LIBRARY
Interview with Varg Vikernes
RockWay (18.05.2012), by Panagiotis Petropoulos
You have stated that "Umskiptar" is a back to the roots album while you say that you're not happy with any of your old LPs. In which way does "Umskiptar" resemble your roots?
Well, you should remember that I am older than Burzum, and my roots are not my old albums. My roots can be found in European traditional and classical music, and that is what I was talking about. "Umskiptar" does not resemble my roots, but is very much inspired by European traditional and classical music.
Saying that I am not happy with the old albums does by the way not mean I don't like them. It just means that I think some things could have been done better or that I need to continue making music to do it better.
In general, speaking as an artist (or its creator) how do you see "Umskiptar"?
"Umskiptar" is a different album from my other albums, but yet rather similar in some respects to all of them. It is slower than the others, even than "Filosofem", and the vocals are more important than on any of the other albums.
"Umskiptar" is something like a musical version of the poem Völuspá or it's just influenced by that?
You can see it as a musical interpretation of Voluspå, yes.
How did you decide to work with it?
I was working with the translation of my book "Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia" and wanted to use Voluspå (interpreted in the book) because of that. It is an important part of our European heritage, and I thought it deserved more attention, and attention in a different light.
What does Umskiptar's cover resemble?
The cover painting on "Umskiptar" is called "Natt" (night), and is a personification of the Night riding across the sky, by the Norwegian painter P. N. Arbo. It is relevant in this context as an example of the metamorphoses of nature, here the night, followed by day.
Since you tend to release your studio albums every year, is it right to think that you're on continuous work for Burzum?
If you mean that Burzum is my only professional occupation then your assumption is correct.
In which types of music you like to experiment, even for your own?
The type of music I record with Burzum, I guess. If I like the music I make I use it for Burzum. There is no experimentation beyond that.
Do you think that you have a limit as a musician?
Of course I do, and I even have a limited interest in musician skills. The skills I have are sufficient to make the music I like, and I have yet to "meet the wall", so to speak. The challenge as I see it in context with music is to make music I like, and it is more difficult to make good technically simple music than it is to make good technical music.
Since you may – someday - work with something that's not influenced by Scandinavian mythology, is there a possibility that you'll consider the Greek mythology?
Well, as I see it these mythologies are two sides of the same coin. They are slightly different because the different European tribes had in Classical Antiquity left their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and had settled in different parts of Europe (because of the coming of agriculture), and the language had because of this evolved in different directions. In Scandinavia they spoke first a different dialect of proto-European, then, in Classical Antiquity, it had become what we today call proto-Nordic. In Greece proto-European turned into proto-Greek. So when they described the deities they used different names – because all the deities have of course names with a meaning, telling us something about them. The Scandinavian *Haimadalþaz (younger name Heimdallr) was called Kronos in Greece, *Balþuz (younger name Baldr) was called Apollo, *Nahti (younger name Natt) was called Nyx, and so forth, but they were really the same, with the same roots. The Pagan religion I describe in my book was pan-European, only with slightly different geographical peculiarities.
The Greek mythology is no less fascinating and wonderful than the Scandinavian mythology, but I am not Greek...
Did you ever want to visit Greece?
In 1980 I visited Cyprus (because of the war in Iraq) and spent about 10 days there, and as you might know Cyprus is a part of Greece – or at least it should be (all of it!) – and I did spend one day at the airport in Athens once, so in a sense I have already been there.
Yes, I would like to visit Greece, but I think all the attractions of Greece have been covered up by the commercial "Sun bading" and "island jumping" vulgar tourism, so I am reluctant to go there because of that. Any place crowded by low-brow working class tourists is a real "turn-off", so to speak. It is also somewhat hard to get there by car, and I do not fly anymore.
What is your opinion about worldwide economy?
We have since the end of WWII given Jews free reign to take over all the banks, and because of that everything is going ad undas. They are printing money from worthless paper and then loan it to us for interest, and then aggressively sell their loans, using their media to propagate consumerism and on a national level a more expensive living standard for us all. So today just about every nation and individual on Earth owe them money! One single of these Jewish families (Rothschild) own more than 50% of all wealth in Europe! The problem is that they just don't know when to stop, so they keep stealing our money and will keep doing so until there is nothing left for them to steal. They don't seem to understand that if they own everything, then there is nothing left for the rest of us, and we will all starve. When this happens we will revolt, and then we will see another massive pogrom and the "poor" and "innocent" Jews will be forced to flee with all the stolen gold they can carry, of course, and find a new host to feed on.
Greece and Iceland is being economically dismantled only to be sold cheap to the Jewish bankers ("private investors"), but soon the same will happen to Italy, Spain and Portugal, and then France, and finally the richer countries in the EU and Norway too. Until we get rid of this parasite amongst us, the eternal Jew, we will keep suffering, and only when we throw the Jews and all their "mind waste" (i. e. ideologies and religions) out will we be truly free and able to build healthy societies again, here in our beloved Europe.
Do you have a theory about life in our era?
There is much to say about that, but I will limit myself and say only that the problems of the era we live in should be seen as the travail of a new era.
Thank you for this interview, add whatever you wish.
Thank you for your interest, and remember to give me a call if Greece should ever decide to take back what rightfully belongs to you; from the vile Turkish occupiers of everything from Phrygia and Cyprus to Trebizond. Take back Byzantion and restore your empire! Ζήτω η Ελλάδα!
Greek version: ελληνικά
Well, you should remember that I am older than Burzum, and my roots are not my old albums. My roots can be found in European traditional and classical music, and that is what I was talking about. "Umskiptar" does not resemble my roots, but is very much inspired by European traditional and classical music.
Saying that I am not happy with the old albums does by the way not mean I don't like them. It just means that I think some things could have been done better or that I need to continue making music to do it better.
In general, speaking as an artist (or its creator) how do you see "Umskiptar"?
"Umskiptar" is a different album from my other albums, but yet rather similar in some respects to all of them. It is slower than the others, even than "Filosofem", and the vocals are more important than on any of the other albums.
"Umskiptar" is something like a musical version of the poem Völuspá or it's just influenced by that?
You can see it as a musical interpretation of Voluspå, yes.
How did you decide to work with it?
I was working with the translation of my book "Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia" and wanted to use Voluspå (interpreted in the book) because of that. It is an important part of our European heritage, and I thought it deserved more attention, and attention in a different light.
What does Umskiptar's cover resemble?
The cover painting on "Umskiptar" is called "Natt" (night), and is a personification of the Night riding across the sky, by the Norwegian painter P. N. Arbo. It is relevant in this context as an example of the metamorphoses of nature, here the night, followed by day.
Since you tend to release your studio albums every year, is it right to think that you're on continuous work for Burzum?
If you mean that Burzum is my only professional occupation then your assumption is correct.
In which types of music you like to experiment, even for your own?
The type of music I record with Burzum, I guess. If I like the music I make I use it for Burzum. There is no experimentation beyond that.
Do you think that you have a limit as a musician?
Of course I do, and I even have a limited interest in musician skills. The skills I have are sufficient to make the music I like, and I have yet to "meet the wall", so to speak. The challenge as I see it in context with music is to make music I like, and it is more difficult to make good technically simple music than it is to make good technical music.
Since you may – someday - work with something that's not influenced by Scandinavian mythology, is there a possibility that you'll consider the Greek mythology?
Well, as I see it these mythologies are two sides of the same coin. They are slightly different because the different European tribes had in Classical Antiquity left their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle and had settled in different parts of Europe (because of the coming of agriculture), and the language had because of this evolved in different directions. In Scandinavia they spoke first a different dialect of proto-European, then, in Classical Antiquity, it had become what we today call proto-Nordic. In Greece proto-European turned into proto-Greek. So when they described the deities they used different names – because all the deities have of course names with a meaning, telling us something about them. The Scandinavian *Haimadalþaz (younger name Heimdallr) was called Kronos in Greece, *Balþuz (younger name Baldr) was called Apollo, *Nahti (younger name Natt) was called Nyx, and so forth, but they were really the same, with the same roots. The Pagan religion I describe in my book was pan-European, only with slightly different geographical peculiarities.
The Greek mythology is no less fascinating and wonderful than the Scandinavian mythology, but I am not Greek...
Did you ever want to visit Greece?
In 1980 I visited Cyprus (because of the war in Iraq) and spent about 10 days there, and as you might know Cyprus is a part of Greece – or at least it should be (all of it!) – and I did spend one day at the airport in Athens once, so in a sense I have already been there.
Yes, I would like to visit Greece, but I think all the attractions of Greece have been covered up by the commercial "Sun bading" and "island jumping" vulgar tourism, so I am reluctant to go there because of that. Any place crowded by low-brow working class tourists is a real "turn-off", so to speak. It is also somewhat hard to get there by car, and I do not fly anymore.
What is your opinion about worldwide economy?
We have since the end of WWII given Jews free reign to take over all the banks, and because of that everything is going ad undas. They are printing money from worthless paper and then loan it to us for interest, and then aggressively sell their loans, using their media to propagate consumerism and on a national level a more expensive living standard for us all. So today just about every nation and individual on Earth owe them money! One single of these Jewish families (Rothschild) own more than 50% of all wealth in Europe! The problem is that they just don't know when to stop, so they keep stealing our money and will keep doing so until there is nothing left for them to steal. They don't seem to understand that if they own everything, then there is nothing left for the rest of us, and we will all starve. When this happens we will revolt, and then we will see another massive pogrom and the "poor" and "innocent" Jews will be forced to flee with all the stolen gold they can carry, of course, and find a new host to feed on.
Greece and Iceland is being economically dismantled only to be sold cheap to the Jewish bankers ("private investors"), but soon the same will happen to Italy, Spain and Portugal, and then France, and finally the richer countries in the EU and Norway too. Until we get rid of this parasite amongst us, the eternal Jew, we will keep suffering, and only when we throw the Jews and all their "mind waste" (i. e. ideologies and religions) out will we be truly free and able to build healthy societies again, here in our beloved Europe.
Do you have a theory about life in our era?
There is much to say about that, but I will limit myself and say only that the problems of the era we live in should be seen as the travail of a new era.
Thank you for this interview, add whatever you wish.
Thank you for your interest, and remember to give me a call if Greece should ever decide to take back what rightfully belongs to you; from the vile Turkish occupiers of everything from Phrygia and Cyprus to Trebizond. Take back Byzantion and restore your empire! Ζήτω η Ελλάδα!
Greek version: ελληνικά
Author: Panagiotis Petropoulos (© 2012 RockWay)