rozhovor_2016-02-21_Mortiis_en - HELLMAGAZINE
Hlavná ponuka:
ROZHOVORY
Mortiis is coming back with the new record and we had a possibility to talk to him not only about it.
Hello. At first I have to tell you that it´s my pleasure to be able to conduct this interview with you.
We have a new year. What about new year´s resolutions? Do you have some?
Why make promises you know you will never keep? Haha.
What will 2016 bring for Mortiis?
The new record The Great Deceiver in March, and we´re doing a UK tour in May. We also have at least one more video and download single coming out, probably closer to the UK tour. Beyond that it sort of remains to be seen.
I have to ask about the history of this band, if I can call it as a band since you started working as a solo artist. Twenty years back you started with completely different type of music. What did lead to you to start playing ambient dark stuff and instrumental music? What were your very early inspirations?
I got into hard rock as a very young kid, probably around 1980 or so, when I saw KISS on TV for the first time, I was hooked. Since then I moved on to WASP, Priest, Crue, AC/DC, Twisted Sister etc in the mid 90´ies, then moved on to VENOM, KREATOR, POSSESSED, CELTIC FROST, and so on in the second half of the 80´ies. In the late 80´ies I discovered the true underground with bands like MAYHEM, MEFISTO, VOMIT, DESEXULT/SAMHAIN, NIHILIST, and so on and obviously devoted all my time to discovering more bands like that. Around 1991 we formed Emperor and started hanging out in Oslo with the MAYHEM, DARKTHRONE, ENSLAVED, etc guys, and Euronymous got me interested in a lot of synth music like TANGERINE DREAM, KRAFTWERK, KLAUS SCHULZE, CONRAD SCHNITZLER, and so on. I had already gotten interested in underground industrial/experimental music like THROBBING GRISTLE, SLEEP CHAMBER, COIL, PSYCHIC TV, BRIGHTER DEATH NOW, DAS ICH, and so on....In late 92 when I left Emperor, my biggest inspiration to start my own thing was definately TANGERINE DREAM and KLAUS SCHUZLE, because I loved their stuff wih the 20 minute epic songs....So I sort of took that idea, mixed it up with a bit of DEAD CAN DANCE ideas (the medieval parts), and the Lord of the Rings thematics and the black metal extremity (image wise) and it became early Mortiis.
How did you come up with the mask or let´s call it the Mortiis´ face and why to use several masks?I think you changed it a little bit now, am I correct?
Well I sort of answered that I guess, but by the early 90´ies I was a huge Tolkien fan, and a huge fantasy fan in general (even though most fantasy films at the time were super cheesy and low budget, only the first CONAN film has really survived the test of time. Still a fantastic movie in all ways, LEGEND was good too, though somewhat cheesy at times). So I mixed that black metal attitude we all had back then with ideas taken from Tolkien. Pretty simple really. At first the mask was very primitive, so when I had the opportunity later on towards the late 90´ies, I went to a profession make up studio in Los Angeles and had the mask redesigned. The stitches that came later, is the same mask, I just pulled stitches thorugh it. I like evolution and change, simple as that J
To me, it´s quite natural process when the artists evolve to some point and they just cannot create the same things anymore. But sometimes it may be a bit difficult to accept such radical change as in your music. Weren´t you afraid of the fact that some of your listeners may just step back. I mean that they would stop listening to your music?
Sure that was on my mind. But I started making music for personal reasons, and that was why I went in a different direction later on. If people don´t like it, well fuck it, I´m not a product. I´m not making chocolate milk, it´s not supposed to be the same thing pumped out every time. I understand that it may be „traumatic“ for a hard core fan to see someone change that drastically, but it´s not really anything I specifically care about.
Why have you decided to start singing on your albums? What did lead to chance your mind?
When I made The Smell of Rain that was because I was going through radical changes in my life at a personal level. I have been struggling with depression for big chunks of my life. It comes and goes. One of my big demons at the time was, I didn´t feel passionate about the fantasy style stuff I was doing anymore, so it was beginning to become almost self destructive. I think I was having a hard time identifying with it. So I made the changes I wanted to make, I wanted to be more true to myself. When you look at where I come from as a music fan, it´s basically rock music... So I wanted to do something that was more true to the stuff I really enjoyed listening to myself...synth stuff and metal. So I started combining those two. It was just a natural step to try out singing too. It was terrifying but it didn´t turn out too bad. I´m not a natural singer or anything, a million guys do it better, but I do it from the heart. I never used auto tune or any other studio trickery to make myself sound better than what I am. It´s always been honest.
The Great Deceiver, that´s the title of the brand new release. Who is the deceiver?
That was a title that just felt natural. I don´t know exactly why I chose it. Probably a subcoscious decision. It seems fitting... I´m sure our most die hard fans would agree...This album has been announced so many times only to sink back into the depths of music industry oblivion. Of course, The Great Deceiver is also an old nickname for the Devil, so that makes it even more fitting, haha!
You use a new logo as well and under this one, there is written „Era 0“. Could you explain this? Is this kind of like a new start for you or what does it actually represent?
I just thought it would be tacky to continue the Eras thing into Era 4 or whatever... It´s just a bit of a mind fuck, but also a re-set, and timeless time... I didn´t feel right about calling it era 4.
After listening to this new album, I found many new elements in your music. Which ones do you consider the most striking and the most important?
I´m not sure, I just do what I do, I don´t plan in out. Things just happen, and if we like them we keep them. I think the main difference between The Great Deceiver and earlier records, is that all the layers and noises and sounds, all sort of pulsates and pulls in the same direction. There´s a greater „harmony“ in all the madness going on, and I think this record is the most sort of „catchy“ since the smell of Rain a long time ago. There´s a lot of distortion, anger and darkness going on, which I like, but in all those layers of sound, the sense of melody and heart has not gotten lost. I think that is something that is different if you compare it with for example „The Grudge“.
What kind of surrounding do you need to create music?
I´m not sure. I prefer to be along in my house/studio if I really want to focus. I have done a lot of programming and working on existing music in the studio with other people around. But in the early stages of a song specifically, I really prefer absolute solitude.
The first song on the new album is called „The Great Leap“. What do you think is your biggest leap in life?
I truly believe that leap to be in my future. I don´t think any leaps I might have done yet are comparable to what may be on the horizont.
How would comment on the lyrics of the new record? Do you criticize, regret or...
I stand by them all. Just like I still think lyrics I wrote 15 years ago are still relevant. When someone tells me a lyric I wrote 15-16 years ago was important to them at some point in life, I know I did something right.
I´d like to ask you about your personal life. How do you spend your free time? Do you have any other interests besides music?
I am a record collector, so I spent a lot of time scanning eBay, Discogs, Musicstack, etc for stuff, and I often comunicate with other people who also collect, trying to nail some deals down etc. I am spending more and more time doing this. I also hold down regular jobs, several of them, but they all revolve around working with people with various forms of mental dysfunctions/disabillities. Beyond that, I naturally spend time with my family.
I have to ask about the latest tragedy that happened just some time ago. Lemmy Killmister! A legendary figure from my point of view and doesn´t matter if you´re a fan or not but he just influenced the rock and metal scene so much.
And of course since then David Bowie as well. I was a big fan of both. Lemmy I think we all kind of saw coming, though it was a sudden end. Bowie I don´t think anyone saw coming. To me that was just unreal. I didn´t get into Motorhead the first times I heard them, back in the mid 80´ies, because Lemmy´s voice was just too harsh and untraditional for me at the time. I was just a kid who wanted everyone to look like early WASP basically. I got truly into Motorhead around 1991-1992. Only got to see them live once, which was a show in Gothenburg with DIO back in 1996or 1997 or so. Great fucking show though. I also got to meet Lemmy around 2004-2005 at some award show in London. I was scared shitless, but he was very friendly, although I had a hard time understanding anything he said. I´m pretty sure he was mighty drunk, haha!!
Can we expect to see you in Slovakia with your new music?
That would be great. Times are weird for touring too, nothing is the way it used to be, it feels like everything is just a bit harder to make happen these days. But of course it would be great to play there as part of a european tour.
Anything to tell to our readers in the end...
Thanks for your interest. Make sure you check out www.mortiis.com for links to various free downloads.
Thank you very much for time and patience with all of my questions. Takk!
Absolutely.
Added: Dominika Nováková
Added: 21.02.2016
Photo: Robyn Von Swank