|
T:
That’s very nice to hear. We have the reputation from
the press and from our record labels for being a difficult band, not
because we are difficult persons but because they have difficult time
under a special tag ‘cause we are changing all the time. But I think
that this is one of the key things of Green Carnation… the change. It
keeps us interested in what we’re doing as long as we manage to deliver
a quality album even though it is in a different music style… but we are
happy and I hope that the fans will be happy too. So,
will you continue to change your sound in every new album? T: Actually I do not know in which direction will be our
next album… because I have written some new material which is more doom
like our first album combined with “Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness”. So,
there will be a change in our next album but a change back to the roots.
But it also depends on the other members of the band, if they want to do
it that way or not. The
production this time is also a little bit modern. T:
Yes… because we decided to use a different studio this
time. I have recorded there some albums with Carpathian Forest and our
vocalist Kjetil
Nordhus has
recorded a Trail Of Tears album there, so we knew the producer, Terje
Refsnes, who has the studio and has showed interested in Green Carnation and he
wanted to do the production of the album. Even thought he is known of
producing gothic metal bands like Tristania and Trail Of Tears, he also
has his roots with rock music and we finally decided to produce the new
album there. I’m happy with the production. Do
you had in mind to commercialize the songs a bit this time? T: No. I wouldn’t use the word “commercial” but I
would say live-friendly. When we started playing a lot of live shows we
saw that songs that we had in “Blessing In Disguise” worked out really
well live. We just played last week at Inferno Festival in Oslo and that
was the first time that we played the new songs and they had a great
reception from the audience. It was an extreme metal festival but people
truly enjoyed our music. I
asked that question because some have accused the band that is trying to
be more commercial and that it wants to have hits in order to become more
popular. T: I can understand why some people are saying such things,
because we used to write very longs songs and it was hard for people to
get into the songs and in the last two albums we have written normal songs
and maybe some are thinking that we are trying to make a hit. We are
actually trying to do new things, because in the first album we had 20
minute longs songs, in the second we had a 60 minute song and in the third
album we said lets try to write short songs now. So, we are actually
trying new stuff that we have never done before and are not doing this in
order to make a hit. I
do not think that it is bad to gain new fans with every new album. T: Yes, you are right but if you ask the record labels,
they won’t agree with you. They are trying to locate the correct
audience for us but the audience that like “The Light Of Day, Day Of
Darkness” won’t necessarily like “The Quiet Offspring”. That’s
why people are saying that this is not Green Carnation no more and stuff
like that, but those who are open-minded they will still listen to Green
Carnation. You
also have some line up changes in the band. Why did you make those changes
on the band’s line up? T:
Yes, we have a new guitarist, Michael Krumins,
a
new keyboard player Kenneth
Silden
and a new drummer Tommy Jackson. People always expect to hear a dramatic
story of how some people are not in the band any more but the truth is
that our former guitar player Bjørn Harstad now owns his own music
store so he wasn’t able to tour with us or to leave his work any longer.
So, when we were doing a European tour for “Blessing In Disguise” we
found a new guitar player Michael. Regarding the keyboard player Bernt A
Moen who
also wrote a song on “The Quiet Offspring” album he couldn’t join us
no more ‘cause he is a very popular, famous musician in Norway and his
schedule was just too busy for meeting our demands on touring so, he
recommended us a new keyboard player who is Kenneth. Our original drummer
Anders Kobro was replaced by Tommy Jackson, due to musical differences. So,
why did you name your album “The Quiet Offspring”? Can you give us
more details about the album’s title? T: I’m always trying to pick an album title that means
something to me personally. Like “Light Of Day…” or “Blessing In
Disguise” that were related with the lyrics of each album. Of course I
have written all the lyrics on those albums and was kind of personal to me.
But this time we had more songwriters than ever before and as we were
going through the lyrics we were trying to find a title for the album,
someone suggested “The Quite Offspring” as a song title and later on
we discovered up that this title would also fit the artwork with the
little child, so it just came from looking though the album and the lyrics
and trying to find something that would fit on the artwork and the lyrics.
When we finished all the lyrics and we were looking at the artwork we
realized that there was a connection between the artwork and one of the
song titles. The
artwork was ready before you write the album? T: Yes, it was. I contacted Niklas Sundin
some
months before we go on to the studio and he send me some suggestions about
different artworks that he had and I liked this artwork the most. When the
whole band was gathered on the studio I showed them the artworks on the
laptop and we decided that this was the best one. Which
was your basic source of inspiration this time? T: I think it was the live shows for “Blessing In
Disguise” tour where we had a very good time. That inspired me to write
most of the material that I wrote in “The Quite Offspring”, and that
material is quite rock except “Childsplay” which is more in the vein
of “The Light Of Day…”. Can
you tell me a few words about each one of the songs? T:
I can try… “The
Quiet Offspring”: This is the first song that Michael the new guitar
player wrote. The lyrics were written from our bassist Stein
Roger Sordal who
has written most of the album’s lyrics. “Between
The Gentle Small & The Standing Tall”: This is a Stein
Roger Sordal song
both music and lyrics. “Just
When You Think It’s Safe”: This is one of the songs that I wrote
when we were on the European tour. We have played this song two or three
times before we entered the studio so, this was one of the first songs
that we recorded for the new album. “A
Place For Me”: This song is a co-operation between the two new
members Michael and Kenneth. Firstly it sounded quite different from what
we have done before but after we changed a few things and I think that it
turned out good. “The
Everlasting Moment”: This is one of Stein
Roger Sordal songs again. It’s a very catchy song with a very good riff. “Purple
Door, Pitch Black”: Stein
Roger Sordal
again wrote this song. Many people are saying that this is one of their
favorite songs of the album but it’s not one of mine. It has a very
catchy chorus though. “Childsplay
Part I”: I wrote this song after we finished “Blessing In Disguise”,
so it’s an old song comparing to the other material. “Dead
But Dreaming”: I also wrote this songs which I wrote it a couple of
weeks before we entered the studio and I didn’t think that it could make
it in on the album ‘cause it’s very different form the other songs of
the album. But finally it turned out to be one of the favorite songs of
many people. “Pile
Of Doubt”: This is one of Stein
Roger Sordal songs and it is fast one. We haven’t played it live yet
but we will include on our live set list in the future. It’s a song that
I like a lot. “When
I Was You”: This our vocalist’s, Kjetil
Nordhus, distribution on the album. He had this song from
“Blessing In Disguise” album but this time he made it closer to what
he wanted and it turned out very good. “Childsplay
Part II”: The reason why I chose to do this version is when I heard
a very known vocalist where she plays the piano as well, but I can’t
remember her name know, where she made a cover of Slayer’s “Raining
Blood”! All the media freaked out when they heard the song and it turned
out really dramatic and melancholic… only piano and vocals. The I
realized that piano can create a very good atmosphere so, I asked our
keyboard player to made a cover version of “Childsplay Part I”. It is
based on “Childsplay Part I” but it sounds like a different song. To
me is one of the most dramatic songs that we have ever done. Again
is quite difficult to define Green Carnation’s musical style… What
would you answer to that question? T: I will agree with you. It depends on which album you are
referring to. I would describe every album with different words. But if
you say atmospheric, progressive, rock, metal music, I think that covers
most of the material. How
far do you think that you can go with Green Carnation? T:
We
have delivered four albums to date with good quality… but as I said
before we have the tendency to confuse people. Sometimes that is good, but
some people want to know what they are going to listen to. In the terms of
the quality of the music and our live performances I think that we can go
very far. Do
you prefer to get good scores from the press or to please your fans with
every new album? T:
Neither I would say. First of all we are writing music
for ourselves, that’s why I’m writing more melancholic stuff because I
like melancholic music. Secondly, I do not want to divide the press and
the fans because we have a lot of fans in the press, so I would say that
it is almost equal and important to us to have the love of both sides.
T: We hope that this album will give us the chance to go on
another European tour and to be able to do more live shows than before. We
love to play live and we have given few shows till now and people love to
see us as well. We played at Inferno Festival a few days ago, we did a
release party here in Norway, we will play at the Prog Power Festival in
Europe and it will be another announcement about a big festival and we are
also working on some dates and trying to go in every place in Europe we
can. A producer from Greece has contacted us in order to play there but
due to a problem we will see in the next days if we make it. We have many
fans there and we want to come for a live show. Since
you are one of the founding members of the band can you tell me why did
you call the band Green Carnation? T:
Because
we didn’t know English very well! (laughs)… Actually Green Carnation
is a flower, which is very rare, but also Green Carnation means a
different type of meat. So, when we started the band in 1990 we had Green
Carnation in our minds like green flesh or green meat… which is sounded
like a death metal band. When we reformed the band we thought that the
name didn’t fit us any more but on the other hand we had in mind the
first meaning of Green Carnation and we thought that I was very special
and that’s why we kept the name. You
are also playing in other bands such as Blood Red Throne and Carpathian
Forest… Which one of those bands comes first for you? In which band do
you feel more yourself? T:
All three! The good thing is that all three bands are
very active but on different periods of the year. Unfortunately this time
I have the Blood Red Throne album, which is released in the same day with
Green Carnation’s album and things, are kind of difficult. Playing in
three bands is like a picnic in the park for me right now! So,
what are the future plans of the band? T:
This year (2005) is our fifteenth anniversary since we
formed the band and I want to do a special release, which will have two
CDs. The one will be a show and the other will include some material from
the 1991 demo and some other old songs of the band and some demos of some
of our album’s songs. And
some weird Questions to relax somehow!!! Which kind of metal music do you prefer most? T: Actually I prefer death metal music… this is my favorite music style. If
Green Carnation’s carrier was a movie, which movie would it be? T: If you asked me about Blood Red Throne I would say Spinal Tap… but for
Green Carnation I would choose Top Secret! Do
you believe that internet has helped the bands to become more popular or
has caused many problems? T: I’m sure that a lot of people that download an album they were meant
to bought it at the first place. But I believe that others who download
and album might truly like it and then go and buy it afterwards. There are
a lot of benefits from the internet and it is more easy to promote your
work in that way. Which
band do you consider that can take a leading part in metal music in the
future? T: I have no idea… Maybe
Green Carnation? T: No, I’m not gonna be that selfish to say that! Which
are the things that piss you off from today’s music industry? T: Hmmm… the whole industry itself. The market the bands the music…
industry is drowning in many ways that’s why we have lower sales, fewer
people to live shows and the situation is not good at all. Too many bands
nowadays and labels sign bands that have nothing to offer to music anymore. Which
is the most overrated band today? T:
There
is a norwegian band which is called We… they think that they are a great
band but they’re not. Do
you consider yourself as a rock star? T: No, I’m not a rock star… I wouldn’t mind being one… but I’m
not! Imagine
that your girlfriend is selling your whole album-collection just to buy
for herself an expensive ring. How would you react? J T: …(he laughs)… I would expect a lot of sex that night... that’s for
sure!! (laughs from both sides). I’m listening very rarely to music
nowadays, because I spend so much time with music… but if this could
happen I wouldn’t be happy that’s for sure! If
you don not mind loosing your whole album collection you can give it to me... T: (he laughs)... you do not look as good as my girlfriend so that’s the
problem!!! (laughs from both sides!!!) Well,
Tchort... those were my questions. Thx for talking with me... Leave a
message to Grande Rock readers for the end... T: Thx very much as well… check out the new album and I hope that many people will get it because that will give us the chance to tour in many countries in Europe. Check also our website at: www.greencarnation.no for news, updates and songs… and I would like to thank every one who has showed so much interest for the band. by Thanos Aggelakis |
Hi
Tchort… Congrats on “The Quiet Offspring”. We have chosen it as the
best album of the month on Grande Rock! Another top quality album from a
band that continues surprising us with every new album.