SOCIAL MEDIA

TM - Hi this is Amelia from Twinmusix.com we are here with Kim from MOL thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.

KS - I appreciate you having me.

TM - How has everything been going for you?

KS - In Denmark here, all the restrictions are lifted so we get to do live shows like the good old days.

TM - That's exciting, so what shows do you have coming up if any?

KS - Well we do have a release show next week here in our hometown Odense and the week after in Copenhagen we have a small cruise as well. Live shows are on here up in Scandinavia.

TM - Yeah, you're playing Copenhagen metal fest, right?

KS - That was the first, we did it recently, and it felt like spring in autumn. It's great to be back and I like interacting with people, a direct approach, I like stepping into a crowd and it was just so amazing to be able to do that again.

TM - How was it, was there a mosh pit or was everyone seated? What was the go on that show?

KS - It was full-on with the mosh pit and all and I think the reason we can do that is with the vaccine roll-out here in Denmark that has been going great, I think above 80% now. It's great to feel like a live band again we did a couple of sit down shows and an online show in the pandemic as well. It just wasn’t the same.

TM - Yeah that's cool. You also have your new album coming out what can fans expect?

KS - If you have heard our first album, I think you will see this as a continuation of the sound we have going on, over the lush atmospheric guitar riffs we are a guitar band after all. There are some pretty harsh vocals, I know I have tried to challenge myself as a vocalist. We have had a lot of clean parts as well and we have had some guests, for example, the last track of the album "Diorama" is with Kathrine Shepard from Sylvaine Norwegian, atmospheric black metal, she has a lovely voice, so it was great having her on. We also had Mirza from Siamese, a Danish metal band, he's doing this forzando in our single "Photophobic" and I do the backing vocals on that one.

TM - What was your writing and recording process for this album?

KS - It was speedier in comparison to how long it took to produce "Jord". I am the latest addition to the band, there was a vocalist before me, and he had a more introverted approach to live production and on records. When I got on writing "Jord" with the other guys they had been going with Steffen for about 3 years before that, so the whole process was 5 years on the first album. With this album, the writing and recording took a little over a year. Nicolai is the main songwriter and the guitarist in the band, he normally writes whole demos with drum tracks for our drummer to get inspired by and does a whole song, it’s nice to hear his coherent vision. With the direction we are taking him and Ken, they normally have a go at each other and then they are removing parts and adding some more structures in those demos. I then get thrown into the mix and I try to figure out what feelings this inspires in me, what experience can I build into the concept and connections of the songs. I don't know if you noticed this, but we do like Dynamics harsh black metal, the juxtaposition in that reads more like metal and passages and it’s what we like to convey. If you feel something from this that’s not just the age or the spectrum of emotions, that's what we like to invoke.

TM - Tue Madsen produced your album, what was it like working with him?

KS – Amazing. He has produced a lot of albums that we like. From our youth to our teens, one of the things that I enjoy about his productions is that he makes the band sound like how the band sounds. He starts digging into the essentials and lifting the specific things that signify the band’s sound. It’s been a great couple of weeks exploring how this album unfolds and understanding how we get into the core of the sound. I think what you will find on this album is a refined and somewhat noisier album but in a good way. I know Nicolai, our songwriter, is inspired by bands like Sonic Youth and a lot of Showcase bands and alternative rock so that gives a lot of variety to what I bring to the table and what our drummer brings to the table.

TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be and what what song. Would it be in your style or their style?

KS - It would be cool to see a punk era of some of our songs, I will say a dream scenario would be bands like Alkaline Trio or someone like Blink-182. I don't know if you noticed but Vestige, our latest single, has a lot of pop-punk vibes in it. We're not afraid to mix genres especially since I know a lot of people put us in the black metal crowd and the atmospheric showcase crowd, but I know that we borrow a lot from a lot of different genres of music. That's something that I think is more apparent on this record than on our previous record.

TM - I think that's awesome and I think you're 100% correct. Metal always borrows from other genres of music and metal is so diverse and unique. I think they're some of the best musicians, to be honest.

KS - There's a lot of shoulders that we still stand on top of, I like how that legacy thing works in metal and rock. You can only do so much with guitars, and I like how stuff gets made in a particular spectrum of music. As a teenager growing up and looking at all those younger dreams and trying to figure out what kind of subgenre is this, that's one of the things as a listener I have been keen to delve into. Knowing the rules from different kinds of genres and knowing how to break them, that's essential.

TM - What's your favourite memory of watching someone else perform live, can you tell us a story?

KS – The French band Alcest in the UK. They're amazing, we are all big fans of those guys. We finished up our set and went directly over to see them and they accomplish some of the things we do, and you feel like closing your eyes and then getting dragged into a world of melody and ferocity. That's one of the reasons I play music.

TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

KS - I hope that we get to see you at one point during the next year, COVID willing, let's hope. There was one point when I was filled with doubt and thinking, ‘Am I ever going to go stage diving again?’. I was trying to mentally prepare myself, but, then I was telling my grandkids about that time I almost got to do it again. I think times are changing, we will find a way.

TM - We will find a way, and we will see you somewhere on the road. Thank you for having this interview with us today.

KS - I appreciate it.