CROWHEAD Interview

 

Norwegian CROWHEAD  already born with a mark of the Gods, the band is simple incredible for all lovers of the electro-gothic dark wave rock´n´heavy, the ethereal and deep debut album named FROZEN, released by the great label MY KINGDOM MUSIC, is a masterpiece of the genre an CD to listen dozens of times to fell the cold and sweet touch of human solitudenes. The line up is only Jo-Inge Slangsvold (vocals) & Oyvind Trinborg (guitars) but this emotive debut count with the guest musicians Ted Skogmann (drums & guitars) and Fredrik Darum (synths & guitars). KREPUSKULUM interview Jo-Inge Slangsvold (vocals).  

 

KREPUSKULUM: Talk to us a little about the CROWHEAD tragectory. What is the reason to play this kind of music (gothic dark wave)?

Jo-I: We just make the music like this, and we don’t try to make it in a particular genre. We do like slow drums, and heavy guitars.  We use to say that Crowhead make depressive rock, with some electro metal beside. Frozen is Crowhead’s debut cd, and we tried to make the cd with different kind of melodies/songs. I guess we like to use a wide array, also in the future.

FROZEN is marvelous, a perfect album, with dozens of textures, rythms, feelings. It is dark sometimes but is sweet for another times. Are you sad people? Where come from the inspiration to create this deep sounds.

 

Thanks for the album comments! Well, we are not running around smiling all the day, I guess life has a lot of blue sides. But we are not “sad people”- We try to find good melodies, and make a mix between dark and also sweet parts in the Crowhead songs. 

 

 

 

 

 

And it’s a lot of sorrow in the world, and the world need people need music to exist. Negative and negative make sometimes positive...

All atmosphere of the album sound like  a kind of eternal lost, the lost of the love, as in the beautiful “My Angel” (when I can listen: “I seek you in heaven, I seek you in Hell, cause you forgot to say goodbye”) and in “Eternity (Drums of Love)” ( you sing “kill you in the name of love”). Do you believe in love? Are these lyrics based in real experiences of your lifes?

Some of the lyrics are based on real life experiences, other are made out of stories we feel close, during the different parts in a life. The song “My angel” means a lot for me. Its about my best friend, she past away in a cold winter day, some years ago.  If you go to “eternity” you can find more of the feelings of lost love.  Do I believe in love?  Well, I cannot exist without, so I guess I do.

The keyboards & synths are strong elements of your music and they sound very progressive sometimes, remember acts like PINK FLOYD and THE MISSION, are you influenced by these bands?

One of my favourite bands is The Mission, so it could be we got some influence from them. 

The other references for CROWHEAD sound are, in my opinion, the neo dark wave icons like  TIAMAT & SAMAEL. Am I right?

If so are, I guess they also use to listen to bands like The Cure, Sisters of mercy, Joy division, Mission, we get some of the inspiration, because I don’t know much about the bands you mention. I think I know one song with Tiamat, from a sampler cd, but that’s all.

Songs like the deep “Fire Eye” have and heavy groove but they mix it with an extreme melodic sense, creating a kind of  gothic heavy pop that I believe will like a great number of metal/gothic & poprock fans…Is it an objective to your music? Talk to us about your creative process?

We like to break up the songs with some melodic parts, it make the songs more interesting, and makes more life in the music. The fire eye song was made in 3-4 versoins before we chose the kill you version.

Do you listen other kind of music, like black or death metal? Wath do you think about the famous Black metal norwegian scene?

I know Rym listen to black and death metal, personally I don’t listen to bands or music like that.

The cover artwork of FROZEN remember very much the cover art of new doom metal bands (photomix of church & stone peoples…),  the music of the album is fabulous, personal and creative, the media release of My Kingdom Music is creative too, but the cover is very common, not bad, but very similar to dozens of CD covers (the media release of My Kingdom Music is creative). Do you agree with me?

I do like the cover we got on the frozen album, I think it fits perfect to the idea behind the frozen songs. The picture (sculpture "Delmas" Grave - 1909) is from a story that melts into the songs we got on this cd. But I agree if its very similar to a lot of other cd we maybe should do it another way. 

In your opinion what are the best 10 albums of the gothic/darkwave history? And now, what are the 10 best bands?

The Cure-- Pornography

The Cure --Seventeen Seconds          

The sisters of mercy--First and Last and Always

The Cult --Love

Joy division --Unknown pleasures

Joy division --Closer

The Mission--God's Own Medicine

Swans--Children Of God

Type o Negative --October rust

Fields of the Nephilim --Earth Inferno  

 

The 4 best bands now… Rammstein, The Cure, Type o Negative, The Mission

6 good bands from Norway: Apoptygma Berzerk, Zeromancer, Red harvest, The Kovenant, Tristania, and Icon of coil

What are the plans of CROWHEAD to a FROZEN tour?

We are talking about some concerts, and hopefully a tour, but that’s not for sure yet. We also are working on some new songs, for a mini cd or maybe a full length. 

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Contacts: band - crowhead@c2i.net   / www.crowhead.com       label - My Kingdom Music info@mykingdommusic.net