Mortiis - Interview (2021)

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Published on Monday, 18 October 2021 21:57

"Joined Emperor in 1991. Fired from Emperor on the grounds of a "bad attitude" in late 1992. Formed Mortiis next day", it's written on Mortiis' Bandcamp site. And Mortiis created the dungeon synth! I guess you all know the story. One of the most important, influential and intriguing acts inside the Norwegian and European dark music scene must be Mortiis. Mortiis went through many transmutations throughout his career. By many, the most important part of Mortiis' musical path and most influential is the, how he calls it, Era 1.  Albums like Ånden som Gjorde Opprør, Keiser Av En Dimensjon Ukjent, Crypt Of The Wizard and the stunning The Stargate are considered classics of the dungeon synth genre. He is weirding out the music industry with his prosthetic mask. Then Mortiis became a band, and the band died. Broke ribs, dreams and industry shackles, but remained free... Mortiis is back, and he is rediscovering the dungeon synth music. At the beginning of 2020, he released a masterpiece Spirit Of Rebellion, a re-interpreted expansion and continuation of the 1994 Era I classic Ånden som Gjorde Opprør. Mortiis is now ready to embark on an expansive European tour with the black metal legends Mayhem and is working on many new things. Read this in-depth interview with Mortiis, and discover everything that you need to know about him.

Interview with: Mortiis (Havard Ellefsen)
Conducted and edited by: Tomaz

Tomaz: Hi Mortiis! Those of us who follow you get a lot of pieces of information from you but nothing about new music. Nevertheless, some birds told me that you are working on new stuff. Tell us what in general is going on with Mortiis?
Mortiis: I released the Spirit Of Rebellion record about one and a half years ago. It had a lot of new material on it, as well some reinterpreted older stuff, it was 50/50 new/old. I toured for that record until the pandemic hit us. I was supposed to go on a European tour with Mayhem, and of course, it got cancelled already several times. We re-announced that tour, so I hope that it will happen in April next year. We will visit most of the European countries in those five weeks, except Finland, Russia,... I don't know for which reason. I hope that it will be fucking great if it doesn't get cancelled again. It's impossible to say if it'll happen or not these days, it's insane. When you already think that it's over, it starts again. Ok, I'm working on some new music, I'm into quite some different projects, but nothing is ready yet. There's a thing that I have with Stephan Groth from Apoptygma Berzerk. I made most of the music for that, and he's involved in it as well, or better said, I hope that he'll be involved more soon. This project is based on synthesizers, something similar to Tangerine Dream or Vangelis from the early 80s. Mainly it is inspired by the electronic sounds from that period. Sarah Jezebel Deva is involved in this project as well. We need to communicate and work these days via e-mails and messenger. Everything takes much longer because it's not that easy to explain things online as if you're in the same room, where you can work something out in five minutes. It's a little frustrating, but we are getting there. Sarah has made and sent over some amazing stuff, and I think the final product will be great. Besides this, I'm also working on some other stuff. I have so many things in my mind, and I work a little bit here and a little bit there. We will see what happens. I'm also working on a new Mortiis album, but I'm not yet sure which direction it will take. I think that it will be a mix of a lot of different styles that I had so far. I'm putting all these ideas together into something that will hopefully be new and exciting. Sarah Jezebel Deva will be involved in this too since we are back in touch, and it's great to work with her again.

Tomaz: Talking about this project with Stephan Groth, I'm wondering if this will be just some kind of a single release like it was "Sins Of Mine", or it'll be something lengthy?
Mortiis: I've made enough music for like an hour. Stephan can be brutal, haha, when it comes to things what he likes or not. So far, he's been pretty happy with what I made. I tracked my vocals on six songs, and we both agree that it's really cool. As far as I can see, it's going to be a proper album. It's 50/50 material from both of us, some kind of democracy between us. I like all of it, and I'm not letting him kill it, haha.

Tomaz: So, this will be a collaborative album between Mortiis and Apoptygma Berzerk?
Mortiis: Oh yeah, that's the idea in general. You know, the thing about Stephan is that he uses to get so very busy sometimes. I need to work on my own, and then work with him when he has the time. I don't know what the hell is he doing all the time. It's an on and off project.

Tomaz: And what about Sarah Jezebel Deva? Can we expect something similar or a continuation to The Stargate or The Smell Of Rain album?
Mortiis: I don't think it's going to be a continuation. She has recorded and delivered vocals for the project with Stephan and me. The other stuff that I want her to be on it will be my next album, a mix between The Smell Of Rain kind of stuff, and the more epic kind, as it is Spirit Of Rebellion. You can compare that to The Stargate since it has those big choruses. It's a little bit too soon to tell that because I'm in the middle of it. At one point I think it will take one direction, and a few weeks later, I decide on another one, so I think that it'll go with the flow.

Tomaz: Is this a start of a new era for Mortiis? The last one was era 0...
Mortiis: Haha, these eras. I'm so sick of this, and I need to explain it every time. I don't know, it might be Era 666, haha, or Era "who fucking cares" haha. I need to see. As I said, I have so many different bits and pieces of music going around, and many of them have a very different sounding. Sometimes I try to collide them together and see what happens. I'm never really sure about an album until it's over. At least I try not to repeat myself with each album, so there are always new ideas. I'm not sure if it's a new sound, but some new ideas that I haven't tried before are certainly there.

Tomaz: Another important news is that there was a re-awakening of Emperor, with you in the line-up, just like in 1991. What's going to happen with this?
Mortiis: I don't know, and I don't think that a lot will happen. The only thing that we did was the live-streaming back in April or May. Samoth called me up at the beginning of this year, saying that he wants to do a couple of songs. It is 30 years since the Emperor formed, and he wanted to meet for a couple of special performances and the streaming show. There was some loose talk of repeating it next year, but it's not official. We didn't announce anything, and nothing is booked yet. When we finished the streaming show, we said, "well fuck, that was a lot of fun, let's do it again...", and that was where we left it. It will be fun if we do it again next summer. Maybe! It was mentioned once, so it's nothing official or public. I'm not back in the band or anything, it's more of a symbolic thing done for the fans who wanted to see the old line-up together. So, if they'll ask me again to do it, I'll certainly be a part of it.

Tomaz: And how it was for you playing black metal again after all these years?
Mortiis: I liked it because those, old songs, were inspired by the 80s metal bands that I still listen to. I felt that kind of vibe when we played, for example, songs from Wrath Of The Tyrant (the first demo album by Emperor released in 1992). We got all of our stuff back then influenced by Sodom, Destruction, Bathory or Celtic Frost, by the bands who started everything. Back in the 90s, I got a bit bored with the new bands but never with old bands. So, it was cool, I felt it, it was groovy.

Tomaz: Back to Mortiis. How it happened that you ended up as a support band to Mayhem on the upcoming, so many times rescheduled tour?
Mortiis: I hope that it got postponed for the last time. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, I mean, I have had a relationship with Mayhem since the late 80s. I used to know Euronymous, Attila and all other guys since forever, but the tour didn't happen in that sense. It happened because of my management, their relationship with Mayhem management. I think that they had other bands who were touring with Mayhem before. I guess that we have the same touring agent, so I think that was an easy thing. From the artistic point of view, we are both from Norway, we both had the history of being in all that stuff that happened around Mayhem back then. They are maybe one of the most controversial bands of all time. There were a lot of factors. For me, it was a natural thing to grow up with them. It wasn't a big deal, it wasn't like we had to call them a thousand times. I got the e-mail one day from my management saying that Mayhem wants me on tour with them, and I was immediately for it.

Tomaz: Which phase/era of your music will you play on that tour?
Mortiis: It'll be the dungeon stuff. That's the stuff with which I was active until the pandemic hit and put everything on hold. I'll keep playing it live, still for a while, especially if I'll get involved with black metal bands. Those songs are much more related to black metal stuff. I would love to perform with the industrial stuff again, but to be honest I would need a band to do that. Getting everybody together is a bit too much of a hassle. So, when it comes to Mayhem, I'll do the dungeon stuff because that's what I want to do, also what they want, and what everybody expects.

Tomaz: You already played many shows with your dungeon synth stuff lately, or at least until the pandemic struck. I'm interested in what kind of a response did you get from the public?
Mortiis: For the most the response was good. There were only one or two festivals, where while I was on the stage, I wondered why the hell I got booked for this. I think that there were one or two festivals where the crowd was oblivious to who I was, they were bored, and I don't even know to what kind of music they were listening at that festival. You know, they paid me, so I just did the show, sold maybe three t-shirts. They paid me well, so I wasn't unhappy it was just weird. Why did they even book me since nobody out there knew who I was? It was a strange alternative festival somewhere in Romania, and I had never heard of any of the bands that played there. I think that I got booked because the promoters did like Mortiis. Maybe it was because they wanted some of my fans to come to the festival. Maybe, it was because the promoters wanted the opportunity to see me live, who knows. But since I sold a couple of t-shirts, I think that I got a couple of new fans.

Tomaz: Does Mortiis as a band still exists, or is now only the one-man-band thing?
Mortiis: We never split up as a band, and we are still talking. I'll be working with Levi Gawron in the studio soon, hopefully, this fall on some other stuff that I'm doing as well. The same is with Tim Van Horn, the drummer, who is doing drums on that stuff. We are just not a live band anymore, or at least not for the moment. We decided to step back for a while. Whenever we came back from the tour, we were so tired, broke, we never earned any money, and we are all adults with jobs and bills, with expenses and real life. So, every time that we came back home we were behind with bills to pay, behind with everything, you know. There's not a lot of money in the industrial metal genre. It seems that this is not a popular genre these days. It was hard to tour with that stuff, but I would like to go out and do it again because I like playing the industrial stuff on stage. It's a lot of fun but you always come home broke, man. As a grown-up person, you can only do that for a while, but then it gets too difficult.

Tomaz: From what I understand, you are since the album Perfectly Defect (2010), on your own, you haven't signed with any label.
Mortiis: I've been operating as DIY since 2005. I collaborated with some labels and some distributions. It seems that whenever I get involved with a larger company, life just gets more complicated. It's so annoying. I tried with some distribution and manufacturing deals, you know, that they press your album, you kind of own that, but they press it up and sell it, and then you have to recoup it, and so on. Every time I do it, it still feels like nothing happens. I guess that the best formula is to stay a little bit underground, to do it yourself, to go out and play shows, sell stuff to people, at least I see that in this way you can make some money from this. I would love to sign with a big label if they weren't terrible people.

Tomaz: But I've heard of some big labels where bands are pretty satisfied with their job...
Mortiis: Yeah, I know about those guys, and there's a chance that I might talk with some labels when I'll do some more new music, demos, and then I'll see what happens. I'm always willing to talk with people, but I'm not going to sign another shitty deal. We'll see what happens.

Tomaz: I've heard similar words already from a couple of artists before. For example, your friend Stephan from Apoptygma Berzerk thinks almost the same. I think that it's much easier for an established name like Mortiis or Apoptygma Berzerk to do it this way than for newcomers, who are popping out every day in huge numbers.
Mortiis: Stephan lives just across the street, and we talk about this a lot. It's a big advantage for us who already have exposure from the past and a name that people recognize. We have fans from before, so it's easier for us to branch out on our own. I don't know how all those new bands survive. I guess they have to go through the dance of death, you know, sign to labels and learn all that shit with which they are fucking us now. Hopefully, they will at least get some promotion by those labels. That's a good thing and one rare thing that I like about labels. If a label is already around for a while, then they usually have a decent promotional section. They should have a lot of contacts and will get your name out there. That is good, in a way, but often you need to pay a very high price for that.

Tomaz: I don't know if I ever asked you how you make your music. Is there an established process, or it is a random one?
Mortiis: It is a little bit random since I don't play any instruments. I'm not a proper musician, in the sense that I don't sit down and start playing the guitar as an example. Everything happens with the computer. I'm using all kinds of software, like Cubase and something like that. I just start playing stuff. I come up with one wave, which I guess it's quite normal, then I try to find some sounds that I like and come up with some melodies. Then I start recording that, and usually, it gets stored on the hard drive for a long time before I pull it back up. That is how I do a lot of these simple little pieces, you know, some piano, synth, or whatever. I keep working on it now and then, and eventually, it starts developing. I add tracks, more melody, maybe some drums and things like that. It's a similar process to making a statue out of a big slab of stone. You need to chop unnecessary pieces away until it looks like something nice. It goes back and forth, there's a lot of trying and failing, and I'm never really happy with the arrangements, so I move these pieces around. That's a great thing about working with Cubase. You can move around as much as you like all those boxes with sounds and try different arrangements with the song. After a while, I start putting vocals, organic instruments, like guitar, bass, and other stuff on it.

Tomaz: I guess that there's a difference in making ambient, dungeon synth music, darkwave, or industrial rock/metal music?
Mortiis: I try not to think much about the genres. I think of them as different sounds. You know, different ambience, atmosphere and different feelings, it's all music in the end. Maybe it's a matter of a special state of mind when you create music like is dungeon stuff, which is very dark, atmospheric and melancholic. I try to end into that kind of spirit so that I don't add any Gaba beats to that, haha, or something stupid like that. I don't know, I don't have any special formula. I'm not a producer, who usually have those magical formulas to get the stuff done fast and follow those rules. I don't operate like that. I just try to be creative, and I try to feel with the song. If it's an angry song, I try to invoke anger in myself. I try to think about all the shit that pisses me off and try to get into that mood. The same goes for the other styles. I always try to become one with them. That might sound very pretentious, but it does help.

Tomaz: And what kind of music do you prefer to make? Is it atmospheric or industrial music, or anything else?
Mortiis: I think I'm better at making angrier music because I don't have to work on it that hard, as it comes out a little bit natural. But I do like the atmospheric music. It's just that I need to work a bit harder on it. When it comes to atmospheric music, it has more to do with restraint. I tend to add a lot of different sounds and things like that. You can easily destroy the ambient music when you add something because it's supposed to be minimalistic and moody. Often I walk away from one music and revisit it some other day to hear it with fresh ears, and often I think, "what the fuck was I doing" haha. Sometimes I need to take all the stuff away because it sounds horrible if I put too much stuff in there, as it ruins the mood. That's why I'm working on stuff for more than one day.

Tomaz: The last release of yours is Spirit Of Rebellion, released in January 2020. Do you consider it as a proper album? Or as a different and rearranged version of the music from your past?
Mortiis: It didn't start as a proper album, but after a while, I was changing it, adding so much life into it, and creating new music that goes along with older pieces. So for me, it has become a new album. That's just my opinion, and I understand when people don't agree with that. I have a different relationship with that because I created it. It's my baby.

Tomaz: So, when you played your shows with the Era 1 material, was it from Ånden som Gjorde Opprør, or Spirit Of Rebellion?
Mortiis: It was the Spirit Of Rebellion album, played from start to finish. I performed this record on all those shows.

Tomaz: Oh, I see, because when we did the previous interview, you said you'll be playing Ånden som Gjorde Opprør album.
Mortiis: Yeah, that was probably in the early stages when I was recreating that record, and that was my initial purpose. It was when I got invited to play that Cold Meat Industry festival a couple of years ago.

Tomaz: And since I never experienced an ambient/dungeon show of yours, I'm wondering what's the experience, what kind of feelings the audience gets?
Mortiis: When I spoke with people after the show, it was always very positive. The experience is often quite visual. You know, it's just me on the stage, so it has to be a bit theatrical. I use a video projector in the background showing some cool art stuff telling the story as the music moves along. That backs up the storyline. I guess it is a bit like on a journey, and in that sense, it's very pretentious and dramatic. People called it a trip, and some said that they were in some kind of a trance because they got caught in that moment. That's pretty cool! It's not a rock show in that sense, it's very atmospheric and meant to take you away, on a journey.

Tomaz: I guess that people often want an encore. What do you do? Do you simply disappear from the stage?
Mortiis: Oh, that happens so many times. It's one of those shows that when it's over, it's really over. It's not a Mötley Crüe show, you know when they come out and play "Shout At The Devil" or something. I'm not against it, and I might prepare something for a situation like that, but to be honest, it's a little bit strange when you have all this concept show prepared, and then with the encore, you break it. I don't know. With the industrial stuff, that's a completely different thing. You can easily do an encore and play a couple more songs. For the ambient show, it's a bit strange. I mean, I take it as a compliment. I've had moments when people were really into it, and you hear them clapping for another ten minutes after the show is over, but I just walked off from the stage. I felt bad, thinking that I should go out and do some more, but there isn't more, or at least there wasn't more at that time. This is the whole show, the whole production, just like the movie. When the movie is over, it won't continue if you clap. At least what I can do, is going out after the concert, and talk with people, so at least they met me. I might do something for the future shows in that regard.

Tomaz: What about your other projects like Fata Morgana, Cintecele Diavolui and Vond? Are those completely dead, or do you have any plans to bring them back?
Mortiis: I consider them to be in the past. There might be some unreleased stuff from Fata Morgana that might come out, but I'm not quite sure yet. I have to listen to it more properly and decide. There are some demo recordings that my hardcore fans might find interesting. I might add that into the web store soon, but that's pretty everything that's happening with that stuff. I don't see a reason to do more since Mortiis covers everything artistic that I want to do now. There's no need for any side projects right now, you know, never say never, but at this point, I have no plans by reanimating any of those past projects.

Tomaz: I often see that you are selling some old memorabilia of yours. Like old posters, flags, emblems, t-shirts and similar stuff. From where do you get all this stuff? Do you have some kind of storage with rare Mortiis things?
Mortiis: It's in my attic, haha. I used to keep at least one or two copies of absolutely everything, and as I grew older, I lost my interest in collecting my own t-shirts and things like that. The only thing that I want to keep is one copy of every vinyl and CD, of course. For cassettes, I don't care, and I sell them off as well. I like the fact that cassettes are back, but I don't collect my stuff. I keep patches and some buttons for some reason, as they take almost no room. I must have had more than 100 t-shirts of Mortiis, and I can't keep them all, it's ridiculous. So, sometimes I say, fuck that, and I put it out on Bandcamp or something. With the money that comes in, I'll often buy some rare pieces of vinyl for my collection. It feeds my bad habit cause I'm a record collector. I'm not going to sell everything right now, but there's not much left to be honest.

Tomaz: So there's a lot of interest from your fans in such rare collector's items?
Mortiis: Yeah, there are several people out there who are pretty crazy when it comes down to collecting stuff. Mostly into collecting vinyl and things like that. I mean, it's not only me. Out there are many other crazy collectors.

Tomaz: But I guess that you will never be going to sell your trademark masks?
Mortiis: It has happened because I used to have several copies of it. Once in a while, a mask gets a little too damaged, and I can't wear it anymore. Usually, I offer such stuff only to people who I know are serious fans. I handpick people who are allowed to buy it because certain people would use it just like some Halloween mask, and to me, that would be disrespectful. I'm careful who I let buy or give the mask. But that was a long time ago, and I'm not doing it anymore.

Tomaz: You worked with and collaborated with so many different musicians. But is there anybody with who you want to work and haven't had a chance yet?
Mortiis: I don't know, man. There's probably a lot of them, maybe with Charlie Clouser, the ex-Nine Inch Nails guy. He's fucking fantastic. I always wanted to ask him if he can do a remix of a Mortiis song. I guess that he would do it, but it will probably cost me 10000 USD. It's a little bit more than my budget allows me, haha. But ok, who knows, I met him once, and he was really cool. Who else, hmmm, The Prodigy is fantastic! Maybe for another remix album, I'll ask them. One of the best remixes that I ever heard was Prodigy remixing Rage Against The Machine. I can't remember the name of the song, but it was the heaviest and the coolest thing that I heard in my life. Ok, I don't know why they made a remix of someone who is already super famous, but it is a good one. Rage Against The Machine is such a groovy band, and it fits with The Prodigy's kind of programming and beats. When I heard that thing, I couldn't believe my ears. Hearing stuff like that makes you a little depressed because you know that you can't do anything that would be that great. As a fan, I'm excited, but as a musician, I'm envious. It's rough.

Tomaz: How much do you follow new music releases and bands? Before you said that, you find most of the metal stuff made in the 90s boring. Do you think the same about new bands and releases?
Mortiis: No, I don't follow much, at least not really. You must know that I have a day job and I work maybe for 50 hours per week. Then I have a couple of kids. There's life, and there's the dog, and so on. So, all my spare time I try to spend in my studio and focus on my music. There's not a lot of time for me to go out there and discover new stuff. I'm sure that there's some interesting music out there today. I see people talking about new music all the time, and I don't even know what they are talking about. Of course, something looks interesting, but there's no time. I don't have the time to be a fan anymore, that sucks, but there are only 24 hours in the day. So I concentrate on my music when I have some free time because I want to be active in today's music. I wish anybody else good luck, and I want to be locked inside my studio in my free time because that's the only time I have to create music.

Tomaz: But do you have any time to sleep, haha?
Mortiis: Haha, yeah, I do. I pass out on the couch many times. Not in the studio, but in my living room since my studio is pretty small, and I don't have enough place for the couch in there. I wish I had, haha. I rent a room across the town. I drive with the car to the studio and back. That's a good thing about the studio because there's no other thing to do but working on music. I also do the interviews and such stuff here. Because there's no distraction, no kids around, no screaming in the background, so that's the only thing I do here apart from music. When I get here, I don't fuck around, I work, and then I go home. That's quite an effective way to do things for me.

Tomaz: You said that you are already working on a new Mortiis album. How much time will we have to wait to be finished and released?
Mortiis: Ahh, I honestly don't know. I'm hoping for most of the projects. There's this thing with Stephan, a separate album, and I hope we can finish it this year. But Stephan tends to disappear. It's a bit frustrating, but that's how it is. He gets busy with things, and sometimes he doesn't want to pick up the phone for two weeks. That's how he works, he gets buried in his world, and that's ok. I hope that this project will be finished this year and to release at least this album. Yeah, I'm already working on some stuff for the new Mortiis album. And as well on another slightly secret project for now. I might be re-recording some stuff, we'll see, but it might be interesting as well.

Tomaz: Some years ago, you also worked with the film producer and director Reinert Kiil on a short film...
Mortiis: Oh yeah. What happened is that he wanted to use our music for some really violent short movie stuff he was doing. I think that he has made two short movies with our music used. We let him do it for free, but we wanted to use those movies for our videos. So, it was cool and kind of a trade-off. The songs used were "Geisteskrank" and "Too Little Too Late".

Tomaz: Do you have any plans to do something similar in the future?
Mortiis: I don't know if you've seen it, but I did a couple of videos from Spirit Of Rebellion that is on YouTube. We made some short movies/videos out of 4 or 5 minutes cuts of the songs. You should check it out. Mortiis videos tend to get a bit violent sometimes, haha, but I guess that you already noticed that. I like to have a hand in the creative side of it. Many bands don't even know what kind of video will they have as a final product. They have no imagination. They just listen to the director and do anything he says. I like to tread my videos in the same way as I tread my music and artwork. I want to be in control of it. I always want to have some kind of a story behind it. Or at least some sort of an interesting aspect in it. I'm a little bit of a control freak, but I'm not that bad, to be honest.

Tomaz: Now I guess we can't skip saying something about the Covid-19 pandemic. On which side are you, a believer, or do you think that all this is just some kind of a conspiracy theory?
Mortiis: Oh well, I don't believe in everything that media and government say, but it's not related only to the pandemic, it's in a general line of things. With that said, I had corona in December myself, and I was fucking sick. It definitely exists, it's no doubt about that. Beyond that, did it come from a Chinese lab? Or a market in China, or from bats? I mean, who knows? Honestly, I don't fucking care, I want this pandemic to be over, and maybe it's very selfish of me to say that, but I want the world to go into the normal state that it used to be if I can call it with the world normal at any point in time, but at least I want us to go out of this fucking pandemic. If we have to wear masks, put some sanitisers on our hands and be a little more careful, what's the problem with that. We who work in the entertainment industry were the first people who lost our jobs and will be the last to get them back. I think we have all the right to be fed up with this pandemic now.

Tomaz: Ok, I think we had a nice in-depth talk about a lot of stuff concerning Mortiis. Thank you for that. But is there anything that you would like to say to your fans and our readers?
Mortiis: Yeah, we talked about many things, and I can't think of anything else. I don't know if we'll play in Slovenia with Mayhem, and if we won't, I'm sorry for that. Hopefully, people from your country might be able to catch one of the shows in Italy or Austria, which are pretty close, if it doesn't get cancelled again. Let us cross our fingers and hope for the best. I hope that 2022 will be a normal year again. It's enough with the fucking pandemic, and I'm probably speaking this for every band and artist out there.

Mortiis links: Webstore, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud

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