1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1. If we were to explain Kaldvard to potential new fans we would tell them that the we play heavy and old school, but black riffs and that we are in love with melodic lead guitar and shifts through rhythm with the drums to give power to parts of the song etc. We are also a bit more melodious than straight forward plain metal. Take "Fossegrimens Pant"; this was our title track on the first album. Kaldr was struggling with the whole song, making it work etc. When he finally was able to sort the song out, he was thinking "uhm, this song needs a fiddle.". He called an old classmate who he knew played the fiddle, and she, Silje Vevle, added to the song this amazing tunes. Gave the song a whole new level. We still remembers the chills we got while recording. So we have some soft spots here and there. We like to do our best with what we got, and we think we are at that point now that we can say that we did.
The band is 3 guys. Kaldr and Galge had worked together before as security guards. So when Kaldr recorded a riff in 2017 that he thought could be something, Galge was the one who got to listen to it, mainly to give his opinion on the riff. But ended up recording vocals on the whole shabang, when the song was done. So thats when Kaldvard was born. We made one more song after that to see if we could/should work together. And we could...! Very much so. So, the thoughts of an album was almost immediately put to life. Or, at least EP. But since Kaldr found himself in this amazing "drive force", an album was the right thing to do. Too much riffs not to go all the way.
2.In November you have a new album coming out musically how does it differ from the recording you had released in 2018?
2. Yes. November it will finally happen! New album! Just a little bit over one year since the first. So, how will it differ from the first. Well, the recordings are "better", in that sense that everybody is learning new stuff. And since the first one we have bought a new DAW (music production), new midi drums, new guitar plugins, new guitar as well, we got awesome work on the lyrics, a new bass player (on the last album Kaldr was also the bass player), better programming, better understanding, new mix and mastering plugins etc etc. W. Studios (Egill Wessel Nyheim) who mixed us are using a whole new setup, and giving us this modern but still old sound. With all this new stuff we feel like we can do anything. So, bottom line probably should be better production over all.
3.Some of the lyrics go into the witch trials of Norway and Denmark during the 16th and 17th century, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this historical event?
3. Our lyrics are the result of an "meeting" Kaldr and Galge had, deciding what we should write about. Galge being very interessted in history in general, but local stories in particular, came up with the idea. And Kaldr supported that. Then Galge could go in to the deep, searching for stories that happend etc. In Norway we have some legends or tales that "everybody" knows. Like Fossegrim, Nøkken, Trolls and Draugen who was on the first album. On the second album we have some local stories that acutally happend. This is where the witches comes in. We live in Bergen, were they burned witches. The most "famous" one, Anne Pedersdotter, was burned in late 1500's in Nordnes, Bergen. Where we took our last pictures of the band actually. The title track of the new album is about this happening, with the "trial" in the intro and the actual burning of her in a middle part of the song. To make the whole thing sound as terrible as it was, it was probably worse, the real deal you know. Then there are this story that people in town could "hear" the witches on this mountain thatss called Lyderhorn here in Bergen. They reported that they could hear the witches dance around with Satan himself and putting a spell of sickness etc on the local people. We made a song of that of course. In the end of that song we try to make it like the listener can also "hear" the witches up on that mountain, with one hell of a riff and creepy vocals!
4.Some of your other lyrics cover paganism, Nordic mythology, folklore and legends, can you tell us a little bit more about what these mean to you?
4. Our previous lyrics is about these known norwegian myths, and Galge felt like he needed to cover this in a way. Because he is all about remembering stories and tales. It's not just these things he is interested in of course, but these became very natural to write about given the theme we decided to do. So being the writer (Galge) it means a lot to have done this. Being the producer, the one who makes the music (Kaldr) and "potato" it also means a lot that the album is about something unique.
5.I know that the bands name means 'cold/chilly' in Ancient Norwegian, how does this name fit on with the musical style that you play?
5. The name Kaldvard was chosen because of how it looks in writing, but very much what it means and that it is an old word. So old that no one knows it. We didn't know what it meant at the time we were given the suggestion from a friend. We fell in love with the word right away. And we think it fits us in the way we play. At least it fits the cold, dark stories we tell.
6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
6. The artwork was done by Kim Holm. He has extremely many paintings, drawings, covers etc under his belt. Many of those who listen to metal knows his work. He did the Abbath cover this year for example. What happened was that, we knew he existed first of all, and we sent him an email explaining what we wanted. We told him that the cover should be of a witch burning. But "how" should be up to him, being the artist and all. So, some time went by and he eventually asks us for the title track. He wanted to listen to the song to get inspired. We sent him the unfinished, unmixed song and he gave us a sketch. We said yes to the first sketch we got, because that it hit us right away. He had not only drawn the burning witch, he had drawn a whole crowd of people watching the burning, as they did it back then. And some buildings etc. We are very proud of our cover art and it sets the mood not only for one song, but for the whole album we think.
7.Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?
7. We have not done any live shows. We call ourselves a studio band. But we have talked about what we should do if the question hits us about live performance, and we are open for it but we would need help. Galge is the only one of us who has done live shows, when he was the vocalist for Gravdal. Kaldr and Ve have never played any shows. But with the right help and the right equipment we could do it, after some serious rehearsals!
8.You also have a couple of guests on the new album, can you tell us a little bit more about who they are and also their contributions to the recording?
8. The first song we got guest artist on was on our title track, and that was a bit funny and very awesome and interesting! On this particular song "Dømt Til Bål Og Brann", Kaldr and Galge had talked about who should be the "judge" in the intro. It has to be a man with a deep voice. Maybe an older man with dialect from Bergen or Denmark. We actually landed on an actor from Bergen, Helge Jordal. We were in touch with his management and all, but this never happened. Suddently Galge remembers he knows Ares! Founder, vocals and guitarist in Aeternus. He is not only local, but is known for his deep voice. So we asked him and he said yes. The main idea was that he only would be the judge in the intro, sending the witch to her execution fire place. But the day he joined us in the house we did recordings in the whole weekend, he was given a grim verse by Galge. They had agreed while Kaldr was outside smoking. Kaldr's thought was "oh FUCK yeah!". It was quite an experience to sit there, recording his vocals to were it sits, him being the pro and we being the noobs. But all went well and he thanked us and we drove him home. The woman who plays the witch, Silje, we recorded a month later. She has some experience in theatre and was not embarrassed, to put it like that. She went in screaming and shouting. This went quickly, and she was awesome. We are very grateful she did it so well!
Our second guest is V'Gandr from Helheim. This was a shot in the dark really. Kaldr, who is totally unknown for him sent him an email, asking if he could sing on this song he never had heard of. He answered rather quickly and said that he could do it if the song was good. Kaldr sent him the song, and he said yes. We were very excited! He told us that he wanted to do it freely. He listening to the song and sing along until he felt it was "gotime". And the result? Holy shit, we didn't know how to react actually. It was above all of our imaginations. He did an extremely good job on the clean vocals for "Tilbake"!
And, Kaldr felt like we needed a fiddle... So, he called Silje Vevle once again. Putting fiddle on "Tilbake". This song is so amazing that if you like this kind of things, or maybe you just like one thing but not the other, this is the song you need to listen to! She makes this "on the spot", freestyle tunes as we go. And Kaldr sits there, with goosebumps, recording and enjoying every note
9.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
9. We were looking for labels to work with last year and early this year. But nothing happened. We got these "we really like you, but..." answers. So we got a little frustrated. As we worked on the second album, and we realized how much work we put in it, and how good we felt it was we came up with the promotion idea. Buying promotion from a company. That we would have got with a label perhaps. We asked a guy named Roger, who had written a review on our first album, if he knew anything about this stuff. He gave us a list with companies who promotes metal music. So we landed on Grand Sounds Promotion. And so far so good. We are not actively looking for an label right now, but if we were asked to be signed we would be very interested to talk to them
10.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?
10. On our first album we didn't buy promotion like this. At the same time we suck at promoting ourselves. Not many people on our facebook page etc etc. But we managed to get some reviews and an small audience. We are completely aware of that we are new to the underground scene, but we still think that the first album deserved more than it got. But we are pleased with the reviews and that we kind of managed to get it "out there" anyways.
This time we want to do it in a better way. We are not looking to be rock stars and make a bunch of money, but we would like it if our music got in the right channels so people can discover us.
11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
11. The future for us is something we have n t talked about that much. The main thing we had a real talk about was this live show thing. In musical perspective we think that we will keep doing what we feel we are good at. Maybe try some new stuff and make the total even better, but for right now we are happy with what we got. We are interested in the sound is as good as possible, and with so many ways to do it, it's easy to achieve something we can stand for.
12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
12. We are a gang who listen to a lot of different things. Kaldr likes "everything". Now days he listens a lot to what he was listening to when he was a teenager. Naglfar, Myrkgrav, Einherjer, Helheim, Watain etc. But a lot of new stuff hits the ear as well.
Galge listens a lot to Einherjer, Dimmu, Shining, Gorgoroth and Metallica.
Ve likes Disturbed, Metallica, Maiden and that kind of stuff.
When Kaldr makes the music he try not to be influenced by anything. But maybe there is something subconscious when he is in the zone. Other people can probably hear something we haven't thought about and compare us to other bands. At the same time we know what we like, and the music we make is probably an outcome of that.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
13. We are very excited to see how this new album will do. We have worked really hard on it over a long period of time and we are proud as hell! Hope it will make us more proud and that we get inspired to make more music next year!
