Rikard Falk from Rådarna interview.
Q: Can you tell us about your journey as a Folk Metal band? How did you come together and decide to pursue this genre?
A: For me it was when I heard Finntroll years back, it really started in 2017 when there was a lot going on for me personally, I wrote the chorus to House of Banshee at that time and felt it sounded so good that I should pursue this, I actually didn’t have a clue what I was doing starting out so I teamed up with Jose and we wrote Beware of Red Cap together and it really removed all doubt in my mind that we should do this. Regarding why I wanted to pursue this genre I guess as the time we started out there felt like a slight folk metal drought from the big names so yeah I guess that we just felt there need to be more such music out there.
Q: What is your songwriting process like? How do you capture the essence of your music?
A: For most of the songs I start off with the writing then send it to Jose to complete it, after he’s done I do finishing touches and write the lyrics. We’ve written many more songs together by this point and there will be songs each of us have written entirely by each of us individually in the future. We have a liking for eachothers writing style’s which makes writing the music far more exciting because you can’t judge your own writing it becomes easier to decide what works and what doesn’t. He has told me when something won’t work and I’ve told him what needs changing.
Ultimately I think the music itself leads the way, sometimes it has a intention behind it like the song itself is intended with a particular legend in mind other times the song tend to speak of it’s own story. I live in the forest among the mountains so I use nature as inspiration, I want to feel a strong connection to the spirit of the land like some tunes come from long forest walks getting a new melody stuck in my head.
Q: As a Folk Metal group spread across different countries, how do you manage to collaborate and create music without being physically together?
A: It is a bit difficult, we write sheets so there’s a song there before we go in. I’m the one that oversee’s the recording and there are sometimes changes made in the recording process but you must check and double check that the improvements don’t screw the entire song in which case you’d have to redo everything else. I’ve never done shit with everyone present but I imagine it’d be way easier to hear what the instruments sound like together on the spot rather then in post.
Q: What challenges do you face as a band that doesn't perform live shows? How do you overcome them?
A: I feel the biggest challenge is no income and more struggle of getting discovered by potential fans and listeners. Like I think most bands make the most money through live shows and the often get discovered by opening for others. I wouldn’t say we’ve overcome that but I say overall I try to not think about that, I kinda think the only things we’ve focused on at the moment is making the music sound good, I really hate the whole social media scene as well. I just want to make some awesome songs and even if the approach leaves me obscure and poor I still want to make sure I’m proud of the songs we made.To me not having a contract or financial success doesn’t make you failed musician, I’d define a failed musician as a musician without a soul.
Q: Since you don't perform live, how do you engage with your fans and connect with the audience?
A: The short answer is we don’t. Ultimately we have a very small fanbase at this point in time it seems, but that doesn’t matter. Sure more fans would be nice but if even casual listeners get a good time that’s something you should take pride and joy in.
Q: Despite the financial challenges faced you mentioned your determination to continue. What drives your passion and keeps you going?
A: I think it’s cause I genuinely live and breathe the themes of the music we’re making, it feels at home to me to do this almost like a holy mission, there’s also someone who’s spirit I like to honor and preserve in the tunes, he died the same year I started out and was a huge trigger for it starting out in the first place. He’s also a guy best not mentioned as I’ve hinted at his musical influence before.
Q: Can you share some of the influences that have shaped your sound as a Folk Metal band?
A: This is a common question and it becomes boring if I always give the same answer cause whichever music you listen to is gonna influence you if you’re a musician, it’s clearly Finntroll, Korpiklaani and Alestorm and all other household names big and small. But I’ve also been influenced by folk music, even latin music like salsa, not to mention punk rock bands like the old school ones, let’s not forget jazz either, I really like Cab Calloway he’s a favorite of mine.
Q: In what ways do you hope to contribute to the Folk Metal genre? Are there specific elements or themes you aim to explore in your music?
A: One of the biggest criticisms I’ve gotten is that we sound too much like Finntroll but personally I feel that was intentional since Finntroll mix the humppa genre of folk music with black metal, I feel they not only have their own style with that but you shouldn’t ignore the fact that they also created a sort of new subgenre. I kinda need to clarify we’d like to be different in the same way Judas Priest are different from Iron Maiden while playing the same genre.
What is so great about Folk Metal is that it uniquely doesn’t care about being weird or even seem more focused on being fun rather then just being brutal and cool. One of the things in particular I’d really want to add is a sense of variety in the theme’s being expressed in the genre, I feel Folk Metal has gotten too caught up in singing about generic things about trolls and 99% of them just do some weird generic idea rather then exploring the creatures people actually used to believe in. We try to pick unique and specific legends that haven’t been explored, my goal is to kinda do DIO type of lyrics occasionally mixed with wit and humour. Many band who do black metal or similiar genres don’t seem to care about the lyrics at all and I think that’s a mistake since singing the wrong word at the wrong part essentially feels like you’re playing the wrong note, each word still has a different sound and the lyrics need to flow.
We’re also going to experiment more with influences from many different genre’s which we seem to be good at, the number of instruments we’re gonna experiment with up ahead are gonna blow your mind if we manage to make them all work together.
Q: What are the particular themes or stories that inspires your lyrics? How did you incorporate them into your songs?
A: The songs incorporate the lyrics not the other way around, there are many legends, folklore and mythology that I draw inspiration from. I also try to understand each of them and their history on a deeper level I also play with the silly image pop culture has given this neglected forgotten past of ours. For example the idea of making the Red Cap run a tourist resort actually came from the movie “troll 2” there’s even a reference in the song to the sign scene as the vocalist “should have read the sign”. Really the influences for our lyrics are too numerous and complicated to tell about in a single sentence. I will admit though sometimes I keep it more simple than I did on the EP. But the goal is to make it work on 3 separate layers like a real myth would.
Q: Can you tell us anything about your upcoming projects that we might look forward to?
A: Oh, this is my favorite question because now that we’ve finished the first album and the EP it’s time to prove our true metal. You see the album we really wanted to make was the second one as it got all the best-written songs, we have one song in particular that took an entire year to write, for comparison our regular songs took about a month or so to write, if we manage to pull this album off we hope to make it a masterpiece. It’s really large too, the 9th song is but the midway point so it’s gonna take you on a never ending ride of excitement if you like our music you’re gonna love the second album.
Again having the money to record is the only challenge right now. The second album though, I have high hopes it’ll be our “Jakten’s Tid” and the one people mention when they mention us. I’ve no idea if we’ll even be able to top this once it’s complete.
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