Emperor
Interview by Negru (December 2001 - Negura #3).


How are you Ishan? How are the things over there?
Hy! I’m fine thank you! We’re basically working induced here, with the interviews… going from one thing to the other…

Your new album, Prometheus is about to be released. How would you describe the music from it? Did you know from the very beginning this will be the last Emperor album?
Well, I would say it’s musically one step further… and also considering we knew from the start of the writing process that is going to be our last album it’s also influenced by what we’ve done in the past, bringing more atmospheric and epic elements!

Where did you record the album? Are you satisfied with the final production?
Yes! For me personally, this production has been both very changeling and crucial. The whole production was done in own personal home studio, from scratch to having some demo recordings of the songs. Then Samoth and Trym rehearsed their parts individually, from CD’s, and in the end I got together with Trym one evening, and went together over the tracks, breaks and arranged all the drum parts... Then we recorded the drums in Akkerhaugen studio (which we also used to record X Equilibrium), and went back to my studio and recorded Samoth’s guitars. And then they went on tour with Zyclon. I recorded the rest of the album and than we took it back to the Akkerhaugen studio and mixed it there…

I don’t think the production changed so much compared with your previous album… It became already quite an Emperor marks, and you know it’s Emperor after listening to only a few tunes, just from the production… Didn’t you considered doing a new approach towards production this time?
I think that’s very much also due to the song arrangement and instrumentation. But I’d say that from the production point of view all the albums have been done in very separate ways. And I suppose the biggest break was when we did the X Equilibrium album… which was done in a different studio and in an also completely different way of working. But the sound in itself, the Emperor sound, is probably very much into the songs themselves, the way they’re written and they way they’re arranged…

I noticed that… as there was a guy over here at my place listening to the new album, and he knew he was listening to Emperor, just he didn’t know was your new album…
Yeah, hopefully! I mean we’ve always had a quite strong musical foundation!

I noticed you exploited a lot more your singing abilities on this new album… Is there a reason for that? Do you now feel you master better your voice?
Yes, I’ve been getting more and more experienced with the time and from all the music I’ve done, especially through working with Peccatum, and I also tried using all the elements I found suitable to go with the music.

I saw from the cover of the new album you did all the music and the arrangements this time. Why didn’t Samoth and Trym contributed to it?
Well, it’s partly because this was something that wasn’t planned… Also it’s partly because they were busy with Zyclon at the time. And also since the production was very much done in my studio… I think that is very much all the reason.

But now, because you’ve done it so much more on your own, does it express better your own ideas and visions and not those of the rest of the band?
I think it represents all of us! Working together in Emperor for 10 years now… Let’s me put it another way… it would have been different if I were writing a solo album, I would have sounded totally different… but what I wrote was an Emperor album, and that is influenced a lot in its whole foundation, that we formed for over 10 years. I’m very familiar with that way of working. And even if they didn’t had any direct input in the writing of the album and on the musical parts, of course the foundation that we all worked out together all these years contributed and influenced the album to a rich extent.

Do you think it’s still Black Metal what you play, of is it just simple music, like you once stated?
I would say it’s Extreme Metal. I think it’s easy to see it has a lot of roots in Black Metal, but I think musically and lyrically, although still has those Black Metal influences; I would say it also goes beyond that…

How do you see now the Black Metal, after so many years in the scene?
Well, I think it has developed very much as well. And I suppose it came to a point in Black Metal where Black Metal music and the bands are either taking a step further, opening to new influences and to a wider musical perspective, or, on the other hand you have the retro culture, people going more back to the basics. Certainly it’s just a natural development of a musical genre that has been very strong for almost 10 years now, and I think that is a natural result.

I saw this time you choose the figure of Prometheus to embody a story around. Could you explain a little bit more what you tried to do?
Well, I know that the cover and also the title may be somehow misleading, as the Prometheus myth is not at all a part of the lyrical concept of the album. But in essence it represents very much of the same, as Prometheus, like Icarus and the Lucifer figure, was someone who defied conventions, and dare to go the opposite way, regardless the consequences. And that is very much what the album is about!

So it is not entirely based on the figure of Prometheus? Just the tile…
No, just the title and the cover. As it represents the essence of what I wanted to express!

Well, what does the rest is all about…?
Well, the concept is lyrically quite different from with what we’ve done before. It’s still very personal, we’ve very much used the first person, I, but this time it’s a mixture between the first and the third person, so it’s also very much from a story taller perspective in a way… Also it’s more chronological and streamline in the concept, and from this perspective it’s somehow different from what we’ve done before…

And now let’s go to the inevitable… Why is this going to be the last Emperor album? And when did you decide that?
I think this was an ongoing process… that it wasn’t a very sudden decision. But we all felt it was like that! From the inside we’ve always had our differences, but the close collaboration and the compromise between these differences have been working very constructively until now. But I think that being in all such an uncompromising band, I think we found we cannot go on being uncompromising in that way, and that our differences may be too great for us to work in a constructive way. So we feel we’ve done all what we can with Emperor as a medium, and that we’ll have to go separate ways musically, to still go on being constructive and innovative the same uncompromising way…

What will you do after that? Will you start a new project, to substitute somehow Emperor was, or you’ll continue with your already founded projects?
Of course my first priority is now the next Peccatum album. And after that it’s probably more a solo work, maybe also in collaboration with other musicians, with a different background from what I have. I’m very excited about that! But first of all is the next Peccatum album, witch I’m very much looking for. I know Ihriel already has quite a lot of ideas and in that respect... Of course Samoth and Trym are busy with Zyclon still.

Do you know what Samoth and Trym are going to do? Will they stick only to Zyclon?
For the time being I think so… I didn’t have any indications from them on anything else…

Looking now back… How to do feel personally about what Emperor meant for the whole Black Metal scene?
I suppose we’ve been a respected band, and maybe somehow an influential factor into the development of the style. But how people see Emperor is something really subjective… For me personally, if I look back at Emperor… it was a very positive and challenging thing. It was a privilege also, through this medium I’ve been able to work with music for such a long time.

Do you have any regrets? Did you imagined from the very beginning Emperor would mean so much for the whole scene…
No, not really. Of course there are always small details you may have want done differently… but all in all it has been an ongoing process, and we’ve just tried to take one step at the time. So there’s nothing in particular I could point out…

You said you’ll work next with Peccatum… How about Thou Shalt Suffer?
With Thou Shalt Suffer was more like a one time album. I will probably keep on doing solo work after Peccatum. I think it’s not very likely I will do it in the same ways again… and not on the name of Thou Shalt Suffer.

I must say I was actually really impressed by Somnium. And I was hoping you’ll continue it sometime, in a few years maybe… Is there a chance for that to happen?
Well, at this point I really have no idea in what kind of way I will express in my solo work. I that respect it’s a curiosity, an excitement I will try to keep on for a bit. I really have no idea into how it will turn out musically…

How was the response to the Thou Shalt Suffer album? Do you think peoples understood what you’ve tried to do over there?
Generally there has been quite a positive feedback on the album. For me it’s not an album that I’m fully content with. It was an ongoing process, very sporadically, side by side with Emperor. For me was very much a learning process. There is some material which is very very old over there and some new materials as well. For me it represents more quite a few year of experience. There are some albums that I’m happy with, and some I’m not that happy with. I came to a point where if I didn’t finish it at that point when I did, I would have had to write new material, for a new album. So I just had to finish it in a way…

When you compose your music do you have in mind a target audience, who would better understand you (maybe a different one for different projects)?
No, I do never consider an audience when I write music. I’m so much consumed with the work itself and I think a target audience is something irrelevant. It would interfere with the musical work itself. And if you make music for an audience, for commercial reasons, then you’re in despise with your public. And that is not why I entered the music business…

Will you do a tour for the new album? Emperial Live Ceremony was really an impressive work... some might have been curios see if you could do something even better…
No! For us the reasons are different from other bands. There were only very few occasions where we’ve actually had a pro line-up. We always had to hire in session musicians to do live performances. For some bands writing new songs, and then recording them in the studio together, and then go play these songs on tour is a normal process. For us making songs and recording an album has been one thing. Every time we had to hook up a live show, for a tour or something, that has been a different thing, a process on itself. Relearning the set, and also teaching the new musicians the new material. Playing live has never been a natural consequence for Emperor as a band. It’s always been a separate production.

How about a video? Will you do a new one?
Actually we’ve done one. Just one hour ago I saw the final version of it…

For which track did you do the clip?
Empty…

Well, I guess that’s all for the time being… thank you very much! And I hope you’ll have success with your new projects! And if there’s anything you wish to add now in the end…
Thank you! Thanks very much for all the support we’ve had during these 10 years… I hope people will still follow our musical work in the future, beyond Emperor…