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-You have an new Lp
out soon, “The age of Nero”, but some time ago, you issued this
seven inches vinyl, with a CD inside, a new song and some extra
stuff: is it a new option for the future, and do intend to do more
things like that, for the albums and else?
-Satyr: If it was up
to me, we would only do things like this, but this is something
Roadrunner is reluctant when it comes to this. I always push for
something like this. The atwork on the new album is really cool, I
just like the way it is, even on the normal CD. There will also gonna
be an extra version, with a strong eight pages digipack and a bonus
disc in it, with some remixes of some songs of the album, the single
mix version of “The pentagram burns’, a couple of videos we did
for the last record and some other little things only for this
packaging. It will come on vinyl as well, but with no bonus.
-Did you record some
covers for the bonus disc this time?
-Satyr: No, it’s only
Satyricon’s stuff there.
-Is this new album a
concept about the ancient Rome, as the title may suggest?
-Satyr: No, there’s
a metaphor about that, and I can explain it to you, as far as the
title goes. Nero, in Latin, means black. To me, we live in the age of
darkness, so to speak, in a way it’s an age of natural disasters,
wars, terror, religious conflicts. Our planet is constantly sending
warning signals saying of off balance and everything breaking down,
with tsunamis and hurricanes and we have starvation, and all the
things we have already happen in the past, but it’s getting worst
and worst and more and more extreme. To me, it’s interesting to see
that some people think that all this go on and on with no
consequences. Of course, there will be consequences. And when we talk
about the end of the world, some people think is something like a big
boom, another big bang. That cannot be. I think it’s gonna be slow
death. Now, we are really starting to get to that point that is the
beginning of the end. I think a lot of people care, but I think also
things has gone to far already, it’s gonna be too hard to change
some things, because it’s not just getting electric cars instead of
fuel cars, it’s gonna take a little bit more than that, as money
counts, and everything is going his way. I’m not doing social
commentary, I’m not doing politics, it’s not my style, I want art
to be art. The only thing I’m saying to you is, to me, this whole
feeling is dark and very sinister. As an artist, it has been an
inspiring thing to channel into my music. Nero, the emperor of Rome,
is just a metaphoric way of how the Roman Empire, one of the most
powerful empires in our history, how the madness of the emperor
brought everything to an end. Maybe you understand a little much
better what I try to explain.
-Sure, but the problem is
we don’t have the lyrics when we listen to the record, and the
website is not that much open to this too…
-Satyr: It’s not a
lyrical concept anyway, even if you had the lyrics. It’s not a
concept album. The title just says something about the darkness of
the record and I am explaining to the fans where that darkness came
from.
This time again,
animals are very present, with crows and wolfs and others: what do
they represent? Crows are the messengers?
-Satyr: Yes,
usually, crows, like ravens and eagles, are usually messengers, as
you say. On the cover of ‘The age of Nero’, there’s an eagle
with huge wings and a strong presence, and, in the background, you
see the dark sky. There are a lot of symbolisms in that, of course,
with this sort of creature of darkness coming from the dark. For me,
I come from a generation when a disc was not a file on a computer,
for me, covers and atwork are always almost as important as the
music. It’s a good way to fight against downloading, but even if
there were no downloading, I would still do this, because, for me, a
good artwork is a way of strengthening the experience of the music.
It’s a whole thing, and especially in alternative music, which is
more sophisticated now.
-Last time we met, you
told me about your interest in books about the occult in eastern
countries and civilizations: is it some books you could recommend to
read about it?
-Satyr: Well, I like to
read about free masonry, I think that’s very interesting. For me,
reading is something I go through different phases: sometimes, when I
finish a book, I immediately start to read another one, and then come
back to read again; sometimes, I read books in two years. I started
reading book when I was a small child, basically, and it has been
going through my whole life. People who are particularly interested
in dark subjects and dark aspects of things should read books about
free masonry, and symbolism too.
Technically
speaking, in what is this new album different from the previous one?
A little bit shorter? Sharper?
-Satyr: Lengthwise,
many of our records are around forty five minutes, and this one is
around forty three. Frost and I did an interview yesterday, and the
journalist talked about a muscular and powerful album, and that’s a
good explanation, I could have made it myself, but it’s more
interesting when it comes from someone outside. I’ve already heard
the term powerful for our previous records, but the fact he use the
term ‘muscular’ was very nice. I think a lot of the time, artists
doing interviews and having a record out, are trying to find a good
punch line, that sounds cool, but when I talk about it, I try to talk
a little bit about what’s important to me, one being a good
dynamics. The problem in metal, for me, is that many people goes full
circle, and then it never stops. You know, when you drive a car, if
you go out on the highway, you go fast and, after a while, fast
doesn’t feel fast, it feels normal. Then you stop to the gas
station, buying something to eat, and the, when you go back on the
highway, all of a sudden, you feel very fast again. And it’s the
same for me with music, not only in tempo, but in emotion and
intensity, it has to go up and down otherwise, it becomes very
static, and I loose interest, as a listener. I need dynamics. Another
thing I’m also missing in metal music, and especially in extreme
music, are good choruses. I see you’re wearing a Celtic Frost
t-shirt and, for me, if there’s a good band to have good choruses,
it’s them, if you look at stuff like ‘Morbid tales” or
“Procreation of the wicked’ or ‘Circle of the tyrants’, they
always have strong choruses, or Slayer’s ‘Angel of Death’, and
there’s something I really wanted to put on ‘The age of Nero’,
good catchy choruses. We tried to do some songs that we wanted very
immediate, like ‘Commando” or ‘Black crow on a tombstone’,
but there also songs which are much longer and with many things
inside, like ‘The sign of the trident’ or the last track ‘Den
Siste’, and you think that you dig it in first place, but the more
you listen to those songs and more you discover new things all the
time. For me, the most positive feeling about this album is that,
even now, when I need to take a distance from it, having worked on it
for so much time, I re-discover it when I listen to it, et and I hope
it will be the case for all the listeners!
-Did the fact to work in
the USA for this album influence your way of playing, or composing?
-Satyr: No, no at
all, everything was ready already, before we entered the studio
there. The fact to stay near beaches and palm trees did not influence
my vision of the dark things. But the people there were very
professional, very competent, and I was very happy of the result for
this record.
-And
what about your label, Moonfog? Last time, you said you wanted to
‘clean the place’ in a way, firing some bands and signing some
new ones…
-Satyr: we did realise
some records this year, a new Dodheimsgard album, a vinyl version of
the previous Satyricon Lp, “ “, and we are working a lot with
Thorns. But, for the moment, Satyricon is my priority and Moonfog
takes a sort of rest. We’ll see when, the album will be out and the
tours done, when I’ll have some more time to take care of it.
-And the Eibon
project, with Phil Anselmo?
-Satyr: Oh, I met
Phil a lot of time, during the past few years, and, each time, we say
that it’s a shame we didn’t record some stuff for that. But he’s
trying to make Down really work, and so, with the records and the
touring and whatever, it takes all his time. So, I really don’t
know yet.
Interview made in Paris on September
25th, 2008 by Jean-Paul Coillard
Photo : JP Coillard.
Thanks to Karine, Annabelle… and
Satyr, obviously.
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