1349 Drummer: 'We Are Pushing The Level Of Ambition All The Time'

The Scream Queen recently conducted an interview with drummer Kjetil-Vidar "Frost" Haraldstad of Norwegian black metallers 1349 and SATYRICON. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Scream Queen: How do you believe 1349 is perceived through the eyes of your fans?

Frost: I think that we are almost as many different perceptions as there are people, it counters the band, it'll necessarily have to be that. I think that perhaps there are some different main types of opinion. Perhaps you could say that there are three categories of people or three categories of perceptions; there are those people that perceive 1349 as a very fast, brutal, black metal band that put us in the same league as other bands that mainly play very fast music, and perhaps they see 1349 as a little one-dimensional; certain people like it to be that way. It's very far from my opinion of the band, but I do understand that there are certain people that enjoy 1349 basically only for the fast-pace of what our music is, and those people definitely would get much out of "Revelations Of The Black Flame", for instance. Then I think there are people that simply see 1349 as an old-school, no-kidding-around kind of black metal band and see us more in line with bands like DARKTHRONE or early '90s black metal bands from Norway, and more than just focusing on the fast-pace, they perhaps perceive the grimness of the music, the fact that it's very rough, edgy, brutal, and violent, very dark. I think there are some people that have gotten more, of what I would say, the full picture, and that understand the importance of the darkness and the ambience of the band and that see that 1349 really has a very creative source, and that it's insane brutality and high pace that we often bring into our songs. It's more like something that just comes from the band's spirit or character. It felt natural for us to play very violent music and never hold anything back; that is how I felt in the beginning and it still very much feels that way. But as the band spirit has gotten to develop, we have also managed to bring much more into it, and we have made 1349 a much more faceted musical beast. And if that development wouldn't have happened, the band wouldn't have existed today because we are not a band that could be satisfied, you know, simply following a very predictable life. Personally, I think that "Revelations Of The Black Flame" is a very, very important album for 1349, I find much of the band's soul in that album, and the atmosphere that we have managed to capture is pretty much done (inaudible) and I feel at the studio, where we go to record our albums, is placed far out in the woods, a pretty desolate place, which has a very, very particular and, for lack of a better word, I should say, ghostly feeling to it. We draw so much inspiration from that, it brings us to the right mind-set, or at least offers the kind of surroundings and scenery that easily brings that mind-set and hence the album is close to our hearts because it's almost like it's the essence of that feel which is captured on "Revelations Of The Black Flame". It's a journey, I can very well understand that many people find it to be boring or uninteresting, that it failed to catch certain people, I mean, I could expect like 13, 14, or 15-year-olds are like into DARK FUNERAL, MARDUK, and 1349, and for them to like the album, what got them there, is basically just the intensity and the wild pace and all that. They're enjoying that and understand shit, you know, when an album like that and that kind of music hits them. Those that are more receptive to the more ambient and darker side of the band will perhaps get the album. Though many people are into it and I hear from people that find the album to be extremely underrated and it's their favorite album, I'm always happy when I hear that, because somehow I realize that they have understood something that many people have missed, and that we, ourselves care a lot about. But still, it was very much of an experiment, we always knew that it would meet harsh criticism from a lot of people and it's true that we don't really expect everybody to like it, but then, it makes a little more sense when I hear "Demonoir" because of the blend of the deeper, scarier darkness that you find on "Revelations" and the insane, insane brutality that you'd find on "Hellfire" and the earlier albums. That merging of the two worlds is something that we're going to keep focus on and yeah, that third category understands and appreciates the fact that there's something more to 1349 than just the race-like speeds and violence and brutality, but there are also people that do like that.

The Scream Queen: You obviously have so much passion towards black metal and music, how did your passion begin? And when did it?

Frost: I started to listen to that sort of music when I was 13-14, I guess, I had already been into hard music for a while. But I think I heard my first extreme metal albums when I was that age. I got my turntable and I think the first album I ever got was the first BATHORY album, which to me was enormous, that was also the first time that I actually realized that music could have something dark to it. It was puzzling me a little because I had gotten the album, I felt very drawn to you know the color and the pentagram on the back, kind of a weird feeling of it. I made a poster of it — I made use of a copy machine, just made a little poster, put it up on the wall, before I actually put on the album, I turned off the lights in my little cellar room, and listened to it. It felt so impressive, but I can't really you know find the right terms for it, I don't have the right vocabulary, and for a while, I was just generally interested in hard, fast extreme music. Back then, it wasn't really those genres between thrash metal and black metal and death metal. So, it was basically all speed metal or thrash metal; that is what it was called. But then I got to Euronymous's [Øystein Aarseth] shop in Oslo, for the first time, Helvete, I must've been 18, I guess, and something happened right there. And then with this room was dimly lit, painted in black, there were wax figures of people with capes, they were having bullet belts, there was like blood that was running from the eyes, and so on. It was part of something grotesque, they were using inverted crosses on the wall, things that were obviously stolen from churches and so on. And also those few people that seemed to be rather obscure figures and somehow, it just felt right. It was like I had wanted to see and feel all of that and the music that was being played in the shop and everything, it just connected very deeply within. And already as I walked out of the shop having bought a couple demo tapes and an album, perhaps, I felt that there was something for me here, and that would probably be there for the rest of my life. And I gradually started to get into it and follow that line of interest. There was like a door that had been opened to me and I went in and closed it, lost it, and threw away the key! (laughs)

The Scream Queen: How would you say 1349 has become stronger as a band over the years of being together?

Frost: Well, it has become stronger because we, that are members of 1349, have dedicated ourselves to the band to that extent and we, ourselves have grown with the band, we have gotten better at composing music, we have increased our technical musical skills and abilities and we have actively tried to learn from the process of recording albums and basically tried to bring resources into the band. That strict focus on always improving and getting better, bringing resources into the direction of the band has helped us a lot, and also the fact that we are pushing the level of ambition all the time. We feel when we have reached something that we have tried to achieve and put up new goals for ourselves that, you know, are a little more involving; never to rest on one's laurels and never be satisfied, having fans or formulas, whatever works. That's the way to success, at least in musical terms, if not otherwise.

Read the entire interview from The Scream Queen.