Interview mit Kyrre Teigen & Bjørnar E. Nilsen von Vulture Industries

You’re on tour with VULTURE INDUSTRIES right now. How are you doing?
Kyrre: Doing good, thanks! Resting and recooperating from our first European leg of the release tour for our latest album, Stranger Times, before the next leg in UK, Scotland and Eastern Europe.

It’s your fist real tour after a long time – do you like it?
Kyrre: Playing live is the thing we always long to do, and since it’s been four years since our previous release, there has been some smaller tours and festival jobs, so now we are finally on the road again with an extensive touring list. And we are loving it of course, going around meeting new people and old friends and gaining new listeners – That’s what it’s all about.

How is the tour going so far, are you satisfied with the shows, the reactions and the amount of sold tickets?
Kyrre: We have now finished most of our Norwegian dates and 7 gigs in Western Europe, so we are halfway I think. The W Europe part is the most challenging part for our sake, as we don’t have the big following as we have in Eastern Europe, in general, but what we have experienced now on this tour is that the relatively small crowds so far consists of devoted listeners and people who has been urged to go see our shows, so the atmosphere at the concerts and the concert reviews have been awesome.

Do you like the support-acts (music wise), and did you chose them as a band, or did the label do that for you?
Kyrre: Himmellegeme, who is joining us for many of the Norwegian gigs are up-and-coming guys from our area, releasing at the label we have our first two albums on, and they are great, really making good vibes and atmospheres, so they fit us very well I think. The management put us together, and that has worked good. Foscor from Catalonia is at Season of Mist, same as we are releasing on now, and has also been a good match for the 7 gigs we have just had. I like their spirit and energy a lot.

Any funny anecdote from the tour so far?
Bjørnar: I had a minor accident in Munich. In later times I have become enthusiastic about using all dimensions of the stage, also those that are not inherently there. During this show I made a stack of bottle crates on stage, but failed to check that they were the same type. Of course they were not, and the crates did not inerlock properly. So when I climbed my tower, the crates gave out beneath my feet and crumbled into the audience. Luckily nobody was hit by the debris, and I managed to land more or less standing.

Do you play a lot of songs from the new album? Which one is you favorite?
Kyrre: My favourite is the combo My Body and my Blood/Gentle Touch of a Killer, which is possibly implemented on the Eastern Europe gigs. Apart from that we play another four songs from the new album, and I guess some of the readers don’t want a spoiler before the upcoming gigs, so we’ll leave it at that. We would actually like to play all the new songs, but in respect of those who have followed us from before this album, that is not feasible, and we still like to play some of the older songs. They all define what we are, not just the latest album.

The album is entitled „Stranger Times“ – what was the idea behind? Is it about our times or which times do you mean?
Bjørnar: We live in times where everything seems to be getting stranger and more confusing. Even truth becoming a relative concept. Growing towards a view of alternative truths as an acceptable concept, instead of striving to at least reach towards an absolute. With the rise of social media, alternative truths and extreme worldviews, are thriving. System algorithms governed by what you already show interest in and what you incline to agree with governing what content will come up on your page. This turning into a self-enforcing which can turn the world into seeming like a very dark place. At the same time “us” and “them” are turning into more and more used concepts within the public debate.

The artwork seems to be perfect, it could not be „stranger“ I guess. Who had all those ideas, and is there a connection between the artwork and any of the lyrics in particular?
Bjørnar: Like on „The Tower“ we have worked with Costin Chioreanu for all the album artwork, videos, etc. He is like our 6’th band member by now, and is fully integrated within the band. The ideas are part from discussions between myself and Costin, like with the front cover for example, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted. But a lot of it is also Costin given free reins within the confines of our musical and lyrical universe, painting it as he sees it, inspired by the music and lyrics.

What are the lyrics about in general, and how important are they for you in the VULTURE-INDUSTRIES-cosmos?
Kyrre: Since I don’t write the lyrics, Bjørnar does, I can only say that his visions of people, interaction between people, perspectives, views on mental torment, malice and various correlations; all of this is not fixed at a general idea of ideology, rather than the ideology is that people should have their own opinions. I think that’s the basic, and that’s why I think his lyrics are important. You only figure things out if you work on issues by yourself, but often you need input to have a starting point. And the starting point does not necessarily give the end point. Numbness is today’s most powerful poison.

Music wise, the album is one more step away from your black-metal-influenced roots towards proggy rock, I’d say. Would you subscribe that?
Kyrre: Yes, you might say that. And on the other hand can you also say that we have always had a foot or toe into rock in general. We have obviously toned down our screaming and what have been reflected upon as black metal. But it is also fairly obvious that our black metal influences always wave been a very small part of our big pool of musical preferences and references. To say we have moved away from something wouldn’t be precise, as we always have experimented with sound and expressions we like, and the outcomes have always been different as a result of that, not from a wish to grow in a certain direction or towards genre.

Is the „black metal“ gone forever, regarding VULTURE INDUSTRIES?
Kyrre: Well, I would say that the closes thing Vulture Industries gets to black metal is Bjørnar’s side project Black Hole Generator, with a fairly new album out, and I think that’s worth a listening, especially for those who prefer the heaviest aspects of Vulture Industries, because in my opinion that might as well have been a VI record. So, you never know.

Are there any bands that inspired you to do this step and develop in this direction?
Kyrre: I can’t say that there is any band in particular, but there is always the basis of what we look at upon as high esthetics, either it being rock, cabaret, metal, art, lyrics. The first artist that springs to my mind is Tom Waits. Not because our music resembles so much, but the continuous striving for new approaches; the esthetics of the corrumped mind and surroundings. But you also have to consider written artists like Neil Gaiman and others who have a slightly odd view upon the world and beyond. What drives us to the next direction we will only know when we have walked down that path. It’s like with the basics of Bjørnars intents for his lyrics; You can only have a result and an answer if you set your mind and body to it, and that’s where the next album lies. What sub-genre that will be, we don’t know, and we don’t mind; we are doing this do develop our expressions, not for the change itself, but the road there is one of the most important factors. And of course that the result should be something we would like to listen to ourselves. And if our listeners like this also, that is of course a preferred outcome.

How would you describe the album in one sentence?
Kyrre: Stranger Times is a rock album stacked with songs of different vibes and intensities, and for sound enthusiasts this is our best sounding recording so far.

Thank you for the interview!

Publiziert am 30. November 2017 von Moritz Grütz