Borknagar: The Inextinguishable Flame

In the early 90’s the hills of Norway were alive with the sound of black metal as bands like MAYHEM, IMMORTAL and EMPEROR were spearheading the charge. Hoping to harness some of the aggressive nature of black metal and mix it with the melodies and song structuring of the progressive metal movement was a visionary by the name of Øystein Garnes Brun. In 1995 BORKNAGAR was born, two decades and change later they are still breaking boundaries whilst refusing to compromise on their values.

“I’ve always been very focused on establishing my own style and sound, even since the early days” explains Øystein. “I want to form musical expression which is authentic and I’ve always tried to make my music as honest as possible. You’ll never see with wearing corpse paint or anything like that. I’ve had this idea since day one and I want to stand up for my music.”

Last month marked the release of their eleventh full length release entitled True North. At this stage in his career Øystein is very comfortable with his musical output and very rarely gets any forms of nerves in the build up to an album release. “It’s not the first time I’ve done this, I don’t get anxious but I do get very excited. When we release the album it’s kind of symbolic for me as it’s out in the open and I don’t have any control over it anymore. I kind of just have to let it go out into the wild which is kind of a relief in a sense. I’m always excited for how people react to it and music is a very subjective thing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I like to see how people have digested the music. If the world was against us then it’d obviously have some kind of impact on me but I’m a grown up guy, I don’t bother too much about it.”

Since the release of 2016’s highly acclaimed Winter Thrice album, BORKNAGAR have experienced some considerable lineup changes which involved the departure of long term vocalist Andreas ‘Vintersorg’ Hedlund and drummer Baard Kolstad. Rather than it cause unrest, Øystein has taken this situation in his stride. “There is a lot of negativity surrounding lineup changes which is sometimes hard when you have to part ways with people you’ve had a strong friendship with but this was more of a transition. We knew it was coming. Baard is very occupied with LEPROUS who are his main band now and he is an entertainer kind of on a different scale to the rest of us. With Andreas it was a similar process. There was no drama or bad blood. Andreas has a high end job in Sweden and he struggles with some of the injuries he endured when he fell and hit his head on a concrete floor which also caused problems with his hearing. The change kind of came naturally and it was more of a transition than a breaking down and building back up process.”

This transition saw the arrival of drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow and guitarist Jostein Thomassen, these necessary changes have filled Øystein with a lot of confidence going forward and continuing the BORKNAGAR legacy. “The new guys came in on the right terms, they’re dedicated and experienced musicians who are lovely to hang around with. They really showed us from day one that they will put their heart and soul into the music. Even though we had wrote all of the songs before their arrival they have had their opportunity to get involved with the production of the album and the leads etc. We tried to involve them as much as possible into the process and the mentality of the band.”

“I feel very comfortable and we feel like a more unified entity than ever before. We’re all on the same page. We all live in different towns but we meet at this crossroads with this passion for making music and we have a really nice creative process where we spent quite a lot of budget money to actually be together as a band. We all flew into Oslo for the drum tracking and then everyone flew over to my place as I have a professional studio now and we all just locked ourselves away in my studio with food and drinks for a few days and did the vocals. We like to work with the music a bit more like the old times, like a unit. Not just sitting in our respective homes and doing our own bits and pieces and sending files back and forth. We made a point of spending time together and making the music together and work on the ideas together. I think it worked perfectly and I’m very happy with the end result.”

Øystein has never been afraid to get experimental with his sound and create tracks of considerable length, tracks such as Thunderous and Tidal (both clocking in at over eight minutes) from True North are a shining example. This is a process he takes very seriously and takes a lot of pride in. “When I’m starting to write, music whether it is a song or an album I have a scope in mind and I do a lot of mental processing and mapping out in my head. When I listen to music I see colours in my head, apparently there is a diagnosis for this and I like songs to be a visual experience too. It’s not like an acid trip or anything like that,” he says. “I kind of just sit down and do it and when I begin to record I kind of just let it flow. I usually make the basic outlines and begin to add melodies and guitars and some synths. Sometimes it turns out six minutes, sometimes nine minutes. Some of the songs on True North were actually much longer but we cut them down in places to make sure they flowed better. Most of the songs are were how they were intended. I loved writing Tidal. I was struggling to find the right dynamics but I was quite stubborn and it turned into one of my favourite songs on the album. A long song which is boring feels even longer but a long song which is interesting flies by.”

As well as being very driven and focused on his overall vision, Øystein pours a lot of thought and passion into his creations to ensure they can be relatable for the listener. He takes in account all of the ups and downs which life can throw at us and the emotions that those experiences can develop. “I’ve always regarded life as a journey. Everybody walks their own routes but you’re all going from one point to another. I kind of regard my own musical career as a journey. My backpack is getting heavier and bigger and I want to bring all of this into my music. I want my music to be human and for it to portray the darker side of life as well as the more light, beautiful side. That makes music alive. I want to be able to do my thing and make it timeless and human. In my opinion you need to bring in all the ups and downs and facets of life, the sun the moon and all the contrasts,” he explains.

“I’m double the age as I was when I started with the band. It’s been a long ride. In a way music is more than just a career for me. Music is a big part of life. It’s almost as integrated as food, drink, the basic needs of a human. Both as a listener and a creative force or composer. My music is different now to what it used to be as I’m not the same person anymore. Maybe sometimes I’m a little bit of a hippie and having big thoughts about the world. Since day one I’ve always had these principles and I wanted to make something unique and that’s what BORKNAGAR represents. I didn’t want a name which would kind of nail me to a wall where you can’t do anything but death metal or black metal. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly do hip hop or anything but the mentality behind it is the freedom and independence and this is important to me. The second principle I’ve always clinged to is authenticity which should be there for when anyone listens to music. I want to feel as close to the listener as possible and to be able to do this you need to bring realism and all the facets of life. I do a little bit of mixing for other bands and I like to keep my eye on the latest trends and see what is ‘cool’ these days and sometimes I find myself becoming frustrated because there are some awesome musical ideas and people who can play impressive stuff and there is something really generic about it. All that stuff is a bit unmusical to me. Humans are not generic, each human is individual, you can’t compress a human being. People have began to expect flawless production and for me I try to stay away from that. I mean I have a lot of advanced equipment in my studio but I’m always very focused on not getting dragged into it. When I recorded the guitars of course there were flaws in it but I didn’t edit them out as at some point you just have to leave it and I want to have it there. It needs to sound like a human being is playing this stuff and there needs to be the right balance.”

If you were to have told Øystein that in 2019 he would be releasing BORKNAGAR‘s eleventh studio album he most likely would not have believed you, but he is so passionate about the music he creates that he has absolutely no intentions of slowing down. “I never had any dreams of being a musician or of fame and fortune. I never really consider myself as an entertainer either. My sole reason for starting this band was my pure passion for music. When I was younger, my dad was an old hippie and I basically grew up in a hippie collective on Trondheim in Norway. When we moved back to the Bergen area I remember having a collection of LPs and we imported LPs from the UK so I kinda grew up with that and I remember waking up with PINK FLOYD chiming through the living room and hearing Shine On You Crazy Diamond. I’m now 44, I have a home, a wife, kids, I don’t really need to struggle in the music business anymore and stress about all that stuff. I could just get a summer house and drink beer and get fat but I still have a huge passion to create music and that’s what drives me. Music is like a religious experience for me. It’s what keeps me smiling and fighting on and it really means a lot to me. At this point in life what would I be? That’s the reason why we’re still around and stronger than ever before. I’ve always avoided situations which could jeopardise my opportunities to create music. It’s cool that I’ve done 11 albums with this band and had a long career but still I feel the same excitement, almost even more than before.”

True North is out now via Century Media Records.

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