Show & Tell - an interview with Satyr of Satyricon

SATYR of SATYRICON
05.07.04

Though Black Metal likely starts out in the 80s, courtesy of such metal pioneers as Venom and Bathory, it isn’t until the early 90s that the genre really takes root when, in Norway, the mystique of Black Metal becomes just as important, if not moreso, than the actual music.

At its simplest definition, an ethereal/atmospheric quality, accompanying theatrics and a philosophical slant towards Satanism distinguished it from other forms of metal. At its most complicated, the lines between theater and reality blurred completely: The singer of Mayhem blows his brains out with a shotgun; his bandmates gathering pieces of his skull to use in necklaces: Burzum’s Varg Vikernes is sent to prison for burning churches and stabbing Mayhem’s Aasarth Oystein, aka Euronymous, to death: Bard G. Eithun, aka Faust, of the band Emperor is imprisoned for murdering a gay man who made advances towards him.

Today, the darkness of Death Metal remains but the music has distanced itself from the absurdity of its history (though, mind you, not the absurdity of its imagery). The range of influences expanded and the musicianship grown, Satyricon stands at the genre’s forefront - praised as much for their innovation as their brutality.

On tour here in the States, Satyr, the band’s mastermind, has had to play for the first time in Satyricon’s twelve year history without longtime partner and band drummer Frost. It appears the Department of Homeland Security denied him Stateside entrance.

It took several attempts before we nailed Satyr down; logistical snafus and poor cell reception the main culprits. When we finally got him, we brought all of our ignorance to bear as he learned us a little something ‘bout touring, Black Metal and the Dept. of Homeland Security.

[Ed.’s note: No churches or musicians were hurt in the transcribing of this interview.]

Show & Tell: Hey Satyr, how ya doing?

Satyr: I’m OK. A little bit tired today, but I’m OK.

S&T: Yeah, you sound a little tired. You’re in New Mexico?

S: I’m in New Mexico.

S&T: We tried to get you the past couple of days, but I guess we just weren’t able to connect.

S: Yep.

S&T: So you’re stationary now? I think yesterday you were driving across the desert or something when we were supposed to hook up.

S: Yep.

S&T: You have a show tonight?

S: We’re playing in Albuquerque tonight, yeah.

S&T: Are you at the venue now?

S: No, just driving around in the bus looking for parking. At the show last night in Scottsdale (Arizona) we had problems with the front of the house, the mixing.

S&T: Everybody did or just you guys?

S: Everybody. But especially we did. (laughs) So I don’t know what to expect tonight, but Texas should be good and overall this has been a really good tour for us.

S&T: Oh that’s good. So it’s been going well then?

S: Yep.

S&T: How’s the response been, from the kids?

S: It’s been good, and sometimes very good, and on a couple of occasions extremely good.

S&T: I look at the tour dates and you guys have only had a couple of nights off since mid-April. Is that kind of schedule your preference, or would you prefer to have some days off in-between?

S: Usually when we headline in Europe we usually have like a day off per week. And that works well for me, you know, that’s just a good way of doing it. I don’t like to have too many off-days because it’s just expensive to have off-days on the road, plus I like to get into that flow. But on the other hand, you don’t want to be tired playing shows either.

S&T: Right, so just enough time off to kind of recharge and be able to hit it again.

S: Yeah, exactly.

S&T: You and Frost have been working together for twelve years now, right? Since ’92?

S: Yep.

S&T: Have you played live without him before?

S: Never.

S&T: Not since before he came aboard? So how’s that been for you?

S: He came aboard before we even did our first record, so I… I don’t know, I’m used to it now, I guess. But it’s just a very strange feeling. I talked to my friend Euroboy, the guitar player in Turbonegro, this morning and he’s asking me the same question. You know, it’s very different and he just said you need a little time to get used to a new drummer and kind of find out his way of doing it, and go with that. Because it’s so hard to make the drummer change with you, it’s almost easier to go in his direction.

S&T: Right, for you to adapt to him instead of him trying to adapt to you. What kind of working relationship do you and Frost have? I mean it’s just the two of you – you’re in the studio together and then you play live together. The first thing I thought of was that every time you’re on stage you can look over and know that your partner’s back there and he’s got your back. And now here you are he’s not here – the first night, what was that like?

S: Hmm, interesting question. The first night I didn’t get to focus that much on it because everything is so unusual on the first night no matter what, because it’s the first time of the tour. But in general I would say that the first rehearsals just didn’t feel right and I guess the first few shows felt like that too. But after a while I kind of like figured out his way of playing and realized I just had to let go of some of the things I wanted him to do and try to adapt more to him and that worked a lot better. Also I think that it’s good to at least have someone with the same background, you know? Trym’s from the same scene as we are, he started out when we started out. The communication is a little bit special because Black Metal is almost like a society within a society and we were both a part of that society, so a lot of things don’t have to be said. There’s just sort of an understanding about how things should be done, and the fact that he comes from that school makes it a whole lot easier. But I would always prefer to have my own drummer and if the option is to not play at all or go with someone else, you have to go with someone else because after all they are my songs and it’s spearheaded by my impressions and my voice and as much as I would love to have [Frost] here, and I would, it’s really not an option to lay down in this situation. We’re just going to have to keep on working and someday we’ll work it out.

S&T: There was a legal issue, right? That’s why he couldn’t get the working visa?

S: Yeah, well, he got his working visa – that’s the strange thing. He got his work permit from the I.N.S. and then he got the so-called recommendation from the American embassy in Oslo. What he didn’t get, he didn’t get the final approval from the Department of Homeland Security.

S&T: Oh great. [laughs] Yeah, well that’s working real well.

S: So yeah, that’s working real well. I think the biggest problem with the Department of Homeland Security is that there is no standard. They don’t have any rules and regulations to stick by. It’s pretty much up to each individual guy and I have cases to prove that. We have cases with Norwegian Black Metal musicians that have done years and years of time for church burnings but have no problems whatsoever (getting into the U.S.), and then you have someone like Frost who had a five-month sentence a very, very long time ago that can’t get in.

S&T: I’m sorry, how long? Five months?

S: Five months, yeah. And how the fuck does that make sense? It’s just…I’ve just heard of so many sample cases like that and the fact that, even when they wrote the so-called Letter of Explanation, it said, like, “You are advised not to seek entry into the United States for another two years.” And why would they say something like that? Why just two years? Why not two months or twenty years or two lifetimes?

S&T: Right, so the expectation is that he’s dangerous now, but he’ll only be dangerous for another two years. [laughs]

S: Yeah, yeah! Exactly, exactly. So that’s why I’m saying, it’s such a new thing so they assign a handful of people to sit down and they’re like, “OK, you’ll be God One, Two, Three, Four and Five. Do whatever you want.” And now that it’s an election year, they’ll probably be like, “Look, here’s a list of all the people we didn’t let into the country and you’re all safe.”

S&T: Yeah, welcome to the United States, man. That’s pretty much as close to an explanation of the United States as you’re gonna get. We’re pretty much reactionary and we have a knee-jerk reaction and then we don’t know what the hell we’re doing. That’s pretty much how we handle everything.

S: Yep.

S&T: So I assume you’ll go home and try to get it worked out so that next time he’ll be allowed back?

S: They’re already working on it, because our booking agent is working on setting up a headlining tour at the end of July because there’s been a serious demand from promoters. And it’s not like we’re pushing it upon them – they’ve come to our agent and said that they want to have Satyricon headlining. So they’re seeing that the reception we’ve been getting is overall very good, plus this year we’ve sold a lot of merch and they see how much more Black Metal-oriented the kids lean when we’re done. So it’s a good sign for us, but it feels all the more important to have Frost with us, and we already have our attorney in Norway working on it. Supposedly we’re not even supposed to send another application until at least two years has past, but we’re going to ignore that and send another one and see what happens.

S&T: See what happens, right. I’m slightly familiar with the history of Black Metal in Norway, but I’m not really familiar with the music scene. Can you just give me a quick rundown of what the scene’s like at home?

S: The music scene or the Black Metal scene?

S&T: Well in general the music scene, but what I’m getting at is that the genre really is an underground genre here, so I’m wondering how prevalent it is back home.

S: Well, Norwegian Black Metal is Norway’s only music export of some significance. Norwegian Black Metal as you know is a genre all its own, it’s a brand, it’s a trademark. You have bands in Belgium that call themselves Norwegian Black Metal, bands from Italy that say “We’re Norwegian Black Metal.” Just in the same way as with Grunge, you had bands in Stockholm, Sweden that sounded just like those Seattle bands. So it’s like a thing that existed for a long time and then the rest of the music scene in Norway noticed that it was here and it was doing great all over Europe apart from Norway, and then it became popular in Norway like three or four years ago and now it’s really popular in Norway. And it has a very strong standing, there’s a few bands who pull a lot of people and sell quite a few records.

S&T: Right.

S: Like our record charted at position # 2 the first week it came out and we picked up a Grammy for it and stuff like that. So it has definitely gained the reputation as a quality strong thing and it’s no longer a flavor of the month – it’s been around forever. The rest of the music scene is really not very interesting. There are a couple of electronica bands that are doing pretty well in Europe and that sell a lot of records and stuff like that, and some classical musicians that are very renowned and some weird underground stuff. But to me the only band from Norway outside of Black Metal that I regard as international bands with some influence and impact I guess is Turbonegro and…I don’t know, that’s pretty much it, really.

S&T: Do you think the genre has the chance to be as popular here as it is back home?

S: Oh yeah. Absolutely. But everything is relative. I mean I don’t see a Black Metal record making a chart entry at # 2 on the Billboard chart like it did in Norway, but that’s because the climate for music over here is a bit different. But I definitely see a few Black Metal bands being able to sell a few hundred thousand records and do major club tours on their own across the country.

S&T: Now how about some of the mythology of Black Metal – is that something that’s time is past? Is it still a reality? Because on this side of the pond if you read the history it seems it’s more about the mythology of it than it is about the actual music.

S: That’s because it’s new over here. That’s the way it started in Europe too. We were all doing the music but no-one was paying attention except people who were part of the underground scene and then the mainstream media started picking up on stories about this and that and all the extreme stuff that went on and that was their only focus on it. But then they realized that, hey, a lot of years have passed and there’s a lot of strong bands out there who make very important music that influences a lot of people’s lives and a lot of other bands and there’s a lot of records out there and a lot of acts that pull a lot of people all over Europe. So they started looking upon it as a unique musical expression and a lifestyle-oriented genre, and that’s going to happen in the States but the States is probably going to do a year or two of writing about church burnings and murder and all that shit and they’ll get over it and realize that this is some of the best music made in the world.

S&T: Right. I understand and that’s kind of the basis for my question ‘cause when I was looking around it seemed like every article I read was about the church burnings and the anti-Christian thing. And then I listened to the album and I was like, “This is good music. It’s a good album.” So I guess that’s pretty much the machine and the way it works, we like to see celebrities uncensored on cable TV and we like our rag magazines and we like to know who was seen with who. We like the gossip part of music.

S: England is very much like that too.

S&T: But almost to the point where they ignore the actual content.

S: Yeah. That sucks. [laughs]

S&T: So a friend of mine is reading a book called Hell Bent For Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict [by Seb Hunter]. Can I just read a couple of definitions from the book to you, and you tell me what you think?

S: OK.

S&T: The tone of the book is sarcastic, but I just want to run these past you anyway. There’s a section called, “Thrash/Death/Speed/Black Metal.”

S: OK.

S&T: “Thrash Metal: Melodically bereft, very fast, incoherent shouted vocals. Death Metal: As above, though usually faster, but with some of the songs slowed down to a snail’s pace; vocals usually grunted instead of shouted; songs thematically concerned with death and/or cannibalism and/or necrophilia. Speed Metal: Fast Thrash Metal, which is already fast, so this is really fast. Black Metal: Thrash Metal played by Satanists. False Metal: Europe, Bon Jovi, etc.”

S: What was the definition of Black Metal again?

S&T: “Thrash Metal played by Satanists.”

S: OK, so that’s obviously written by someone who doesn’t like Black Metal.

S&T: [laughing] So what would you say to this guy?

S: What would I say to this guy? I mean, the definition of Thrash, Speed and Death Metal is a little more complicated than the way he puts it, but it’s not far out there - he’s got some points. But Black Metal is an extreme version of rock music and it has a lot of epic influences that might come from classical music or might come from heavy metal bands that again have inspiration from classical music. It usually deals with dark subjects like elitist philosophy, the occult, Satanism, misanthropy – things like that. And production-wise it’s quite different; the tuning tends to be higher than in Death Metal. Death Metal bands tune down their guitars whereas most Black Metal bands don’t. Black Metal is usually a little bit more atmospheric than Death Metal and more melodic. Vocal style is a little bit of a higher pitch in Black Metal than in Death Metal and Black Metal tends to be more hook-y and catchy than Death Metal a lot of the time, in a more “rock” way than a “metal” way.

S&T: Right.

S: And Black Metal is much more of a visual thing than Death Metal. Death Metal guys usually go onstage in the same clothes as they wake up in or they put on when they wake up in the morning, while in Black Metal you have much more with the face paint and a lot of stage outfits that are meant to enhance the feel of the music, you know, the way the artist works. So it’s a little more complicated than the way that guy put it. You know, there aren’t that many people like me still around, that were there when this started, so how can someone who just started listening to this only a few years ago define a song? Because in order to do that, you have to understand where it all comes from.

S&T: Right. Well I appreciate your patience and your pardoning my ignorance. I’m just trying to learn something myself.

S: Oh no, there’s no problem whatsoever. I don’t have any problem commenting on stuff like that.

S&T: Well, I think it’s great. I really enjoyed the album; much more than I expected to, to be honest with you, so I was surprised at the musicianship in it. I expected it to be a little more straightforward, but there’s a lot of good musicianship going on that I really didn’t expect.

You guys are signed Stateside with eatURmusic. Is that just a distribution deal?

S: It’s a licensing deal for America.

S&T: So who’s financing the tour with Morbid Angel?

S: Columbia Records. I barely understand it myself, it’s a complicated thing. We’re signed to eatURmusic, which is Daron Malakian, the guitar player from System of a Down’s, imprint with Columbia Records. It’s his label that’s like a sub-label of Columbia Records and when it comes to all the day-to-day things we deal with Daron and his people at eatURmusic and then money and whatever comes from Columbia Records. Distribution goes through Red Ink, which is a Sony-owned company, and they again own Columbia Records.

S&T: But in Europe you’re on Capitol?

S: Mm hmm.

S&T: [laughs] Alright, I’ll probably never understand it, but I got it.

S: As I always say when I’m asked about labels, when I picked up Reign In Blood by Slayer, I think it took me years until I looked at the label. I mean, I couldn’t care less what label they were on, I was only interested in the music.

S&T: Right. I gotchya. Well listen, I’m gonna let you go. I appreciate your time, it was a pleasure talking to you. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you guys – maybe your next swing around. You’re heading back home in a couple days?

S: Yeah, we have three more shows and then we’re heading home. And then we’re going to plan the next tour which is supposed to happen at the end of July if we can work out everything.

S&T: To come back Stateside?

S: Yeah. We’re looking at doing a headlining tour for a couple of weeks at the end of July. There’s a lot stuff we need to work out, but they’ve already started holding dates, so it’s very likely that it will happen, you know.

S&T: OK, well if that’s the case then when you’re in the New York area I’ll make sure to come by and check you out and come up and introduce myself.

S: Is that where you live, New York?

S&T: We’re in New Jersey, so the New York/New Jersey area.

S: In New York we did a show at B.B. King’s.

S&T: Yeah, unfortunately I didn’t know about it until it was too late.

S: It was one of the best show of the tour. We did extremely well that night.

S&T: That’s an interesting venue too, for this kind of show. Was it all open in front of the stage? Because it’s usually tables.

S: There were no tables.

S&T: Yeah, ‘cause it’s sort of a weird club. It’s a club/bar/restaurant thing and when I’ve seen shows there it’s always been completely filled with tables and chairs.

S: It was sold out and a really cool atmosphere and a really great crowd. We played one time before in New York and I also remember it being a very good crowd four years ago. So it’s a good place to be at as an artist.

S&T: Very cool. Well alright.

S: OK.

S&T: Thank you sir. Best of luck to you, I hope you work things out with Frost and we’ll see you when you come back around.

S: OK.

S&T: Thanks much.

S: Thank you.

S&T: Bye.

S: Bye.

interview by scott sisti