In dark and violent league with Satan
Mz.412
m[m]First off tell us a bit about why and how Mz.412 was originally formed?
Nordvargr MZ. 412 was born in 1988 (as Maschinenzimmer 412) in a dirty rehearsal room in a damp basement in Karlskoga, Sweden. Inspired by the early first wave of industrial music (TG, SPK etc) and crossbred with the local history of "industrialism" (Karlskoga / Bofors has been making heavy artillery for hundreds of years), we started making music with what we had... and it came out quite noisy.
m[m] Where does the bands name come from & what does it mean to you?
Nordvargr That is an internal matter and is not discussed outside the Anti-Klan.
m[m]Tell us a bit about how the reissues of the five original albums came about?
Nordvargr It is a long story, and also a tragic one, so I will not go into too much details. But in short; Cold Meat Industry started falling apart and we needed to find a new label. Since our old albums never seemed to be available and in stock, we wanted to change that. Also, the sound quality and mixing of some of the old albums were not so good.
After closing the deal with Cold Spring we decided to begin our collaboration with restoring the past.
I spent a good part of 2010 working on these five albums, and I must say that I am very pleased with the result.
m[m]I believe you’ve remixed/ remastered each album- can you tell us a bit about this and how you think these version are improved of the original issues of each album?
Nordvargr As I said in the previous question - the sound needed some polishing. In the 90´s when we recorded most of it we were not so good at mastering as we are today.
There were also some unused parts and different takes preserved from the old masters, and we spent a good time listening through it all and decided what would be the best ones. To me it is now perfect. It comes together nicely, and I am proud to have been part of creating this milestone.
m[m]Tell us a bit about how you selected the old prints that are on the inside each of the identical looking black matt digipaks & how do you see them relating to each release?
Nordvargr That was actually taken care of by our designer Abby Hellasdottir, so I can´t speak much about it... we did pick the final prints based on gut feeling, how we felt they related to the feelling we had for each album.
m[m]Your second album “Burning The Temple of God” saw black elements becoming more obvious and noticeable with in your sound- what trigged this and what Black metal bands did you see as an influence on this? Nordvargr I guess our personal tastes in music spilled over into the music we made... one big influence was Marduk. They played support act(!) to another of my projects in Lund back in 1992 or 1993, and that was a real eye-opener to us.
m[m]Still talking about “Burning The Temple of God”- this originally featured
a picture of one of the churches burnt in Norway by members of the then underground
Black metal scene- why made you decide to use this image, and what are your
thoughts then & now about the burning of churches? Nordvargr It was an idea that Cold Meat Industry came up with and we thought it was a very fitting image for the album. Church burnings per se are a useless act - if you want to change the things that be, use your brain, not matches. The picture did however symbolise the demise of old dogmas in a symbolic manner. That is our only comment on the subject.
m[m] Each of the five Mz.412 albums seem to have there own
themes and distinct vibes running through them. From your point of view what do
you see as the themes concepts behind each album? Nordvargr To me there are no themes, only feelings. In Nomine... is aggression, Burning... is agression and liberation, Nordik... is war and chaos, Domine... is aftermath and reflection, Infernal is resurrection and inner strength.
m[m] Do you have a favourite of the five albums & if you had to advise some one new to the project on what album to start with which would it be?
Nordvargr Personally I´d say it is a tie between Nordik Battle Signs and Infernal Affairs. They both show all aspects of our sound compressed into one album. But each album has it´s special vibe and the only real answer would be to buy the Vault box..
m[m]How long did it take to write and complete each of your
five albums?? And which was the problematic and time consuming?
Nordvargr We usually work with an album for a year or so, but it all depends on when inspiration sets in... none of the albums have been problematic, but when it comes to the one that took the longest time to complete there is no hesitation; Infernal Affairs. We have never worked so long and so much with an album.
Also, the Vault box could be mentioned as maybe the most problematic, to make five albums recorded over such a long timespan sound good and to go through all old mastertapes and session recordings again to find unused material was no easy thing... but it was worth it.
m[m]Clearly Mz.412 sound is often very filmatic and soundtrack
like in places- have you ever been offered scoring work & would this be
something you’d be interested in? And are the any films you’d like to re-score
as a collective?
Nordvargr Nope, we have never been offered to score anything. I think we have always been to "extreme" or thought of as just too crazy to be considered.
Would be interesting to do something some day though - we are always open to new ideas.
Rescoring films...? Can´t think of any movie right now, but most movies tend to be boring musicwise. There are of course a few exceptions; I recently saw Gaspar Noe´s "Enter the void" - that was perfect in every way
m[m]On the 5th of March 2011 Mz.412 played a rare show to celebrate Cold Spring 21st Anniversary- can you tell us a bit about the concept behind your performance and your creepy ritual/ executioner hood stage attire?
Nordvargr The concept was to take away the personal aspect of us as performers, to remove the faces and personality. To present the music and visuals in their purest form, untainted by ego and idolisations.
m[m]Was this performance filmed and if so to you hope to release it at some point?
Nordvargr No, it was not filmed, but it was recorded and we have just finished mastering it. Expect something on Cold Spring soon, hopefully a complete documentation of all performances that night.
m[m]Have you any plans to any more live shows?
Nordvargr Yes. We plan to perform one more show in Italy, probably early next year. It is still being planned though, so I have no details now...
m[m]I believe your now working on a new Mz.412 album- can you tell us a bit about this & how it compares the project five other album’s?
Nordvargr It is in progress right now. Not much to say yet... too early to draw any conclusions. It is always a very random process in the beginning.
m[m]Can you give us some insight to how you write your albums as a collective??- do you write together or work on tracks alone then bring the tracks to the group?
Nordvargr We have worked both ways. We are not bound to a specific way of working with our music. Some music comes from improvised sessions, others from traditionally "written" music. I think this dynamic and flexible approach is what has made our music what it is.
m[m] Do you still meet and create music as a collective in a practice space, or is it now done over the net?
Nordvargr We all have our small personal studios now, so we get together less and do stuff as a collective - we also live very far from each other (Sweden/Asia) so it complicates things. But sending files and collaborating "live" over the net is easy nowadays, so it is not an issue.
m[m] Has the way you create sound and the equipment you use changed over the years in the collective?
Nordvargr Yes, very much. When we started we only had a cheap sampler, a few analogue synths and the amps/guitars/fx that we shared with the local bands in our rehearsal room. Over the years we have all built up our own arsenals of tools... it is quite fun to think about it actually - to listen to what we made from the sparse tools at hand. But I have said it before - it is not about WHAT you have, it is HOW you use it.
m[m] You’ve personally shown interest in the HNW scene of late with the release of your Nordvargr tape“The walls are closing In”- can you see your self working in HNW elements into Mz.412 future work?
Nordvargr No, MZ. 412 is MZ. 412. It takes no inspiration from the outside. I leave the experimentation to my soloprojects.
Thanks to Nordvargr for his time and efforts with the interview. The live pictures used in the interview were taken by Kristoffer Oustad from when played in London. The bands Last FM page can be found here. All five of the projects albums have recently been reissued in a remastered and extra laden form on Cold spring records- the albums are available separately or all together as a deluxe vault box- to find out more & buy direct drop in here.