Interview with Kjetil Nordhus (Green Carnation)

Hello and welcome into the pages of metalfan.ro. Since many of our readers don't know that Green Carnation started in the early 90's, I would like you to try and sketch a brief history of the band, mentioning the most important events that happened from back then to the present days.

Hi, Radu! As you might know, Green Carnation in the early days is not the same band when it comes to members as it is today. It started up as a death metal act about 1990, recorded a demo, and played some local gigs in Kristiansand , Norway , before Tchort opted to join Emperor to play bass, and the rest of the guys formed a band they called In The Woods... I guess you know all about In The Woods, and when Tchort decided to reform the band in the late 90s, several of the members of that band were natural to invite, and they recorded their debut album in 1999, with several guest singers. The album "A Journey to the End of the Night" was recieved greatly by the press, but Tchort decided to kick out all the members before his big follow-up project "Light of Day, Day of Darkness", released in the autumn of 2001. This was when I joined the band, and I don't think none of us had expected the album to become the way it did. We loved it, then the press came and praised it, and I think for many people all over the world, that album has become a very special one. We followed up with "A Blessing in Disguise" in 2003, and "The Quiet Offspring" in 2004, working more like a band, and still recieving rave reviews from all over the world. The latest years we have been a bit more active touring around playing our stuff, and the response on our live-shows has made us more eager than ever of playing live.

Tell me something about your musical backgrounds and your activity in Trail of Tears.

Green Carnation of today is a band with members of extremely varied pasts. Tchort is probably known to many, after his time in Emperor, Satyricon and Einherjer, plus his current bands, Carpathian Forest and Blood Red Throne. Bass-player Stein Roger Sordal is a multi-artist, can play most instruments, and deals with lots of different styles of music. Guitarist Michael Krumins, toghether with keyboardist Kenneth Silden, is currently studying a higher musical education, and they have both been in a host of bands during the years, Michael previously in Trail of Tears plus his own prog band, Kenneth playing saxophone in a blues-band, guitar in another band and is also a great singer. Drummer Tommy Jackson has been a rental drummer, and has - because of his great ability - probably played in a hundred different projects during the years.

For myself, I have been doing a lot of different stuff earlier, starting out as a bass-player, beginning my singing in the early 2000s, and did a lot of classical stuff before Tchort asked me to join Green Carnation and I also was asked by Trail of Tears. My role today in Trail of Tears is almost like in Green Carnation, I enjoy every second of it, and since the guys in Trail of Tears have all been my friends since early childhood, it's always a pleasure to work with those guys.

I know that Journey to the End of the Night was made with three or four lead vocalists. Where do you think this album stands in your discography? What do you think you would have done differently if you were in the band at that time?

That's extremely hard to answer, really. I had no experience in the studio whatsoever in those times, so that could have turned out both ways, really. I know that Tchort had planned to have one singer only on that album, but she had to cancel in the eleventh hour, and I think the singers on that album did a great job in between themselves. That first album is of course quite a long way from the way the band sounds like today, but considering it's six years since it was recorded, and there's only one member left from that album, I guess it's not that surprising.

Light of Day, Day of Darkness it's still considered one of the most innovative metal acts. Have you intended making the album different from the rest of the albums of those years or was it a natural evolution?

LODDOD was a project Tchort had been thinking about for ages. It was an extremely ambitious project, and I think it was always going to be something special. You just don't make one song, one track for one hour. hehe. All the new members of the band knew what we went for, and gave Tchort the opportunity to get out all his creative ideas. For him, that album was a way to "empty" himself for creative ideas, and from what he says, that's exactly what it did. After that album, Green Carnation has been working more like a band, with several songwriters within the band, and I think that's the best way for a band like us to work. Because we are all extremely creative persons, and you don't want to keep the creativity down.

I found out from your biography that about 30 persons (a children choir and some tenors, sopranos and altos) were involved in the recording of this album. Was it difficult for you to direct and coordinate them? How much time did it take you to record and finalize it in its final splendid form?

Haha. There are some good stories about that day in the studio, when 30 wild kids had to be taken care of. I don't know if the producer has ever become the same again after that. They were used about a day on the children choir parts because that was to be important for the outcome of the album. All in all the actual recording of the main instruments and vocals took less than three weeks I think, with more than a month after that on working on details, getting the flow and stuff like that. It was some long days in the end for the producer and Tchort.

What was its theme and what inspired Tchort in defining its concept? Who took care of the cover, booklet and design?

LODDOD is dedicated musically to Tchort's son, and on the signature Tchort says that "this is my musical legacy". Lyrically it's inspired by the two former Green Carnation and In The Woods members Christian and Christopher Botteri. Niklas Sundin has taken care of the cover, the booklet and design is done by Tchort himself and his friend Jon Tønnessen.

Green Carnation is not the first band to record a DVD in Krakow, Poland . Why do you think this location has so huge impact on bands? For example, why did you choose to make your first DVD there? What are its main attractions?

First of all - we chose to do the DVD there because they invited us, and we thought it would be the right time for us to do it. Metal Mind has done a very good job in inviting bands, and when they have the recording weekends, they put up a lot of band (10 during two days). That's how they manage all those releases.

We are very happy with the DVD. We did a good gig, and I think there's a lot of interesting extra material for fans, amongst others pirate videos from previous gigs and a half-hour long uncut, down to earth interview with the band. The DVD represents the band very well for what we did in early 2004.

2003 was the year of The Blessing in Disguise release. Dark, introspective, intense, with many progressive touches and the atmosphere of a 70's album, it practically took the metal charts by storm and its reviews were in a vast majority positive. In a word, the feedback was great. Tell me about it! Feel free to tell me anything you want and what our readers must remember about it.

We knew we couldn't release another LODDOD. That would be an impossible project at that time. So we sat down and started making songs, did not rehearse at all, and did all the work in the studio, being co-producers ourselves. That was the way it had to be. After working extremely close with the producer on LODDOD, we wanted to keep our own sound for the next one.

We were extremely happy with the result, but had no idea about how people were going to react when listening to it. And when the reviews started to come, we were absolutely stunned, as the reviews and reaction were even better than for the previous two. We honestly didn't know what we did right, but that didn't matter at all!

It was also the first album made for Season of Mist. What is your relation with this small but very active record company? How did they get you ?

Season of Mist noticed LODDOD, and they signed us with the promise to bring us further on in our carreer. And I honestly think they have done what they promised. As you say, it's a quite small company, but they have done what they could, and in the end they were honest with us, and adviced us to move on, to a bigger label. We still havent's signed any new contract yet, but there is quite a lot of interest.

At the beginning of this year you released a new opus, This Quiet Offspring. It also brought important (or not?) line-up changes. Thinking of the saying "You win some but then you lose some", what do you think Green Carnation won and what it lose with those changes? Are you still in good relationships with the guys?

Guitarist Bjørn Harstad has been replaced by Michael Krumins, without really leaving the band. Michael joined us before the European tour in 2003, and has stayed into the band. Bjørn is extremely busy in his private life, but still is working with us occationally both live and in studio. Keyboardist Bernt Moen is one of Norway 's most wanted guys on keys, he lives from his music, and had no choice other than leaving the band after getting too many good offers to turn down. And after recording "The Quiet Offspring" we parted company with Anders Kobro. We're all still friends, and I'm very happy everything has turned out well.

The fans think that your new album is quite different from its predecessor and I think they are right in a way. It has some metallic riffs, perhaps your most "aggressive", but it still bears the Green Carnation trademark. Some say it has modern influences also. What do you think about it?

I think it definitely bears the Green Carnation trademark, yes. We are a band in constant developement, but I guess it doesn't take too long for people knowing the band from before, to recognise us on the new album either. The whole proccess of recording "The Quiet Offspring" was a great one for the band. We stayed together in south France for three weeks, and learned a lot about eachother both musically and socially from that stay, something I think will be good for the future of the band. We had only the producer to cooperate with, so the result is very much Green Carnation as we were last summer, when recording it.

Who is The Quiet Offspring actually? What is the story behind the concept?

Actually, we don't have a concept behind this album (for the first time, I guess J ), but there is a strong link between the cover art and the title. If you read the lyrics also, you can find some references, but we have decided to leave that for the listeners this time around.

Many of the purists still consider metallists some kind of monsters, tattooed, pierced, dressed in leather and wearing black t-shirts. It is the time to let them learn they're far from the truth. Tell me about you and the guys from Green Carnation. There are stories about Norwegian guys from different metal bands hanging out, spending time and having beers together. Please, tell me it's true J !

Hahaha. Well, I guess some of it is true. You know, even internationally, the metal family is really a quite small one, and you tend to meet the same people every time you go to a place. So there's a lot of friendships around the world, made just out of playing music.

Back home the family is even smaller, so yes, I've had my fair share of beers with guys from different metal bands in Norway . Not because they are from metal bands, but because we seem to be at the same places all the time. Back in Kristiansand (a town with 60.000 people), you have bands like Trail of Tears, Blood Red Throne, Carpathian Forest, Communic and ourselves, regularly being visited by other bands, for gigs and frienships. So I think you're right there.

About the metal monster business, in Green Carnation we're extremely different people when it comes both to music taste and persons. There are some tattoos within the band, but fewer than most metal bands, I guess J . OK - a short sum-up of the members, only for you:

Kjetil: extremely happy, social, outgoing, long beard, no hair

Tchort: looks metal, strange humor, a bit shy but a great man when getting to know him

Stein Roger: looks 14, but is 30, wife works at a clothing shop and tries out new trends on him

Michael: the shyest guy around, extremely kind, drives Harley Davidson, thin

Kenneth: loud, talks all the time, no control on anything, red hair

Tommy: big tattoos, short boy-band'ish hair, friendly, womanizer

What is Kjetil Nordhus' opinion about the Internet era? Are you a computer freak J ?

I do work a lot on Internet, and recognise the big advantages, but I guess I am in the generation above the downloading generation, because I have no clue at all about that. So - Internet for me is of great help, but I'm not a computer freak at all.

What do you think about piracy and free mp3 sharing? Does it have bad effects on album sales and bands copyrights or it's just a good marketing tool?

I think it all depends on the size of the band, but for bands like Green Carnation I dont't think it's got too much to say either way. Generally I think it's bad for record sales, but also a good help for the smaller bands. So I'm quite neutral there.

By the way, where do you see yourself and the band in let's say 10 years from now?

10 years? That's a very long time, and most of us will be 40 by then. OK - let's say we're then touring with a full LODDOD production after having released four more albums in the meantime. Now, that would be something!!!

Tell us about Green Carnation's future plans (concerts, touring, new album, etc.)

We are working quite hard now to get more gigs internationally, because we've been quite a lazy touring band, having only done one European tour up until now. We have done some gigs in Europe already this year ( England , Ireland , Northern Ireland ), and we have more confirmed ( Denmark , Holland ). These days we are also waiting for an answer if there's a European tour for us this autumn, something which would be great for us. In October we will launch Green Carnation live in North America, being headliners on The Day of the Equinox in Toronto , Canada . Hopefully that could lead to us being invited for a US tour within not too long.

About a new album, we are actually recording one these days. It will be an accoustic album, including new songs from us, and some cover-songs. If everything goes as we plan, this album will be released through our own label later this year, as a 15 year anniversary CD for the band.

In the end I would like to thank you for this interview and for your time and wish you all the best in the years to come. Share a few thoughts with Romanian metalfans!

Thanx a lot for your interest and support, Radu, I hope the answers have been interesting. Good luck for the future for both you and for Metalfan, and for you Romanian metalfans, I hope you haven't fallen asleep yet, during this interview. As I said, we are working hard now to get gigs in Europe, and Romania is absolutely a country we'd like to come. If there's some interest in that, please visit www.greencarnation.no and tell us at the forum!! Cheers, and stay metal!!!