KREPUSKULUM - ELVIRA MADIGAN is a very, very strange naame. Who was ELVIRA MADIGAN? Did this person really exist??

Marcus - Elvira Madigan was a Swedish tightrope daancer who lived 1867 - 1889.She fell in love with a lieutenant by the name of Sixten Sparre. Mr. Sparre was married so they fled together to Denmark in order to not live in disgrace but was forced to return home after a few years due to their financial situation. Now, because he was a lieutenant and had fled from the country he served, he was deemed a deserter from the army and faced a lifelong sentence in jail. So instead of accepting this they both committed suicide while away on a picnic. Sixten Sparre shot his Elvira Madigan and then himself. And thats the basic story! There has been a classic film made by Bo Widerberg (named "Elvira Madigan") and there should be classical music made under the samme banner by Mozart. I simply took the name because it has a rather captivating story, doesn't really mean anything and because it's not in English. And it sounds quite strange but also very nice! ...And yes, I've actually not made her story up. It has all happened although Elvira Madigan was her stage name. Her real name was "Hedvig Antionette Isabella Elenora Jensen", but that's not realy a good name for a metal project eh??

ELVIRA MADIGAN is only you.Did you play in another bands before create E.M.?? Talk to us about ELVIRA MADIGAN band history.

I played in a death-metal band called Ethnocide in the early nineties and in a Heavy Metal band called Andalucia from 92-95. Both those bands didn't really accomplish much unfortuanly, but they helped in moulding me into the musician I am today. So cheers! The band Andalucia was practically responsible for me founding Elvira Madigan. Because of my experiences during those years I had no problem in deciding the direction I wanted to head towards from then on. The band was heavily ridden by different problems; such as finding new members whenever someone quit, motivation and at some extension also skills. The memebers also had much too different visions of what to do so compromises where plentyful and always ended up in some form of disbelief. After Andalucia split up I tried to find other members to work with but it was a rather fruitless hunt so I ended up in my own studio recording tracks with the sole intention of getting material off my mind and down on tape since I was practically bursting with ideas and visions. This was in 1998 and I was happy to find the recordings much better than I had expected (most of which can be found on the bonustrack section of the fullength "BlackArts"), so I started seriously thinking about doing everything by myself even in the future. And after having recorded the twelve tracks which make up the backbone of the CD "BlackArts" I thought I'd give my material six months to eventually land a deal before starting my own record-company. So in the late summer of 2000 I filed for a recordcompany under the name "Northlore Records" and since then I haven't even considered selling off ElviraMadigan to some other company. I have recently landed a licensing deal with a russian company though, but these kind of deals still leave my with all the artistic control I want without any external interferrence. The other companies can only license existing recordings and don't have any influence of what is to be recorded or not and this suits me just fine!! In December 2001 I released the opus "Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" which really set things rolling for ElviraMadigan and I couldn't be happier. It is extremely strange (but ever so satisfying) to get so wonderful reviews right next to major releases of large metal companies, bearing in mind the very small budget I work under, and the rather narrow paths I can take to reach those who might like this kind of music.

You are a great musician and the climates & melodies of "Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" are very beatiful and complex. Are you influenced by erudite & classic music?? Are you study classic music?? If yes, what are the best composers of musicīs history.

Thanks for the heartful praise! I am defenitely influenced by classical music. In fact I tend to build upp song structures and moods like classical or art music rather than Rock or Heavy Metal. It gets more interesting that way. I was so fed up just before starting ElviraMadigan with all these monotone songstructures that mostly doesn't leave much to the imagination. Never mind the genre but the magic recipe of making songs seems to be that of: verse - bridge - chorus - verse - bridge - chorus - solo - chorus x2 end. So I thought I'd do something that was to feel perfect only to my own mind.But anyway, in answer to your question: I haven't really studied any music. I've been extremely passionate about learning much though and all eventual "knowledge" or "skill" has been obtain by own hand. If I were to recommend classical music in general, then I prefer russian composers such as Prokofiev and Mussorgski. Mostly it seems gems can be found here and there around the world of classical music, so I don't really focus on particular composers. Another true recomendation I can give is the soundtrack of "Jacob's Ladder" composed by Maurice Jarre. Incredible classical interludes mixed with sheer and utter horror.

Beside the classic touches, your music are influenced by the new melodic black & death metal acts like CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR & IN FLAMES, Iīm right?? Do you like these bands?

I really liked Cradle of Filth up until and including Cruelty and the Beast. Unfortuanly I'm not such a sucker for their music after that but I can defenitly not deny that they have had a major impact on my general taste in Black Metal. Dimmu Borgir is also another fine act which has really improved from album to album. But I must confess to not listening much to their brand of very thick BM. When it comes to In Flames I know there are a few who have drawn lines between them and my music, which is rather strange since I (being rather un-patriotic here) don't care much at all for this NWOSDM (New Wave of Swedish Death Metal). I don't think it's fair for me to critizise them but let's just leave it at saying that it's not my kind of music at all.It mostly sound like Iron Maiden on some kind of strange drug.

The cover art and digipack of "Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" is really beautiful, the cover art was painted by the famous HEAVY METALīS comic illustrator LUIS ROYO. Was the image create exclusively by the ELVIRA MADIGAN cover or not? Do you have contact with Royo?

I basically contact his office and check wether an image I'm interested in is available or not (so no, the image has not been made specifically for ElviraMadigan), and then if possible I license it exclusively for the whole world. Unfortuanly I don't have any contact with Mr Royo himself. The office always wants to have a couple of copies once the production is finished so perhaps he has heard the CDs!

"Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" is a interesting conceptual album with a very curious history. Where come from the inspiration to write the history? If possible, resume the tale in brief words.

Even though it might seem like there is a collective story, there isn't. The CD:s concept spinns around the"Witches"subject in general and tells different stories of either prosecutions or made up tales. But there is no one great tale. I understood quite early in the recordingsessions that many songs would deal with witchburnings or have faerytales around bewitching women so I thought I'd have the entire CD move around the subject. Even the instrumental tracks are named according to the witch-hunts of medievil europe. And the title of the CD; "Salem (1692 vs 2001)" is actually very witty. Salem was 1692 in upstate New York known for its heavy witch prosecutions and there are many records from that period, and the funny thing is - I actually live in Salem in Sweden. So the "1692 vs 2001" refers to the witchburnings of New York as well as the date the CD was finished and released in Sweden! The concept of ElviraMadigan CD:s mostly include the music since melodies and riffs reappear in different songs. This is due to the artistic freedom I wanted ElviraMadigan to represent. I didn't want anything to tie me down creativelly or hinder me in any way so if I feel a riff or melody I've already used to fit very well in another song I basically just go with it as long as the result is convinsing. This is evident in all ElviraMadigan releases; from the first unreleased album "ElviraMadigan" (which has most of the tracks available as bonustracks on "BlackArts"), "BlackArts" and also "Witches...".

The Keyboards are great in the album and it is one of the most important things in the music climates, but the guitar riffs is great too. Talk to us about the creative process behind your musics.

Wooaaoh! This is a very heavy subject! Many songs I write might take up to six months in order to just get its' basic structure. At that point I mainly have the outlines of the tracks such as riffs and drums and perhaps a few melodies. As I start to record the song everything gets more or less rewritten, and there are huge amounts of details that needs to be thought of. I also like to improvise much and it makes the entire creative process very fun but also quite enduring since I naturally get stuck every now and then when I can't come up with an arrangment or melody that fits. But basically one might say that most of the tracks get more or less written while I record. But this is rather natural bearing in mind the fact that I can't really reherse. There is no particular order in which I record each instrument. But mostly, the guitars get layed down on tape pretty early (and sometimes re-recorded later on). Keyboards and Bass lines are then written and put down in order to follow the drums and the guitars. But as I said, there is no specific formula so this rule might have many exceptions. I mentioned that alot of the songs might take up to six months to write before I start recording, well the funny thing is that some tracks take only a few hours! One might get a creative impulse and get an entire track into mind only in one day. These songs are often shorter though or even instrumental (no monumental tracks of impressive lengths are written this fast). It is rather funny my songwriting might vary like this, since the result in no way gives this away. The ones written in short time does defenetly not sound just like something wrapped together quickly. As you might have notise; the songs have rather artistic and unorthodox songstructures (since they lack the basic arrangements of verses and choruses etc) and this fact is highly responsible for the long time of songwritings (whenever this is the case) since every song must get a highly original songstructure and identity. They are built up as compositions of their own and must never feel boring, but at the same time also not too strange or hard to understand. This demands a little more effort in the songwriting as well as creativity but feels so much more rewarding than if one settles for a more uninspiring structure.

Do you intend include another members in ELVIRAMADIGAN or the band is only you forever?

At this point in time there are no plans to make ElviraMadigan into a band with other members. I hope to have a few guest appearances (by friends who are unknown to the music-scene) just for fun. It is not impossible though that ElviraMadigan might become a band with the ability to perform live, but as I said... not in the near future.

In your opinion what are the 10 best albums of the heavy metal history and what are the 10 best bands now?

Whenever I get this question I get to list bands and artists that are not Metal, but since you ask for only Metal releases I guess we should stick to that.

Best albums in HM history (in no particular order):
Mekong Delta: Dances of Death (and other walking shadows)
Black Sabbath: The Headless Cross
WASP: WASP (the first album)
WASP: The Crimson Idol
Slayer: Seasons in the Abyss
Manowar: Kings of Metal
Sabbat: Dreamweaver
Deicide: Deicide
King Diamond: Them
King Diamond: Conspiracy

Best HM albums now:
Cradle of Filth: Vempire
Cradle of Filth: Dusk and her embrace
Anathema: An fine day to exit
Subway to Sally: Hochzeit
Manowar: Warriors of the World
Marduk: Panzer division Marduk
Shadow Gallery: Tyranny
Royal Hunt: Paradox
Ayreon: Into the Electric castle
Skyclad: The Answer Machine?

Did ELVIRAMADIGAN play gigs?

Nah, not yet. I played live in previous bands though.

What are the ELVIRAMADIGAN plans for the future?

There is so much that will happen in the future that I don't really know where to begin (much less know what to make official in order to "keep promises"). There are more or less two new CDs in recordingsessions right now. The first one to be released is a covers album and the second a true concept piece with also the lyrics telling ONE story instead of several smaller ones. The reason for putting out the covers CD is basically because the concept CD will take at least two and a half years as it needs loads of preproduction, and it wouldn't be wise to have such a huge gap in time after "Witches..." and "the next CD". So a covers album was a perfect solution as I've always wanted to release one anyway. I'm working on my first professional photoshooting with the making of props. And I'm still overseeing the possibilities of some very nice merchandise. The problem here is that I have almost too high standards for my budget but this is due to the fact that I don't want to put out anything that is less than perfect. It's rather pointless otherwise... Apart from this, "Witches..." is to be released in all former Soviet states under another label, and I've also got a new distributor all over Portugal! So I bet there are even more things to come. So let's all wait and see.

Thank you for the interview. Give the last words to the ELVIRAMADIGAN south american fans.

Well, thanks for your time everyone! I really hope all of You who are truly passionate about creative music and dares to look further than the new generation of Power Metal that basically just pours out of every single metal label today, dares to check out this little lady called "ElviraMadigan". For she is truly dripping of passion to share her art with You! Cheers!