Page 25 - Rocknation Issue 28_Neat

ROCKNATION ISSUE 28 PAGE 25

If you had to tell someone what your music sounded like, what bands would you mention?
ARILD: I would tell them Keldian doesn’t really sound like anything else! But I’m sure the avid listener can hear us
draw inspiration from many different bands, and maybe we’ve even inspired a few ourselves along the way.
CHRIS: My favorite “new” band is Ghost, absolutely amazing stuff. I can also tell that we come from the same place
musically, and luckily for us we had two albums out before Ghost appeared! I think people might find a similar
aesthetic between us, but like Arild says, our aim with Keldian was always to make the music we wanted to hear but
didn’t find anywhere else.

Can you tell us more about the novel H2Oslo this album was based on, and why did you chose it?
CHRIS: Arild and I talked about possibly attempting a concept album as far back as our second record. We never
quite found a story that suited, although every Keldian album has a certain thematic unity in its songs and lyrics and
production. We always tell stories, within each song and throughout a collection of songs, we’re definitely
storytellers. I’m also a storyteller in terms of writing stage plays, screenplays and novels, and I’ve worked with Pål
Ødegård on these things for twenty years. I guess the reason why I suggested to Arild that we use H2Oslo as a
basis for a new Keldian album was my urge to shift our focus a bit away from space and possibly get a little scarier.
H2Oslo tells the story of Wes, one of the privileged “inside people”, who dabbles in smuggling fresh water to the
“outside people” and gets in trouble when he’s caught. He escapes into the outside world which is now a desolate
wasteland, and meets Vivien, a rebel leader that ultimately changes Wes’ heart about where his allegiance lies.
The Keldian version of the story is quite different from the novel in some ways, but I think it was good material to
write music around.

You released a video for “We Are Rebellion”. Please tell us about the making of it, will there be any more
videos released soon?
CHRIS: My H2Oslo co-author, Pål Ødegård, is also a video director. He did the video for Blood Red Dawn on our
previous record, and it was a natural to ask him to do We Are Rebellion, since he knows the source material better
than anyone. With Pål, we can basically trust him to come up with a cool draft as soon as the song is roughly ready,
and then he keeps tweaking and revising it until he’s happy. And really, we just go “Yes!” No plans for
another video at the moment, but it’s obvious that visual material will always go
with Keldian music, so I would think there
will be more.

Thank you for taking time
for this interview and last
words to the fans?
ARILD: We would like to
thank all our listeners, from all
over the world. Your ongoing
support of Keldian music is
greatly appreciated!
CHRIS: Glad that you’re
listening! We’ll keep going.

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