Audiopain Interview 2007

Interview with Sverre of Audiopain 2007

By Bradley Smith

You are set to finish and release your new album The Switch to Turn off Mankind. There have been a lot of trials and tribulation relating to its recording like the whole loss of the original recordings due to a computer crash etc. Can you tell me what all went into its creation and what this album represents for Audiopain?

Hi Bradley!

Well, because of the incident in the studio you mentioned, the release will of course not be exactly as it was planned to be back in year 19 when we first recorded it. Some of the songs survived the computer crash, and we used them for other releases to keep up with our release schedule. There’s no point re-recording songs that is already good enough, so we made some new songs to replace those we had used elsewhere instead. Therefore the ‘The Switch to Turn off Mankind’ release ended up slightly different than first intended. But now as we have the record ready, I think it was the best solution after all. And ‘A Bomb’s View’, the split 7” with Thesyre, and now the new CD are all releases we are very proud of.

To say some words about the new CD, I would say it is more or less standard Audiopain. It includes six new tracks, as always. I think maybe this is slightly more back to where we were around the “Revel In Desecration” time, as it is not as black as ‘The Traumatizer’, but heavier and somewhat more groovy. It is definitely more shabby, as the songs gives more room for that on this release than before.

As a sort of taster for the new album you guys released the A Bomb’s View 10”. Why did you decide to release this and what material appears on it?

It was a result of the incident in the studio. When we had to adjust our plans anyway, we found it right to make a release like this. It holds about seventeen minutes of pure Audiopain assault, and in my opinion it’s one of our best releases so far. All three tracks were originally meant for the ‘The Switch…’ CD, but when that recording fucked up, this was what we had left that we could use. We decided that rather than to re-record them, it would be better to release them as they were.

Also the track ‘Horns Forward’ from the recently released Thesyre/Audiopain-split was recorded in the same session. This split is now available from us, Thesyre and from transcendentalcreations.com, and we also have copies left of the ‘A Bomb’s View’ EP.

You guys planned a long time ago for an Album release party/concert in September. Ever since you guys announced it the plans seemed to have grown and expanded from two bands to three all the way to the major weekend set of concerts it is now. Can you tell us what all is happening that weekend and how the plans seemed to grow so much from their original intentions?

First we were asked to play, and then The Batallion, and now it has become a three-day festival…hehe. It’s cool! Friday includes at least Root and Ghoul-Cult. Saturday it’s The Batallion, Necromantheon and us, and Sunday it’s Gallhammer and Skitliv. We have nothing to do with the managing of this “festival”, so why and how this happened I really don’t know much about… It’s at this intimate place called Maiden in Oslo, from September 28^th to 30^th. We will as mentioned earlier celebrate the release of ‘The Switch to Turn off Mankind’, so expect some new tracks from that release.

One thing that Audiopain is known for is its Vinyl releases, and especially split 7”s. Why are you so dedicated to vinyl? What do split releases accomplish for you guys that albums do not? Do you think that Audiopain would be better served with more full length albums rather than so many individual songs rising to the surface on vinyl and comps?

The reason we have done so many of them is because we all think it’s a cool format, and we get a lot of offers about it from bands and labels around. It’s a treat for the collectors, and we always use exclusive tracks. There’s no politics or ideology behind it, just that vinyls is cool. And we feel Audiopain were that format well…hehe.

Perhaps this is not the best way to do things if you aim for a major break through, in a society that rate quality by sales numbers, but for us this is right. And I know there’s a lot of vinyl freaks and die hard fans that rate these releases higher than any CD anyway. As our music is clearly not made for the masses, I don’t see why we should care about what the masses expect as format either. What is “normal” in their world is completely irrelevant to us. Underground metal is, and will always be, for the most dedicated fans only, and within this environment vinyl is still very much alive. This way we are also ensured that our music will find its right listener, as no one just happens to buy a split 7” if they don’t already seek this form of music. What should be the next thing then? A split MP3?? Oh Jebus! Screw Flanders!!

You guys run Fias Co studios. How busy does that make you guys with producing so many albums? What are some of the upcoming albums you are working on? How have you grown as an engineer over all these recent years?

We don’t use that much time there. It’s only a hobby, so it’s limited how much time we can spend there. After all we have our daytime jobs and a family life as well. But yes, I think we grow as tech’s as well. Right now we have Two Trains, Vesen, Grotesque Hysterectomy, Necromantheon in, and of course always some Audiopain stuff… Also Whip has just finished their demo.

I have a problem with the Audiopain albums, and it is the fact that Petter seems content to have his bass lines buried so they are usually barely audible. He is such a talented bassist, why does he allow his bass lines to be buried like that? Will you be doing anything to rectify this in the future?

Haha! More bass!!!? Now I’ve heard it all…! I would prefer to take it all out, but as long as we have a band member doing that, and only that, we thought we should mix it in just for the hell of it. It works fine as irritating nonsense to distract the listeners from the other nonsense going on….hehe. Petter’s sound is almost a mix between a second guitar and bass, and because of his distorted sound it is hard to blend in naturally if it’s too high. If he’s not playing the same as the guitar you should be able to hear him very well as it is. Or at least that’s what we aim for. Bands that put the bass high in the mix, just because their bass player is talented, should be executed by strategically fed gays! Just like any other show-off’s!

When you think about the sound you aim for when recording your own albums what are you looking for and why are those elements important? I mean is it a crunchy guitar or more of an organic feel? I mean how dirty sounding should an album be? What sort of freedom does owning your own studio afford for Audiopain?

We never spend a lot of time in the studio during our recordings. We like to get it done as fast as possible. Like sex! The best thing about the studio is that we can book ourselves in whenever we want. But still we always manage to end up fighting against a deadline at the end.

We like a rough sound, almost shabby, or organic if you will, and don’t care much for straightening things that is not clinically tight and shit. Also, the overall punch and feel is more important than to hear every tone on every instrument. A killer song will live through whatever sound, but too clean sound can easily take away some of the soul in it. Repulsion’s ‘Horrified’ is a good example. Imagine that record with a Metallica ‘Load’ sound…! Horror!!!! Sorry for bringing that awful thought into your heads, but you get the point.

Your music has been described as being based around the live environment. Do you enjoy performing live? What makes it so special and where have been some of your favourite performances? What audiences are the craziest? Any place you’d still like to tour that you haven’t yet?

Live playing can be cool if we are well prepared for it. Every time is different, and we try to make every show unique by adding some old or rare tracks or something. Mostly for our own sake though. There’s a very intense and immediate response which is exiting about live performances. The reason we say our music is live-minded, is because we rehearse and record every song so it can be played live without additional help on stage. No overdubs that would be impossible to play later or samples or whatever.

We haven’t really played that much around, so where our best audience is? I don’t know. Trondheim and Oslo is always cool though. As for touring, it’s more important that it is well arranged, a good promoter and a good stage, not so much which country or city it is. I think we are fortunate that way, because there’s always a thrasher around in every town, and thrashers have a tendency to be sort of fanatic and loyal. And they always show up at gigs. Hails!

Norway has always been known for its black metal scene but what has been much more interesting to me lately is the Norwegian thrash scene of which you guys are pretty much the premier act now that Aura Noir has suffered such a setback. Why is thrash so popular up there? What are some Norwegian thrash bands that we need to keep our eyes out for?

Aura Noir is not dead! I’m sure they will come up with some killer releases any time soon. And also Nocturnal Breed and some more has new material out. We are just lucky to be a part of this very high quality scene.

I guess old-school thrash is hot here because it is a more stabile genre than black metal, because it’s “dead”. BM is still somewhat in development, and very hyped, so the ones that like their regular cup of tea may seek backwards where the values are constant. Like Latin compared to any other language…hehe. But I think it’s somewhat different here than in for example Germany, where those typical “retro” bands seem to be more established. Those that are mostly focused on paying homage or whatever to the 80’s thrash bands, by crystallizing the clichés and “steal” classic riffs etc. We, on the other hand, try to make new, original music. Of course with some obvious roots in the authentic 80’s thrash, but still our own brand.

Check out Whip, The Batallion, Grotesque Hysterectomy and Necromantheon, to name a few of the newer bands in the Norwegian scene. Not only thrash though.

Being a thrash maniac that you are what are your top 10 thrash albums of all time and which albums personally had the biggest impact on your own musical development?

1. Reign in Blood

2. Master of Puppets

3. Bonded By Blood

4. Darkness Descends

5. Pleasure to kill

6. Infernal Overkill

7. Schizophrenia

8. Dimension Hatröss

9. Obsessed by Cruelty

10. Rust in Peace

Hard to rank them up against each other, as they are all classics and have given me inspiration in one way or another. But I get inspired by very much, and not only other bands, or music at all, so I wouldn’t put too much into it either.

Aside from the aforementioned album release and corresponding concert what are some of the Upcoming plans for Audiopain and for you in general?

We are still working with some releases that we have scheduled to finalize later this year or early next year. After the incident in the studio we had to make a plan for which releases we should work with at a time, and that list included five releases. Now we have added even two more to that list, and we will continue with this until we’re done with them all. After that I guess we will start up again with preparations for the next CD-release. Or maybe convert into extreme lesbianism?! Yeah!

Last Words of Traumatization for the fans?

First of all cheers and thank you for the interest and support! Then I would say that everybody should feel free to contact us for any problems they might have, also Audiopain related of course, and always remember that you are a failure! Audiopain (att) gmail . com. See ya!