Interview: EVIG NATT will surprise a lot of people at MFVF!

Interviews:English
  Van Muylem    16 april 2016

EVIG NATT is the last band added to the Metal female Voices Fest and will perform for the first time outside of their hometown! They just released a great album (see review section). Time to get to know them!


Hello,

Hi there! Kirsten from EVIG NATT here.

In my native language EVIG NATT (Hevig Nat) means heavily wet, what does it mean in your language and why this name?

Well, our name and band should definitely raise some eyebrows and interest in Belgium then. Haha! In Norwegian EVIG NATT means Eternal Night. It came about when Stein and me had our first recording session together. It was in the middle of the night, it was pitch-black winter and gloomy weather outside, we just said it out loud and thought it fit the mood of the music perfectly.

Can you tell us a bit of your history?

EVIG NATT started out as a studio project. Stein was already busy writing for Thundra at the time; however, he kept putting aside songs that didn’t quite fit the Thundra sound. He wanted to create something even more melodic but still heavy and wrapped in raw emotion. I came into the picture when he asked me to try out for one of his songs. We had met previously through friends and found we had a lot of the same influences and music interests.

What’s the special microphone I have seen on the recent pics, does it give a special sound?

The microphone Stein uses is a microphone specifically designed for a harmonica. It produces an aggressive and grim sound. Perfect for what we want live.

Kirsten, you have a special dress (on stage), are the feathers from a crow? Is there a special philosophy behind the idea of the dress?

I’ve always been fascinated by the mysterious raven and the folklore that comes with it. In Norway the raven is of specific importance to Odin, where he has two that he sends out every day to learn what’s going on in the world.  They are named Hugin (thought) and Munin (mind). However, I’m mostly inspired by the Irish goddess the Morrigan, who often takes the shape of a raven or a crow. She is often said to be a transporter between life and death and someone who guides souls through these cycles.  It’s she who’s inspired the raven references to my stage wear and lyrics. No crows or ravens were harmed in the making of my dress.

You just released your third record, without the help of a record company. It’s a jewel, was it that hard to find a record company or was it on purpose?

Actually we decided from the get go to handle, as best as we can, every aspect of the release ourselves this time. Don’t get us wrong, we deeply respect the knowhow and expertise record labels have, but we ended up on the wrong end of the deal last time. Like really the wrong end of the deal! The label we were signed to just disappeared and I have; yet to this day, left to discover what happened, not from the lack of trying, but no one I’ve contacted seems to know. The only thing I can think of is that they went bankrupt. It’d be nice with a heads up or a letter or something though, letting us know what was going on. Now EVIG NATT are left not knowing who’s got the rights to Darkland, our second release, who to contact or who continues to collect earnings from all the digital streaming providers. So, this time, we wanted to give it a go ourselves and see if our third offering would be good enough to carry its weight all on its own. Up until now it seems to be, and luckily, we have amazing and loyal followers who have stayed with us since the beginning, helping us share our music and spread the word. All of our new fantastic followers and friends are also giving us a chance making it possible to continue the EVIG NATT story. Again though, I have total respect and I’m in awe of the labels, because running a band is hard. You have to be this super-duper person that can do 10 things at the same time, know what you’re doing and be creative on top of that. 

How did the press and how did the fans react so far towards the new album?

As far as I can tell, Evig Natt has only received positive feedback. Our fans, both old and new, have responded in such an amazing way welcoming us back, I can’t help but smile all day long. EVIG NATT went into a six-year hiatus and after such a long while away we didn’t know what to expect, or what our fans would make of the new material. We had such high expectations of ourselves and to then find that our fans approve of Evig Natt we could finally breathe again.

I like the artwork (Monica Frivoll Sund), it matches perfectly with the dark sound. How did you decide about it?

The booklet idea of the band members inside a ghost house came to life first. We then figured we needed to find the right house for the EVIG NATT family to “live” in and to be depicted on the cover of the album. It just so happens that my favorite house of all time is located on the island we live. We decided to capture it and “pimp” it for our ghost house cover. Its old and faltering already, but slightly less creepy than on the cover, just slightly though. The idea for the artwork is that it’s supposed to underline and ad to the stories, meanings and atmosphere of the songs. A lot of what we write about are sad stories. Things that have come to pass, souls that have come and gone long forgotten, lost hopes and dreams. So many things are within our reach but impossible to grasp and this is what, at least I, wanted to tell through the artwork and songs on this album

What’s so attractive about darkness and sad feelings?

All people on this earth can relate to sad feelings of some degree and everyone has at some point in their life experienced being in a dark place or in a place of great despair. When I find myself in such a place I listen to sad songs or I write my own. I think it’s therapeutic. It also helps to know that someone else has been there and that you are not alone having these feelings. Sadness shall pass, it can’t rain all the time, but sometimes it better to suffer in someone’s company than all by yourself.

Is it hard to get airplay in Norway or perform during a TV show for a band like you?

Yes, it most certainly is. Funny, seeing as black metal, or metal in general is Norway’s greatest music export. When that’s said Norway has amazing financial support schemes for artists and bands. So if one is good at writing applications it can be pretty sweet being a Norwegian band in Norway or on tour somewhere in the world.   

I just saw Sirenia on stage in my hometown, how much of a difference is there between both bands and do you know each other? I could say Sirenia is an influence, right?

Sirenia are also from the west-coast of Norway, however, they reside on the other side of the fjord, so we don’t know them personally, just know of them. I haven’t listened a great deal to Sirenia before, however, Perils of the deep blue is a stellar album.  EVIG NATT has a lot of the same elements, but we use them differently. While Sirenia’s arrangements are very grand, which I appreciate, EVIG NATT has always ended up toning the symphonic and choir parts down a bit and use it as an effect in the background. Also our focus has always been to promote the raw emotion of the song, so that everyone who listens can feel and understand what’s going on, even if it’s sung in our native language. I think we’d be a very good fit for a tour together though.

What does Svartsinn mean and what is it about?

The term svartsinn in Norwegian means to be in a dark state of mind. “Svartsinn” is about going through periods of deep depression and grieve.

You will play at the Metal Female Voices fest as stand in for Bergtatt, how does it feel?

We are very grateful and honored to have been given this chance and opportunity. We’ll make sure to fill their slot with grace until they come back in 2017 and also to give everyone the show they expect from us.

Will you do something special (it happens a lot that bands invite people on this stage)?

We haven’t started planning for the MFVF show yet. It’s EVIG NATT’s first time at the MFVF, but I’ve been given some contacts from a friend, so anything can happen, and you won’t find out unless you’re there.

Is there one band in particular you want to see for yourself and why? Or jump on stage and perform together?

Oooh! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of the other bands as possible actually.  I’ve seen Leaves’ Eyes and Tristania before so I know that’s going to be good. Maybe they need some backing vocals?

Will it be your first time in Belgium or have you performed here before?

This will be a first out of Norway actually, so we’re pretty excited. Hopefully there will be many more gigs all around Europe at some point. We’re constantly looking for anyone to partner up with on a longer tour.

If you could add one more band to the festival, which one would it be and why?

Only one? It’s too hard to choose just one and there are so many cool bands out there. I think the line-up is pretty damn good already and the rest of the guys and me are excited to just hang out and experience a lot of new bands.

The festival is also working on an acoustic set for Friday, I think that might be interesting for you too?

EVIG NATT would be very interested in an acoustic performance for sure. We perform quite a few of our songs acoustically already and we love the different sound and feel it brings to our live sets. Actually we tried this during our release concert on 19th of March and we had so many people coming up to us after saying how much they appreciated the acoustic part of the set.

What else can we expect for, in the next months?

In the next few months we obviously are going to keep promoting our new album Evig Natt. Aside from that we are looking at the possibility of making a music video to go along with our new album. Also we want to work towards recording EVIG NATT performing an exclusive acoustic live set, which we’ll post on YouTube when completed. So lots to look forward to in the near future.

Thank you and see you on stage at MFVF!

Discover them at The Metal Female voices fest in Wieze:

http://www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be

Already confirmed:

Leaves' Eyes Official with their amazing Viking ship show!
Tarja Turunen
Battlelore (come back!!!)
Spoil Engine
Savn - Official
Artrosis
KONTRUST
WHYZDOM
MaYaN
Crescent Lament 恆月三途

Blackthorn

Mercy Isle (Usa)

Mourning Sun

Tristania

Enemy Of Reality Official

Feridea

Skarlett Riot (Uk)

Ancient Myth