1. Greetings to the SOLSTORM camp in Bergen and congratulations to your new album. Well, a bit untraditional beginning of an interview – I have to admit that strangely, you are the first Norwegian band that I do an intie with. I have always seen Norway as the main European country when it comes to metal music and still, it has been avoiding me. And now, a relatively unknown band comes...and I am glad that it is you, SOLSTORM. I would like to start off with a question about where you are residing these days and if what new is going on in the SOLSTORM camp except for the release of your debut?

Thank you!
Helge & Jaran: In addition to preparing for the release of our album, we've also had the honor of joining Solstafir on two gigs in Bergen and Oslo, we're just done with them and it was a great experience. Right now we're all residing in Bergen, working full and part time jobs, some of us study, while all of us work for the future of Solstorm. We are planning to expand our visual stage performance, so the audience will experience something more than just 5 dudes on a stage playing slow, noisy music. We hope to bring something new to the metal scene in Norway. There are alot of great bands here, but the music we play is not that well represented.

2. When talking about interviews, have you been receiving more requests, has there been an increased interest in SOLSTORM?

Helge: The interest has definately increased, but this is our first interview. We've had a nice amount of reviews of our debut album. Reviews are often a struggle to read, regardless of whether the feedback is good or bad but we feel the reviews we've had thus far are quite to the point.

3. From what I know about your past, the band was started after Bjorns move from Kopervik to Bergen. Could you please tell us what you were doing in your previous domicile and what made you to move to a bigger city?

Jaran: Solstorm actually started 6 months before we got to Bergen. Me and Bjørn decided one day, after playing metal together in a previous band, that we would try to write doom metal. I had this home recording gear where I lived, so we used to sit there sometimes and record these demos. We really kicked on it becuase it was something really evil sounding coming out of our speakers, from nowhere. It was unexpected.

Helge: After hearing some early demos of Solstorm, I told Bjorn that I really wanted to join this project. Bjorn, Camilo and Jaran moved to Bergen, I joined for some rehearsals and then we found a great drummer in Mads after only a month or so in Bergen. I think this was in September 2009.

4. Bergen is a well know Norwegian city even to us in the Czech Republic. The reason is prosaic – bands hailing from Bergen (Gorgoroth, Enslaved,...) have become a cult. I would like to ask about a different Bergen scene – do you have any sort of sludge or (if you wish) post-HC scene? What bands could you name?

Helge: The sludge term is a difficult one. We've been labeled sludge yet we don't have a post hc-influence. We do however have a sludgy sound, which I think is where people get it mixed up. I don't think norway even has a post HC-scene, or even a sludge scene. Anyone is free to correct me though.

5. SOLSTORM is a five-member band. Could you please give us a bit of an outline of what you as members do in your private life? Be it education or a day job...

Jaran: I am just finishing my second year at a school for Sound and Music technology, which is quite good for me, because I get to spend all day writing and playing music, without having to worry about working. Hopefully it will last..

Helge: I am on my last year of studies for becoming a teacher in english and philosophy. I have a bachelors degree in philosophy and spend alot of free time with my home studio or working part tiem at a hotel. The rest of the guys in the band are working 9-5 or whatever.


6. The art of SOLSTORM offers a lot of space for comparisons. You yourself chose names like Cult of Luna, Isis or Merzbow on your Myspace profile. You probably will not avoid being compared... But there is a difference between leading the listener and being accused of ripping-off a band. Have you been attack in such way? Would you mind if someone called you a Norwegian answer to Cult of Luna? Would you try to prove him wrong?

Jaran: People have been referring to bands such as COL, Isis, Neurosis,etc in Norway, but always in a good way.

When me and Bjorn wrote the first Solstorm song, we did not know that much about the genre, at least I did not, so I guess the lack of knowledge made us do something a bit more different.
Helge: We've been referenced to as CoL-lite, which is in one way quite flattering, and in another way a bit misleading. I came into this band with a really heavy post metal vision, but it was very clear from the get go that this would have to be something a bit different. Norway doesn't have a post metal scene, so we get alot of nice feedback for filling a niche nationally. Internationally the critique is a bit rougher because the UK and the US have seen their fair share of post-x bands. So yeah, we've been called CoL-likes, and I didn't try to prove him wrong. I know I could have proven him wrong, but I also think his comparison was to make a point, which I in part agree with. However, Solstorm melds doom, noise and norwegian metal in a way that proves him wrong, still, in my opinion.

7. I would like to move to the composing process itself. How are the songs for SOLSTORM born, who creates the most parts or who comes with the main motifs? I would be interested about your mood, conditions etc. when writing the music. Some people need to move to a cabin far from civilization, some prefer the silence of night... And what do you as the artist need to feel in the result, what is it for you that makes you say “that is THE THING“?

Jaran: For me its about the mood of the song. I love the darkness and hopelessness in the them but I don't need to be in any specific environment when I write. For me its important to make it sound as evil as it possible gets without making it too cheesy. I`m not trying to replicate the Imperial March, but more a soundtrack to the death of earth.

Helge: For the most part, the album is written by Jaran & Bjorn, but we all have a saying in how the arrangements pan out. I wrote On This Barren Rock for the album, while the rest of the songs were written by Camilo, Jaran & Bjorn. Bjorn is the one who contributes with most of the lead motifs, yet the canvas for them is a group effort. We all write music as a part of our daily lives, yet creativity is a hard learnt technique. I can go months without writing a single piece and suddenly getting something worthwhile. What gets us to agree on keeping it as "THE THING", however, is playing it at rehearsals and shows. We've all gotta connect with the piece to make it work.
8.Music of SOLSTORM is truly asking for a correspondingly massive sound. Where did you record the new album and how satisfied are you with it a while after its recording?

Jaran: We recorded the album in a old house that me, Bjorn and Camilo used to rent when we first moved to Bergen.
The house has these huge rooms that we recorded in which suited our sound perfect! We did everything ourselves, mostly because we could, but also because our budget was so low.

Helge: The house is actually an old primary school, and the large rooms really helped the drum sound. Some reviewer commented that the drums sounded programmed, and I was baffled. We did it all without triggers our sound replacers. The guitars were done in the same rooms with some layer guitars done a while after. It took some time but we're all very happy with the result. I for one had a period where I couldn't listen to it as all the tiny faults and scratches I did in the mix were too apparent, but I listened to it yesterday after a while and it sounded quite nice.

9. I myself feel a lot of energy from the album, energy full of contrasts and opposites. If it was you intention to record an album full of opposing elements balancing each other, this process definitely works for me. From my point of view, the album is good but nothing groundbreaking and scene-leading. On the other hand, I feel a certain devotion and a feeling for such music. It is epic, negative and still full of hope...these are the opposites. I would not want to force you into rating yourselves, but please try to comment this a bit...

Jaran: I like that the album contains flexible songs, which don't really rely on eachother. Every song is a different story, so there is no ongoing concept behind it besides the end of the world theme, yet they are easily combined to form an album that sounds complete and focused.

10. Not long ago I was asking Altar of Plagues about the importance of atmosphere in their music? About how absurd it is to speak again and again about music genres and label everything in a nearly impossible manner. Do you have a similar attitude when it comes to the final result and balance, the overall atmosphere? Do you approach you music in a similar way?

Jaran: We use alot of noise elements in our sound. Its a really important touch to the Solstorm sound. We wanted to capture the end of the world atmosphere, which I believe we have.

Helge: The categorisation of music is a dear and close enemy. Whilst every musician would love to avoid labeling his music as part of a genre and instead rate the music on its own terms, genres are extremely helpful in pointing people in a direction. We write music in themes, atmospheres and moods, yet we don't demand that people call us thematic atmospheric moody doom metal. Calling us noise/CoL/Neurosis/norwegian post metal doom or what not is instrumental to making people actually become interested. Genres are for labeling the larger terrain of music, and then the listener has to find a way. We were once called out as not being doom on account of not playing trad-doom. I respect the guy's opinion, but I think he needed to broaden the genre a bit further than slow Black Sabbath-riffing.


11. I must admit that I have been trying to approach the album as a whole by all means, but I can not go without asking about the “Manhattan Mass“, maybe the most doomy track of the album. Is there any connection with the New York attacks or is the track supposed to paint the land/soundscapes of a giant hulk of skyscrapers in the meaning of something crowded and impenetrable by sound, something dominant?

Helge: I didn't write the song, but I did come up with the title. No reference to any attacks on New York is intendend. I went with a play on words as "mass" can mean both a catholic night mass and a reference to the mass a certain element or particle might have. This again gives connotations to the Manhattan Project, which was the scientific effort to produce a nuclear bomb. Again referring to the apocalypse.

12. SOLSTORM is a band frequently using noise elements to add a specific atmosphere. These are not just intros/outros, they are to be felt through the whole album. Do you Bjorne have any side-project more dedicated to noise or similar elements?

Bjorn: I have a noise project named Ognoise http://soundcloud.com/ognoise where Helge joins in on Russian MIR Space Station in Cherry Blossom.

13. Your music evokes apocalyptic visions, it is heavy and crushing. If you were asked, would SOLSTORM be willing to participate in creating a movie soundtrack or create it just by yourselves? Of course it would depend on the genre and the conditions...

Jaran: I honestly think that would be weird. What we try to do with Solstorm is to make the listener see images in their head while listening to the music. I think that would be kind of lost if we put in in a movie. Post apocalyptic fiction doesn't need a soundtrack. The more silence, the better.

Helge: I both agree and disagree. As a group of musicians, I think we could soundtrack something like that. However, it would not be Solstorm, for the reasons Jaran describes.

14. I take care for doom metal and similar genres in Mortem Zine. If we skip the well known Norwegian Black Metal cradle of evil, how is it with your country and doom metal? Could you please mention a few names? I myself know probably just Fallen and Funeral...

Jaran: I think it's kind of a growing scene in Norway nowadays, but traditional doom is hard to find. However, Resonaut are worth checking out. Great guys from Trondheim. Pure doom is a bit harder, but great bands to check out for fans of post metal/doom music are Altaar, Krakow & March Of Echoes.

15. Well, that is all from me for this once. I hope that you enjoyed the time you spent with Mortem Zine at least a bit... Cheers and I wish you all the best for the future and good entering the scene with your debut.

Helge & Jaran: Thank you so much for getting in touch and for your questions. Take care.