“In the trembling hand of tomorrow.”
Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. Dobbin chatted to Jan Even Åsli of Vemod at Fortress Festival 2024 just after their set. Cover image by Acidolka (website/Facebook/Instagram).
Dobbin: Welcome to the UK. It’s really cool to have you over. I have to say, I was delighted when I saw that the mod were coming back with an album because it really brought me back to your catalogue. Have you had a good time playing Fortress Festival?
Jan Even Åsli: Yes, it was very, very good. Very happy with the sound and with everyone working here. It was excellent in every way, and we’ve always had great experiences playing in the UK. Very attentive and respectful audiences who really enjoy music here.
Dobbin: They really were attentive. When you played the title trackfrom Venter På Stormene, there was a lovely pause for the keyboard part. Nobody clapped, people stayed quiet, they could tell it wasn’t over even if they hadn’t heard it before. How do you feel about Venter På Stormene 12 years on? It’s aged really well and was released at a fantastic time for the genre.
Åsli: I think that all of us feel really good about that album and it turned out exactly the way that we wanted it to be. We had we had a clear idea about what we wanted to do back then and I think we succeeded on our own terms. We still enjoy it very much, and I think it stands very well on its own in our very short discography. In the context of the new album, even though they are not very similar, there is a kinship, for sure. It’s nostalgic for me by now, I have very fond memories of making it and performing it. One of the great things about time is that you add so many memories and associations to the mix, and that deepens the relationship with an album, an artist, or piece of music. I really like that, the experience gets even richer with time.
Dobbin: There’s something about whatever this “Fortress Fest”-type music that we have here. There’s almost an immediate sense of nostalgia. There’s a comfort one can take in these songs that we hear – they fit like a glove. Vemod is very good at doing those kinds of songs where you you listen to it, and you even if you arrive half way through a song, you can tell you’re half way through a journey.
Åsli: Thank you for that, that’s a good point. I haven’t been to Fortress Festival before, but it seems very well curated for that sort of experience, so we are very, very happy to be here.
Dobbin: One of the things I really love about Vemod are the dynamics and quiet moments. It’s given a lot of time alongside the heavy moments, and it’s that balance that makes the music really compelling. Particularly on “Altets Tempel”, which is just a fully tranquil track, it’s beautiful. I think, increasingly, people are coming to that kind of sound more and more, even though it’s a bit ‘old’ – you were ahead of your time in a strange way.
Åsli: We have no control over that, obviously, but that’s that’s a good observation, it’s fun that it has turned on that way. As to the dynamic between calmer moments, our music is calm, in a sense, but of course, there’s blast beats and they’re all the black metal influence. For me, both ends of the spectrum are equally important. I know that some listeners will prefer one or the other; usually, the, the metal stuff is most immediate. So, it’s not for everyone that we put so much ambience or low-key moments in there, and I totally understand that.
Åsli: To me, that is the sort of music I want to be working with, and also the sort of music I enjoy myself. I like to listen from like to an album all the way through, to have an experience and go on a journey. You need highs and lows in that process, and it’s the only natural way for me to make music in this band. With that first record, “Altets Tempel” is a long ambient track, and the structure and the chronology of the album was very thought through from our side. I think it still works, and for the new album The Deepening we really developed that concept of a journey on it.
Dobbin: On the new album the production is fantastic, and the ambience you brought to that is a bit different. It’s very much defined by these sort of choral voices, and you brought that very much in the live set. What led you to make you use that as the atmospheric voice on the new album?
Åsli: There are several aspects to that. I think one of them is that there is a very deep human theme on this album. Has to do with emotions and experiences that are very fundamental to the human experience on the deepest level. Since it has this underlying theme it makes sense to use the voice as an instrument, and also to add ambience with the voice as to give life to theme and to those things that are going on within. It also marries that with the landscapes both within and without.So I thought it makes sense in that way. Also, choral voices are a natural sort of musical challenge. We listen to a lot of music with with vocals like that, is really is an eternal sound. For example, Dead Can Dance are one of my favourite bands. I never want to try to do what they are doing, but there is always that inspiration that makes me want to use my voice in a certain way, and express emotion in that way.
Dobbin: Speaking of your voice, the lyrics on The Deepening are a mix of English and Norwegian. The themes strike me as being a personal reflection on the human condition, looking inwards, and nature is used as a reference point for this. What is the album about to you?
Åsli: First of all, regarding the languages, I think it’s the simple answer is that during that time when we started to work on this album, I read a lot of fiction and poetry in English, and I just found it natural for me at the time to try my hand. There’s something about the sort of stylistic mix and overall atmosphere of this particular work that has a very ‘universal’ feeling for me. It makes sense to use the most Universal language that we have. In addition, Norwegian is my mother tongue and I prefer to to express myself at least poetically through Norwegian. I think it’s a lot of potential in the Norwegian language, in the context of metal music, or the sort of music that we do. It’s been done, but it has not been done in quite the way that I want to do it.
Åsli: The meaning of The Deepening has to do with this innermost aspects of the human condition. It goes back to the meaning of the band name, Vemod. It’s a Norwegian word that’s not easy to translate into English. It describes a kind of a melancholy or sadness for something that’s passed. But within it, it also has the potential for pulling through – when something ends, something new beings. These are general themes that have always been a part of what we’re doing, but in this album, it felt right to go even deeper. Pun intended. When you hold something to be true and you’re challenged, you gain new insights and your world view falls apart, or perhaps your life changes and you feel completely different. This is something everyone goes through, and it can feel terrifying and painful, but it’s also beautiful. We try to express all of those things in this album, which is a big ask.
Dobbin: On The Deepening,“Inn I lysande natt” is an instrumental near the end of the record, and I thought it was really cool. Is there a story behind the song? When you finish listening to the album, even though you’ve heard the title track at the end, I find myself still thinking about that riff.
Åsli: It was one of those days actually, where I got out early, had my coffee – it was a day off from my normal job, so I it was a music day. I sat down with the guitar made that lead riff. I just recorded it and then immediately it looped it and yeah, immediately came up with the chords the progressions, and I just thought, this is catchy. I didn’t think more about it, but I brought it to the other guys when we rehearsed I think the day after and they really liked it. So we started jamming and the bass line and rhythmical playfulness followed. It’s almost almost disco with the pulse of punk at certain points, there’s all kinds of references in the track. We thought about where it would fit in the album and made it even more dynamic and stylistic. For the structure of the album, it really turned out to be a good addition.
Dobbin: Would you play it live?
Åsli: We really wanted to play it today, but it’s so hard with Vemod to play 40 minutes. Maybe next time. We get a great response to it when we play it, it will stay in the live set for a while.
Dobbin: Normally we ask bands to shout out other bands at the end of an interview, but I figured for this festival, since so many of the bands have a connection to nature in their music, I wanted to ask you if there’s a specific natural location or area which is meaningful for your music.
Åsli: When people think of Norway, I think they they see images of all the very extraordinary fjords and the peaks and all that stuff. We are from right in the middle of the country, north of Trondheim, and it’s a more subtle landscape. Rolling hills, forested hills – we have fjords, but not spectacular ones like in the west. I think you can almost I feel it in our music, the subtle dynamics remind me of those soft rolling hills that I’ve grown up in. It has always been a special place for me and a place I still seek to when writing music. Where I come from that is very underappreciated landscape, no tourists ever come, but it’s a very beautiful place. I wish people more people appreciated it and came. I think it has certain qualities that are good for the soul.
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