This interview was conducted by Philip a. Wickstrand with vocalist Dolk at Branx in Portland, OR on September 7, 2011.

With the release of their fifth full-length album, Mare, long-running Norwegian Pagan Black Metal stalwarts KAMPFAR finally made their initial raid on North American soil with countrymen VREID in a three week tour this September. While the audiences may have been smaller than what they’re used to, they were received with frenzied fans and much enthusiasm. Rest assured, KAMPFAR will return.

Phil: First of all, tell us a bit about the North American tour so far.

Dolk: The North American tour has been good, actually. It’s been small clubs, really small clubs, but I really like that in a way because we’ve been touring Europe up and down so many times now, we’ve done tons of festivals and for me it’s really, really interesting to do something else and to see something else, you know, and to talk to people from other areas. For me, this is what I want to do and I’m happy to be here right now.

Phil: So do you think that the reception has been good? The crowds are obviously smaller, but do you think the reaction from the audience has been good, amazing or just okay?

Dolk: It has been really, really good. I think also that this isn’t just something I say, but I think that the people here in North America have really taken me by surprise because I didn’t know, actually… you know when you live in America and you live in Europe, you have different views on things, you know, but to me, the people here have been really, really open minded and also aware of things happening around in the world. I mean, for me that has been really, really positive, really good thing.

Phil: Do you think there’s distinct possibility of coming back to North America in a couple of years either as a support act or possibly headlining?

Dolk: Yeah, I think so. Definitely. You know we have been struggling a bit to get American visas [laughs] because of the past and stuff like that, now we have it, it’s no problems anymore, so for us this has been a really, really good start and we hope to come back. At this moment, I cannot say anything about it because I don’t know because things are happening rapidly all the time. But we hope to come back; it will be in either of those two positions that you mentioned; either it’ll be a headliner tour or we’ll just go for support. It’s still to me like it doesn’t matter too much to be honest because to me, we’re still here and we do what we do. So the only thing that is a difference is maybe the amount of people. But for me, it’s like doing shows in small clubs - it has always been like that for me. I can stand on a big a scene playing for thousands of people and the next day I can do a small gig like two hundred people packed in a small club, which gives me more energy than what it did the day before on the big stage, so for me, it’s a much more personal thing to do club tours and I really like that the most.

Phil: A more energetic reaction from the crowd feeding back to you.

Dolk: Yeah! And you get more connected in a way.

Phil: Were there any cities that you were really hoping to play that you weren’t able to on this tour?

Dolk: Yeah, of course. New York counts because of the hurricane coming. That was a shit because that was the biggest show so far; it was sold out two months before this tour and we had like thirty magazines coming there, all this stuff and that gig, of course, went to hell. So that’s sad, but I mean, if we come back we will do it even better.

Phil: Tell our readers a little bit about your new album, Mare.

Dolk: Our new album, when it comes to the artistic side of it, I’m really, really proud of it because we took huge steps with that album when it comes to us as musicians and the videos. We took big, big steps in my opinion to move forward in a way because to me… if you listen to the word “artist,” what is it? It’s someone who tries to create art, right? So that means that you have to do that and in a way we were really focused on that, to do something which can be described as black art. And then we had to take huge risks and also had to take huge steps, not just following in footsteps all over again, you know? That’s why this album means a lot to me. Besides that, Mare is also the album that has sold the most on a short period. The debut album has still sold the most, but I mean, with Mare we pre-saled more copies of that album in five days than we did with the previous album, Heimgang, in two years. So for us it has been a really, really good thing when it comes to that.

Phil: What was the approach to song writing this time around?

Dolk: I’ve always been really connected to history and to my roots; that’s what KAMPFAR has been all about all the time, but this time we took it maybe a little bit further because we wanted to express… I think that’s still rooted in this society actually but back then, from that period that we actually write about here is when the high priests in Scandinavia and in Europe in general claimed everything to be witchery or Satanism if they didn’t understand it themselves, you know. So this album is really about that, about what they called witchery and it’s a side of that story linked to it in this album in a way. But I think it’s still many of those values that we talk about here on this album is still valid today because people are in general are afraid of what they don’t know, so this album is really about that and about the dark side of pagan history in Norway.

Phil: What would you say are the overall strongest points of the musicianship itself on the album?

Dolk: It’s like I said - on this album we took huge steps personally. I don’t care too much about what other people say about it, you know. Of course I like good reviews and I like good talks with people, but to me the most important thing is for us as persons and as musicians. We tried to push our limits in a way and in my opinion we succeeded doing that. We can push it further and we will probably do that, but I mean, it’s stepping away and for me, that’s the most thing I’m proud of on this album. And it comes through everything; the guitar work, the drumming and the producing itself and also the singing is pushed a bit.

Phil: You mentioned to the previous interviewer a split 7” with PRIMORDIAL; can you tell us a little bit about the music you’re contributing to that?

Dolk: Yeah. It’s not only PRIMORDIAL, it’s a lot of other bands. It’s can’t go out with small details now, but it’s a thing that’s coming to limited release as 7”s of each band in one whole package where each band is doing something from their own roots and their own country and make into a real Irish Metal thing or a Norwegian Metal thing. It’s all about culture and roots and that’s why we said yes to this because we got opportunities to do stuff like this all the time and we always say no to that, but right now it was really, really something that we… this feels right. We do that. And we have never done that, so it’s going to be interesting.

Phil: A lot of bands that in the Pagan Metal scene that are really into their roots have often been painted as Nazi bands or other garbage like that. Has KAMPFAR ever been painted with that brush?

Dolk: Yeah. We have been. Back in ’98 we had a lot of stuff going on in The Netherlands and France also and Germany because the record label actually… [laughs] it was not what we decided to do to be honest, but anyway I don’t care. The thing is that the record label printed a Norwegian flag on the CD itself and then it made a lot of fuss out of that, you know, and for us it’s just strange because we’re from Norway; we’re proud of who we are. What is funny to me sometimes is like, we live in Norway, my grandparents, my father, they were invaded by the Nazis. We were there and the Nazis came to claim Norway in a way and after that, all of that period, you know… we have grown up with this stuff and it’s so easy to attack Norwegians about that because we were some of those people that the Nazis claimed to be the highest besides of them. We had Norwegian people stay in the Nazi camps and they were treated like the best people in that camp because they still thought higher of the Norwegian people, you know? But that is not our fault. I mean, we cannot do anything about that and I’m still from Norway, I’m proud of my roots and know where I come from, you know, and it doesn’t mean shit to me, has never been linked to any politics at all, so it’s just stupid to even comment that, to be honest. But we finally don’t have any problems with that anymore, seems like.

Phil: Seems really crazy, all that fuss over a flag. I mean, nobody would think anything if an American band put our flag on their CD.

Dolk: No, exactly. But today, I don’t think it wouldn’t have been all that fuss. But back in those days, it became a lot of fuss and for us that was just strange and it still is for me. I’m proud of who I am and I’m a Norwegian, people here are American and that’s how it is. You cannot do anything about it.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Dolk: That’s a hard one, actually because there are several books that I want to say good things about, you know. It’s a really hard one. [pauses] It depends one what you are looking for, though. But to me, right now I’m reading a lot of art books, actually and for me, that is really, really interesting right now. But I’m also really into fantasy books in a way, but sometimes it can be a bit childish. To say a specific book now is quite hard, I think. Right now I’m reading the book about Cliff Burton. I find it really, really interesting, actually and I’m not so much into METALLICA to be honest, but I think if you are a musician, it’s an interesting book and besides if you are a Metalhead or not, it’s still an interesting book. So I’d like to really say something good about that book.

Phil: Has there been any thought for KAMPFAR doing a live DVD?

Dolk: Yeah, [laughs] for many years. I mean, we have a lot of clips hanging around, but if we’re going to release something it has to be what we look upon as an interesting thing. For me, I will never ever release a live DVD just for one show - that’s not interesting. It’s more about all the stuff around it that we have to connect to it and maybe if we have enough good stuff there we will probably do it, but it’s nothing we rush.

Phil: So kind of like live clips broken up with behind the scenes stuff and then back and forth like that?

Dolk: Yeah.

Phil: Okay, that makes it a lot more interesting.

Dolk: I actually hate live DVD’s, just live DVD’s. For me, it’s not so interesting. I would rather go to see a live show instead.

[Some random girl who walked up during the course of the interview]: Speaking of live shows, was there a good one you attended in Europe this summer? Any festivals perhaps?

Dolk: Yeah, there was. We had a little break this summer because we focused a little too much about this tour to be honest. But just a couple of weeks ago we did Summer Breeze Open Air, which was really, really good because we played actually on the smallest stage there, which is a tent and it took around eight thousand people and there were nine thousand people in there and it was totally packed. And when the next band was arriving there was one hundred people left, so for us, that was a really good thing.

Phil: Okay, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Dolk: Oh, not really. Just like I said, we’re here for a reason. We are happy to be here - that’s why we’re here. Otherwise we wouldn’t have done it.

Interviewer: Philip A. Wickstrand

October 18, 2011

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TO THE TOP

PHOTOS BY PHIL A. WICKSTRAND

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)

(Click on Photo to Enlarge)

Formed: 1994
    Fredrikstad  NORWAY
Label: Napalm Records
Genre: Pagan Black Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Dolk:  Vocals & Drums
Ole Hartvigsen:  Guitars
Jon Bakker:  Bass
Ask:  Vocals & Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

Kampfar EP (1996)
Mellom Skogkledde Aaser (1997)
Norse EP (1998)
Fra Underverdenen (1999)
Kvass (2006)
Heimgang (2008)
Mare (2011)

Kampfar's Dolk

Check out J.A. Burt's review of Mare here