German Viking Metallers Varg, have already released their brand new album called 'Zeichen' via Napalm Records . RockOverdose.gr and George Markogiannakis, had the opportunity to chat with the vocalist & guitarist of the band Freki and seek more details of it and many more...
Rock Overdose: Good evening Freki, How are you? Are you in Bavaria right now?
Freki: Good evening George, yes I am close to the Bavarian borders
Rock Overdose: How are things in Bavaria these days?
Freki: Well, it's getting colder (laughs)...
Rock Overdose: (Laughs) So i see a big movement against the new measures for Corona Virus in Germany, the same it happens in UK as well, maybe they are preparing for a new lockdown. So many people worried about a new lockdown, an economic disaster and
collapse...what's your opinion about that relating to bands, festivals, road crew or anything that has to do with the music indrustry and your band.
Freki: Well the thing is that i am promoter of one of the biggest festivals in Germany and we had a lot of trouble with getting permission to promote the festival, so we changed the dates because of German regulations, then they changed the regulations
again and it wasn't possible to do it in the original location, so now we changed it again to a different part of Germany, because the rules in Germany are different depending on where you are located and finally made it happen to take the festival
permission and it will take place in three weeks. All the persons and road crew who work there are struggling.
Αs for my self in the one hand i am promoter and on the other hand i supply backline such as guitar or bass amps etc. so it really hit me as well the whole Corona crisis but in my honest opinion it's very important that people take this crisis seriously and the first lockdown was nessecary and if people would act inteligent and don't risk too much like doing holidays in high risk countries and bringing the virus back. If they are just a bit patient and intelligent and also looking not hurting other people, then a second lockdown wouldn't be nessecary.
Rock Overdose: Do you believe that they exaggerating a bit with the numbers of cases?
Freki: Well actualy i don't know...in my honest opinion if everybody would react a bit more with intelligence this virus could be away already.
Rock Overdose: Totally agree with you yeah absolutely....so recently i heard your brand new single 'Auf die Gotter' from your new album 'Zeichen' which means 'Signs'. A very melodic track, with the proper Viking metal screams, really intense and tried to
translate the lyrics and remember a part where you say 'The days come and go with the wind but we never forget who we are'.
Does the lyrics in general or the new album title refering on our today's era as well combining it with the pagan theme?
Freki: Well actually the whole lyrical theme of the new album is the Viking era. So the very first song, the opener track called '793' which means the year 793 it was the first year in history that started the Viking history and we wanted to pull the listener back to this season and year and the whole album concept is about Viking era. About the values they had, the wars, what mythology they had and of course you can compare the values they had back in the days to values in modern life but the lyrics are completely about the Vikings.
Rock Overdose: So here's a qeustion i always wanted to make to bands like you guys. Are you Paganists for real or you have a special love and admiration about this while Pagan thing? Most modern paganists or neo-paganists are pantheistic or polytheistic and some of them believe in one god. What's the correct point of view about that according to your opinion?
Freki: The correct point of view according to my opinion is listening to your heart and believe what your heart says to you.
The thing is that i call my self a paganist, but that doesn't mean when i hear a thunder outside means that Thor is smashing his hammer (laughs). The Northern mythology is trying to teach people good values like be straight, be a good person, be honest, don't betray people, fight for whay you love. In my opinion when you say you are paganist you don't have to believe that there is god sitting in heaven, but personally i honor these gods because of the values they teach, you get what i mean with it...
Rock Overdose: Thanks so much that was a great explanation...So you have already many studio albums since 2007!Do you define a progress of the band referring to the lyrics and musically as well? Some fans said that they loved the new style of your new single, do
you believe you brought up a new style with the new record?
Freki: Yes Absolytely, let's say Varg was constantly changing the style while releasing albums, it turned out that 'Das Ende aller Lügen' (2016) being a very modern album, many modern themes on the lyrics and me and Fenrier (drummer of Varg) who are the founders of the band, we always changed the guitar players and the bass players within the albums. After this modern album 'Das Ende aller Lügen' with split up with the guitar and bass players and Fenrier and me, we were thinking of what are we gonna do with Varg now because it didn't feel good at the point we were.
The thing is that 'Das Ende aller Lügen' the most modern album was our mist successful album so from that point of view you could say 'let's do it again' you know but Fenrier and me we are interested in NOrthern mythology and it kinda felt right to split up with the others and concentrait to what is our vision with Varg so we decided to make a regroup of the whole band. About going back to our roots so we re-recorder our debut album 'Wolfszeit' with the new style and there was the release of 'Wolfszeit II' last year and that was the starting point of what we wanted to do now, so we went back to the roots. That's a deeper style more authentic Pagan metal, has nothing to do with modern lyrics but we still have modern metal riffs, but the main theme is absolutely the Viking element...
Rock Overdose: Yes because i listened to a track called 'Achtung' for example and i was like...is this the same band? (laughs from both) and i believe that 'Zeichen' is more you, it's more Varg! New tracks travelled me to that Viking era...So playing in a Viking
metal band also needs to have a proper stage show for real, so it could travel the metalhead's mind back to that era and these dark ages, do you prefer playing live shows indoor or outdoor with a proper related stage show as well?
Freki:Well actually i prefer doing shows with a proper stage with banners, having shields on stage and that's what we do. I don't mind if it's outdoor or indoor or anything, both can be really cool. If you have an indoor show, the show can be completely dark, people can feel the magic happening but also if you play an outdoor show and it's like a festival where you have 20 others with a special location for example in a forest could be amazing!
Rock Overdose: Have you tried writting English lyrics? Is in your upcoming plans using English language?
Freki: Well we had a special edition for 'Das Ende aller Lügen' album (2016) which was the complete cd with English lyrics, also an English version of a song called 'Dunkelheit' with a video called 'Darkness' and then we made another song with our friend
Jonne from Korpiklaani called 'The Wolves', but i prefer doing songs in German language because i am native German speaker, so it's the best way for me to express what i want to say and i think is more authentic than speaking English and for the new songs, we might use some old North words instead of using only German.
Rock Overdose: That's great! So, have you ever read the Greek mythology? Have you ever thought, or being fascinated writing some lyrics about the 12 gods of Olympus?
Freki: Well actually the Greek mythology and Northern mythology are very very close to eath other and i pretty pretty sure that they share the same roots, but for Varg we will focus in the Northern. It simply doesn't fit if you mix it you know.
When i was a child i had many books with Greek mythology and it was my passion and yeah...i like both mythologies!
Rock Overdose: Awesome...so what's your upcoming plans for releasing the album? If the Corona stuff remains are you planning making some live streams, or some special epic shows as well till your official tour?
Freki: Well at the moment we are fighting to make our tour happen, but there are no plans doing any live streams because for me it's not the same playing as playing on public. I like making music videos and showing it to people, so you can transport your message but filming a live show without an audience is something different. I think there a lot of bands out there, doing this with a very unique style but for Varg we will try and fight to make shows happen in real. We made an openair show 4-5 weeks ago, it was supposed to be an indoor show but it didn't happened because of Corona virus and we talked with the promoters for doing it outdoor in a location fitting 2000 people and they were limiting the tickets to 500 but we made it happen. It was definitely a strange feeling watching people with masks on their faces but people are hungry for shows and it's a magic atmosphere that at least you can do the show happen.
Rock Overdose: That's awesome and shows the great value of working as a teamwork with a band and make it happen!So, the last question turns out to be a special message to your Greek fans!
Freki: Greek fans, i hope you are doing fine, i hope you are healthy and fight this pandemic crisis as good as possible and i really hope that you'll enjoy the new Varg album, that will give you some power in these bad times.
Rock Overdose: Thanks so much Freki for your time, was great talking with you...
Freki: Thanks a lot George, me too and take care!
For Rock Overdose
Interview/ Questions/ Τranscription: George Markogiannakis
Comments
