A: First is, what is the band doing these days?
N: We are currently recording a pre-production demo at our rehearsal room for the next full-length album in addition to working on details in the music that hasn’t been settled yet. We recorded 6 songs, and 4 more are still in writing mode, but soon ready. We do this to get an overlook and to compare the songs to each other “what do we need”, “what's missing or what's too much here and there”, we're simply analyzing the songs and try to get them as ready as possible before we enter the studio this fall to do the next album. Apart from this work, we have a lot of gigs this summer so it will take up a lot of our time, even rehearsal time.
Also, there are all kinds of projects and planning going on –and our brand new website will soon be up!!
A: I understood there’s a new video for the band; tell us about it, and the process of making it.
N: We just released and got our newest video presented on Norway's biggest TV channel. Our first video “Through Osiri´s Eyes” got so popular in this metal video show that ran for several times a week. That's pretty good being a metal band on a commercial channel! So we decided to make a video a little lesser “concept based” (as the first one) with clips from our festival jobs last summer and some cool and funny clips of ourselves, fans in addition to the “ground line” of the band which were done in Y-Not production (the video company)´s recording studios in Norway. The result came out very good we think and it captures a lot of the essence in our music, our personalities and a lot of the great and cool things we have been experiencing together. It's more like a “presentation” of the band with lots of action, humor and cool clips. What we did was to record the basic playback shots first, then we searched in lots of video tapes and pictures we had taken while travelling around and added those to the video.
A: Your re-releasing your debut album, what are the reasons for re-releasing it, and what will be the changes made in it?
N: Hey, I'm lazy, so I'm pasting the re-release promo info in here fo-yo-all to read!:
After the success with their second album “Celestial Entrance” the more hard-to-find first
release from the Norwegian progmetallers “Infinity Divine” is now being re-released on Limb Music.
“The first album suffered from problems in the mixing and recording process”, says guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad. “At the time there were too little time to be picky about details because we had a deadline to keep”. The fact that the band really got together just three weeks before the
recording didn´t help out either. Most songs, except for the more epic “A New Beginning” which were written only two weeks before the recording were already written by Nils K. Rue, Stian Kristoffersen and Thorstein Aaby (ex-second guitarist) before Jorn Viggo Lofstad, Steinar Krokmo and Ronny Tegner joined in as full band members. The time-pressure and also the techical
problems we suffered made this release in the band´s opinion not a full worthy image of what Pagan´s Mind stand for today.
The interest for the first album however, increased enormously after the 2002 success release “Celestial Entrance”, and Limb Music wanted to reissue this first album. Doing a compromise, the band agreed with their label that the original recordings had to be edited, re-mixed and freshened up in order to represent the quality for which Pagan´s Mind stand for today. All vocal lines were re-recorded, the original songs were clipped and edited so some extent and two newly recorded bonus tracks were added.
The two bonus tracks which were added is a 2004-version of the song “Embracing Fear” which also appears on the record in its original form, with an different arrangement similar to how the band performs the song live today. A cover version of the King Diamond song “At The Graves” taken from the classic album “Conspiracy” from 1989 were recorded and contains solo guest appearances by Glen Drover (ex-King Diamond, Eidolon) and Gus G. (Firewind, Dream Evil, Mystic Prophecy). Having heard this version, King Diamond manager Ole Bang stated this: “Impressive work, it's almost as hearing the King himself!”
A: What do the band’s lyrics deal with? They seem to be very Science fiction oriented.
N: Yup, I write all the lyrics and also stand for the concepts and ideas around them. I have always been very interested in “the unknown” and the use of terminology in lyrics is very important to me, because that creates the poetic touch to it whom I believe adds the right "sophisticated" feel to it. English is a language with such many words to describe one single thing, and I prefer using a term with class to it rather than the "simple" ones.
The concept are based on mysticism, ethereal questions in space and time, alternative ways of philosophy around questions about life. In general we try to add an sophisticated "overlooking" way of expressing the concept and lyrics, never "telling anyone"....it's like it's up to everyone to figure out for themselves what the lyrics may contain and if they mean something to the individual listener. "Celestial Entrance" is partly a concept-album inspired by questions around extra-terrestrial life, parallel dimensions and the fact that human beings have been seeing strange objects in the sky for thousands of years......and still ignoring them.
I have to speak for myself when it comes to personal interest in these topics though, everybody in the band has different opinions on this and that, but since I write lyrics and concept, you will notice some of my own personal beliefs and ideas. I have been interested in different aspects of mysticism since I was a little boy, and think I always will be. I have experienced several strange episodes during my life, and some of those inspire me when I write lyrics. I am personally convinced that we can't see everything around us. We can't see electricity, but it exists. We can't see radio waves either, but that also exists. Either way I think these topics are an very exciting deep well of inspiration. Note that I personally prefer the "positive powers", though I can write and sing/express all aspects of them!
A: The band’s sudden success was overwhelming, when celestial entrance came out the progressive metal world actually shook, was the band surprised of the reaction?
N: Sort of and sort of not. The fact that we are all people with our feet firmly planted on the ground has made us just want to work harder even though the feedback these last two years has been tremendous. We got a “firestart” with CE and it has been such fun. Being as privileged as I am working together with such fantastic musicians as my friends in Pagan's Mind is the best that could happen to me and I believe this band really has no limits whatsoever – the technical skill together with our vision on this band makes we believe we could go far, very far! We were very satisfied with the result after the mix and had great hopes for it, but actually some of the feedback we have received has been a “pleasant shock”. We are truly grateful to all of those who have supported and helped us so far bringing Pagan's Mind to the masses.
A: Tell us about the beginning of the band, I understood three of you we’re in a prior group.
N: It all started with the band Silverspoon. That was the band me, Stian and Thorstein played in before we started up Pagan's Mind. We actually played in that band for almost 7 years together - never being especially professional about it before the "Sink Or Swim" release, we did gigs now and then, had a KISS-cover band doing kiss songs with the same members from time to time, did some jobs here in Norway without the great success. The music style was inspired by 80' s "LA"-rock and metal. Some thought it sounded like a crossover between Dokken, Lillian Axe and likewise. It wasn't before the release of the album (Sink Or Swim) we got an offer from a small label here in Norway on a contract. We had at the time already in mind to change the musical style to more heavy and progressive stuff (you can sense the changing musical style already on the first song on the album - this later on became "Entrance Stargate" from Celestial Entrance actually!) We thought that one was a really good song by the way. The album was self-financed and was intended to be a sort of "professional demo", as we were being tired of being put down by all the metal labels all the time and wanted to get some attention. It did, and something really good came out of it, the contract with the Norwegian label and the release of the first Pagan's Mind album resulted directly in the collaboration with Limb Music.
A: The band combines different musical elements, including in your vocals, which are melodic most of the time, that reminded me of James LaBrie and Jeoff Tate, yet go to harsher, more aggressive parts at times, what bands influence your work, and what vocalists?
N: Music is feelings, and should express different moods in the expression when playing it. Personally I prefer the idea of (big) contrasts in music, because it adds an exciting touch for the listener, the horizon and musical landscape/universe just gets vaster and bigger. The idea of one being able to "cry and laugh" throughout an album is for me very right, when I really dig a band or album there are usually many different moods represented. I'm really what you can call a guy with strong feelings, and I love to be able to express just them through the music. Explaining vocal techniques who are making me able to express just those different moods can easily get to long for an interview - it's an learning process that usually takes years but when you first are being to able to do it comes naturally with the feelings inside of you. I just have to put myself in the right mood before doing a specific part, then it comes naturally for me. For instance, before a concert, I maybe have to "recall" certain moments in my life, ideas and attitudes and bring them with me on the stage, then I'm being able to express myself in the right matter. I think that goes for a lot of vocalists, you really have to "expose your spirit and soul" to do that instrument good.
Geoff Tate together with Midnight (Crimson Glory) must be my all-time favorite vocalists I think when it comes to technique. On the “expression” side, King Diamond has given me a lot of inspiration. “Newcomers” that really impress me are for instance Daniel Heiman from the Swedish band Lost Horizon. He's the best I have heard in “modern times” and totally kicks ass. Being a vocalist myself I know what's hard and what's not and I know what impresses me the most when I hear a vocalist – even if other people may not appreciate the sound of some.
A: Pagan’s mind is mainly known as a progressive metal band, but there are strong melodic elements that prevent the songs from sounding like just overly complex virtuoso playing, what is the band’s goal when writing down the tracks, and what is the process of writing the material?
N: We could of course just end up like some over-technical super-progged band and just play “psycho-jazz-metal” if we wanted – that would be no problem if that was our goal, the technical skills are most certainly there. But why should we do that just in order to convince? We want to play a mix ,up between the styles we love and give the listener “something to put the coat on” – anyway, the overall importance in PM is MELODIES. Music IS melody, not just weird rhythm patterns, and without it I don't get the point in music. Melody gives us something, and the listener something. We believe that's a great recipe combining what we want to do and at the same time reach the listener.
This band is at times a mix-up of very different personalities, all with the gift of "creative overkill", to be honest we ditched about 80% of the riffs and ideas before shaping and building the song structures on Celestial Entrance. There are powers within the band (as for instance Ronny) that are educated professionally in music, and that helps out a lot. I don't think there are a lot of bands using a blackboard on the rehearsal studio, ha ha! We build the song structures up piece by piece and very little is coincidental. That really is the only way to make this kind of music work properly and sound good at the same time. If we manage to create in this matter and pace, it would be great, but I also believe you always have to work and try harder to maintain a good band and not "losing". I don't fear that at all in this band because like I said everybody has such good ideas all the time, and with the internal high sense of criticism upon ourselves I think we will be able to ditch and sort out the worst "used-before" riffs and ideas till next time as well. Having said that, I have worked hard of course with the vocal lines and the lyrics, and in my opinion that is the only way to make things work out good. We're really an ambitious bunch of guys, and no one is of the opinion that things ever come for free. Hard work and aiming the right goals, "thinking like a winner" makes this band inspiring and fun to be part of.
A: I understood you are a multi instrumentalist apart from being a vocalist, does that serve you when participating in writing the songs?
N: Well it does, but lately I have concentrated more and more on the vocals. I happen to record some songs, riffs or song ideas in my homes studio recording guitars, drums and bass and present them to the band. But the last year more and more song ideas have come out in the rehearsal room, and the need for me to record such stuff isn't really there so much in PM. But in other projects they still are, and with for instance with my coming work with Eidolon, some of my ideas might be used. Of course when discussing and writing music together with the other band mates it is important to be able to conversate on a mutual musical language, and then being a multi instrumentalist of course helps.
A: The last album was released through LIMB, what are your impressions of the label in the meantime?
N: Limb has treated us fairly so far and we hope working together with them makes us being able to push Pagan´s Mind further up the popularity scale. They have a good network and think they are pleasantly surprised with our success and hard work. We have great visions for this band and we hope and believe that Limb has the same goals. The thing is we won't make anything stop us anyway!
A: What live gigs the band did we’re the most memorable?
N: So far I have to say last year's participation on Sweden Rock Festival and the Prog Power Festival in Atlanta, US. Just fantastic experiences!
A: Any chance of seeing the band perform is Israel in the near future?
N: Hopefully!! We are making plans for a European tour within the coming year together with a bigger band. We would be grateful to be able to play in Israel!
Thanks for answering my questions!
Alon Miasnikov
