Min Interview

 

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project?

Ygg/Ray - MIN are an unlikely band. It started with that I asked for help on SoMe for maintenance of an older bass I have and Torbjørn/Aismal replied.

I came to his place and we managed to fix the bass. 

One thing led to the other, and we started to exchange demos. (We are both born in the town Hammerfest way up north in Norway. So we have known each other since we were young. In the 90s we both moved to the south and ended up in Oslo and have lived here since. Different lives and bands with sporadic contact)

Aurora Fatalis and Betrayal was then only instrumental demos that were meant for an imagined Ygg soloproject. 

But I did not get anywhere with those songs on my own. On Aismals side Black was also a stuck demo. 

When I first heard the Black demo my first thought was that this is too good too just be laying around on a HD without being shared with the rest of the metal community. So I asked if I could try to work on the song with him to lift it up as a song. 

That was accepted, and the ball just started to roll one thing led to the other and here we are. 

Aismal - The most northern part of Norway is known for its harsh climate, weather-conditions, large wastelands with no trees, fishermen and its "mørketid" (when the sun is not to be seen for months at winter), but is also known for its majestetic landscape, the sami-people, midnightsun and the northern light. MIN is trying to illustrate both the ugly and the beautiful aspects of this. 

2.So far you have released 3 singles, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style you went for on the 3 songs?

Ygg/Ray - There has never been a plan like in a strategy on where we want to go with this. 

The question in the beginning was, “do we have the ability to lift our half finished demos up to a level that can be released”. 

I was experimenting on different styles of music for a long period. 

Just to see where I could go with the guitar and my vocals. A new terrain for me since I have only worked as a drummer earlier. 

Two of the ideas I had back then started to separate themselves from the rest of my experimentations as metal songs.  

Aismal loved those demos as I did with the stuff he had stored on his hard drive. 

Since we already crawled around in what turned out to be the warzone of recording Black, cause we did know a lot about what not to do in recordings. 

But neither of us had put much attention on updating us on what was going on in today's world of DAWs, plugins, VSTs, soundcards and all that. 

Aismal had worked a little in Cubase earlier. 

And the little need I had for recording tools was GarageBand/Bandlab on iPad, that was "scary" and complicated enough for me back then. 

To put it somewhat on the top. We came from the days of Tascam four and eight track tape recorders and really terrible DAT recorders in to the world of hi-tech DAWs, VSTs and plugins. 

Lacking the knowledge and some degree of self- insight to see that we entered a way of thinking and recording that we really did not know much about. 

Armed with the famous north norwegian stubbornness we jumped right in to “the den of million mistakes” you can do when recording digitally like two idiots hahahaha. 

A really frustrating hardworking period. But also a lot of laughter and self irony. 

We both think that if we are going to release some music. Then we have to respect the listener our self's and our label on doing the best job we are able to do in the recording, mix and master process. 

The three ᛗᛁᚾ singles have been like a apprentice period for us. So the album we work on now we have hopefully done most of the worst mistakes there is to do so we can turn our attention to the creative process instead of “putting out fires” all the time hahahaha. 

Aismal - We did not have a musical plan other than old school metal, and see what we could do with the demo-songs. So we worked on them individually and used a different approach and sound for each song. In the end I think they fit perfectly together. 

3.Both of the members are veterans with experience in well known bands in Norway, what is it that you bring into the music of 'MIn", that you have not been able to do with your other groups?

Ygg/Ray - For me personally it's more of the things I have learned during the years of eternal compromises that's a natural thing in all bands. 

Few bands, very few bands manage to find that balance that makes the group stronger as a collective that lasts for years. 

Those who do/did are the bands we like and listen to in our everyday life? 

The majority are the bands we have never heard about?

Mostly that's just pure luck. Sometimes the collective in a band has the right mix of talent, personalities, mutual respect, network, in the right time and place to pull trough? 

When it comes to the actual music it's some stuff that I failed to communicate in to other bands like the opening riff of Betrayal. In retrospect that riff is a MIN riff and is now where it belongs. 

So I'm glad “they” didn't get it. 

It's a different form of creative freedom in the duo format. 

I can bring in my experience that goes back in decades in a way that has not been possible before in other bands. 

I think I speak for both of us when I say that we do not feel the pressure to do things “right” by the book like we have something to prove. 

Aismal are on the Ulver album (Bergtatt) that is now on a museum. Not because it's an old rarity. Because that album is already norwegian blackmetal history as an example. That is still a little strange to think about. How an underground record in our near community suddenly becomes national history. 

Aismal - Hehe, thanks Ygg. Since leaving Ulver after the trilogy I have not played in any other bands. And before Ygg came with his bass guitar that day, I had no intention to join a band again. But thought we could try to finish some old songs and see what came out. The difference with MIN is it's more inspiring to be involved in the entire process on our own work, and the fact that we work when we want and have energy to do so. We had to fight a lot of issues and had to learn a lot in a short time, but this has given a good connection between the two of us. 

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?

Ygg/Ray - Well now we both have discovered that if we start from the top on the MIN profile on Spotify and just let it (the algorithm) play after the three singles are done there comes a lot dark (depressive) music that is connected to our music. 

Some of those songs are even heavier darker than “Finnish suicide tangos” from the last century hehehe. 

So in my quiet mind I have started to think about writing some more uplifting stuff hahaha. 

But then again that's where we come from the blackmetal musical tradition and culture it actually is here in Norway. 

The lyrics are on topics that surrounds us in life, we discovered very early that the north is there at least up to now in every song. 

The fascinating cold, darkness and beauty of the long winters up north. The rough and mighty north Atlantic and Barents sea. 

And that life is a lot more than just joy and happiness. These stories also need to be told? 

Aismal - As mentioned earlier, the inspiration comes from the ugly and the beauty in the place we grew up. But also how this can affect the mental health of people living in such conditions. When it's dark for months it does something to you. Northern Norway has a lot of suicides and I know too many who have done this. Betrayal on the other hand can be seen as taking a different direction, that sometimes you just have to move on in life.  

Norwegian melancholy comes easy, so I have yet to see if I can write happier songs.. Hehe.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'MIN'?

Ray/Ygg - When we realised that the north manifests itself in the music and our sound Aismal started to think about what this collaboration actually is. “All members” are from Hammerfest. A lot of northern memories and topics are rooted in the lyrics. 

Since we both live our grown up lives in the south, established families, carriers, all those things. 

The northern stories are also a cultural legacy and memories. 

So he came up with a name with two coherent meanings in a way. 

MIN, pronounces minn that is related to the Norwegian word “minne” that means “memory” in Norwegian. 

And can also be - Made in (North) Norway. 

When I did see the logic and meaning of that name, how well it fits in to describe what we do. 

I started to think about a logo for that name asked a friend that is a graphic designer if he got any ideas after I had explained the meaning of that name. So I shared the ᛗᛁᚾ rune version of the name and asked if we could build something on that? And he said, “there it is, that is actually a good logo recogniseble all those things that it should be”

And we realized that he was right about that. 

Aismal - Most blackmetal bands are from the southern part of Norway, hence all the trolls and the forests.. I the north we had neither. But, we have our own myths such as the one Aurora Fatalis is about, that you shall not call/wave a white cloth to the northern light because it might take you.. We were trying to find a name for the band and MIN came to mind due to the arguments Ygg mentions and that suited and gave the project its direction. 

6.Can you tell us a little bit known about the artwork that is presented on the 3 singles?

Ray/Ygg - Black turned out to be a headache. “how the hell could we make a cover that describe artic darkness in the winter period” 

We could have taken the easy way out with just a black cover I guess. 

But there was a need to describe that the somewhat depressive long lasting darkness above the arctic circle also has its beauty during the winter. 

So by a coincidence a old friend of ours, a drummer living in Hammerfest shared a picture of his cabin where the snow in the nature was bathed in moonlight on SoMe. 

The shadows that the moonlight created in the white tree-less landscape, all those things that describe the beauty of the arctic winter was there in a section above the roof of his cabin. 

So I “stole” that section of nature in his picture and shared it with Aismal and said, “that's it?”

He liked it and we started to work on it. 

To little data information on that section of that picture gave us a lot of problems but the solution was in the song's title. 

So we darkened the picture and it became an ok cover even though our talents as graphic designers are somewhat catastrophic hahaha. 

The Aurora Fatalis cover was even worse. The two of us could not land anything that could be considered as a cover for the release of the song. 

So Sturt/Jens B. Johannesen in Polypus Records/Digipus Music, that is a graphic designer saved us with the cover to that song. It looks great, took everything to a new level. 

Betrayal, was a collaboration between me, Aismal and my cousin Jon Arvid S. Kåsereff. (also a drummer up north) 

It was thrown in a lot of ideas from the three of us. A laughter and frustration process that ended up with that me and Aismal landed on a black and white draft from Jon Arvid, that I colourised (logoed/named) and fitted. 

That cover describes MIN and the theme of the song very well?

Aismal - We are very thankful that we got alot of help on the coverart. We were wondering how to illustrate the cover of Black, and did some testing to create our own. But on the very day Digipus/Polypus Records accepted to release Black our friend and drummer from Hammerfest posted this picture. Ygg forwarded it to me and it was perfect! 

Betrayal is our first song about people and not nature, so it felt natural that two persons (MIN) were on it. Thanks to Jens and Jon Arvid for helping us creating the excellent coverarts on Aurora Fatalis and Betrayal. 

7.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you open to expanding the line up or do you prefer to remain a duo?

Ray/Ygg - If there is going to be liveshows we have a somewhat loose deal whit members of bands connected to Polypus Rec, (the studio/rehearsal room bunch)

So onstage there will likely be us with members from Tilintetgjort, Whip and so on. 

But as MIN are now, we are in a build on finding what we are about and sound. 

We will continue doing stuff that we do not have a routine on doing since both of us are in roles that we have not done before. 

But already there is a sound building I think. We have our musical personalities that will be more visible as we release more music. 

How songs are being put together are in a even closer collaboration now than it was with our first three singles. 

But our lack of routine of being in all parts of a song making can turn out to be really challenging in the long run. In a worst case scenario like a Akilles heel. 

Being in a continuous learning by doing situation is exhausting. At least for me it is. (Only when I play drums I feel that I can float on a pre-built routine that was there before MIN) 

I have been really burned out in this business before. Two times that I paid for it with my health. 

So I try to listen after the signals from my body if I push it to far when I'm in a hyperfocus. 

The strong and the weak side in this are the same, that's my ability to “stay on target” and put a lot of work into our music from I get up in the morning to I go to bed when I can. 

So the only way I can make sure that I don't make those mistakes again is to have a better control over what I can give. And have less people around me in the process that can “mess up and disturb” that focus I'm in. 

I'm not a band person anymore, so for me this duo is perfect. 

We have a almost magical ability to just fill in each others “weaknesses”. 

And that is the only reason for that “Black, Aurora Fatalis and Betrayal" is out there instead of collecting dust in a hard drive somewhere soon to be forgotten. 

I'm really greatfull and feel privileged to have MIN in my life as it is. It gives life more purpose and dignity in lack of better words for that? 

Aismal - Early on we both realized that we filled out each others weaknesses. Sometimes we just understand each other on a different level. 

So will we expand with more members? I don't think so. For now we want to explore what the two of us can do, and none of us are keen on joining a full-size band with all that takes of investment. For me MIN is the perfect solution, since I am an ordinary family-man with a job. :) 

8.Currently the band is working with 'Digipus Music', are you happy with the support that they have given you so far?

Ray/Ygg - When talking about unexpected things connected to MIN that must be Digipus/Polypus. 

After I somewhat pushed us in through the backdoor in hope to have their support at least for some digital releases as a former Troll and Whip drummer. 

I knew they would probably like Black and Betrayal. 

For some reason I was convinced that it would not be the case for Aurora Fatalis. 

Now I can't even remember why I was so sure about that. 

But they loved it and could relate to the myth/legend in that song. 

I think that I speak for both of us when I say that at times the label understands and seemingly knows our stuff better than we do. 

I have never experienced that before in my musical life, I have been around for decades. 

That in itself is fascinating and proof of that life will never stop surprising? 

Aismal - I personally loved Aurora Fatalis when Ygg presented it to me. So I was confident that it would be good unless we fucked up with the lyrics.. :) Anyway, we are very pleased with the support from Digipus Music and their excellent staff. Their promo-text for our songs are amazing, and they have been very helpful and supportive despite us being a new unknown band. Getting such support from a norwegian metal underground label was far beyond my expectations. 

9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?

Ray/Ygg - I'm not really sure. Up to now that has not been said much about our music? 

Two reviews, one on Black as a single and one review of all three singles from Occultblackmetalzine. 

So up to now we have avoided being brought to the slaughterhouse hahahaha. Reviews have been good I think?

Ironically there is a conservatism that surrounds blackmetal that few if any are able to “please”. Does and dont's, true, untrue that never ending discussion. 

To me blackmetal is freedom from old dogmas, big religions and where some things are sacred and holy not to be questioned in society. 

Get rid of all forms of social control mechanisms that are based on old truths and the religious disrespect for free thought, expression and sciences. 

Blackmetal has become something of a cultural connection for us. 

Even if we tried it would be hard not to sound Norwegian cause that is where we come from musically. Where we thrive as musicians?

Aismal - The reception has been good as far as I have been told. A few but positive reviews, and some nice messages online inspires us to keep working and moving onwards. 

We are a small duo doing our things, and I am very pleased with the feedback our humble start has received. 

10.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Ygg/Ray - It's impossible to try to predict when the album is finished. Two new songs that's well on the way and a third that is more in the beginning phase. Both of us have other ideas that will probably materialise as we progress on the ones that is being worked on now. 

To start with we weren't sure if there ever was going to be an album. 

Digipus/Polypus Rec, kinda took that decision and said that we should make a album. 

When they believe in, and want us to make an album, it was not that hard to put it on the MIN to do list. 

Aismal - Haha, yes it did not take long before Jens in Digipus said "make an album". At that time we only had one song.. So I was curious, would we be a "one hit wonder" or can we extend to a full album? That remain to be seen, but we are slowly but steadily working on making more songs. Since we do all the work ourselves this may take months or years. But it's very exciting working with Ygg and we hope we can keep going on. The first album will mostly be old school metal, and then we have to see how things evolve from there. 

11.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?

Ygg/Ray - Both of us were a part of a small click of metalheads in Hammerfest when we were young. 

In the 80s metal was more a underground thing globally and groups of metaheads popped up everywhere. How big metal music and culture has become was impossible to see happening back then. 

I always discover new artists in the genre. And we have been a part of that journey as fans and artists since the 80s. 

(On our spotify profile there is a Ygg playlist with stuff that got and gets me going in inspirations in metal and alternative "harder-rock". Check it out!)

Since the spring of 2023 I have been listening to music that was recorded in the old ways. 

Since the statistics say that's the old classics that thrive and are most played on streaming platforms. 

So the question for me was why? It's not nostalgia I'm quite sure about now. 

It's the human factor, nothing is done and played in the exactly same way on those recordings. 

There was not possible to actually see the music in grids in a DAW like now. 

My theory is that the sub consciousness mind gets bored of mathematical correct pleased music? (doubling of tracks, cut and paste repeatedly methods takes away the small variations that makes the analogue recorded music more authentic) 

So music with all our human small variations and minor faults in it feels more real and last longer?

The vocals in the 60s and 70s was more thought through and was more of a collective effort in studio than only the singers' job like now. 

That is how I and many other people read those statistics?

When I record, most big mistakes are being re-recorded not fixed in the grid. 

We are getting better on delivering tracks that do not need much extra work in the common studio projects that become a MIN song. 

I have brought a lot of what I hear in these old analog recordings in to the three singles that's out now. 

In Black as a choir in some parts we both deliver two different voices that make up four voices. In Aurora Fatalis I do three separate voices except for the last two lines where I do four voices hehehehe. 

That was hard work. The third (lower volumed) voice I jump between growling and a type of opera-ish singing. It was complicated to sing, record and balance a mix with all those voices. 

On Betrayal I went back to basics and did one main voice, backed in some parts with a more darker bass voice so low in volume that it will only be noticed if I remove it I guess. 

(Luckily Aismal has had the time to write and adapt the lyrics into the music, something he does surprisingly well. He has a better feel/rhythm on the placing of the lyrics than I have, the drummer hahahaha. 

In those periods I'm often stuck in the production part, balancing, mixing stuff like that. It's effective to do two things at the same time. 

So when the singing starts all I have to do is a little edit, add/switch some words, sentences and fit verses. Mostly to make it more logical for my singing. Aurora had the lyrics, but not the title. It came to me at the moment I did read it. The words Aurora Fatalis was perfect for what I imagined for the last part of the song. 

Would never thought about most of those studio techniques without studying what is going on in the old analog recordings. 

Still learning so hopefully it will get better and more inspired as we go on. 

Aismal - Growing up in the eighties it started with Bon Scott and AC/DC before I discovered Iron Maiden. I remember sneaking into my older brother's room and borrowed a really scary looking album, Live After Death, and was stunned when hearing Aces High for the first time. I went straight home from school for months just to play Live After Death. Then came Metallica before adding on bands like Equinox, Possessed, Deicide, Darkthrone, Burzum and Rotting Christ to name a few. I did also like doom such as Cathedral and My Dying Bride. Nowadays I am afraid I listen to much softer music, but I do occasionally listen to the likes of Solstafir, Alcest, Whip and Tilintengjort.  

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Ray/Ygg - Good questions got me going! During the interview I realised that it's already a lot of history to MIN. 

It's a lot of progress and development in that story. 

So I hope I did not get too nerdy? 

Aismal - I want to thank you a lot for noticing us and giving us reviews and this interview. It's a thrill to be back making music after so many years outside, but it was also a bit scary. 

So this interview helps tremendously and it inspires us to move forward and create a full length album. Now I said it so now we have to do it.. :) 

Or like Maiden did say: So it shall be written, so it shall be done.

https://minmusic10.bandcamp.com/