Artist Interviews

Q&A: Årabrot

By | Published on Tuesday 19 October 2010

Arabrot

Brimming with the spirit of Melvins, Årabrot are a noise-rock trio from Norway. Their sound comprises Vidar Evensen’s drums, shuddering underneath Stian Skagen’s effects noise and Kjetil Nernes’ screaming guitar and lung-tearing vocals – literally; the band recently completed a nine date tour, despite Nernes having “blown” (they don’t get specific about the medical details) one of his lungs during the first show.

The trio released their new album, ‘Revenge’, on 13 Sep via Fysisk Format, and are heading out on a UK tour this month. We spoke to Kjetil Nernes to ask the Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I finished a bottle of terrible, red liquor once at a neighbourhood party at the age of fifteen. I was crawling around in the dark when a record scattered on the floor caught my attention: Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’. It’s my only remembrance of that night and, basically, how it all started.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
We have already received angry emails from people believing ‘Revenge’ to be a thinly veiled threat against them. God, people so often think the world revolves around them! I could easily claim ‘Revenge’ to be addressed to all the cheating, lying, stealing dumb-ass, ex-girlfriends of the world, but in reality all ‘Revenge’ describes is a closure and an ending. An end of an era, so to say.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
I make the basics and Vidar Evensen makes the basics into songs. Lyrics and themes come in last.

Q4 Which artists inspire your work?
Everything from Death In June to Kiss; AC/DC to Einsturzende Neubauten; Amrep to Mute to Skin Graft; Prokofiev to Ravel to Berlioz; The Stones to Godflesh to Burzum to Lee Hazlewood; Wagner and Johnny Cash; the Southern, Southernlord and Touch & Go record labels; Black Flag but not The Sex Pistols; Earth and Diamanda Galas and Fad Gadget and Slayer and Tom Waits and the Melvins… And didn’t we do a cover of Butthole Surfers? And T-Rex? It’s a big question demanding a comprehensive answer! Usually, we would just say Ministry and Captain Beefheart summarise our musical preferences most accurately.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Beware!

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
‘Revenge’ was spewed out in a wild frenzy, recorded, tracked, mastered and put to vinyl. It is finished and I hope to never see it again. But, we’re already in the making of another one and I hope we’ll be making many more.

MORE>> www.myspace.com/arabrot



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