Interview with Formloff 2007

by Bradley Smith

I just got the Adjo Silo album and I was immediately impressed.  Can you tell me how you two went about composing it and what all was involved in the construction of this album?

BK: Well we don’t use a 4 track, that’s for sure. The songs on Adjø Silo were usually conceived through Marius’ Guitar. That was usually our starting point anyway, except from a couple of tracks I laid the first hand on. Tracks were usually recorded with a dummy guitar track, which we laid interesting stuff on. Programmed drums, processed multivoice vocal harmonies and nice synth effects.  Then we replaced the dummy with more decent takes and added some new ideas.  We record on a computer, so we chop it all up, rearrange and try to make it interesting.  I think you could say that we make metal as a glitch-electronica artist would.

Can you give us a little bit of your band History?  It doesn’t have to be the whole story, just pick out the most interesting bits and you can make up lies and complete fabrications too if you want.

M: We started up the autumn 2002 and we recorded our first demo the same day.  Bernt Karsten and I had been friends for some time and when we started to record “Overstyring” everything came natural for us.  We had been developing the concept and writing for a couple of years, so we only needed to form it into something and find a name for it, and this way Formloff was born.

At this time we didn’t really care to spread our music and we recorded two more demos before we even bothered to make anyone to listen to our music. That made it possible for us to do whatever we wanted with Formloff, and that has stuck with us ever since.

In 2005 we had just recorded our demo “5 ark og en paprikasjakt” when we got contacted by Audio Savant which wanted to release out debut. So then we started to work on our debut album which would later be known as Adjø Silo.

With Formloff you guys have spread out your sound by utilizing a diversity of styles.  What are some of the different aspects you incorporate into your compositions and what are some of your favourites? 

BK: I think we don’t try to incorporate anything into our music, it really comes naturally. If a song needs a trance brake, the song needs a trance break. And if the song needs sexy nurses, it gets that. Of course our songs reflect our influences, but since we have the freedom not to compromise, tour sound sticks somewhat out from other bands.

I think both of us are inspired by electronic music, but not like the linkin park guys. We enjoy a more refined, artsy electronica. That said, our genre-bending does not always have to sound electronic.

Do you think that in general that there is a too narrow minded approach in regards to metal or do you think that its lack of diversity at its core is what makes it strong?  What made you choose to follow the path you did with Formloff?

M: We were listening to a lot of metal in the years when we formed Formloff, so we had been developing our sound for some time.  Since I already knew a little about how to make this kind of music we used it as a foundation for creating Adjø Silo.  Even though metal is the foundation for this album we have a policy in Formloff that we won’t limit ourselves to only one genre, so you can find a lot of various elements on Adjø Silo. The next release will be totally different, but will still be within the context of Formloff.

There are obviously many bands that are feasting on the same bone, and as a result of that there are a lot of bands very similar to each other. Many bands follow the same recipe each time, over and over again. To me it only gets boring when bands only work as copycats of their inspirations. I don’t listen to it when there already is someone else that has done the same thing, just 10 or 20 years ago. With that said there are also a lot of bands that are innovative and original, so we have both, and there obviously is a marked for both of them. 

One of Formloff’s key elements is the “Huesprett vocals.”  What exactly are they and how did you two come up with them?

BK: If you had heard “Overstyring” you’d get it. It’s a singing style where I force my voice folds almost to rupture. With V 2.8 beta coming out, it got more refined, more dynamic, maybe you’ll get associations of sex when you hear it. It’s girlie moaning basically.

Do either of you have any formal musical training?  If so how do you think that has shaped your tastes in music?  If not, what do you think you have gained through a sense an unstructured approach? 

BK: I Have attended a music Collage for years now, not learning so much. I think it has formed me in a way though.  My singing got better, and it’s much easier with genre-blending and shit if you have certain compositional tricks up your sleeves.  As much that I value my knowledge of extended harmonies, I think it’s important to value your own creativity too, that’s what I started with anyways.

M: I have little formal training, but I know some musical theory and other things. I have strange/wrong playing technique. I got a lump on my right wrist because of this, so maybe I’ll have to do something about that soon.  I have tried to use this in favour of myself when I make music, and by working this way I also often get different results since I am working differently to achieve what I want.  I don’t need to say to myself what I can do, or can’t, because I am free to compose whatever I want, even if I may not have the proper technique for everything. I’m not saying trained guitarists can’t think out of a pattern, but that this is the way I work in Formloff.

On your website it says you have no events planned.  Do you have any unplanned?  If so what will they be and how will you approach them without planning for them?  Do you think unplanning for an event is difficult?

M: Right now we are unplanning some live shows.  We are just about the start rehearse after two years since our last concert.  I think most people think unplanning is a more easy process than planning.

In our recent email conversations you brought up the subject of food, so……What are your favourite dishes/cuisine styles?  Do you cook and are you any good?

M: I like Chinese food, especially various dim-sum dishes. Eastern food in general are often very good.  I also try to cook now and then, with various results, the latest dish I made was some form of steamed dough and tasted very bad.

BK: I too like eastern food, but I lean more towards Japanese and Thai cuisine.

I make this prawn dish that both my girlfriend and my mother gives me nice things for.

Here’s the recipe:

Forloff’s Broccoli & prawn Wok

2 cups of sushi rice

1 Lime

22 King prawns

Lots of Thai fish sauce/oil

Lots of Japanese soy sauce

One Chinese garlic

One Spring onion

½ Broccoli

Your favorite Vegetable

1 box Water chestnuts

-Cook the rice as the instruction on the package says.

-cut the vegetables in small sizes, and make paste of the Chinese garlic.

-fry the prawns in a wok, adding fishsauce and soy sauce to your liking.

-when fried, press ½ of the lime over the prawns.

-add the vegetable and garlic, minus the water chestnuts.

-spike it up with the rest of the lime plus more of the sauces.

-when the flavour has mixed, add the water chestnuts.

-You’re done!

I know there is a problem with Polar Bears in Norway mauling people occasionally.  What do you think makes them so angry?  Do you think Humans and Polar bears can ever be friends?

M: The Norwegian polar bears which live on Svalbard and areas around have an unusual high amount of PCB in their body which lowers their defense mechanism.  As their natural environment already starting to change and disappear this makes the polar bear very fragile to changing.  To take revenge they are invading Norway and eating all the children before their species becomes too weak as a result of human ignorance.  I think Norwegians and polar bears can be friends in a long distant relationship.

BK: Maybe as pen pals?

There has been a huge television gossip onslaught about Britney Spears lately.  I wanna know if you think she is cooler with or without the hair?  And did she look mega touch beating on that car with the umbrella?

M: Did she really hit a car with an umbrella?  That looks just as good every-time anyone does that.  Too bad I didn't see it.

BK: I played a game one about princess peach, and a living umbrella that missed his grandfather, maybe Britney has the same problem?

What animals make the Best Pets?  Cats or Dogs or something else entirely?  Whose pet would you want to be if you could choose any owner?

M: I have 3 cats, and what I like about them is that they always have the opportunity to do whatever suits them best, but they choose to stay with me because I feed them. They are taking advantage of me, and if they choose to leave that is ok for me.

I would like to try to be my own pet. That could be pretty interesting or horrible.

BK: I had two cats, one ditched me, the other is a retarded whore, so I think I would like to try squids or jellyfishes next, they are such nice creature, I think I would like to be Ryuichi Sakamoto’s squid.

M: By the way, one of my cats is a retarded whore too.  And next time I'm getting a pokèmon instead, maybe bulbasaur.

If you could be any flower in the world which one would it be and why?  What special attributes make Flowers into super heroes?

BK: An orchid, definitely they come in 1000 of variations and are extremely beautiful.

Some orchids copulate with themselves, that’s pretty super heroic.  

M: I would be a Tussilago farfara, and be the first one to sea the world each year. When I’m done blooming I can be used in tea against coughing.

Which colour is the nicest and which colour is the meanest?  Why do you think they are that way?  IS it in the nature or were they conditioned by society to be that way?

M: Every colour is special, all depending on the context.  Although blue can be a pretty mean colour sometimes.  It’s not in the nature, that’s for sure since it is Formloff who made all the colours with god in 2002.

BK: When god decided to make colours with us in 02, he proclaimed that he enjoyed pink.  So I think pink’s my pick.  Gotta agree with god ya’know.  The meanest is when you mix green and red.

M: And look at it with 3D- glasses?  The Super hot, charismatic, ingenious, very nice, masterminded and talented artist Hannah Marie Rossvoll has actually painted a green and red picture which hangs on the wall in the studio, very nice.  Buy her work!

Back to the music, I know you are working on a new EP, and it says for it you will be abandoning metal?  Will this abandonment be permanent?  What can we expect from this EP?

M: We are still very early in the process, and things are still taking form so we can’t really say so much about it yet.  We won’t use the same recipe we used on Adjø Silo since we don’t see the point of doing the same thing twice with Formloff.  We will still have the same progressive feel to it with various vocal forms but within another frame. We are working on the first song now, which contain piano parts, brass parts and prog-rock guitars. It will sound more varied and maybe contain some ethnical stuff.

As for now we don’t have any plans of returning to the sound of Adjø Silo, but we will bring some of the same influences with us.

BK: I think the key here is progression. We like to make music that’s a bit different, but at the same time nice.  Is it something I would have done better on Adjø Silo after-hand, it is the sound quality.  And this will get better.  Music-wise you should expect anything.  Maybe we hire a polkaband for this one.  Who knows?  I like to chop things up though, so that shouldn’t come as a shock.  I have asked Marius about it and I would really like to do a Vintersorg style song, so maybe a tiny bit Viking metal with a twist of Intel is coming your way.

M: Only if I can do the vocals on that song, viking style.

I hope this interview was outlandish enough for you.  I leave any final thoughts to you.

M: Thank you for the interest, and I would like to give the final thoughts to an old friend of us: “Denna påmmfri`n er jo klaka” which means “This pommes frites is frozen”.

BK: Thanks! I like shorts, as they say on Pokémon.