[Interview conducted June 2005]

Dream logic, eclectic electronica, and an acute sense of the absurd rule Ulver's latest sanguine masterpiece, the aptly named Blood Inside. It's hard to imagine any other band accomplishing what this unique Norwegian lot has, releasing essential and legitimate black metal, acoustic folk, trip-hop, glitch and minimal electronic soundtrack albums over the past ten years. Vocalist Kristoffer Rygg (aka Garm) has seen the band through each exploratory transformation and even formed his own record label, Jester Records, to help foster other offbeat artists and shed some international light on Norway's thriving music scene. On a recent trip to the States, the man took some time to explain a bit about Blood Inside and all things Ulver.

Is Ulver more of a collaborative effort these days or less?
We're not strangers to getting lots of musicians with us. It's in the mind of only three people basically and we're pretty tuned into the same things, we have the same preferences, we approach the process in similar ways. So, yeah, we're three.

Have you found that, over time, you are more in tune with each other?
Yeah, but then who isn't when you work with someone year after year. The telepathy comes into the picture at some point, you know. What you had to really struggle to explain before you can kind of do with the nod of the head now

The video for "It is Not Sound" is very engaging, it really accentuates the way the songs builds. Can you talk a bit about how that came to be?
It's made in a different way as well. They are clever boys, the guys who made it.

How much input did you have in terms of the video's concept - was it entirely their or..?
Actually, it was entirely mine. The design was theirs but the storyboard, so to speak, that came from us.

Was there an album or a band that really made you take notice of what technology and electronics could add to music?
A lot of bands that have done that have inspired us, but I think it is really necessary to listen to a lot of things just to understand all the different approaches and all the different choices you can make in regards to fleshing out a song or a composition. I can't really point to one specific entity, that's hard.

Do you spend a lot of time on the arrangements for the songs or do you just kind of let them flow?
No, we agonize a lot. I think I used the phrase earlier today but I'll use it again: it always starts with laughter and it always ends in tears. Sometimes we just rearrange, rearrange… We make a song, we think it is complete, and we almost mix it, it lies there for a couple weeks, we go back and listen to it - 'Nah, this doesn't work.' We kill the entire song almost, maybe keep one or two elements, and we do it again. We're hopeless cases when it comes to obsessive behavior. It's really getting unhealthy, too. Just thinking how much music we could actually put out in the time that we spend in the studio. We're in the studio almost every day, like a regular day job, so in theory we could put out lots of music. That is kind of something that I want to do as well, I want t put out lots of music, make lots of music. It's just getting so hard to let go sometimes Unhealthy stuff, like I said.

How many days did you spend working on this album?
I'd say about a year. It's been a hard record in making.

You obviously incorporate a lot of influences from all over the world, but do you feel there are certain elements within your music that are distinctly Norwegian?
It's a good question, but it's a question I really can't answer because I really haven't thought about it. Thinking about it now, I really can't say. The band started as more or less an ethnic band almost, we wanted to be poster boys for Norway. As years have passed, I don't really feel so comfortable within borders anymore and I'd say the 'ethnic' aspect of it is kind of out of it.

The reason I ask is because when you started your label (Jester Records), you were intent on only signing Norwegian artists.
Yeah and I broke my own rule, which I do on occasion. (laughs) I like to front Norwegian music because I think there are a few really interesting things going on that people don't notice. It's kind of hard as there are no real resources to get it out into the international community. But I kind of interpreted your question as if [our] music was kind of Norwegian in spirituality or something and I don't really see that.

Speaking of Jester, is the label progressing the way you had hoped when you first started it?
Yeah, it is. I have some releases that I personally think are amazing releases, so I'm really proud of that. I may have made a couple of not-so-good decisions, but who doesn't? Right now, it's pretty slow. It's been a long time since I heard something that really whipped me off the chair. A lot of the bands that I'd ideally sign, I don't really have the resources to give them what they should have, so I've chosen to focus a bit more on the artists that are already on the label and not really sign so much no artists.

What can you tell me about Sindrome?
It's basically this Portuguese guy. (laughs) He was a real pain in the ass in the beginning, sent me lots of emails, but he's a really nice guy and he managed to befriend me with all of his flattery and whatnot. He's a talented guy; he makes some pretty straight-forward, rocking kind of catchy stuff. I like singing so I figured, hell yeah, I'll do this, I need to do something a bit off the crooked path that we're on. It's shaping up to be a cool album I think. It's not going to be a difficult album like Blood Inside, it's more straight to the point.

Do you have any other projects that you're currently working on?
We did actually launch a couple of imaginary albums that we wanted to make that we started working on but… It might actually turn into CDs someday, but we make music all the time and if we're tired of something we might decide, 'Hey, let's make a Beach Boys cover band,' or something. That's just an example, but it wouldn't be totally alien in our world. But no official stuff right now, apart from Sindrome.

What was your reason for leaving Arcturus?
The fact that they wanted to become a working band and not the lazy, sleeping band, which was very comfortable for me. I could allow myself to record an album every three or four years, but to be fully committed to two bands, rehearsing and the dreaded touring, which I absolutely don't like the idea of so much, and I have a couple of kids, I have a label, so I had to prioritize and drop it basically. I also kind of had the feeling that we didn't really want to go straight onto making a new record. I hear that they are almost done with anew album and that is amazingly fast for that band, so I hope they are happy with things speeding up a bit. I kind of had the feeling that we couldn't top The Sham Mirrors in such a short time span, so I was feeling it might be the correct time to jump off. I made one bad album with Arcturus and two very good albums, so it's okay.

I read that you would be contributing to a Norwegian KISS tribute album. Is that still happening?
(laughs) Yeah, it is actually, it's being mastered in a week and released in September. I really had to push the two other guys into that because that's just me, I'm a real KISS fan, that's what I grew up with. It kind of left me for a couple years but it came back and I absolutely love KISS, which might seem almost like a paradox to some.

Well, it's so different from your music.
Yeah, it is. But you can still love things that are completely different. Using people as a parallel, people love each other and I've seen odd couples out there, so I guess me and the KISS thing, that's an odd couple.

People can say what they want about KISS but I've heard so many times from musicians how they were the first band that really grabbed their attention as a kid and got them into wanting to play music. So you just think about all the great music that has come along that may have never existed if it weren't for KISS' inspiration.
And they've been going for so long. They've always been extremely positive-minded to everyone who has tuned into them. They have an attitude that the people, some people at least, like. Other people hate it I guess, the cheesiness, but fuck it, I love it.

What song did you end up doing?
We did "Strange Ways," the last song from the Hotter Than Hell album, 1974, which is one of my faves. There are some pretty ridiculous bands on there, like glam bands and stuff, doing the "I Was Made for Loving You" stuff, so I went back and found a hidden jewel.