Interview – 1349
Norway’s black metal heritage doesn’t need to be reiterated. 1349 who emerged in the late 1990s are one of the bands that proudly blazed into the new century, hoisting their flag with a slew of impressive records. Now in a more established position than before, the band are still bathing in the glory of last album ‘Demonoir’, the touring slog of which has brought them to Dublin where vocalist and founder Ravn spoke with Molten’s Jonathan Keane. Photography – Aline Miladovinich
Firstly, how has the tour been going so far?
It’s been quite good. Fairly good attendance all the way, very good mood at every show and people seem to miss 1349 in a way. It’s really nice to come back after so many years.
Why has it been so long since a 1349 headlining tour like this?
There are several reasons and not many of them that we can control, basically. We’ve been touring a lot in the US and it has proven hard to get a European tour going, for some reason. We had several offers for tours that have fallen through. Also, this time we had to cut down on the tour but luckily we were able to save the UK tour. It’s a hard time touring, to get offers from promoters. Everybody is out touring. For people to spend money on tours, it’s a brutal market out there. We do what we always do so we’ll keep coming back. If we get an opportunity and it’s feasible, we’ll do it.
As well as touring the US, you made several successful European festival appearances, like Bloodstock. Now that you’re back in the smaller venues, how does it compare?
Well, playing festivals serve mainly the purpose of building a fan base and playing the clubs is more maintaining the fan base, because here you meet the fans face-to-face. While on the larger festivals, it’s the big mass of people out there, which you need to impress the most. Club shows are more homecomings.
How do you feel your profile in the US has risen after so much touring over there?
Well, the US is an extremely hard touring market. You need to tour there on a constant and regular basis to build yourself a name. So people will know you, you need to come back. That’s what we have been doing since 2006; we’ve toured the States at least once a year. So, we’ve built a name for ourselves in the US. It’s of course extremely hard work, but it will pay back long term.
You are still touring in support of ‘Demonoir’, which came out early in 2010. Is this the touring cycle beginning to wind down?
We’re also touring on ‘Revelations of the Black Flame’ [2009] because we released those albums so closely together. It was just a little bit of touring in Norway basically on ‘Revelations…’. We felt the need to go back into the studio because ‘Revelations of the Black Flame’ inspired and generated ‘Demonoir’. That, on top of a new label getting involved [Indie Recordings], we decided to release ‘Demonoir’ so quickly. Plus, it was years since the previous release [2005’s ‘Hellfire’]. So, basically we’re touring two albums. ‘Revelations of the Black Flame’ received something of a mixed response and ‘Demonoir’ returned more to the core 1349 sound.
How do you look back on the conception of both albums?
If we hadn’t done ‘Revelations of the Black Flame’, we’d never know how ‘Demonoir’ would have been appreciated. ‘Revelations…’ was a necessity in order for us to move on, to evolve as a band and break new ground. Personally, I like that people have a love/hate relationship with albums instead of people saying that an album is ok. That’s not good enough for me. It needs to create an extreme emotional [response], nothing fits in-between. That doesn’t fascinate me, it’s boring. If people love ‘Revelations of the Black Flame’ or hate it, it’s the same thing. That’s the reaction I personally look for, which I think every black metal album should have. The art form of black metal should either create disturbance and fright or a more devoting and passionate feeling in people.
Where do you stand regards the next album? Have you any inclination as to where you will go?
No, at this stage we are focusing on fulfilling the tour cycle. This will go on into 2012. Of course there is new material in work all the time, but to focus on it and dive into the whole writing process is something different. This will come more into focus when we’re not touring.
You mentioned listeners’ love/hate relationship with black metal. In recent years, there have been plenty of divisive black metal bands emerging, particularly from the US, like Liturgy and Wolves in the Throne Room. What’s your opinion on the current state of black metal?
1349 was formed for the purpose of revitalising the black metal genre at the time, in the latter half of the ‘90s. I strongly disliked the direction that black metal music was heading, with a lot of pompous synthesizers and melodic riffs, which didn’t make sense to me to be labelled as black metal. 1349 was started as a counteraction to this and to kick-start the way that we felt black metal needed to sound. At that point I stopped listening to what other black metal bands were doing, or claimed to be doing, and focused solely on doing our own thing, and we do black metal. That’s it. Norwegian, old school or new school, whatever, it doesn’t matter, just black metal. What people think of it is up to them basically. You mentioned Wolves in the Throne Room, I kind of like their music. I listened to the first couple of albums; it’s really eerie and gives me a nice feeling that is strongly black metal influenced. There are some good new bands coming out but in general there are a lot of bands and to spot the ones that are really good and outstanding is hard. I’m extremely comfortable with my record collection from the ‘80s and ‘90s. I don’t feel the need any more to find new bands. Any new bands that cross my path, I pick up. I run my own band and have no need to search for others because the music I want to hear, we can make ourselves.
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