VINTERSORG (Eng.)

– Hello and thanks for your time. First off, explain us what does VINTERSORG mean and where did the name come from.
Mr V: Oh..it’s quite a long story and the meaning of it is very hard to translate as it has a special atmosphere when the words used is forged togehter…but soemthing like Winter Grief..but still that doesn’t give justice to the real feeling about the words. I’ve used it as my alias since ’93 or something and it originates from a book series here in Scandinavia called Isfolket (The Ice people) and one of the character is called Vintersorg and I thought it was a brilliant name back then..and still do as it gives us the freedom to do whatever music we want. If you call the band “Viscious Ritual” or something like that you are kind of looked up when it comes to what music to represent.

– «Jordpuls» will soon see the light, are you happy with the final result?
Mr V: Yepp! We’re actually very satisfied with the whole album in all aspects. Of course I feel that some things could be done in another way but in the “big picture” it’s great. We did the album ourselves in my studio so we could record when we felt inspired and it was just so relaxed and encouraging. We did also the mixing and the mastering so we had control of every step of the album, and that felt safe.

– I guess you may have already heard or read some feedback. How have reviews been so far and what are your expectations?
Mr V: Most of the feedback has been very good and I think that people seems to really enjoy this album as much as we did doing it, and listening to it. Reviewers have come to a very common result and they all seem to feel that it’s an album that take some time to really digest as it has so many shades and nuances. We really love to work on every little detail and it’s full of them across the album, amny layers to peel of to grasp the songs completly.

– The album’s title is once more in Swedish , what does it mean?
Mr V: It’s a bit hard to translate it so that the whole essence of it will follow but something like “Earth Pulse” would be quite accurate I guess.

– Lyrics are in Swedish too, but I guess they deal with your usual topics such as the link between man and nature. Anyway, which are the main lyrical themes in «Jordpuls»?
Mr V: Yeah! It’s the classic Vintersorg themes with the relation between Man and Nature that I philospohise about this time as well. This time though that the basis lies in nature in our surroundings and from that I try to see what the relation can do both for us and nature itself. And I do have the standpoint that man is a part of nature and not that nature is something for man to use. Nature romantic observations that I also try to link abit to the origin of nature in a vaster scale. The Earth Pulse goes through everything…in your breath, our heartbeat..in the rivers, the oceans etc.

– And how important is the connection between your lyrics and your sound?
Mr v: I like wholness in things so the lyrics is something that’s very iumportant to us. It’s 50 % of the art for us and not just a necessary thing that you have to includeJ as I feel some bands see it.

– Speaking of your lyrics, since your previous «Solens Rötter» are again in Swedish. Why did you go back to your mother language? Was there any commercial purpose behind the albums in English?
Mr V: No commercial aspect has never been in my mind in any of the bands that I have participated in, it’s strictly a decision out of inspiratio and artistry. I was just so inspsired to write in my mother tongue as I’ve always done that in one way or another…and with all my other bands I write in English so I guess my soul needs to express itself also in Swedish. Simple as that actually!

– Maybe because of this and due to «Jordpuls» sounds less experimental (so to speak) than some of your latest albums we could say you’re going back to your roots. What are your feelings about this? As it sounds, somehow, opposite to something you’re constantly doing, which is evolving.
Mr V: It may be a bit of a glimpse back to our past but still a leap forward. We don’t look back and see what kind of album that we should do..we do what feels good and the folk music apporach was very thrilling so that may of course give us a bit of the old aura. We also wanted to give our harsh element more space this time and that may also hint back to the earlier things. Still, we’re very proud of the old albums but we didn’t attempt to get that back. Every album has its own course but the songs I just recently have written has some of the Jordpuls atmosphere over them.

– Harsher parts in the album sound more aggressive this time. What was your approach before or during the composition for the record?
Mr V: I just knew that I wanted to write very dynamic songs with a lot of contrasts and this is how it all ended up.

– Anyway, what could you say can listeners fin new in this «Jordpuls»?
Mr V: The arrangments are the best to this date, my vocals are also very nice I feel and you’ll find other new elements as well. The music has so many shades so it’ll take some time to digest and it’s very adventurous music th’s very hard to define in a genre term.

– And how do VINTERSORG approach the composition process as a duet? How do you work on it?
Mr V: I write songs and record them and then show them to Mattias and then we talk about the songs and may change some arrangement or something. After that we re-record the guitars both of us and Mattias put on his leads and then I put on mine. Then we mix the album and master it together, very smooth.

– Are session members involved?
Mr V: No, this time around it is just Mattias and I that you hear on the album. It was just that we knwe that we had all the tools in the tool box to make the album the way we wanted it, so we didn’t had any reason to ask anybody for their craft.

– You’ve always been a duet. Have you ever thought about being a «full» band? What are the best things of working as a two-piece?
Mr V: We like it just as it is, that’s the reason that we’ve kept the formula this way. As two guys it’s very easy to have a close communication even if I feel that the other bands that I’m in also have that. But Mattias and I have been friends since childhood and we’ve played together in different musical constellation for about 20 years or somthing like that. We share a large part of our lifes and have the uttermost respect for each other.

– Your sound has been many times tagged as «Viking Metal» but, do you agree? How could you describe your sound?
Mr V: Well, I don’t think that that tag gives justice to what we are completly. We have a lot of folk music incorporated in our musical basis and that’s probably why that tag has been put on us. But we have so many more elements than that. The more ambient, the more progressive etc and I think that we represent a different side lyric wise as well, dealing with Man and Nature from micro to macro and both from a Nature romantic and scientific approach. I don’t have any good name for how to describe us, the music does it best.

– And what inspire you to create both such that unique sound as your lyrics?
Mr V: Life in general I would say. And saying that includes a lot of hiking in nature, spending time with my family, involving myself in a lot of different matters concering my environment, studying science and also folklore etc…

– And finally, what are your near-future plans? Do you have any tour plans or offers?
Mr V: No tour plans as we’re only two guys and we don’t have session memebers to actually play live at this point. But that doesn’t mean that we’ll not do any shows in the future, we’ll see what happens.

– That’s all. Thank you again for answering to our questions. If you want to add any last words, last lines are yours.
Mr V: Check out the album it’s a very adventurous drama that take some time to explore, but I feel that it’s very rewarding.