Sirenia
Seven Keys and Nine Doors

01.06.2007

The latest record by Norwegian gothic metallers Sirenia pleased many fans, but unpleasantly surprised many others. With the addition of new female singer Monika Pedersen, the band made a dramatic turn towards a softer sound with less growling vocals and even more melodies than before. It’s natural that the band cites “artistic development” as the reason for such changes, but in order to figure out more precisely what Sirenia means by that, we got together with singer, guitarist and songwriter Morten Veland shortly before the band’s first concert in Moscow. Morten turned out a very big guy, very quite and soft-talking. He’s not one of the musicians that fire a thousand words per minute at the reporter, there are many things about his music that he prefers to keep for himself, but we still hope that after reading this interview you will find changes in the Sirenia camp a bit more understandable…

Let’s start with a very trivial question – how do you like Moscow so far? Has it lived up to your expectations?

It’s been really good, people are friendly. It’s a little bit cold at the moment (laughs), but it’s nice over here. We wanted to go to Russia for many years, and it’s good that we’ve finally come here now.

Tonight is your first gig in support of the new album “Nine Destinies And A Downfall”, which was only released yesterday. What are your feelings about the record at the moment? Is it still a special moment when your music sees the light of day, or is it more like a routine after so many releases?

It always feels good to have a new album finished. We always put a lot of work into it, and it’s usually a long process – it takes about two years to get all the songs together, then 10 weeks to produce the album, and a lot of things need to be taken care of, so when we are finally ready with the album and have the finished product in our hands, it’s always a good feeling. It means that we have accomplished something that we worked on for a long time.

It is no secret that “Nine Destinies And A Downfall” could be downloaded from the Internet more than a month before the release date. Is it a problem for Sirenia, or is it a kind of additional advertisement?

I don’t know. It’s a situation that is impossible to avoid these days. The Internet is here to stay, and the day the record companies ship out promos the record usually ends up on the Internet. There’s not much to do about it. But at least it gives the people the opportunity to listen to the music, and if they like it, they can buy the album, and if they don’t, they don’t need to do it. (laughs)

We’ve already heard this opinion – when a musician knows that people will listen to the record before they buy it, this forces him to work on the material extra hard…

You know, we’re always pushing ourselves, always demanding very much from our work, and we always wanted to release the best album anyway. So this only gives more opportunities to the fans – over the years the band is developing, sources of inspiration might change, our musical taste might change a bit, and these days I’m not composing the same music I did 10 years ago, and the fans might want to check out the new stuff. For us it’s always important to do our very best on each album, we always put a lot of time and work into our albums.

Did you write the new songs with the voice of new singer Monika Pedersen in mind? Or do you compose naturally and then choose the singer to sing her parts?

I had composed quite a lot of the music before I got in contact with Monica. I had a sort of vision in my mind of how the new singer should sound like. When we started to work with Monika and did some test recordings of some new songs, we immediately felt that she had the kind of voice that I was looking for. After we’d worked together for some time, I got to know her and I got to know her voice, then I could put the finishing touches on all the songs to fit them perfectly for her.

Some people compare the new album with Evanescence and The Gathering. What do you think of such comparisons?

Eeeh… (pause) Maybe there are some similarities, some things in our style that could be compared to these two bands, but I definitely feel that Sirenia has had its own style for quite a long time. I’ve been playing this kind of music for about 12 years, it’s the music that I like, the music that I want to play, but of course, if people compare it to Evanescence or some other bands, I can see that some things are common between us. Still I think we are quite different anyway.

Morten, are you interested in numerology? We’re asking because all your albums have nine songs, and there are figures in the titles of the first and third albums…

(laughs) Everybody is asking me about that! But I decided not to talk too much about it. When I’m writing lyrics for a song, I try to build up some special kind of thing to present to the listener, and they should see if they are able to understand what I’m talking about. If I would sit down afterwards and explain in detail exactly what I mean by the lyrics, for me it feels like tearing down everything that I’ve been building up. I’d rather just leave everything up to the listeners.

OK, but do you mostly write about your own life and feelings, or do you use movies or books as sources of inspiration?

Of course, a lot of things can inspire me to write music and lyrics, and perhaps if I read a good book or see a good movie, this can inspire me to a certain point. And if I hear some really good music that can put me in a certain state of mind, it can also inspire me to write. But mostly I get inspired by things that I see around me, things that happen in my daily life, and impressions I get through the day.

What are your favorite lyric writers in music? We guess you will name Leonard Cohen, but can you name a few other lyricists that influenced you?

(laughs) Yeah, Leonard Cohen is of course a great lyricist, in my opinion. Nick Cave is writing really good lyrics. There’s a lot of good songwriters out there. Edgar Allan Poe was a great inspiration, especially in the beginning when I first started as a musician. Also in the beginning I was very inspired by the UK goth scene with bands like Sisters of Mercy and Fields Of The Nephilim.

Now let’s pass on to the album cover. First of all, why did you stop working with Joachim Luetke and employ Anthony Clarkson this time?

We’ve pretty much been using a different artworker for every album. Joachim did make two covers for us – for “An Elixir For Existence” (2004) and for the EP (“Sirenian Shores”, 2005), but this time the record company suggested this guy called Anthony Clarkson from the U.S. I am open minded and ready to try something new, so he sent me some of the artworks he had done before, and he seemed a really professional artist. Then he sent us a sketch of the cover for the “Nine Destinies…” album, and we were really happy about it. Usually when we make a cover, it’s a process that can take some time, the artworker comes up with the idea, and we, the band, tell him, “We like this, this and this, but maybe you could change those things…” This goes back and forth for a while, until everybody is happy. But this time with Anthony it went really fast, he came up with the idea that we liked right away, because it fit perfectly to the album title and musical concept, and we are really happy with this. It’s possible that we will work with Anthony in the future.

OK, can we ask you what is this connection between the artwork and the music that you were talking about, or is it also up to the listener to decide?

(laughs) It’s pretty much the same thing. It’s also true for the album title – I wanted a title that would be enigmatic and sound like a riddle that people needed to use their brain to understand. When we sent all the material to Anthony, he first of all listened to the songs and read the lyrics, and then he tried to create the cover that would sort of reflect all these things. I think he did a really good job, he explained to me what his thoughts behind it were, and they were not so far away from the things I had in mind myself. We really liked the idea and decided to go for it.

As long as you mention destiny in the album title, do you personally believe in destiny or pre-determination?

I don’t think your fate is pre-determined, I think it’s something that everybody is the creator of.

Morten, you play a lot of instruments, and you are also a very versatile singer. Have you ever had any formal musical training?

No, the only thing I have done that can be called musical training is taking a few guitar lessons when I was really young. It didn’t last for very long, because the teacher wanted me to play the music that I didn’t want to play.

What kind of music was that?

A lot of blues, that was cool to start with, but when you have played blues for a couple of months… It’s not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I just decided to drop it, and everything I know about music, I pretty much figured it out myself.

Sirenia on stage are four people, but in the studio you record most of the instruments yourself. What is the reason?

For me, when you are being creative and writing music, you need to be in a very focused state of mind. It’s a special thing to compose something, and I’ve only been able to do it when I am totally alone, when I am able to rock myself away and focus 100 percent on the music. That’s usually when I come up with the best ideas. It’s a little bit hard for me to come up with riffs and ideas when I’m sitting in a room together with a lot of people, because it’s so easy to lose focus on what you need to do, and it’s difficult to find that peace and that special kind of mood you need to have to be creative. For me the best way to compose is by myself, and as I have also learned to play a lot of different instruments, it just comes natural for me to play in the studio the stuff that I compose, instead of teaching somebody else to play it.

Morten, you have your own studio, but still most of the album was recorded in other places. Do you prefer to work with other people and have one more independent view on your music, or was there any other reason?

My studio is somewhat limited, I don’t have the possibility to record live drums, for example. I’m, of course, expanding my studio over the time, but a lot of the things I need to record the way I want it can only be accessed in big studios. Therefore when I record the things that I’m able to do in my own studio good enough, but for a lot of other things it’s necessary for me to go to bigger studio.

Working in the studio – is it tough job for you, or is it fun?

(pause) It’s the process that I really enjoy – to start from scratch and build up an album, get all the pieces laid on top of each other… For me it’s a lot of fun and it’s very challenging, but at the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. I’m a sort of perfectionist, I never give up until I have it exactly the way I want it. Sometimes we can work for a full day just to get a tiny little riff or some sound right. We keep on working and working, until we are satisfied. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s the work that I really enjoy.

Do you do any other work for a living?

For the past year I’ve only been doing music. But I also have my own studio, where I do different things, and there’s a possibility in Norway to get some support from the state if you run your own business such as the studio. Thanks to this support, I’ve been able to live only off music.

You say you write a lot of material, much more than you use on albums. Does it mean that one day you may create another project and play different music?

That might be possible. I’m a very creative person, I write a lot of music, and not everything fits into the Sirenia concept. I save it, because a lot of it is really good and deserves to be released some time in the future. I’m sure it will happen, but at the moment I’m spending all my time on Sirenia, it is my main priority.

By the way, do you consider Sirenia your own project, or is it still a band, in your opinion?

I see Sirenia as a band. When it comes to composing, music is composed by me, of course. When we go to the studio, I have the songs finished, but I present the drum tracks to Jonathan (Perez), he’s listening to them, and when we’re recording in the studio, he plays them in his own way. He plays them like Jonathan and puts his own trademark and style to it. The same thing is with Monica, after all she’s the one that has to interpret my songs and sing them in her own way. She’s the one that’s putting her voice and her soul into the songs. So everybody is contributing in his own way.

You haven’t been playing live for nearly two years, and your touring plans for this year are not so huge, either. What is the reason for reducing the live activity so much lately?

A lot of things happened. First of all, we finished the record deal that we had with Napalm Records, so we needed to take care of a new record deal, and that was a process that took some time. Then we had some changes in the line-up, we needed to find a new guitar player, and our former female singer decided to go. It took us some time to find the right people to work with. And when we had the line-up we wanted, we decided to focus 100 percent on the new album, get that finished. Now we are ready to do concerts again, we have a release party here tonight, some of the festivals are booked already, and we have some more festivals on the way. The record company is working on putting together a European tour and a North American tour in 2007. We want to change our trend and start playing a lot of concerts again.

Will you change the old material for shows with the new line-up?

No. I think the songs pretty much sound the same, only with the new singer. We’re not making any changes to the old songs.

What is the share of old songs in your set-list?

Of course, many of the songs are from the new album, but there are also songs from our old albums, we try to arrange it as a 50/50 thing.

Do you ever play Tristania material at your live shows? After all, it’s a big part of your musical career…

No, we don’t. It was done with another band, and for me it wouldn’t be right to play it with new people.

Do you have any relations with Tristania members?

We see each other every now and then, but it’s very seldom these days. I’m very busy with my things, and they are busy with their stuff, so it’s not so often that we see each other anymore. But when we do see each other, we have a very good chat.

Yet before Tristania you were playing in a band called Uzi Suicide. Were you Guns N’Roses fans back in those days?

Yeah, that’s correct. (laughs) Uzi Suicide was the first band we started, we weren’t that serious back then, we were just playing together as a band, having a lot of fun doing what we like best. Of course, when we decided that we wanted to do something more with music, we changed the band name and so on.

What kind of music were you playing back then? Glam rock?

Yeah, it was a kind of rock’n’roll. We were really inspired by Guns N’Roses, early Metallica stuff, Motley Crue, WASP and bands like this.

You know, very many people think that back in the early 1990s everybody in Norway was playing black metal. But the stuff you did was so much different…

Yeah, that’s correct. I guess Norway is most known for its black metal bands, and the goth metal scene wasn’t that big back in those days. Still there are some gothic metal bands in Norway that have been part of the scene since the very beginning, the ones that helped put the scene together.

Both Tristania and Sirenia are Norwegian bands, but they used to be on Napalm, a record label from Austria. Was it easy to work with them or were there any problems because of the distance?

In Norway, there are no serious labels for metal music, at least not that I know of. I’ve heard there are a few ones starting up now, but there are no labels that have been in the business for a long time and accumulated a lot of knowledge. That’s how we ended up on an Austrian label, and for us it was quite OK, because we are most popular in such countries as Germany, Austria, Poland and Central Europe in general. Having a record company coming from that area makes it easier in a way.

More about side projects – why did you stop playing with Elusive? The record you did with them received very good press…

Yeah, I liked the album (“Destination Zero”, 2001), too. But for me it was just something that I did to fill up my time. When I had some time available, I played with them, they are good friends of mine, I made it mostly for fun. But Sirenia started to take more and more of my time, and Sirenia was my main priority, therefore I decided I was not able to do it anymore.

You shot two videos for the new album, and as far as I remember, the shooting took place in Serbia and Montenegro. Why did you choose such an exotic location? And can you tell us a bit about this trip?

(laughs) We really liked it a lot! We’d never been to Serbia and Montenegro before, so we were really excited about how it was going to be. We had a wonderful time, people were really open-minded and nice. We shot the videos in Belgrade, and it’s a really nice city, a great place to see.

And what about recording a full-length DVD?

It’s something that we’ve been thinking about. We want to do a live DVD, but at the moment it’s a little bit early. Maybe after the release of the next album we will feel that the time is right.

We’ve discussed Russia, Serbia, and touring in general. Now can you please tell us about your own country and the town you live in? Do you like living in Norway, or would you choose a different place if you could do it?

I enjoy living in Norway, it’s where I was born and have been spending all my life. For me it’s home. I’m living in the Stavanger area, a little bit outside the city, so it’s pretty peaceful and quiet where I live. I’m living close to the sea, big mountains and forests, so the nature is beautiful there. It’s a great place to live.

And finally, what is your elixir for existence? What are the things that make life worth living for you personally?

(laughs) There are many things like that. It’s my girlfriend, music, of course, friends, family… and a good beer! (everybody laughs)

Then one more question – what is your favorite beer?

There are a lot of really great beers, but perhaps a Belgian beer called Juipiler is the most fantastic one!

Sirenia on the Internet: http://www.sirenia.no

Special thanks to Alexei “KIDd” Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview.

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov, Dmitry “Ward” Kulikov
February 24, 2007
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