VOIDWALKERS AND BURNING SKIES – An Interview with Tessia
- Posted on 27-02-2025
Last year I had the great pleasure of witnessing the hard-hitting Norwegian metal quintet known as Tessia live on stage in Bergen when they were competing in the Wacken Metal Battle semi-finals, and it was a night to remember. Not only was it a hugely memorable performance with the band firing on all cylinders and gelling like a well-oiled machine but it was also incredibly inspiring and almost humbling to see such talented individuals playing their well-crafted and deftly executed songs in front of a rapturous crowd who eagerly absorbed every neck-breaking riff on display. Tessia was a force to be reckoned with, and their brand of razor-sharp and melodically strong metal with a modern vibe to it saw them head into the finals and winning the entire thing, thus securing a slot at the 2024 rendition of the legendary Wacken Open Air in Germany. We caught up with vocalist Julie Berthelsen for a lovely chat about all things Tessia.
Hi Julie, how are things at your end and what have you been up to today? Could we start out by discussing how the phenomenal and punchy metal entity known as Tessia came into being and briefly outline the history of the band up until the present day?
J: Hello! I am at the backend of a nasty cold, just finished with a music video shoot in minus 5 degrees, really cold, but I think the result will be great!
We started in 2016, as a group of friends just having fun and jamming. Just making music and not knowing entirely what we were doing. In this modern day and age as a musician, it is not enough to just know how to play your instrument; you also need to be a producer, a social media manager, a video producer, and a sound technician just to name a few roles, but it is something we just jump right into, not knowing what we are doing but figuring it out from a lot of YouTube tutorials and experimenting with different results. We released the single “Fight for the Lost,” the EP As Above, So Below, and two albums, namely Burn the Sky and Shadows and Dust. After that we had some major lineup changes, replacing a guitarist and a drummer. We now have Eirik Atlesson Paulsen on guitar and Sindre Haugen on drums. The original members who are left are me (Julie M. Berthelsen) on vocals, Dennis A V Pedersen on guitar (and who also handles production duties), and Matias Boge on bass. This resulted in a new vigor and enjoyment of the band and music, which culminated in the The Cataclysm, Pt. 1. Here we went for what we feel is a clearer and stronger direction and us really pushing ourselves as musicians and songwriters.
Tessia has a rather distinct and unique musical identity in that you incorporate traits and elements from various genres. Given that you guys seem draw inspiration from many different things, I would love to hear what your shared musical influences are but also how and where you differ from each other. Is it a case of one liking black metal, another digging melodic death metal, and perhaps a third being into metalcore or thrash, just to list an example?
J: First of all, we all have a common love for metal, and each member of Tessia has their favorite genre of music, but we are in a really good place in terms of overlapping with the same kind of music. For example, Matias our bassist is into bands like Tesseract, and more prog-related artists, but he also loves old-school heavy metal like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, which overlaps with our guitarist Eirik who is also influenced by old-school heavy metal but is also into black metal. Then there is me, Julie, who is into classic rock but also melodic death metal and more extreme metal genres like death grind and deathcore that overlap with Dennis, who has his own style of music like Machine Head that overlaps with Sindre our drummer who is influenced by Lamb of God and Slipknot to name a few. This is just a snippet of what we like, but I am trying to showcase that no one in the band is standing “alone” and that we all have bands and genres in common that keep us in line with the music we want to create without it getting much tension from someone feeling left behind with respect to how we want to write our music. We are also open to experimenting and do not fear to cross into other genres, and our motto is just to create music that we like ourselves.
I associate your lyrics with themes and motifs that possess an underlying sense of the dystopian, or rather themes that are quite relevant today with respect to how the world around us is collapsing and going to hell in a handbasket. What things in particular inspire and influence the lyrical aspect of Tessia’s compositions? Take something like “Voidwalker” and “Resistance”; what are those about?
J: We are, like all artists, I suppose, inspired by everything around us, and metalheads are often a bunch of geeky guys and gals, and like so many bands that came before us inspired by literature such as Tolkien. We also draw a lot of inspiration from the stories and narrative themes from video games. For example, “Resistance” is arguably one of the songs that is more directly about a video game called Wolfenstein: The New Order. In this world, Nazi Germany won World War 2 and is now in control of the world, and it is time for people to fight back. The song “Shadows and Dust” is also in the same thematical vein with humanity always forgetting its history and being doomed to repeat itself, so the song is like a plea for people to please remember our history. We are not a political band, but we sing about history and themes that are relevant to people today.
“Voidwalker” is totally another type of song, and it is part of our own created universe called “Tessia Semper” and the second song on our upcoming concept album called The Cataclysm. We have already released the first part of the story on the aforementioned EP titled The Cataclysm, Pt.1. ‘Voidwalker’ is a god-like entity that reflects the darkness, emptiness, and death. It is the counterpoint to the other divine entity in our story that is called the ‘Titans,’ which reflect light, matter, and creation. The Titans and Voidwalkers are in a perpetual war and are always at a stalemate, but in the The Cataclysm, Pt. 1, the stalemate ends with a trap by the Titans that entails that both godly entities end up in the ‘Void,’ a sort of black hole. The song “Voidwalker” picks up the story when the Titans have imprisoned the Voidwalker and how she escapes, and a struggle commences with some twists and turns in relation to the Titans trapping the Voidwalker in her own domain. With both the Titans and the Voidwalker trapped in the Void, the balance of the universe between darkness and light is not there anymore. So, the story about how that affects the common people is what the The Cataclysm, Pt. 2 is going to be about. So yeah, a lot of geeky stuff, but we love it ha-ha. On top of that, all of this is a metaphor for good vs. evil as well as the balance of life that there cannot be happiness without sadness and so on and so forth but just created in a complex manner in the shape of a concept album set within a self-created universe.
As you know, I absolutely love your potent and muscular live performances in that you deliver the goods and fire on all cylinders, and the band is a tight and well-oiled machine. Is playing live your favorite activity with respect to Tessia and what exactly does it feel like to be up there on stage?
J: We absolutely love being up on stage and I’m happy that seems to shine through to the audience. We have this philosophy that we must unleash the same amount of energy that we wish the audience would give back to us – we should not expect anything else. And it does not matter if we play to a tiny crowd or a big one; our goal at every live show is to blow at least one person’s mind. There is also something special about people cheering, chanting our name, and headbanging that I believe can only be experienced up on stage. It gives us a rush and a taste for more, as long as my nerves have calmed down ha-ha, but they usually do after one chorus.
This leads me on to my next question. You won the Wacken Metal Battle in Norway, which was a monumental achievement in and of itself, but playing in front of a rapturous audience at Wacken in Germany must have been absolutely exhilarating. Tell us about that whole experience. That must be one of those memories that will last for a lifetime. In retrospect, what was the most valuable thing that competing in the Wacken Metal Battle Norway finals taught you?
J: Definitely, it was simply insane! I think it’s safe to assume that standing and playing on Wacken’s stage is every band’s dream. To have done it is something we all are amazingly proud of! And what a learning experience it was; we got tossed in with all the big bands, and Wacken did not exclude the Wacken Metal Battle bands at all. We assumed we would not get the same treatment as the other booked bands, but we got all the perks that came along with playing at Wacken, from free food and drinks, standing side-stage, and backstage access the entire festival. We have so many stories, from partying all night with fellow musicians, to stumbling on the members of Whitechapel as I took the wrong turn to the toilets and ended up on the side of the stage with all of them. As we went in and expected almost nothing the whole experience was absolutely the best, and we did not want it to end. It felt so surreal to walk around Wacken getting stopped all the time by people wanting to take a picture with me and praising the band.
The most valuable thing competing in the Wacken Metal Battle Norway has taught us is the “proof of concept” in the sense that we have struggled with imposter syndrome as we have simply done what we want to while not being entirely sure if people like what we are doing, but we have kept doing it because we love it and believe in it ourselves, so it was such a relief in a way that we now know that we are on to something. A lot of musicians today are really struggling with algorithms and low attendance when playing live, so bands find it hard to get accurate feedback, as there are insanely talented people who get almost no listeners.
I am curious as to whether you come from a musical home, or if you had a musical upbringing, if that makes sense?
J: There was a lot of music in my home, but more listening than performing. Well, I liked to perform and would often be found dressed up on the dining table singing Bonnie Tyler into my plastic microphone. I would also hold fantasy shows in a sold-out arena singing “The Final Countdown” by Europe at full force ha-ha. I also sang in the church choir and attended a music high school, so singing and music have always been a big part of me.
How about your first encounter with hard and heavy music? When and where were you introduced to metal in all its magnificent glory?
J: I was introduced to metal in a slow and steady manner, really. I loved old school rock ‘n’ roll. Started getting into Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, then gradually getting into heavier bands like In Flames, and to this day I still feel I am broadening my metal horizon with all kinds of metal from the heaviest to the softest.
Have you ever witnessed one of those performances by a band that almost turned into a revelatory and monumental thing to you on a personal level? Something that truly inspired you and gave you the chills in the positive sense of the word.
J: Me, Dennis and Eirik saw Machine Head in London a few years ago when they played together with Amon Amarth and The Halo Effect. I really love both Amon Amarth and The Halo Effect, but Machine Head was a band I had a huge desire to see live. They were going to play in Oslo a few years prior but then covid hit and I had to wait even longer. Their performance in London was truly eye-opening to me. I could barely headbang or do anything other than drink my beer because I was so star-struck the moment they hit the stage. Later in the set, they played a song called “Darkness Within” and I immediately started crying and just felt every impulse through my body, which is something I will never forget. I was astounded by the whole gig, the professionalism, the big stage and production, the flames from the pyro, and just how it all looked like smooth sailing for the band members. They just had so much fun and looked like they truly love what they do. That really inspired the musician in me too. Dennis would also point out it was pretty cool watching Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka from Decapitated play with Machine Head!
Are you an avid reader and what book(s) might we find on your nightstand?
J: I would not call myself an avid reader, but I do enjoy it a lot. My personal New Year’s quest this year is to read more. A quest I have until now succeeded in by reading Harry Potter. On my nightstand, I have some classics like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Tolkien`s The Hobbit which are next in line. I also have to finish a really good sci-fi series called The Expanse by James SA Corey.
What does 2025 hold for Tessia? Are you currently crafting new material and/or gearing up for live activities? You have a gig coming up in early March at Hulen in Bergen if I am not mistaken?
J: 2025 will be a busy year for Tessia. We have The Cataclysm Pt. 2 all ready, mixed and mastered, and the songs will be out in the upcoming months with the first single dropping on February 28 accompanied by a music video, which is the day before our headlining gig at Hulen. This will be our first time playing in Bergen after the Wacken performance, so it will be so nice to play on our home turf. Then we are playing at Garasjefestival on June 19-21 this year followed by Death Island Festival in Denmark on September 12-13. We are also going to play some more as yet unannounced concerts. Also, we are working on the logistics of going on tour. Our plan is to release the entire ‘Cataclysm’ album and then play a lot of gigs and see where the future takes us!
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