Interview with Trail Of Tears

Hail to you people of Trail Of Tears. Congratulations on your last efforts “Free Fall Into Fear” an excellent follow up to “A New Dimension Of Might”.

Thanx a lot! We are delighted with the album, and the reception it’s got all over the world has been nothing but fantastic!

I would suppose the feedbacks as being overwhelming but I’d like to know your feelings regarding the response you got so far.

As I said it been fantastic, and better than ever for Trail of Tears. We knew we had recorded a very strong album when having finished it, but it’s always tense times when reviews start coming. For us now, the important thing is to follow up this with extensive touring, not only in Europe, but also hopefully the U.S. and South America.

How do you go about creating your compositions?

That could vary a bit, but normally one of the guys bring a theme or idea to the rehearsal room, and we all come with input, working on the instrumental structure of the song, and eventually the detail work. Then – when studio sessions are approaching – we record a pre-produciton of the song for the singers to work on, before the time comes for even more detail work and recording.

Is every musician bringing its own input?

Yes, even if the idea comes from one individual, who probably influence the song more than the others, all of us have our individual input on the different songs. That way I think it’s quite easy to hear on the new album that this is still Trail of Tears, even though the style is a bit different than before.

In your former releases, you had an increased touch of gothic due in part by the fact of having a female singer. Now on this new album you went for a male singers version only of Trail Of Tears. Was it a point that was already planned in your evolution or simply the fact that your former singers simply left the band?

We felt that we were in danger of repeating ourselves by keeping a lot of female vocals in our music. Because we didn’t feel the song-material suited Cathrine’s voice as good as it would fit a combination between myself and Ronny. Eventually she left the band, and we ended up with only male vocals. So it was a bit of a coincidence, but on the same time planned that we were to have more male vocals.

What do you think about women in metal in general?

I have no general view on that. It’s all down to what’s best for the music. In music in general some of my favourite artists are female, and I don’t see any musical style that women should be less fittable than other.

I recently reviewed the debut album “Winter Enclosure” from an all ladies band called Octavia Sperati from Norway. Have you heard of them?

Yeah, I have heard them, but I haven’t had the time to check out their new album just yet. I heard that we were going to do a gig with them in London with my other band, Green Carantion, and I’ll probably have the chance to check it out then.

What do you think about their music?

I haven’t heard the new album, but I remember hearing some songs from the demo “Guilty”, and it stroke me that they had something special. But come back to me when having checked out the new stuff. I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

What are your favorite bands?

Of course it varies, but long time favourites are Faith No More, Opeth and Anathema. But generally it goes from Emperor and stuff like that, via unknown stuff in many genres, to things like Tom Waits.

Your cover art of “Free Fall Into Fear” is quite mysterious. Can you explain what it represents?

I think the cover represents the mood of the album very well. It was quite important for us that the actual songs, the lyrics, the title and the cover should all be strong enough to stand alone, but even stronger seen on as a whole. And I think we succeeded with that.

Where do you take your inspiration when writing songs?

From everything around me, and everything not around me. For me it’s a mixture of my own reality and other people’s reality that inspires me. I am not sure about the other guys in the band, but I guess generally it comes from the inner self of us all.

I found your music containing a source of occult darkness. Are you into mysticism of some sort?

People can call it what you want. For me it isn’t about anything like that, but saying that, I think we are often dealing with the twilight-zone between the concrete and the untouchable. If that’s mysticism for other people, I wouldn’t know, but I don’t think any of the bandmembers are into mysticism as such.

Is there anything you’d like to say or add or even a message you want to express to our readers?

If you guys haven’t checked out our new album yet, please do! I think the album has the potential to speak to a lot of people, and if you’re open-minded towards extreme-metal I am sure we will not disappoint you!! We also have a new website up (www.trailoftears.no), where we communicate with fans on our forum on a regular basis. So if there are any more quiestions, please check that out!!

Also – be nice and rock on, hehe..

Thanks for your time. We always appreciate the words and views from the artists we enjoy listening to their music.

Thanx a lot for your support!!!

Kjetil Nordhus