Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to have this interview with you. I know you're quite busy.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

So we are just a few weeks away from your first visit in Bulgaria, and you will be playing in the magnificent Roman Theater in Plovdiv. What should the fans expect from that?

Well, I can only promise to put on the best possible show that I can. That's what I always try to do. It's the first time in Bulgaria and I've kind of put together a set list, focusing on certain expressions and atmospheres. So yeah, hopefully it will be a varied but still atmospheric experience. That's what I'm aiming for anyways.

Okay, that sounds quite interesting. And the venue is the ancient roman theater. Do you think the venue is important in this atmosphere? Can we expect something really special about the show just because it's in that venue?

Yeah, I think it is even more important, to utilize that potential and create an all over atmosphere, rather than just a regular rock show. I've had some opportunities earlier to play shows at, like old theater style venues, and that definitely brings a lot to the whole experience, I think, both - bands playing there and for the audience. Compared to an outdoor festival or a more regular modern venue. So I'm really looking forward to that and I always enjoy playing very atmospheric stages like that.

You have released eight albums so far as a solo artist, and it's safe to say that you already developed your own sound and your own style that you were looking for. But you know, sometimes people are not quite accepting the solo endeavors of the musicians. Was it hard for you to pave your way? You are not quite far away from what you actually started doing. But was it difficult for you to step up and develop your own type of music?

I think it's more a matter of perception. For some people, I am doing something very different from what I used to. But for me, ever since I started, even before Emperor it's been a very continuous journey, for me and my approach to music, and my enjoyment of music. And if you see the trajectory of the development, like the First Emperor album, for example compared to the last. I think there's a continuous development in music. It never stayed the same. And I think in my way of working with music, there's a lot of curiosity. I try to implement new techniques. It's been like an exploratory approach to how I personally prefer to work with music and writing through my solo work. Beginning from writing in Emperor to the last Emperor record where I ended up writing everything and to continue solo. So to me, from a personal perspective, nothing has really changed. But from a marketing perspective, there's so many things that have changed throughout my almost 35 years in the business. Im making my music, as uncompromisingly now as when I was 16. And it is understandable for different people to react differently and to relate to different band names or brands or whatever. So, from an objective perspective, I guess my record company has been facing some challenges, because people are attached to a certain brand or logo. But I'm not complaining of course, I think especially in the beginning of my solo career, it seemed a little hard to basically be doing the same thing. The name changed in a way and people have this division in between the two, but I think it's inevitable. But that's just the way of the world. And given my situation now, we tour all over the world with Emperor, playing the old songs, having a great time. A lot of people seem to appreciate those old songs, and I also get to tour around the world with my solo band, and still have the same creative freedom to explore and do my music. So I kind of get the best of both worlds I think

Whenever there is a successful album, artists explain that they tried to step out of their comfort zone and push themselves to the limit. Having in mind that your latest record is self titled IHSAHN, which is really a bold statement to just say that's something interesting and something unique. Is it? Is this the case about it? How do you feel about this album?

Well, I think it was more after the fact that people pointed out that it's a very bold statement to have a self-titled album. Some bands like Iron Maiden, you know, have their first album that is self-titled, or somewhere down the line, like Metallica did with Black Album, or something like that. So I just felt for me with this album, given the complexity of having two parallel storylines, two parallel albums - the orchestral one and the metal one. They are kind of intertwined and separate at the same time. It was very hard to find a title that could kind of work with everything. For me,… I felt it was musically kind of the heart of what I've been doing. Like a full circle thing, coming back to just doing black metal with orchestral elements. And also, to me, it was like super complex, but at the same time very familiar territory. So I felt if there was ever an occasion to just have a self-titled album, I think this was a good candidate.

How challenging it was to make the same album, but approach it differently, with the orchestration. Because some of the songs are quite in your face and really black metal, and then you can hear a really nice symphonic version. How challenging was that? Is it something that you are actually discovering right now and probably will bring it back in the future?

Well, I dabbled with all these kinds of things since the very beginning. Trying to implement that kind of soundtrack feeling. Emotional ebb and flow of a dynamic orchestra with this very extreme kind of.. sometimes very one dimensional type of music. So it always fascinated me how to combine the two. And it's long been my theory that the musical genre is often just a matter of arrangement, instrumentation and orchestration.  I'll admit this was extremely complex for me as a non scholar musician, but it was very interesting. So basically, I wrote all of the music just with a piano. Like music in its purest, simplest form. Like just five, six different tracks. Then I just started making the puzzle. It's like painting with charcoal, and you fill in the colors afterwards, but you have to have the core skeleton of the music ready first. And as soon as I had that, I basically arranged all the notes to guitars and bass and all that. And then I did the same thing, giving all these notes and sounds to the equivalent orchestral parts. Individually it wasn't that complex. It's like you have a certain arrangement of notes and then you kind of put them in the right registers, and everything for the instruments in question. But the challenge was, of course, to make the orchestral part be supportive to the metal arrangement, but also in such a way that it functioned as its own thing. So people think that I made them as two separate things, but the orchestrations that you hear on the pure orchestral version are exactly the same orchestral things that are in the metal album. The orchestral album is just the same album, but all the metal parts are taken away.

Having a new album or record out and actually having new music to share, and being an artist, it's always about sort of sending a message. And do you have this same gut of fear every time you put something new out. About how it's going to be accepted and if the people you try to reach with your art are going to understand it?

No, and I guess I never did. I think I was very fortunate to get into the music business, if you will, from the perspective of making some of the most hated and obnoxious music ever (Laughs). But, yeah, playing Black Metal in 91 it was hard to make friends and have large amounts of fans.  Because that was non-existent. So, it always came from a place of passion and trying to express something genuine and larger than life. I've never really had any consideration how it will proceed. If there is  anything, I have learned from the long time doing this is that you are never in sync with your audience. And I get to see that. In recent years, we've been to South America twice. We never played South America with Emperor before. And this is like 30 years after those songs were created. Suddenly 30 years have passed, and we come to some countries across the globe that we've never visited, and we have thousands of people singing along to all the words and connecting with this music, whether we intended to or not. I think in art, music, images, poetry, or whatever, what connects people on a deeper level is more important than sending a certain message. If it's a certain message, you could argue, is it politics or propaganda? You know art, kind of connects on a deeper level where you mirror share human experience. I think this is why we can look at Michelangelo's statue of David and feel that sense of courage. That's why we connect with books written by Dostoevsky, because it's just something universally human and we're all exposed to tragedy, loss, fear, hope, love and all that life entangles. And this is the heart of it. That's what we get to share and experience and reflect on through art. That's what I think. I'm not trying to elevate what I'm doing. I'm making rock music. So let's not pretend it's any highly intellectual (laughs). But you know the simplest rock songs, they're usually about stuff that people relate to. If you share something honest and experienced and heartfelt, that will connect with some people and it will not connect with other people, but that is not something that you can control. My only rule is that I always try to do my best to make the best possible album that I can make, with my very limited experience, for my humble little place in the music world. And that has to be enough. Whether people Like it or not, that's something that I've never controlled, and usually people connect with it maybe 5-10 years later.

It takes time to mature.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, so you mentioned black metal in 91, and let me take you back to those years. Nowadays, the black metal has become more of a trend, and it actually changed over the years a lot. Bands have been labeled “black metal” just because of the members, attitude or persona, others try even to run away from this, because of the so-called cancel culture. Not even mentioning how the media and journalists sometimes are describing black metal and everything. Do you think that somewhere along the way, we actually lost the meaning for black metal, or we even didn't understand it at all?

I think it's divided. Because for me, who's getting older and I have followed this since the beginning ....Actually I've been discussing this a lot. You know in the Norwegian main airport, there's a huge kind of fashion exhibition now that says: “Don't leave Norway behind”. And it's all written in typical black metal aesthetic logo style. And there are models on the screens, wearing corpse paint, but also all the fashionable clothes.

I actually recently discussed this with Nergal from Behemoth, and I said it feels a bit strange and unfair. Because we've taken all the shit, all the stigma and the bad stuff in Norway back then. And now people have changed their minds. Like: “Oh, this is Norwegian rock culture and music history…”, you know?  Yes, that's actually easy for Scandinavians to say. But Nergal comes from Poland, where they've had absolutely no kind of support or embrace for what they've been doing- ever. it's always like a challenge, and being always against the system. And he's constantly being sued, for blasphemy and all this kind of Orthodox stuff that he hasn't dealt with. So to see that your own country embraces what you've been working on and kind of appreciates it, he thinks that was a great thing. And that made me think that it is very divided. And of course to me, it's hard to discover Black Metal as a new thing.

I always kind of go back to the roots and Bathory and all that. But then again, I see there's a lot of young kids coming to our shows and still connect with the same things, regardless of whether they're old or not. And they, I think, appreciate it in a fresh way. They don't have the experience of age. I've often wondered about the early Emperor albums, how come kids who are 16-17 in 2024, still relate to those old records that we did 30 years ago. But then again we were 16-17 when we made those songs. And now these young kids are emotionally at the same place that we were. So… and then we come back to what I mentioned earlier… You connect with that feeling, because you're on the same vibe, same experience, you can relate to the lyrics. You know, It has nothing to do with something that is set in time. There are no references to iPhones or technology or anything. It's just pure emotional stuff and it connects. The perspective now is different and it's not as controversial as before. And it's interesting if people renew and keep exploring it and not be “too nostalgic” and forget the rules of what it should be and shouldn't be. I think Black Metal it's still in development and it's still relevant in some sense.

Well said, I know that you have to jump into another interview just about 2 minutes ago. So my final question is, what inspires you nowadays?

Just life, life and art. I think that it's impossible to empty that resource. New music, old music, and I think probably with age now I'm more focused on this art that is generally like, globally lasting. I think because, in contrast to all this technological age we live in with all the “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down”, and all these memes and all this short term entertainment stuff. I think I do appreciate more ancient art. Like Rick Rubin describes in this book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”- That you should aim for something that is long lasting. Something that means something on the general level.

Thank you very much for this interview and I can't wait to see you on 22nd September in the Roman theater in Plovdiv for a great show.

Thank you so much for your support and I hope to see you there. 

Author: Nikola Petras