The Lodge @ Keep of Kalessin Interview

Keep of Kalessin
an interview with Obsidian Claw

Kalessin's a name derived from Le Guin's fictional realm Earthsea, a saga dealing with magic, dragons and related lore. How and when did you get interested in fantastic literature and why did you choose this particular name and attribute for the band's moniker?
I've been interested in fantasy and science-fiction for as long as I can remember. I wasn't exactly old when the first Star Wars movies swept across the globe. Even though I didn’t watch those movies until ten years later, I played with the action figures when I was only a few years of age.
I don't actually read that many books, as I'm more into movies, but the old vocalist, Ghash, got me into these books and I loved them from the first page. We later on decided for the name of the band and Keep of Kalessin it was.

Obsidian Claw is your pseudonym in the band: is its origin (and the other members' aliases) related to the saga's mythology? In any case, what does it mean and what was the reason behind your choice?
The names of the other members are not taken from these books, but at least mine is somewhat related. Obsidian Claw actually means Black Claw, or a claw made out of black glass volcanic rock; it also has some spiritual meaning.

During the first ten years, Keep of Kalessin was more a project than a band: was it your intent to have it as such for a while, or what did happen that caused this overall shift?
It started out as a two man project with me and Ghash, but then after a while we had some songs and wanted to play live. As the years went by, live shows have been more and more important to build a band and I also love going on tour and playing live, so it was a necessity to have more members.

After one demo, an EP and three full-length records, the band is now heralded as one of the standing and greatest of the norwegian roster; how do you feel about it and to what do you think your resilience and tirelessness is owed to?
It feels good to finally be recognized for the work I've put into this band, of course. But I also think that it wasn't until I really saw that it was possible and I set my mind to it that things really started happening. I was constantly held back by other members in the past. But this time I thought "fuck it: I can't wait around for the others", so I set my own pace and if they didn't follow, they would leave.
As far as the releases go, I can only say that we were always a band of great potential, but personal differences and goals and also budgets and lack of support from the outside, made it impossible to really nail that potential on an album until Armada!

On Reclaim you worked with two venerable Black Metal musicians: Attila Csihar and Frost. How was it to share the load with them and why did you pick both, specifically (in view of the fact that they left afterwards)? In addition, how do you like their resumé so far and, since you also play live with Satyricon, do you think that your experience with Wongraven's gang (within a group set) as helped you to establish Keep of Kalessin as a band?
When I was making the demo for Reclaim (programming drums and so forth) I always had Attila in mind; this was in fact a couple of years before I joined Satyricon. I love his voice and I knew that it would sound amazing with his vocals on my new songs. When I got the job in Satyricon, I met Attila on tour and then when I came home I sent him an e-mail asking him to help out on this EP. He was reluctant at first, but when he heard the material he immediately agreed. Frost and I had been jamming a bit on Satyricon rehearsals and when I asked him he immediately said yes. We all knew at the time that this would be just a project and an EP - we didn't think much about what would happen after that. I think the fact that I've played live with Satyricon has helped me see the business better and, of course, got me a lot of live experience. But the most important part has actually been the fact that I saw it was possible; I saw that I could do whatever all those other bands were doing. It gave me belief in myself and in my abilities!

Speaking of which, you and Steinar Gundersen (Satyricon's other live guitarist) were arrested in Toronto three years ago, facing a sexual assault charge with a date-rape drug. Apart from what was written by the press, what did actually happen and, in retrospective, how do you feel about the incident today?
I wish not to speak too much about this, but of course there were unfair allegations towards us, as we never did such a thing! The charges were dropped and it's all behind us now.

I find Armada to be the most achieved opus in Keep of Kalessin's career; still (having that said), I was quite bewildered to know that you consider the band to be inspired by Trance music, but not in a typical sort of way: would you care to shed a bit of light on this parallel? And how did you approach both composition and pre-production duties, as well as from where did you draw inspiration towards Armada (both lyrically and aesthetically)?
Armada is inspired from all kinds of movies: fantasy, science-fiction and of course big epic war movies like Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Alexander and a lot from The Chronicles of Riddick.
I listen to a lot of Trance music and my favourite groups are Infected Mushroom and Astral Projection. I think the atmospheres they create are very similar to many that we make. I am inspired by those, but instead of putting it directly into the music like many other Metal bands do (which sounds like shit, by the way), I think it's better to incorporate stuff like that indirectly; to capture the atmosphere of it, instead of adding the instruments, if you know what I mean.

You played at Trondheim's Jazz festival last year, along with Monolithic. Given the fact that several of your arrangements are quite jazz-driven, how did you like the overall adventure and would you consider to do it again? Still, when and how was the initiative created and will it last in the medium, long-run?
The initiative was taken by Monolithic. They are both students of Jazz and they both loved Armada. We immediately agreed, because we thought it sounded like a really cool project. However, we were touring and didn't have too much time to prepare together with them, so I think we could have done much more interesting stuff. But for our part, it was merely to play our songs and then do some of the stuff we had planned together with them. I actually hope we can do something like this again and make it even more interesting than what it was. Even so, the gig was a huge success with hundreds of people standing outside in line, still after it was sold out!

Plans have been made to shoot a conceptual video piece out of a song from Armada: is the idea still to be considered?
My head is always full of ideas and some I tell to others and some I don't. However, being a pretty small band sucks when you have all these visions that you want to realize. We are nowhere near the budgets that would be needed for a video like I want it to be, but we'll see what time brings, although for now, the focus is on the new album.

Norwegian Black Metal seems to have come full-circle in terms of standard-settings; not only in musical terms, but also regarding visuals and manifestos, wouldn't you agree? If so, how do you take what bands like Manes or Ulver have progressively done since their inception, in contrast with what projects and bands of your ilk have reinvented (such as Satyricon, Thorns or Keep of Kalessin)? To conclude, how did you feel about both Emperor and Immortal returning, after such unequivocal contrary statements given in the press years before?
Emperor and Immortal are probably the two best bands in the Black Metal genre today, so I welcome their return!
I think too many bands are trying too hard to be experimental or sell records these days. Look at Black Metal 10 years ago: everyone was focused on the atmosphere and that sold albums! I think too many bands experiment because they are empty of good ideas and I think Rock N' Roll-based Black Metal bands are trying too hard to sell albums by slowing down the speed and intensity to make it more accessible. What sells Black Metal is the true atmosphere of it which only a few bands still have (yes, I know it's impossible to sell the same amount today, but that taken aside).

Time for a last fix on upcoming fearless aims and intrepid master plans, as well as any other issues or comments you'd feel prone to address.
Look out for the next Keep Of Kalessin album to hit the stores in April or May 2008! It will be a new masterpiece of epic extreme Metal! You can also watch studio reports and many more at our homepage shortly. After that, we hope to see you on tour! Cheers!

www.keepofkalessin.no

© 2007 The Lodge

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