Madder Mortem: "Innovation is not the only way to make good music"

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We were eagerly waiting for it, it came and gave us all the rewards. A description for this year's new album by Madder Mortem that found us and excited us at the beginning of the year, "Old Eyes, New Heart". Madder Mortem are a band that is particularly modest and talented at the same time, a rare combination from those who make you characterize them as if they were a "diamond".

Despite the impressive reactions of those lucky enough to have come into contact with them, the group from Norway moves at relatively underground levels by European standards, but that does not deter them and they release one amazing release after another. If you need metal bands that don't recognize boundaries and with a very hard sound, although with an obvious base in the progressive element, that they always incorporate a lot of elements from the whole spectrum of music, then this is the band for you.

We had the pleasure with "Old Eyes, New Heart" still very fresh, to speak in a very heartfelt conversation with the singer and soul of the band, Agnete M. Kirkevaag, where she dwelt on all the details of their new creation and the recent history of Madder Mortem, but also in many other topics of the music scene. Put "Old Eyes, New Heart" on the speakers and enjoy all aspects of its creation at the same time.

Hello and welcome again to Rocking.gr! It has been amazingly almost fifteen years since we last talked to you! How is everyone feeling?

Haha, older? It’s a weird feeling when such a lot of things are at least 15 years ago … But we’re doing well – it’s great to finally have the album out, and we’re really psyched for our release party in Oslo next week, so at the moment, all good!

As you grow older, you learn not to trust as easily, and that all that glimmers is certainly not gold

You seem to have "Old Eyes", but a "New Heart". Of course, this is the title of your new music album, "Old Eyes, New Heart". I want you to tell me exactly where the old eyes and the new heart correspond to, since you seem to be somewhat re-inventing yourselves but still having those recognizable elements in your music.

In my mind, the “Old Eyes” is the sum of experience. As you grow older, you learn not to trust as easily, and that all that glimmers is certainly not gold, and you grow more wary in general. And that is a good thing. Trust needs to be earned, and not everybody you meet has your best interest at heart. On the other hand, if you cannot keep a “New Heart”, you will stagnate and lose out on new opportunities and experiences.

As musicians, I think it also makes sense. We are relatively old and seasoned by now, which means that we have acquired a lot of skill and experience, and that gives us a much wider range of expression to experiment with. I think that drive to develop and find new approaches to our ideas is what keeps it interesting for us, and hopefully for the listener, too.

What exactly do we see on the album cover of "Old Eyes, New Heart"?

The cover art is a set of two paintings made by Jakob, my and BP’s father. The artwork is abstract, so it’s entirely up to the viewer to read into it what they want. We asked dad if he wanted to do the art, he painted a whole series of paintings, and then we chose this pair from all his suggestions. So in a way you could say it was dad’s interpretation of the title and the demo versions of the album.

I have to tell you, I have "Eight Ways" deeply rooted in my heart, and even though I really liked the two albums you released after that, "Red In Tooth And Claw" and "Marrow", I found again that angry but heartwarming feeling I met in "Eight Ways" in "Old Eyes, New Heart", something like the world ending but it doesn't really matter. Do you feel that you managed to sound fresh but still keep your music identity intact?

I do. I think by now, we sound like Madder Mortem and nothing else, which I’m very proud of. And I think we went in some directions on this album that were quite new to us, and pulled it off really well, like for instance in “Here And Now”. That sort of Americana sound is unfamiliar territory for the Madders, but it was great for that idea, and gave it such a lot of warmth and vibe.

We usually don’t have any kind of plan or agenda at the start of the writing process

Your voice of course is an element that is immediately recognizable in your sound. Again in "Old Eyes, New Heart", I find that you are utilizing this ability to change from a warm, bluesy voice to an angry monstrous entity in a great way, but how exactly does this affect you in writing your music? Another thing that I want you to explain to us is the decision on where you draw the line on the complexity of the songwriting process. For example, you have a couple of slower-paced songs like "On Guard" or "The Head That Wears The Crown", when in contrast, you compose songs like "Coming From The Dark" or "Things I'll Never Do", where you put in so many layers of riffs and rythyms and vocal lines that it takes plenty of time for the listener to grasp the full essence of it. What makes the decision on how to process each song?

I think one important aspect of how we sound, is that we all contribute ideas, and that we try to write and develop ideas together as much as possible. So a song might start off from any instrument, also vocals. “Old Eyes, New Heart” has quite a few songs that grew from a pure vocals idea, where the rest of the arrangement was built around the vocal lines, not the other way around.

In general, we usually don’t have any kind of plan or agenda at the start of the writing process. More and more, we simply try to refine the idea we have, trying to figure out where that idea wants to go, and how to emphasize the feeling it gives us. And that goes for vocals too. By now, I’m experienced enough to not have to spend time on fighting for pitch or reach, but I spend a lot of time in the studio trying to get the feeling in the voice exactly right. It’s all about what voice or style will bring out the emotion of the song best. And it’s the same for arrangements. Some ideas call for complexity, or are complex in themselves, like “Coming From The Dark”, while other ideas need simplicity, like “On Guard”.

A soft part will seem softer when it’s preceded by a very heavy part

More now than ever, the pace inside "Old Eyes, New Heart" changes without notice bringing both excitement and curiosity about what the listener is going to experience next. Having the listener get hit with unexpected moments is something that you actually look for, or was it a natural process about writing for the polarizing experience of interchanging hope and disappointment in life?

One important aspect is that we simply enjoy that ourselves, we like the shifts. For me, for instance, Faith No More has always been a favorite band, and one of the things I really like about them, is that their albums cover such a lot of different styles. Another aspect is that contrast is such an important tool for bringing out emotion in music. A soft part will seem softer when it’s preceded by a very heavy part, and a slow song will seem even slower if it follows a fast one. So it’s a good way of underlining the nature of a part or a song. And it’s also really fun when everything just goes BOOOOOOM …