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Incoming! THE KOVENANT Prepare For Aussie Assault · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Nagash from The Covenant, and we're here doing
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: some Australian interviews for us coming over for the first time.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: So looking forward for this.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Beautiful, mate. Thanks for joining us today.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. My pleasure.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: So as you say, bro, The Covenant make your debut
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: tour of Australia this September, two shows in Melbourne and Sydney.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: As this is going to be your first tour of
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: the country, mate, the most obvious question is, why have
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: you neglected us for so long?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Well it's pretty far away and our spaceship is broken
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: down so it's hard to get there.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: I'll accept that one.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: The only two dates are in melbourne on september 18th
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: mate in sydney the following night so was that a
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: timing or scheduling thing or did you just want to
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: come over and do two big shows and concentrate on them.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Well, it's pretty simple actually. I gave all the business
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: stuff and all the booking stuff to our management so
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I don't have to deal with that stuff anymore. So
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: just focusing on not partying but focusing on playing music
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: basically and try to save my nerves and not do
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: all the business stuff and decide where we're going to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: go and everything. So I just get like a call
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: from my management and he says like, well, in a
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: couple of months you're going there and then you're going
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to go to Australia. And I'm like, all right, cool. So,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: but it, but it was, but it was about, yeah,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: but it was about time that we came over there.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, like we've never been there before. It's about time.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Because you've never been here before, mate, there's not going
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: to be many people who know what to expect from
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: your lives. So, what's a typical live show from the Covenant,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: what we can expect?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: A lot of atmosphere. Um, obviously we're not bringing like
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: as much stuff as we would want to bring because
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it's so far away and it costs a shit ton
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of money to bring all this stuff but we have
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: like all these gigantic screens and stuff with the videos
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: running in the background with um i guess you'll have
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to see actually but yeah what else answer is there.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: On the flip side of that though, bro, you don't
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: know what to expect from us either.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: So do you research before you come out here and
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: find out what to expect or would you rather come
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: in cold and just winning the prize?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: No, I'd rather come in cold. I prefer not to
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: have any expectations whatsoever when we go play places. A
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: little bit terrified of going to Australia because apparently everything
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: there is trying to kill you. So... But yeah, I'm
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: really looking forward to coming over. Like I said, we've
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: never been there before, so I have no clue what
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to expect whatsoever. I hope people are a little bit...
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Shall we say... I don't know. I really don't know
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: what to expect. We'll have to see. Maybe I'll be...
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe it'll be positive, hopefully.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Not negative yeah you should be right mate you should
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: be right you're gonna be playing your your album next
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: polaris in fall too mate so why why decide to
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: do that on your first tour instead of playing a
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: bit of a mixture.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Well it kind of has to do with uh with
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the lineup because for many years it was basically me
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and psy coma the guy i started covenant with and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: um had various session members and things like this over
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the years but this time i wanted to bring the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: band back with a shall we say with as much
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of the original lineup as possible because uh originally we
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: just thought we were going to play a few festivals
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and that's it and then we kind of forgot how
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: cool it was to play together and we enjoyed that
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: and it just started kind of like balls started rolling
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and we found out that, man, we missed playing together
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and this was awesome. And then we started like fucking
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: writing songs and stuff and just turned into like, oh,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the band is actually back. We're not just doing like
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: some shows. So, but since it was kind of like
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the original idea to bring all the original members from
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Nexus Polaris period back, we kind of were like, yeah,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: we figured start there. Just fucking play the entire Nexus
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Polaris album and just see what happens. And then we
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: started rehearsing songs from the first album, from Animatronic, from Seti,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the last album and stuff. So when we're playing in Australia,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: we're playing the entire Nexus Polaris album, but we're also
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: playing a lot of songs from all the other albums.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: So you're going to get like early black metal from
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the 90s and you're going to get like this weird
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: sci-fi electronic strange goth rock black metal thing from seti
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and uh strangeness of animatronic things like this so it's
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: going to be a party for sure yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Definitely well texas polaris is celebrated for its intricate neo-classical
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: guitar lines and grand symphonic arrangements so what's it be
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: like driving back into those specific complex tracks after all these.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Years natural felt very natural to fucking just start playing
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that stuff again like I said we just like we
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: met again after so many decades you could say really
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and it was like we never stopped playing it was
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: like six months ago we just did our last show
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: is what it feels like so it was awesome we
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: all just looked at each other and just giggled just
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: like little girls just giggled and just like alright we're
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: gonna do this Let's go.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: When you write an album, I don't suppose you ever
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: imagine you're going to have to play the whole thing
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: live one day.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: So was it difficult going back and learning every.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Bit of it?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: No, I still remembered it. Everybody still fucking remembered it.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it was like we never stopped playing.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: It was very weird. We looked at each other in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the first rehearsal and it's like, should we just start?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Let's start with the first song. And we just played it.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: It was really, really weird. Yeah, very weird.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: In the time since that's come out, technology and live
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: audio production have transformed drastically, mate. Are you using much
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: modern live sound landscapes to replicate sounds on that album,
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: or are you going to try and keep it as
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: it was?
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Well, it is all the original sounds and stuff from
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the original album. And Svart, who plays the keyboards, he
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: still has the same old keyboards that he used to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: record that album with. So it's all the same album stuff, but...
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know really what to say. Some of the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: songs we added some extra stuff to, but it's more
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: like atmospheric stuff, more like background noises, things like this,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: to create more of the... like atmospheric landscape kind of thing.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's basically, it sounds exactly like the album,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: same sounds and everything. So people who enjoy that are
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: really going to like, woo, all right. So they still
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: know how to play it.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: All that album, man, like there is operatic vocals, they're
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the cornerstone of the whole Nexus Polaris identity.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: So how is it?
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: On the stage with her again like to deliver those
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: haunting melodic vocal hooks like it'd have to it'd give
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: goosebumps wouldn't it.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah definitely i've i've seen people cry in the audience
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: that was weird wow that was like in latin america
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we did like a show i think it was like
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: argentina chile or something like this there's a dude with
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like gray long hair and he was like crying and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: i was like all right so clearly it still works
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you know but for the live stuff we use a
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: lot of new like technology stuff we don't use amplifiers
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: on stage for example that's that's old school that's like
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: metallica and acdc and kiss you know walls of fucking
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: amplifiers and stuff so now we use in-air monitoring systems
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: uh so we don't have to have monitor technicians on
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: stage we just we all have like a you're gonna
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: you're gonna see it on stage you're gonna be like
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the fuck does he have alzheimer's is that the lyrics
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: he has on stage Cause I have like a iPad
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: attached to my microphone stand, but there I have like a,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I have the set list and everything there. So nobody
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: can actually get the set list.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Nobody can ask for the set list.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Nobody can ask for the set list because it's actually
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: on the iPad. But usually I have it like, um, it's,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it's for my mixing. So I can like, if Hellhammer
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: has two high drums, I can just like tune, like, uh,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: change the volumes myself and stuff. Okay. So it's a huge, like,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: different way of doing things than before, when everything was just,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you go on stage, you just blast everything to 11,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and then you're just like, yeah, play. So, yeah, so
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: it was like, in our inner systems, it sounds like
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a fucking CD, you know, you have perfectly leveled as
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you want it and stuff, so. And we have, like,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: huge video screens going in the background, and so, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I really don't hear the audience, which is a little bit...
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: sucky that's the only thing so to me i can
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: see people going like But I don't hear anything. So
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: if somebody's like, fuck you, cunt. I don't hear that, fortunately.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: So I won't hear that.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Did you mention new music before? Are you guys, this lineup,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: gonna start writing together?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we finished eight songs already out of ten that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: we planned. So two more and we're ready to go
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: to the studio.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: What are the songs shaping up like?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Are they what fans would expect or have you sort
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: of experimented a little bit and shot some people?
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would rather potentially disappoint people than repeat myself.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of like why all the albums are different.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I love going to bars and listening to
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: ACDC and stuff, but I could never be like ACDC
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and just, like, release the same album for 50 years.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: You know, I'd fall asleep, basically. So, yeah. But the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: new stuff, it's kind of like a mix between all
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the albums. Yeah. with some new stuff, because we have
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: two new guitarists, and they're also contributing. One is Charles
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Goul from Mayhem, and the other one is Knut, also
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: known from Aipturus and Ulver, and lots of other bands.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: And they're both excellent guitarists, so they're also bringing their
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: own stuff, which I think is good. But yeah, definitely,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: we have a new album coming, and it's going to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: be full of heads.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Heads, that's good. Are we going to get any new
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: songs while you're over here on tour, mate?
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Uh, no. Sadly not. Sadly not.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: That's all right. We're hearing you for the first time anyway.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: We don't need new songs.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. But the main reason for that is because Hellhammer,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: among others, we're all very busy with other bands and stuff.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: So we have time to write. We just didn't have
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: time to rehearse new stuff yet. Because we're playing over
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: 90-minute sets, so... you're going to get like half the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: animatronic album. You're going to get lots of songs from
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the first album and you're going to get some stuff
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: from the last album, including the entire Nexus Polaris album.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So there was a lot of stuff to kind of
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: like prepare for this.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: All right, bro.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure speaking
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: with you.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: The Covenant are in Australia, September 18 and 19 for
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: two shows only.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So still some tickets left from swdpresents.com. So get along.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Good luck. Hope to see you there, dude.