Interview: Huldre

Was macht eigentlich die Folk-Metal/Rock-Musik solcher Bands wie Schandmaul, In Extremo oder auch Subway To Sally so richtig „folkig“? Ist es die für unsere heutigen Ohren doch recht exotische Instrumentierung der Truppe, die Art ihre Songs zu schreiben und zu performen oder einfach das ganze Ambiente, dass eine solche Band mit ihrem Werk zu erzeugen vermag? Für den einen oder anderen Fan werden sicherlich aus der Folklore ins Metal - oder Rockgenre übertragene Melodien sowie Texte wichtiger sein, als zum Beispiel so etwas wie ein „folkloristischer Kleidungsstil“ - wie auch immer sich dieser definieren lässt - und die obligatorische Drehleier, welche für jemand anderen wiederum das Entscheidende am Genre sein können. Dass die Genregrenzen trotz unterschiedlicher Ansichten über die Authentizität der jeweiligen folkloristischen Elemente zwischen all der Pagan-, Folk- und Mittelalter-Mucke fließend sind, steht außer Frage. Doch insgesamt scheint die Szene doch oftmals relativ geschlossen zu sein. Zumindest sieht man solche Packages, wie jetzt aktuell bei der Swedish Empire Tour, wo die Power-Metal-Band Sabaton und die Folkmetaller von Eluveitie zusammen durch die Landen ziehen bei uns relativ selten. Doch ist das überall so oder eher ein deutsches Phänomen? Was es mit dieser angeblichen Verschlossenheit des Genres auf sich hat und was diese Musik ihrer persönlichen Meinung nach folkig macht, berichten uns Jacob Lund und Troels Dueholm Nørgaard von der gerade durchstartenden dänischen Folk-Metal-Band Huldre. Außerdem sprachen die beiden mit uns über die Produktion ihrer Debüt-Scheibe „Intet Menneskebarn“, welche gerade frisch erschienen ist. Viel Spaß beim Lesen!

The Interview:

Troels: Yes of course. I am Troels Dueholm and I play hurdy-gurdy and flutes. I have been in the band for about two years. Jacob: Hi I’m Jacob and I play drums and percussion and I have been playing in the band for about three years. Troels: Its been a long way coming. We have poured a lot of time and energy into this music so it has been great to be able to present the results of this process. It was a pleasure working with all the people around it and we learned a lot from it. We have sunk a lot of money into the album to get the best result. We are very pleased that we made the right choice when we decided to work with Lasse Lammert as producer who really made the production stand out. Kristina Tandrup Gittesdatter really came through for us in creating some unique and interesting artwork. We are very proud that the cover artwork is a little piece of art in itself. Jacob: It was a great kickstart of the band as a project that we could take seriously. Troels: The album has been very well received by both press and fans. It has gotten only positive reviews and we are naturally very exited and overwhelmed about that. Troels: It varies. Sometimes we have a long jam session which we record, and afterwards we listen to it and extract the bits we like. Other times one of us brings an idea, like a melody, a riff, or text, and then we work on it together. Jacob: Yeah, but there is never one single person composing a song. Its always a collective effort. Troels: Well we are a group of very different people with different musical backgrounds, with lots of different ideas, tastes and preferences about music. Sometimes it can be really hard to reach consensus about how our music should be, but we usually work these things out and reach a compromise that everyone likes. It can be a long and painstaking process but I really think that our music gets better and more original as a result. Jacob: I agree. Its a real joy when a song finally takes form and comes to life. Jacob: One of the intentions is to not be locked down with one certain genre, or subgenre but use this band as a playground for our collective nerdiness towards ancient times and metal. And of course there is always a great element of entertainment when playing live for people, as with any band. Troels: Combining the tradition of the old with the new allows us to create musical imagery with roots that goes back to our ancestors. Bringing the old Scandinavian folklore and musical traditions into a modern age by mixing it with metal is a main focus for the band. Jacob: To me its the instrumentation and the mood of the music. Personally I think a band like Fejd does it really well in the way they utilize instruments like keyfiddle and bozuki. Troels: To me its more the way the music is played. The scales, harmonies and overall feeling of the music. Of course the instruments has an important role but its really about how you play the music that defines whether or not is folk metal. Unconventional instruments are not necessarily needed but they help. Troels: As I said before; In my opinion its not necessary but they add a great deal to the music and its of course always better to use the proper instruments as opposed to electronically mimicking them. Jacob: I agree on that. Troels: I’ve played folk music for many years but the first time I performed live with Huldre was the greatest moment of my career in terms of live performances. It was my first time performing metal for a live crowd and people tend to be a lot more into the music and going crazy as opposed to playing folk music. It opened my eyes and now I'm totally hooked. Jacob: I once forgot to bring my hihat stand to a gig in Sweden and had to improvise one out of mainly duct tape and sticks. Our release party also stands out as we had expected around 75 people but 300 showed up which was extremely overwhelming. Jacob: I always liked metal and have played a lot of medieval music as percussionist. In Huldre I saw an opportunity to not only combine the two but also an opportunity to combine a traditional drum kit with medieval percussion and drums and explore those musical possibilities. Troels: I have always played traditional folk and medieval music and thought for a long time about how it would be great to be able to combine it with music that was more hard hitting so I was happy when I got the offer from Huldre to join them. The ambition to combine the two genre universes stays the same and has only grown from there. Troels: I was surprised to see how broad our music hit. We have fans from both the world of folk and the world of metal. The festivals we have played at so far have been a pleasant surprise as well as people have really taken a liking to our music. Jacob: People that show up at our concerts without prior knowledge of our music is often pleasantly surprised that they actually like our music. We seem to appeal to a broad spectrum of personalities. Troels: Not necessarily. We have seen examples here in Denmark of folk metal bands playing gigs with power metal bands. We have played gigs at medieval music festivals and have had traditional medieval bands play as support. We have also played gigs with black metal bands. It may not sound like much but it shows that folk metal bands isn’t just playing with other folk metal bands. Troels: By being different from more or less anyone else I guess. Jacob: We try to make a real event out of our concerts. We have had market stalls, art exhibition, free mead, Viking fight shows, firebreathers and firejugglers, brought half a forest on stage, had people dressed as trolls mingle with the audience and Laura regulary throws candy at the audience to mention but a few of the things we find funny to do at concerts. Jacob: The unfortunate closing of the Copenhagen venue “The Rock” has meant that a lot of other, more mainstream venues, has started to embrace rock and metal bands into their places and host specific events for that. This has of course also yielded an opening for Danish folk metal. Troels: We are currently working hard to get gigs outside of Denmark in the coming summer, on festivals etc. We are also in the middle of a songwriting process and we tentatively aim at being able to record a new album some time next year. Jacob: Yeah and we are also currently looking into some very limited vinyl editions of “Intet Menneskebarn”. Jacob: It has always overwhelmed us how much support we have received and it is greatly appreciated. It means so much to us that people are into our music. Troels: We are very grateful for your support and hope to see you at our concerts.
Das Verfassen neuer Kommentare ist derzeit deaktiviert.