1 - Ride The Relapse got a a re-release in 2008 with some new songs, was there any remixing/remastering of those songs? I'm just asking this 'cause i have this version of White Trash Extravaganza that sounds lower than the one on MySpace.
The first version of ride the relapse was mainly just a demo. We hadn't really started as a serious band yet when we recorded the first stuff. But we put it out on our webpage as a release because we thought it looked cool . The first version is with programmed electronic drums (our drummer didn't join the band until 2005, and then started the Haust as you know it today ) and it's just recorded in Ruben's bedroom with shitty equipment. Our debut album Ride the relapse was released in 2008, everything before that is just Ruben and me fooling around.
2 - Although HAUST mixes influences from hardcore/punk/black metal. you guys definitely stand out making a completely different sound than the other bands working with the same principles and that fit into this same group. It could be said that HAUST has more punk roots than any other acts around. Do you think that's what makes HAUST stand out?
Yeah. We have a punk background. We were small-town crooks in Notodden, Telemark. That is also the hometown of the black metal band Emperor. We were really influenced by Vegard/Ihsahn when we were kids and he also recorded our first demos with our shitty punkbands in the 90s. When we started Haust it was just Ruben and me trying to mix black metal with the punk attitude, not that we wanted to make BM more catchy.. We just wanted it more up front and in-your-face. We're of course also really influenced by noiserock like Jesus Lizard , early Earth, early Sonic youth and Dinosaur.. stuff like that.
We also wanted to point out the obvious punk qualities of the early norwegian BM scene (Burzum, Emperor - wrath of the tyrant era, Mayhem - Deathchurch etc) and highlight it.
3 - In an older version of your MySpace page, there were lots of influences mentioned, from Sunn o))) to Darkthrone and some weird shit in-between, mixing all kinds of bands and genres and you're actually wearing a Poison Idea t-shirt in one picture. Catching a glimpse of the bands imagery and influences, two thoughts crossed my mind: "These kids know what they're doing" or "These old fucks know their shit and look like really young folks". Just spill it out, who are you? How the band came together?
Ha ha. I guess we're not that young anymore. I'm 26 myself, and the other guys are 25. People always say that we look like we're in our late teens.. that's funny. I have my musical upbringing from the Oslo-based recordstore Tiger in the late 90s and early 00s, that now also runs a label called Fysisk Format. We are three guys that met in Notodden in our teens, drinking bad homemade liquor, listening to Misfits and skating in the streets. When we got serious we teamed up with a drummer from Kvinesdal in the south of Norway.
4 - HAUST seems to touch on more socio-political subjects, but still mantaining some sick humor, sometimes tackling heavy matters, in songs such as Anti-Reproductive. On the other hand, there's Skate Rock, that seems basically about hanging out with your buddies, getting wasted, listening to some records,etc. Do you like to keep your lyrics kinda "freestyle", not making any commitment to being a joke or an over-the-top too serious band? (Based on what I can make out of the lyrics, since I don't have 'em)
Yeah. I like to mix the trashy and catchy with the bleak and serious. We're not a political band, but for me it would also be uninteresting to write lyrics that are just plain silly. Anti-reproductive is about being pushed out of the so-called including norwegian social democracy because you are gay or simply have an alternative take on what a family should be like. I think the metal and hardcore punk scene is very conservative in may ways when it comes to sexual politics, and i don't want to be a part of this romantic macho bullshit that most punk and metal bands celebrate. Skate Rock is about being punk in a small town like Notodden. The local hillbillies and macho jocks always told me to cut my hair and get a job, and i still get this screamed after me when i come back there once in a while.
4 B - About the Anti-Reproductive video, it's pretty shocking. Every single element on this video is pretty sick: the scene of the guy crawling on that disgusting fluid, that huge nazi flag, the guy on the bathub with his guts exposed, ..it's really impressive! How the main idea of the video was conceived? how it went and how long it took for the production of the video?
I really wanted to have a horror music video for this album. The album title is not really about horror movies but from an essay of philosopher Julia Kristeva. The powers of horror is everything that disgusts you. It's about the abject. Not an object or a subject, but stuff like vomit, corpses, shit and even stuff from history, like f.ex Holocaust. I contacted a young filmmaker that i new had the guts to work with shit like this. The only thing i told was that i wanted a mix of Jörg Buttgereit and Kenneth Anger. I didn't know about the actual content until it was finished. But I'm really satisfied with the result (at least for being a blind date) and i think it fits well with the title of the album. The video was shot in one night (i think) and edited in a couple of days. It was shot on 16 mm and the directors name is Fredrik Hana. He's really great, watch out for him in the future.
4 C - The band seem to have a strong connection with horror movies. Recently I`ve watched a Norwegian slasher (Fritt Vilt) and some time ago, the acclaimed survival Dod Sno. Do you like any of these movies? Do you think that Norway may be among the major producers of horror movies? And still about movies, would you like to recommend the last ones you've watched?
I'm really into horror. I've seen Fritt vilt and i didn't like it that much. It follows the formula for a slasher to close and don't have anything special to it. I haven't seen Død snø yet, but i will. My favourite norwegian horror film is "De dødes tjern" (death in the blue lake) from 1958. It's really creepy and beautyful. These days you should check out "Black Christmas" (the original from 1974) and "Christmas evil" AKA "You better watch out". My favourite horror movies are old stuff like The Wolf man and Island of lost souls, but i also like some newer films like "Antichrist" and "the kingdom" series from Denmark, and "Pontypool" and "Dagon". Another film you have to see is "Possession" from 1981, I love David Cronenbergs films and this one is just like Cronenberg but better.
5 - Still about songwriting, I think this laid-back atittude actually reflects on the way you sing and interpret those songs. Actually, most people remember HAUST as "that band with that peculiar vocalist" . Is there any person that inspired you, as a vocalist and front-man? Did you have this posture since the beginning? (Basically antagonizing 99% of the vocalists in the norwegian metal scene)
Some vocalists that i'm influenced by is:
Screaming jay Hawkins
Captain Beefheart (R.I.P)
Ihsahn from early emperor days
Varg "Count Grishnach" Vikernes
David Bowie
Jussi Björling
Attila Csihar
Johnny Rotten
6 - Recently, I've saw that you'll be touring with Trap Them and Rotten Sound in April/2011. How'd that happen? Any plans for an american tour?
Yeah. Avocado started booking for us, and then suddenly we were going to tour europe. We've actually never played outside of norway before, so that's going to be great! I don't know about america yet, but it would be really nice to play overseas.
7 - How's HAUST's relationship with Fysisk Format? How's their distribution on "Powers of Horrors"? Any label tried to reach you after the CD's release?
We love the guys in Fysisk Format. They're our friends and we don't want to sign anything else unless it's a hell of a deal. Cargo records distributes powers of horror in europe.
8 - Dag Otto also plays in a band that's the complete opposite of HAUST, Skitliv... And by opposite, I mean, it's band that plays SUICIDAL BLACK METAL, while HAUST's outlook is completely different. Kinda hard not to notice this in HAUST's sound. We'd like you to comment on that, Otto's relationship with both bands.
Dag Otto plays with them and they are nice guys, but the music has nothing in common with the Haust sound except that it's hard. Dag Otto likes the challenge of playing different styles of drumming, and that's cool.
9 - Dude, as brazilian blog, we gotta ask you, do you know any bands or anything from this part of the world?
Sepultura, Mystifier and Sarcófago has been really important bands for me. I also really like the film Pixote by Hector Babenco that was shot in Brazil. And of course the almighty Coffin Joe!
10 - Could comment the last 5 albums you´ve been listening?
These last days I've been playing Captain Beefheart - Trout mask replica a lot, since he died. Other records I've been playing is the latest Okkultokrati 7" called "Ingen veit alt" (The title is from this great norwegian poet called Tarjei Vesaas), Cult Ritual LP, Emeralds - does it look like i'm here? and Summon the crows - Scavengers feast.
11 - Vebjørn, thank you so much for your time! This space is your, wrap this up as you see fit.
Thanks for the interview. I would really like to go to Brazil, and i really enjoy that you find our cold norwegian music interesting. Support your local punk scene, and play loud!
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