“This album opened a lot of more diverse directions with the band” – interview with Jarle Kvåle of Vreid

Some bands are so iconic that you just can’t ignore them. One of them is Norwegian band Vreid, and we had the pleasure of chatting with Jarle Kvåle about the new album, the tour and nature!

Hi Jarle, how are you doing at the moment?

Jarle Kvåle: Thank you. It’s, well, Monday afternoon, always hard to start the week and then it just gets better, I guess.

Can you share with us if there was a particular moment when you started working on “The Skies Turn Black”?

Jarle Kvåle: As normal, it’s been an ongoing process ever since I wrote the last album. I pretty much write bits and pieces of music and lyrics and everything all the time. So, it’s been a process for five years, but I kind of was ready two and a half years ago to go and make a new album and I felt that we weren’t quite there as a band. We weren’t ready. So, we took a year break and I kept writing a lot of material and then we met up a year and a half ago and tried out the new ideas. And since then, it’s been one year of hectic work. It’s the longest period we have ever had a break to actually not record an album. So, it was a bit strange, but I think it made sense in the end.

After being more than 30 years as a band, what does this album force you to confront about yourselves as artists and as a band?

Jarle Kvåle: For me, it’s just about constant development, I would say. It doesn’t need necessarily to be something new, but you have to creatively feel that you’re developing, exploring things. That’s my driving force. I can’t just kind of have a complete plan, then write music after that or some rules and dogmas. For me, it’s about, you know, freedom, spirality, just kind of go with the flow thing. Music has always been one of the most important parts of my life, and I just kind of follow the direction where we go. And I think with this album, maybe more than before opened a lot of more diverse directions with the band.

Do you feel that isolation and nature still play the same role in your creativity today as they did in the early days of Vreid?

Jarle Kvåle: A good question. Yes, it’s an important factor, but it’s not like I seek out and go into nature to get creative. I think it’s more a mix, you know, you take this kind of all the time you spent out in nature during a lifetime and it kind of impacts you. So maybe you’re just sitting on the guitar or writing something and when your head starts to wander off, you’re taken off to those spaces. I think all these impressions in life with nature or something else is kind of that leads to some kind of creativity. But it’s not like I’m running out in the forest and let’s be creative.

I try it myself. I did one album, I pretty much was out there just trying to bring out the music and sit in nature and write. And, you know, that can be a way to work. But for me more now, it’s just like enough, whatever is still stuck up in the head, kind of just to bring forward those situation, memories or impression and they kind of have an impact on it. But then again, I love to be outside when I’ve done some work and just to listen to it, because it’s a better reflection to go out there with a headset and just wander off on your own. So in that sense, it’s an important part.

If I had to pick like a favorite track of “The Skies Turn Black”, it has to be “Loving the Dead”, because it’s just phenomenal. I love that track so much. And I was wondering if you could share with us how was working with Agnete Kjølsrud on this track?

Jarle Kvåle: That was really great, but it was done in a short period of time. I had made a couple of versions of it, tried a lot of different things and I kind of rewrote it last summer and tried out some vocals. But I felt like, “OK, I need something else there“. This is the opening for something else here. And Agnete immediately came to mind. I reached out to her and said, “Hey, we’re going in studio in a couple of weeks. I think this song would be great if you can do vocals.” And she said, “Yeah, sure“.

I sent her just the lyrics and the song how it was. She immediately loved it and said, “OK, I’m ready to start working on it“. And I said, “I want you to do your thing. I don’t want to be involved. I want you to do your vocal lines. If you want to rewrite enough lyrics you can, rather than me just coming in and telling you what’s missing or not, just take your take on the song.” And she did that actually in quite fast time.

I loved the new version it just opened a complete new universe for me, because several of those directions she took with the vocal lines, I could never have thought about that. So I’m becoming a fan of the song because she helped me take it in another direction. It’s really amazing how I think the way she used her vocal, the vocal range that he has for this song, you know, it starts off very soft, almost like pop vocals, like could be like Gwen Stefani or Kylie Minogue or something like that. It’s more like in a very that kind of vocalist and how she kind of just builds it through the song and ends up with these extreme screams. I think it just shows the amazing range she got in her voice.

When you imagine the future of the band, what excites you and what scares you the most?

Jarle Kvåle: Right now, all the focus is on the tour. We have a tour starting very soon now, and it’s the first long real tour we’ve done in seven or eight years. I look forward to that, to be on the stage again, to kind of be able to perform, bring out the new songs. And maybe it also scares me a bit because, you know, do we still remember how it is to be, how to run the road and everything?

I love visiting new places, but traveling on a tour is not vacation. I try to explore the cities. I try to kind of get something back of it when I’m out there anyway. But, you know, the action going away and staying in a bus is not it’s not like a dreamlike situation. But in the end, I think it’s worthwhile, you know, to be able to be back on the stage and perform the songs that we’re so proud of.

How do you navigate moments where your personal lives and the artistic lives pulls you in different directions?

Jarle Kvåle: Oh, that’s the story of my life, I guess. I think very much that it is an outlet of my personality. So it’s not like you create like a facade or something that you’re staying within. It’s separate worlds and I think that when you live for a while and you kind of have your own family, kids growing up and everything, it’s a bit different. I think I really appreciate that I’m still fortunate to be able to do this music, to have this outlet in life. I have no idea whom I would be without it. I run a festival, which is about heavy music.

One of the most interesting tracks also from “The Skies Turn Black” records is “Kraken” that was written for like a major film. Are there any movies that you like whose soundtrack impacted you the most?

Jarle Kvåle: Yeah, David Lynch, I think, you know, the Twin Peaks TV series, Mulholland Drive, a lot of his movies, I think he’s got a very distinct kind of sound with all the music he got composed for his shows. That’s always been a great impression. And David Lynch came into my life pretty much at the same time as black metal came into my life when I was like 13-14.

I’ve always seen some kind of resemblance with the atmosphere and stuff like that. These two worlds are connected. I think there are so many great movies that without the soundtrack, the films would not be the same. If you look into the world of Quentin Tarantino, you know, without the songs, it’s not the same movies at all.

If you had to pick a song from “The Skies Turn Black” to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, which one would you choose?

Jarle Kvåle: Then I will just take the fastest one, “Chaos“, just to fuck everything off. If I ever were to somehow end up there, I want to do the most brutal thing we could do. I’m not sure they’re ready for that. I’ve seen that there’s been a lot of bands over the years, you know, and even now, you know, I think Gåte in Norway some years ago, and Myrkur is part of it now, I think. So yeah, there’s some metal bands in it. I would like to try a lot of things, but I don’t think we’re going to try that.

Do you remember which was the first CD that you bought, like an album?

Jarle Kvåle: I had a lot of cassette tapes, and then it was on vinyl, of course. And with the CD, I think it was actually Alice Cooper, “Poison”. Alice Cooper was a big favorite of mine. I think that was my first CD. I also bought from a friend of a friend some used CDs. I think I already got them like “Powerslave” from Maiden and “Master of Puppets”, Metallica, stuff like that.

I like a lot of periods from Alice Cooper, especially I love the 70s stuff that he made, and I listened to those albums over and over again. And so that’s had a huge impact on what we do with Vreid. And “Loving the Dead“, you know, it’s not very different from a song by Alice Cooper, “I Love the Dead“. So I kind of had them in the back of my mind when I was actually writing that song. Even musically, it’s not like anything like that song. It’s like kind of that I wanted a more, let’s say, gothier or shock rock kind of vibe to that song rather than like the more Norwegian nature, black metal atmosphere.

So last year was an year that was amazing in some ways, but also last year took from us Ozzy Osbourne. And I was wondering if he also was one of the influences that you had from Vreid or in your life or for your music taste?

Jarle Kvåle: Yeah, in every aspect, I would say, you know, musically, since I was very young, both Ozzy and Sabbath, of course. I work as a promoter and I arranged the last shows for both Ozzy and Black Sabbath in Norway at our festival Tons of Rock. And I went to see him in Birmingham, his last show. That’s where the kind of the whole title and everything for “The Skies Turn Black” in that song, the lyrics, everything was inspired by that night, because it was one of the best nights I’ve ever had at the show, you know, just see Ozzy trying to fight for doing one last show, but to see all the other bands performing for Ozzy and just trying to show Ozzy how much he has meant for them and stuff like that. It confirmed how big this universal feeling of heavy metal is. And so “The Skies Turn Black“, that song is a 100% tribute or thank you to Ozzy for opening the opening the gates of heavy metal.

Can you share with us if your family likes Vreid or listens to Vreid, how they react to it?

Jarle Kvåle: They are so tired of Vreid. My wife, she’s been listening to the same music as me for, you know, her whole life. So it’s like she can listen to it. And the kids, when they were younger, they thought it was funny. Then they thought it was really embarassing when they became teenagers. And then they started to like it again. You know, they listen to all kinds of music. They listen to heavy metal, but they have a broader range in the music. So, you know, I think they can acknowledge it, but they’re not sitting listening to Vreid all the time. I hope. It’s more Elvis than Lana Del Rey that’s kind of running the soundtrack in this house.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our readers?

Jarle Kvåle: I think you covered a lot of things, but I just really hope to see people on tour again. That’s the only thing on our mind now is to get out there and play and just meet up with people again. So, yeah, looking forward to that.