DATE OF INTERVIEW:
VULTURE INDUSTRIES
7th March 2009
BJØRNAR E. NILSEN
METAL DISCOVERY: It states on your MySpace page that you’re working on new material for a new album to be released this year - can people expect a further progression in your sound?
BJØRNAR E. NILSEN: Yeah, the new album will be more progressive and, I guess also, slightly more homogeneous because it’s written in a shorter time period than the first album, but it will still be a very diverse album. And, also, on this album our guitarist apart from Eivind is doing a bit more of the songwriting than on the first album where I had the main input. And we are quite different songwriters so we basically do the outlines for the songs separately and then we finish it together to try to make it into sounding more like a band instead of having two different directions.
(Bjørnar E. Nilsen on the bargains to be found in Camden market!)
"I bought two leather jackets for thirty quid."
PART 3 BELOW
PART 3 ABOVE
Kyrre Teigen, Eivind Huse and Bjørnar E. Nilsen backstage at the Underworld, London, 7th March 2009
Photograph copyright © 2009 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com
Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes
PART 3
PART 3
RELATED LINKS
Official Vulture Industries Website:
Official Vulture Industries MySpace:
VULTURE INDUSTRIES DISCOGRAPHY
The Dystopia Journals (2007)
Albums
Dark Essence Records Website:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Hannah Sylvester for recording the interview.
Cheers to Bjørnar E. Nilsen for his time, and the beer!
MD: So do you see Vulture Industries as a progressive band that’s progressing with yourselves rather than coming up with a progressive sound on the one album and then kind of sticking with that?
BN: Yeah.
MD: So you’re progressing with your own sound as well?
BN: Yeah.
MD: A true progressive band, of course.
BN: I hope so. We will see in five years! [laughs]
MD: You recorded three demos between 2003 and 2005?
BN: Yeah.
MD: Are there, or is there ever likely to be, any plans to release those?
BN: Definitely not the first one! [laughs] That was basically material dated from before we turned into Vulture Industries.
MD: Dead Rose Garden?
BN: Yeah, a horrible name! Horrible name! I hate that name!
MD: I’ve heard worse names.
BN: Yeah, of course [laughs]. That demo was from a period when the band was kind of starting out from the remnants of Dead Rose Garden and we were trying to find ourselves. So that’s only remnants from a past time; we won’t release that. And the better stuff from the two later demos were re-recorded and released as part of ’The Dystopia Journals’ so I don’t really see a need to re-release it. We may do a re-recording of some of it just to do like an oddity, or a b-side, or something like that.
MD: Well, maybe when you’re a huge progressive band in ten years time and fans demand it! How did you end up signed to Dark Essence Records and did you, or have you, had any other label interest?
BN: We had some other label interest; we were in contact with a couple of labels. One of the more serious ones we were in contact with were a bit slow with replying so they got in contact with us again after coming home from vacation, and then we had already signed with Dark Essence. But we got in contact with Dark Essence because the guys running the label are friends of ours, and they’re based in Bergen so it’s really easy to deal with, and it’s a good label with a good catalogue so, yeah, it’s nice to be there. It’s a small label with a small budget but I prefer to be on a small label with a small budget where the guys are honest and straightforward instead of being like this tiny grain of sand on a big label that don’t really care about you unless you sell enough albums to make them all millionaires. And now after we signed with Dark Essence I also went into becoming part of the running of the label so we have complete control.
MD: There’s a piece in the latest Terrorizer about Dark Essence.
BN: Yeah, I’m in that picture - I’m the guy with the brown leather jacket. I bought me a new one today in Camden.
MD: Yeah, a good place to buy leather jackets.
BN: I bought two leather jackets for thirty quid!
MD: Two jackets for thirty quid?!
BN: Yeah.
MD: Quid? That’s not a Norwegian term! You’ve been in London for a day and you’re a cockney already!
BN: [laughs]
MD: Two for thirty…where was that from? I need a new jacket!
BN: It was on the market.
MD: Marvellous! Shopping tomorrow!
BN: [laughs]
MD: For people who will be reading this and haven’t heard of Vulture Industries before, why should people go and check you out?
BN: If people want something a bit different and something to challenge them then they should check us out.
MD: Simple as that!
BN: Yeah!
MD: Finally, what are your overall aims and aspirations for the band?
BN: Basically, I think we will stay as an underground band. I don’t think we will grow very big, but hopefully big enough that we can do one or two headliner tours now and then, and earn enough that we aren’t losing money on tour. But it’s great fun playing so it’s definitely worth it anyhow. We do what we want and we’re happy with it.
MD: You want to remain underground or you think you probably will remain underground?
BN: I think we probably will remain underground.
MD: So what if, say, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater…he occasionally latches onto different sounding bands - have you heard of To-Mera?
BN: Yeah.
MD: He asked them to support Dream Theater in this country because he’s a fan of their’s. They supported them in front of five thousand people and their biggest gig before that was probably down here. So, say, if Mike Portnoy phoned you and said hey, Vulture Industries, come and do this tour with us, would you?
BN: Yeah, that would be cool, definitely! [laughs] As long as we don’t play Glasgow with five thousand people standing in the back giving us the finger! [laughs]
MD: Thank you very much for your time.
BN: Thank you, that was nice.
MD: Very interesting, definitely. Thank you.