1. Huge greetings to Helrunar! Because year 2010 is slowly goes away, there might be a space for little recapitulation. What was year 2010 for HELRUNAR?

Busy, very busy… we recorded and produced our new album, that was a lot of work of course. But also besides music, in “normal life”, there was a lot to do… we hope 2011 will become less stressful.

2. When Dionysos left HELRUNAR, I heard some rumours that this fact will change HELRUNAR forever. Maybe it was excessive, I don’t mind, but how important was this line-up change for you?

Those were rumours, nothing more. We never had the idea to close Helrunar, never. That line-up-change was not so important for us, the press made it that big problem. In the end, it´s better for us. As a two-person band we can work far more effective and agree so much in what we want.

3. So… let’s talk about the most actual theme – “Sól”. I’m listening to the album for a few weeks and I finally got some exact idea, because when I heard the album for the first time, for me, it seemed like really different group. To clear my words – the album is slower a bit, but more atmospheric (talking about the CD no. 1). When did you create the music and with which idea? What was your purpose?

We started writing in summer 2008. At that time, we had no idea that it would turn out to be a double-album. But we knew from the beginning, that the atmosphere would become much stronger and darker than in our works before. Our purpose was, indeed, to create deeper, stronger atmospheres, and to move away from all the “easy-listening”, or let´s say, more “catchy” influences that you maybe find on our earlier albums.

4. But…talking about CD no. 2, the music presented on the disc is something like progressive HELRUNAR. :) Well, it’s something like pretty new way of your music. Even that I still know that I’m listening to HELRUNAR, almost every song surprised me. How to understand this? Do you want to move over with your music?

I am glad that we´re able to surprise you! I think that should be one of the goals in creating art… always moving a step further, always trying to create something new and exciting, finding new forms of expression, but not to lose your identity at the same time.


5. Let me ask you what was harder – to compose CD no. 1 or CD no. 2? I mean, when you started and finished the composing process. And, mainly, when you got an idea to make a record which will contain 2 CD’s with different faces of HELRUNAR?

I can´t tell you which one was harder to compose… we wrote both parts at the same time, and then, when the composition were finished roughly, we decided where to put them… always according to the lyrical concept.

6. Because my German is not the best, despite the fact that I’m able to speak; could you please tell me more about the lyrics on the album (both CD’s)? Is there any concept on the album? What was your inspiration during writing of the lyrics?

First some words on that lyrical concept: A great destruction, a catastrophe happens… followed by a time of crisis, estrangement and isolation, but also psychic progression, until the circle, the spiral is complete once again. This must sound strange… it is not easy to say what exactly “Sól” describes , apart from that, I want to keep the meaning, the interpretation quite open and up to the reader. That is a part of the lyrical concept which is inspired by the structure of myths. I also took influences from expressionistic and surrealistic literature. Of course I had certain ideas of meaning when I wrote the lyrics, but I´ll rather leave it to the listener to give them his or her own meaning. The greatest inspiration comes from life itself, from things I witness, experience, and reflect, and the reader should experience the lyrics in the same way, putting his own life into the lyrics, reflect himself in them. I am sorry for the listeners who don´t speak German… in that case I hope the music and the sound of words can speak for themselves.

7. What was the line-up on the record and where you recorded the album?

We recorded at Klangschmiede Studio E again, with Markus Stock as producer. Apart from Alsvartr and me our session-guitarist Discordius also joined us in the studio to make the recordings a little quicker and less stressful for us. Blutaar of our german brother-band Drautran and Allen B. Konstanz of The vision Bleak also joined us for some guest-vocals. All in all we had a wonderful time with all of them and are very thankful! Everyone did an absolutely fantastic job!

8. There is a really nice artwork of “Sól”. Well, more than 1 artwork, hehe. Who is the creator? To be honest, for me, these artworks are one of the best I saw in 2010! Perfect.

The designer is Lukasz Jaszak. You´re right, he did a great job! We needed some artwork for Sól that catches the atmosphere and lyrical content, and he did it the best way possible! Although he does not speak German and does not understand the lyrics, he caught the atmosphere and symbolism almost intuitively! It´s a pleasure to work with such talented artists.

9. Are you able to play live with the line-up you have? If yes, did you already play some new songs live? How the people took them?

Yes, we can play live without problems. Our live-line-up consists of our session members Discordius (lead guitar), Harcon (rhythm guitar) and Samiel (Bass). They are all doing a great, enthusiastic job, bringing in so much of their energy! It´s the perfect line-up for us, musically and personally. We already played 2 new songs live, and the people took ´em very positively… of course, we will add more to our setlist now.


10. Well, let me ask you to 2 more questions before we will end the interview. Every group is longing for something… My question is, what would you like to do with HELRUNAR in the future?

Going on with creating music, art… that is the most fulfilling kind of work one can do, I guess. I can´t really say more about this. It would be wonderful if we could concentrate on creating art completely. But that is simply not possible. You don´t earn money with that kind of music, so we´ll always have to do some other, “normal” job.

11. I’m always trying to ask the groups to the question which is connected with our country. I’m in Germany really often (because of my job), and I got many opinions how the people in Germany see and "like" our country (Czech Republic). Honestly, I’m disappointed. Well, let me ask you, what do you think about Czech Republic and have you ever been here?

I was in Prague once, some years ago. I think it´s a beautiful city with so much historical places, apart from that, food and beer are very good. I don´t know if Germans might have prejudices against the Czech, at least I never heard some. The German and Czech history are very much connected, actually, just think of the 30-years-war, the German/Austrian empire, or, in a cultural way, Kafka, who´s a damn good author. Maybe conflicts have their roots in the departure of Europe between east and west during the cold war… I have no other idea right now.

12. Let’s quit the interview now. Thanks a lot for the time you spent with the answers & all the best in the New Year 2011! Keep up your great work.

Thank you very much for the interview and the interesting questions! All the best for you and your magazine too! :)