1. Before we start with questions I would like to ask you about your personal feelings after a release of “Mare”. Everything goes according to plan?

Everything has turned out as well as we could hope. We took some risks this time around but every one of them have turned out to be an improvement over how we’ve done things before. Musically, lyrically, visually and emotionally, we’re are absolutely pleased with the outcome.

2. First of all. What stands behind the meaning of “Mare”?

“Mare” is a word with several meanings, and they are all covered in the lyrics and artwork on the album. It’s a word that has meaning in Norwegian, English and Latin, so it works well as a summary of what we are trying to express on the album. The majority of the focus is on witchery, but not necessarily in the “normal” view of what witches are. I will not get into it too deeply, the answers are there for those who want to know, and using the artwork as a guideline can be helpful.

3. How would you describe music recorded on “Mare“? I think you’ve moved a little bit somewhere else in comparison with your older stuff.

We decided to just go for it this time, just do anything we wanted to do. In the past we have held back a bit, stripped things down in order to reach a certain feeling, but we decided to go big this time and just use everything we wanted to put on there. I think it still sounds very Kampfar, but there are some new directions being laid down here.

4. The folklore influences are not that obvious as before. Was it made on purpose, or is it some kind of natural evolution of the band?

I think it’s just natural. We never set out with a plan for how we are going to sound, but we do have ideas about how we will end up. On this album we were writing in two directions, one much more open and “post-black” than what’s on the album. But the strength was in the material that we ended up using, and this could just become what it is. The folky elements have receded since the first album, actually, and now there’s little left of it.

5. Thomas was in the band since the beginning. What were the circumstances under which he left the band? What has changed? What about the “replacement” - Ole?

Thomas was done playing metal, as simple as that. He’s still a friend and brother, our history goes way back and that bond will not whither. He was also involved in the song writing itself, so we will not know how that works without him before we start on the next album. Ole is our live guitarist for now and then we’ll see how things develop. So far he’s impressed us with his playing, so for the live shows coming up we are definitely feeling like a strong unit.


6. What about the lyrics of “Mare”? I can only guess from the two songs with English lyrics, that they deal with classic “kampfar-like” themes (correct me if I’m wrong). And another subquestion: Starting with “Kvass”, you’ve always had one track on album sung in English. Can we expect maybe an all-english album in the future?

I have to correct you a bit there, we had an English language song on “Fra Underverdenen” (“Norse”), but none on “Heimgang”. An all-English album seems very unlikely, to be honest. The Norwegian language just suits our music best, but some times the English language will fit best. “Blitzwitch” was English language immediately, Dolk was clear on that, and the title track also works best in that language. It also serves as a “summary” of what the album is about.
The rest of the album has Norwegian lyrics that cover different side of the title word, lyrics that are written with a bigger musical idea in mind.

7. One of the element from the old times of “Mellom Skogkledde Aaser” I liked, were the clean vocals, which kind of emphasized the folk feeling I have from your music. This element has completely disappeared from the “new” Kampfar. I’ve noticed, that you (or maybe Ask?) try a lot of new vocal positions, but clean vocals are absenting. What do you think?

I think that there is room to try a lot of things, and Dolk is a brilliant singer. For me I add certain other frequencies, and I will probably take it a lot further on the next album. There is no point in doing too much of the “black metal vocals” as we already have one of the best in the game in Dolk, so I try to add darker things or more dirty things (I guess I am the dirtier one, hehe). In my other band Mondvolland we also experience a lot with vocals in the new material, and I get to develop my voice even further there, which in the future will benefit Kampfar and also push Dolk to experiment with new things too.

8. How do you compose? I’ve seen that pre-recordings were made, actually in very nice cottage, in Hemsedal. So all songs for the new album were written there? Did you make some songs right in the studio on the fly?

We started writing the basic blueprint for the album in Hemsedal (in Dolk’s family cabin), but continued writing through the summer and fall. Nothing was really written in the studio, though the title track was written the weekend before we started recording. “Altergang” was also written a couple of days before recording, and the vocals were recorded quite spontaneously for that track.
We have always written some in the studio before, for instance “Ravenheart” and “Inferno” were written like that, and there is a certain spontaneity involved when things are done like that.

9. How did the recording go? How did you like cooperation with Peter Tägtgren?

Peter is incredibly easy to work with and the whole process of staying in Pärlby and disregarding the rest of the world was a great way of doing it. In the past we have recorded close to home, and focus can suffer from that. Being in the middle of nowhere in the winter makes focus an easy thing. Peter also had an important role in shaping our expression here, and he immediately understood what we were aiming to do. We will definitely work with him again if he has room for us.

10. I’ve noticed your tour dates annoucement. It’s a pitty that Czech or Slovak Republic are missing on the list. Do you remember some shows from the past you played in these countries?

We’ve played Prague, Brno and Bratislava in the past, and especially the latter was an intense show. We are sorry that it wasn’t possible to do shows there this time but we will surely make up for that in the future. It’s always great playing there, and there are a lot of great people showing up at our shows. As long as the stage stays in one piece it’s great, that was the problem in Prague once. We played a festival there and at some point the different parts of the stage started going different ways so my bass drums started going separate ways, with all the problems that caused. No problem, we’ve had worse, we’ve had fire break out and we have had police threaten to end shows, it’s all part of the dirty world of touring.


11. What about the future plan? You have some vision, where you would like to see Kampfar after few years?

We’ll see. Planning isn’t worth much, we’ll just keep going until we don’t have the fire anymore. At the moment the fire is burning strongly and I think Kampfar is so essential to our lives that there is no reason to end anything any time soon. There is still a lot to be said within the musical context of this band, so only time will tell where we will go.

12. Thanks for your time. Last words are yours.

Thanks for the interview, a big “skål” to your readers! Hopefully we will see you on the road at some point!