Let us pick up the thread where we ended last time, when the previous album came out… what happened next with the band?
‘Ynglingaattens Öde’ came out about three years ago, in 2022. We have been working on, as we always do, with playing shows and festivals. No tours, but we had the chance to play great festivals and shows and I guess in the Summer of 2023 maybe I started to write new music. It always follows the same pattern. After the release of an album, I need some break. Maybe a couple of months, at least or maybe a year I don’t have that many ideas. When you start composing, you have that mindset. That was basically what we did, writing good music and playing good shows and of course we have our own festival. It will be the fifth edition this year. That takes time as well. Not super much time, but starting from June, it takes quite a lot of time. Jobs need to be done.

Who is coming this year besides you?
It is a two day festival in August on Friday and Saturday. On Friday we have more focus on folky stuff, the more acoustic approach. We will play an acoustic set and from Norway we have Gåte, really good. Normally they perform with electric guitars and full drum kit, but they are a great folk music band, so on Friday they will perform a really exclusive acoustic set. So that will be really nice. We have Hindarjfell and Suttung, both Swedish bands. Then on Saturday, the main day, we have Borknagar and Saor, the Scottish guys. It is the first show ever in Sweden for Saor, so that will be awesome. We have a local band Fredlös and a couple of more. Also our brothers from Thyrfing! I guess Borknagar and Thyrfing are celebrating their 30^th anniversary, just like us. That makes ninety years of Viking metal!

You can almost go back to the beginning of the Viking age!
(laughs) Yeah we’re almost there.

What stands ‘Edsvuren’ for, the title of the album?
The word is best translated to ‘sworn’, like in sworn your belief. It refers to the resistance that people have and it was a bigger resistance here around the region we live. There was a bigger resistance towards the spread of Christianity. It was hard to keep their heathen faith and independence and they fought for their beliefs. That is the real meaning of the title ‘Edsvuren’. On the cover art you see the big Viking army that put up the fight.

Was Kris Verwimp involved in the artwork again?
Yes it is. As always. No Månegarm album without Kris. It looks 100% true. It would not feel the same if we wouldn’t have a cover art made by Kris. He has made all Månegarm covers except the first one, because at that time we did not know his arts. But after that one, he has made every cover art. He is great and I don’t believe that it is his full time job. He is just doing it in his spare time and is doing a normal job. Jakob (Hallegren – drums – Vera) is the one with the ideas mostly and he writes to Kris his ideas and then Kris makes it into a great painting. Nice collaboration.

Jakob is also responsible for the lyrics, isn’t it?
Yes, correct. He is the one that writes the lyrics.

Is there a general theme this time, in addition to what you said about resistance?
It is not a concept album as the two previous albums were, but there are a couple of themes in there and as I said some songs are about the resistance, but mostly every lyric is connected to local stuff, so that is cool. Jakob has kept it pretty local and wrote about our region here. Local folklore, mythical bury grounds and there is one song – there is a video coming  from it – ‘Rodhins Hav’, the fourth song, is an acoustic one and that is about the love for our home and about the sea. We live really close by the sea here. The sea was really important for transport and fishing, but it was of course also a dangerous place and a lot of men that went out on the sea did not come back. They died in the depths and they lost their loved ones. On next Thursday you will see the video. So there are a couple of themes.

The first song ‘I Skogsfruns Famn’ should refer to the forest…
That song is based on the most local story. It is about the beautiful but dangerous female being. It is a very old story that is told to us. It is only like 20 kilometres from our home, in a little village and up on the mountain forest outside Ronas. This forest spirit her name was Britta. The saga tells this story about this female supernatural being and that she lures men into the forest, into sexual encounters as well, but also with a real bad ending as you will see in the video (chuckles). It is a really cool story and super local. This creature even has its different shapes, depending on what country or region is yours.

Månegarm has a core of three musicians, but also important are the guest musicians. I was surprised that Janne is amongst them. 20 years ago he left the band, but now he is back on flute as guest…
It is super cool. It was not really 20 years, I think he left the band in 2012 maybe, but anyways 13 years. As you said Månegarm is a three piece band, Markus, Jakob and myself, but we can’t make it if there was not Tobias on guitars and Martin on also guitar and violin. We need these guys on stage. They are like true members as they perform with us live every time, but this is a construction that we are all really happy about. Me, Markus and Jakob, but also Tobias and Martin, because they have their own band. Tobias has Wormwood as his main band and Martin is a real folk musician and he plays a lot with different bands. He lives by his music, so he must chose that first. This construction as a three piece band works perfect, but your question was about Janne. I wanted to have some flute on some songs. Janne is great in playing flute – and violin of course as well – so I contacted him. We haven’t talked for many, many years, but he was really happy and he was really glad to play something on the album, so he has played flute on maybe three or four songs and that is cool. It turned out great I think.

This year you can celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the band. How did you ever meet the two other guys from the band?
Thirty years, it is a really long time and when I think about it, it does not feel like thirty years. Not at all. Time flies when you are having a great time and that is super true, because it has been a really great ride and we are not done yet. We will continue, but these thirty years have just flown by. Actually it was Jonas (Almquist – guitarist – Vera) and Pierre (Wilhelmsson – bass – Vera) who started the band and the first singer, his name was Svenne. We were just drunk and talked about some sort of pagan black metal band with the lyrics in Swedish. Then they needed a second guitar player and a drummer. At that time I played the drums. I got the question and I said yes, so the first line-up of Månegarm was completed. Then we started playing and after one year Markus joined us – because the second guitarist quit the band. Jakob came in quite a bit later on. I think it was in 2009, 2010 maybe. We just recorded the album ‘Nattväsen’, that was my last album on drums, when we just hooked up with Jakob and he started playing the drums in Månegarm.