(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Indie Recordings press release. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl, Frank Hiis and Jan Ronald Stange) Out on May 3rd was the seventh Seigmen album “Resonans”, highly anticipated after the nine years wait since “Enola” in 2015. The release was celebrated by an evening of fun at the Apollon Platebar (record shop & pub/bar in one – excellent place!) in Tønsberg, full house and all of the tickets gone already at the opening that day.

The event started off with a signing session. As there’s three different vinyl versions in addition to CD and cassette versions – and many bought all versions! – they went through a bunch of marker pens in a busy hour. Then the whole album was played, followed by a move upstairs for the ticket holders. Arvid Skancke-Knutsen held both a challenging quiz and an entertaining and informational Q&A session. He was definitely the right person for the job, knowing and supporting Seigmen throughout their whole career, and also the first journalist to review the debut CD in a major publication.

The Seigmen album

“Resonans” is Seigmen’s latest album, echoing the essence of a longstanding friendship. A strong bond among five guys who found each other through music, learned to play instruments, and expressed themselves together. They solidified their friendship through muddy and sour tones from the rehearsal room on the old submarine quay, down into a basement in the city center, out to a barn outside the city, up on the heights near the old library, down into the mountain beneath the same hill, and back to a rehearsal container at the old shipyard. Always tied to their hometown, Tønsberg in Norway.

“Resonans” is the reverberation of endless evening rehearsals, weekends with “lefse” and freshly ground coffee in thermoses, and syncopations. Smiles, conversations, and gossip. The hard, precise, and long-term work. Love and art. Resonans is guts and integrity, demonstrating the uncompromising nature that Seigmen has always represented.

Singles and songs

The singles “Berlin,” “Kollaps,” and “Elskhat” have already been out there. Listen to “Melanchthon”, approaching two minutes, and the endless solo that ends with no more frets on the guitar neck. Listen to “Blasfem”, raw nerve for almost eleven minutes. Listen to the space created in “Eksplodere i det stille”, the transition to a single chorus after five and a half minutes. There are many layers here. The depth is buried in the details. The ones you hear when you play the song for the third or sixth time.

Resonans is the result you get when five focused individuals return to the studio where they recorded “Total” in 1994. Carrying the same curiosity, the same hunger and the eternal urge to create. Incidentally, this year marks exactly 30 years since the release of “Total”. Recently, the book about the album was published in the series “Norske albumklassikere”, skillfully written by Even Smith Wergeland. The reference is track number two on “Total”, “Ohm”, which might be the song that best defines the band. Ohm means resistance.

“Resonans” is also the echo of the time it took to complete this album. The resistance along the way, in the form of a pandemic and, most notably, serious and prolonged illness. Of course, one should also acknowledge the frugality and thoroughness these years have allowed. Time to work in silence. No concerts for four years have provided ample time in the “space.” Even more lefse. Even more cups of freshly brewed coffee.

“Resonans” is vibrations. Listen to the last phrases of “Når alle skjermer går i svart” (When all screens go black). The desperation in the voice of vocalist Alex is palpable, you can hear the resistance. Seigmen has always believed that it is they are at their best when there’s resistance. Listen to the first line of the lyrics in “Berlin.” All hope is lost, but never say die — it doesn’t get much clearer than that.

‘Tønsberg’ – the city anthem

Resonans ends with the surprise song “Tønsberg”, nothing less than a magnificent, honest, and personal tribute to the city the band hails from. In the first part of “Tønsberg,” guitarist and opera singer Marius finally unfolds his vocal prowess within the framework of Seigmen, something he has only done once before on a record. Strings tastefully arranged by the “film musician”, Ginge. Then the rest of the band kicks in halfway, and Alex takes the baton to the finish line. Marius is actually retiring as a soloist in the Norwegian national Opera this spring, where they retire early.

“Up the mountain, up in the tower. Never a stranger in the streets we walk.” “Tønsberg” might be a bit of an oddity on Resonans, but the song comes straight from the heart.

Mini-interview with Kim Ljung

The day after Kim Ljung had this to say about the event:
– We were real happy with how Friday turned out. It was a near and personal event. Also it’s always nice to see eacother away form rehearsal and studio, have a few drinks together, then meet nice eager people who’s always polite and just seems interested and throughout extremely inspired by what we do. 
Also a sheer pleasure seeing the glow in our fans faces, coming up with the vinyl, CD or a cassette they just bought, signing them and knowing they go home that evening in utter delight. 

I also had to ask about ‘Arkadia ego’, the track starting with “Husk at du skal dø en gang” (“Remember that you must die once”) – was it written before Depeche Mode’s “Memento Mori” were announced? 
– When DM released “Memento Mori” I was a little stressed, since we had the “Arkadia ego” song written long before. However it was all put on hold for several years due to Covid and internal health issues in the band. We started writing material right after we released “Enola” in 2015. Then there is also a part on “Blasfem”, the 11 minute track, that has a guitar line which dates back to the 90’s. 
“Elskhat” was the first track written, however the riff for “Berlin” was there ages before. Just something we never though was of real importance until our manager Øystein heard it and said you have to work on that one. Single potential!

Though “Arkadia ego” was a song that emerged in 2019, the first lyric actually had the line Memento Mori in it, but it sounded a little lame on a demo version, and was taken out. 
So the fear when DM press release came mentioning their title, I was just afraid “Arkadia ego” was in there.

A side note to that: I personally saw their album as a huge dissapointment. I feel with all their history and assets in old synthesizers and their legacy, they should come with better sounding stuff. When Fletch sady passed, I hoped they would bring Alan back in. That would surely made huge differerance to their quality of sound.

The idea of “Arkadia ego” was just me trying to find out a way of using the word Arcadia in a song. Always liked that word. Then I discovered that line. 
Every Seigmen song starts out with a title. That gives me a total picture of how a song should plan out. 

Cheers to Side-Line from Seigmen!

Design background story

If you acquire Resonans in physical format, you will find it tastefully wrapped in peach pink by designer Sigurd N. Kristiansen. Master photographer Bjørn Opsahl is, as always, by Seigmen’s side. A band photo in the same color palette was taken in Kim’s living room. Pink boots under the sofa, a small nod to the band’s very first song. It reveals a band with more humor and spirit than many may think, that sets its own standard and is ready for whatever comes next.

Credits

• Recorded at Velvet Recording by Christer Krogh
• Mixed by Mike Hartung in Propeller Music Devision: “Elskhat”, “Arkadia Ego”, “Når alle skjermer går i svart”, “Eksplodere i det stille”, “Melanchthon”, and “Tønsberg”
• Mixed by Adam Noble: “Kollaps” and “Voltaire!”
• Mixed by Alex Møklebust in Room 13: “Berlin” and “Blasfem”
• Words and melody lines: Kim Ljung
• Music: Seigmen
• Produced by Alex Møklebust and Kim Ljung
• Mastered by George Tanderø
• Artwork by Sigurd N. Kristiansen
• Photo by Bjørn Opsahl

Listen to the album at these streaming services: https://orcd.co/saveresonans, or buy physical versions right here: https://shop.indierecordings.no/collections/seigmen

Side-Line also covered seigmen’s ‘Dyret 23 bud’.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / press release Indie Recordings) ‘Elskhat’, the third single from Seigmen‘s upcoming album, is out on February 28th. It’s the opening track on the album ‘Resonans’, and also the first one written back in the summer of 2015. At that time, their previous album ‘Enola’ had just been released, and touring and big festivals were on the horizon.

The search for that magical riff was a constant pursuit. The guitar riff that forms the foundation of ‘Elskhat’ was revealed outside the rehearsal space, played on a deep red semi-acoustic Gibson. The reception was good, so much so that the band realized this riff was the gateway to Seigmen’s next album. Little did they know it would take nine years before the song could be presented in its entirety.

‘Elskhat’ narrates the constant oscillation between extremes and has its roots in songwriter and lyricist Kim Ljung’s state of constant migraines. The contrast between light and dark is always close, akin to black and white, day and night. ‘Elskhat’ leaves no middle ground.

“If you tremble, then I tremble too.”

Author and screenwriter Harald Rosenløw Eeg (also known from the electro duo SubGud), a close friend of Kim and the band, was working on the script for his second disaster film for Fantefilm at that time. Earthquakes was the theme. Kim suggested ‘Skjelvet’ (‘The Quake’) as the title and expressed interest in writing a song for the film. It remained an attempt. Time and timing had different plans.

The recording process

In 2018, Seigmen borrowed a house near Karlsvik gård, a picturesque gem near the shoreline outside Tønsberg in Norway. Every room in the house was set up for recording and brainstorming ideas for the album.

‘Elskhat’ underwent a significant transformation here, moving from the key of D to G. For the uninitiated, it was quite an un-Seigmen-like move, but it turned out to be a revelation. ‘Elskhat’ gained the lift, the air, and light it needed.

In a pure bootleg style, the intense and creative days in the house were dubbed the ‘Karlsvika Tapes.’ Everything was just sketches, sounding raw and unfinished. Yet, it undoubtedly gave the band a boost, shaping the form of ‘Resonans.’

The band then returned to the rehearsal space, fine-tuning their aim for the final push before recording at Velvet Recording in Spydeberg in Norway. They were back to the familiar setting and the same studio where they recorded ‘Total’ in 1994 — the time many believe Seigmen truly found their identity. However, an unexpected turn of events occurred. The pandemic and illness stood in the way of continuation, putting ‘Resonans’ on hold.

Pandemic challenges

The challenges that followed have added a new dimension to ‘Elskhat,’ with meaning that might not have been there initially but will resonate with those who experienced a difficult time during the pandemic.

Seigmen faced their share of setbacks, but the extended delay also provided extra time to refine the songs that make up ‘Resonans.’ The lyrics of ‘Elskhat’ have proven almost prophetic for Seigmen—after the rain comes sunshine, and after a challenging period, it is an ultra-positive and inspired band getting ready to release their first album in nine years.

‘Elskhat’ is also the first song from ‘Resonans’ mixed by Mike Hartung (Propeller), setting the standard for the rest of the songs and defining the album’s sound. Like the rest of the album, the single was recorded at Velvet Recording with Christer Krogh as the technician. The single cover was designed by Sigurd N. Kristiansen, featuring an alternative prophecy created by Kim’s daughter, Nova.

Listen to ‘Elskhat’ and the other new Seigmen songs right here, or find it at your preferred platform.

Side-Line also covered seigmen’s ‘Resonans’.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / press release Indie Recordings. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl) November 15th the legendary Norwegian rock band Seigmen released their new single ‘Berlin’, and at the same time they announced that a new album, ‘Resonans’, is due for release April 2024.

The last time Seigmen released new music was 7 years ago, and “Berlin” is the first track from the band’s upcoming album, which was created during the times of the pandemic and lockdown. Those who follow Seigmen know that it has been some challenging years for the band, but it has also been an incredibly creative period.

We’ll get to hear the result when the album ‘Resonans’ is released on April 12, 2024, but already on November 15th, the first teaser, in the form of the single ‘Berlin’, was released through Indie Recordings.

“When we last left the stage on December 21, 2019, we knew nothing about the long and challenging times ahead of us. That this show would be our last for four years. It feels good to put this behind us and at the same time be able to tell that those times were also creative and productive years. More than anything, we want to thank our loyal fans who have followed us through thick and thin, who have patiently waited for us to return. It gives us both strength and inspiration.

New music from Seigmen is not an everyday occurrence; our last release, ‘Enola’, came out eight years ago, and this was the first studio album since 1997. Hence, it is a joy to announce that we are now putting the finishing touches on a new album called ‘Resonans’, that will release April 12th 2024 (Indie Recordings).

The impatient can look forward to the first single, which is already being released on November 15th.
We are also looking forward to get back on stage again and can already announce that we will be playing at Tons of Rock 2024.

Finally, we are also ready to do the show at Støperiet in Tønsberg, which has been postponed several times. This will be the first and only show of the year, and the date is December 16th.”

This show sold out within 12 hours, so a second show are being set up the following day, Sunday December 17th. Get your tickets here! 🙂

Listen to ‘Berlin‘ here:

ABOUT SEIGMEN:

It was an unfinished band that took to the stage when Seigmen (formerly known as Klisne Seigmenn) played their very first show during Christmas of 1989. However, even then, they had something unique that set them apart from the others, and their sound was undeniably different from all those they shared stage with. Even the conservative paper Tønsbergs Blad reported the next day that “Klisne Seigmenn outperformed the others.”

Fast forward to 1994, the year they released the EP “Hjernen er alene” and their third studio album ‘Total’.

First success Seigmen

From there on, Seigmen and their heavy and grandiose, yet catchy melancholy, defined the 1990s.
‘Total was later recognized as one of Norway’s 100 best albums of all time, and their fourth album ‘Metropolis’ dominated the charts back  in 1995 won a Spellemann award for Best Rock Album.
In 1997, ‘Radiowaves’ went straight to number one.

Then it all came to an end, as out of nothing, the announcement came that the band was disbanding because guitarist Sverre was leaving. One for all and all for one. A few months before the previous millennium came to an end, Seigmen played their farewell show for a packed Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway.

Resurrection of Seigmen

But it wasn’t meant to end there; it’s almost unnatural to just let go of a good thing and old friendships forever. In 2005, the band reunited on stage for the first time in Dødens Dal in Trondheim, and in 2008, they were the first Norwegian band to be invited to play at the new opera house in Bjørvika.

However, the biggest event of the new millennium came in 2015 when Seigmen surprisingly released ‘Enola’, a full 18 years after ‘Radiowaves’. (Read more about ‘Enola’ and other events here!)

On April 12, 2024, almost exactly 30 years after their breakthrough with ‘Total’, a special event is set to occur when Seigmen releases ‘Resonans’, their first album in nine years. The choice of Velvet Recording as their studio is not a coincidence; it’s the same place ‘Total’ was recorded back in 1994.

For more information, interview requests, or media inquiries, please contact: Robbe@indierecordings.no

For more on seigmen, see Seigmen releases 3 new EPs, sold out in just a few hours on Side-Line.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

(Photo by Jason Morey) Melbourne-based singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Enola shares a new single, “Strange Comfort”, out today via Our Golden Friend, accompanied with a video directed by Triana Hernandez. Listening to the vocals and music you are listening to a post-punk version of Rhein or the sadly defunct splendid act Crisk. (“Beute” has quite some similarities” with the vocal line here).

Enola says this of the track: “There is a comfort in knowing that suffering can be a universal experience. We are alone, yet together in our aloneness.” The single comes with a video as Enola explains: “In the film I am not playing a role or character & I’m not playing myself as I am today. I am looking back at a past self and a time & place gone. A time of fearlessness, hopelessness & rebellion.”

Enola launched into Melbourne’s music scene with the debut self-titled EP (2019), released via Burning Rose.

Here’s the video.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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OMD is coming back to North America for a headline tour bringing 40 years of greatest hits. You can see all the dates below.

Now that we think of it, 40 years is actually kinda ‘misleading’ some might say as the band released its very first single already in 1979, which was a re-recorded version of a track originally by the Id (which was the first band for McCluskey and Humphreys) called “Electricity”. But the UK and European tour was already announced in March 2019 as part of the group’s 40th-anniversary celebrations which saw the release of a retrospective deluxe boxset entitled “Souvenir”.

Here are the confirmed dates.

About OMD

OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) were formed in Wirral, Merseyside (UK) in 1978 by Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals). The band gained popularity throughout Europe with the 1980 anti-war song “Enola Gay”, and achieved broader recognition via “Architecture & Morality” (1981) and its three singles, all of which were international hits.

In 1989, creative differences saw Humphreys and other members form the spin-off band the Listening Pool, leaving McCluskey the only remaining member of OMD. The group returned with a new line-up and explored the dance-pop genre: “Sugar Tax” (1991) and its initial singles were hits in Europe. By the mid-1990s, however, electronic music had been supplanted by alternative rock, and both OMD and the Listening Pool disbanded in 1996. McCluskey later conceived pop girl group Atomic Kitten, for whom he served as a principal songwriter, while Humphreys formed the duo Onetwo alongside Propaganda vocalist Claudia Brücken.

In 2006, the band reformed with Humphreys and McCluskey working on material closer in sound to their early output; “The Punishment of Luxury” (2017) was the group’s seventh top 10 entry on the UK Albums Chart.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

74 years ago today, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb, ‘Little Boy’, carried by the USAAF B-29 Superfortress bomber, named Enola Gay. It caused the death of around 140,000 civilians. It wasn’t the first time that the allied forces turned to killing large amounts of civilians as the Dresden bombing already showed earlier that same year when four raids – carried out between 13 and 15 February 1945 – destroyed the city of Dresden killing an estimated 22,700 to 25,000 people.

Were these bombings war-crimes or a necessary evil thereby preventing casualties that an invasion of Japan would have involved (estimated at one million casualties)? Those who oppose the bombings believe that atomic bombing is fundamentally immoral, that the bombings counted as war crimes, and that they constituted state terrorism.

Also OMD’s anti-war song “Enola Gay” reflects on the decision to use the bomb and ask the listener to consider whether the bombings were necessary (“It shouldn’t ever have to end this way”). The phrase, “Is mother proud of Little Boy today?”, is an allusion to both the nickname of the uranium bomb, as well as the fact that pilot Paul Tibbets named the aircraft after his mother.

The track, taken from the band’s 1980 album “Organisation”, has since its release been considered as a perfect soundtrack to the yearly remembrance of the bombing.

The track was written by vocalist/bass guitarist Andy McCluskey and is an OMD’s signature song, the track does not feature a vocal chorus for instance and is recognisable by its strong, distinctive lead synthesizer hook.

Note that the song was also released during controversy surrounding Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s decision to allow US nuclear missiles to be stationed in Britain. However, McCluskey stated that he “wasn’t really politically motivated to write the song”, which was informed by a fascination with World War II bombers. He hoped the track “conveyed an ambivalence about whether it was the right or the wrong thing to do”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)
Christmas started early this year for fans of Seigmen, Zeromancer and Ljungblut, as Seigmen announced that they will release a triple 7″ vinyl box on December 16th, the same day as their concert at Støperiet in their hometown Tønsberg.

These are the singles from their latest album ‘Enola’ from 2015 and have previously only been released in non-physical formats. Each single comes with unreleased tracks a B-sides, consisting of unreleased material based on classic Seigmen songs, used as intro and intermezzos during the Enola tour.
The singles comes on individual 45´vinyl records, each one with a gatefold sleeve and packaged together in a heavy cardboard high quality box.

It’s been in the making for a while, and in a comment Alex Møklebust explains the timing of the release:
– The box project got started about a year ago, but then got postponed for a while, and when it could coincide with our concert at Støperiet we felt that was a good time for this release. We wanted to release these singles as physical items, so it had to be 7 inch vinyl!

More info about the project in the video below!

Tracklist:
Single 1: Hva vi Elsker/Ameneon intro
Single 2: Utopia i mine armer/Simone intro
Single 3: Forevig og alltid/Ikon intermezzo

Limited to 500 units worldwide – get yours today at their shop!

See the ‘Enola’ 7″ single box announcement video w/Alex and Kim:

For more on seigmen, see Double interview: Alex Møklebust (Zeromancer/Seigmen) and Stephan… on Side-Line.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. B/W photos by Christian Roth Christensen)

Side-Line met up with Kim Ljung on September 9^th at Haugarock, Tønsberg, where Kim works as an advisor for youth musicians when not active with his bands.

Side-Line: What is the difference from the previous albums – what has changed or is new in “Ikke alle netter er like sorte” (“Not all nights are all black”)?
– Kim: The biggest difference from the previous releases is that Ljungblut has gone from being a solo project – with help from Dan (Heide) – to a strong, organic band, a unit. Moreover, just like the other bands I am a member of (Seigmen, Zeromancer), I can’t imagine that anyone could be replaced.

We play very well together, and every time we meet, we have a calm and relaxed atmosphere without any stress involved. It becomes easy to practice and record when all the guys are in the same space, at the same frequency, and this became very clear on this recording session. We recorded the album at the legendary Athletic Sound studio in Halden during two weekends in February and March this year. We also brought in Alex Møklebust, who would mix the album afterwards and also acted as co-producer in order to influence the process. He was both impressed and shocked at how well it went!

Did you practice a lot before the recording sessions?
– No, not very much. We had a good experience last time when we recorded three songs live in the studio, and decided that this time we would do all songs live. It was a very pleasant album to record, and we had two incredibly nice weekends in the studio. All the instrumentation was done live, and vocals were laid on afterwards.

Originally we would have done the recording much earlier as the songs were written several years ago, but we had to postpone due to two migraine periods and the Seigmen “Enola” release and tour. In retrospect, I think the record benefited from some maturing – had we recorded it in 2014, it would have been with other arrangements and other elements I would have changed in the meantime.

Any upcoming concerts with new Ljungblut material planned?
No, not yet, it’s been few Zeromancer gigs late summer and several Seigmen gigs this summer and autumn. I have become quite the juggler – I had decided not to be active in three bands simultaneously, but now I’ve ended up in the same mess yet again! We look at the possibilities for a concert early next year, mostly with material from “Ikke alle netter er like sorte”.

Are there more Seigmen or Zeromancer releases planned?
– Nothing definite at the moment. We are doing the Seigmen tour in the fall, and there’s the occasional offer for Zeromancer gigs, especially from Germany. Whether we accept depends on availability and health. We have said we will never tour with Zeromancer again, but rather make one-off shows and festivals. After the Zeromancer concerts this summer we received very good feedback. It is obvious that people have missed us, and when we also play so well together it’s still fun to get out on the road.

There is a big gap between the three bands, and I’m quite proud that I am able to stay focused and sharp within each band. They all have something of the same “darkness”, but are three completely different types of bands nevertheless. Although the songwriter is the same, there are other people involved, which affects both the band’s expression and how we are making music.

You get an outlet for different things in each band?
– Yes, you can really put it like that … Especially Ljungblut is very personal to me, and that feeling just increases over time.

With this release you have been very active on Instagram and Facebook, posted new video clips weekly of each song etc. How has the response been?
– I think it has been very good! We don’t have many followers, but the feedback has been unanimously positive – this has been noticed, been heard and spread. Even got comments about this in Germany, and people asked when we came there to play!

There are not that many who have done a video for each song, if any at all? That’s really is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I have friends who are working with film, but it really started on a train journey from Manchester to Sheffield where Lorry (Kristiansen) held his mobile phone to the window and filmed. “There’s the video!” I thought. The rest has come together as a mix of buddy favours and art, from people who want to give something back, and it shouldn’t cost anything. Especially my grandfather’s old Super-8 films have much soul in them, and fits very well with the music and mood.

Has Ljungblut “inherited” many fans from Seigmen and Zeromancer?
– It rubs off, yeah! Before Ljungblut started in 2005 there were some fans who either liked Seigmen or Zeromancer, but not both. Eventually the fans have discovered the strengths of the different bands, and have evened out over time.

We also do not stress about getting fans, but rather let people discover us themselves.  I’m so old-school that I like numbered limited editions of record releases, so there will not be much pressure to sell either. I like to think that I release music for the specially interested, and when I get feedback that the soreness and melancholy in Ljungblut hit a nerve with people, inspire them or help them, I feel I achieved the purpose of making music. This record can almost be regarded as therapy music without rules, with a steady atmosphere throughout the album, where all the songs are intertwined.

The album title – an indication that things are getting better, that it’s not always so bad, or …?
– If you look at the last album called “Over skyene skinner alltid solen” (“Over the clouds the sun is always shining”), some would probably say that was very positive! When the title “Ikke alle netter er like sorte” tumbled into my head, it fit nicely in as a sequel title. But to me life is still black/white, so it’s related to that aspect of my life too.

I get so knocked out by strong migraines that I am unable to think logically and rationally for two to three days, and for a period of time it’s completely black. Then it’s “white” when the attack passes. I can laugh about how much it hurt the day before, and it’s almost like being born again.

This may be part of the reason for my creativity – every time I’m out of the black hole there’s so much I have to catch up with. But it’s not great either, and if I could lose the migraine at the expense of creativity, I would probably have made that choice.

It was great to receive the first 500 copies of the album today on CD, a good and liberating feeling to see the finished product and hold it in my hands, and we hope the vinyl edition will be equally good.

The album is released by The Garden / Pleasuredisc and will be available in stores and online on September 30th. There will also be a release party for the album at the Barkaden in Tønsberg, Saturday October 1st – welcome!

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

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18 years(!) after their last album release, the Norwegian goth rockers in Seigmen returned this spring with a new album called ‘Enola’ and a release tour in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.  And the fans really were rewarded after the long wait, because this was Seigmen music as they know and love it; familiar and with Norwegian lyrics, yet also more mature and in many ways a better version of the band, and still playing amazing live shows. This highly anticipated return was promptly confirmed when the album went straight to #1 in Norway the first week!

The celebration of the band started a few weeks before the album release with launching a photo biographical book with pictures by Bjørn Opsahl, biography penned by Arvid Skancke-Knutsen and early days anecdotes by their longtime friend Harald Rosenløw Eeg. Coinciding with the book they become the main attraction at Popsenteret music museum in Oslo, curated by Seigmens long time friend and collaborator Paal Ritter Schjerven. Fans with concert tickets get 50% of the admission price, and there’s also a Instagram photo competition where you can win the book, signed prints etc – check @popsenteret!
Make sure you’ll see the exhibition before it ends June 30^th!

Leading up to the album release and concerts, a listening party of the album was held at Union Scene in Drammen, hosted by biographer Arvid Skancke-Knutsen, who was joined by Alex Møklebust, representing Seigmen. It became a great evening, playing two and two tracks in a row on a high-end hi-fi set, talking about the songs and other related topics in between, and ending the session with questions (and loads of praise!) from the audience.

The concert series got off to a rocky start as they was forced to cancel the first gig in Drammen due to sudden illness, but the rest really met the expectations of the fans. Starting the first Oslo concert with a real Spinal Tap moment as the stage curtain didn’t go down after the first song didn’t make a dent in the overall impression, just loosened the tension of all in the arena and setting the mood for good audience communication and a great concert.

After this first month after their reboot I sat down and had a talk with Alex Møklebust about the experiences so far. Instead of repeating what  others already had written, I had an idea about simply asking about what’s been the worst, best, difficult and easiest in this process with the book, exhibition and album release. The answer was simple, yet very complementary.

Alex: Nothing was really hard or difficult at all, not even keeping it secret. The closest to difficult we experienced and what we spent most time discussing was deciding whether to release an album or not.

We had played three new songs live in 2012, and later when Kim and I went into the studio to make a commercial for Tine Kulturmelk we also layed down the major tracks of these new songs so we didn’t forget them. When we later talked about releasing more music, we wanted to make enough songs for an whole album before we made it public, honouring the old Norwegian mountaineering rule (“fjellvettregel”), saying “ingen skam å snu i tide” (rather untranslatable – meaning “no shame in turning back when you still got the time to do it”).

Around the time of the Støperiet gigs in November last year Bjørn Opsahl got wind of Seigmen resurrecting again, and suggested making a book about us. He made his debut as a photographer shooting Seigmen pictures, so it felt natural that his book debut should be about Seigmen too.

Bjørn wanted to make it more than a photobook, asked for suggestion for co-writers, and we suggested two people: Harald Rosenløw Eeg, childhood friend of Kim and longtime friend of the band, and Arvid Skancke-Knutsen, one of the first music journalists that wrote about Seigmen.

The whole process have been very well planned, but a big part have also been waiting for the time when it felt right and when we could feel comfortable doing it. And we wanted the group feeling to be back in full, so we went out of our known enviroments, challenging ourselves to do the songwriting stuck in a container instead of the safe locations of Haugarock (rehearsal rooms and a small concert venue in Tønsberg).

Because of the variuous family situations, combined with comfort and familarity with the studio and producer, we chose Athletic Sound in Halden for the recording process. We’ve been there for the first album in the 90’s, knew the produced Kai Andersen very well, and it was in perfect distance to be able to concentrate, but still just hours away in case of family urgencies. We really got back the feeling of having fun by doing it this way, planning away other distractions in advance.

The Popsenteret exhibition followed as a natural consequence of the book and album plans, and made us realize yet again what dedicated fans we got when they nicked a lot of the exhibion posters in Oslo. But it was within reasonable limits…

SL: What do you think about the reactions and feedback so far?

Alex: Overall  it’s been very good. First the book was very well received, and kudos to Cappelen for spending a lot of money making a quality book.
The album got just about the reviews we expected, the Yatzy full straight, just as in the 90’s. As an artist we feel it’s better to get various reviews and eyes on the dice, showing we touched some emotions either ways, than to get plenty of 3’s and 4’s.

We stated before the release that we wanted to sound like Seigmen, and then being critized for forfulling that ambition becomes a bit weird.

We’re still overwhelmed about the reception of the album, 18 years after the previous release, and find it a bit funny it’s still the same newspapers and music magazines giving us the same criticism and praise as they did in the 90’s.

It’s good to see the good results of the things we can’t control; the sales leading straight to the top of the Norwegian album chart, the sold out release concerts, and lot’s of bookings to the summer festivals. We had to turn down several, concentrating on Norway this time around.

SL: Having so many foreign fans isn’t what one would expect from a band with mostly Norwegian lyrics. I guess many, especially Germans, discovered Zeromancer first, then Seigmen, but I’ve also heard some first heard Seigmen?

Alex: That’s correct. We’ve got a lot of German fans, and a bunch from Ukraine, and some of them origins from the tours we did abroad as Seigmen in the late 90’s. The foreign and Norwegian fans have some good traits in common; dedication and patience. Some of the feedback I got at the listening session in Drammen really gave me a reassurance and a good feeling about the album release.

SL: Any more music recorded?

Alex: Yes, there’s some outtakes and more that didn’t fit on the album, that we did other versions of afterwards, and it may be released later in a different format.

We’ll be looking forward to that! 🙂

Be sure to see them during the summer at these festival and concert arenas.

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl, Paal Ritter, Heidi & Einar Låker, Jan Ronald Stange)

For more on seigmen, see Seigmen member crowdfunds solo ambient project on Side-Line.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange