Today, we sat down with Minneriket to talk inspiration to write music, advice for future musicians, and more. Be sure to check out the music from Minneriket below after the interview on Spotify!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your
surroundings?
Speaking from the heart, it’s always some form of introspection into human emotions. In Minneriket I try to explore the depths of all-consuming feelings like sorrow and yearning, the struggle against emptiness and alienation. I try to take the self-destructive bull by the horns, face it and work with it.
When creating music I always go for atmosphere, and I anchor it in myself and who I am. I paint pictures with sounds and words to bring forth the communion with nature, the isolation of the modern man and a melancholic perspective.
My music wil always be experimental by nature, as I hate stagnation, and each album sounds different from the last. I always keep the shining black atmosphere, even if I change the approach.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
I listened to a lot of 80s heavy metal and punk rock, and still do. I grew up listening to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, The Offspring and Bad Religion. I quickly discovered black metal, but never had any interest for death or extreme metal. In black metal it’s all about atmosphere and the human perspective, and that spoke to me almost from the beginning.
I remember a friend burned a CD with the first Burzum album to me and a few other songs by Darkthrone, and he gave that to me together with Dimmu Borgirs Stormblåst, and from there everything just made sense.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
No, never. All people have faults. I can admire your skills, your efforts or your accomplishments, but never you as a person. It’s just not in my nature. I can’t get starstrucked or impressed by a person, only their actions can impress me – and they are isolated into particular events and not something that makes the person deserve praise just for existing.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Well I do a lot of other things too even though I’m a musician. But if music wasn’t my main creative outlet I’d still need to be creative somehow, I’d still have a need to express myself and to build an arena where I could operate without boundries.
I’ve always preferred words to music and take great pride in my lyrics, so I’d probably do more writing, possibly combined with illustrations.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Go for it, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. And make the music you want to make. Don’t let anyone try to bring you down, tell you to change your vision or make it their way. Music is your own outlet, you do it as art and you do it for yourself.
Work on your material, honor your skills, always strive to get better, and learn to judge yourself in a constructive way. Not all songs are supposed to be heard. Don’t release everything just because you can. Be your own editor, once you have a clear vision you’ll know what deserves to be heard, what should reach an audience and what shouldn’t.
Trust your instincts, learn new skills along the way, and never ever EVER take no for an answer. Once you know what you want and have a plan, keep pushing and then push some more. Noones gonna knock on your door and beg you to listen to your music, so work hard and give it everything you’ve got.
Music:
