Inteerview to KOERSIVE (Norway)

1. Hello dear friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.

I’m feeling great, thank you! I am currently studying design in Gjøvik, which is a small cozy town and it is around five hours away from my hometown, Trondheim.

2. Koersive is based out of Trondheim, Norway. Were both of you friends or colleagues growing up in the same town? Had you known each other prior to the band´s foundation?

Yeah, we grew up in the same town and we got to know each other during high school long before the band’s foundation. We have known each other since 2012.

3. I guess both of you have a musical background, When you think back to your beginnings as musicians, what has changed since then?

A lot has changed since then. In our early days, we started to make some random covers and techno music just for the fun of it, and we were surprised by how similar our composing style is, which made us realize that we are a dangerously good duo when we are making music together. After several years, we decided to form this band which we named firstly as «Coersive Achievement», and we started to make retro-inspired music with only MIDI plugins back then. In the end, we decided to change the name to «Koersive» and then we started to record Diegos magical guitar riffs and solos to our first album «An Emperor’s Will».

4. Growing up and beginning to listen to heavy metal, what were the bands and albums that really influenced you the most?

Oh man, this is a long journey. It started all when an old friend of mine introduced me to the album «Kill ‘em All» by Metallica, and i was totally in love! Since then i started to listen to Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Megadeth and similar rock and heavy metal bands. After several years, i started to listen to a lot of progressive metal, such as Dream Theater, Symphony X, Animals as Leaders and Myrath. And when i met Diego, he introduced me to more heavy and technical music, such as Nile, Nervecell, Melechesh, Soulfly, Annihilator, Abominable Putridity and more, i love them all! After that i expanded my music taste even more and started to listen to black metal and surprisingly enough jazz fusion and chillhop music. When we formed Koersive, the album «The Epigenesis» by Melechesh and some retro games such as Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, F-Zero and Zelda inspired me a lot!

5. Another thing that stands out to me on the album is the power and melody on the songs. Explain a little about how you as a band develop the music and then merge them together perfectly to create a song.

For me, Diego has always been good at making memorable riffs and solos, which also gives me a lot of good ideas. We are very strict about that every guitar and drum parts are working harmoniously with each other. My style of drums is often «less is more», groovy and heavy, which is a great combination with Diegos guitars. I think also personally that bass is a very undervalued instrument, which makes me always want to have melodical basslines in our songs. We are working together very well with the compositions and putting a lot of love and effort on bass as well.

6. Living in Norway, how does the natural environment and surroundings influence your music, both in terms of inspiration and atmosphere?

Norway is known for having a lot of rain and tough winters, which can often create this dark and depressive atmosphere, and these surroundings can sometimes inspire me to create darker music. Koersive has a good combination of dark and bright songs because we are also getting a lot of inspiration from video games and Balkan/middle-eastern culture as well, which makes some of the songs brighter.

7. How do you create and maintain the atmospheric qualities that captivate listeners, and how important is it for you to evoke a specific mood or feeling through your music?

We like to add some synths when we wish to add some dark or distant atmosphere. Sometimes, we also like to give some instruments extra attention on specific parts, such as making the solo sound more «alone» because it changes the vibe of the song. It is important for us to evoke a specific mood because it is one of the key elements of the songs.

8. Some of the melodies you use are Progressive and atmospheric. To you, what makes up a good melody line?

For me, a good melody line is when i feel the melody hits me in a way, for instance when it hits me in a groovy way or nostalgic way and so on.

9. How do you record your music? A pro tools set up? Garage band? Are you self

taught or do you have a friend that helps out with the mixes etc?

We are recording our music on Reaper. Luckily, we are self taught and doing everything in our way.

10. Being an independent band, I've always been curious, what do you all have to do in order to get a new album financed and a studio booked for recording time?

I am the graphic designer for Koersive, and the album art for «An Emperor’s Will» was made by myself. I will make everything that is design related for Koersive. And luckily, Diego has an own recording studio at home that we are using to record and mix our

songs. Diego is playing the guitar, meanwhile the drums, synths and bass are composed by using different MIDI-plugins.

11. How important is having a label to back you up today when you can just release your music on any sort of platform online? Are there any negative consequences to music being too readily available to fans?

I don’t have so much experience about publishing and labeling, but i know that i appreciate when the songs are published and labeled as much as possible, so that this album can be spread to the world. I don’t see any negative consequences when the songs are too readily available to the fans. Only thing that matters is that people don’t steal our music!

12. You are an independent band, are there any difficulties in Norway for such an act? Tell me a bit more about the Norwegian scene. Any notable bands we should research?

In comparison to other countries, Norway is a small country with a small population. However, Norway is popular when it comes to the metal genre, especially in the black metal scene. If people wants to be introduced to black metal, i recommend everyone to start with Norwegian black metal bands, such as Burzum, Mayhem and Emperor. There are also multiple rock and metal concerts and festivals each year in Norway, which is great.

13. What you would say is the biggest downfall in the underground metal scene today? What if any changes would you make to better the scene?

I would say the biggest downfall is that the underground metal scene is so huge that it is very challenging to be noticed at all, which makes it also hard to be unique. However, i believe that Koersive has some uniqueness to it, because of the melodies and the grooviness we have in our songs.

14. What sorts of things do you gentlemen enjoy outside of the musical realm? What are some things about you that we would never guess otherwise?

Outside the musical realms, i like to design, walk, hang out with friends, collecting video games and driving. I am also interested in cars because of how they look, how powerful they can be and how they sound.

15. On an international level, how has your music been received? Do you try to promote your music on a large scale?

We have a small audience, but we got a lot of good feedback and i appreciate that! Since our budget is limited, we don’t have so much choice when it comes to promoting and marketing.

16. That's all the questions I have for you man. I'll let you have the final words by saying whatever you'd like to our readers out there.

Thank you for your great interview, and i just want to mention that we have a second awesome band which is called Twiceborn and i have a solo project which is called Xurok, and i have published a 8-bit cover of one of the Koersive songs. Have a listen if you are curious!

https://www.facebook.com/p/Koersive-61556233195432/?_rdr