Interview with Varg – Metaldays 2016

I have a question about the recent album, Das Ende aller Lügen. It’s much different I think.

I was reading the reviews about what people thought about previous albums vs this one. And it sounds a lot cleaner and symphonic/melodic.

What do you think? Why does it stand out so much? At least that’s what other reviewers have noticed.

I think maybe the reason is that we did grow a lot in some writing arrangements and all the songs especially on that album are pretty much pop arrangements, they’re stripped down to only what is necessary, there is no long songs, no fillers, and that’s probably why you hear it and you get into it instantly.

Maybe that’s what it is!

It’s very easily accessible, and that’s maybe the reason. Because I wouldn’t say it’s more melodic than the stuff before… I would even say that it’s a little harder.

I mean, we did a production… But the production is even harder than the one before. Maybe we did incorporate a little bit of clean vocals… we didn’t really do that before, so maybe that is another thing.

I think it made a difference. This album is really good.

That’s great. We tried to make it a little more diverse, I guess, especially with the vocals, there’s more different stuff on the one album, it makes it a little more exciting.

Are you working on the next project?

Yeah.

So what’s new?

We call it inorasa. Right now, it’s about almost 20 songs we’ve got now, and more coming up, so in the process of finding … yeah, we kind of … are at the point of [figuring out] what we want to do, so we just collect everything and then … you know…

And then you sort it out?

Right.

The album and the songs have to fit together so it’s not too all over the place. And I guess the production is gonna be a little rougher. I want it to be a little more 90s sounding, not just smooth. Not just “Oh they’re selling records.” A little more organic.

How do you write? Do the lyrics come first, or the music?

Music. So far, music always came first. For the last four albums, mostly me and our singer wrote the songs. Right now he’s pretty occupied because he’s doing his own festival, there’s a lot of things going on at the moment, so I have been writing a lot, he has been writing some stuff, so.. we’re kind of doing it differently than we did it before. We’re just .. brainstorming? Yeah, kind of. It is still a loose concept, we have some things in mind that we might… have a concept of the album, which of course we aren’t going to say. It’s still in the beginning stages even though we already have 20 songs.

But you know, with the lyrics. We have a concept.

In the end, we don’t even use it, maybe we change it, and then… but it’s like we want to do some more work on the lyrical side this time and invest more time into growing with the lyrics. Now we’re collecting songs and then we will start brainstorming with the lyrical side of things. And all of the songs are redone or changed in some way.

– Yeah, they might have to be adjusted to the lyrics because in the past, we already wrote songs to the point we thought they were perfect, and then we wrote the lyrics, and fit them onto the songs, which maybe isn’t the best thing to do, I don’t know, because the songs are perfect, but the lyrics might not be perfect because sometimes you need more words but there’s not enough space because the song’s not long enough but the song is already worked out so it’s just trying it differently.

I look forward to it.

It’s really too early.

When do you think you’ll have it done? Next year?

Well, we’re hoping to release it next year

So you work on it every week, every day, constantly?

Almost every day.

My head started thinking about it and now I can’t stop anymore.

Don’t go too crazy!

—

I saw Eluveitie in Melbourne, Australia and I think it was the last 3 performances with her in it.

Yeah, that’s so bad!

How do you feel about that?

I’m really sad for the band, I mean, I or a lot of us have grown friends with a lot of the Eluveitie guys, touring the US, we did our first tour ever with Eluveitie who then kind of introduced us to all this touring stuff and how it’s going on, I dunno. It’s a little sad that the band broke up like this. I think I didn’t really have the chance to talk to Anna since then, like not in depth, just a little. I think the three of them, Anna, Igor, and Merlin, they are really doing fine with the new project they have and I’m really excited about what it’s gonna be … because I have no idea… they don’t really tell me – or anyone – about it.. but on the other hand, for Eluvieitie, I don’t really know what’s it gonna be because it’s .. yeah, I dunno.. I think Chrigel and Kai will really have to start from scratch again, take time, maybe take a break or something, find new members, so that it can grow strong again.

I feel like Anna was the half of Eluveitie.

Yeah, with the last 2 albums, she became the center point of the band.

Oh, and last of all, anything I should know about the performance before I go out shooting?

There’s going to be a lot of smoke.

And indeed there was!