1. Greets, Obsidian. I´m very pleasure of your agreement to realize interview for Mortem zine.
Hello. Thank you! We always appreciate the support we get!
2. Keep of Kalessin, band, which is today flaunting of very sonorous name, quality musicians and peculiar creation. But it wasn´t such always. You started in 1994 with Ghash. Was it your first band, or you also before tried anything?
I had a few bands before this. I played in a doom/death metal band called Monasterium for a while, but that band never became anything I think. I also played in a few different constellations from the Trondheim area. Actually I played together with Vyl in a couple of bands before Keep Of Kalessin. But none recorded anything.
3. Beginning of nineties, burning churches, Black Metal Mafia, Inner Circle, bomb on Deicide´s concert, Dead´s suicide, kill of Euronymous, which was then guru of black metal, arrest of Varg…was Norway nervous in that time? Man must tell about it maybe everywhere…
Actually I wasn't any part of all this. Here in Trondheim we were kind of separated from the whole thing. Even though some of my friends knew people involved we kinda kept out of it. I've always been in it for the music and not the crusade or the childish behaviour of some of those guys. Even though I sympathize with most of them I know for a fact that many of the events taken place was teenage pranks taken to the extreme and I guess some of them would want to see some things undone.
4. How did you with Ghash get it? Were you in concact with that people, or you see it so to speak with spacing? How old were you that time?
I was 15 years in 93 and I didn't have any contact with the BM-scene outside of Trondheim except that I knew some people in Trondheim that knew someone in better known bands in other parts of the country.
5. How much did you then black metal scene influence to create KoK, which was in 1994 in it´s absolute top?
Keep Of Kalessin was very inspired by black metal. It still IS black metal as I see it. Even though we've moved abit away from the typical black metal imagery and music I think that the core of it all is there. Black metal atmosphere is something unique and something that gives more to the listener than just being music. It takes hold of you and moves you in ways other genres don't. Good black metal gives you chills when you listen to it and I think Keep Of Kalessin is doing that actually more than most bands of today.
6. A year later drummer Vyl and bassguitarist Warach joined to band. Could we also regard 1995 as a year, when KoK became a regular group?
I guess so. It was at that time we got a full band together and actually also changed the name to Keep Of Kalessin a year later or something.
7. You released demo record „Skygger Av Sorg“ with three songs. Did it in that time refer to existence of band by labels, or you took it as regular record?
We recorded the demo to send it out to labels, but it was actually some arguing if we should do so or not. Warach didn't wanna listen to what Ghash said and sent it out anyway. This in fact resulted in our first record deal with Avantgarde Music.
8. How do you see on it with in the course of time? There are surely many „child´s“ mistakes and abuses on it. Do you think, is it view of then maximal possibilities of KoK?
I think it shows a band with good writing skills, but not the best technical skills. We've always suffered by that I think. Our skills in writing riffs and music has always surpassed the technical skills. This again results in stressful recording sessions and not enogh time to do things properly. But there's alot of fans out there that hold this demo highly.
9. Up until second long-play album „Agnen: A Journey Through the Dark“ claped in band all good – minimally from listener´s view – am I right?
Again the recording sessions were stressful and we didn't actually get what we wanted as the result. But it again shows a band with great potential. I think some of the songs on this album is great, but the production of it all sucks. It didn't sell nearly as good as we and Avantgarde had hoped. But at the time we were kind of happy with the fact that we had made a very extreme album when it comes to atmosphere. It's extremely dark at times! And it has some great takeoffs. Just listen to Towards I roam for instance.
10. Has something changed in member´s lifes or in a band self?
Of course. We're a much, much better band now. And we're more grown up. We've gotten rid of many of the "child's mistakes" you talked about. And we're also not afraid of doing our own thing. I guess we've never been, but now we REALLY don't care about what other people think. We make the music for ourselves first of all.
11. A year 2000 was break in the band. All members without you left the band. What happened?
We were tired and fed up with eachother. Fed up with the band and the music business. And it was impossible to run a band like we did back then. Our goals were totally different.
12. How did you see in that time next work of KoK? Did you have clear image to took new musicians and continue or you though about the end?
I continued writing music and I felt I had better material than ever. Actually we had rehearsed 8 songs for a new album after Agnen just when the band split. One of them was Come Damnation, but this was the only one that made it to a new recording when I decided to continue. Because as the years passed I felt this was the only song that still was good enough.
So I had set my mind to continue some day, but it was impossible to find someone capable of playing it in Trondheim and besides I was fed up with the entire "oh so true black metal scene". I still am, but I wasn't aware that I could continue without being a part of that I guess.
13. From this event runned three years, did you search in that time yourself, new way from KoK or you left all „by shelve“?
I did alot of soulsearching for those years. I grew alot and I got better at my playing. I think it was a necessary period for me to grow up abit. I hit the wall a few times with loosing my band and my girlfriend at the same time. It made me think and realise some stuff that was necessary. I still see some of my friends from back then going full throttle in the same path and are now 30 year old kids. Not that I'm always that serious and I don't feel like a grown-up at all, hehe, but like I said, I think it was necessary to get some perspective on a few things.
14. With EP record „Reclaim“ came, I would say, also bigger interest of band. Is it only my impression or objective fact?
Yeah, there was a big interest, but it's not like the EP sold anything. It still is just a small step on the way. It hasn't sold nearly the amount the interest should predict. It's always been like that with us. And it's still a curse. From the quality of the albums I actually think we should be more well known. But I see shit bands selling twice the amount as us every day. But then again, we're not in it for the money, but it would be nice to not loose 20 000 dollars on the band every year. I don't think many people can afford a hobby like that!
15. „Reclaim“ you recorded in three, if I don´t be mistaken. It was managed you to get Atila – known Hungarian vocalist and Frost as drummer. They both are very quality musicians. Why did you in that time record only EP not whole album?
Because it costs alot of money to record an album. Money that I don't have. And no label was interested in funding it. They needed to hear a demo first. So I got a deal with FaceFront to record an EP instead of a demo. Noone made money from that recording and we knew that when we did it. FaceFront only did it to help me out. I'm ever grateful to Frode Oien, Frost and Attila for it!
16. Not even that line-up endured. Should I understand it, that Attila and Frost was only „dog soldiers“, which helped KoK to say all the world, that they aren´t dead band, but they have something still to say?
Yeah. It was always an understanding that we would do this EP first and see what happens. It was a cool period, but to take the band further I needed people that could dedicate themselves to the band.
