A Necrometal Exclusive! Picking at the brains of Patric Gustafsson

Greetings and thank you for doing this interview with us.

What is behind the name Irminsul and why was it chosen as band name?

We saw a piece of jewelry in the Nuclear blast mail-order magazine that was named Irminsul, we thought it was a cool word and did some research about the name. Irminsul was a pillar standing in Sachsen nearby Weser in Germany and it was believed to be the pillar of the world during the heathen time period. Irminsul was destroyed in the year 772 by Charles the Great. The symbol has a lot of similarities with the “Yggdrasil�. We agreed that Irminsul was a great name that matched our genre of music.

Irminsul has declared itself to be a Folk Metal band. What in itself are the pieces that in your minds have to be put together to be this type of hybrid?

Well, to be frank we don’t really know. When we come up with a melody we play it several times and then we modify it so that it fits our genre. That process is not a thing that is hard or so, it just comes naturally when we write music. The melodies are often folkish and then we put heavy backing chords to fill it up. Sometimes though, the chords and bass do the melody instead, like in “Urberg�.

I was in England this summer (couldn’t get away from the stupid sun!) and saw a band from the South of the country named The Dolmen. These guys used a flute as well as traditional melodies in their compositions. Does Irminsul have a base to which they can draw all influences and ideas from?

No we don’t, we try to make it sound as folkish/Viking style as possible but we don’t necessarily use traditional folk melodies … All our songs are first created on guitar and then we assign the different melodies to the bass, lead guitar and rhythm guitar depending on which melody sounds best on the various instruments. This thing is also very natural to the band, we never argue about the melodies or which should be played by which instrument.

Metal is fractioned off into sections that bear what bands want to identify themselves by. In your case, you chose to identify with your Swedish/Viking national heritage. What can be said of this? Do you feel that it is in danger of being forgotten that your countrymen must be reminded of this?

Well, history is always interesting and especially Scandinavian history, so it’s natural for us to take this path. We are not afraid that it’s going to be forgotten but nowadays people just think about the present so maybe it could be good for all of us to be reminded of how it used to be.

I have read that Swedish people have a deep interest in roots revival. Was this a reason to create the band?

No it’s not the reason at all. The reason why we started to play was that it’s fun to play. The special direction we have taken now evolved later on when we got more serious with the band. If you are interested in your roots Sweden is the best place to live because nowhere in the world is there any better system of national registration than here, it stretches over several centuries back in time.

I do applaud your choice of wanting to perform your works in your native language. Is this a continuing plan?

Yes we intend to continue singing in Swedish. It’s an important element in our style and we think Swedish is the right language for this kind of music (besides Norwegian).
Furthermore, we speak Swedish so why don’t sing it…

The Irminsul band page says you have decided to include 2 permanent female members to the line-up. I have already seen disapproving reviews by others who fear this inclusion will take away from the vibe you have in the “Vinterskald� demo and just make you too similar to other bands of this genre.

Female vocals have only appeared on two songs this far. On the first demo “Vinterskalderâ€� it was a girl named Linda (lost here last name) who appeared as a guest vocalist on the song “Svikarenâ€�. Then on the second demo (yet to be named) another Linda (last name Fagerberg) made a guest appearance and sang parts of the song “Frostföddâ€�. They are not going to be permanent members, though. We will continue using male vocals as our basis for the songs and only occasionally add female vocals to enhance certain parts or melodies.
Ida Gudmundsson on the other hand, who plays the violin (no vocals) on “Urbergâ€� and “Frostföddâ€�, is a girl we hope will stay with us and make our music more interesting. We do not intend to change our style at all, just add some width to our songs…

What makes Irminsul an entity of its own?

Most bands in our genre generally base their music on black metal. Sure we use black vocals too but our music is more like the traditional metal but with folkish melodies. Furthermore, we listen to many different bands in our genre and we think that our special style is rare. We sure hope that others agree with this.

The recording of the demo is quite good and not hard to see that it was done with good hardware. Who did the recording/mix?

Thanks for the kind words. The recording of our first demo “Vinterskalder� we don’t consider being that good. We were quite inexperienced with recording gear then, recording it in 16bits instead of 24bits (big mistake - lesson learned). We own all equipment ourselves and most of it is pretty cheap stuff. All recording and mixing is done by us.

Does the location of the recording studio (and also home of one of your band members) enable the band to easily come with ideas and safely record them for later use?

Yes that’s perfect because it’s a house with no disturbing neighbors so we can play and record whenever we want and there is never any time pressure. We use Cubase SX3 when we record so when we have some ideas for a new song we just plug in the guitar.

Why does the demo cover depict a tree? Any poetic relation to Yggdrasil? (To our readers: in Norse Mythology, this is the tree where Odin sacrificed himself and also was the connection between Heaven and Earth).

I must say that you are on the right track here. Due to the similarities between yggdrasil and Irminsul we thought that this was a great idea for our first demo cover. And the reason why it’s winter in the background is that it fits with the name “Vinterskalder� (means something like ‘winter poems’).

I understand that there is another band with connections to Irminsul called Enigma of Xystus which to my ears seems more of a traditional Metal band. Is this something which is only a pastime? Where does this fit?

Well, we had some recorded songs from our first time in the band that didn’t fit at all with our other Irminsul material, so we decided to go under another name when we placed them on Garageband.com so people wouldn’t get confused about what we were doing. Maybe there will be more songs under this name but we have nothing planned… Irminsul is the priority.

You guys have been trying to make your name known by handing out demos and by posting your music on different sites. This seems to be a newer way to promote one’s band. Do you guys promote by sending your material to paper magazines, other online outlets or trading with labels or bands?

Yes, we have sent “Vinterskalder� to both record labels and magazines and we have also handed out demos on concerts and festivals etc.

What in general do the lyrics of the songs convey?

The lyrics are mostly about nordish nature, strange mythical events and beings. They often end with someone dying or the end of the world so our lyrics are usually pretty dark. The upcoming songs will be more connected to our history… Our next song, which will end our second demo, will for example be named “Häxhammarenâ€� (the Witch hammer) and will deal with the church and the witch hunt during the dark ages.

The band’s site is very minimalist in nature, almost like Dark Throne’s. Is this the way you seek to keep it?

This is nothing we have done on purpose, our webmaster Olof adds whatever we’d like to have and our fantasy isn’t so good when it comes to that stuff. Posting a lot of pictures would just be a waste of time. No one would like to see our ugly faces anyway…

Is it true that Swedes are said to report in sick to work more often than other Europeans? Hahaha, sorry I just had to ask!

No offense taken. It could be true because the temperature here during the winter season is below human toleration in my opinion. And the main reason to why we have so many people here that are home hurt, is that these blasted polar bears seem to be everywhere nibbling at you…especially now when it’s mating season. 

Sweden is a Monarchy. Does this contribute at all to have a mentality that wants to recall gone by times?

No, the king is a joke. Ha ha. Our king Carl Gustaf is not making out any particular function at all - he has no power whatsoever, he is just a face to the outside world. But it is good that we keep him just for old time sakes. Traditions are important.

I’d like to ask you about the music scene in your country. In general, it looks like Sweden has more bands than other Scandinavian countries, and more so, successful ones.

Yes, it’s true we have many great talented bands and artists. The reason for that I don’t know because we’re only a population of 9 000 000. Maybe it’s because it is so cold you can’t be outside during winter or that the government sponsors young people up to the age of twenty to play. And then there is the fact that here in Scandinavia we have quite a special style.

Have you ever considered the use of “säckpipaâ€� (Swedish bagpipes) in your music. German act, In Extremo, incorporates bagpipes in their music with quite a good result.

No but if we ever cross paths with someone who can handle the instrument we would probably consider it. Bagpipes rock!!!!!

In an interview some years ago, one of the guys in Entombed said that a lot of the gear they used was supplied by the Swedish government as a part of a cultural/art program. Is this something still taking place?

Yes I think so but it is only up to the age of twenty it’s free, and then you’re kicked out of the rehearsing studio. But I know that you can ask the government for a contribution to a concert if you are member in a music association. We have never done it but we know bands that have.

How did all the band members originally meet?

Robin and Guzten met for the first time about three years ago thru a mutual friend and immediately started recording songs with a sucking drum machine just for fun (“Svikaren� was actually recorded for the first time during this period). Then another mutual friend, Josef, wanted to start a band and he knew our drummer Jonas. This was about thirteen months ago… Josef is not a member of the band anymore due to time issues.

In composing music, do you draw lines of division between an upbeat song and something that may sound too “happy�?

Yes, we are very strict about the melodies so that they feel right. We don’t like it when it gets to chic.

What can be expected next from Irminsul?

We will appear on a compilation CD from “House Recordsâ€� with “Urbergâ€�, probably released in December. Very soon a cover of Dimmu Borgirs “Broderskapets Ringâ€� will appear on our site and then we will start to record previous mentioned “Häxhammarenâ€�. As soon as that’s finished our second demo will be sent to record labels and magazines.

Please comment as to how the band performs in a rehearsal and in a live show setting.

Unfortunately we can’t play live at the moment until we find a second guitarist and that has shown being a hard thing to do… (Someone who’s available???) We have a problem with the violins to because Ida is studying in another city and we only meet her when we are recording. But sometime we hopefully will straighten things up, and then we will show you….

I am quite taken by the female vocals used in the demo because they are not overly used to an excessive degree and become too overbearing. How does the arranging of the vocal patterns take place?

As we said before we only use the female vocals as a nice touch. If we feel, though, that it would be more interesting to change the male vocals into female vocals at some places in a song then we do that. It has gone well so far.

Did the passing of Bathory’s Quorthon have an impact as most claim? While his early works are undeniably unshakable, the latter just didn’t bear such groundbreaking impact.[/i]

None of us has really listened to Bathory so we don’t have any good answer for that unfortunately… Even though we know that Quorthon was a great inspiration source to many. R.I.P.

Add anything you’d like here that you feel wasn’t covered and should be.

We would like to thank you for your willingness to do this interview with us. We are very grateful.

Hails and cheers! / Irminsul