Interview

VULTURE INDUSTRIES

Dimanche 23 décembre 2012

The gig is the last one of a tour with Virus

Virus

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. How has it been going ?

Bjørnar Nilsen : It's been going very well. We've has not to many very big audiences for this your but very dedicated audiences that have been interested in all of the bands and very good at supporting so it's been a very good atmosphere on all of the gigs. In some places like Paris, we've also had quite good crowds. And all of the bands are going very well together so there's a very good atmosphere at the bus. Everybody's having lots of fun so it's been good, yeah.

Vulture Industries

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before but it's the first time you play in Belgium...

B.N. : Yeah, it actually is. This is like the normal country to stop in on a tour. It's the one we've been waiting for the longest to do. It's just a coincidence really that it didn't happen before.

So you weren't avoiding us ?

B.N. : No, we weren't avoiding you. (laughs) We are all very fond of chocolate and beer so we have not been avoiding Belgium for sure.

I heard a new album should be coming out soon...

B.N. : We are currently recording the album and what is left is to do some guitar parts and some extra arrangement stuff and also quite a lot of vocals are still left. We have started to mix a bit and one song is more or less completely done with mix and everything. It's turning out very well. I'm very pleased with how it's sounding so far. It's more organic and dynamic and even though we've always been putting lots of stuff into the songs, I think at this point, it fits even better together and we've actually managed to put in some new elements also, like big arrangements and really creepy atmospheres at times. It's going to be nice.

Is there going to be a specific lyrical theme as for the previous album ?

B.N. : Erm... Yeah, but I don't think I'm allowed to reveal too much at the moment without getting the label on my back. But yeah, the album will have a conceptual title and a more or less conceptual theme but still quite a lose one.

© John Gallardo

It's the first album you're gonna release with Season of Mist .

B.N. : Yes. We've done two albums so far on Dark Essence Records , which is a small Bergen-based label and it's been very nice to be there because I'm basically involved with running the label and everybody knows everybody and the other guys are friends of the band. But it's still a label with a limited capacity and a limited budget compared to Season of Mist . It will be nice to try something bigger and see how that fits. And also I think Season of Mist has a catalogue that fits us well. Their boss is a fan of the last album. I think it will be fine.

How come you decided to tour before getting the album released ?

B.N. : We've actually been planning to do something on this part of the air for quite some time and it was just like falling back for when the timing would be and whatever. And we actually got a bit of state granting for doing this tour so we figured, even though we don't have the album out, we'll do one tour now...

So the state is helping you to do tours like this ?

B.N. : Yeah, this is the Norwegian cultural department's Christmas gift to Belgium ! (laughs)

© John Gallardo

Your sound is basically very different from all the other bands I know. How do you manage to archieve that ?

B.N. : I guess it's just natural consequence our influences. I am the main songwriter and Øyvind also writes quite a lot. We listen to very much different kinds of music so we end up with this mix that's a sum of this. For my own sake, my favourite artists are Tom Waits

Tom Waits

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and Devil Doll which are neither very metal actually. I also like lots of metal but very much of my favourite music is non-metal. So when I'm doing metal, it will get spiced up with a lot of outside influences. And for Øyvind's part, I think his all-time favourite band must be Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses

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so he's more on the straighter path there but he also listen to a lot of strange stuff, lots of 70's prog and his current favourite is a quite young Norwegian band I think, Kråkesølv, you might have heard of it, I think they're doing well. But maybe only in Norway, I'm not sure.

You're also a producer...

B.N. : Yeah, my main job is running a sound studio in Bergen. I run it together with two of the guys from Enslaved

Enslaved

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, Arve and Herbrand. And I guess most of the metal stuff and the hard rock stuff that comes out of Bergen is done at our studio. It's a nice work. You get some new input and new perspectives on how people work with music and songwriting and arrangement and stuff when you can really see the detail of an album coming together.

Does it help you with the band also ?

B.N. : Yeah, I think so.

Is there anything else you'd like to say ?

B.N. : Very nice to be here in Belgium for the first time and I hope this will also be nice for Belgium and for the Belgian people and I hope there will be a good crowd here today. It's quite a small place so it should fill up quite easily I think.