1. So first question is classic one, can you introduce your band, members, tell us how you met each other and describe brief history of the band?
We are Mathias
Hellhoff, vocals and guitar, Daniel Eklund, backing vocals and guitar,
Johanna Ersson, bass and Patrik Björkmann, drums.
Mathias and Johanna met during 2002 when they actually fell in love and were a
couple.
Over time this did not work but they ended their relationship as great friends
and remain so today. Patrik was one of the guys you just saw hanging around,
having a beer in the sun so he
was a friend to both Johanna and Mathias very early, somewhere during 2001.
Mathias was
at this time very young and actually tried to impress Patrik by telling him he
was
playing the guitar, it did not work out very well. ;)
Daniel has been a friend to Mathias brother for as long as we know and this is
why we met him from time to time. When our former guitarist Andreas Momqvist
(Nidhöggs Vrede today) quit the band we asked Daniel to be a stand-in, just for
one gig. The stand-in gigs kept coming and after 3-4 gigs we asked him if he
would like to do this fulltime? Of course!
The band was formed in early 2003 and consisted of Mathias, Johanna, Andreas
Momqvist and Patrik. Patrik and Andreas quit in 2005 but Patrik later rejoined
roughly a year later. Daniel was introduced shortly thereafter. From this point
everything has pretty much been going up, towards the sky (Mot himlen...) ;)
2. When and why came decision to start
the band and why viking rock style? Did any of your members play in band before
Njord?
Mathias had been listening to Viking Rock since a couple of years and started
writing his own texts. He sent them over to a record company which really liked
what they heard. The original idea was just to give the lyrics away to a band
called Mjölner but when this was to happen Mathias just didn't feel right with
it. With little experience except for some minor guitar playing Mathias started
a band together with Johanna which set out to play viking rock.
Mathias and Johanna only had some minor experience from a band we called
Nödutgång(emergency exit) which was created to play punk but this was really
not serious at all. Patrik had at the time played in several bands, the largest
being the punk band Soypooh where he played the bass. Daniel has also had
several bands during the years.
3. In 2008 you released debut Mot
Himlen... on Vikingarock Records...how are you satisfied with the label?
The label is quite good. First of all we wanted to have a label who would
actually give us what we wanted in terms of album quality. We would do all of
the recording ourselves, but we did not want a lousy booklet or a bad
production. Vikingarock Records have really helped us in doing a booklet and
design that we are satisfied with.
4. Who is responsible for music and
lyrics and can you tell us briefly what are your lyrics about?
Mathias write most of the lyrics, when he does this he also create some basic
chords and melodies and often bring this to the studio/rehearsal place where
all of the other members can contribute in their own way. Often drastic changes
are done so the music is more of a team thing rather than one person.
Our lyrics are definitely the most important part, they cover things we feel is
so important we should never forget it. Our heritage, and pride over history
and nation is the key to all we do. Sometimes our lyrics also critisize the
society we live in but we often try to address what we want to say using Norse
mythology or history. It's amazing how much the past can tell us about the
present!
5. What are your musical influences?
Ultima Thule and Völund Smed are great influences, but all of the members
listen to a lot of music and we are kind
of influenced in tiny little bits from all of the genrés, helping us evolve our
own sound.
6. Can you describe current scene in
your area? Bands, crews, pubs, zines etc...?
We live in Sandviken, if we should base our answer on our city or the area
around it, the scene is both big and small. The society and politicians around
us have no interest in seeing us grow - sometimes it's the other way around
which is fucked up.
Regarding zines, this is not very big at all in the entire Sweden. I know they
exist, but they are very few and nowadays I do not know of any swedish viking
rock zines.
However, when it comes to active bands today, Njord and Nidhöggs Vrede are from
Sandviken. Enhärjarna lives pretty close to the town and a lot of people in
Sandviken are doing a great job for the viking rock scene.
It's a very large problem. We have the ambition to play as much as possible live, but even so we've been able to book around 4-5 gigs a year which is far to few. Most of the time we won't even get booked, and often when we do we are instantly referred to as racists or nazis. Given the fact that we are none of these, it's really annoying constantly having that rumour.
Comparing gigs in Sweden to abroad gigs is not possible. So many things are different in so many ways. You actually have to "feel" the climate for viking rock abroad.
8. Do you know anything about Czech republic or scene here?
Sadly we know very little about the Czech Republic and the scene there. But we would be most happy to spend several weekends over there, investigating the scene and bringing our music to your country! ;)
9. Plans for the future...
After our last gig we all agreed that we would for a short period of time say no to gigs. This is just to be able to finish our next album. We have a lot of songs, but we've just not had the time to put all the ideas together. So the first plan is to get another great album out there. After that we're aiming for world domination! ;)
10. Last words...
We'd like to thank all of our listeners in who we depend so massively. We would love to come to the Czech Republic some time to see what our support is there! :)