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Some hear his music and call him a master of dissonant electronic manipulation and dark lyrical imagery. Others see his face and call him a psychotic troll living in the midst of a costume-laden identity crisis. No matter what your opinion, Mortiis is an artist not to be ignored. From his humble beginnings in the black metal scene as the bassist for the late great Emperor, Mortiis has been brewing his special blend of hellish atmosphere and techno rock abandon for over a decade. His previous album The Smell of Rain is considered a monument in his musical evolution. Now with The Grudge, Mortiis continues along the winding path of industrial madness. Here we get to speak to him about his music, Paris Hilton's impending (and most unwelcome) foray into music and the definition of "rivethead." ReGen's Ilker Yucel gets medieval with Mortiis?

The Grudge seems to be a heavier album than The Smell of Rain. Is it meant to be heavier?

Mortiis: Well yeah, it was. I got to make it sound a lot more how I wanted than with The Smell of Rain. I really sat down and educated myself about a lot of things and gave it my best shot. I think we kind of succeeded now.

That's excellent. So you're a lot more pleased with it than you were with The Smell of Rain?

Mortiis: I mean, at the time when The Smell of Rain came out, I was really excited anyway because it was such a change from what I had done. It's still a monumental, symbolically? a big monument in my life. It was a big change musically for me. The Smell of Rain is still a really meaningful album and I think at the time I was really happy because it just opened a lot of doors for me, musically and artistically. But I think looking back, at the time I was a little bit blind to the fact that it didn't sound the way I initially had wished, but I think I was just blind to that fact at the time.

Sort of how every artist is his or her own worst critic? You can always look back and see certain things you would have done differently?

Mortiis: Yeah, I guess that's just what it boils down to. You look too hard at it and it's like everything you did last week kind of sucks, even though it really doesn't. Sometimes you kind of punish yourself too hard.

The Smell of Rain was something of a new direction for you, right?

Mortiis: Well at the time that album came out, I was so stoked and excited that I completely revamped everything that Mortiis is all about and doing the whole thing in a new direction, and it was really fresh. At the time, I don't think I really considered the fact that the bands I kind of liked at the time that I maybe wanted to sound a little bit like, I didn't sound like them, but I didn't realize or care at the time. It was such a big monumental change in my life anyway that I think my enthusiasm was the main thing.

Does The Grudge proceed in this direction, or is it something new completely?

Mortiis: I think yes it is. I certainly used the same type of equipment, and more. The same kinds of synthesizers, software, sequencers, effects and stuff like that. I definitely used the same kind of recipe, I just? did it slightly differently and I did it a lot better. There was just a lot more experience behind everything I was doing. We kept walking down the same path, I think we just walked with self-confidence? we strutted rather than just kind of lurked around.

[Laughs] That's a good description.

Mortiis: It's a crap metaphor man. I'm a metaphor kind of guy, I use metaphor quite a lot, and that was probably the worst ones I've ever come up with.

How's your music been received in North America? Are you pleased with the audience reaction to your music here?

Mortiis: Yeah, that would basically be based on the reaction to The Smell of Rain since that's the album I can speak on behalf of. The Grudge won't be out until October, so?The Smell of Rain was received well in the States. Marketing has always been an issue. We feel it should've been marketed better? popular excuse.

Yeah, it is becoming difficult for European bands to get good distribution in the States, though there is a huge market for it in America. I just think the American music industry is lacking in knowing what to look for.

Mortiis: Yeah, based on The Grudge, and statistics that I've drawn up so far, metaphorically or whatever? um? are based on what the media, press people like yourself, are telling me. It's really good? it's fucking good. I'm happy to see that, so I feel a little spoiled now since I'm taking people's positive reactions for granted, which is dangerous. But the response so far from press, I'd say especially in the USA has been really warm and that's really pleasing. But everything is about what the kid on the street is going to say, that's what really matters in the long run. And how is the kid on the street, how is he going to know about the record? Incredibly good marketing from Earache's point of view, which remains to be seen, doesn't it? But as far as the five big labels you have right now? They're not going to look for me. They're going to look for the next fucking Christina Aguilera, or the next fucking bullshit artist the American industry wants. The last thing I heard now was that fucking Paris Hilton is making a record.

I didn't even hear that. That just brings down my entire day.

Mortiis: That's like? can you sleep at night knowing that that's what the fucking American record industry wants?

I know I'm kept up at night quite a few nights thinking about it.

Mortiis: It's scary man, 'cause I'd like to go back? 20 years, when everything was kind of cool. I'm a big fan of the electronic stuff that came out in that time, like Kraftwerk and a lot of those bands.

One thing I can tell just from watching the videos of that you really seem to enjoy what you do. And judging by how excited you sound, it's very gratifying to see someone actually passionate about what they're doing.

Mortiis: I know, I really care about what I do and I think that just translates into my performance.

I noticed that you and Vegard Blomberg produced The Grudge. Wasn't he formerly in Satyricon?

Mortiis: Well, no? he used to do a lot of stuff with Apoptygma Berzerk, and Apoptygma had worked at one point with Satyricon on something, so I think he was part of that production team, so to speak.

What was it like to work with him?

Mortiis: Oh, it was great. We both sort of come from the same background, like in the '80s we were both narrow-minded teenage hard rock fans. And then it kind of branched into the more extreme music of the late '80s and early '90s, the whole death metal and black metal. We kind of started to slip into a lot of electronic stuff and shit like that, and where we ended up was I guess with me being more on the dark side of industrial music, like Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and Nine Inch Nails; those guys. And he ended up more on the Depeche Mode, Underworld side.

Yeah because I notice besides Apoptygma and Icon of Coil, there are quite a few bands coming from Norway and Sweden these days.

Mortiis: Well, they're all from that town, from Fredrikstad. Everybody's from there, you got Apoptygma, Icon of Coil, Echo Image, Computorgirl, Sweep, but they're all different size bands, and a lot of them attempt to be I guess one-man projects. That town is breeding synth bands, which is part of what I do. I appreciate all those electronic bands, but I think we try to cross over. We include a lot more stuff in the music. It's not purely synth? far from it.

Yeah, I did notice the guitars were very present on The Grudge, that's why it sounded like a heavier album I think.

Mortiis: Yeah, I mean all the electronics are still there, and? [clears throat] I just rehearsed today, so you'll have to excuse me, my throat is so full of frogs and toads, and I got to keep my voice going, so bear with me. Every time I scream for two hours straight, my throat gets kind of screwed. So? no, the electronics and everything are still there, even more so than on The Smell of Rain. It's just that it's layered with so many things, a lot of distorted stuff and a lot of samples, a lot of sampling going on and looping and processing things to hell and back. So it didn't really sound more electronic so much as just elements of something.

Yeah there were moments where it sounded close to folk music, like the chorus to the first track, "Broken Skin." How it slows down and comes out of nowhere, it sounds almost like folk acoustic.

Mortiis: Really? I never thought about that, but you are at least the second journalist I've spoken to in the last couple of weeks to bring up folk music. I guess there's something of that in there.

You've named several established artists such as Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Moby, and KMFDM as influences on your music. Do you ever draw any influence from bands that aren't as well known, or up and coming? Do you listen to a lot of new music?

Mortiis: I wish I could say that I did. Here's my dark secret is that I'm not that into the scene in that way. As in, I like it, but I haven't dug that deep into it. I mean, I have. I have a lot of these compilations and blah blah blah, but I just don't have the time to get into it that deeply. And I don't have the time to be a pure fan anymore because? to be a real fan in music, which I am, but I can't?

You just focus on your own stuff first before listening to others?

Mortiis: Yeah, I have all these responsibilities in Mortiis, big tour coming up and rehearsing everything.

Are you going to tour the States for The Grudge?

Mortiis: I hope so and I really think so. We're going to do a two-month tour of Europe; we're going to start in a couple of weeks. Nine weeks, it'll be the longest tour any of us have ever done, and it will be pretty hard, but it should be fun and a lot of good experience. The plan is to go to the States in February. That's the plan as it stands now. And I really get the vibe that we could do well there.

I think so because I've spoken to a lot of my friends who are rivetheads and they're just waiting for The Grudge to be released and people have told me how awesome they think it is, so I had a clue what to listen for when I heard it.

Mortiis: What does rivethead mean?

It's pretty much the name we've given to people who listen to industrial music.

Mortiis: Yeah because I've heard that term, or that slang, whatever you call it. I've seen it being used for the past two or three years, seeing it in e-mail addresses that people have sent me and stuff like that because people like to call themselves names, pseudonyms, whatever you call it. And rivethead comes up a lot? people just seem to like to take some kind of word and end it with head. I mean how many bands have you got that are called something with head?

Oh man, I can't even count.

Mortiis: I mean you've got Mot?rhead, of course. You've got Machine Head, you've got Radiohead, you've got Portishead...

Godhead too.

Mortiis: I just like named like five of them in three seconds.

There you go, that's actually pretty impressive, I probably would've had to think about it.

Mortiis: Yeah, I'm thinking of starting a band called giving head.

[Laughs] I'm sure that would be an excellent success in America.

Mortiis: It'd be big in the porn business if nothing else. Make porno soundtracks.

There's a big market for it.

Mortiis: I'm sure there is, so we'd probably be pretty good at it.

Just get out the wah-guitars and Marshall stacks.

Mortiis: Get out the wah-wah pedals, go total '70s porno guitars, *chicka-chicka-wah-wah* John Holmes back from the dead.

Oh boy? I can just see it now. Mortiis goes porn.

Mortiis: Huge cocks.

You used to be in the black metal scene, you used to be in Emperor. And they broke up around the time The Smell of Rain was being released. How did that affect you? What's your relationship with Ihsahn and Samoth like?

Mortiis: Well, we're still friends. Ihsahn I seldom see because he's kind of like me, just isolated. He's got his relationship with his wife, and I got my shit going on. Yeah, we're just spending more of our time indoors and working on our own stuff. I've deliberately become a non-social person. I'm not a misanthropic person at all or anti-social, it's just? I'm totally happy with it because I used to go out every fucking weekend and get drunk and fucked up. It didn't get me anywhere really other than a two-day fucking hangover.

Yeah, that doesn't sound too productive.

Mortiis: Very non-productive, and you just sit there and don't even fucking put your pants on for two days, just eating potato chips? let life away.

Sounds like a lot of my friends on their weekends. It's why I don't drink anymore.

Mortiis: [Laughs] Yeah, it sounds very American. I just figured I'd like to stay alive for a few more years and not be like, ?Life? what's that? You got Nintendo, what else do you need?' Fucking Game Cube and X-Box, I mean I bought the first PlayStation and then just kind of fell out from there.

There are so many avenues of music and production already explored by both Mortiis and practically every other artist in the world. Are you ever afraid that there won't be anywhere else to go? Where else is there to go for Mortiis?

Mortiis: Well? what I say to people is that I'm not here to change the face of music. If I wanted to do that, I'd probably get a time machine and go back to learn music when I was the age of four. I mean I still can't play a bass. I play by ear and I just kind of fuck around until it sounds good. And that's what I intend to keep doing. As I said, I'm not here to make anything revolutionary. I'm here to make good music, ya' know? I think the bottom line is this band is a rock band that is utilizing a lot of different technology. It's not an EBM band with guitars. I don't feel that it's like that.

I agree with that, it definitely seems to be more of a rock thing.

Mortiis: Yeah, and at the heart of it all, that's where I am. The structure of the songs is kind of rock, and I think even the attitude is a little rock and roll. Not that I want to sound like Poison or anything. Kill me if I do. Please shoot me if I ever do that because I'd deserve to die.

Just don't do any covers of "Every Rose Has its Thorn."

Mortiis: [Laughs] Oh god no. I'd rather do a cover of "Freebird." I have those fucking albums by Lynard Skynard. I think that's an interesting band.

Go with the classics.

Mortiis: Yeah. The first time I hung out with my guitar player was in a downstairs bar and they had this piano player who of course started to play "Sweet Home Alabama." Do we're just sitting there and sitting around this huge fucking piano just fucking singing "Sweet Home Alabama." I mean how's that for? it's a weird kind of thing to happen to a guy who is often described in the EBM area. I mean, I don't think anybody sees those guys hollering "Sweet Home Alabama" at 4 o'clock in the morning around a fucking piano. It's such a stupid little thing to happen.