|
Unchain the Underground is proud to present an interview with
I am a longtime DISSECTION fan, they are one of my favorite bands ever to be honest. When I heard the new material on their site the
first thing that went through my mind is "If I don't speak to someone from the band right now I'll never forgive myself." I e-mailed their management Tuesday night and Wednesday morning
was told my interview would take place Friday at 11AM. I scrambled to come up with as many good questions as possible for my first phone interview ever.
Fast forward to today, Friday morning at 11. I had trouble getting through, I finally did and was bounced around by the help at the hotel they were conducting the interviews at for nearly 15 minutes.
Normally I would be okay with this but... this is a fucking long distance call to SWEDEN. I was pissed. Conference room? No reply. The 3 rooms rented? No reply! I finally hung up in anger, I
told myself all hope was lost. I emailed Vera, who is the manager and explained my position and how I was quite pissed off at the way the hotel was handling all of this. I received an emailed apology
minutes later, and was told "Call back and ask for DISSECTION in the conference room" so I did, and Jon was gone. 2 members of the band were there. Vera apologized again for all of the trouble so far
and asked if I could call back in 15 minutes.
I did so, and within 2 minutes after another apology from their management, I was connected with Jon. I couldn't believe it, the guitarist of DISSECTION. I was on the phone with him. I’m out a lot
of money for the recorder I used, as well as the several phone calls but you know what? It was all worth it. I enjoyed it and I hope Jon did too, and I would like to thank the wonderful management team
that made this all happen. It seemed like it was impossible but you came through for me, thank you Lokation, and more specifically, thank you Vera! I wanted to go longer for this but 20 minutes is
about all I could afford so this is it, and without any further delay, here is my conversation with Jon Nodtveidt of DISSECTION!
Notes: As he does have a bit of an accent a few parts are unclear, so apologies to Jon if I'm not quoting him properly, I did the best I
could. Also, one question I asked ended up victim to an old tape so it kind of cuts off there but it picks back up, so rather then take it out of context, that will be left out. It was nothing significant as
far as I can recall, and it was near the end.
Interviewed by Rick.
__________________________________________________
 Rick: I listened to the sample of this
new track on the site, and it is quite different from anything DISSECTION have recorded in the past. What influenced this new sound, and will the majority of the new material be in this vein?
Jon: Well, this is just a little teaser. it's less than a minute long and the song in it's full length is like almost 6 minutes. So what we wanted to do was, you know, let people know that
the single is coming and just get the word out, you know? The single is coming in a week or so, so then people will be able to listen to the whole song and I mean nobody
should make up their mind about anything, they just heard a short little clip from, you know?
Rick: Yeah, a few people I know listened to the sample and said
"this sounds really happy" and I was thinking it's a very short part, it's a bit more melodic then previous material but bands do evolve over time, it sounds like that’s what happened.
Jon: Yeah, definitely, but DISSECTION was always a melodic band so this has been like a major element in the band for so long so this is an essential part of what we will for sure stick to, and that's what
we are doing with the new material as well.
Rick: With the writing process for the new album... I understand most of it was written while you were incarcerated. Was anyone
else involved in the writing, or is this new material just yours?
Jon: Yeah musically, yes. Even though it contains ideas and material written before my sentence, it was all arranged and put
together inside prison so yeah.
Rick: I also read on your biography on the web page that you studied while incarcerated. Was it for your own personal benefit or was it to earn some sort of degree?
Jon: It was more for personal benefit I would say, just to be able to make something out of the time that you are spending in there, and so that's only for myself. Okay, so I got some degrees in a few
subjects but that was not the main reason why I did it. I love studying, I do it just on my own as a way of growing stronger my personal library.
Rick: Was it historical or spiritual things if you don't mind getting into it?
 |
Jon: Well, mostly religious, mythological and philosophical books. Anything, you know? So those are my main interests anyway
Rick: What would you say are the biggest influences to DISSECTION, what influences you to write what you do?
Jon: Well, I think personally my influence to write music is a need
to create music, basically. And that need in it'self is something that is so strong. It keeps on, [laughter] you know, going all the time and I think it's hard to pinpoint any specific source besides that, but
in general I would say that I want to create music with feeling and an atmosphere of something that I want to uh... to channel, you know?
Rick: I'd say you definitely nailed the atmosphere on Storm of the Light's Bane.
Jon: Yeah. It’s... well, it's something dark and formless I want to
express and well, for me, music is my tool to do that.
Rick: I have a question I’m sorry to ask this but you recently stated DISSECTION is in no way involved with racism but there is a
line in Retribution-Storm of the Lights Bane that, I don't know... "Allow me to erase your feeble race"? Is this a religious statement?
Jon: Yeah it's a religious statement on humanity as a whole. Erasing the human race, so it's a misanthropic statement and the song is about like the apocalypse, you know? And Armageddon and
the end of all days, the end of the creation, of this universe so, the race is of course the human race.
 Rick: A few years back I think it was 95 or so, you did an American tour with At the Gates and Morbid Angel, I wasn't able to go to any of those shows...
Jon: Yeah, back in 1996 I think
Rick: How would you say that whole tour went? Did you enjoy it?
Jon: Very much so. It was a very good tour for us, and it was a good package too. We really
enjoyed going over there and yeah, I think it was a real good tour for all of us, we had a great time.
Rick: Would you like to come back to America at some point if you're able to?
Jon: Yeah
Rick: Have you looked into the possibilities of that yet?
Jon: Well we have got lots of offers already, we will see when and how and if possible you know? [laughter] We would gladly come
over any time.
Rick: Why was Faust in and out of the lineup so quickly? There is a rumor going around the metal underground that he is a born again Christian...
Jon: Well I will not say anything like that because it was more basically that he said that because of the serious Satanic concept
of DISSECTION and the fact that he felt he couldn't identify with it, or stand behind it, because he couldn't represent it. So he had a problem with that, so we had a discussion and I agreed with him
that he shouldn't do it if he couldn't stand behind it because that's what DISSECTION is all about, you know? Channeling a dark essence that we all have to feel and be able to stand behind 100%,
and if a member can't do that then he's not right for the band and he shouldn't do it.
Rick: Have you had the chance to hear Live Legacy? I'm curious
because for years that show was only available on that Frozen in Wacken bootleg and the quality was kind of rough, I unfortunately own that.
 |
Jon: You have the bootleg only?
Rick: Yeah. I haven't had the chance to pick up Live Legacy yet, a friend of mine played Live Legacy and it sounds much better in my opinion.
Jon: Yeah, I'm considering. It's an old show and everything, yeah. It was taped back in 97 but I’m really happy with it, it has a good
sound and it captures the feeling of DISSECTION live back in 97, so I’m happy with it as a document of that specific era, with the old songs and everything.
Rick: Nuclear Blast put that out right?
Jon: Yeah
Rick: Are you still associated with them? Will they be releasing the single and the upcoming album?
Jon: No right now we are, the single will be out on a label called
Escapee which is doing only this single and a DVD of the show, the first Rebirth of DISSECTION show in Stockholm here, in the arena tomorrow. It will also contain a documentary about the bands
history. For the next album we haven't decided anything, we keep the doors open, we have lots of offers already but we are going out on a tour now for 2 months and we'll sit down and look it all through
and see what we'll do when we come back.
Rick: When you recorded the Grief Prophecy Demo and the Into Infinite Obscurity EP many years ago did you ever think the band
would be held in as high regard as it is in the metal scene?
Jon: Uh... never [Laughing]. No.
Rick: What was the whole attitude of the band at that point? Was
it a few young people basically...
Jon: We wanted to create dark music and the feeling was there you know? We had a great feeling composing stuff and playing
stuff. that's still what it's all about really, that's what we enjoy with playing in a band and creating music together. you know... Undescribable magical feeling of creating something beyond what
you are actually basically doing, beyond merely playing your instruments or singing songs, it's about a dark feeling, something beyond that.
Rick: it's been 13 years now since you were in Satanized, could you ever see doing something like that again?
 Jon: Well, not at the moment, there’s nothing planned, no but I better not say anything because really it's nothing that's been planned. It was more like a
project we had, we had a great feeling doing it but it was only really for a very very short time back in 1991. At the same time we had DISSECTION which was our main priority, so Satanized
never became anything that we would actually be trying to promote or take to anything more than a rehearsal that we made. It was just something that we enjoyed doing and we even did 1
gig you know? But that was it.
Rick: If you could go back and change anything on Storm of the Light's Bane or The Somberlain would you?
Jon: No.
Rick: You feel perfectly content with them as they are?
Jon: I'm very content with them seeing that they represent where the band was at the time when we we recorded them. I'm not the
type of person who will sit down and analyze what kind of details could be changed for the better, I'm not listening to music that way, I'm listening to it for the feeling of the songs and if the essence is
there, if you get that dark feeling of the music... that's what we wanted to achieve and we succeeded in that way so I wouldn't change it. I'm more into writing new material and trying to progress
on the path that we're already treading and to create something new all the time.
Rick: Do you have anything to say about other bands from Sweden like Deranged, Sins of Omission, Vinterland...
Jon: Well 1 band I really like is Watain, I don't know if you heard about them but they are going to play , they're going to be the support act on the European tour that we're doing now. it's really
great black metal music and really good atmosphere, real good feeling, something you should check out definitely. They will be on the 2 month Rebirth of DISSECTION tour and it's going to be great
having them as a support act.
 |
Rick: This has been great and it's been an honor speaking with you but this is an incredibly expensive conversation as I've made this
call to Sweden 3 times today but thank you very much for your time.
Jon: No problem.
Once again, Thanks to Lokation, specifically Vera, for making it
happen when it didn't seem possible and of course to Jon for taking the time to do this.
# # #
RELATED LINKS:
Official Dissection Site
|
