Delirium Bound Interview 2010

Interview with Kim of Delirium Bound 2010

By Bradley Smith

Finally your debut album, Delirium Dissonance and Death has been recorded and is ready to be released. How long have you had Delirium Bound bouncing round in your skull and how does it feel to finally be ready to give birth to the album. What inspired you to form a thrash band?

Delirium Bound has been with me in some way or another since 1994, and has existed briefly in several versions with different names and members up through the years. But it was in 2005 I went at it for real. Bjeima and I had been working on some tracks together when not occupied with -M- and Swarms. We felt we had something substantial going on and recruited Member 1 from The Konsortium (whom Bjeima had played with in REX) on guitars, Kim from Konstriktor on bass and Mannevond from Koldbrann/Nettlecarrier on vocals. But because of busy time schedules and members living far apart we never managed to get together often enough. In the end Bjeima and I decided to go at it on our own and began recording. Inspiration came out of necessity: Black Metal and Thrash Metal is in my blood and in my hands.

I know there were some delays with the recording of the album, mainly some troubles with vocals. Can you enlighten me as to what all happened there and how you finally resolved it. Can you describe the frustration you faced in completing the album?

We know plenty of competent and expressive vocalists but in the studio we couldn't get it to gel with the music properly. The album was on hold for some time because of this. Our initial plan with Delirium Bound was to have a classic band line up so that it was possible to perform live without resorting to live members. We held on to that idea as long as we could but as years passed and the frustration increased we had to leave that vision behind. In the end it worked out exquisitely with Bjeima on vocals - we both know 100% what Delirium Bound is about and how we need to sound.

You recently started your own label, Adversum. Can you give me some background as to why you took the effort to found your own label and what are some of your upcoming releases? What has been your general experience in dealing with Labels that you don’t control?

The gist of the story is that Kim (from Belgian premium industrial label Neuropa) got in touch with me early 2009 with the idea of the two of us starting up a label together. Despite my already fucked up time schedule I just had to accept this invitation and now 1,5 years later here we are with YUREI and DELIRIUM BOUND out and several albums coming up. One reason for diving head-first into this is that I am surrounded by gifted artists with immense creative capacity. And as far as I know there's no label focusing on the music that will be ADVERSUM’s main priority - I myself have been waiting for such a label since the mid-nineties. ADVERSUM’s aim is to present wild-hearted, progressive, obscure, disharmonic and dystopian music. Some of the releases will spring from neo-Rock and post-Black Metal, and some will not. ADVERSUM is curated and art directed by me here in Oslo, while finance, orders, shipping and distribution is handled by Kim in Belgium. The first two releases are YUREI's "Working Class Demon" and DELIRIUM BOUND's "Delirium, Dissonance and Death". YUREI (http://www.myspace.com/bjeima) is a solo project from Bjeima. His album is twisted, discordant, melancholic and dark rock.

The DELIRIUM BOUND album (http://www.myspace.com/deliriumbound) you have described very well in your review here on Nocturnal Cult some time ago.

The curious can go to Adversums Myspace www.myspace.com/adversummmx or website www.adversum.no to listen or order.

Planned releases include: I Left the Planet, which is a project from the nineties featuring Alexander Nordgaren of Fleurety with friends, among them Carl Michael Eide of Virus/Ved Buens Ende - then we have Alfa Obscura; Savage and imaginative Black Metal honoring the music of the nineties with a bizarre twist. This album is going to be a hit parade. Too weird to be retro, too wrong to be trendy. If all goes as we hope, and Adversum keeps afloat, later releases will include Swarms, -M-, The Ghost Conspiracy, Stagnant Waters, the second Yurei and Delirium Bound albums and more.

The lyrical content for the album, from what I have been able to discern, seems strange. How important are the lyrics for you. What are some of the lyrical topics you cover and what are your methods when you sit down to write lyrics?

I think lyrics are just as important as the music and the artwork - I don't really differentiate between them. I don't have much positive to say with my lyrics. Fear, murder, suicide, patricide, panic attacks and death... There's always some forbidding aspect of my self that makes itself heard when the words starts pouring out. The words and sentences come to me when it suits them; I write them down on whatever I have lying around. And when I am in the right mode mentally, I spend time alone, rewrite them and arrange them in accordance with the music.

You recently had a Metal artwork exhibition coinciding with the Inferno festival. What did the exhibit consist of and how did you choose the pieces you wanted to put on display?

In October 2009 Trine and I celebrated 10 years of Trine + Kim design studio with a big exhibition and event here in Oslo. The exhibition consisted of a selection of the artwork we have made during these years, for all kinds of artists and bands. For the exhibition during Inferno this easter we chose some of the Metal artwork from last year’s exhibition and rented a space close to our studio. The response was beyond all expectation. We had almost 500 visitors.

When I was visiting Oslo you took me to Vigelandsparken and introduced me to some of the artistic wonders of that park. Can you tell me about some of the artistic and cultural sites around Oslo and what are some of your favorites?

I think the Vigeland park is an essential stop for anyone visiting Oslo. There's another place I'll take you the next time you're here, but I don't feel like sharing it with everyone. Besides that I would advise people to experience Norwegian nature. Nature, steep prices on everything and relentless partying are Norway’s foremost attractions.

The title of the album includes the word, Dissonance. That is an accurate description of the music that can be found on the album. What about Dissonance appeals to you and what makes it so important to your musical output here? What are some great bands that you feel utilize dissonance effectively in their music?

Dissonance is a core ingredient in almost all the music I make. It's just the way I am and the way I intuitively make music and I've been doing music this way since 1993/1994. Most people seem to think it started with Ved Buens Ende (and compare everything that sounds dissonant to them), but it didn't. Thorns and Voivod were there much earlier and were important also as inspirations for Ved Buens Ende. In -M- (at the time named Taarenes Vaar) we started playing around with severe disharmony as a key expression in 1993, while we were still a doomy Black Metal band in junior high. Then during the autumn of 1994, Ved Buens Ende came along with their cassette "Those who caress the pale" and had taken it further, and of course made an impact.

Great bands doing this in ways that appeal to me are still few to my knowledge. But some that know how to are (or were) Thorns, Mayhem, Voivod, Ved buens ende and a lot of classical composers and musicians without any ties to Metal or Rock. Penderecki for example. And my close circle of artists and friends; Yurei, Swarms, -M-, Alfa Obscura, The Konsortium and Virus.

You told me awhile back in a previous interview, you said that you hadn’t yet released your debut as a “musician” yet. What do you think it will take to feel like you have achieved this goal and do you feel you have made your debut yet? If so which of your many projects/albums is it?

I have contributed to other people’s albums for years, but the debut with my own music was in 2008 with Swarms' The Silver Hour. I also released Pronounced "sex" with Zweizz the same year. However, I will not feel complete before M's debut is out. I wrote that album in the nineties and it has been recorded several times. It's scheduled for ADVERSUM as soon as possible.

Do you still feel you are an “illustrator” versus being an artist? I mean you create “art” in different mediums such as music and also with your illustrations.

I do not know how to define myself. I do what I do and make the most of it. It's self realization, self preservation and self destruction at the same time. It's a curse that sometimes disguises itself as a blessing. Or the other way around.

Running TRINE + KIM DESIGN STUDIO with Trine is a way to make a living by doing something we're good at. It beats the shitty jobs I tried out in my early twenties but it's hard work, we always have to do our best, and time is often a pressing issue and a constraint. Everything else I do is for my own reasons - it's been my escape and my obsession for most of my life. After I fell ill with a comically apocalyptic depression that nearly paralyzed me 3 years ago I have invested more time in finishing all the music I have been working on during the last 17 years instead of making more. And now that music is beginning to crawl out.

What inspires you more from an artistic perspective, Nature or Man-made issues and environs? Why and how do you incorporate your sources of inspiration into a creative output? And do you prefer something be more literal or having hidden meanings? Why?

I am inspired by everything and anything. I have no guiding stars or sources or muses that I revisit for constant inspiration. Parts of the creative processes are often on a sub-real level and things like that are not really decided upon, they just become, happen or evolve. So I do not decide on such things beforehand. The process, however, is more possible to decide upon; Everything we do at TRINE + KIM DESIGN STUDIO is an amalgam of Trine and me. With my solo art project UNREALITY it's all about me. This is also the way I make music for K100, which again is the starting point for much of the music in Swarms. In the bands I’m in, like Delirium Bound for instance, I work with other people, so the key there is interaction between them and me.

What are some of your other artistic and musical Projects? Are you still active with M or Swarms or Blitzkrieg Baby? And what else can we expect from you in the near future? Will Delirium Bound makes its way into the live environment?

Yes, I'm still doing all of them. BLITZKRIEG BABY will release its first album this year. The label is Neuropa in Belgium. This album might be something for some of Nocturnal Cult’s readers, feeding on the same emotions and vibes as Boyd Rice/NON and early Laibach although not really sounding much like either of them, I think.

SWARMS are working on several albums and we have made a lot of commissions for performance arts. Petter Berntsen (aka Plenum) has quit Virus and is focusing on Swarms. Much of this will find its way to the audience through Adversum. Our first album was "The Silver Hour" on Vendlus in 2008, which on a superficial level differs a lot from the material ahead but in essence and atmosphere is the same.

This summer I also released K100's debut "The Vault Of Apparitions" on Neuropa. K100 is the music I make on my own; cinematic, dark, electronic music - by some reviewers termed as Dark Ambient. It's SWARMS' musical and conceptual sibling, best enjoyed alone in those moments where the mind is free to drift. It can be ordered from www.neuropa.be now.

There's also my new venture with Anders B. (of Babyflesh/Mind & Flesh) and Lars F. Frøislie (of In Lingua Mortua, Wobbler, White Willow) called THREE WINTERS. And PRONOUNCED "SEX" with Zweizz (of Fleurety, Stagnant Waters, Umoral, etc.).

Anyway, first up is DELIRIUM BOUND's "Delirium, Dissonance and Death" which is out on ADVERSUM now together with YUREI's "Working Class Demon".

Thanks again Kim, and I’ll let you voice anything else you would like. Thrash Hard!!!

Visit ADVERSUM at www.adversum.no and www.myspace.com/adversummmx If you like what you hear we hope you support us by buying - YUREI and DELIRIUM BOUND can both be ordered now.