Norwegian ex-atmospheric doom/death metallers visited Greece, in order to promote their latest album "Musique", a great CD of darkwave / electronic music. Painkiller was there to have a little chat with Liv Kristine Espanaes (Vocals) and drummer Hein Frode Hansen.

- We’ll begin with the new album of course. I’ve listened to it 5 or 6 times and I have to say that it’s far away from metal…

HEIN : “Not everything…”

 - Yes, there are some guitars, but the drums are not real…

HEIN : “Half of them maybe, but the 70-75% is real drums.”

 - The whole outcome is like dark wave, electro pop…

HEIN : “We don’t want to put labels to our music. I know it’s a different album, we wanted it to be different. We wanted to take what we had in Aegis and continue in more extreme way, experimenting with noises and programming things. But the basis of T.O.T is the same, we’ll be always a rock band, guitars, drums, bass, vocals and keyboards on top. That’s the basis of T.O.T. We just expanded the concept. We thought that this gothic metal thing has many copy bands…”

 - Copies of you…

HEIN : “Yes, and we didn’t like the scene because it was becoming very limited you know. There are some rules and you have to do this, and this, and that, so the point is that the whole thing became a bit cliché and we wanted to escape our own borders, and limitations. “Musique” is a good example. There are songs like “Crash / Concrete”, “City of light” which are the heaviest, the most aggressive songs we have ever done. Fucked up noises, distortion, metal guitars and things like that. And also these songs are the most poppy and melodic songs we have also done!”.

 - Do you find any common elements with Paradise Lost ‘s “Host” in your new album? Because they also changed dramatically their style to an electro/pop thing…

HEIN : “Actually I don’t think so… Look, I like “Host”, it’s a good record but our album is different enough. “Host” is very slow…”

LIV : “All the songs have the same atmosphere, the same kind of feeling…”

HEIN : “Musique” is very up-tempo, a very powerful record in a way. With Aegis, which was very romantic and atmospheric, you could make sweet and passionate love to your girlfriend in front of the fireplace. “Musigue” is for wild, passionate animalistic sex!!! You know, really bad!!! I think this is a very strange and good description .We wanted something more in your face, more aggressive and more powerful when we play live. The live are less electronic, they aren’t exactly like in the album. There are more guitars and more drums”.

 - Which are the reactions of the people when you play the new songs live?

HEIN : “We play two new songs. Always, when you change, some fans will say “Ohh , the change is big, I like better the old stuff“ and sometimes they will say “Oh, this new stuff is really great “. It was like that. Some people thought it’s too electronic and some others thought that the new songs are the best T.O.T songs ever. We, of course, think that these are our best songs ever”.

LIV : “But we thought the same thing about Aegis and about every album (laughs)! With “Aegis” we created a lot of positive and negative reactions”.

HEIN : “We can’t change that. It’s necessary for T.O.T to developed in every statement”.

 - The songs are written from all of you?

HEIN : “Yes. Mainly, Frank and Raymond. Raymond has done the 90% of all the programming and the samplers in the record, Frank arranged everything, Lorens consummated the keyboards playing, Liv worked on the vocals lines, and so, this is an album from everybody”.

- When I bought your first album , some years ago, there was a sticker on the cover that said “Dark wave metal from Norway…”

LIV : “…With female vocals, don’t forget that ! (laughs)”

…and some months later everybody talked about the great new name of the metal scene, the new music style. How do you feel about that you were the first ones who created that new style?

HEIN : “We are proud of it. Some of the bands that followed us are good and some are not. But they are doing their own thing. Also, T.O.T will do their own thing and they will not be ever able to be controlled by record labels, by the management, by the fans , by anything. We will always do what the hell we want to do (laughs) !!!”.

LIV : “If we had done an “Aegis Part 2”, that would be very safe, because we would know that everybody would be satisfied. But this is not the reason why you make music. Also it will be boring, we’ll stuck to only one category”.

 - Now you’re signed to Nuclear Blast. N.B has signed many metal bands and among them there are some very big names like Manowar , Skyclad , Savatage, Satyricon, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir and others. In your previous label you were probably the first priority. Do you think that it’s easy for you to be a band of the first line in N.B.?

HEIN : “Yes. They worked very hard for this record, because all the people in N.B love music, they are really into music. They really liked the new album and wanted to have it. That’s why we sign with them. We knew that they were into music and that they would work hard for it. If they said to us “ OK, your album is not so good but we ‘ll find a way to sell some copies” we would never sign. They have to be into the music, they have to like it”.

LIV : “The constellation of Nuclear Blast and East-West is very good. So, we have two labels now. Also the offices of N.B are only one hour from my home, so they must be very careful (laughs)!!!”. 

 - Let’s go to the artwork of the new album. There are no big titles in ancient English , no romantic covers with naked women and roses. Generally the romantic feeling, the gothic atmosphere is gone. I believe that the album is more modern and more futuristic. Do you agree with that?

LIV : “Yes, you are right …”

HEIN : “It’s not exactly futuristic , it’s more like 2000, it’s not in the future. It’s right here, right now”.

LIV : “The concept is based now in something very different. It’s not concerned about roses and naked women or evil females like in Aegis. That’s over now due to Raymond who started this new concept”.

HEIN : “We talk about modern society, what happened to mankind when technology took over the world. When human control machines or machines control human. Because we have so much technology and so much machinery inventions the last two centuries, that mankind depends on all these things to function and the individuals, the feelings are behind all that stuff, and has become invisible. That’s why we had a mask on the cover. It’s like everybody wears a mask, people are not real persons any more. They compare to each other from what kind of mobile phones they have, what kind of TV, car, house and generally materialistic things which are very important in the modern society”.

 - Is there any connection with the title of the album ?

HEIN : “No. Theatre of Tragedy has no idea how to categorize their music, so we call the album “Musique”. It’s like a label for everything”.

 - Why did you choose the French language in your title?

LIV : “Musique is more classical than the English version of the word, it’s more artistic. Also Madonna called her album “Music” so we don’t want to cause a confusion”.

 - Memories from Metal Invader’s Open Air Festival ’97 (Greece)?

HEIN : “It was hot, it was rocking and it was great. One of the best shows we have ever done. We had a really good time in Greece”.

 - The crowd was into your music but there were some guys that threw bottles to you. Did you get angry?

LIV : “Yes, I got angry because I don’t think you have to throw bottles to people even if you don’t like their music. This is the most stupid thing to do. If you don’t like their music you can take a walk. If a bottle hits my face I will leave the stage because I will not be able to sing anymore. But these facts doesn’t change my warm feelings about the Greek fans. I receive many e-mails and letters from Greek fans and I think that we have a hard core of fans in Greece and I get surprised because we’ve made one and only live show there”.

 - If Liv ever left T.O.T , would that be the end of the band?

LIV : “(Asking Hein) What you would do without me?”

HEIN : “I don’t Know (laughs)!!!.I think that T.O.T needs the people who are in the band now. If anybody else leaves T.O.T now , that it wouldn’t be T.O.T anymore. Each member of us can be replaced by someone else also very good to his instrument. But it’s not only the music which is between us. There is much feeling , we know each other for a very long time. The most important part, is the emotional part... Hey guys, have you seen our new video-clip?”…

 Interview done by Painkiller zine, 2000.

Official TOT website: www.theatreoftragedy.com