On the occasion of the release of “Helluva”, the new album from Trollfest, we had the opportunity to talk with the bassist Lodd Bolt.
Rock Overdose: Welcome to Rock Overdose! Could you introduce yourself and give us a brief history of the band?
Lodd Bolt: Hello and hi! Thanx! My name is Lodd Bolt and I’m the bass-player in this weird crew. I joined around 4 years ago but the band is about 13 years old now. It started out as a drunk-joke when the guys grew tired of the songs they had on CD and decided to make some stuff on their own just for fun. The rest is history as they say, and after 7 albums, over 100 official videos and a bunch of other releases we’re still super happy to do what we do, because it’s nearly boring.
Rock Overdose: You recently released your new album “Helluva”. What’s the response been like for it so far?
Lodd Bolt: Gotta say fairly good! I guess no one dares to say anything else, haha. Everyone has been super-excited about it, and it’s great to see the work pay off. Only negative experience was a guy who works at the gas-station I met the other day. He didn’t like it much.. But that’s ok, I still got free coffee.
Rock Overdose: Seems that inspiration comes so easily for you guys! What is the concept of the new album this time?
Lodd Bolt: We drink a lot of booze.. that helps with creativity! The albums have always been concept-albums, were there is a story of some trolls that does something cool. Last time we invented a Crazy-scientist troll who made a time machine and went around time and space. This time around a new bunch of trolls are venturing inside the earth to find mother earth, and she’s a damn scary troll. On their way they came across a lot of interesting things we made cool songs from, like an underground jungle, the hen of hades and so on…
Rock Overdose: The band’s genre is considered to be ‘True Norwegian Balkan Metal’. Who are your major influences?
Lodd Bolt: Ehhh, well the genre is just a joke made from «True Norwegian Black Metal», kinda making a bit of fun of that. But there are lots of Balkan melodies in the music. We steal from everybody, but I guess Fintroll is a big influence along with all kinds of different metal-bands as well as not-metal bands. Our drummer, who writes a lot of the songs, even like pop-music and plays in an orchestra. That makes the variations big, which I think is a great thing.
Rock Overdose: Which are your five favorite top bands at the moment?
Lodd Bolt: I can just say for myself, but I’m listening to Kansas a lot these days. Also been blasting some of the new Metallica along with Death Angel, who I really liked when I saw them on the 70K cruise.
Rock Overdose: The artwork for all your material is stunning! How did you get involved in working with Jonas Darnell on it?
Lodd Bolt: On the first releases our guitarist Mr. Seidel made the cover-art. When they wanted to step it up a notch they searched for comic-artists who wanted to do cover-art for a reasonable price and had a cool style. One of them was Jonas Darnell. As it’s been almost 10 years of cooperation with him, his style has been our style. I think it really suits us as well, his drawings are always fantastic.
Rock Overdose: Any upcoming shows/festivals?
Lodd Bolt: YES! Check them out on trollfest.com! We’re going to Masters of Rock, Skaldenfest, SMSF among others. But first we will do some shows in Norway on a mini tour in May. Looking forward to get on the road again!
Rock Overdose: Thank you for this interview! The last words are yours.
Lodd Bolt: Hmm.. Well I tried to read some of the stuff on Rock Overdose, but it’s all Greek to me. But do know this when you sit in your sun and drink your rakia; Even though you have super nice islands and climate, we have 10 times as many islands as you… hahahaha.. Else from that; rock on!
For Rock Overdose,
Elena Darzenta
Comments
