Ice Vajal :: Music Land :: Metal World
 
editorial :: feedback :: newsletter ::  
   Bands :: A-Z / F / Fyrnask /

In Words: Fyrnask



- Fyrnd - Oct. 2011 - Lars Bjørn -


www.templeoftorturous.com








Fyrnask
© Fyrnask


Fyrnd - October 9th 2010 (by email)




Fyrnask is a new band that has taken the world by storm, so it was about time we got a word from the band to follow up on their successful start of the career.



It was a real pleasure to listen to your album, as newcomers it must be good to get success from the start, but please tell us about the beginning of the band? And why did you choose the name Fyrnask?

'Fyrnask' is a old Nordic term that means 'to grow old'. I searched for a name that is essential to all our lives. And time, in terms of growing older, is something that affects our whole world, and it was old Nordic, to stay true to the (Northern) European and Germanic topics, Fyrnask's wanted to deal with, in the beginning.

When did you start to write songs for Bluostar?

That's hard to say, I think in the beginning of 2010 I started to shape the first ideas. But the songwriting process was quite fast, as I tried to do a lot of traditional stuff, with not too many experiments this time.

Do you write songs as a band? Or is there a main songwriter?

No, I am so far the only one involved in the songwriting as Fyrnask is a one man project.

What inspires you to write music / lyrics?

In general, there are a lot of things that are inspiring me, mostly philosophies and historical stuff, due to my studies.

On Bluostar we have a concept, that is divided in two parts: The first half is on Norwegian (except of At fornu fari what is old Norse again) and the other half is on German.

Bluostar is old high German and means 'sacrifice' or 'offering.

It deals, on a superficial level, with two abstract entities. On the one hand, there are attributes such as desire, strength, the concept of the avenger in a sense, while on the other hand, a physical aspect, the hunted, the letting go of desires and of connectedness to the world stands as an idea.

It deals on a obvious level, with a hunter or better, a punisher or kind of primeval judge, so to speak, and his prey. He's hunting his prey down, and offers it to the moors.

But as mentioned above, on a superficial level, it deals with the symbiosis of those two entities and their attributes. This has to do with that I wanted to blur classical antonyms such as for example 'good' and 'evil', for this are just things humans create, to understand the reality they are living in.

So this a metaphysical loss, also of the human 'will', in terms of comprehend everything, and comprehend themselves. This is an abstract offering' or 'sacrifice' on Bluostar.


By the way: what bands / artists made you start playing? And which bands / artists are you listening to these days?

Oh that's a question that is hard to answer. My first metal bands were maybe Sodom and Black Sabbath.

These days I listen to a lot of stuff. That's hard to survey.

Some important releases for me, from the last years, were:
Black Math Horseman - Wylld
Six Organs of admittance - everything
Neurosis - The stuff beginning with Through Silver And Blood
Locrian - The Crystal World
Menace Ruine - everything

More black metal oriented stuff is:
Fauna - The Hunt
The Ruins Of Beverast - Rain Upon The Impure
Yoga - Megafauna
the demo by Murmuüre

and so on...

It's really a lot of stuff I am listening to, so it's really hard to give a representative summary here, in a way.


How long did the recordings take? Where did you record Bluostar? and who produced the album?

I recorded it in Dinspel studios here in Germany in about something like 2 weeks. The album was produced by a guy called Gerard Mannigel. He has nothing to do with metal, and I know him for a long time now, so it was clear, that I would ask him, for producing the album.

The mastering was done, by the well known producer Mell Dettmer.


Who made the artwork for the cover? And how is it tied to the album title?

The artwork was done by Robert Høyem. He did a splendid work for Fyrnask and understood the vision we had very well.

As mentioned above, Bluostar means 'sacrifice' and it deals with loss, on several levels, the loss of will, the loss of contrast and last but not least, the loss of life itself.

Obviously the head on the cover looses and abstract material, which was often interpreted as 'hairs' or 'beard' or some strange other stuff.

That's ok, because I don't want to push the people in a certain direction. The cover, the lyrics and the concept is meant to be that open, that everyone can find own interpretations to the album. But it's also not just 'random'. It has a meaning. But what I am just hoping is, that people start thinking for themselves.


Which songs do you think represent Bluostar best? And why?

As it is a concept album, it is hard for me to point out one song, as Bluostar is one organic whole.

But I think Die firnen Tiefen is quite interesting for me, even though it is 'unspectacular' in a musical way (as much of Bluostar can be unspectacular, if you're just into blast beats and harsh classical riffing), it is important within the concept. It's the turning point of the album, the language is shifting from Norwegian to German, and the perspectives are changing, from one protagonist to the other.

I think that is something, the song does well.


Will you do a video? Which songs would you like to visualize?

It depends. I would, but only in the case, the aesthetics would fit. So I would never do such a thing, just for having a video.

Concerning the song: I don't know what would be the best choice, for such a project. But there's nothing planned in this direction.


I guess you already got some feedback. Are you satisfied so far?

Yes, I am. We got a lot of good responses no really bad stuff. There are some people, who are thinking, that it is too long here and there, a point that I can understand in a way, but the main feedback, is very good, and even better, than we expected, I think.

About live concerts, are there anything new on the way?

There are plans to do live stuff, but it should become something special, so we will need some time, for this stuff. As Fyrnask is a one-man project, we have only some session guests.

I am curious, do you use some special effects in your concerts? Please tell us how a typical concert is with Fyrnask!

We want to do concerts in a more atmospheric way and to enrich the music's ritual character, also with a ritualized live thing. This includes also, not to play everywhere, just for the sake of playing - a big festival, where you are playing in the full heat of the sun, would be certainly something I would neglect.

Talking about the internet.... Social network is both a blessing and a curse. What's your opinion about it?

Complicated topic. I think it's getting difficult if one organization builds up monopolies and is out of every concurrence. Then we get something like a mono culture, and mono culture is a thing that is surely dangerous. On the other hand, it's also a bit depended on the users. If the users start to use social networks in a certain way, they can be, of course, very helpful. I mean, it is impressive, when you see such things like the Arabic spring and the middle east protests for example.

But it really depends. Very important, in my point of view is, that the people are intelligent enough, to use such things in a proper way, and to be aware of such problems as privacy policies and not to help to craft monopolies. There are surely more factors to speak about, concerning this issue, but this would definitely go beyond the scope of this interview.


What's next on your schedule? Anything you want to add?

Thank you for the support and the interview and good luck with your zine.



Lars Bjørn

up

• E-Mail: contact@ice-vajal.com