Intervju med MAAHLAS

Lämna en kommentar / Från Rock till Black Metal / Av /

Livet, det är bra märkligt ibland. Eller hur? Där står man på tåget, det snöar fan sidledes och man är sådär lagom sugen på att komma till jobbet. Bläddrar lite på telefonen, och i min iPod rullar slumpmässiga låtar. Sådär som jag gör ibland för att jag är skitless på det mesta. Och så ploppar en välbekant slinga upp, norska MAAHLAS och deras The Great Divide piggar upp tillvaron. Härligt. Och eftersom det faktiskt bara är ett par veckor.. .eller månader… se som jag hade ”Nightmare Years” som Tips så kommer jag på mig själv att undra om jag någonsin berättade för MAAHLAS själva att plattan fått lite uppmärksamhet? Antagligen inte, tankspridd som man är. Så jag gör det via Facebook, jag har ju ändå telefonen framme och inget att göra.

Det är början till vad som faktiskt osannolikt nog blir en sorts intervju. Och det visar sig ju att det inte alls är en duo längre, MAAHLAS är ett fullfjädrat band som just adderat en trummis som kommer att ta dem till nästa steg – om vi bara hjälper dem. Att få gig. Att komma till Sverige och lira (ja – du… just du… känner du någon som ordnar spelningar eller rent av pysslar med dig själv: glid in på bandets hemsida genast och boka upp dem!).

Alltså. Det här är MAAHLAS just nu.

Och det här är den nya skinnsmiskaren Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow, bild courtesy of Andreas Meer och stulen från bandets hemsida:

Det där fattar man ju kommer bli bra när lite nya läckra bilder och videos kommer ut.

I alla fall, jag fick alltså kontakt med Levent som hanterar det där med sång och text. Han var rolig och trevlig (i alla fall i mejl!), och det slutade att han svarade på ett knippe frågor. Det r på engelska men det klarar du nog. Om inte: get a life eller använd Google Translate!

So, new drummer… what will that mean for you guys? Will we be seing you playing live?

Well a new drummer is EVERYTHING to us. Our old friend Lucass (he who recorded the Nightmare Years drums) lived 2 hours from Oslo. And that made it next to impossible to hang out and rehears regularly. We had such a difficult time finding a drummer who was in Oslo, could actually play our music AND had the time. 

You know the equation: For every 100 great guitarplayers, there are 50 great bass players, 3 great vocalists and 1 great drummer AND he is already in 4 bands! Thats obviously a bad joke… it took us 2-3 years to find our wonderful Jørgen Karlstrøm and Kjell Hagen (guitar and bass respectively). Anyway… so Bjørn came as a fresh breath of air to Maahlas. We were really hungry to play live and we couldnt… So had we not found Bjørn we may have, well, disbanded. So, now that we are a solid 5 we are ready to play live; oh, we are SO ready…  
Well, it has really not been difficult at all becoming a group once we found right guys… Each fell in and took their place perfectly. I mean when we first played with Jørgen Cuno and I looked at eachother and smiled; hell yeah 🙂 Same with Kjell Ove and same again with Bjørn… Its like love man; you just know it when musicians work together 🙂 So the group dynamic socially is super nice; very laid back, everybody doing their job and communicating with mutual respect without stepping on anyones toes. I mean thats what usually messes up a band. When someone gets cocky or insecure and takes too much space without really producing anything but noise… Welll i now i know noise is usually good, but you know what i mean, the negative kinda noise that irritates everyone 🙂 Havent we all played with people who sucked out the energy from the room just by being there at some point or another? So we dont have that… We get in and have a great time; every time. Cuno and I have one thing we said to our new friends as they joined us; ”this is all about the music, not your ego, not my ego… we will do our best together to get the music to its highest potential”… So far it has been working superbly.

Is there new material cooking?

Heeeell yeah! We have 10 brand new hard hitting songs that are ready to be send into the grinder for finalizing… Oh, grinder? Cuno… the brain.

If so, will it be ”more of the same”, or do you think the new band setting will bring about any changes?

Well yes and no… We do definately have the wild riffs reminiscent of Nightmare Years; but that was now 4 years ago and we evolve, (luckily 🙂 So, there are some new feelings and unpredictable styles incorporated in some of the new songs… Its going to be a VERY dynamic album… I truly cant wait to record it and play those songs live. I imagine the reactions will be from ”god damn, this is fun! my head is gonna fly off from jumpin up and down” to, “god damn, what the hell are they doing to me, toooo, muuuuch informayshaaaan!?!” 🙂

Are you still getting reviews and ”airtime” with ”Nightmare Years”? Are there any chances we will se a HW-version (vinyl, CD..) of the record?

We do get reviews from time to time, but its been a while since the release so i think people need a new release to review soon 🙂 Although I do have a radio interview you just remindedn me about; italian radio station. I had to stop the interviews before summer after listening to one i did for a small american radio station. I was so depressed about the drummer situation; i couldnt say anything positive and exciting. So i put a hold on other requests… But the energy is back now so BRING IT ON! 🙂
I think theres a real good chance that you will see vinly and cd releases in the near future… We get a peak in requests everytime we do something like release a photo or an interview or a video… So we are just going to have to 🙂

Heavy Metale is a rock’n’roll-brewery (you see, the MetALE!), so we always ask: what’s your favourite beer and why?

Oh i thought you would never ask 🙂 
Punk IPA from Brewdog is one of my favorites… Damn Its hard to name just one… I also love the norvegian Ægir IPA, Nøgne Ø IPA and I LOVE Nøgne Ø #100. I guess i would have to go with #100 from Nøgne! Have you tasted it? And damn im thirsty suddenly… wonder why? Cheers Robert, thanks for supporting music. Hope to raise a glass with you in not too distant future; be it Oslo or Stockholm. Best to all from Maahlas.
Erkänn – det där gillade du eller hur? Roliga typer! Tyvärr finns inte nya videos eller så ute än (det kommer visst inom kort, så håll utkik på sociala media, webben och som vanligt… här!), men under tiden kan du ju alltid luta dig tillbaka, höja volymen och spela luftgitarr till den här dängan!

Lämna en kommentar

Din e-postadress kommer inte publiceras. Obligatoriska fält är märkta *