KVELERTAK – På en øde øy

After a few minutes discussion with the boys from Kvelertak about how the English people clearly had some extreme difficulties pronouncing the bandname, we got down to business! We talked to Erlend, Maciek and Bjarte in Glasgow.

This is Kvelertak’s first European tour, even the first tour ever. Erlend tells that the tour has been really good so far. What are the band’s expectations for the remainder of the tour?

Erlend: I think we’ve reached our “fuck-up” limit.

Maciek: Yeah, we’ve really screwed a few things up. We missed a ferry, so yesterday was really shit. We had to take a different ferry 4 hours later, from Ireland to England, drive as fast as fuck and arrived in Birmingham 15 minutes before we were supposed to go on stage. The tour manager got a little pissed off you might say…

Erlend: At first they wouldn’t let us to play, but the promoter really wanted us to perform.

Maciek: Oh, and we forgot one box of merchandise, and today we forgot our snare drum. Luckily someone else brought it along. So we just hope that things don’t get any worse. We’re a bunch of airheaded idiots. Everybody expects everybody else to pack our shit. Next tour we’re getting a checklist…, or hire a sadist to stand around and beat us.

Bjarte: We also printed 500 t-shirts which were useless. The printing was too small..

Maciek: The tour started quite bad, but concert and playing wise, it’s been really good. And the response from the audience has also been very good. Even though it’s not really our demographic. After all, these are Hardcore concerts, and we’re not a hardcore band. But it’s been going exceptionally well.

A quick and short biography of Kvelertak, thank you.

Erlend: We started in 2006 in the basement where me, Bjarte and Marvin lived. Then Vidar came, and some other people. After some changes we finally got Kjetil on drums and Maciek on guitar. From there on we played some festivals and it’s only gone upwards.
Bjarte:  It was like two or three hellish years, but now it’s been one and a half year of partying.

You released your debut album earlier this year. How did the recording go?

Maciek: We went to Massachusetts and recorded the album in five weeks. And we lived in the scariest little house ever. You could imagine every horror movie ever made, being made in that house! It was extremely nice to have Kurt Ballou (Converge) to help us produce the album. Great guy, and he gave us one of a kind sound on our album.

Hoest from Taake did some guest vocals on one of your songs. How did he end up in mix?

Erlend: We were playing at the Hole in the Sky festival, and he stopped me on the street and asked if I was the vocalist of Kvelertak. I didn’t even recognise him without all the makeup and gear, but I ended up at a party with him later on and it felt natural to ask him to do some guest vocals.

You’ve been described as a punk/black/thrash’n’roll band. How would you categorize your music?

Bjarte: Eh.. well.. We kinda try to make music that everybody in the band likes and try out new songs when we practice and if we all like them, that’s just good shit. Everything hard, heavy and cool is good.

As far as equipment goes, do you have any preferences?

All of the guitarist: Orange! It’s got to be Orange!

Maciek: We used to just play whatever we had laying around. But now it’s mostly Orange, Gibson and Tama!

Erlend:..I use a microphone…

What are the plans for the future?

Erlend: Just play and tour as much as we can. We’re going on a Norway tour with Purified in Blood and a Europen tour with Bison and Coliseum in November. After that we start with a new album.

Bjarte: We’ll be focusing on touring for the next two years and then we’ll do a new album.

Maciek: After that we gone split up and do a reunion tour right after!

If Kvelertak were to be stranded on an empty island, and you could only bring one album each, what would you bring?

Bjarte: I know! I’d make a mix tape!

Erlend: I’ll go first then. I’d bring the newest Burzum album, "Belus".

Bjarte: Fleetwood Mac’s "Rumour". I never get tired of that album.

Maciek: Shit, this is hard… I’d brought the single from Mr Oizo and played it forever!

Vidar: The newest Converge album. Nice and varied.

So no one would’ve brought the Kvelertak album?

All: Fuck no! We’re sick of that album!

After this, the gang of inconclusive Norwegians changed their minds a few more times. And Maciek tried to cheat by bringing "The Best of Creedence Clearwater Revival", which is a double album and of the guys decided to bring "Kvelertak", just in case.

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