Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Changing Tides With JACOB SKOGLI From ATENA
Transcript
- 0:25So I'm I'm Jacob core band Norway. We've been cooking for about ten years
- 0:31and have our fourth album coming out in a week. It's called some Ranthem.
- 0:36Yeah, I like you to That's what I swear. Thanks for joining
- 0:40us tonight. Made as you said, man, I'm a tenner release in
- 0:44your album Subway Anthem on September twenty nine. So how are you feeling about
- 0:48it? I feel great. We spent a lot of time on it and
- 0:54people have been responding well so far, and that's always a relief. I'm
- 0:59just super proud of what we've done. So can you tell us a bit
- 1:03more about the album from a musical point of view and what you've gone forward
- 1:06it. I guess it depends a bit on what you've heard of us before,
- 1:11but in general it's kind of a model modern metal core sound, which
- 1:15sounds cliche, but there's maybe more cinematic elements. We try to like expand
- 1:23on what we've done before. I could give you all the bank cliff Shase
- 1:29of the heaviest being heavier and the melody is being more melodic. There's there's
- 1:34some of that. There's more we used more electronics. Good of ours really
- 1:42that stuff we've been using for that for years. We've always had electronic coun
- 1:46center sound. We've victims on that part as well, So we just really
- 1:51feel like we've done a lot. I guess if this makes sense if an
- 1:56answers to your question, yeah, sure, And you've related the singles Poison,
- 2:00fure I I A Dane Subway anthem. So just say, if that's
- 2:04all someone's heard of the band, would you say that's a good representation of
- 2:07the album. Well, absolutely, yeah, because you got both the soft
- 2:13songs with O My and also like the I guess the more intricate ones would
- 2:19like slip Away, which is both heavy and melodic, and that's like it's
- 2:23not the most original song structure, but it's not the most common one either,
- 2:29So yeah, yeah, it gives a good impression of the all the
- 2:36different sounds on the album. So mentioned before, like it's your fourth album
- 2:40as a band, so you have a set writing and recording process for the
- 2:44album or is it differ every time? This one has been a bit different
- 2:49from the three previous ones in the sense that the three previous ones were concept
- 2:53albums coming from the the head of main song Yburn Replace It and finally,
- 3:05like understing that tragy last time opened up some opportunities lyricwise to which also then
- 3:15inspires different sounds and vice versia. Like I think for Fabern especially who always
- 3:21starts these songs off, it was like a breath of fresh air to be
- 3:24able to just think, like, what do I want to make outside of
- 3:28those boundaries kind of set by those concepts. Even though those three albums don't
- 3:32sound exactly the same, it was kind of like a the other concepts to
- 3:38follow, so there's a difference there. Other than that, for writing,
- 3:42it's been the same as it always has been, Vibian coming up with ideas
- 3:46from inspiration from seeing movies, hearing movie soundtracks, listening to Always Is and
- 3:53Not whatever he does, and then just me and him working together trying to
- 4:00get his ideas out there, and then just building on that, bringing our
- 4:05friend Yun who does the electronics, and then bringing it onto drums and bass
- 4:12and etc. Your last album, Drowting Regretting Lunsfield with Water was an international
- 4:18hit. It's it's fair to say there was probably your most successful album.
- 4:21So was it was it tempting to recycle that formula this time around? It
- 4:26was it more important for you guys to sort of showing more musical growth on
- 4:29this one. I didn't hear the word recycled or what sort was it.
- 4:33Well, you could have recycled that same formula like try done everything, but
- 4:38what was it important for you to try and move beyond that and sort of
- 4:41show that's a papable of all. I don't know if it was a goal
- 4:46in and of itself. And it's not like we've switched stars completely, like
- 4:48it's it's not a death metal record, it's not a Dragon Force album like
- 4:51it's. It's clearly related to the one you're talking about and and sound such
- 4:57charterer, But I guess it was a bit of important to just not think
- 5:02too much about being directly related to that one, even though you end up
- 5:08sounding kind of the same. But there there are more I guess pop sensibilities
- 5:13in terms of songs structures to some degree on some songs that I wouldn't say
- 5:17you find on Drowning Regret and the albums before it, So that's kind of
- 5:24a big difference. But I mean, they're not pop songs. It's just
- 5:29that's one of the differences. Yeah, But on that subject, may like
- 5:33you guys have shown a lot of musical growth with every album, So how
- 5:36much growth have you left in the band? The internet is spuddy apparently,
- 5:46so I said, so, you guys have shown a lot of musical growth.
- 5:49I've every album, So how much strength do you think is left in
- 5:54the band? I don't I don't know. I hope there's more. I
- 6:01think there's more. I haven't really thought about it, even like Baborn always
- 6:09finds a way, like you can tell we we all rely on him and
- 6:13his brain. We're moving this stuff along, but he has We're all really
- 6:23happy, like happy that we have him in our lives because he has that
- 6:27kind of artist brain, like actual artist's brain, like dropping out of college
- 6:32artist's brain like, which makes him like really receptive to the inspiration and ways
- 6:41that we others maybe aren't that good at. Like he knows exactly how much
- 6:46like was to form about to make it interesting. And that's so we all
- 6:49feel really lucky like to like be a part of his first like we all
- 6:56control. It's just that's one of the most special things about Santa for the
- 7:00rest of us. So we all come from the bands, playwright like all
- 7:05like all bands too. But I think that's what makes it unique, which
- 7:11is probably a lot of pressure for him, but it's been going good,
- 7:15good so far, and in terms of growth, yeah, I'm sure there's
- 7:20going to be more, and especially collaborating with that friend of ours you own,
- 7:25the electronics guy. He's from another city for away, and that is
- 7:30always I think it's an inspiration in itself because like you send him like a
- 7:35bare bones track, like a demo, tell him kind of what you're looking
- 7:40for, and then you get something back, and those sounds and how amazing
- 7:43those are will like maybe change the direction what you thought you were going to
- 7:46do as well. So we've been Libyan has good ideas and we've been good
- 7:53at collaborating, and as long as we keep doing that, I think we're
- 7:56going to keep growing. The press release describes your sounds classic metalcore with a
- 8:01more urban landscape, Like can you explain what they mean by more urban lambs
- 8:05lads game? Yeah, it's probably the idiom influence. Yep, that's it
- 8:11sounds like that to me. Like with Subway Anthem the song itself, you
- 8:16have that kind of the nineties DNB drum break you're going on top of the
- 8:20normal drums. I think it's that kind of sound. Maybe it's because we
- 8:24all saw that bombth and MCS free seller video when we were kids on TV.
- 8:30It's probably that. So overall, like you've got a mix of heavy
- 8:37guitars, you've got the electronics in there, the samples, and the hip
- 8:39hop influences. So where did the idea to blend all of that together come
- 8:45from? It's a pretty unique mix. I guess there's a one of them
- 8:50is just listening to different things and being able to appreciate different sounds, which
- 8:56a lot of musicians and music fans agree on it's important. And then there's
- 9:01also a desire to kind of try to make something unique, I think.
- 9:05And then there's also like completely pragmatic things like everyday life things that have influenced
- 9:11that, Like when I became the singer, like what can I do?
- 9:16Have me grab so out of the picture, so we have to do something
- 9:18else in saying I can do? They stuff that also influences what part of
- 9:26our influence we can use. So I'm sorry to stand out. In addition
- 9:31to those things I think has been important, especially maybe I don't. I
- 9:39don't know, you're trying to like we've been like a local band almost here
- 9:45for for Ageous and trying to capture people's You have to steal people's time.
- 9:50You have to grab them away from Netflix, you have to grab them away
- 9:52from the other brands who maybe don't sound as interesting to someone who's never heard
- 9:58them before. So there's also like a desire to I guess shock people into
- 10:05like making them remember us and having lots of influences and melding them well is
- 10:13a good strategy and also makes good songs of course. And then now you
- 10:18mentioned melding them well, mate, what suddenly is be on the next question?
- 10:20Like how difficult is it to get the balance right in your songs with
- 10:24all those different styles I had? You know you've gone too far with one
- 10:26or not far enough with another. I know Vibian just a lot of focus
- 10:33grouping with only himself and a group. Then yeah, yeah, all the
- 10:39different sides of him. I guess no, no, no, but we
- 10:43sentence sentence its senses around to us as well, and it's one thing we've
- 10:48been good at mainly because of him, I must say, being like really
- 10:56hard on listening to something and is this actually good enough? Yea? Can
- 11:01we release it? Or should we work more on it, because if it's
- 11:05boring and we can pick up on that, then it's absolutely not worth it.
- 11:11So serving the song a cliche for a reason, that's a big like
- 11:18it's something to make sure the parts of the song against So gave this this
- 11:22boring and it needs another drum beat section or whatever, which none of us
- 11:28play live because we're not computers. Like like if it's a DNB sample from
- 11:33our friend and that needs there to make interressing into the next brick, and
- 11:37that's what we have to do. I guess if that's no. The album
- 11:43Subway Anthem comes out on September twenty nine, But what's next for a ten
- 11:46or half that? Might you got any any shows find? Yeah, we're
- 11:50working on shows for next year, like you when we speak. Now,
- 11:56we've been pluving some Norwegian dates again. It spenty years since last time I
- 12:01had a last doing those and now we're just looking out on doing European shows
- 12:07next year. Like we were all obviously afflicted by the the two three year
- 12:15gap that happened, had shows pushed around, et cetera. So just trying
- 12:18to get back into the to that just playing Europe again. We we did
- 12:24some shows last summer who had been booked originally for twenty twenty. But we
- 12:31want to get out there again. That's that's kind of the plan. Before
- 12:35we let you go, mate, we started up had three news Spotify playlists
- 12:39based on artists that we speak to you, So using your own songs and
- 12:43using a tennis songs, give us a song for a playlist to get the
- 12:46party started. A song for a playlist to save your marriage? Had a
- 12:50song for a playlistic could potentially end your marriage? Oh wow? Uh,
- 12:56this would has to be from the new album album any any of your music?
- 13:01Okay, So to end your marriage, there's a song called Cheater of
- 13:05album from twenty seventeen, not written by me lyrically, but I'm sure I'm
- 13:13sure that will sour the tone in the room if you present it as your
- 13:18view. What was the other category? Yeah? Yeah, then mhm.
- 13:28We have a song in Norwegian, so which would make it usually makes people
- 13:35cry and hug, but I guess it doesn't apply here in this English context,
- 13:37So maybe maybe you'll mind because it's so delicate and full of falsetto and
- 13:46makes you think of the fragile things in life, and it has nice melodies
- 13:50and stuff. Yeah, I'll say that from the new album, I want
- 13:54to get the party started. This is sound weird being this, but it's
- 14:01the Abuse. It's a dance funk from our previous record to either the Abuse
- 14:07or Subway Anthem from the new album. Yeah, it's all all right.
- 14:13Maybel thanks most question by the way, and whole brother, thanks very much
- 14:16for your time. And I was early over there makes setting up for a
- 14:18good day. But subway and on September it's ready nine, So best of
- 14:22black Weather bro Dance. It's just another a guy STI my blah blah selah
- 15:22blah blah one on strike to sich anyway o my god, shall project work
- 15:31show Cow Cow, I don't ride, make me want you ride there?
- 15:41Still wait, it wasn't the trust that my d. It's just another one
- 15:52show a guy, chaffer, prank killers, choo chowy food, charity food.
- 16:56We'll show right out and chop another job. Wants the chair and shove
- 17:23myself John cho and ride and let you watch it. D don't want to
- 17:44write this job