What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
As a concept, Minneriket is the realm of memories, transcending the worldly and the profane. The idea is that memories can forge our future, and experiences, emotions and interpretations of the world is often global. With Minneriket I want to tap into how these unique and personal experiences can be both individual and collective, and exist both in a microcosmic and a macrocosmic dimension.
The music is grounded in darkness and melancholy, a pagan past and a gothic aesthetics, but trying to present itself in different shades of black.
How do you approach songwriting and why?
There’s never a real plan, until there is. What I mean is that the music takes me where it wants to go. Words come to me, and are joined in with feelings, and together they create sounds. From there I try to dive deeper into it, finding what is the essence of the idea, and then I map it out how it would work as a song. That’s why Minneriket rarely have a traditional song structure, and why the songs are more like stories with a beginning and an end rather than th usual verse, chorus and bridge.
When I launched Minneriket I labeled the music as “Romantic black metal”, partly to challenge the orthodox understanding of what constitutes black metal as a genre, and partly to remove the shackles of genre limitations and audience expectations. I defines Romantic black metal as a musical artform that combines and incorporates themes and aesthetics associated with European romanticism with the unique atmosphere of Norwegian black metal.
Black Metal flows in my veins, it is my preferred artform to express myself with. Not by choice, but by nature. There really never was an option, it just became that way.
How do you approach songwriting and why?
There’s never a real plan, until there is. What I mean is that the music takes me where it wants to go. Words come to me, and are joined in with feelings, and together they create sounds. From there I try to dive deeper into it, finding what is the essence of the idea, and then I map it out how it would work as a song. That’s why Minneriket rarely have a traditional song structure, and why the songs are more like stories with a beginning and an end rather than th usual verse, chorus and bridge.
When I launched Minneriket I labeled the music as “Romantic black metal”, partly to challenge the orthodox understanding of what constitutes black metal as a genre, and partly to remove the shackles of genre limitations and audience expectations. I defines Romantic black metal as a musical artform that combines and incorporates themes and aesthetics associated with European romanticism with the unique atmosphere of Norwegian black metal.
Black Metal flows in my veins, it is my preferred artform to express myself with. Not by choice, but by nature. There really never was an option, it just became that way.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Minneriket is a one-man studio band and does not perform live rituals.
How do you decide what to perform live?
Minneriket is a one-man studio band and does not perform live rituals.
What plans do you have for the future?
Last fall I mapped out most of what will become a new album, and I have already recorded a demo version of it. I’ve been working in the studio a lot lately, and have brought back several friends from “Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile” as session musicians. Both the cello and the keys are completely finished in the studio, and right now the drummer is working on tracking drums.
I will probably use the rest of the year to complete most of this album, and hope to be able to present something to the audience early 2024.