It is Sunday afternoon in Antwerp. In TRIX’s backyard, the sun shows itself sparsely through the cloud deck. Vemod has just opened Samhain Festival’s main stage with a breathtakingly beautiful set. What gets me from the start in the music is that it leaves space. Space to breathe, to feel, to lose yourself and maybe find something back. The Trondheim-based band is known for its introspective approach to black metal, in which nature, mysticism and melancholy merge into a whole that is as tangible as it is elusive.
I meet with Jan Even Åsli, the founder, lyricist, singer and guitarist of Vemod. He approaches me with a warm smile and a bottle of Jupiler beer. We sit at a wooden table in the garden, while the festival buzz slowly picks up. It is time to dive deeper.
Many musicians have an academic background alongside their artistic careers. What did you study back in the day?
I was nineteen years old when I moved from home to go to the university. I started with medieval history and, after obtaining my bachelor’s degree, changed to religious studies. I specialised in new religious movements and I took a bunch of other courses related to humanistic disciplines, like linguistics, anthropology and psychology.
Many artists combine their music with another profession. Do you work in a different field besides Vemod?
Yes, I work in assistance for disabled people. That’s my day job, and sometimes also my night job. It’s very flexible and easily combined with music and other creative pursuits. It works really well for me. It’s also very meaningful work, rewarding in many ways.
When it comes to work and music, there are so many ways to contribute and be of service in the world. Making music is one way, certainly, but there are so many other ways. So it was never really my dream to do only music. There are a lot of other things to work with or to do that are well worth your time. I like music to be integrated into the full picture as part of a conscious, fully lived life. But these lines between passion and work and values and what you want to do with your life are often blurred completely when living this way.
It’s not my dream or goal to be a touring musician, that lifestyle is not something I yearn for, but I’m very happy with our current situation where we get to spend some time, like weekends here and and even occasional longer bits, on the road and then go home and back to my normal day-to-day life. It’s very important for me to be away from everything on the road and those big festivals with all the noise and hustle-and-bustle when it comes to being creative. A lot of what I take inspiration from is found in the peace of the home and in the landscapes where I belong. So this balance works out great for me.
Band photo by Vilde Dyrnes Ulriksen
Norway is known for its breathtaking nature: fjords, forests and mountains. Is there a place in Norway that you return to time and again, where you find peace or inspiration?
I couldn’t pick just one. I feel very connected to Norway and its landscapes. There are very few places in Norway I don’t like. Where I come from, Trøndelag, right in the middle of Norway, is not as dramatic as the West coast. But in those rolling hills of pine and moss, that’s where I was born and where I feel very much at home. Northern Trøndelag has a landscape that inspires me a lot. I’ve written most of the music for Vemod there. It’s a huge inspiration and a driving force, I would say. It’s part of who I am as a person. I have a deep connection with the landscape and it’s very important to me to spend time there.
And for our readers who are interested in going to the Caerimonia Nidrosiæ festival in Trondheim, which places shouldn’t they miss?
You will see the nice parts of the city right away. It’s the Nidaros cathedral, the Bakklandet neighbourhood and the picturesque old town with cosy pubs and cafés. If you’re there for a while, I’d recommend to go outside of the city and see some of the rural areas. Go for a hike and enjoy the beautiful landscape.
You have been playing black metal from a very young age. How did you first come into contact with the music?
I was very young indeed, probably too young. My metal origin story is very common. Some older kid in the street had a Metallica CD that got me obsessing with Metallica for a year or two before discovering anything else. I’m old enough that there were still record stores, even in the small city in which I grew up (Namsos). Espen, the bassist in Vemod, and I grew up together, living only a few hundred meters apart. When we started to be obsessed with music, we were at the record store all the time. It had some black metal, typically stuff from Moonfog, so Satyricon, Isengard… And some Darkthrone records.
It seemed very far away from Metallica, but I was fascinated by the covers. I had a vague idea about it from all of the media attention it got. I was too young to be properly into it when all that happened. It was late 1998 or something when I started listening to stuff like Darkthrone. It was outlandish and very strange at first, but there was always something about the imagery and the atmosphere that attracted me. I knew that it was something that I needed to explore, even before I actually liked it. There was usually a connection with natural landscapes in the imagery. Many bands used the forest in their photo shoots. It was very easy for me to relate to because that’s the kind of landscape that I grew up in. I had already felt that sort of mysterious connection to the woods from very early on in my life, and then there’s this strange and extreme form of music expressing it in a very unique way. That is deeply fascinating when you’re a mere ten years old. Even though I didn’t have the words to explain what it was, I was extremely taken with the whole thing.
Yeah, it’s a feeling.
And that’s what music is about. It was a little bit scary and frightening, but oh so fascinating. That’s a very potent combination when you’re a child. That worked really well for me.
I enjoyed that time a lot. It gave me a lot of purpose in my very young life. I wanted to play guitar, to make my own kind of music. I have lots of deep memories from that time. The mystery of black metal plays a big part in my musical origin story.
Jan Even Åsli captured by Istvan Bruggen at Samhain Antwerp
What makes it important for you to contribute to preserving black metal and honouring its history? Like you recently did with the Ulver cover during Caerimonia Nidrosiæ.
I don’t feel like I’m preserving black metal in that sense with Vemod. We’ve always been clear on the fact that we don’t define our music as black metal. We pay tribute in our own way. We do work with the feeling that we just talked about, and we are giving it a new context. I find it extremely attractive to try to work with that atmosphere, and in the process of doing that, I’m not occupied with black metal itself and all its rules. I’m not a very black metal person when it comes to my view of life. I’m interested in the musical spirit and I’m always trying to get to know it more intimately.
When it comes to the Ulver cover, if there was one cover that we would do, it was that song, I Troldskog Faren Vild. When I heard that for the first time so many years ago, something clicked because it meant you can use your voice in that clean way as well. To have that black metal backdrop and all of that nature mysticism in music in such a seamless and elegant yet raw and real way. That record in particular, Bergtatt, and Ulver as an entity in itself, have been a huge inspiration for us. It’s like a guiding light in some ways.
A pole star!
Yeah, and we’re definitely trying to do something similarly powerful. It was also the thirtieth anniversary of the record. We haven’t met Haavard from Ulver before, but we’ve been in the same circles and he has been to some of our shows. We knew that he likes what we’re doing. So we figured maybe we should send him a letter and ask him if this is something he wants to do with us. Ulver was not a pure black metal band either. They were always on the artistic periphery of black metal. That has been an inspiration for us because we, in our own small way, have also been on the outskirts of the Nidrosian metal scene. We’re not as black metal as any of those bands, but we’re working in some of the same areas anyway and bridging other musical worlds. So we were very happy that Haavard wanted to do it with us, we are extremely thankful. It was a great honour and it was a great night. A memory to cherish. Truly.
In November, there will also be a special weekend in Oslo: the very last Djevel performance. My condolences on the loss of Trånn Ciekals. How does it feel for you to be stepping in to make the final concert happen?
Thank you. I played with them a couple of times before. They had plans to do some shows this year and it was in the cards that I would play with them for a couple more of those. I was already sort of ready to perform with them because I was supposed to be a guest that special evening anyway. I guess they thought it made sense to ask me if I could step in and play Trånn’s parts. It’s a great honour for me and I hope it will be a worthy finale and tribute to him and his work.
It’s music that makes sense to me. Trånn was always very, very focused on black metal as the purist he was. But he was also obsessed with the particular Norwegian spirit of black metal. He worked very precisely towards that. He was genuinely interested in keeping that spirit alive. And he did.
Definitely! About Caerimonia Nidrosiæ, the newly announced line-up is very promising. Will you play a role as a guest musician there as well?
Yes! I think we’ll all be involved in some capacity. I’m not sure what, but we’ll be there and play. We’ll make something special for sure.
Jan Even Åsli and Eskil Blix captured by Istvan Bruggen at Samhain Antwerp
When looking at the art that has gained international recognition from Norway, you often see a deep, raw expression: Munch’s The Scream, the angry boy in Vigeland Park and, of course, black metal. At the same time, Norwegian culture is known for a certain restraint and self-control. Do you think music, and particularly Vemod, is a way to bring these suppressed emotions to the surface? What is the role of music in this tension between restraint and expression?
Okay, that’s a very good question. For Vemod, it has always been a balancing act. Vemod exists somewhere in that tension. In some ways, what we do is very self-restraint. I’ve done much wilder music in other bands, where it’s much more physical. In Vemod, we have a clear intention. There’s a calmness to what we do. At the same time, through the music, there is a lot of emotion released that is otherwise not coming forth through words or in everyday life. It’s deeply emotional and expressive, but not in a wild, unregulated, uncontrolled way.
I myself am an emotional person. I can be sentimental and so on. But I like to think that I am also well regulated, and I like Vemod also to be that way. We say Vemod is somewhere between storm and serenity, and that still applies. We have those musical elements that are very stormy and releasing energy outwards into the world, but then we’re also channelling it in a very specific way. It’s very mindful, an intentional emotional release.
It doesn’t have to be black and white. It doesn’t have to be all clear-cut and simple. Because being human is not. That’s the beauty of art.
Your music is characterised not only by intense melodies but also by moments of silence and contemplation. How important is calmness in your compositions? Is it a deliberate element that conveys as much as the music itself?
Yes, this is just as important for me. The silence is part of the music. Music doesn’t stop, even if it’s silent. If you want to make music that encompasses the entire human experience, then you need both. It’s completely obvious to me that you can’t just rage on the entire time and never come back to centre and calm yourself. Those calmer, more centred parts, are absolutely necessary for the dynamic that I’m after.
I want to be able to communicate all aspects of life in Vemod, to reach for the similar sense of wholeness that I strive for in my life at large. Sometimes, you need action, you need to be proactive. You need to go out and do the things that need to be done to go forward. But you always need to come home and reflect upon where you’re going, and why. To do this in music as well is very important for me with Vemod. It’s part of us and what we want to achieve with music.
That’s also a very good question and not something I can answer simply. I don’t personally relate to any particular religion or spiritual path as such. I have some issues with the modern “spiritual marketplace” experience, with divination and astrology and the like, or the wide array of “occultisms” you might find in metal circles, for example. These are things that people often point to when they describe their spirituality. I’m much more interested in just being human and being alive and thinking and feeling, relating to other human beings and the landscapes around me, the natural world, this one that we live in.
When I create, write and perform music, it certainly borders on the spiritual. There’s something about it that feels almost devotional. You’re opening something, a space, that isn’t there when you’re not doing this. This space can certainly be considered sacred. Even if it’s not directed to or filled with something we can necessarily name.
When you open your eyes to all the beauty that we have around us, I think that you can you can always argue that that is a spiritual act. I can name lots of everyday things, like sharing a meal with someone close to you or someone you love or family or just getting up in the morning, having a cup of coffee, looking out the window, reading a book, looking into the eyes of your loved one, getting your mind blown by a space documentary, thinking about how many stars there are in the universe, walking in the landscape, being just overwhelmed by the beauty of nature or art, architecture. It can be anything. Lots of everyday things are mind-blowing in a way if you let yourself think about it. And when you do, who’s to say that that is not spiritual? It can certainly be argued that it is, but you can also argue that it isn’t. It’s just being alive.
I certainly feel very connected to something and myself when I engage with this music in particular. It’s a very important practice in my life to play music, to create music and to share music with others. I think it’s a way of contributing beauty to the world.
It doesn’t matter to me if you call it spiritual or not. I want to live my life intentionally and be as present as possible. That’s what I try to do. Not always successfully, but I try to remind myself and come back to myself. Back to centre. Back to calm. Let’s try again. This time with feeling. This time with intention.
Some artists avoid listening to their work after recording, while others remain fascinated by what they have created. How do you feel about this? Can you enjoy Vemod’s music in the same way you listen to other music, or does it mainly evoke memories of the recording process and creative journey?
I can actually. I’m very forgetful when it comes to the process. Right after you’ve delivered the final mix and you’ve been listening to different mixes a million times, you’re fed up with it. But after a couple of months, I start to forget the things that we did. The sounds on the record take on a life of their own.
Does that further evolve in time for you?
Yes. Even if we record something, it’s still organic. It changes because you change. Your perception of everything changes. So The Deepening feels different to me now than it did right after we finished it or in the middle of recording it. I like to listen to it sometimes. I can go on a walk and when the light is in a certain way that reminds me of the album, I like to put it on. I don’t really focus on the fact that I am part of it. In that sense, I can listen to it in the same way as other music.
It’s a cliché, but we try to make our favourite music. We need to make music that we want to exist because what we want to listen to doesn’t yet exist. If you don’t like it afterward, then what is the point?
It changes with you. It’s living its own life just as it does to all other listeners. The test of time is how people feel about it years down the line. The associations and memories that people attach to music are very underrated. A record can feel different and special in a deeper way. So you can never expect to release a record and people will like it as much as the older record immediately, because it takes time. It takes a lot of time.
Talking about things that take a lot of time, the release of The Deepening. Why did it take twelve years after Venter På Stormene?
We took a very long time to mix it. Adding bits and pieces over a long time. We had many periods where we did not work on it because of illness, injuries and other things. Life just happened. That was actually the main part in the first few years while recording it. And in the end, we probably underestimated how much work it is to actually put it out. All of the details around the release. We’re sadly a bit perfectionistic. We’re very particular about how we want everything to feel. We spent our sweet time doing the artwork and obsessing over details like two millimetres up to the left. Overthinking a bit, certainly. It’s our weakness because all three of us are a bit similar in that way. We’re all very patient, maybe a bit too patient for this world.
So it might take a while before we may expect a new album.
Yes, but you never know. Creating is not the problem for us. The problem is everything else. Scheduling time is not as easy as it was. Getting together is not as easy as it was. We hope to be a bit more efficient when we start recording at some point. I’m pretty sure we will not obsess as much; we learned a lot from The Deepening. So we shall see how fast we will be. Probably not very fast, but hopefully not ten more years.
Jan Even Åsli captured by Jarle H. Moe at Beyond the Gates
In my review of your performance at Beyond the Gates, I described Vemod’s music as a wonderful tribute to nature. Do you recognise this? Do you see your music as a poetic reflection of the Norwegian landscape?
Yes, to a certain degree. If you have that element as a tribute in addition to our reflection over how to be human and live life and exist in this world, then we are getting somewhere. There are a lot of feelings related to the natural landscapes, nature mysticism if you will, but also a lot of human elements. I won’t call it philosophy, but it is about dealing with how to live a proper life.
What did you mean by Enigma Euphoria Eudaimonia in The Deepening?
How did you interpret that?
You can’t grasp the key to happiness.
That’s a good way to interpret it. All of those words are pointing to different parts of the journey of being alive.
A lot of things are out of grasp. It’s enigmatic. It’s deeply mysterious. We are baffled and full of wonder for things. Euphoria is the part when you open yourself up to the beauty of being alive. Eudaimonia points to living life in a proper way, according to your own ideals, to your own nature. Being who you are meant to be. Being who you want to be. Becoming the next you.
All of those things are integrated into the whole. So that’s what I meant. Does that make sense now? I’m sort of trying to be deep.
Yes, you’re succeeding with that!
It’s The Deepening after all…
During Beyond the Gates in the legendary Grieghallen, you managed to create a magical, almost transcendental experience. Your music became one with the space and the atmosphere of the venue. How did you experience that performance yourself? Was there a specific moment for you when everything fell into place?
I knew that that would be special. Lots of records that I love have been recorded there. It was a childhood dream of mine to record an album there. Our music is large in the sense that it’s very spacious. So, big halls usually work really well for us. Grieghallen is by far the biggest hall we’ve ever played in, and it has all that history. Lots of important events have occurred there. Some of those events and recordings out of there have been a huge part of shaping our music. To perform our music there, after doing Vemod for so many years, more than half of my life, was a very special thing.
There was maybe not a single moment in the concert itself, but the entire thing was special. Definitely one of the highlights of my entire life. I enjoyed every second.
Your band’s name, Vemod, is a Norwegian word that expresses a deep sense of melancholy and sorrow, an emotion that carries both sadness and a form of serene acceptance. Interestingly, in Dutch, we have the word ‘weemoed’, which has a similar meaning. How did you come up with this name, and how does this concept reflect in your music?
It was actually a song by a Norwegian folk group. I listened to it back when we started and I was looking for a name. I tried lots of different names and nothing felt quite right. But that song, it was a very emotionally charged piece of music. In a way, it felt soothingly black metal back then. In later years, there’s something between melancholy, the sadness of losing something or leaving something behind, and the strength to overcome things, moving on from something. That’s integrated into the word.
It makes sense for who I am and the way that I live my life. It also makes sense for Vemod and the sort of music that we make. We don’t make sad music. It’s melancholic but also uplifting. It’s moving forward. It always considers the past while moving into the future. The word means the music today that has transcended the word itself in some way. That is a very good feeling.
To conclude, do you have anything else to say to our readers in the Netherlands and Belgium?
It’s always a pleasure to play here. I feel extremely welcome. We usually look very much forward to coming to Benelux. We’re always having a good time here. Lots of great conversations. Lots of love. The audience is always great, attentive and kind. Lots of good food and good beer. Life is great here. I can only extend my gratitude to everyone that has shown up for the concert and I hope to see everyone again. If we are invited, we will come back for sure, again and again.
I hope as soon as possible! Thank you for your time and I wish you safe travels back to Norway.
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