Kampfar – 15-02-2009

Interview with: Kampfar
By: Elvira Visser

After reviewing the last Kampfar album Heimgang a while ago, I now had the chance to interview Dolk. The band played at Dynamo in the Netherlands and the singer took some time to answer my questions. They played that evening with Vreid and Iskald but I guess many people came to see Kampfar.

You have been touring a lot the past months and in the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. Do you feel you are building a fan base over here, like seeing the same faces that come to your show?
“Yeah of course, we have some familiar faces all over and that is fantastic. When we play in Germany and even in Luxembourg and Belgium we see the same faces in front of us. So that is a good thing. Some fans come to more shows and have a good time. Yesterday I have been talking to several people and they have seen about 20 Kampfar gigs. That is really great, because it can get familiar with those people. And we used to be on a Dutch label and that might have brought us a small fan base. But it is really nice to see people at gigs and you know that you have seen them before.”

I have a few questions about the kampfar cd’s and the recording process.
The tracks from Fra Anderverder and Heimgang are sticking more together like a concept album, with a red line. On Kvass they stand more on their own, what is easier to compose or what challenge you more?
“In a way, when we did Heimgang, it felt a bit like we were going back to scratch again trying to do what we did. We are musicians and we always like to develop, but of course we also like to develop in our way. In our own style.
This is really an easy question to answer actually. When we made Kvass in 2006, we had been away for a long time due to several personal reasons, then we came back again. It felt like a bit that we had to sketch up the highway all over again and to tell the people out there that this is what we do, we are still alive and this is what Kampfar does. That album is more like a highway to me and in my opinion we maybe lost a little bit of connecting with the atmosphere of the music all together. With Heimgang we tried to get more atmosphere in the tracks themselves and it I was also a very natural thing for me to write the lyrics now, because they are really dealing a lot about close connected stuff from my area and where I live, and stuff that is not ancient but like100, 200 years ago. Things that happened and especially about topics about people they have seem to forgot. Especially the Norwegians they have seen to have forgotten about it and it is really like…take a song from heimgang “Antvon” It is about Black priest that is living in a church near me,..an old church made in stone and he is doing all this kind of stuff what is really connected to the dark side. It is really like….it is a pity that people forget about those things, it is history about the area and if you ask people about it, they do not know about it. So maybe…it is a bit… ”

Talking about history and stories did you never wanted to become a history teacher?
“Well maybe, I was always very interested in those topics from when I was a little child and my grandmother told me stories all the time about creatures in nature and all those stories when I was a little kid ..and that has always been a big part of me. ”

Heimgang is a historic norwegian word and with that in mind, the cd has this as an overall theme. Like you said you clearly have an interest in history and mythologies, is it important to you to sing about something that is real, like really happened. Or is it just a type of influence?
“I understand that, they are my words and thoughts about everything but influenced by history. We make music and to put it in a selfish way: we make music for ourselves. That is the first thing we do, it is only a bonus if people like it and get in to it. That is just a bonus for us. But the lyrics for me, have to be informative in a way, about things. Kampfar has always been about Norwegian stuff we only have two English songs so far. I understand that can be a problem, for people who do not understand the lyrics but we are now doing something that is natural for us and that is in Norwegian.”

I read that on Heimgang you all been writing for the compositions, isn’t it hard to then become satisfied with a tracks when there are 4 minds behind it. Cause one might have something else in mind. Like when are you satisfied while recording a track, do you strife for something or is it possible that you play something/hear something else and think that is better?
“Hard question to answer…the things that happening with this band…me and Thomas have played together for 15 years so we really know each other. Because we are so close connected he knows what I want to do with the album or what my ideas are. The others of the band they really adapted really good to that as well. Now it is more like…it is not a huge issue for us, because it is going to fit anyway. It is hard to explain, but it feels like that. Four different people living four different lives and even living in three different places but when we get together but we feel like there is one thing, the whole thing. For me that is amazing and that is so good, and just on this album we did not have one disagreement in studio. It kind of fits. But when going into studio the others kind of know my general idea, so at least for Thomas it is easy to adapt, because he knows me and knows what/how I think in a way. ”

Vantro and vandring, to me seem to be a intro and an outro, did you had this in mind specifically for this cd, to make it a complete kampfar sound, instead of just the first track, and there we go…
“We had it in mind, but some things things just happen in studio. The first real track “Inferno” on the CD was not in our minds we just jammed it in studio, when we were together. The recording is actually the first time the drums have been played from start to end ever…so that is really a natural thing, but what you are talking about an intro and outro that was planned because “Vandrig” is some way suppose to the a new start of the end…”

To you, nature is really important and inspiration in life, do you have the need when you are on tour or after tour to go into the nature…sort of reconnecting after days on the road and being in cities? It is also a way of easing the mind, clear your thoughts and through that getting inspiration?
“Yeah, I kind of adapt when I am tour. You have to do what you have to do. When you come home it is a complete different thing. When I come home from tour I like immediately like to do something else. I live in a small place, it is not really even a town in Dutch standards. For me it is perfect. I call it “Little Norway” it has everything except the really tall mountains but it has the lakes, the fjords and forest are there so for me it is perfect. I kind of get my own peace full mind there and that is important when I come home I feel like I have to do something else but when I am on tour, you are on tour. That is the way it is. ”

Clear your thoughts, connect…is that also a way to get inspiration?
“That come automatically. That is a natural thing. Recoding with me…always. Ideas come up suddenly…there and then, you have to kind of record it as best with your voice. It usually happens when I’m on a fishing trip, it is nothing I plan. The only thing close to having a schedule…that is with this album Heimgang I went to my cabin up in the North. I stayed there for a week, just to focus on doing the lyrics. That was really working well because I came down again from the cottage and went directly to studio and we recorded everything in four days, so for me that really worked. It was total solitude for one week, just focusing on what I should focus on. That really helped. But for recording there is not a schedule for that. It has to come naturally.”

The summer is approaching, the festivals…any plans? Something special on stage…?
“We are doing WOA and Inferno Festival. The festival is kind of really cool to do. It gets a lot of attention in Europe, but that is just because it is in Norway. It is really nice to play there because a lot of friends and people I know they are there so it is going to be cool in that way. Inferno has been a place where people seem to meet and dressing up and might not be so interested in the bands any more but more in dressing up and being seen. So I am really curious about how it is going to be. I am really looking forward to it, It will be a challenge, so maybe we do something special we don’t know it is a natural thing for us to show things down after Wacken. We try to disappear a bit after the festivals and focus on the next album. To do it our our way, that is a thing we really like to do. Our way. Kind of pressuring as well but we really like to do an album where we decide everything. It is quite a good time for that after the festivals, so it fits well.”

Kampfar does not like to be compared to the pagan hype thing that is going on, The band has been there for many years and rather call your music folklore metal. And to me Kampfar sounds very different, but you do have things in common like using history, myths, Nordic mythologies and the pagan believes. Why do you not like this, and isn’t it a way to gain more fans, because they start to listen to other bans as well?
“Of course…but in a way or another…when we started Kampfar, which was years before this hype. I had an idea for this band. I was really connected, as far ..back in the 90s…really connected with this black metal thing in Norway. It was a special time, but I wanted to distance myself from that and do things that I really wanted to do. Even you know that time we had pictures about us on how we presented ourselves…without corpse paint for example and we were the first who did not had corpse paint…that was really unusual, it was really a way to distance myself from that. But it was still black metal. For me …a lot of these bands right now, they do it very easily. To tell it in a short way: We played together with Turisas and Korpiklaani last year on a festival. We did the show before Korpiklaani and I was standing out there and talked to some people in the crowd, because I wanted to see Korpiklaani play I had never seen them. And a German guy comes up to me and tells me, “We German are happy when we get beer and get to jump up and down”. And that is my point, I do not like to be a part of that. I do not want to be apart of this link, to the music.”

Links:
Kampfar Myspace
Kampfar Official