Quite possibly one of the most important, influential and creative forces within the realms of Black and Extreme metal music, Ihsahn stands a class apart, an artist unafraid of experimenting and creating some of the most unorthodox music ever heard. The Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist’s ardent passion towards music, soon grew into one of the world’s most significant black metal bands, EMPEROR. Since then, IHSAHN has divided his time between the metal and avant-garde worlds in projects like EMPEROR, THOU SHALT SUFFER, PECCATUM, HARDINGROCK and last but not least his ongoing solo vessel, IHSAHN. This will be the first time that Australia witnesses the sheer magnificence and elegant yet brutal persona of one of the most iconic musicians in the metal world.
Following the up and coming release of his seventh solo album and first ever Australian tour, I had the privilege of speaking to Norwegian artist, composer and front man for Emperor, Ihsahn, about all things metal.
Xavier: So, this is your seventh solo album to date which is due for release on the 4th of May and listening to this is it’s got so much diversity to it with the opening track, Lend Me The Eyes of The Millenia, it starts out with a dark wave style 80’s synth with elements of black metal to it. Each song on the album takes you to a different place, from black metal styles with clean vocals, experimental electronica and a somewhat progressiveness to it. What was the inspiration for you to get so experimental with your work?
Ihsahn: Well it depends. It’s not really my intention to be experimental in regards to creating something, you know strange, but I have been doing this for quite a while and I’ve released quite a few albums over the years, so it’s generally just, I’ve had this philosophy. If I’m not excited about what I do, what I create and record and write music, if I don’t have that kind of fire going I can’t really expect anyone to be excited about the end result either. So, I think at this point it’s really experimentation and trying new sounds and new ways to express myself, it’s really a matter of creating scenarios for myself where I kind of had that original excitement, and you know creating new challenges for myself and hopefully that will channel across.
Xavier: Well it’s definitely paid off, I mean you’ve been so successful. You have been considered one of the most influential black metal musicians of all time, starting out with your first release with Emperor at the age of just 17 with, In The Nightside Eclipse, since then you have released a plethora of musical masterpieces.
Ihsahn: Oh, thank you, that’s kind of you to say. I’ve been very fortunate, I mean, you know in that respect starting out with black metal in ’91, you know obviously that’s where we kind of started Emperor, but of course me and Samoth we were in bands, you know I was 17 when we released The Eclipse, but I started playing with Samoth in bands when I was 13. And even then, I’ve been playing in bands when I was 11, but the motivation of course coming from Norway at that time, to have a music career at all was kind of out of the question. And even when we did the second Emperor album, we had no kind of commercial ambitions at all, it was all kind of an artistic ambition, fantastic we have a record label who will actually pay us up front to go to a proper studio and make it possible for us to kind of see that in short, these ideas will kind of come through. So, it’s kind of like a paradox that I got to do this for a living and then of course, after four albums I ended up writing the last Emperor album, more or less on my own and we kind of called it a day and of course I was doing other projects as well. Peccatum I was doing, more side projects like Hardingrock, I did Thou Shalt Suffer, different experiments in there I kind of came back to doing solo work. But still you know, I’m still here, and the people still care. I mean people kind of do have one chance at this you know, with Emperor and still now with my solo efforts still being able to do this and this summer I’m playing festivals back to back, playing two days I’m playing with Emperor and Ihsahn but on the same festivals so I kind of get to do both, and not even trying to succeed.
Xavier: You’re just that good it kind of just comes naturally to you.
Ihsahn: No, it’s not that you know, it’s of course luck. I know so many super talented people who haven’t got anywhere near the experiences and chances I’ve gotten, so this is all luck and timing as well. So, I think talent has not that much to do with it, it’s probably more persistence and not having a plan B. That’s usually what younger bands and musicians ask me, “What is the right thing to do?” and I say well the right thing to do is exactly what you feel like and maybe something unique that someone else will find interest in. And if you don’t succeed at least you have followed your music by heart and for the right reasons.
Xavier: It’s kind of hard these days to find sort of a niche with metal because there’s so many different types out there you know, it’s hard to kind of bring out something that’s completely different from everything else. And you still manage to be able to do that, you prove that there’s still so much out there to be done.
Ihsahn: Well I hope so because you know, this is my seventh solo album but still I sure hope I get to do a lot more. Obviously, I’ve had quite a long career so far but in that respect I’m only forty-two and we’re playing as special guest with Judas Priest in October and they’re closing in on seventy so I’m hoping I have at least three decades more. My point is it’s not my intention to try to write something new in the world of metal. I must admit my whole perspective is rather egocentric and selfish, and as I initially said I succeeded without even trying to be successful, at the beginning of Emperor I was quite the contrary, we did everything not to be successful. And I kind of think that’s probably why, that uncompromising kind of straight from the heart attitude is probably why I ended up in this place regardless, because we never tried and it was never watered out by expectations or trying to fit into a market of any kind, so to this day I just try to approach an album with my own ideas that I’ll do my absolute best, and I’ve done experimental albums and with my fifth solo album, which I was super happy about doing, I found it very challenging, very exciting to do that kind of album and when it was finished I thought, “Ok people are just going to hate this, they will not get this at all”, but for some reason people still enjoyed it, so I guess I’ll just do what I do. In perspective I’ve seen the early Emperor albums that is now kind of praised, I’ve seen them back to back with you know, the first Black Sabbath album as one of the most important albums of the last thirty years or whatever and those same albums have been absolutely slaughtered by major metal press when they first came out. In my experience I’ve had so much kind of shit and so much praise for exactly the same music and exactly the same albums. So, the value of things outside of my personal relationship to it, it goes up and down like a stock market, but I kind of do the same job regardless.
Xavier: This will be your first time ever in Australia headlining the Direct Underground Fest with Belphegor and also playing side shows all across the country, what are your thoughts on finally making it to our country to show us what you’re made of?
Ihsahn: Well I’m absolutely thrilled to be coming to Australia, there’s been kind of talk back and fourth over the years for me to do something there but it’s never kind of panned out. It’s such a long travel and since I’ve been doing relatively few shows over the years, it’s kind of been a priority of where you do that, I’m so excited now to finally be going and of course my friends in Leprous told me about their two trips to Australia and they were so happy with it and it seems like a very relaxed scene so it just seems perfect and I’m super excited to go and very, very humble to the fact that I get this opportunity, and the first show that we announced kind of sold out in like two days. You never know about these things and I never take anything like that for granted so, it makes you feel very welcome.
Xavier: Especially with Perth as well because with Perth’s international shows they don’t usually sell out, but it’s because most people here are so laid back that a lot of people will just buy tickets at the door. So, it will still be a good turnout, but you won’t have sold out shows before the date.
Ihsahn: Yeah, I know it’s perfect and of course you know, my impression of Australians and the culture it’s very similar, it is kind of kind of western culture if you will. So even though it’s further away I think there will be less of a cultural difference than say going to Japan. But still, sometimes you can get surprised somewhat by when you’re actually in that situation. I don’t often say, I mean travelling as a musician as you probably know you never really get to do all the sightseeing, you never get to see all the tourist stuff but at the same time everywhere I go I meet people who grew up on Iron Maiden, so we kind of have that common ground and we’re all there for the same incapacity of this music that we mutually love. Which is a fantastic place to experience people from different parts of the world and going to Japan for example where I think , Japan and India are countries I’ve travelled to where I felt that the cultural differences are the biggest, but still you kind of get to approach it in such a safe environment because all over the world wherever we play I often get this question, “Oh, how is it playing in Japan or in America, is the crowd different?”, you know, most of the time it’s not, most of the time metal fans, regardless of where they are in the world you kind of all have the same references.
Xavier: Yeah exactly we’re all like one big family spread out all across the globe.
Ihsahn: Yeah and also for musicians we talk about all the sub genres and everything and I remember I met Ville Valo, the front man for the Finnish band HIM at the Metal Hammer awards in the UK some years back and he was there in his Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time T-shirt and that was kind of his first experience, he actually bought that on the original tour back in ’86 or something and for me it was Seventh Son from Iron Maiden and that was kind of my first big show and a huge influence on me. So as I say we all grew up on Iron Maiden, we all kind of started out on the same point.
Xavier: So, my last question. On the track, Arcana Imperii, it features a guest solo from Opeth’s Fredrik Akesson, how did that come about, and will he be joining you on any of your tours as part of the act?
Ihsahn: Well I doubt he will join in, this is just a friendly favour, for all of my solo albums I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing guests. I never kind of intend you know, I never write albums to have particular guests on it or anything like that. It’s just something that kind of comes along as a final embellishment and of course I’ve known Mikael from Opeth since the mid-nineties and he did guests on my second solo album and actually my first show with Ihsahn I played a support for Opeth in Norway, and that was where I first met Fredrik, and of course we meet at festivals around the world and always hang out and talk about music and guitars, just recently when we played at Loud Park in Japan we were just talking backstage and obviously he’s just an amazing guitar player you know, people my age we usually have maybe favourite guitar players from the mid-eighties but over the few years with the Opeth albums, the more progressive stuff and everything. His soloing, he just kind of got up to being absolute one of my favourite guitar players ever. Of course, his tone, he has kind of the technical scales of many of these modern “super shredders” but he kind of has the attitude and soul of back to Zeppelin and there’s something just so classic and so edgy, and his choice of articulation and everything. So, I just told him “Fredrik, man I just love your playing, you’re one of my absolute favourite players, one day I might call you to contribute on something, if you’re up for it.” and he’s like “I’m in!”, immediately, and he wanted to do it. From there it was basically just an exchange of files, you know, me sending him a track and saying, “Would you like to play on this and discuss some ideas”, and he did an amazing job.
Xavier: Well I think so as well, it was a brilliant song and an amazing album.
Ihsahn: Well thank you, it was a really fun album to do and I really have to give credit to Leonous Cornelius, who mixed the album as well to being so kind of, understanding and kind of following through on the mixing side of things, for these rather unorthodox ideas I had. So, you know all the guys at Fascination Street Studios are super skilled and I’m sure even though with the recordings he could easily have kind of polished this into more traditional production, but he kind of respected very much my wishes to follow that idea all the way through.
Xavier: Well I want to thank you for taking the time out today to speak with me.
Ihsahn: Absolutely, thank you so much for the support.
IHSAHN Australia Tour
May 4th – Brisbane, Crowbar
May 5th – Sydney, Max Watts (Direct Underground Fest)
May 6th – Melbourne, Max Watts (Direct Underground Fest)
May 7th – Melbourne, Max Watts (SOLD OUT)
May 8th – Perth, Amplifier Bar
Tickets to all shows: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/soundworks-direct-14354693363
