AUDREY HORNE (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with AUDREY HORNE?
Hi! Right now we are doing a lot of promotion for our new album „YOUNGBLOOD“. Lots of interviews and shooting a new video for the song „Redemtion Blues“ this weekend. It all looks very good and we are excited for the release of the new album!!! The band sounds fantastic at rehearsals so we are ready!
– First off, as it’s almost impossible to describe and tag your music due to the fact you mix several different music styles; what are the main musical influences for the band? And could you say this really diverse sound is something positive for AUDREY HORNE in a commercial way? As you only sound ike yourselves, wich I think may make you stan dout.
The main influences is all the good music and bands we like. This time we got into the writing process with an attitude that everything was allowed and every idea should be taken serious and worked with. I think it made everyone go into themself and think about what they really wanted to do and what was the best music they could possibly write. In the end i think you can hear influences of the favorite music and bands of all of us on the album. From KISS, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple etc..its all in there somewhere. There was times when we though „is this to far from what we have done before and the classic Audrey Horne sound?“ but when we listened to it it was like „Hey this really sounds like Audrey Horne and its great!!“ We didnt think too much of how we wanted to sound or what we had done before and so on. We just played and had a great time and that is how it should be i think. If it will be a commercial sucsess or not i dont know but hopefully people will enjoy it and give it a chance and not just think that this is a retro album and a part of the „new thing“ with playing old rock n roll. I think its very important to have your own sound and to stand out.Maybe now more than ever cause these days everybody can record things at home and promote it on the internett and get the music out there even without a record deal. There are so many bands coming up and new albums all the time, that you really have to stand out in one way or the other to get noticed. Even though we are not the most inoative band in the world, we do have our own sound. The way we mix Rock, Hardrock, Metal and Pop with a lot of respect and knowledge of our old heroes makes it comes out as Audrey Horne and not a cheap version of Iron Maiden or AC/DC.
– You will soon release your new album, «Youngblood», a quite inspiring album title that instantly brings a positive feeling. What’s the hidden meaning behind it? After giving the record some spins it actually feels like you have young, new and reenergizied running though your veins.
There is actually not a big meaning to it cause it was one of many names we had to choose from for an album title. But i agree it fits the music perfect and it brings back the feeling we had when we made it. This album has a lot more „playing“ from each and one of us. More guitar solos,more twin guitars, more bass lines and more drumfills. We all put our minds back to when we were 16 years old and playing in a band and making music was the only thing that matters. We approached it with a lot of spirit and energy and had a lot of fun making it!! So when you say that you can hear that on the album its awesome cause that was excatly how we felt and what we wanted to do!
– And, considering the good response your previous albums have gotten; what are your expectations on your new record?
Of course we hope it will get well recieved both from the critics but specially our fans.That said we are extremly satisfied with the album so for us in the band its allready a sucess no matter what happens! We hope people enjoy the album as much as we enjoyed making it and that they play it loud on parties while drinking and playing airguitar to it, cause we will!!!
– You have always evolved notably wich each new release, and this time around you make no exception. Do you consciously try to top over your previous album?
Yes i guess you can say that but then again we have never thought that way when we write a new album. You always want to get better at what you do and i think that the moment we think that we cant possibly make a better album, we will breake up the band. I mean on the last album „Audrey Horne“ we were also very satisfied with the final product and we are still very proud of it, as we are of all our albums. And now we are even more satisfied with „Youngblood“ but i think musicians and bands in general always will have a need to express themselves and envolve. It wouldnt be an alternativ to make a less good album than the previous either would it? „Hey check out our new album! Its not as good as the last one but its pretty ok“ haha.. We did work a lot with these songs and thats why it took us 3 years to make the album too. We didnt wanna release a good album cause it had been a long time since the last one. We wanted to make a fucking kick ass album so we took the time we needed to do that!
– For instance, «Audrey Horne» was a really solid opus, but with «Youngblood» you have even managed to perfect the performance. Do you use to practice with your instruments or is it just the experience you acquire throughout the years?
This time the writing process was different from how we had done it before. On the earlier albums mostly me and Thomas have wrote the songs at home and then worked with Toschie on the vocals. We havent really rehearsed with the band before the songs and arrangements were finished. This time we wanted everybody more involved. We also got a new member in Bass player Espen Lien and wanted him to be involved in the writing too. So it was a natural thing to just start to jam and play a lot in the rehearsal room to check out if it would work out to write songs that way. Espen Lien is, like the rest of us, a man with strong opinions. So at first it was kind of hard and strange, especially for me and Thomas who had written all the music before, to give away some „control“ and have a new guy telling you that „Hey that riff sucks so lets change it and play it like this instead!“. But we soon found out that there was something special going on and that working together this way, we could get a lot more out of our potensial and push ourselves forward when it came to both playing and songwriting. We continued to write this way and we practiced a lot and spent a lot of time perfecting the songs and the arrangements. In the end it sounded so good and we played so well together that we decided to record the album live in the studio. The fact that we got a „real“ bassplayer this time instead of me playing bass on the demos and in the rehearsal room, helped a lot too. He is an extremly good and talented musician so it gave me and Thomas a lot of more freedom and focus on the guitars.
– It also stands out the superb songwriting, more convincing and powerful, more straight-forward and effective, in fact it seems like you feel more comfortable doing your own thing. Is it really like this or is it just my perception?
Yes i totally agree! It had a lot to do with the way we wrote the album and that we this time went in debth of every song and spent a lot of time to try to make them 
even better than they allready were. Also for the first time since our first album we had a full band and could pratice a whole different way than we did on the previous albums. That helped a lot and made us a lot more comfortable as a band. The new guy Espen Lien is also very straight forward and effective both as a person and as a musician. He says he is too old to play too complicated and he dont got much space in his brain to have too many riffs or different endings each time a riff repeats haha..No but in a way its true and i sometimes have a tendens to have too many elements and riffs i want in a song. So when i go „and when we play that riff the 2nd time we change this note and the 3rd time we change another note and the 4th time we…he stops me and shouts: „HEY MAKE IT SIMPLE MAN!!! WHAT WOULD VAN HALEN DO??“. We had many laughs of that but in the end it was a good thing cause it makes you think twice about some decisions and be more sure about what you do. Make every note count and not play things just for the sake of playing it.
– Production also sounds even better, really warm and organic, anyway in general in this sense (and as a whole) is quite similar to the vibe «Audrey Horne» had. Due to this, would you mind to tell us how was the production process like?
We chose a guy called „MAGNET“ to produce the album. He is a singer songwriter from Norway and an old friend of Toschie. He is a great artist and a very gifted musician and guitar player. Even though his own music now is very pop and soft, he is an old heavy rocker and he knows his heavy! He was with us in the rehearsal room a week before the studio and came with some input and changes for some of the arrangements that worked out great! He did not really changed the riffs or melodies but just made us think twice about some things and how we approached it. All in all i would say he was a very good motivator for us and helped getting out the right energy and atmosphere in the songs. He also agreed with us that recording live as a band was the right thing to do with these songs. We talked a bit about each song before we recorded them about what was important and what kind of energy and focus we should have. That was a good thing cause we mostly use the 1st or 2nd take of each song and just nailed them at once. We recorded the whole album in 2 weeks, included some exstra songs we didnt use, and we have never done it that fast before. We really did it the old school way and kept „misstakes“ if it sounded good as a whole and didnt use many overdubs. When we were done there was only one guy that we thought were right for the mixing. It was important that we didnt loose the dynamics and organic feeling in the mixing and mastering so we chose carefully whom should do it. Most masterings these days are so pushed and lots of limiters to make the records sound as loud as possible. But you really loose a lot of the dynamics with doing that. If you compare a Led Zeppelin or AC/DC album from the 70`s with a modern rock album there is a huge difference in the loudness. But have you ever put on a Led Zeppelin album and though that it doesnt sound good enough? No! Cause they sound fucking awesome!! For us this was important cause we wanted to keep the rawness and the energy from the instruments and the recordings.
– So, all this being said; is evolution a constant process for AUDREY HORNE? Is there always room for improvement?
Yes i hope so! We always want to get better at what we do and we are not afraid to try new things so hopefully we will only continue to improve for the better! Now the band is complete and we are very inspired at the moment so we look forward to start to write new songs and i can promise that it wont be another 3 years this 
time til our next album.
– Besides all this, each album you release has its own trademarks, for instance «Youngblood» feels to me like an even rockier album, and way catchier. Was this something you were striving for?
Not really it just envolved that way when we wrote the songs. I think we have been „afraid“ to let us inspire from our roots before and to play riffs that are too classic rock n roll if you know what i mean. F.example the riff on „Show and Tell“ i wrote for our first album but two of the guys, that later quit the band, said that it was way too classic rock for Audrey Horne and that we couldnt use it. Back then every riff had to have strange endings or odd time structure and so and we were afraid to play a simple straight forward riff i think haha..Just kidding but there are some truth to it though. This album is how we feel and how we play and sound at this moment and who knows maybe we will go in a bit different direction on our next album again. Writing good and simple melodies that are not boring and you havent heard a thousand times before is really some of the hardest thing to do i think. Same goes with guitar riffs. Its the simplest riffs that are the hardest to write! Everybody wants to write their „smoke on the water“ or „Back in black“ riff but riffs like that are 1 in a million and something every guitar player stribes for i think. The simple and genius riffs! So if you say „Youngblood“ is way cathier than the other albums i take that as a compliment and a sign for that we have made some outstanding riffs and melodies!
– In general I could say this is your most complete effort but, how do you personally feel about it? Is there anything you would like to change about it?
Yes i think this is our best and most complete album by far! Right now i wouldnt change a note on it because the way we made it it has to be exactly the way it is. If you ask me again in a year from now maybe there will be some things i would like to improve or do different on the next album, but right now i think the album is perfect just the way it is!
– On the other hand, I think is always easy to identify with your lyrics, they feel so close and real but, where do you draw inspiration from to write them? And what do lyrics on «Youngblood» deal with?
Toschie: Most of my lyrics are more like pictures to our music. I write them based on the mood and atmosphere of each song. And I try to balance them somewhere between clichés and a new way of viewing something. I am not a great storyteller, or preaching on subjects. I mainly try to write about things everyone can relate to, without saying it exactly as it is. The song Youngblood is about how experience and honesty usually triumphs pure gold digging. In the sense of f. ex. : if you sit down to try to write a hit song you will usually fail, but if you set out to write a great song, people will see the quality and you get a hit. At least it should be like that.
– All this about the album being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!
Energy, Enthusiam,Timeless
Classic fucking Rock!
Best album ever!
Choose one;)
– Though you are a Rock act, most of the band’s members have Metal backgrounds so, what does AUDREY HORNE provide your Metal bands can’t?
Pure rock n roll! I think for all the members in Audrey Horne the music we play are the music that is closest to our hearts. We all listens to a lot of different music and are music lovers in general, but i think Audrey Horne really defines us as persons and musicians. I mean i love f.example extreme metal too and i love playing it but i feel very „at home“ when i play with Audrey Horne. All in all i feel lucky to be able to play in the bands i play in and to get out every side of my self musically. Also in Audrey Horne we have no boundaries or things we cant do. If its sounds good and we like it, we play it. We dont have to stop and think: is this too metal,too poppy,too this and too that. Everything is allowed as long as its great and we like it.
– You recently played at the US for first time if I’m not mistaken so, how did everything go? And do you have any European touring plans in support of «Youngblood»? What are the band’s near-future plans?
It was great to finally play in the US and the last gig we did there was a really special one! We played in a small club during midday and it wasnt too crowded when we started but we played so loud that people could hear it out on the streets so more and more people came in. In the end the place was totally packed and people were screaming and shouting and the atmosphere was fantastic!! A lot of people came up to us after the gig and said it was the best show they had ever seen! That was definently a gig i will remember for the rest of my life! Yes first we will play some Norwegian shows after the release and in March we are touring with Long Distance Calling and Solstafir in Germany and Czech. We will do some more Europeian tours in April/May but they are not confirmed yet and a lot of festivals in the summer. Hopefully we will come to Spain soon to!!
– That’ s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Every rocker and metalhead in Spain: Check out our new album „Youngblood“ cuase its a killer hardrock album and might be the best thing you never heard!!
Ice Dale – Audrey Horne
