IGOR NARDIN (Noctiferia) – Slovenias fremtid?

Denne slovenske gitaristen var med å starte EMETICA i 1992 sammen med et par venner. 2 år senere byttet de navn til dagens NOCTIFERIA og har siden den gang gitt ut 4 demoer, 4 fullengdere og 1 livealbum. Igor Nardin har mye klokt å fortelle oss i sitt bidrag til The G-String Series, blant annet prater han varmt om vår egen Ihsahn.

When did you start playing the guitar? In what age and which band was actually the one that made you wanting to grab a guitar and start playing?

Well it was 92 or maybe 93. We were about 12-13 years old. Early Metallica, Samael, Sepultura’s Schizophrenia, Arise, Chaos A.D., Morbid Angel’s Blessed are the Sick, Covenant and Death’s Individual thought patterns were the ones that rally shook and influenced me, kind a forced me to start playing. I started with total enthusiasm and dedication but absolutely no knowledge. I thought string is pressed directly on fret and didn’t know what tuning is… absolute disaster! Gladly within days that was learned, and we started to make our own songs from simple riffs and did some covers of course. I still got that tapes and i listened it not long ago, sounds crappy today.

What actually makes a guitarist unique? Feeling or technique? Many people for example cannot stand Satriani…who is absolutely a master when it comes to technique!

I’ll put feeling before technique; at least for me it is way more important. But one goes with another. And for uniqueness it is mixture of both used in an untypical way. There is no point fanatically learning every single note from let’s say Satriani or Petrucci on the end you’ll always be a copy. Do your own stuff. I think that is very important cause i known so many guitarist that are trapped copying others.

What was your first guitar? Do you still have it?

I think it was Hondo or something like that. A Gibson Explorer copy. I sold it long time ago.

Do you think that the guitarist is making the quality or maybe the equipment can do magic?

It’s definitely the guitarist. Mastering the effects can add a dimension. It is not how fast or how difficult your stuff is. Atmosphere is important. Sure you can do magic in any audio software in studio today but it also kills the atmosphere. For me vibrato, tempo and choosing untypical positions are what make a great solo. I am not a guitar solo freak. Solo is just one of many segments in a song it is not even necessary sometimes. Let’s say it is so much easier to listen to great guitarist on crappy equipment than crappy guitarist on great equipment.

What kind of equipment do you use? Guitars…pick ups…amps…? Do you use different equipment in the studio and different while playing live? If yes then what is the reason?

I use Ibanez universe UV777 for my main guitar and 2 ibanez RG7 for backup, one of them with EMG 707 and 707tw. Dunlop Techpick  brassy ones are fantastic picks aluminium by the way total opposite. String are Diaddario 10-59 tuned half step down. For rehearsals I use prety ancient stuff like marshall jmp1, ADA mp1 or sometimes BOSS GT8 directly in to my Messa 2/90 power amp. Sometimes I get tired of same sound. Messa has custom built pedal so i can switch between those 3 modes (half, modern,deep). Jmp 1 and ADA is connected with Rocktron intelifex.  Midi pad is Digital music corp pretty old one. And I can’t go without Morley’s Bad horsie wah. And i have 2 marshall cabinets. B with vintage 30 speakers and A with i guees G12 speakers also pretty old 800 series. On the last album I used Engl Powerball it was already in studio along with Peavy 5150 and Triaxis preamp. I was looking for more dry and rough sound this time so I tried different combination and on the end Engl sounded far more rough, defined, massive than the rest of them.

Construct the guitar of your dreams…brand, pick ups, strings..everything!

Well Ibanez universe is not far from it. But it should be neck thru with same UV prestige profile. With EMG 707 bridge pickup and 707tw neck position pickup and I would keep that middle DiMarzio Blaze single coil that sound absolutely fantastic on crunch and clean. It would be black or red with Noctiferia star inlay. Strings like 8 or 9 to 59 plus.

Now form the band of your dreams…with you participating of course…Which individuals you think would fit like a glove to your style?

Haha it is harder than it sounds… hmmm Andreas Kisser would fit perfectly and Ihsahn of ex Emperor probably that is for the guitar. Then Steve Digiorgio on bass or oddly Tim Commerford, that would be fun to see. For vocals I would chose ether Mike Patton, Corey Taylor or Peter Tagtgren. On drums Pete Sandoval or even better Gene Hoglan. Now on the sequencer/comp Amon Tobin or Ben Watkins …that would be killer!

Are you participating in the composing of your bands material or you’re just a performer? How important is it for an artist to be able to express himself? I mean, if for example you were in a band only for performing someone else’s musical themes…would you handle it not participating…not being able to express yourself?

I could not play in the band and have nothing to do with the songs. I mean from day one it was clear to me that I want to make my own music. At least in my own band, but in projects, that’s a different story. Well I use to do like 95% of material at home other 5% rehearsing it or in the studio. But on last album it was more connected workflow where everybody contributed something.

Have you ever run out of ideas while composing a new album? How did you fight it? What was the solution?

So far never… I just start playing with different instruments recording loops and overlaying it in computer. Let my imagination work. That is worst case scenario. But latelly i jam on rehearsal place with our drummer and we just go with the flow.

Do you have endorsements? Do you think endorsements are important for an artist?

So far it was hard for us to get endorsed, because Slovenian market is so small that most of the companies don’t have proper representatives/distributors in Slovenia. I bought most of the equipment in Italy. There are maybe 5 seven string guitars sold a year in whole Slovenia. We are looking for endorsement deal. I hope soon something will come up. Of course it is much easier to be fully endorsed artist. You get to try new products, get free stuff, and get tour support if anything goes missing or damaged it is also great promotion for an artist and band.

In all the years that you’ve been playing did something go totally wrong during a concert of yours? If yes, what was it? Please go ahead!

Nothing especially dramatic. Worst thing so far was bad cable in my rack; which was actually pretty hard to locate, because at that time back of my rack looked like a mad scientists’ lab, haha. After that incident I sorted it out.

Ok then…thank you for answering these questions. One last thing now! Who is the guitarist that you admire or that you would like to "punish" by have him answering these same questions?

Thanks again and good luck with your project(s).

Hmmm not long ago I rediscovered Ihsahn. I stopped following his career after Emperor split and i was pretty big fan of Emperor from the beginning. Later he did Peccatum project and it wasn’t really my style… So I was blown away when heard The Adversary and Angl albums. So here it is, you can try molesting him, and I would gladly read his interview.

http://www.myspace.com/noctiferia