Hello Anders ! First of all is a pleasure for me to talk to you. This year you will play together with Clouds and with your band, Funeral in Romania, Bucharest. What can you tell me about this?
Thank you very much .In april I will be on stage with both Funeral and Clouds together with Shape of Despair too. Gonna be our 2nd show with Clouds, and the very first time we perform in Romania with Funeral. What more to say than, show us your loyalty and turn up on the gig people.
Recentely you joined Clouds. How was this possible? Did they invite you?
I have been friends with the Shape guys for quite some time, and I was approached by Daniel. He obviously liked my playing, and I liked Clouds, so we made an unholy matrimony so to speak. The Funeral doom scene is very small, its like a big family,really, so lots of bands are friends.
What does Funeral mean to you? How came the idea of forming a band that would play so slowly when most of the Norwegian acts were into the whole Black Metal rising phase?
Funeral is my creation and baby I would dear to say. The band have been with me since I was a teenager, and is a big part of my daily life. I write the music and manage the band, Papa Doom!
I was always into the more slower and heavier bands back in the days, so I obviously wanted to play that style myself, thus I formed Funeral, plain and simple. I have never followed any trends, and have been uncompromising to this very day. We have always been on our own regarding the Norwegian “scene”, and have never really been part of anything, just doing our own thing, and being for ourselves, playing a show or two here and there. I remember we were labeled “Christian” back in the day, because we just a religious icon on a cover. Crazy times indeed(it must be mentioned that I was a regular customer at Helvete and bought lots of stuff from Mayhem guitarist Øystein Aarseth, demoes and other treasures. So I saw the whole BM scene from front row so to speak. Aarseth was actually a big fan of bands like Godflesh, innovative stuff, even with social criticism lyrics. Not many knows this.
You will play in Romania for the first time as far as I know, so what should anyone expect from Funeral on stage?
We are a bunch of lazy ass Norwegians, trying to persuade you that we are a good band, which is far from the truth. Try to do our best though, but don’t get your hopes up. The music is of course just as hopeless as ourselves.
Your latest album Oratorium was released in 2012. Do you have any plans for the near future?
Yes. There will be a new album out in 2017. We are demoing tracks as we speak. About 6 tracks are finished with full orchestration. Await even longer and more bombastic songs than ever.The lyrics will be in Norwegian and is written some time ago by a very good friend of mine.
How do you see the Doom Metal scene nowadays? Any bands that you’d consider worth-mentioning?
To me it seems like the doom scene is on the rise. Just played London with Clouds for a sold out venue. I recently discovered Tempelheks from Norway. Very retro and good sounding. Lest to forget Shape of Despair, Eye of Solitude and Clouds 😉
Choose your favourite Funeral song
That is a very difficult question, as all my songs have been a favorite of mine, at least when they were written. Its like choosing a favourite among your kids. I rarely listen to my own music, but in rare moment I do, I probarbly choose something from “As the light does the shadow” album, or “Oratorium”. These days I use a lot of time working on new songs for the upcoming album, and a couple of them stand out. One have the working title “something” , and is partly written by my good friend Jarno from Shape of Despair. It contains riffs and orchestration never heard in either camps earlier..
Well Anders, to conclude I hope you did enjoy it as much I enjoy your music and the chance of interviewing you, all the best and see you soon in Romania!
Thank you very much for your interest in the band and some good questions. My pleasure.
Eek/ Funeral
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