– Hello, thanks for your time. What’s currently keeping THE KONSORTIUM busy?

Greetings! We’re busy answering interviews, I’ve been doing them every day now for a month and a half. One of the other members is on tour, and I think Teloch is getting ready for Wacken with Mayhem.

– First off, I hope you don’t mind starting making some history of the band…

Long story short: we started up as a project in 2003, after I moved away from Oslo. We had no goals at all, other than making the music we like ourselves. That’s how it still is, though things have gotten more serious for the last couple of years.

 

– And what are your main musical influences?

Oh, that’s a LOT. You can obviously hear our musical heritage coming from a certain style of metal, but apart from that, I listen to all kinds of music. Jazz, classical, pop, rock, electronica, blues, world music… you name it. So I guess all of these different styles play into what I compose myself, but I always come back to metal though.

 

– You have recently released your debut full-length album, «The Konsortium»: what can people expect from it?

They can expect metal, done in our own way. People can surely recognize a lot of the elements that’s in our music, but we still do everything with a twist. If you’re after something different, you’ve come to the right place.

 

– This CD came out late June; how has been its feedback so far (both from the fans and press)? Are you guys satisfied?

I was a bit reluctant to release anything in the summer, but at the same time I wanted the album out as fast as possible. Everything was finished in December 2010, so no point in waiting any longer. The response has been massive so far, with loads of good reviews and feedback. We actually made it into the official Norwegian sales charts last week, which we NEVER expected to. Apart from that, we’ve seen very few bad reviews, though there have been a few mediocre ones. But that’s how it is: there are always someone who doesn’t like it, or simply just don’t understand the music.

 

– What could you tell us about it’s artwork? Who crafted it, what does it represent, etc.

Trine+Kim did the artwork for the CD version, while Costin from Twilight13 Media did the vinyl. The CD cover represents the colder, calculating and more clinical side of the Konsortium. The LP cover is more representative of the darker, chaotic sides. It’s two very different styles, but that’s how we wanted it.

 

– We can find elements from different musical styles in your sounds; from Rock to Black/Thrash or certain industrial vibes and some really heavy tracks. Do you have any musical limits?

No, we do not have any limits. Anything and everything is possible within our musical universe, and that’s what makes it exciting. I doubt that you’ll ever find elements of hip hop or dance in our stuff, but …yeah, our boundaries are virtually non-existent.

 

– And due to this I would like to know how was the songwriting process like…

I wrote all the music for this album, apart from an outro that Teloch wrote. Some of the songs are almost 10 years old, so I can’t remember how the process was back then. But I can say that I am a very, very slow writer. Things take time in order to be the way I want them to be. I can use up to two or three years to finish a song. It’s kind of frustrating at times, but that’s how it is. We’re not in a hurry.

 

– Will you ever have a stable line-up with other fulltime members?

Well, we have several full time members, but we don’t have a full lineup. That may sound strange, but that’s how it is when all of us have other projects to tend to; it’s difficult getting all of us together at once. It hasn’t happened more than once or twice, I think.

 

– This debut album has been released by Agonia Records, a well-known label for underground extreme Metal. How positive is this for THE KONSORTIUM?

So far, Agonia Records have treated us good, and they are eager to respond to anything we ask them. We’re a bit different from the rest of their roster, but that’s not a problem for us, as long as they treat us right.

 

– I guess something may caught people’s attention are your looks, which is quie different from the aesthetics most Scandinavian Metal bands have… So, basically, why such looks?

This is not something that is carefully planned or anything. The masks have a practical side to them besides the visual reasons for wearing them: they allow us to change members at any given time, while still being able to function as the same band. Again, this gives us the ability to do whatever we want in regards to musical boundaries, etc. We call ourselves the Konsortium because we function as one. As far as not wearing spikes and leather; that’s something I haven’t done for many years, and I can’t imagine ever doing so in the Konsortium – the music is too strange for that.

 

– Finally, what are your near-future plans after releasing your debut album?

We’re working on getting together the right gang in order to do some live shows. We were very close to that before the release, but then things fucked up, as usual. Apart from that, we don’t make that many plans… we take it as it comes.

 

– That was all, thanks again. Now feel free to add some final words.

Thanks for the interview, and thanks for making such great food over there (yes, I mean that – Spain is always cool to visit). Of course, I’ll have to finish up the interview with the standard phrase “check out our new album!”.

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com


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