Interview

SATYRICON

Samedi 1 juin 2013

How are you ?

Frost : I'm doing fine, thank you. I think this is gonna be a very great show for us. We all have a good felling about the show, which we don't normally have. We do play live a lot but, as we are in a studio recording cycle right now, we aren't really that active playing live. We haven't done shows for several months. So we're eager to play live again since it's an important part of what we do and live for. So that's one thing and the other thing is that we planned quite a special show here, in our hometown. We're playing at an institution in Norway. Inferno has become an institution in the metal scene in Norway. And actually Satyricon

Satyricon

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played live for the first time seventeen years ago on Easter eve at Rockefeller so it kind of brings us in touch with the history of live shows. And it was a very big deal back then, playing here, which was actually before the Inferno Festival started and it probably initiated the whole thing, having a metal event happening at Easter in Oslo. And it's a very big deal now since it's a long time since our last show. We're gonna put up a special pyro show and everything. We're gonna present a little taste from our coming album for the first time. And it's a very special audience here at Inferno. It's a mix of fans from our hometown plus lots of media people, people from the record industry. Everybody is here at this event. You have them all gathered at one place. The people we see when we go abroad, they come here as well. It creates a particular sense of... Should I say... It's a bit solemn.

How so ?

Frost : That's what we feel. It's really a solemn affair, playing this show. And we have decided to actually emphasise just that aspect of the show when we play tonight. I think it's gonna put a mark on the band that will benefit the whole show.

© ChamO

You said you'll play a song from the new album...

Frost : We're giving just a little taste. It's a short instrumental opening. I think it will give a certain hint of what the coming album holds. It's about to be recorded these days. It's still not finished. But I think that this one song will give a certain glimpse of what is to come, but it doesn't tell that much either, because it's a short instrumental track while there are nine other songs on the album. Most of them are ordinary songs, with structure, vocals and all the traditional elements. But it tells something. I'm very curious about the reactions myself because this is an album in which we have invested an enormous amount of resources. We have rehearsed so much and we have been putting our souls into the project and still are as it goes on, even as we speak.

And who took part to its writing process ?

Frost : It has been the two of us as always and one of the live guitar players has been with us quite a bit as well. He has been rehearsing with us and he has been recording guitars on the album. Both he and Satyr are recording guitars and bass on the album. It has been the three of us for most of the rehearsals for this new album. But Satyr writes all the material like he has always done. He's the brain, the spirit behind it. He's the composer.

Do you have an idea of the release date ?

Frost : Yes, I know exactly when it's gonna be released. As far as Norway goes, it's 9th September. I think it's basically the same for the other territories, like North America around the same, west of Europe around the same, somewhere in September as well I guess.

© ChamO

After the release of the last album you toured massively to support it.

Frost : Yes we did.

Are your plans similar for this one ?

Frost : There are going to be touring cycles following this album too. I mean probably a couple of rounds in Europe, perhaps one or two in North America and we're gonna play South America, Japan, Australia, a separate round in the northern countries I suppose. We basically want to put a lot into it but we also want to push everything a bit further. We are gonna push ourselves a bit further in order to be able to deliver on a even higher level. We want to make sure everything we do makes sense. When we plan the tours, we are going to put a little more work into making the tours being good tours and not just do lots of shows because logistics dictate it. If we're going from one place to another and there's a long drive, we don't simply put up a show somewhere inbetween the two places because that's practical. We're gonna set up shows where we know that we have a decent fanbase and are good places for us to play and be much more specific about where we go instead of letting somebody else just put up a tour for us and say "You're getting these and these offers" and just put up a tour according to the logistics. We're going to be a bit more involved than that now.
But yeah, there's going to be a massive amount of shows, I'm sure.

© ChamO

And what are those best places for you to play ?

Frost : You know, it gets more and more difficult to point out as we have toured quite a lot now and there have been many good shows. Sometimes we experience that we have some of the best shows in places where we have pretty negative experiences from before. So it's really difficult to say. We had lots of really great shows when we toured South America in 2011, really fantastic !

That's what a lot of band say about their tours over there.

Frost : Yeah, it's great, really awesome. But you can get just as good a crowd in Moscow as in Chile, in Santiago for instance, where we had a really good crowd, or in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires. The Moscow crowd is a really really good one. We have good crowds in Milan, in Paris, in London, all the larger cities. There are lots of places where we like to play now. Some of the larger cities in North America are usually fantastic as well. Sometimes, we expect nothing and it turns out to be great. Basically it's all about how the planning is done. You just don't put up shows that mean quite little but are just put there because it's practical or because somebody else has basically just picked places randomly for you.

Do you have anything else to say ?

Frost : Well I prefer to communicate when I'm on stage playing with my band. That's my true way of communication. This is a kind of meta-communication. The real deal is happening on stage.

Okay, so see on stage later !

Frost : See you in the crowd I suppose.