Interview

Interview With Hennes Siste Host

After playing an amazingly atmospheric and heartfelt show on the first stop of the Hostferd tour, Fargo based black metal band Hennes Siste Host chatted with me about their band and their interest in Norway. Currently residing on Init records, a label known more for punk bands than metal, they have already released their debut album and our planning more tours in the future to grow their fan base and make a name for themselves in the black metal scene.

xFiruath: So first of all, where does your band’s name come from?

Zander: Well, Hennes Siste Host is Norwegian, but I’m also interested in Scandinavian studies. A lot of people just think it’s the black metal influence from Norway, but it’s a little more personal than that. “Her Last Autumn” is the English translation. “Her” is personifying the Earth and the seasons changing and death. Apocalypse could be another theme I guess.

xFiruath: I read that you were teaching yourself Norwegian, how is that coming along?

Zander: Fine. It’s not bad, I’ve kind of been not doing too much with it lately because we’ve been busy but I’ve been doing that for about five years. Mostly teaching myself reading mostly and writing, but the speaking isn’t so good just because I haven’t been around many Norwegians or anything.

xFiruath: When did you guys start playing music and what made you want to be musicians?

Evan: I started playing guitar when I was 12 or 13 and met him (Zander) when I was 15 or 16 and we started playing music together. We went through a couple of different bands. I’ve just always liked music.

Tom: I started playing in 1979 in a marching band. I was eight years old. I stayed there for nine years and I don’t regret that because it taught me all the techniques and knowledge, you know? I got my own drum kit in the mid ‘80s and started the whole heavy metal thing. Then I started the black metal thing because I’m from Norway.

xFiruath: How are you finding the metal scene in Fargo and what kind of reaction are you getting there?

Zander: There really isn’t much of a metal scene at the moment. There’s a couple of grindcore or death metal bands here and there. We’re good friends with a band that’s mostly just death metal so it’s kind of hard to mesh with our band playing.

Evan: I think it gives an opportunity to put more than one style of band at a show, though.

Zander: In Fargo there’s a lot of punk bands, some rock, some experimental stuff. Most of the time there is a diverse line up of bands. We’ve been accepted by the punk and rock fans, it grew on them, but the first few shows we did were kind of a little weird.

xFiruath: How did you end up on Init records and how has it been with them so far?

Zander: That’s kind of a weird story. A friend of ours and the guys I used to be in a band with formed a new band that was on Init just like half a year before us and they started touring. They were heading down there and staying with the head guy from the label and he mentioned to the band that he had heard this black metal band he was interested in doing something with. So he showed it to them, but it was me and they know me, and they were like “Oh yeah, we know that guy!” They kind of put in a good word and we just went from there.

xFiruath: So what is the focus of your lyrics and where do you draw your inspiration from?

Zander: I don’t know where the inspiration comes from for the lyrics, there’s a lot of things, it’s usually one albums worth of lyrics will be one theme. You know, one theme repeating, but it is like more supernatural phenomena stuff and there’s a lot of like sexual innuendo and stuff like that. There’s no Satanic or biblical stuff or anything like that. Just because it’s been done so many ways, and that’s not really all that interesting to me anymore. But inspiration, I don’t really know where that would come in lyrically.

xFiruath: What is your song writing process like? Does everybody do it or just one person?

Zander: I do all the writing, that’s just me on my own. The way it worked with the first album that’s out now, I didn’t even have these guys yet. I had just been writing myself and once it was finished, we were getting ready to record and that’s when Evan joined for live purposes, but he ended up helping with recording, just helping with like the studio tracks and stuff like that. We also had a drummer at the time who was mainly for live purposes too but he was on the album. The songwriting was just me on my own and I bring it to them.

Tom: He’ll bring something over and I’ll add some drums to it you know.

Zander: There is that collaboration but I write the main guitar parts first and the lyrics are all just there already, but with the drum parts and bass, Evan and I will sit down and he’d play the guitar and I’d play the bass parts and we kind of both decide what sounds good. We’ve had three live drummers since the new material and they’ve all just added their own style to it, which is what we prefer. I don’t like it to be exactly the same all the time, just because the different drummers are going to have their own style.

xFiruath: What album do you guys listen to most and what draws you back to it? A personal favorite or anything>

Zander: Um, there’s a lot.

Tom: I was raised in the eighties you know so I’ll go back to the old Iron Maiden and then all the nineties death metal and black metal. For black metal is Gorgoroth, Mayhem, you know all the famous black metal bands.

Evan: If I’m trying to write something I like a lot of different things. I like classical music a lot, it helps to relax and think about music a bit better. I like a lot of different styles and albums.

A fan from the show wanders by and shouts “You guys rock man! I gotta ask you though, how do you keep your voice?”

Zander: Well just practice and develop your technique.

xFiruath: What do you guys think is the silliest or most bizarre thing to happen in the history of metal?

Zander: Let me think.

Tom: The most ridiculous thing is the Gorgoroth guys fighting over the band on MySpace, that’s the most ridiculous thing.

Zander: That’s a tough one. I think the most ridiculous thing would be how it’s just become so trendy to do certain types of music, not even just metal in general. There’s so much online stuff and so many random bands and people starting up bands and they all just blend in together on the internet.

Tom: The internet has kind of destroyed the scene because everyone can make a band. So you’ve got 90% of the black metal bands are MySpace bands. The really good bands don’t get anywhere because of the internet, it’s just destroyed the black metal scene.

xFiruath: On your dream tour, who would you tour with and where would you go?

Zander: Probably a Norwegian band like Koldbrann or something like that, one of the more underground black metal bands in Norway. Just Europe in general for me.
Tom: Worldwide.

xFiruath: Kevin (vocalist for Lost Lady Saloon) was telling me that you know the guys from Emperor and Borknagar?

Tom: I know most Norwegian black metal bands because Norway is such a small country. My best friend was the bass player from Emperor. Mayhem guys, Dimmu guys, everyone knows each other. It’s such a small country.

xFiruath: How did you end up in the U.S.?

Tom: My main band, Koldbrann, hasn’t got anything scheduled for spring or summer, and I like to tour you know, so we hooked up on the internet. They posted something about seeking a drummer so I replied.

xFiruath: That’s all my questions, so any parting words for the fans?

Zander: You’ll see a lot more of us in the future and we’ll get some more exposure in the U.S. We’re finishing up this tour here and then there will be another tour in the fall, and then hopefully Europe. We’re also kind of talking with a bigger label, so hopefully we’ll be moving up in the world.