We did an interview with Jens Nicolai when the first album ‘Access All Worlds’ came out, so let up pick up the thread around this time. It seems that ‘Mistland’ happened to be the first song you completed for the new album ‘Kinship’, earlier than the rest…
That is true. We knew that there was going to be some time between the first record and the next record. I mean, we released the first record into thin air in a way, because we had no big fan base or there was nobody anticipating the music we would make for the first album. So it was kind of being a new band and that is a big difference, releasing something into thin air, when there are no expectations for the first album. Then we knew that there would be some time before we could finish the second album. So we thought ‘okay, maybe we should do a very early single from it’ and that became ‘Mistland’. That is the thought process behind releasing it so early. In a way you can say that ‘Mistland’ is the first single, but then again it is also in a spirit of its own maybe.

After the pandemic, in 2022 already, you started acting like a live band. What about this experience for you?
I think for all of us it is a really great experience. I can say for me personally, it is where the music is supposed to happen. The record is of course the big thing you make and you perish it, but the interaction between the band on the stage and the audience is something very special and I think for us as a band, we kind of like that interaction in a way you could say that we have an old school kind of approach to it also. We like to see where the energy takes us in a show. Of course we don’t improvise like that per se, but I mean that we use the energy of the crowd a lot. So for us, taking our music live was a very big step. For me it was one of the greatest experiences, because as a musician, when you are not playing live, you miss it. For me at least.

Was it only at festivals you played, or did you tour in the meantime as well?
No, we have never had a proper tour. We have done a lot of shows when we maybe had two concerts. And we were off the periods in between. The pandemic did us a big disfavour, messing up one tour we had prepared and then also we were a little bit unlucky with preparations for other tours where maybe you have an offer and then you say no to something else and then the offer you focused on also did not happen. Sometimes it is very difficult and also because we are a small band, just heading out. But we are still looking to do this, but up until now we have had a big experience playing at Summer Breeze festival in Germany. That was a lot of fun! We played at Midgardsblot in Norway and also our home festival of Copenhagen, Copenhell, which was a very big experience. So we have been playing very great shows I think, for the band’s perspective at least, but we just need a big tour, but I think in the future it will happen. I would say definitely! We believe it when we are sitting in the bus.

In 2022 you went for an acoustic approach for some of the songs of the debut album, 16 minutes… Maybe that has led to one of the new songs on ‘Kinship’, the one which is very diverse; ‘Iridecent Way’…
The acoustic song on the new album, that came out today, that is pretty old I can say. Jesper and Jens Nikolai could probably answer this more correctly than me, but I think the demo for that song actually precedes our first album. There was some sort of demo for that song. I think it goes all the way back to 2017 or something. The foundation is pretty old, so it has been lying there and we wanted to do something like this acoustic ballad for a long time. I don’t recall why it doesn’t happen on the first album, but it just didn’t so… but on the second album it kind of makes sense. The acoustic voyage was more like an experiment. We had these acoustic renditions where Jesper and Jens talk about the music and the guitar playing and then they played a small intersection of acoustic music that was based upon the songs of ‘Access All Worlds’ and we got the funny idea: ‘why don’t we make a sound collage out of this?’ and so that’s what we did. So it is only an experiment and maybe also I would say ‘‘to do something while we did the second album’. Because the second album, it took so long. We had a feeling it would be great to do something.

There was a lot of work on the second album, because there is a story running through it…
Yes, the new album is a kind of different animal all together. Maybe we are digging a little bit more into the ancient times, rather than building something about existence and co-existence between people and travelling out of your comfort zone and travelling out from what is known. Maybe by travelling you will also see different sides of what you thought you knew. It is based around the character who leaves his tribe, all thoughts of occurrence, both outside and inside happen for this character.

Just like in the music, there are lots of contrasts in the lyrics so it seems, like good versus evil and so on…
Definitely. Jón writes the lyrics and also came up with the concept, but I would say that I think it is a kind of goal for us that people can also have something to look into. We like hidden layers in some way. I don’t know if that makes sense or if that is entirely correct, because I am speaking for everybody now, but it is my feeling that we generally like having hidden layers that people can explore. It is my strong feeling that it is also the case with the lyrics, but I would also say that maybe Jón could answer that better of course. It is definitely a thing we like to do, also sound wise.

Society and nature is also an opposite in current society…
Yes, of course. The way we like to do that – of course the setting is the story. It is great that you can take stuff from it and you can put that out in something else, like society today or your own life or your own experiences. So it is very much a broad philosophical pallet also.

When you read the lyrics, it evokes a lot. It makes you think, it makes you wonder, it is inviting…
I feel the same. I think that Jón has done an amazing job writing the lyrics. It is not just his vocals, the lyrics are really good and that makes a huge difference I think. I mean, if you listen to great music, that is great, the sound is great and all that, but if there is a lyrical aspect to it that’s also engrossing, that makes everything so much stronger. I hope people will think that too! (chuckles)

Today was the premiere of the video clip for ‘Iridescent Way’, but you are not in the video…
No, there’s no drums on it, but I think it is a fantastic song. It has a special place in my heart since the early demo-ing, because I remember making the demo quite vividly and when we started working on the second album, we brought it up again. I think we had a feeling… it was hard to put drums on, so we had the feeling that this one would stand on its own and remain an acoustic song and also in the record context it serves as this…. I would not call it a break…. I definitely won’t call this song a break, but it serves as a kind of a peep into another world before the two last songs and I think that is great. In a way I can also stand a little bit outside it, because I didn’t play drums on it, but I really like that song and I think it is a ballad, but this one has become quite good. It is one of my favourite songs on the album actually. That’s a good sign if it is a ballad for me, being the drummer in the band. The brothers have always dreamt to do this great acoustic piece, ever since they were small boys. To be honest I like the music we do a lot. It is not just interesting music, it hits myself in the feelings also and of course, if you make music, how do you step out of it and how do you judge it. You can’t never really do that, but when it hits yourself in the feelings, if it really touches your heart in a way, there is a chance that it might also touch someone else’s heart. I think that is how we like to work, trusting our own taste in a way, but how else can you work? I don’t know.