Manes
From the first steps in 1993 to the last EP there have been changes compared with the ice age to the world of tomorrow. The first releases (some demos and an album which contained re-recorded songs from the demos) were not very well recorded (intentionally?) Black Metal, though already pretty strange arranged compared to most of the other bands at that time, however, not bad but not really my taste...
Then came their last album "Vilosophe" followed by the EP "[view]" in spring this year... Two ingenious releases which cannot be compared to anything. Especially the vocals and the electronics made me "follow" them forever!
Sincerly I don't know much about this band, but I suppose they are a mystery anyway. I've stumbled over their MySpace profile, while I was searching for some news on the next album and asked them for an interview. Cern and Torstein were very busy finishing the recordings, but they took the time and answered my questions in detail, and had some really intelligent answers! ...as expected...
Arcana Noctis: Congratulations to your deal with Candlelight! I guess you're happy with it and I hope they'll do more for you, because you really deserve it! I've heard you were happy with Code666 too, why have you changed the label? Which new possibilities could Candlelight offer to you?
Cern: Main reason: Candlelight is bigger concerning promo and distribution, so, more people can hear our music. I was totally satisfied with how Code666 handled things, their motivation and dedication etc. no bad words here... just that we would like to reach more (and perhaps different) people. No point in releasing albums if nobody can find them, you know. Could just as well put lots of mp3's on MySpace or something. Labels are better for some things, like money and contacts etc.
Torstein: As is mentioned above, we were really satisfied with Aural Music and Code666 on a basic ideological level, but as time went by we felt a sort of resignation to progress on most other levels than this. They had, and still have, a great roster but, among other decisive factors for us, they have no distro here in Norway, something that has been quite frustrating. We chose to jump ship and rather stand without any deal for a while. We spread the world a little about this, and we were eventually contacted by Candlelight Records and offered a recording contract. Shazzam: here we are. The possibilities regarding Candlelight versus Aural Music are many, but first and foremost our album will be available in a few more places. Actually, Manes has never sent any demos out to labels to this date. Both Hammerheart, Code666/Aural Music and Candlelight has inked deals with Manes without knowing what kind of cassette will dump into their mailbox as a mastertape. That's a cool piece of trivia right there.
Arcana Noctis: I guess you don't give a fuck about how much you sell or what other people could think about your art... but I think you don't get the attention paid that you deserve, while most of the labels sign copycats every day, and spend a lot of money to push them forward. Do you think your music is too strange for the masses? There are a lot of open-minded people out there, the question is how to reach them all, I don't think a Metal label is the right one for Manes... have you ever tried it with Ipecac (Mike Patton's label)? I guess it could be a nice "home" for you...
Cern: I agree with you there. I don't think the average Metal scene is our main "audience", but I think people from all over the place can find things in our music. Open-minded people, anyone looking for things beyond the general borders, rules or dogmas. Our "problem" is that we all come from the Metal "scene", and so we really don't know how things are done in any other genre or such..... not that we want to belong to one specific scene...
Torstein: Too strange for "the masses" it may be, as these "masses" seem to prefer music spawned from enetrtainment concepts or music suitable for loud vorspiels getting hammered before the weekly dresscode GT bender. Those are "the masses", and we don't really see ourselves featured on the Dancemania or McMusic compilations, but I guess that's more becasue we haven't been asked to participate really. But I guess you were referring to the Metal "masses"? That's more diverse and hard to pinpoint. It's kinda hard for us to focus on this since we have worked hard at avoiding to fall into the entertainment trap. I guess we're in our own little bubble here, and we've done too few gigs to have established a target audience and a structured escalation plan for fame, fortune and fountains of champagne. We've been too busy making music, really. Hopefully good distro can help reach those who want to listen to our stuff, but we haven't gone beyond that figuring things out. And yeah, Ipecac seems like a really cool label with an eclectic roster of quality bands, but we don't strive towards anything specific within the business end of making music.
Arcana Noctis: Manes is one of my top ten bands ever since I've heard "Vilosophe" and almost everyone I've "forced" to listen to it was enthused about it, a 45 years old mother included! ;) Where do you have the inspiration from, to create such difficult complex structures? Do you have influences at all? How would you describe your style?
Cern: Cool to hear that a lot of different people can enjoy it! Our main inspiration is mainly to listen to our own hearts and feelings. We don't need to prove anything and we don't want to compete in musicianship, sales figures, number of front pages, or anything else that is artificially considered "important" in the Metal scene/careers... and I think mental states like that contribute a lot to the final outcome.
Torstein: Of course we have influences. We are all passionate about music and we have never established any rule to hinder our influences to shine through. But we have never worked in such a way, like many do, to force our music in the direction of any of these influences. Many seem to justify such behaviour by using the prefix "true" when describing their music, like the Helloween clones seem to get away with using the rather silly "True Heavy Metal" or even sillier, just "True Metal".
Arcana Noctis: What was the response on "Vilosophe"? Did you get something like murder threats because it wasn't hard and evil enough, hehe? Do you think you've reached many new fans? Did you lost old ones? How many copies did you sell, if I may ask?
Cern: Not directly, he... but I guess some hardcore "blacker than black" people can't stand that bands do something they didn't expect or hope. Feeling they "own" the band or the band's future directions just because they expressed their opinion on the previous releases... I find this a really weird thing, and it seems mentality like this is most at work in the Rock/Metal "scenes" ?? Or is it like this everywhere else too? I really, really hate it.
Torstein: Weird indeed. The conformity of this whole scene phenomena is weird with its deeprooted uniform beheaviour. But then again, can it be a fashion statement? Oui oui. And can this conformity with its dresscode look militant and somewhat threatening? Sir, yes sir. But is it rebelious, creative or chaotic? Nah. Where did everyone stray from the good words of old Al? What shall be the whole of the law? But back on track: "Vilosophe" got some really good reviews, actually far beyond what we really thought possible. But it got equally butchered some places too, and that's all cool with us.
Arcana Noctis: What about the band members? Where do they all come from? Well, for the creative process and the diversification it can only be positive I think, but it must be difficult to change the line-up all the time, isn't it?
Cern: We have stripped down the core family now, resulting in only me (cern.th.skei) on electronics, experiments and main music composing, Torstein Parelius on bass, lyrics/words, visuals and ideas, and Eivind F. on atmospheres and moody "feedback"-guitars, heh. We have a lot of excellent musicians and performers around us here in Trondheim (and also through the internet), so finding people is not any problem... but getting them to understand what we would like to do is sometimes quite different. We really enjoy this collaboration thing, not knowing what to expect, other people drawing ideas into (for us) unknown territories etc. It makes everything exciting again. Without things like that, I don't think I personally could keep up the interest to do more than some few "experiments" before I move on to do different things...
Torstein: We are now only three in the eye of the storm that is Manes. Geographically we all come from Trondheim, and musically we also come from the same roots more or less. Eivind and me play in other bands as well: Eivind in Atrox and I play in Chton. Cern has a few projects brewing too, most notably Holissstik. As for the rest of the line-up on the coming album we have two close associated members in Tor-Arne and Asgeir, both from around here, but also others from Trondheim, Marocco, Russia and U.S.A. I think that's about it concerning nationality. Maybe Japan.
Arcana Noctis: You don't play much gigs. Do you get bored or is it because of the different bands the other members have? What are the reasons? Do you want it to be something special and not to become routine?
Cern: My personal reason is that I totally hate the way things are meant to be done. The "look at us, look at me, see how good I am at playing my instrument, almost as good as my heroes..."-things have become so streamlined, put into system, and compared to others... music has become an industry and I hate that. Brand building, market forces, sales figures, promotional campaigns etc. etc., fucking driving me mad with all its hypocrisy and "professionalism"... yuck! If we can make a liveshow something to remember, not "just another OK show", we would do it. It's just like the musicmaking and releasing things... if other people try to push things into their own labels or boxes, we protest and refuse to follow... better no shows at all than some basic and traditional concert crap.
Torstein: Our aim is that a concert should be an experience and not a promo job. It's all done following the resolve that we need to keep it interesting for ourselves to be able to keep it going at all. Personally I enjoy playing concerts on a general level, as opposed to Cern, but of course, I hunger for those seldom occations where it really gives me something extraordinary and special. The parties might be fun, and all that, but following the nightliner routine of promo chores throughout Europe isn't extraordinary at all.
Arcana Noctis: What does your recording process look like? Why does it take so long to finish a Manes album? I suppose you all have (regular) jobs... Do you rehearse/record only on weekends? You only record something when you feel like, and don't like things like deadlines or fillers, right?
Cern: Torstein and Eivind work... I am "uføre-trygdet", meaning I get money from the state because of serious, cronic disease. I have a lot of time available, but things must fit together with the others' schedules and workdays and stuff. And it's also that element of not wanting to repeat things, no falling into the traps of doing the safe and tested things. When making music, there has to be some major "wow!" or "what the fuck?" things before we start doing something serious with it. And things like that can't be pushed or hurried. And a final element is our laziness, and "tomorrow might be a better day to do it", hehe...
Torstein: Right now we have a lot of material we look forward to start processing and sequenzing, but this comes in waves and need to follow a natural incubation period etc. I guess this "We have to start with something different right now" comes from the conceptual nature of our recent recording sessions and the way we executed this recording. We plan to let the album after this upcoming release be more organic and rough ... maybe more "human", I don't know. But I guess as soon this Candlelight debut is released, we loose a lot of this drive as we start rehearsing for the coming releaseparty and do press and all that. Then we need a year or two to get the verve back to continue... well, hopefully not, but possibly.
Arcana Noctis: How about a DVD or a video clip? Would it be too expensive?
Cern: More money does not mean more quality, you know.... that's the "American way" of thinking, not ours. For example, a webcam showing someone's suicide or something similar could be an interesting clip suiting the music, and it wouldn't cost that much (in money) hehe, so, it's not the money, it's the ideas, the visual atmospheres that builds upon the music, and a sense of not following the stream.
Torstein: We have a "restructured live-video" of the song "The Neoflagellata Revision" from the "[view]" EP available to download from our website www.manes.info or to watch in the player at www.myspace.com/manes. It was shot at a gig here in Trondheim by two friends of us with camcorders, so it cost us nothing. As Cern says, it's not really a matter of money but of ideas and will to get it done. We have a few ideas, so the possibilities that we do a video or something for DVD is absolutely there.
Arcana Noctis: I really like your way to express yourself... Would you tell us more about the lyrics? Who is the main responsible for them now? I know, they are supposed to have another meaning to each listener, but in the main... what's on your mind most of the time?
Cern: Torstein is doing the words, Asgeir is fucking them up, and it turns out fucking awesome! No conclusions, no direct themes, purely emotions, feelings, and.... another audio source... but more recognizable and thought-provoking than purely audio and scales and notes and such.
Torstein: Some are just sentences or small collections of words, some are longer passages or "themes", but all in all it's mostly additions to the overall atmosphere and cues, to or from emotion. This time around Asgeir and a few others have contributed with concrete parts or structures of words, but not much has kept it's initial form in the process leading up this upcoming album. To briefly answer the last part of your question I would say that dystopian thinking has fueled much of it. Near suicidal downs and spurs of overshadowing negativity also.
Arcana Noctis: Now, don't get me wrong, but you don't have to burn down a church, or kill someone, to express your feelings (and spend the rest of your life in prison, like others did), I think you've found the right way... I've read the older interviews, you had some really funny answers, what has changed since they were made? Do you think your behaviour was childish at that time, are you even ashamed sometimes, or are you still striving for total world domination? ;)
Cern: Most attitudes, meanings and stuff has not changed at all, but my/our view on HOW to express things, what is personally important, has. I'm not really ashamed of anything, but I have accepted that times change, meaning and opinions change etc. I'm not as actively hateful against things I don't like anymore... age does something to one's head... or, I have learned to ignore what I don't think is important... and no matter what statements you do, if you're honest to yourself, is really what you feel there and then... what your head is filled with in a way... but then again, you all should accept that things move on, whatever you like will disappear, your hopes and dreams will be shattered. Everything will fuck up, no matter what... so, we should just accept that things are only relevant in their correct time frame, or as some nostalgic rememberances...
Arcana Noctis: How's Cern feeling? I believe he had some serious problems with his health... Was this the point when the Black Metal thing started to evolve?
Cern: Cern is feeling weird, he... yes, my health is totally fucked up, chronic disease, fucked up colon/intestines, liver, and gall bladder. Surgically removed internal organs because of this. At times I really feel crippled, but other times it doesn't bother me at all. I was diagnosed back in 86-87, and things went really bad in 93-94, hospitalized for months, lots of surgery, almost dying twice etc., until 96-97, and after that I have just thought "carpe diem" (or noctem? he), I might die tomorrow (the doctors are yelling at me for not eating my pills and drugs, but... I don't care), no fears or regret or bitterness, but also no interest in planning things too far ahead or things like that...
Arcana Noctis: What do you think about the Metal scene nowadays in general? I'm sure you understand bands that started with Death or Black Metal and have developed into some kind of hybrids, more mature and diverse... Can you understand people who wanna hear the "same album" again and again and attack their favourite bands for every little change they dare to make? Do you like AC/DC? ;)
Cern: I file most "true" Rock, Metal and stuff into the same category: "boring, outdated, non-inspiring" adrenaline/alcohol based showmanship, without any deeper content... I like to get my brain working when listening. I don't just consume, I feel and experience... and, no, I don't like AC/DC, and I can't understand the conservatism and repetition.
Torstein: I don't file Rock, Metal and stuff into categories that easily. Bands can be hybrids of this and that, being inspired by something different and whatever really. I don't care. If Queens Of The Stone Age is called just "Rock" or if they are called "Alternative Rock" doesn't really affect me, as an example. Or at least I try not to let it affect me. It's hard to see past some labels sometimes, especially if it includes certain tired words or phrases, but if I hear something I hear it and if it's music it's music: not words describing a genre, style or musical period of time. There are certain triggers in my mind, via my ears, that lets me know if I like certain music better than other music, not via my eyes. That said, I don't like AC/DC, but I do like Motörhead.
Arcana Noctis: Do you know your fans? What are they like? Is there any special occurrence you'd like to tell us about? Are you with the audience at all after the gigs, or do you withdraw yourselves?
Cern: Fans is a really weird thing. What is a fan? Something it is important to keep? Like souvenirs? Do we need to please them? Is a fan whoever likes what we generally do, or someone who likes a tiny segment of our expressions? How come some fans feel their opinions and meanings are important to the band? OK, if sales figures or popularity was important to us, we would need to make a "fan-base" and stuff... crap... I don't like to talk to "fans" about Manes... things become too artificial. And so, there's almost no point in talking to them at all, unless they're interesting as persons... I don't care at all about other people's tastes in music or whatever, I don't like to discuss music or tastes... conclusion... better to stay out of it all.
Torstein: OK then, I can share an occurance: we played the 2005 Inferno Festival in Oslo with Chton, and a friend and me was outside discussing something and having a smoke as a self-proclaimed Manes "fan" approached me. I guess we could say he kinda interrupted us talking, and he started to ask about stuff I had said earlier in interviews telling me he liked some of the same bands I like etc. This isn't something any of us in Manes is very used to, coming from a rather small city where the local music community is too small to really spawn "fans" like this guy. My first instinctual response was that I answered everything he tried to ask in a rather ironic and borderline sarcastic manner. As he, not very surprisingly, seemed disappointed and stopped asking I kinda felt I had to give this guy a break and try to answer his questions as best I could, and so I did. It became like a small interview-like thingy and I guess that was just as disappointing for him as I just wanted to get back to the discussion I had with my friend before he came along. But it was the best I could do. Not really a "special" occurence, but maybe one pointing to exactly what Cern said earlier: there's no point in talking to someone unless you find them interesting as persons. Only to be polite.
Arcana Noctis: Tell us something about the new album, I guess you can't stand this question, but maybe I'm the lucky one...
Cern: It's almost finished now, one final day adjusting some small details and the general mastering... it is not too different from "Vilosophe", but not too similar either, it's not as guitar-filled, perhaps a bit less Metal-ish, but still much darker, at times almost suicidal.
Torstein: It's extremely varied, but it still has something that binds it together as an album. It's a concept album, but in process and form more than in content. We didn't really know how it would sound at all before we were well underway with the mix, and we've tried to incorporate a few things that is more "foreign" to us in the musical territory this thime around just because we've wanted to try it out. All of it has fallen into place and I really like the outcome. No holds barred. We've recorded ten songs and a few collaborators has given of their creativity to make it happen. It'll be released by Candlelight Records in early March 2007, as far as I know.
Arcana Noctis: Something I'm interested in: I've found Max Midsun's website on Torstein's MySpace account... can you tell me something about them? I really like what I've heard... Do you have other recommendations for Manes fans? It's really hard to find original stuff, you know... :(
Torstein: Max Midsun is also a band from Trondheim, and they released their debut album "Max the 1st" this autumn. It's really great stuff. Check out their website www.maxmidsun.com if you wanna check out more of their music. Finding good music can be hard, but go to a website or a magazine that you trust in their opinions, listen to samples etc. I've found lots of great new music on MySpace, but you need a startingpoint to browse from to get anywhere. A place that I have experienced give good recommandations is the website of a musicstore in San Franisco called Aquarus Records. Read some reviews and hear some samples at www.aquariusrecords.org... another site to check out is the EmptyFree blog here: www.emptyfree.com
Arcana Noctis: Thank you for this interview and for the time you took to answer my questions... I hope it wasn't too boring. I'm really looking forward to the new album! Good luck for the future!
Cern: Thanx to you too!
Then came their last album "Vilosophe" followed by the EP "[view]" in spring this year... Two ingenious releases which cannot be compared to anything. Especially the vocals and the electronics made me "follow" them forever!
Sincerly I don't know much about this band, but I suppose they are a mystery anyway. I've stumbled over their MySpace profile, while I was searching for some news on the next album and asked them for an interview. Cern and Torstein were very busy finishing the recordings, but they took the time and answered my questions in detail, and had some really intelligent answers! ...as expected...
Arcana Noctis: Congratulations to your deal with Candlelight! I guess you're happy with it and I hope they'll do more for you, because you really deserve it! I've heard you were happy with Code666 too, why have you changed the label? Which new possibilities could Candlelight offer to you?
Cern: Main reason: Candlelight is bigger concerning promo and distribution, so, more people can hear our music. I was totally satisfied with how Code666 handled things, their motivation and dedication etc. no bad words here... just that we would like to reach more (and perhaps different) people. No point in releasing albums if nobody can find them, you know. Could just as well put lots of mp3's on MySpace or something. Labels are better for some things, like money and contacts etc.Torstein: As is mentioned above, we were really satisfied with Aural Music and Code666 on a basic ideological level, but as time went by we felt a sort of resignation to progress on most other levels than this. They had, and still have, a great roster but, among other decisive factors for us, they have no distro here in Norway, something that has been quite frustrating. We chose to jump ship and rather stand without any deal for a while. We spread the world a little about this, and we were eventually contacted by Candlelight Records and offered a recording contract. Shazzam: here we are. The possibilities regarding Candlelight versus Aural Music are many, but first and foremost our album will be available in a few more places. Actually, Manes has never sent any demos out to labels to this date. Both Hammerheart, Code666/Aural Music and Candlelight has inked deals with Manes without knowing what kind of cassette will dump into their mailbox as a mastertape. That's a cool piece of trivia right there.
Arcana Noctis: I guess you don't give a fuck about how much you sell or what other people could think about your art... but I think you don't get the attention paid that you deserve, while most of the labels sign copycats every day, and spend a lot of money to push them forward. Do you think your music is too strange for the masses? There are a lot of open-minded people out there, the question is how to reach them all, I don't think a Metal label is the right one for Manes... have you ever tried it with Ipecac (Mike Patton's label)? I guess it could be a nice "home" for you...
Cern: I agree with you there. I don't think the average Metal scene is our main "audience", but I think people from all over the place can find things in our music. Open-minded people, anyone looking for things beyond the general borders, rules or dogmas. Our "problem" is that we all come from the Metal "scene", and so we really don't know how things are done in any other genre or such..... not that we want to belong to one specific scene...
Torstein: Too strange for "the masses" it may be, as these "masses" seem to prefer music spawned from enetrtainment concepts or music suitable for loud vorspiels getting hammered before the weekly dresscode GT bender. Those are "the masses", and we don't really see ourselves featured on the Dancemania or McMusic compilations, but I guess that's more becasue we haven't been asked to participate really. But I guess you were referring to the Metal "masses"? That's more diverse and hard to pinpoint. It's kinda hard for us to focus on this since we have worked hard at avoiding to fall into the entertainment trap. I guess we're in our own little bubble here, and we've done too few gigs to have established a target audience and a structured escalation plan for fame, fortune and fountains of champagne. We've been too busy making music, really. Hopefully good distro can help reach those who want to listen to our stuff, but we haven't gone beyond that figuring things out. And yeah, Ipecac seems like a really cool label with an eclectic roster of quality bands, but we don't strive towards anything specific within the business end of making music.
Arcana Noctis: Manes is one of my top ten bands ever since I've heard "Vilosophe" and almost everyone I've "forced" to listen to it was enthused about it, a 45 years old mother included! ;) Where do you have the inspiration from, to create such difficult complex structures? Do you have influences at all? How would you describe your style?
Cern: Cool to hear that a lot of different people can enjoy it! Our main inspiration is mainly to listen to our own hearts and feelings. We don't need to prove anything and we don't want to compete in musicianship, sales figures, number of front pages, or anything else that is artificially considered "important" in the Metal scene/careers... and I think mental states like that contribute a lot to the final outcome.
Torstein: Of course we have influences. We are all passionate about music and we have never established any rule to hinder our influences to shine through. But we have never worked in such a way, like many do, to force our music in the direction of any of these influences. Many seem to justify such behaviour by using the prefix "true" when describing their music, like the Helloween clones seem to get away with using the rather silly "True Heavy Metal" or even sillier, just "True Metal".
Arcana Noctis: What was the response on "Vilosophe"? Did you get something like murder threats because it wasn't hard and evil enough, hehe? Do you think you've reached many new fans? Did you lost old ones? How many copies did you sell, if I may ask?
Cern: Not directly, he... but I guess some hardcore "blacker than black" people can't stand that bands do something they didn't expect or hope. Feeling they "own" the band or the band's future directions just because they expressed their opinion on the previous releases... I find this a really weird thing, and it seems mentality like this is most at work in the Rock/Metal "scenes" ?? Or is it like this everywhere else too? I really, really hate it.
Torstein: Weird indeed. The conformity of this whole scene phenomena is weird with its deeprooted uniform beheaviour. But then again, can it be a fashion statement? Oui oui. And can this conformity with its dresscode look militant and somewhat threatening? Sir, yes sir. But is it rebelious, creative or chaotic? Nah. Where did everyone stray from the good words of old Al? What shall be the whole of the law? But back on track: "Vilosophe" got some really good reviews, actually far beyond what we really thought possible. But it got equally butchered some places too, and that's all cool with us.
Arcana Noctis: What about the band members? Where do they all come from? Well, for the creative process and the diversification it can only be positive I think, but it must be difficult to change the line-up all the time, isn't it?
Cern: We have stripped down the core family now, resulting in only me (cern.th.skei) on electronics, experiments and main music composing, Torstein Parelius on bass, lyrics/words, visuals and ideas, and Eivind F. on atmospheres and moody "feedback"-guitars, heh. We have a lot of excellent musicians and performers around us here in Trondheim (and also through the internet), so finding people is not any problem... but getting them to understand what we would like to do is sometimes quite different. We really enjoy this collaboration thing, not knowing what to expect, other people drawing ideas into (for us) unknown territories etc. It makes everything exciting again. Without things like that, I don't think I personally could keep up the interest to do more than some few "experiments" before I move on to do different things...
Torstein: We are now only three in the eye of the storm that is Manes. Geographically we all come from Trondheim, and musically we also come from the same roots more or less. Eivind and me play in other bands as well: Eivind in Atrox and I play in Chton. Cern has a few projects brewing too, most notably Holissstik. As for the rest of the line-up on the coming album we have two close associated members in Tor-Arne and Asgeir, both from around here, but also others from Trondheim, Marocco, Russia and U.S.A. I think that's about it concerning nationality. Maybe Japan.Arcana Noctis: You don't play much gigs. Do you get bored or is it because of the different bands the other members have? What are the reasons? Do you want it to be something special and not to become routine?
Cern: My personal reason is that I totally hate the way things are meant to be done. The "look at us, look at me, see how good I am at playing my instrument, almost as good as my heroes..."-things have become so streamlined, put into system, and compared to others... music has become an industry and I hate that. Brand building, market forces, sales figures, promotional campaigns etc. etc., fucking driving me mad with all its hypocrisy and "professionalism"... yuck! If we can make a liveshow something to remember, not "just another OK show", we would do it. It's just like the musicmaking and releasing things... if other people try to push things into their own labels or boxes, we protest and refuse to follow... better no shows at all than some basic and traditional concert crap.
Torstein: Our aim is that a concert should be an experience and not a promo job. It's all done following the resolve that we need to keep it interesting for ourselves to be able to keep it going at all. Personally I enjoy playing concerts on a general level, as opposed to Cern, but of course, I hunger for those seldom occations where it really gives me something extraordinary and special. The parties might be fun, and all that, but following the nightliner routine of promo chores throughout Europe isn't extraordinary at all.
Arcana Noctis: What does your recording process look like? Why does it take so long to finish a Manes album? I suppose you all have (regular) jobs... Do you rehearse/record only on weekends? You only record something when you feel like, and don't like things like deadlines or fillers, right?
Cern: Torstein and Eivind work... I am "uføre-trygdet", meaning I get money from the state because of serious, cronic disease. I have a lot of time available, but things must fit together with the others' schedules and workdays and stuff. And it's also that element of not wanting to repeat things, no falling into the traps of doing the safe and tested things. When making music, there has to be some major "wow!" or "what the fuck?" things before we start doing something serious with it. And things like that can't be pushed or hurried. And a final element is our laziness, and "tomorrow might be a better day to do it", hehe...
Torstein: Right now we have a lot of material we look forward to start processing and sequenzing, but this comes in waves and need to follow a natural incubation period etc. I guess this "We have to start with something different right now" comes from the conceptual nature of our recent recording sessions and the way we executed this recording. We plan to let the album after this upcoming release be more organic and rough ... maybe more "human", I don't know. But I guess as soon this Candlelight debut is released, we loose a lot of this drive as we start rehearsing for the coming releaseparty and do press and all that. Then we need a year or two to get the verve back to continue... well, hopefully not, but possibly.
Arcana Noctis: How about a DVD or a video clip? Would it be too expensive?
Cern: More money does not mean more quality, you know.... that's the "American way" of thinking, not ours. For example, a webcam showing someone's suicide or something similar could be an interesting clip suiting the music, and it wouldn't cost that much (in money) hehe, so, it's not the money, it's the ideas, the visual atmospheres that builds upon the music, and a sense of not following the stream.
Torstein: We have a "restructured live-video" of the song "The Neoflagellata Revision" from the "[view]" EP available to download from our website www.manes.info or to watch in the player at www.myspace.com/manes. It was shot at a gig here in Trondheim by two friends of us with camcorders, so it cost us nothing. As Cern says, it's not really a matter of money but of ideas and will to get it done. We have a few ideas, so the possibilities that we do a video or something for DVD is absolutely there.
Arcana Noctis: I really like your way to express yourself... Would you tell us more about the lyrics? Who is the main responsible for them now? I know, they are supposed to have another meaning to each listener, but in the main... what's on your mind most of the time?
Cern: Torstein is doing the words, Asgeir is fucking them up, and it turns out fucking awesome! No conclusions, no direct themes, purely emotions, feelings, and.... another audio source... but more recognizable and thought-provoking than purely audio and scales and notes and such.
Torstein: Some are just sentences or small collections of words, some are longer passages or "themes", but all in all it's mostly additions to the overall atmosphere and cues, to or from emotion. This time around Asgeir and a few others have contributed with concrete parts or structures of words, but not much has kept it's initial form in the process leading up this upcoming album. To briefly answer the last part of your question I would say that dystopian thinking has fueled much of it. Near suicidal downs and spurs of overshadowing negativity also.
Arcana Noctis: Now, don't get me wrong, but you don't have to burn down a church, or kill someone, to express your feelings (and spend the rest of your life in prison, like others did), I think you've found the right way... I've read the older interviews, you had some really funny answers, what has changed since they were made? Do you think your behaviour was childish at that time, are you even ashamed sometimes, or are you still striving for total world domination? ;)
Cern: Most attitudes, meanings and stuff has not changed at all, but my/our view on HOW to express things, what is personally important, has. I'm not really ashamed of anything, but I have accepted that times change, meaning and opinions change etc. I'm not as actively hateful against things I don't like anymore... age does something to one's head... or, I have learned to ignore what I don't think is important... and no matter what statements you do, if you're honest to yourself, is really what you feel there and then... what your head is filled with in a way... but then again, you all should accept that things move on, whatever you like will disappear, your hopes and dreams will be shattered. Everything will fuck up, no matter what... so, we should just accept that things are only relevant in their correct time frame, or as some nostalgic rememberances...
Arcana Noctis: How's Cern feeling? I believe he had some serious problems with his health... Was this the point when the Black Metal thing started to evolve?
Cern: Cern is feeling weird, he... yes, my health is totally fucked up, chronic disease, fucked up colon/intestines, liver, and gall bladder. Surgically removed internal organs because of this. At times I really feel crippled, but other times it doesn't bother me at all. I was diagnosed back in 86-87, and things went really bad in 93-94, hospitalized for months, lots of surgery, almost dying twice etc., until 96-97, and after that I have just thought "carpe diem" (or noctem? he), I might die tomorrow (the doctors are yelling at me for not eating my pills and drugs, but... I don't care), no fears or regret or bitterness, but also no interest in planning things too far ahead or things like that...
Arcana Noctis: What do you think about the Metal scene nowadays in general? I'm sure you understand bands that started with Death or Black Metal and have developed into some kind of hybrids, more mature and diverse... Can you understand people who wanna hear the "same album" again and again and attack their favourite bands for every little change they dare to make? Do you like AC/DC? ;)
Cern: I file most "true" Rock, Metal and stuff into the same category: "boring, outdated, non-inspiring" adrenaline/alcohol based showmanship, without any deeper content... I like to get my brain working when listening. I don't just consume, I feel and experience... and, no, I don't like AC/DC, and I can't understand the conservatism and repetition.
Torstein: I don't file Rock, Metal and stuff into categories that easily. Bands can be hybrids of this and that, being inspired by something different and whatever really. I don't care. If Queens Of The Stone Age is called just "Rock" or if they are called "Alternative Rock" doesn't really affect me, as an example. Or at least I try not to let it affect me. It's hard to see past some labels sometimes, especially if it includes certain tired words or phrases, but if I hear something I hear it and if it's music it's music: not words describing a genre, style or musical period of time. There are certain triggers in my mind, via my ears, that lets me know if I like certain music better than other music, not via my eyes. That said, I don't like AC/DC, but I do like Motörhead.
Arcana Noctis: Do you know your fans? What are they like? Is there any special occurrence you'd like to tell us about? Are you with the audience at all after the gigs, or do you withdraw yourselves?
Cern: Fans is a really weird thing. What is a fan? Something it is important to keep? Like souvenirs? Do we need to please them? Is a fan whoever likes what we generally do, or someone who likes a tiny segment of our expressions? How come some fans feel their opinions and meanings are important to the band? OK, if sales figures or popularity was important to us, we would need to make a "fan-base" and stuff... crap... I don't like to talk to "fans" about Manes... things become too artificial. And so, there's almost no point in talking to them at all, unless they're interesting as persons... I don't care at all about other people's tastes in music or whatever, I don't like to discuss music or tastes... conclusion... better to stay out of it all.
Torstein: OK then, I can share an occurance: we played the 2005 Inferno Festival in Oslo with Chton, and a friend and me was outside discussing something and having a smoke as a self-proclaimed Manes "fan" approached me. I guess we could say he kinda interrupted us talking, and he started to ask about stuff I had said earlier in interviews telling me he liked some of the same bands I like etc. This isn't something any of us in Manes is very used to, coming from a rather small city where the local music community is too small to really spawn "fans" like this guy. My first instinctual response was that I answered everything he tried to ask in a rather ironic and borderline sarcastic manner. As he, not very surprisingly, seemed disappointed and stopped asking I kinda felt I had to give this guy a break and try to answer his questions as best I could, and so I did. It became like a small interview-like thingy and I guess that was just as disappointing for him as I just wanted to get back to the discussion I had with my friend before he came along. But it was the best I could do. Not really a "special" occurence, but maybe one pointing to exactly what Cern said earlier: there's no point in talking to someone unless you find them interesting as persons. Only to be polite.Arcana Noctis: Tell us something about the new album, I guess you can't stand this question, but maybe I'm the lucky one...
Cern: It's almost finished now, one final day adjusting some small details and the general mastering... it is not too different from "Vilosophe", but not too similar either, it's not as guitar-filled, perhaps a bit less Metal-ish, but still much darker, at times almost suicidal.
Torstein: It's extremely varied, but it still has something that binds it together as an album. It's a concept album, but in process and form more than in content. We didn't really know how it would sound at all before we were well underway with the mix, and we've tried to incorporate a few things that is more "foreign" to us in the musical territory this thime around just because we've wanted to try it out. All of it has fallen into place and I really like the outcome. No holds barred. We've recorded ten songs and a few collaborators has given of their creativity to make it happen. It'll be released by Candlelight Records in early March 2007, as far as I know.
Arcana Noctis: Something I'm interested in: I've found Max Midsun's website on Torstein's MySpace account... can you tell me something about them? I really like what I've heard... Do you have other recommendations for Manes fans? It's really hard to find original stuff, you know... :(
Torstein: Max Midsun is also a band from Trondheim, and they released their debut album "Max the 1st" this autumn. It's really great stuff. Check out their website www.maxmidsun.com if you wanna check out more of their music. Finding good music can be hard, but go to a website or a magazine that you trust in their opinions, listen to samples etc. I've found lots of great new music on MySpace, but you need a startingpoint to browse from to get anywhere. A place that I have experienced give good recommandations is the website of a musicstore in San Franisco called Aquarus Records. Read some reviews and hear some samples at www.aquariusrecords.org... another site to check out is the EmptyFree blog here: www.emptyfree.com
Arcana Noctis: Thank you for this interview and for the time you took to answer my questions... I hope it wasn't too boring. I'm really looking forward to the new album! Good luck for the future!
Cern: Thanx to you too!