Gylve 'Fenriz' Nagell: "Made of Music"

Questions by Elan O'Neal and The Inarguable

Curated by Jon Rosenthal

-Editor's Prologue-So, this year I got a very awesome birthday present: I got to interview FENRIZ of DARKTHRONE.This man, in my opinion, has always been one of my favorite personalities within the music scene. He is caught in the middle of a music scene that is infamous for all sorts of things that have spiraled out of control, yet, in the midst of the pseudo-mystic, attention-wanting peers of his that litter the many continents, he remains to be true to himself and his values, and casually shows a spirit of love for music instead of trying to get a big head.Since I appreciate what he has done, and I know he gets many interviews (he estimates later how many), I wanted to do something other than sit there and ask about the 'black metal church burning kvlt' or any of those clichés. Instead, I decided to mostly discuss what makes this guy tick... his history with music itself.-ElanView the full post for our massive interview!__________Fenriz: Hehe, well, we already have two songs ready for it - recorded in February, 2010. Then we've had a hiatus (after recording 8 albums in 10 years) since then and it seems Ted and I will be making more heavy metal from now on. So nothing shocking, no. It's a progress in regression as always.Looking back, but can't seem to end up sounding like just another retro-band. As I am MADE of music, I also ponder why we sound like "us" but it's kinda hard to answer. I think we're a bit dissident and stubborn, combined with the way of the self-taught. And no rehearsing seems to help our sounding unconventional.F: Mainly our idea, actually. The Moonfog album perhaps didn't have the distribution we wanted; we always wanted to be AVAILABLE - but not in-your-face-available with videos, TV ads and so on...but then I'd like TV ads if they were toned down - at least it would be some kind of one-way-communication (which I adored since I was a child) and not, for instance, a live concert setting which is way more interactive. So Peaceville bought the rights to, I think, most of the Moonfog catalogue - and so an avalanche of re-issues has and is on the steps. So our "hiatus" isn't TÖTAL in any way, we've got a lot of Darkthrone related matters to deal with, and with my humongous network - I could actually sit down in front of the computer and to answer everyone - I WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO LEAVE AGAIN. Luckily I realize REAL LIFE IS ELSEWHERE, so I spend most possible time doing other things (girlfriend, forest, friends, relaxing).When it comes to the liner notes/commentary things... I know the commentary thing is MY idea, it's like interviewing oneself, and it's a bit like how I sound in every interview - but I always come off way more angry in the written interviews (I've done around 900-thousand interviews in total, if my calculations are accurate) than in the spoken ones, so many people might be baffled (as they always were when meeting me in public i.e.) by my humourous ways and dislike the spoken commentary disc thingies - but fuck that; I've always stated in interviews that I have no time for people without humour in my circles - and so it has always been done. My main reason for suggesting the commentary thing was that I needed a relief from WRITING about Darkthrone and thought it would be a well earned change of work ethic with the spoken word - but alas I found that to be a chore soon enough, haha.F: Well, as I made pretty much ALL the riffs on our first demo it should always have been logical to look at me as "not only the drummer for Darkthrone" - but for some reason people didn't seem to GET IT. I also did vocals and lyrics. Almost always with the lyrics. And especially after we became a DUO in 1992 it would be apparent to anyone that we BOTH needed to understand every aspect of being in and running a band. So we both can play all instruments needed and write lyrics and also IN GENERAL do all the "stuff" that needs to be done for an underground band.I got my first drumkit in ca.1974 I reckon, a children's drumkit, but real enough. But I ended up wrecking it and spare parts weren't easy to find - but I guess mostly my parents were tired of the noise. Remember I got all that heavy music from the 60s and 70s back then so that's my no.1 background. I wanted an electric guitar in '81, but my parents would only give me an acoustic with nylon strings. Arrrg, I still remember my half uncle teaching me the 'SMOKE ON THE WATER' riff on it. But I didn't like playing on that guitar much. I remember better when learnt myself one of my fave riffs on it, the refrain riff to 'POWERSLAVE' by Iron Maiden. Then it was clear that I had to buy myself an electric guitar and an amp. So I did, in '85 I think. I also played drums whenever I could find a drum kit. Correctly I understood that the guitar was more for making music, the drums were more... just exciting. But I could barely ever get access to a drum kit. I remember me and my half cousin out in the backwaters of Vestby, Follo. He had a drum kit in the basement and he blasted "No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith" on the stereo and I would try to follow it on the drums. I later bought that drum kit when we started BLACK DEATH in December 1986. The guitar and amp, I already had. It's easier to get access to guitarists than drummers, so I always ended up filling the drum chair. But making songs and riffs on the guitar, that was just as crucial for me. The vocals or screaming and growling just had to be done as well. It wasn't until 1989 i tried out some clear vocals on the Pilgrim Sands project (a doom project, only one song recorded). Then when getting drunk one time in 1990 I put on my favourite album since 1974, SWEET FREEDOM by Uriah Heep, and tried to sing along - and I discovered I COULD! Even the second song lines came easy to me, so that was an eye opener. I wasn't a perfect opera singer, far from it, but I always like the self taught thing, liking to hear Quorthon sing with the voice he had on the HAMMERHEART album. So I had discovered another way to "voice my opinion", and I was always doing different vocals. Then I discovered I could do the very metal way of singing too, like John Cyris, and I did a couple of 'US' METAL songs in around 1993 I think, but those were sadly lost. Anyway, I just use my voice instinctively; perfectionists aren't fan of my works anyway, I reckon.Playing bass was always my favourite, I was lent the bass of Kenneth Sorkness, the VALHALL bassist and started to learn by playing to that slow song on KILLERS album by IRON MAIDEN; 'PRODIGAL SON'. Dunno why, I just always liked to play the bass since then, this must have been around 1988 or something.I bought a synth in 1993 I think it was, been loving synth music since I discovered Jean Michelle Jarre's OXYGENE (an album both Ted and I adore; we have had it on vinyls since forever) and then later Klaus Schulze in 1989. And then discovered other electronica, also house and techno and trance in 1992. But I wanted to make just floating spaced out synth so I made the 3 NEPTUNE TOWERS albums, two of them released on Moonfog and will hopefully be re-released now on Peaceville with bonus DJ turntable mixes by me.F: Oh dear, I seemed to have answered this question above. As an added bonus, the stuff I listened to in 1993 was VERY far from what the main result of 1993 was for me, creative-wise: TRANSILVANIAN HUNGER. Many must have thought I only listened to Bathory and Burzum that year, but they are so wrong it hurts. AS USUAL, I listened to a WIDE range of music also that year, and especially a lot of thrash again.Rock came in the '70s from a very young age, 3 ys old in '74 is when I got most of that very important music from my uncle, STEIN TOMTER, and I am eternally grateful for that, giving me THE DOORS 'Morrison Hotel' at my birthday in '72 and then Uriah Heep, Grand Funk and last but not least EASY RIDER soundtrack in xmas and birthday '74, then more metal from 1982, hip hop in '84, and then synth and punk in 1986; these were days long before internet and I had to find a lot myself, not alot of mentors to put it mildly. So it was many hits and misses throughout the years. I really broadened up to female singer/songwriters in '89 as I already liked Suzanne Vega, but Metalion sent me record shopping for him and that's how I discovered Joni Mitchell. Also in '89 I started buying lots of various music in a very good record store in Oslo (Akers Mic) and at the end of the '90s I had what you would call a super eclectic taste and from only dj'ing metal before (and techno of all sorts in private and on dj mixtapes) I started dj'ing around Oslo in the '00s all kinds of styles. I then made a lot of compilations, which is what I'm best at, and gives me a lot of meaning in this life.F: On my way to Elm Street rock cafe in 1993, I saw it in a crafts store and I thought, 'THAT'S ME,'. And I wore it since. Like every day really, and right now. In ca. 2000 I saw an interview with Quorthon from around 1998 when I saw he also wore it. Two minds must've kicked on it the same way, as it was handcrafted in Sweden, and probably not many of those were made. The store closed a long time ago. I even tattooed it in ca. '97/'98 with the Dark Angel quote "Death Is Certain, Life Is Not" around it, as I had used that already on a page in the second ISENGARD CD. I don't even know what the symbol means and I never bothered to find out; it's "MY" symbol now.F: I never got into Broken Bones back in the '80s, EVEN THOUGH I think Dan Lilker wore a shirt with them on the GAME OVER album by Nuclear Assault (which both Ted and I worship). I heard them first like in the last 5-6 years and they're okay, sometimes way more than okay, but I was never inspired by them as I didn't hear them. ENGLISH DOGS, on the other hand, has been a huge inspiration since December '86. I'm into mostly ALL kinds of punk, from DISCIPLINE (Holland) to DEAD KENNEDYS, BAD RELIGION to WORLD BURNS TO DEATH, THE SONICS to NEW YORK DOLLS, TESTORS (we even covered them) to SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (we covered them too), PUKE to RAPED TEENAGERS (my two fave Swedish punk bands), from DISRUPT (both the punk band and the dub project, hehe) to first DISFEAR, and post punk as well; the list just goes on forever. I really have no boundaries; it's like with metal, you just have to realize that everything connects with everything. It's just good and bad bands in all genres, hehe.F: Even NWOBHM took inspiration from punk, also thrash, death, black and grind. Not so much power metal and doom metal, I'd reckon. THE SECOND WAVE, though, was not a term, when we started playing black metal; it didn't exist, and suddenly I just woke up to this journalist-made term. Same with "extreme metal". I may have wanted to make something extreme once, but not for long. I want to keep things traditional. But original, too, I guess.F: No, we played more freestyle with emphasis on EPIC DOOM; our first logo even had EPIC DOOM written ON the logo, haha. Death metal didn't enter much until our 3rd and 4th release in 1989. Before that we were more inspired by English Dogs, Metallica, Slayer, and Celtic Frost, and Napalm Death's 1st vinyl.F: No, Transilvanian Hunger is more of an experiment (no rhythm change until side B), very cold, lo-fi sound, but it was made that way to WORK for the guitar riffs and general atmosphere. Ted thinks it's too gothic and I could say that as well, but it feels fine to have made something that STICKS. Our most important track, and Ted and me have spoke about this (we rarely speak about our music together) is SNOWFALL from 1988.F: One day I think only I can see it the right way. But what about Ted then? And other days it's easy to see the cliché that once you let go of your music, it belongs to everyone. Anyway, we'd like to see people understand our development and where we came from (god knows I've shown that a thousand times), but it isn't really necessary in order to listen to our music. If it rocks somebody's hearts, it's plenty for me. On some days. Haha! We're in it for life, so it's natural to keep it real. Others have come and left, bigging up themselves, and are now forgotten fools. Or, as Ted would say, we all are like that in the face of the universe and gaia. It's certainly not calculated, as in "let's keep it real and not be pretentious idiots - that way we can get more listeners". Hahaha, hell no. We've been winging it since day one, just following our hearts and what we need to play, and that is often the kind of metal/punk that keeps us interested at the moment.F: No whole albums right now (and I mean right now, so far in July - and this is early 22nd of July - I've got 38 new titles on my list), as in I got only fave songs from these albums. But the amazing "Kingdom Of Kings" by CRUSH (Greece 1993) has 3 superb songs in the middle and one fine ballad at the end. Then I just got very into BARRYTOWN by STEELY DAN from their "Pretzel Logic" album from 1974. I also like the entire DIABOLIC FORCE album from 2009 (Brazil). And, my girlfriend just got me into THE SLITS' "Cut" album from 1979. Also, I've been listening to the FUNEREAL PRESCENCE (yeah, it's spelled like that) 10" on AJNA OFFENSIVE label, it's the one man project of MM from NEGATIVE PLANE.-Elan & Jon