1. This is a new band and a debut demo, so let's start at the beginning. LOGI is based out of Sweden. Were the three of you friends or colleagues growing up in the same town? Had you known each other prior to 2020?
T.: We've basically know each other since 2009 I would wanna say. We got to know each other from friends of friends and through early internet. We've been in different bands and groups prior to Logi. We played in another band with another constellation before Logi, but the different goals of the members and different views lead to the break-up of the prior band and the creation of Logi.
Me and J. met because I played in a two-man project which I helped found, which later (in 2009, still early in the projects creation) needed additional musicians to play live. We recruited J. and we've known each other since.
F. was a friend of friend which we recruited as a bass player in a prior band who was more suited to play drums in Logi.
2. What are your origins surrounding metal- as far as when did you get into the style and how did you gravitate to finally picking up an instrument and playing?
T.: I think we all had an interest in metal some way or another which inspired us to start playing an instrument.
I first got introduced to metal, heavy metal and the like, by my parents. In my preteens I got interested in playing music and started out by playing bass and later took guitar lessons. I actually got into heavier metal due to the ensemble lessons I took while learning to play guitar. A polish guy I took the ensemble lessons with introduced me to Death, Behemoth and Children of Bodom when I was about twelve years old I think.
I think we were all in a similar situation while getting into metal.
3. Let’s start from your debut demo… What is this release about? Does it have storyline?
T.: The release definitely has a storyline, although it is a made up one. We took a sort of step towards and inspiration from Bathory's kind of lyricism and storytelling. We wanted to look at the music and lyricism more in likes of movies, where to two are connected to each other. This seemed to be more favorable to us than to write about certain social- or emotional problems, which black metal more often than not writes about.
The release portrays in Ulvaskrud a warrior going into battle, fighting opponents viciously and tearing them to shreds more or less. In Hemmavidd the warrior has been mortally wounded and is dying, longing home is giving him solace. Finally in Famn the warriors final moments where he is taken over the edge to the "other side".
Obviously the songs isn't that connected to each other, we more or less took the songs we were happy with and added the lyrical storytelling.
4. Do all of the members of LOGI believe and walk in the same path when it comes to spiritual ideology?
T.: I think that we all have sort of different views on spirituality but we agree most of the time too, it's a complex subject to all of us. We are very different people to all extents and argue on most topics. I think we find spirituality in the same sort of places but actualize it in our own sort of way.
5. What is your favorite part of writing and performing music? What are some of the challenges you face as a musician?
T.: I think what we enjoy about creating music is the music itself. We are (as of now) not performing, and will not be for a while, partly due to the scene where we are located being horrible for smaller bands, but also due to not being a complete band. As of now, we don't have a bass player.
Difficulty right now certainly lies in the pandemic, it is hard for artists to perform, but we're also in very different places in our lives. Getting to writing and rehearsing is hard due to other parts in our lives coming in between. That being said, we have all the intentions to keep going.
6. The production on your demo is really crushing. What can you tell me about the recording process and what kind of sound you were going for? Are you satisfied with final results?
T.: First of all: thank you! It was a sort of wild progress of finding the right sound and properly actualizing our work into recordings. I think we lost or fucked at least one entire song worth of guitars at one point.
We recorded everything ourselves in our rehearsal studio and added some of the minor details in post. Nothing on this release has touched the hands of anyone outside the band until finalization (apart from the intro which is a modified piece by a friend of the band.)
We are mostly, I would say, satisfied with the release. It is a demo, so i has it's flaws, but it turned out quite good I would say. I think if we were to do it today, we would do a couple of more takes and maybe swap a few parts here and there.
I terms of sound, we weren't going for a special sound. It kind of just turned out the way it did. We're stillnsearching for the sound which we can call our own.
7. “Famn” is my favorite song on the album. Can you give me some details on it? It’s highly emotive, full of anger and astonishing atmosphere!
T.: Thanks! It was a really fun song to write and it might be to your surprise that this was the first song we wrote together, the first to be written on the release and the song that made us take the name Logi.
I think I wrote the first two or three parts of the song at home and brought it to our old rehearsal place. The other guys liked it immediately and we finished the song in a matter of, at most, two weeks. The text was something I wrote in English first, but after a discussion we decided to write in Swedish instead because of the implications the language has. We also changed the text a bit while translating it to Swedish, skipping some parts and adding other to make it fit the song better.
8. Most bands from Scandinavia are influenced by the climate. How do the winter months affect you on a personal level. Does it make you more or less creative?
T.: It definitely has an impact on Scandinavians as a whole. Many people suffer from seasonal depression and the like, much due to the lack of sunlight nine months out of the year.
I don't think it influences us too much in the matter of creativity, I think it more adds atmosphere to the writing process, at least to the instrumental works. I think it can help inspire some pieces of music because of the emotions it brings.
It might sound arrogant and pompous to claim that the winter, snow and desolation it brings helps Scandinavian bands to get its atmosphere.
9. As a black metal band, what are your opinions about the stereotype that the “original black metal” (formed in the 90’s by the early Norwegian bands) is fading away from its true origins?
T.: We are certainly not a 90's band by any means, so I don't know how much we get a say in the scene (given by the trve kvlt lords.)
I think making black metal available to the general public is a misstake. Many kids that hang around in the scene is trying to make the scene kind and a safe space for everyone, which I think is wrong. It is suppose to be a genre for people who are trying to push musical boundaries and a sort of free expression, don't try to control it, let it be what it is. Make black metal dangerous again, and by that I do not mean force it to be that, but let it be that.
Black metal has certainly evolved to something new, and it should keep on pushing the boundaries in any way it can.
10. Black metal as a genre has been considered a philosophy by some, while some others consider it an avenue to express their anti-religious sentiments. What are your views on black metal as a whole?
T.: I think black metal is an avenue to express what you want, in that way it is sort of a creative safe space; you are allowed to write whatever you want. It is to some extent philosophical (and without trying to sound pompous, all things are), but mostly black metal is what you make it out to be. It started as a sort of punk movement, it will stay that way.
11. You are an independent band, are there any difficulties in Sweden for such an act? Tell me a bit more about the Swedish scene. Any notable bands we should research?
T.: We're not experiencing any difficulties as an independent band except for maybe finding an audience, which is the problem for any new band which is not getting promotional work from some record company and the like. The fact that we have chosen to remain anonymous clearly makes it harder for us, since we can't rely on friends to promote us to their friends as "hey, check out my mates band" or scoring us shows and so on. As stated earlier, we aren't playing live now, or anytime soon, which also brings us difficulty to generate an audience to rely on. Hopefully we'll sort out the issues standing between us and playing live soon. But realistically speaking, that isn't happening soon.
The Swedish scene is, at the moment, sort of bland in our opinion. The bands that get the most attention aren't deserving it. They either are new, which gives them ungranted hype, or older and releasing something new but unpolished, which is very lackluster.
The bands to look out for are always the smaller more experimental bands (which frankly are more generally abroad), which are trying to push the boundaries of the genre and doing their own thing. Bands to look out for, doing their thing to trying to establish themselves are Faidra, Endlyset and Änterbila. More known acts are Ultra Silvam and Malakhim.
12. 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 and your fans out there.
T.: Thank you for taking the time and for having us in your zine!
We have a bunch of material in the works which are, as of now, pretty roughly cut out. We will be releasing a four-piece EP series with a (as far as we have found) unique theme, which we are very excited for. We can't say right now how long it's going to take, since we're kind of writing them all at once, but we're hoping to start the recording for the first EP in 2022.
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