Today, 23rd February 2024, Norweigan band Borknagar release their twelfth album, Fall. Read a review of the album here. Earlier in the week, Hotel Hobbies spent some time with guitarist and founding member, Øystein G. Brun.
Hotel Hobbies: Thanks for taking the time to speak to me. It is a couple of days until the release of the new album so I imagine things are quite busy for you at the moment.
Øystein G. Brun: Yeah, it's been pretty crazy the last couple of weeks. A lot of things going on. We finished the album but then we’ve had rehearsals and video shoots in Oslo. I have family. I’m a Daddy, so it’s a lot for the most part. It’s all good stuff though. It’s doable.
HH: The band are approaching thirty years of existence. Does that seem a long time ago now and while it’s obviously a long time to sum up quickly, how has that journey been for you?
ØGB: I’m not really sure if I’m really ready yet to grasp the whole story of it. I started out back in the day with my first guitar, met some kids that enjoyed the same music and started a first band back in 89 / 90 something like that. From then on, I’ve pretty much done my stuff for better or worse, hopefully a little bit for the better. It’s a long time and on one side, it’s kind of absurd but on the other side of it, I've been doing this for such a long time, that it's almost like the most normal thing in the world, you know? I have a kind of duality in all of this. Maybe when I’m retired or something like that, I’ll be able to dig back and grasp everything.
Of course, it’s been an insanely cool journey. The music business is tough; a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice but now, at this point in my life, I have more awareness of feeling privileged of all the awesomeness I’ve been able to experience as a person. One thing is the commercial side of it, the record sales and all that but for me, the most important thing is the personal journey. My music has always been very much a personal thing. Almost intimate in a sense. But now, of course, in a couple of days, the new bird is free and on its feet and wings. So, its cool times, good times.
HH: Regarding the new album, I have listened to it twenty or more times now, written the review and dived into the lyrics. It definitely builds on the last album but also pushes forward in its scope. In the opening track, Summits, there seems to be a lot of references to life’s challenges and resilience. Is that partly a reflection of how you feel about life and your music as well?
ØGB: Yes, oh yes. In a weird way, there is a kind of fusion for me because it’s basically the same thing. It’s a life commitment. In the past, until quite a few years ago, I was thinking about what I’m supposed to be when I became a ‘big boy’ but at some point in history, I kind of realised, dude, this is me. This is what I do and this is my life. So, I settled down with that. I think I’ve always had this kind of musical philosophy that music, really good music, lingers on and is universal.
Music resembles life to me. Music is such a human artefact, you know. Birds don’t care about music and my cat definitely doesn’t care about my music. It's something that we humans deal with. Music is a very fundamental way of dialogue and we know that from science. For example, people, patients with Alzheimer's that lose their language are able to sing a song with perfect wording. I had a grandmother in that same situation in the last years of her life. She was completely out of this world but if you put on an old tune, started to sing or play a melody, she knew it at once. Humans have a heartbeat and rhythm; it is something that’s very important for us but also the tonality of things and the way of expressing yourself. Like a desperate cry is universal in a sense. A baby scream is universal. It ‘s not different if you're Norwegian or French, or from South Africa. For that sake, you know it's such a universal thing.
So, my music is a journey as my life is in a sense. It’s a human thing to look forward. It’s a human thing to explore, be curious and try to reach an even higher mountain. Animals aren’t usually like that; if they have food and can mate and all of that, they are perfectly fine. But we humans, we kind of want more. I've always been fascinated by people who push the limits of things or risk something for the greater good. Whether that is Scott and Amundsen trying to reach the South Pole or if that is Martin Luther King, it's kind of the same spirit, intensity or drive. That is something I somehow want to bring into my music. Our music is dark, even brutal at times. It might even be pitch black. But there is a gleam of light in it. There is something uplifting about it. A kind of duality. Sweet and sour.
HH: I completely understand what you mean. If you look at how the band has developed over the last few albums including this one, it makes sense. Thinking of a track like Nordic Anthem, it comes straight after the big opening song and its very cinematic. It comes across as a kind of mantra about self-belief and identity. It shows the band is not afraid to push their own expectations musically.
ØGB: Oh yes definitely. You’re right about the song and you can look at it different ways too. There are different layers. Nordic Anthem for me, is fundamentally about freedom. The freedom to become the best of your own potential or find your own summit in this life. The point is that life is a struggle and we all seek to get the best out of it. It's a very classic theme. It's nothing new under the sun. I guess most writers throughout history and maybe even religious writers throughout history have written about this. But to me, it’s still interesting. I firmly believe that we all have a voice. We have a voice in our music. It’s such a powerful way of expressing yourself. It can be introspective; it can be a way of just having a good time. From the easy, mundane stuff to the more advanced. 20 years, 25 years ago now I did my bachelor degree. To have some education to fall back on. I actually did a bachelor degree in music therapy. Back then at least, it was kind of alternative thinking.
HH: Obviously, you have been in the band since the beginning but it has always seemed to be a band that never relied on only ‘one or two star members’. It has always come across very much as a team. Is that how you feel from the inside?
ØGB: Oh yes. It’s actually very cool of you to note that. Thank you. I sometimes get a lot of attention because I started the band and sometimes seen as the visionary or the mastermind. I could basically do everything myself; I have the studio. I have the means to do it. In the days of programmed drums or just paying one drummer to do it, I could do it. But it’s very important for me to utilise the best of the potential of the musicians in the band. Simon is in the band and is one of the greatest vocalists in the metal industry. It would be insane of me to - in any way - limit him or be some kind of dictator. Sometimes I put forward things because I have ideas but I always want to keep the door open. I want everybody to be able to put their stuff on the table and then we stir up everything and arrange and produce it. People in the band have to invest in the music and have to be dedicated to the music. Otherwise, get the fuck out. To me, this is not about commercial things, travelling or earning money. There has to be clear motivation for the music. This starts with the music and will end with the music.
We have never compromised. Never. Even though some people have tried to advise us to have things. Maybe, you should put a naked woman on the cover or some blood or something. It’ll probably sell. Well maybe, it would but forget it. That’s not what we want to do. Musically, it’s the same, There have been some tough times through the years. I remember when we did the Origin album; some journalists and others told us it was commercial suicide. I thought it might be but I don’t give a fuck. That’s the kind of attitude I like. Today I feel as inspired and excited about releasing a new album as I’ve ever have, even the first album. Even more so, maybe because I'm more mature now. I’m now more able to grasp things. I see the big picture of things. I have kids myself. I have a different approach in life. It’s like meeting fans, who meet you crying, giving you gifts. I like them telling their story. One fan told me about being in jail and listening to True North. All very personal stories. No labels. No covers. No videos. Just a music fan and a music maker face to face talking about life. I appreciate more and more in my life. Of course, I'm a huge music fan myself. I'm a big, big fan of Pink Floyd. So many can relate to it because Pink Floyd is such a huge band. I think everybody in the world knows something about Pink Floyd but it’s also a very personal thing to me. Pink Floyd are a very big commercial band but it’s still personal to me. It a kind of duality that’s interesting.
HH: You mentioned you know how different people see music and I think that's one thing about the band’s lyrics. They can be interpreted differently by different people according to what they bring of themselves, their own understanding of the world, and how they view and interact with society and particularly nature.
ØGB: Absolutely, absolutely. I always had this idea when I started, playing around with the idea about the band. I got my first acoustic guitar; I got the logo and I was 18 years old. I never was the kind of guy that wanted to be a kind of classic entertainer. I'm quite a shy guy to be honest, but I feel like a kind of a musical adventurer. I kind of like leaving the door open a little bit for fans. They might actively join in; they might just drink some beer with pals and listen to the music. But there is also a quality to the music that you can really dig into if you want to. A lot of open doors. A lot of corners to look round. Musically and lyrically. I think bands like Maiden also did it back in the day.
I tied some knots between albums. For example, the Winter Thrice album. There is a little bit on the corner of the cover where you will find a link to The Olden Domain cover. We have an album called Universal; we have a song called Universal and that was not coincidence. I have a lot of those small things going on. Sometimes, there is a new song or a lyrical thing and I think we have something good and should push that a little further. I love this kind of complexity. We have done twelve albums and there is a web between things which ties everything together in a sense.
HH: Thinking of pushing ideas, over the last few albums it seems that is much on your mind. Obviously, there is some powerful metal but also some amazing use of space and giving songs time to develop. One beautiful part of the album is the opening guitar section of The Wild Lingers. There’s a feeling of a vast landscape and the space allows that picture to form in the listener’s mind.
ØGB: Absolutely! Hats off to Jens Bogren, who mixed the album. He has done an amazing job. I spend one week, maybe two weeks writing a song. That doesn’t take much time anymore. But what really takes the time is producing the songs, to peel away the stuff that doesn’t need to be there and to extract the core value of the song. Back in the day, I already had this notion but it always depended on whether the engineer had a good or a bad day, the studio budget and all that stuff. I always felt that we had to compromise. Let’s say I was a painter back then. I would probably just do my painting and put it on the wall and people could actually just touch it. You know, they can actually touch what I've done with my hands. I didn't get that kind of feeling in my music.
So since then, I've always had this driving force. Why is it like that? Why? In the last 15 years, I spent much time and money to establish my own studio. I’m a composer. I’m a guitarist. I also want to be a producer. The Beatles was one of the first bands that actually wrote their own songs. Before that, Elvis was dancing and singing and was a sex symbol but he didn't make his own songs. There has been a huge gap between being a musician, wanting to make music and the way to get to get the final result. I think that is changing a lot now and that has been kind of my grand plan that, you know, when we deliver the music, it should be as close to the musical vision that we have.
To make it even more complicated, music should have some humanity to it and also of course, nature. Nature has always been very important to me and I've always wanted to bring the complexity of nature into my music. If you walk, you know, hike through the forest or up in the mountains, there’s a complexity. I've done that behind my studio. I have a trail up to the biggest mountain in Bergen. I’ve walked there probably like a thousand times - with my father when I was younger, alone when he died and now together with my son. I know this trail. I know every stone, every step, almost, but still, it's a different experience. Every single time I walk there, there is a difference. Sometimes birds are alone or sometimes in threes. Different colours. Different season. What can I say?
Complexity is something that I wanted to bring into the music as well, and kind of binds up to my point about digging deep into it, if you want to. I have had extremely fascinating experiences in nature. I’m observant when it comes to nature and that gives me this, this kind of layered feeling of nature. You know, you can just walk through nature or jog through with a Walkman. You can chill out and not worry about what's around you, but you can also lean down and dig into nature. There’s a magic in nature as well as a complexity. Its something I always strive to get into the music. Colours and textures. That’s of course intentional.
If you simply go through a pine forest in Norway, especially because it's not rugged very often and steep and stuff like that, it's a quite cool thing that if you talk, for example, if you talk with a friend or you're yelling out something, the sound will change slightly wherever you are in the forest. It's different because of the mountains and the contours. Those imperfections or those very natural things have a kind of quality that I've always tried to get into my music. Whether we have succeeded or not, I don't know but that at least, that has been the idea.
HH: I think you have definitely succeeded! With the new album, it is almost impossible to pick out a favourite track because it is so strong throughout. However, Northward would be a contender. It has something of everything that represents Borknagar within it and also has fierce sense of pride of location too.
ØGB: Yeah, definitely. That one was my kind of personal nut to crack. I had an idea about this song. I wanted this bigger life in the song. A song that summed up everything. There is an emotional break in the song because the song is quite heavy. It’s a bit of a stiff upper lip song but the ending is kind of humble. What can I say about progression in that song? I spent some time to crack it because I had this very clear idea of it, but I didn't really get it to click together in a sense. But once it was done, it was done and I had Simen on the phone every day for two months saying it was the best song. So that felt really good and we got it pinned eventually.
HH: The artwork on the album by Eliran Cantor, who has produced some amazing artwork for many bands, is wonderful. How did that collaboration come about?
ØGB: We had different plans for the album title but for us, that’s always the final piece of the puzzle, maybe even after the band photo shoots. About a month before the deadline, I got a call from Century Media as they had a musical business event going on in Berlin and they had been talking with Eliran. He had said that he had been a big fan of the band for many years and his wife was really into Voices from True North at that moment. So, the media guys called me and said that we should talk at some point but that maybe it was too late for this time because we only had a month. He usually spends two to three months to fully complete an album cover but I took the chance. I called him, we had a really good talk and we talked about music of course. We also talked about lots of other stuff, just learning to know each other. To know our approaches in life and about kids as we are both fathers. I said let’s go for it but we only have a one month if you’re up for it. He really wanted to do it. So, I sent him the demos and the lyrics and said do whatever you want and see what happens. The only thing I told him was that I wanted the visual showing the untamed and harsh forces of nature. Not a person. Not a face or an arm or anything like that. Then we didn’t talk for a while and about a week before the deadline, I got the cover and I was completely blown away because he nailed it so well – the whole thing.
Not only that, but he also touched a really personal nerve within me. It's a long story though but we have some more time. When I was a kid, my father was an architect and we had in the family our old farm in the mountains from the 15th century. It's one of the oldest buildings on the West Coast and because he was an architect, he had a responsibility to protect and maintain it, make sure there was no leakage and stuff like that whilst being there in the summertime. I spent a lot of time there with a waterfall close by. That was really amazing. It still is. I spent my time there before kids were using helmets for biking and stuff and safety was not what it is now. I wouldn't allow my kids to do the same thing though. I walked as a little kid down to this waterfall, very close to the edge. One more step, I would have been dead definitely. I would just be watching this waterfall and be encapsulated in the brute force of nature. I couldn't hear anything but the extreme noise of the waterfall crashing to the ground. That was one of my first experiences with both the beautiful and brutal part of nature. So, in the artwork, Eliran nailed that. I hadn’t told him that story. That was mind blowing to me. That is the statement of a truth artwork.
HH: So being from the UK, I have to ask if you have plans to come back here again. We would love to have you.
ØGB: I can't say too much right now, but we have a pretty huge tour on the table, with a well-known band that's releasing an album these days as well. Maybe late summer or September / October, I think we are covering, I’m not entirely sure, but I think we are going all over Europe including the UK. I’m pretty sure but can’t guarantee that. I think so yes, I hope so.
HH: I hope so too! It has been an absolute pleasure to talk with you and gain some insights into the album, and the music. It is a wonderful album so good luck with it. Thank you so much for your time,
ØGB: Thank you so much man. Thank you for having me, thank you for the support and that is an awesome record in the background (HH-pointing out a picture of the cover of Animals by Pink Floyd on the wall behind me).
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