Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Last year, one of the most important bands in the neofolk scene, Wardruna released their sixth album “Birna”. While past albums were about Norse legends, this one is about a bear — literally. The album carries forward the familiar Wardruna sound, made with electronically enhanced traditional instruments and the epic singing manner of Einar Selvik; at the same time, it is hard to put it “in line” with other releases, as it does not have that much in common with topics of Norse gods or runes. “I wanted to explore the bear itself, without our human ornamentation,” Einar says in the interview. “We humans, we like to put ourselves in the center of everything.” What drew him was the animal’s uncanny symmetry with the seasons — the bear is so cyclic in how it lives that it completely mirrors Mother Earth’s movement — and the album, named for the she-bear, sets out to give voice to those movements and tell them through the bear’s own eyes.
In June 2026, Wardruna organized “Nordic Night” — a one-day festival of “Nordic” artists. Hosted on a mountain overlooking Oslo, it became a large, important event for the scene. For me, it was also an opportunity to interview Einar. I wanted an interview that touches not just recent news, but something deeper, something about how music material connects with and reflects Einar’s personal views.
Given that Wardruna builds on traditional foundations and probably also personal reflections, it is indeed quite difficult to encompass everything in just half an hour; however, it allows one to understand better the concept of Birna and also Einar’s philosophy and worldview. Selvik is wary of the industrial habit of pricing nature only in money, of treating a forest as worthless until it is felled. “Anything that has a value has a cost,” he said. “But you have to be willing to pay the cost.” He is careful not to preach: real change, he suspects, comes less from telling people what to do than from reaching them emotionally — art, as he puts it, is the weapon he chooses.
Wardruna braids instruments from the Stone Age to the present into one modern soundscape, and Selvik insists that experimentation must be earned. “It has always been important not to climb into trees that don’t have roots,” he said. “At the same time, it’s about sowing new seeds — and by doing that, you strengthen the old roots. But the focus is here and now.”
