CRONIAN (Eng.)
– Hello, lots of thanks for answering our interview. How is everything going right now with the release of «Erathems»?
Well, everything seems to work perfectly! Season of Mist is doing great promotional work and the response on the album so far seems to be really good. We just hope that the album get a fair chance to reach broad and hard as I really would like people to hear this album.
– First off, as I guess some people won’t know about you, could you please share some history of CRONIAN? What prompted you forming this project?
Well, that is a long story. I met Andreas back in the late 90’s, he basically just came over to my place in Bergen to just hang around. Obviously we started to talk about music and we more or less evolved our own common musical language along the line. We shared allot of musical ideas, preferences and philosophy in that regards. So even before Andreas joined BORKNAGAR we were determined back in the days that we had to do something with our common musical ideas. And so we did, the rest is history.
– Prior to this album you took 4 years of creative hiatus with CRONIAN, were this just due to your commitments with both BORKNAGAR and VINTERSORG or were there some other reasons?
Partly. We had some busy years with both BORKNAGAR and VINTERSORG. Also the previous CRONIAN release didn’t work so well in terms of distribution and 
promotion. So CRONIAN hibernated for some years due to these circumstances. But we frequently talked about doing another album, without rushing it. So early last year we started to play around with some musical ideas and then we did some pre-productions to see if the spark was still there. And it was big time.
– Anyway I personally think you have managed creating your best opus to date. How did these 4 years of silence affect the final result on the album? Did you manage to work smoothly on the album and perfect every small details?
The time “off” was necessary in my point of view. Both me and Andreas have been in the business for quite some time and done quite a number of albums. Sometimes we need to focus on other things in life and so forth. But these years was still very inspiring though. We more or less went through a personal revelation in terms of production, I mean doing productions ourselves. I think the album proves so; we have done everything with this album ourselves. I would argue it sounds really good and we have certainly found our way to produce our albums. So our evolving skills as producers made this album possible.
– Talking about such, how was the song writing process this time around? I read this was your first album as a full collaboration, with shared compositions and lyrics.
Yeah, that was something we talked allot about. In order to bring CRONIAN a step further musically we just needed to do some moves in terms of song writing. We realized that we on the previous albums more or less did each our contributions. I wrote most of the music and Andreas did most of the lyrics. Then we wrapped the whole thing up during the mix. So this time around we wanted to write the songs together, to share the duties both in terms of music and lyrics. And it turned out to be a really satisfying mode to go for. In all our previous releases, also outside CRONIAN, both I and Andreas write most of the music. The main or dominant composers. So we simply thought, let’s try to join these forces. That’s what we did and I think it turned out great. We have definitely found our formula for the future!
– In fact this new «Erathems» feels to me like an even more dynamic record. That this is an album done between you both has helped to get this more dynamic final outcome?
Yeah, at least we think so ourselves! It was a kind of new situation for both of us, doing more when composing, playing the ball back and forth in a different way than before. I really think that shines through on the album and that we sound more like a unit.
– Anyway your music has always been quite dynamic and has always had a lot of different elements and nuances but, is it easy to create something balanced? As I think one of your trademarks is that you get to get a good balance between really different elements and textures and make everything sound organic and natural.
Thanks for the kind words! Well, no it is not easy create music. It’s mentally painful sometimes and it demands allot of dedication, discipline and hard work to make good sounding music. But it not that difficult either, we have done this a couple of times before so to speak. Over the years I have established my routine of working with music and how to approach it in my daily life- and that is the crucial point. One has to be willing to live a slightly asocial and ascetic life in some senses, be focused and have some sort of discipline. Because making music is not about magic wands or golden ideas falling from the sky- it’s about hours and hours of sitting 
in my studio with my guitar and keyboard.
– The production really helps noticing about all these elements and small details that make your music grand, being clean and powerful so, how was this time around the production process and who took such duties?
Well, this time around we did everything ourselves, including the mastering. Both I and Andreas have by now had quite ok studio facilities in our respective homes, so we don’t need to work according to time frames, budget and so forth. And that is a good thing obviously.
– On my eyes your music has always been focused on atmosphere, being quite ambient, but this time around the overall atmosphere is even stronger and tides the whole album even though all songs have their own distinctive elements. How important is the role atmosphere plays on your music? Where do you draw inspiration from to create it?
Well, to me music is not about mathematics or being the fastest around to run through a scale. To me that is meaningless. I have always said that the magic of music doesn’t derive from the actual notes- but the tension between the notes. One note alone is not interesting, but once you connect it to a second note music starts to dawn. So yes, good music to me has to hold some sort of atmosphere. I have always thought that atmosphere is more important than skills or performance, and in regards to this “philosophy” my music is made. When it comes to inspiration I am not sure anymore. I rarely listen to metal music or even music in general these days. Being a musician I personally need to distance myself abit from the whole thing from time to time. In my youth I listened to music even at sleep, but nowadays I just don’t have time for it and I don’t need it- inspiration wise. So for inspiration I would say that I find it everywhere in my life, I can’t pinpoint anything in specific anymore.
– And musically, what have been some of the main influences for CRONIAN? As they seem to be quite diverse.
All and nothing really. As I said before I can’t really pinpoint anything in specific. But sure, one of my all-time favourite bands is Pink Floyd and they have certainly approached music the way I strive for. Without comparing any further.
– The atmosphere on the album evokes nature and landscape images, which is strongly connected to the lyrics I believe. Is it easy to convey with your sound the main topics behind your lyrics? Is this something you strive for?
We strive for a whole that make sense- and equally empowered the expression of joint music and lyrics. First and foremost I am a musician, not a lyricist. So I always start out with music and then try to provide proper lyrics. We always try to write lyrics that in some way empower the music and fullfills the expression. For me it is very natural to spin out from a context of Nature. Nature is the scenery of everything really, the baseline of existence.
– Anyway, what do some lyrics on «Erathems» deal with?
This time around it is actually the first time we have been very clear about our message. The main theme on this album is spinning around the raging destruction nature by the modern sivilisation. We don’t want to go “Green peace” on the subject, but we still want to shout out(in our way) that we are not treating Mother Earth nice at all. Both me and Andreas have always been very fond of the nature(hence our music in BORKNAGAR and VINTERSORG). Nowadays we have family and kids, and it obvoiusly worries us that our kids seemingly has to grow up in a heavily polluted world. So ERATHEMS is definitly our way to advocate Nature’s well being by 
describing scary near future- and that is basically what all the lyrics are about.
– All this about «Erathems» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
That was a nutcracker! Hmm…. Powerfull, mindfull and eclectic…..is the first words that comes to mind.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans? Is there anything you would like to do musically you haven’t done yet? To me your albums have always had a certain soundtrack vibe so, have you ever considered on working on some kind of project related to this? As I bet you aren’t thinking about bringing CRONIAN to a live scenario?
To me CRONIAN has a very visual expression, so doing a video for one of the songs would be great. So far CRONIAN is a non profit and non budget enterprise, so I doubt we’ll be able to do that in the nearest future. But it is still a goal I would like to reach with CRONIAN. So if any amateur film students or so wants to coop, they should get in contact! We never intended CRONIAN to be a live act. I must admitt that it would be cool to perform the new songs live, but on the other hand it would demand a quite massive production. That is out of reach by now, but maybe that will change. Apart from that we’ll probably start to work on some new songs very soon, I am really inspired!
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thanks to you for the interview and support! I would like to advise the readers to check out the album, as I think this album hold something for anyone. Cheers!
