1. Jordfäst was born in 2017, both members have been involved in different musical projects before, when did you say to create the band? What does Jordfäst bring you with respect to your other projects of which you are part?
Olof: I think we started the project that came to be Jordfäst during the last part of 2015, there had been loose talk about starting something up long before that, but that’s when things started to take shape. I am currently not involved in other musical projects, so Jordfäst is my creative outlet and tool to explore my fascinations with the darker side of nature and the world.
Elis: What Jordfäst allows is something different than my other bands and projects. Jordfäst allows me to write majestic music and describe a story in depth. I know it sound a bit pretentious using the word majestic, but Jordfäst can also be very simplistic and raw. The music I usually play is more extreme, fast punk and grindcore which is a bit more simplistic and more forward.
2. What does Jordfäst's name refer to and why did you choose him for the band?
Olof: It means burried, and we think it fits perfectly since we explore the fates of people long since dead in our songs.
3. “Hädanefter” is your first album, a work that has taken you almost four years to complete and that contains a couple of songs. How was the composition and recording process for this album? What brands of instruments do you use for compose and record?
Olof: Since we live with quite some distance between us, Elis in Malmö and me in Tromsø, we only record a couple of times a year. It obviously slows down the process, but on the upper hand, it gives the songs time to grow and develop, since we are working on them in between.
Elis: We meet very seldom, so when we meet, we usually record and write music for 2-3 days in a row. I have a home studio where all the music is recorded except for the drums. These songs could not have been written in a rehearsal space, they need a lot of time. I use a lot of different stuff for recording. ESP and also Hagström guitars, peavey bass and I also play keyboard through a guitar amplifier, that makes the keyboards sound raw.
4. It is surprising that “Hädanefter” “only” contains a couple of songs, that if, of considerable length, when is the decision made to structure the content of the album in this way? Does this design respond perhaps to a way to let your proposal flow better?
Olof: It is just a result of our writing process. We create music that we ourselves want to listen to, and we don’t finish a song until we feel that it’s done. For one reason or other, this resulted in two very long songs which we were satisfied and proud of, so we decided to release them as an album.
Elis: The lyrics need a long song to make it fair. These are intricate themes and the lyrics is just as important to us as the rest of the music. A song can describe a feeling or whatever, but Jordfäst songs is a story as much as a history lesson.
5. Elements such as melancholy, mystery or the sinister are fully present in your music, which on the other hand, thanks to the duration of the same songs, allows it to flow through different intensities. What sensations do you intend to convey to the listener with your proposal? Where do you get the inspiration to compose? How would you describe the sound of your album for those who have not heard it yet?
Olof: The backbone of the music is black metal in the Swedish tradition, with focus on atmospheric melodies, with some influences from folk music – similar to label mates Panphage and Saiva – but also elements from thrash and heavy metal. My inspiration comes from the feeling I get when I am out in the wilderness or when I read about tragic events from the past – it is this feeling I want to convey in our music.
Elis: Inspiration I get from nature just as much as other artists. Skogen (which means “the wood”) to mention one band and also combine it with nature, haha.
6. Your lyrics seem to focus on elements related to the Arctic on the one hand or the evil of the human being on the other. How important are these themes in your lyrics and in what way do you work on them?
Olof: Yes, that is mostly correct, only I would say Scandinavia as a whole and not just the Arctic. History and nature are the two pillars of our lyrics and inseparable to us. It’s not only used to put the listener in the right place and time, but to awake emotions.
Elis: To me good/evil, let’s call it human nature and stupidity is themes that fit us well, it’s important to me that the songs without lyrics give the listener that feeling just by listening to the melodies.
7. Nordvis Produktion has been in charge of editing the album, a record label that is characterized by putting forward the most interesting proposals. How did the possibility of working with them to edit the album come about? How do you feel that you fit in with the Nordvis philosophy?
Elis: I’m happy to work with Nordvis, just brilliant and professional. Olof can tell you the story behind how we got in touch in a better way than me, so take it away Olof.
Olof: Well, firstly I’d just like to say that all the production of our music we have been in charge of ourselves, with external help with the mixing and mastering. We contacted Nordvis after the music was finished, so they haven’t done any editing to it. But as Elis said, working with Nordvis has been and still is a great journey. We knew already from the start that we wanted to work with them, since they share our passion of nature and “the ways of old”.
8. Who designed the album cover, what do you want to represent with this cover and how does it relate to the content of the album?
Elis: The designer of the artwork is a crazy guy called Jarmo. A guy from Finland who is a mad man. If you think you ever met madness like Jarmo, you don’t know what you’re talking about. This guy is haunted.
Olof: We knew the atmosphere we wanted to convey, but not how it would look. But Jarmo did…
9. How have you as a band been affected by a situation like the one experienced as a result of Covid-19?
Elis: It has definitely slowed us down. If it wasn’t for covid the second album would probably been ready for release now.
Olof: Yes, it has made the recording process hard. Since I live in Norway, it has been difficult to pass the border and back while at the same time avoid weeks of quarantine. On the other hand it has given us more time to focus on writing music and with home office, we have had more freedom do dispose of our own time.
10. You come from the Swedish area of Skåne, what can you tell us about the black metal scene in your region, in terms of concert bands, etc ...?
Elis: the black metal scene in Skåne isn’t that mighty at all. But musically Jordfäst takes a lot of inspiration from other genre as well. And I get inspired by going to concerts of course, that’s why I mention this. Before covid I went to gigs very often, usually it is extreme metal. I can’t even remember the last black metal gig I saw.
Olof: The same can be said for Tromsø, where I live. There is a pretty healthy music scene, but it hasn’t traditionally been as big for black metal as other Norwegian cities further south.
11. How were your beginnings in music: first concerts you attend, first albums you buy? What did you do in your life that made you want to be a musician?
Elis: the first albums I got was Ignition by Offspring, Life on a plate with millencolin, Sol Niger Within with Fredrik Thorendal, All out war with Earth Crisis and Appetite for Destruction with Guns n Roses, haha. The first gigs I went to was when I was eleven and twelve, Refused, Meshuggah and Metallica the same year. My father liked old punk music and he thought Metallica’s Black Album was cool, so I saw Metallica in 1997 the first time. My father used to be a priest, and then totally lost his faith, became an atheist and became a doctor instead when I was a kid, what a journey. If it wasn’t for that I’m not sure if I would have seen those type of bands at that early age.
Olof: My first album was probably some old best of Jim Reeves vinyl I got from my father. Still a big fan of country music to this day! And my first concert was Kim Larsen, who was playing a free concert at a square in Lund, close to Malmö. It was also my father who took me there. I was always encouraged by my parents to play instruments, so I had an interest in music from an early age. One of the first ever albums I bought myself was Trash by Alice Cooper, we were on a school trip and I had gotten money from my parents to buy meals along the trip, but I spent it all on that record and starved the whole day. I had the worst migraine when I got home, but it was worth it!
12. Which album represents to you the essence of black metal? What last albums have you bought?
Elis: Last albums I bought was Viktoria with Marduk, Exercises in futility with MGLA and the goat with Bathory. The essence of black metal, that’s a hard one, I will probably change my mind next week but let’s try, Storm of the lights bane, that’s it. Haha. No really, it’s something I can’t answer, black metal or not, I don’t give a shit, I like music and I don’t care about true/false or what ever people want to call it. I can say what’s good or bad music for me, but I can’t answer what you are asking me.
Olof: To me De Mysteriis is the perfection of the Norwegian black metal sound. It might not be the album I return to the most, but it’s undeniably the most iconic black metal album. For Swedish black metal, I kind of agree with Storm of the light’s bane. Which is a bit ironic, since Dissection themselves referred to their own music as death metal. Regardless of how you classify it, it has had an immense importance in shaping the Swedish black metal sound.
I have moved around a lot the last years and hence have restricted myself from buying physical albums until I have a more stable living situation, but I made and exception this summer and bought some Nordvis records that I was missing in my collection – e.g. Skogen, Armagedda, Panphage and Bhleg.
13. What future plans do you have for the band in terms of upcoming releases, concerts or reissues, etc?
Elis: Our new album is almost finished. So it will be sent for mix/master in December, that’s what is upcoming in our camp.
14. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for Jordfäst fans, this is the place. I hope the questions are to your liking.
Elis: Thanks for this interview! Check us out and support underground music. Stay true to yourselves, don’t please others and compromise your art, be kind, which more than often means do harm, but as little harm as possible, that is what truth is.
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