Interview mit Einar Selvik von Wardruna

We are in this wonderful location (Kongresshaus Heidelberg) for today’s WARDRUNA gig. And photos in the web state that the location in Paris was equally beautiful and romantic looking. I wonder who has chosen all those magnificent concert locations.
Ever since the first concert we did, the setting has been very important for me; to perform in settings that somehow compliment the music, because I strongly believe that it has to be an experience for the audience listening to it, and also for us it’s an added value when you experience the music in a setting that enhances and compliments it. So it’s a win win situation in a sense and we try to be quite selective in these things, when we can.

In the internet there are also recordings of your performance in Norway with Aurora and the Oslo Fagottkor, out in nature, with impressive vertical rocks in the back, looking really beautiful.
Yeah, that’s a very ancient cave, that has been a holy place, a sacred place in northern Norway for thousands of years. It has been used by the people in the area there, for instance as a burial ground, and even in Christian times it was used as a church. It’s a very special place. It’s pretty. It’s a place I’ve been wanting to play for many years. I was so incredibly happy when they invited us to do so.

Can we hope for something like this in Germany as well?
Yeah, I’m looking into some places here in Germany as well, you have some pretty special places, both caves and other special places. That’s definitely something that I’m always thinking about and sometimes luckily people also send me those nice suggestions, because they know that we normally do these types of concerts in more unusual settings, which is also very welcome.

Would you also play in a Christian church if it looks very beautiful?
I think I would have less problems with it than the church. You know, if you want to be respected for your beliefs and for your tradition, and be open-minded, if you want people to treat you with respect, then you need to do it on the opposite. I don’t have a problem with it. I think I would have a bigger issue with it in Norway, because I have no issues with Christianity or no other religion or no other people’s personal believes, but in Norway the institution of the State Church is more problematic, because there you mix religion and politics, which should not be done. But that’s a different discussion, I guess. So I think, out of principal that would be more problematic, because it’s more about politics. And that’s something I definitely want to stay out of, be it religious politics or politics in general.

In a previous interview you said, people in Norway are almost ashamed of their history…
Yeah, in a sense there is shame connected to it and people are scared of it. There are layers to it. On one side you have the fact that our history is very often put as a primitive culture, that’s about rape and pillage, and it’s very much warrior based and everything is surrounded around the small tradition and the small period of going into Viking. That has labelled a whole society and a whole culture, which is in reality just a small part of it. And when you release that history through the eyes of medieval Christian monks from Britain and other places, Germany and so on, that doesn’t necessarily give a very good image nor a correct one of it. That’s one side of it. The other side is of course that there is sadly some sort of a Nazi-ghost-clinging to a lot of the symbols. You see that after World War II a lot of people are really afraid of being part of that history, of using runes, of using that symbols; because you very often get connected with the small subculture on the far right. Meanwhile that is slowly getting better. People are now daring to be proud again of their history. They are slowly reclaiming their history.

Do you have a feeling that your music is part of changing people’s minds into that direction?
It’s part of that movement, yes. It’s one of the pieces in that puzzle. I do believe so. But there are also many other things. For me it’s about nuancing the history, it’s not about romanticising about the history. The way we teach our children these things makes it difficult to take it serious. I understand why, because it’s a difficult material. Our history is very fragmented. So it’s not very accessible. So that’s something I want to contribute to, to make it more accessible, to explain it and to display it in a way that makes it possible to connect to it again. And that is what Wardruna is about in many ways, it’s not about reenactment or romanticising about the past. It’s about taking something old and creating something new with it that resonates with us contemporary human beings. It’s not about dreaming away to the past. It’s about things that are as current today as they were 2000 years ago. There are so many things that are. So that is the whole essence of it.

In the beginning of Wardruna you said you do the music only for yourself and if someone likes it: okay.
Yeah. That’s a bonus. I still mean that. For me it’s definitely not about preaching. First comes that I create the music that I hear inside my head and in my heart and that I see with my eyes. The fact that so many people like it and are able to connect, is a giant bonus. I wouldn’t change anything in the music to try and adapt it to an audience. I create what comes from somewhere. In the beginning I was very surprised that so many immediately were able to connect to it.

I thought maybe in the beginning it was like you just said, but meanwhile you have found a deeper meaning to it, like being able to change peoples’ minds.
No. I’m not a preacher. If people ask me a question, I will give them my thoughts on it. But for me it’s not about serving any truth or claiming any truth or preaching. That’s for the ethnocentric religions to do, sadly. So it’s not about that. But of course parts of the reasons for doing it, were of course that I feel that these things are on new ups. I feel that there are so many treasures from the past that are just lying there, gathering dust, that need to be given a voice again. I don’t think that has changed. So a lot of the motivation was of course hopefully that other people feel like this as well, other people want to hear this. Apparantly they do. That still amazes me every show.

Will you (maybe on this tour) produce a live DVD for your fans?
No.

Why not?
Because I play for the people who are there. At some point I will do it, but I doubt it will be from any club or concert house. At some point there will be something. But for the time being I prefer it to be a unique experience. Of course we don’t do many shows. There are a lot of people who are not able to come to our shows, and of course for them having live footage in high quality would be a good thing. So at some point I would definitely want to do it, but I am holding back on that for several reasons.

You have built and collected all your instruments yourself over a long period of time. Have you, maybe by accident, invented a completely new instrument while doing so?
Maybe. Not necessarily. I was very particular on one thing, when I started this. I did not want to hear anybody else’s music on some of these instruments. I wanted to approach it with a totally fresh perspective, like a child that tries to approach the instrument on its own premise rather than having any prefixed expectations. You know if I’d give my Taglharpa to a Norwegian traditional fiddle player, he will play Norwegian folk music on it. It’s so easy to get very coined by such things. And I wanted to avoid that. And therefore I promised myself not to listen to anything in the beginning. I wanted to try to find the instruments’ own voice. The chances of creating something unique and finding your own voice or finding the instruments’ own voice within it is so much bigger. That being said a lot of the instruments are quite limited in what you can and cannot do with it, so to a certain degree whatever you do on it will be authentic to some extent.

You find inspiration by walking through nature sometimes. Do you take out some time during the tour (maybe one hour per day or whatever) to explore the countryside around?
Yeah, I try it. You say nature. I write a lot of music when I’m out walking, not necessarily in nature. Sometimes actually the absence of nature can bring you closer to it. The absence of home can bring you closer to home in your feelings. Sometimes it works actually the opposite of what one might think. But I try to, when I am in new places, if I have the time for it, I definitely try to see the world. An important part of understanding other people and other cultures is of course to experience it in a sense.

Can we expect to see or hear you again in the „Vikings“ TV series no. 5?
You will hear me. You won’t see me. Yeah, I am working on season 5 as well.

Was there anyone in the set of Vikings that you stayed in contact with and maybe want to work further with them, maybe a role in one of your future music videos?
No, that hasn’t been the case, but in addition to working on the music score itself, I also do other things. If there are musical elements on set that are done by the actors or actresses for battle cries, drunken songs, boat songs, funeral songs or religious incantations or stuff like that, then normally I write that for them. And sometimes I work directly with the actors, rehearsing and telling them how to pronounce it. And some of the actors I’m still in touch with; they are very nice people.

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What else are you working on at the moment except for Vikings 5?
Ivar from Enslaved and me at the moment have a co-operation. This year for instance we did this huge project for Bergen International Festival in Norway, where we created a musical piece written for specific places along the cost of Norway, sort of telling their history in music within a historical perspective. Next year we are going to do that as well, we will develop it further. The project is called Hugsjá. We are actually performing this on the Roadburn festival in the Netherlands as well.

Have you ever played a gig or would play a gig to raise funds for the protection of nature, certain landscapes and/or animals?
I’m open to a lot of things. Nature preservation is of course a very important need in the world, so that might very well be if I was ever being asked for something like that.

Thank you for the interview!