interview by: Roberto Martinelli

Without Darkthrone, there would be no necro black metal genre. Simple as that. So it was a treat to be able to officially interview Fenriz, half of the driving force behind this seminal Norwegian group.

For those who haven't met the man, Fenriz is known for being as goofy as his image is supposed to be evil. He’s into electronica and the Simpsons. Start talking to him about either and you’re in. Don’t ask him about why his band doesn’t play live though, hear?

Fenriz: mmmmMMMMMMMMMMhello!

Maelstrom: Hi, Fenriz.

Fenriz: Hi, Roberto.

Maelstrom: How’s it going?

Fenriz: Not bad. Drinking cider in the office.

Maelstrom: Nice. It was a really fun experience traveling through Oslo and meeting you at the Elm Street bar. My impression of you is that you really enjoy having all these people come up and give you adulation.

Fenriz: Hehehahaha! He, well, ok, maybe I was cheery that day. It depends on how many beers I had thrown down.

Maelstrom: You were showing me your lyrics, which I think were from Ravishing Grimness, or maybe they were from one of your Isengard records.

Fenriz: Probably not. Probably Ravishing Grimness.

Maelstrom: I was reading on your website that those lyrics scared you. What do you mean?

Fenriz: Well, it’s even more scary on this one. Then again, it’s not supposed to be a pleasant thing to read my lyrics, be it anyone, Satanists, Christians or myself. I kick in all directions, and I kick myself most of all.

Maelstrom: I have to say that I like the lyrics on Hate Them even more than I like the music.

Fenriz: Hahaha!

Maelstrom: And by that I mean that I like the lyrics a lot.

Fenriz: It’s good to know that someone cares; I put so much work into it. I’m still not talking about what they mean, or anything. If I met Tom G. Warrior, I’d never ask him, “what do you mean with this line?”

Maelstrom: Well, I wonder if I could ask you this one, then?

Fenriz: Ok. Drum roll! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr...bom!

Maelstrom: You mention black metal a few times on the record. Do you think that black metal still has to be justified?

Fenriz: Did it ever?

Maelstrom: You tell me.

Fenriz: Well, maybe I have to justify that black metal can sound like us to people who are new to this whole black metal thing, and they think that black metal is something symphonic or folkish. Apart from that, what do I care? I just care about black metal. I don’t care about trying to justify it so much. It was right then and there to do those lines.

Maelstrom: A couple artists have come though your area and have done some work with you. One was Peter Beste, who took some photos of you (check out our interview with Beste here). And Aaron Aites did a documentary about black metal, largely featuring you.

Fenriz: Aaron and Audrey, yeah.

Maelstrom: What was that like? Have you seen the film?

Fenriz: You know, I really don’t like to watch myself on camera. When I’m on national TV, I just go to the bar and wait till it’s over.

Maelstrom: Hahahaha! How often are you on national TV?

Fenriz: Not that often, but when I am, it’s like, I don’t want to see. It’s bothersome for interviewers because they’re always asking about it, and I’m going, “I didn’t even fucking see it.” And they’re like, “duuhhh!” Hahaha. Too fucking bad! What, do they think I just think about myself all the time?

Maelstrom: But I would think that you quite like being the center of attention at the bar. People know where to find you, and you’re there.

Fenriz: I think you’ve got that all wrong. Yesterday, when I was in the forest, I told the person I was with that in the next life, I’m going to choose not to have a career. Only just have a job. It’s taking its toll, man! It’s just gonna get worse! Haha! You talk to anyone in my position and they’ll say the same thing, I guess.

Maelstrom: How do you mean, it’s going to get worse?

Fenriz: Just look at John Cleese, who said that when something is recognized, at first it’s nice, but then it starts to kill itself. It turns on ya! Everyone knows going into the gate that you sell a little bit of yourself.

Maelstrom: Do you think it’s started to kill itself already?

Fenriz: I think it’s been doing that for a long time.

I’m just amazed that you had that point of view that I gave you that time.

Maelstrom: Well, yeah. You were a real pleasant guy. You were really funny, and I enjoyed talking to you.

Fenriz: You know, when people come up to you and start talking, and then #2 comes up and starts talking, and they just focus on the one person they want to talk to? (My record is having four people talking to me at once) Number four didn’t understand that there were three people talking to me already. You know how annoying that is? It’s unbelievable, man! I can only listen to one or two persons at the same time. And half of the people just want to know why I don’t play live. Let’s say a sober estimate of how many times I’ve been asked that question is 2,500 times. And that, dear sir, is really starting to take its toll.

Maelstrom: The new record is called Hate Them. Who’s them?

Fenriz: Oh, *them*? Yeah. Well, who do you hate?

Maelstrom: Not that many people, really.

Fenriz: You see? No one wants to come out. I have a list:

I hate the people that make the long sleeves that look like they were made by an eight year old designer. Like, the logo eight times down the sleeve. You know what I’m saying? Who the fuck...? How old are these people? It’s like what you did when you sat in school and just wrote “Kiss, Kiss, Kiss.”

I hate the people that designed the subways that we have in Oslo. They want people to sit and face each other. I wonder how that would be if it happened in New York?

Basically, what I can say is, everyone knows that I hate the driving factory in extreme metal.

Maelstrom: Is “fun” still a dirty word in Norwegian black metal?

Fenriz: There is a time and place for everything, but the music and the lyrics will have to have some sort of standard and aesthetic to come across as anything serious. So you can’t have “fun” in that aspect. But I can still have fun in interviews, ‘cause it’s a dirty job and I’m not going to have a bad time doing it. I do a steady job and I do even more work when I do interviews.

Maelstrom: It’s remarkable that for a long time you weren’t doing interviews, and then you did hundreds and hundreds. Was there anything that changed within you?

Fenriz: Well, one rather reflective view on that is, there were so many rumors from ‘92 to ‘98. Darkthrone started living its own life, with all the rumors. So then we had a chance to put things straight, give people the low down on what we think and what our intentions are, rather than some weirdo guy writing about us on the net, and we can’t have any voice at all.

People are misunderstanding everything that’s extreme. Just look at what happened to punk. The same thing happened with black metal. It starts to be a fashion thing. People can just buy into the package; they don’t have to think for themselves. “Ok, that’s how I want to look. That’s what I want my life to be from now on.” It can change in a day. Sweet, huh? Hahahahaha! That’s Satan, man! The all-mighty dollar!

Maelstrom: One of my favorite quotes from interviews that you’ve done is that you’re “like Rain Man.”

Fenriz: I need a maze. If I’m out of my maze, I feel really bad. If don’t like to leave Oslo. I’m a bit autistic when it comes to habits. You know, I’m not a fucking idiot, either. We’ve had 12 consistent years of networking in the Oslo rock scene, you end up having a certain social intelligence.

Maelstrom: You’re like a rat.

Fenriz: Yeah. Like Cartman (does Cartman impression). I’m out looking for that piece of cheese, man.

Maelstrom: What’s the piece of cheese?

Fenriz: It could be anything. It could be the cider I’m drinking now. It’s not fame. The piece of cheese could be something like what the band Dead Moon has: it’s called “credibility.”

Maelstrom: Do you think you’ll ever release a techno record?

Fenriz: No. When you start playing metal (and I’ve been listening to metal since I was three and listening to a Uriah Heep record. When I was five, I was looking at Mick Box on the cover. He had lots of belts. I made belts out of paper and stood in front of the record player listening to that. I never found anything as heavy as that until “The Thing that Should not Be” of Metallica, and that was 12 years later.) You sort of think, “how the hell do they play this shit? How do they get this sound?” Then you start playing metal yourself, and you start to lose the magic. It’s gone.

I started getting into techno in ‘92, all that Chicago house stuff. Then I thought, “this is gonna be huge.” After three years, I was still into it. I thought, “ok, I’m not gonna ruin this magic as well.” I learned just how to work the turntables.

Maelstrom: Wow. I can totally connect with what you’re saying about ruining the magic. It reminds me of some thing I read once about a little boy being able to run along the edge of a fence only because he didn’t understand the principle of gravity.

I remember you getting animated over how there’s a techno underground and how people don’t understand that.

Fenriz: Yeah, when I say to metal people that I listen to techno, they go, “oh, yeah! I really like Gabba!” It has no soul in it. They don’t understand at all. I don’t blame them, though.

Maelstrom: So what are you talking about, then? Tell us about stuff you really like. There is some good techno out there. I don’t know if it’s correct to consider Aphex Twin techno, or if it’s really good, but I think it is.

Fenriz: Yeah, well, you have to call them techno, but he’s really left field, what we call that style. I listen to fifteen of the sub-genres of what we’ll call techno, but that also includes house. When I DJ, I play between 20-25 styles.

Maelstrom: So who are the coolest artists?

Fenriz: That’s too many to mention. I’ve been listening to it for 11 years. But I’ve got a Plastic Man tattoo - Richie Halton. Everyone should know who that guy is.

Maelstrom: I remember that you had quite a few cut marks on your arms. Do you still cut yourself?

Fenriz: Well....I’d sure like to, but I don’t listen to that much of the classic black metal now. I started listening to some of the stuff I didn’t get around to listening to in the ‘80s.

Maelstrom: Like what?

Fenriz: Necrovore, Volcano from South America. The first Onslaught album, goddammit.

Maelstrom: Yeah, the cover has a demon coming out of a pentagram.

Fenriz: Yeah, what a wet teenage dream! Hahahahah!

Maelstrom: So you’re saying that the whole cutting thing was when you were listening to a specific type of music?

Fenriz: No, specific parts of songs are great. Instead of people dancing to a particular song, you would cut yourself to a particular riff. Like one riff from Tormentor, several parts of Bathory.

Maelstrom: Did that heighten the experience for you?

Fenriz: I don’t know. It was just something I had to do. Then it started to become a trend.

Maelstrom: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say.

Fenriz: People probably have different reasons. With musical styles, people have different outlooks on what the whole aesthetic is all about.

Maelstrom: I read on your site that you already have two songs for your next record, called Sardonic Wrath.

Fenriz: Yeah, how 80s is that title, huh? It’s sardonic. Get your head around it. It’s a pretty nifty word. Haha!

Maelstrom: It’s remarkable that you’ve become sort of a machine with your records, whereas for a while, as you know, the rumor was that Darkthrone was done.

Fenriz: You know what? Nocturno Culto is on top of things, man. He’s the one wearing the “TCB” (taking care of business) on his buckle belt, know what I’m saying. He’s been amazing in the last five years. He’s an eager beaver when it comes to song writing, as he is with playing his instrument. He likes playing it. I hate playing mine.

Maelstrom: So, why do you do it?

Fenriz: ....well, why do you go to work? Huhuhuh.

Maelstrom: Well, because you need the money.

Fenriz: I go to work to listen to music. I hate EVERYTHING in this entire fucking process, except writing lyrics. Being in the studio is a nerve wracking experience. Getting the final product together, that’s what it’s all about.

Maelstrom: And that’s what you like.

Fenriz: Yeah. I don’t especially admire people who enjoy playing their instruments. What the hell is that? That’s like a fucking sweet holiday for them; for me, it’s fucking terror.

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