enabled me to be part of pretty much the whole creative process from start to finish. I had a much closer connection to the vision of the album and I think we’ll probably do a similar format in the future.
How did you come about to building your own studio?
It initially came about as a place to store all of my stuff and it’s evolved into somewhere that I can work on stuff both my own band and other bands. I just finished up doing some work for a band from the US actually which is cool. I decided to invest the money once I started making some money from music instead of wasting it on beer and other things. I’ve grown to love the aspect of making something from nothing and understanding the whole process of making an album. There’s so much more to it than just writing the song in the rehearsal place. It’s about explaining how you want things to be different and learning how to work with musicians.
What equipment do you typically use in of guitars and amps?
I have an endorsement deal with ESP guitars which I use typically which is pretty good. I’ve got a few amps in my studio which I use for recording along with a few plugins I use. I can get quite a nice sound and have a few interesting outboard units as well which contribute to the sound.
In the very early days of the band, Ivar Bjørnson from Enslaved was a member. Can you what it was like working with him and can you see yourselves potentially collaborating in the future?
No, I don’t think so. We used to work quite closely together as he was a good friend of mine back in the ’90s but we haven’t really talked since then. The early days I’d say was really inspiring and quite high pressure. Everybody knew everybody back in the Bergen scene in those days and there as a healthy bit of competition at the time. The early days of this band started as a project and it gradually grew from there with people just turning up when they were free and interested in it. We just got in a rehearsal room and wrote some music together for fun. When things started to get a bit more serious I booked some time in a studio to record what we had even though we’d not decided who would sing!
But no, we’ve not spoken in a while as he got busy with Enslaved and I was busy with my own things. Ivar brought a lot to the table though and we had a good time with him. We’ve not been talking for a lot of years though and I don’t think anything will happen soon.
When it comes to writing music, what would you say has been some of your main inspirations to start writing?
I grew up in the forest and have always lived in the countryside so there’s definitely a part of that in the music. I have always cherished nature and for me is a ground zero. I find my energy from nature and I always go there whenever I need to chill out. There’s no phone signal there so I truly relax there.
As I grow older though, whenever I get asked this question, I think the answer I would give is life itself. I’m more experienced now and I feel as though life is not as black and white. I lost my father a few years ago and that had a huge impact on how I view life. When life is tough then the music I write reflects that and the same can be said for when life is good. I wrote a song for this album to help release the negativity and bring something positive. I know that my father wanted me to go on and do more of what I like to do so I also tried to make the song a good mix of dark and light.
I try to bring in all aspects of life into my music and some parts can be brutal as life is brutal. But then, on the other hand, life can beautiful and the sun is shining so thus the music is beautiful. That’s kind of the basis of my philosophy on life. There are both dark and light parts which merge to make a grey thing. Making music relating to that will obviously ebb and flow with both heavy parts and calmer parts. And the less you pretend and overdo things, the better it will be. If the music comes from the heart, then there’s likely to be more quality to it. So yeah, life is my inspiration these days.
In comparison to the early days of the music industry, how do you feel the industry is now?
There’s a lot of positive things and also a lot of negative things as well. Back in the early days, we had to sacrifice a lot to get a recording and spend a lot of time with gear that was not fantastic. We paid a lot of money back in ’94 to record and it would be way more than a band would pay these days for a similar product. But yeah, back in the 90’s you really had to work hard to pull off a record as there was so much money required to do it. It’s so much easier these days as you can pick up recording gear for not a lot of money now which has led to a rise of internet bands and acts which would not have made the cut back in the day. Whilst the internet has made it easier to discover new bands and communicate with fans, it’s led to an over-saturation somewhat.
There are a lot more options available though now. Having the internet enables bands to not meet up as much and allows working with people potentially on the other side of the world. At the same time though, as I’ve said, having that ability leads to over-saturation in the scene. I think there needs to be some more quality control in the scene but I love music. The more music the better, but it needs to be from the heart.
What are the bands plans for the next 6 to 12 months?
2020 is going to be a pretty busy year for us. We’ve got a lot of festivals lined up along with some tours including a European tour that’s yet to be announced along with our long-awaited US tour. We’re keeping quite busy with touring and I guess next year will be a lot live shows.
What advice would you give to a band that is getting ready to go and record either in a studio or start tracking?
Good question. For me, I’d say it’s the willingness to work hard. I’ve been in the scene for many years and seen bands come and go, and the ones that have been around for a long time and are still going work hard. There’s been so many fads and scenes that come and go but the bands that have stuck around are the ones that work hard and are willing to work their asses off. Something I’ve always said is that one idea too many is better than one idea too little. Keep working on things and make sure that the picture is complete and everything works. Some small tweaks can change a bad song into a really cool song. That’s where the extra mile lies in my opinion. The willingness to not go out and party with everyone and spend the nights working on the music to get it perfect. That to me makes the difference between the ones that come and go and the ones that have stayed.
If you had to put together a touring lineup, who would you pick?
Oh man, that’s a difficult question. In a fantasy world, I’d love to open for Pink Floyd as they are a huge influence on me musically. They are my ground zero and I love listening to them. They were one of my first concerts in Oslo which was really cool. That and Dave Gilmore I’d say.
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