Der Weg einer Freiheit Interview

 

Answered by Nikita Kamprad

1. Can you give us an update on what is going on with the band these days?

These days, we’ve just wrapped up our festival season, which wasn’t overly busy, but busy enough for a band like us. We’re not constantly touring; instead, we try to pick the festivals and shows that we really want to do. So we had a great festival summer and right now we’re preparing for the very last festival we’re doing in Portugal in about three weeks, as well as the second part of the INNERN European tour which is coming up in October.

This part of the tour focuses more on what you could call B-markets — smaller cities that we haven’t visited in a very long time, both in Germany and abroad. And in about two weeks, the INNERN instrumental album is scheduled for release. The first song, 'Xibalba', has already come out in its instrumental version and we’re very excited to see how people react to it and what they think this instrumental release is actually about.

We’ve been asked quite a bit about the philosophy behind it and why we feel it’s a nice addition to the original version of INNERN with vocals, so we’re looking forward to explaining that a little more through interviews like this.

So, these are exciting times for us. Other than that, we’re doing very, very well.

2. Recently you have released an instrumental version of your previous album, what was the decision behind releasing an album without vocals instead of working on a new album?

Instrumental music has always played a big role in Der Weg einer Freiheit’s music. We’ve released instrumental songs on previous albums — even our first album had two — although on the last two albums we only had a few smaller, interlude-like instrumental pieces.

Our fans, and especially people who play instruments themselves, have always appreciated the musicality in our work and the carefully crafted instrumental content. Since Noktvrn, and especially on INNERN, the use of synthesizers, sound textures and other effects has also become much more prominent, creating a more cinematic feel. After the release of INNERN, we received a lot of positive feedback about this direction.

The idea for the instrumental release actually came from our bassist Alan. When we were writing INNERN, 'Xibalba' was one of the first songs we finished, but one of the last to receive vocals. We usually finish our songs instrumentally before adding the vocals, so we spent a lot of time listening to the instrumental version. Alan got so used to it that when we finally added the vocals, he actually missed experiencing the song in its instrumental form. That’s when he came up with the idea of releasing it that way.

We then thought, together with our label, why not do the entire album? There’s also a practical side to it: nowadays, I don’t think an album cycle necessarily has to end once the album is released and you start working on the next one. You can keep working with the music that’s already there and find new ways of presenting it, while also keeping the momentum going and promoting the upcoming tour.

That doesn’t mean we’ll release an instrumental version of every album in the future. It’s more of an experiment for us, but we feel that INNERN lends itself particularly well to it because of how strong the musical content and the atmospheric elements are. That’s ultimately the main reason behind this release.

3. A lot of your lyrics cover philosophical and existential themes, are there any philosophers that have had an influence on your songwriting?

I wouldn’t necessarily say philosophers in the first place, but rather a couple of books and different schools of thought that have influenced the way I write lyrics and think about life in general, which is ultimately one of the main topics of Der Weg einer Freiheit’s music.

I think a lot of it is about everyone’s journey from being a child, to becoming a teenager and eventually an adult who is responsible for their own life and finding meaning in our actions, our communication and simply in living day by day. The books of the German author Hermann Hesse, for example, have been particularly inspiring to me in that regard.

There are also more contemporary influences, especially when it comes to how I approach the creative process and my lyrics and music. One example is the Blindboy Podcast, which deals a lot with mental health, psychology and different approaches to understanding ourselves. Jungian psychology and a bit of Buddhism, at least the philosophy behind it, is also something that has inspired me, particuarly throught the last couple of years.

So rather than being directly inspired by ancient philosophers or specific philosophical schools, I’d say literature, psychology and contemporary discussions around these subjects have had a much stronger influence on my lyrics.

4. Out of all the tours the band has done so far, which one stands out the most?

I think one of the tours we still talk about a lot and that many people tell us they saw us on for the first time, was our 2023 tour with Igorrr, Amenra and Hangman’s Chair. It was a huge six-week tour that took us through almost every corner of Europe, from Spain, France and Italy all the way up north-east the Baltic states and Scandinavia.

The crazy thing was that every day felt like a festival day, with four bands and their full productions having to fit into a single show day. The setups, soundchecks and changeovers were incredibly short, so it was definitely stressful at times. But at the same time, we got to play so many venues that we could never have played as a headlining band at our current level. We played places like Salle Pleyel in Paris and Cirque Royal in Brussels, which was an incredible experience.

Another tour that really stands out to me was our 2014 tour through Russia. Obviously, it’s something we could never imagine doing today, but back then it was one of the biggest adventures we could have had as a band. We had amazing shows and experiences, and we got to know the country and its people firsthand — not through the media or news, but by actually meeting people, spending time with them and celebrating music and Metal together. Compared to now, it feels like a completely different time we lived in.

That’s something I still cherish a lot personally, but it also makes me very sad when I think about what has happened since then. Seeing what the Russian government is doing to Ukraine, the fullblown war, but also what it's been doing to its own people over years and decades, is incredibly painful. When I remember the beauty of the country and the people we met there, it’s particularly heartbreaking to see how all the propaganda and indoctrination can contribute to a government destroying its own country and its relationships with the outside world.

5. The band is more rooted in the modern era of black metal, do you feel this genre has made plenty of changes in the last decade with bands creating their own styles that move away from the more traditional aspects of the genre?

I mean, black metal, simply put, is just another musical genre. And musical genres are always open to interpretation, to mixing different influences, developing new styles or putting new ingredients into something that already exists.

I know there are a lot of purists and purist bands out there who still make the kind of sound that black metal stood for in the ’90s and that’s perfectly fine if people enjoy doing that. I sometimes enjoy contemporary bands that stay very true to that sound myself. Take Darkthrone, for example: their sound has remained quite consistent over the decades, but they still reinvent themselves with every album, sometimes sounding more heavy metal, sometimes having a strong death metal influence and then going back to black metal. At the same time, I enjoy bands like Deafheaven, who have a very different and individual approach while still being associated with black metal.

I definitely see ourselves more in that direction. We really cherish the roots of black metal and the bands that originally inspired us, but we also want to take our music somewhere new by combining influences from completely different genres. As a music producer with a studio full of different instruments, I’d be stupid not to experiment with anything that sounds good to me and see if I can turn it into something that works within our music.

'Forlorn' is a good example of that. Nicolas and I were playing around with synthesizers and came up with something that turned into a song we couldn’t really put into a specific genre. It has blast beats, double bass and screams in the second part, but the first part of the song is something completely different that we didn’t even know we could do until we tried it. I think that kind of experimentation is very important to our music, and the fact that 'Forlorn' has become one of our most successful songs shows us that our audience appreciates that approach, too.

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

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about our band and the instrumental version of INNERN. We know it’s a bit of an experiment and I’m really curious to see where this is going and how people will respond to it.

And of course, thank you for the work you’re doing with the magazine. We really appreciate the fact that you give bands like us the opportunity to be heard, to talk about our music and to share the ideas behind it. That’s something we value a lot.

And to everyone who hasn’t listened to INNERN yet: feel free to give it a chance, whether it’s the original version with vocals or the new instrumental version. We hope to see you very soon at one of our shows!

https://derwegeinerfreiheit.de/