Interview with Kjell Hagen of Brente Engler

Date: 2009.04.15

• BELLVM GERITE: Hei Kjell, thanks for taking the time. First off, I'd like to clear something up. Who are Johannes Berg and Tor Olsen and why are they listed in the credits even though they do not appear to be playing any instruments? Do you really do all of the work or do other people contribute to Brente Engler in any way? Several people close to you have expressed doubts about their very existence because you appear to be the only person who claims to have contact to have seen them.
• Kjell Hagen: Well, I can assure you that both Johannes and Tor are very real and that Brente Engler would not be possible without their input. I really could not specifically express how they contribute to the music but they definitely play a vital role. It can be having a beer together, it can be a simple conversation, it can be a certain perspective on some problem - that is how they contribute, I suppose. Your environment shapes your life and it shapes the way you deal with reality, even if you have a distorted perception of reality. Also, I fail to see how their physical existence is relevant. Does it not suffice that they are real to me? That I can see them? That I can communicate with them?
• BELLVM GERITE: What inspired you when you were working on your first album Svart Vitenskap? What does this album mean to you?
• Kjell Hagen: I was listening to Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger a lot back when I started Brente Engler and it's so monotonous, slow and simple... yet so effective and mesmerising. When I hear it I think of random highlights in my life, like that mailwoman who smiled at me for a second, a few days ago. Don't get me wrong, what I make sounds nothing like them, I think, but the concept fascinated me and it is also why I chose this particular speed, possibly even the idea behind a few riffs. That album is also the reason why I use two guitars instead of just one even though they play exactly the same most of the time. I do not make music for money, for fame or even because I particularly enjoy it. What can I say, I haven't eaten anything in two days. It's more of an irrational obsession I have. I keep on making more because I have no other choice and it is quite saddening actually, because I do not like my music. Every single time I try to create anything I just fail. As soon as I touch an instrument the music is doomed to fail. The music is repetitive, unimaginative, it has boring riffs, my vocal technique is pathetic, my equipment blows, I can't afford much. The only good thing about it is that it doesn't participate in this dumb digital volume war. Dynamic range compression is a fucking crime and it's a shame that it is so common nowadays, even in black metal. Not many artists have the guts to go against it, releasing music with the digital release volume of, say, Vikerne's Aske [editor's note: he was referring to Kristian Vikernes of Burzum]. But what can I do about it? I just sit here and I keep on rolling more cigarettes with the walls staring back at me. I have achieved absolutely nothing as a musician and I never will. My music does not mean anything to me, it is a form of communication with the outside world which was forced on me, I am absolutely powerless. My hands shape it but it is not I who is controlling them.
• BELLVM GERITE: Lots of people speculate about the language you use in your lyrics. The name of the project, the names of the albums and the track titles are all in Norwegian - yet the language you sing in the songs does not appear to be English or Norwegian. Is it a constructed language? Some people even suggested that you were using one of the languages created by Tolkien for the Lord of the Rings.
• Kjell Hagen: I am not surprised, people are quick to jump to such conclusions even though they basically don't know anything about you. I do recall lots of Fennoscandian black metal projects making references to the works of Tolkien, Horna jump first into my mind. They guessed wrong, though. I am not particularly interested in the works of Tolkien and I certainly did not use any of the languages he constructed. I do not intend to reveal the nature of Tor's language to the public any time soon. Most people probably would not understand why we did this. Picture an angel whose wings were burned by the heat of the sun above us, falling from a great height, to certain death. That is what most accurately describes the way I feel when I sing these words. I sing with the voice of an angel!
• BELLVUM GERITE: I apologise in case I am touching a sensitive issue here but I was told that you have been suffering from mental problems since you were a child and that this also has an impact on your music. I do not expect you to answer this question and I understand if you choose not do so.
• Kjell Hagen: Oh, it's not a big deal, I am used to talking about it. It comes and goes in phases. Sometimes I am fine for one or two months, sometimes it hits me hard and it sticks with me for half a year. When it's bad I just feel miserable and restless and nothing I do gives me any satisfaction whatsoever. When I look into a mirror I see somebody, I see a guy and his unshaved face but I am unable to associate that picture with myself. I can't see his eyes, they are blurry and distorted. That person is definitely not me, yet he mimics every single movement. It was a terrifying experience for me when I was a child. Frequently I forget to eat and I generally smoke excessive amounts of cigarettes during those phases. To preemptively shoot down questions like "did your father rape you when you were a kid?" I will tell you the cause of my mental illness. I have several relatives who suffer from similar problems so chances are that it is genetic so I can hardly do anything about it. They put me on all kinds of drugs but nothing really helped, it just numbed me down and I lost all creativity. That is simply not who I want to be and I get nothing out of it. If I can't create I might aswell die for all I care. Sometimes I hear fragments of Norwegian sentences spoken by somebody behind me but when I turn around there's nobody there and it's just a yellow wall with an ugly floral pattern or a cheesy painting of a duck staring back at me. Sometimes I am angry at my parents for having procreated at all, for having passed on these toxic genes that will eventually make you insane. I decided not to repeat their mistake, I am definitely not going to have any children. Anyways, I am unable to hold a regular job due to these problems so I live on welfare, about 8000 NOK per month. It's not much but it's enough to live a fairly comfortable life.
• BELLVM GERITE: Is it true that you were institutionalised for several months during such a phase?
• Kjell Hagen: I really don't want to talk about that incident in particular. All I can say is that it was an unpleasant experience for both me and them and that they had no right to keep me there.
• BELLVM GERITE: Alright, I understand. You appear to be very creative, it was only a few weeks ago that you released your first album and three days ago you already released a new full length album. Do you really work that fast or were you already done writing the second album prior to the release of the first one?
• Kjell Hagen: No, I started working on it a few days after the release of the first album. I wouldn't really call it "creative", I think I have already explained that this is more of an obsession and not an actual choice I am able to make at a conscious level. I cannot stand my music and I do not expect anybody else to. People ask me: "Why do you make music?" My reply: "Why do you breathe?" Imagine a 6 year old taking a couple of coloured crayons to draw totally random lines on a piece of paper - that is the way I write music. Sometimes I think of myself as the Uwe Boll of black metal.
• BELLVM GERITE: What can you tell me about your new album Verden med Ende?
• Kjell Hagen: I enjoy dealing with remarkable events from human history in my lyrics, in particular Norse or Scandinavian characters, as you might have noticed. 'Den Rode Skogen' is a song about the infamous Red Forest around Chernobyl after the accident back in '86. It was totally irradiated, doomed to wither, eventually turning it red. I found that quite fascinating. I tried to enter the restricted zone when I was visiting Ukraine in 2006 but the guards said I needed a special permission from some authority... that pretty much ruined it. I had these dreams of running through that forest, naked, with everything around me dying and rotting. It always ended the same way, I would have this strange taste in my mouth, like metal, and I would die in agonising pain. The second track is about Snorre Sturlason, a man who understood religion really well, I believe. He discovered how deities are invented and used by humans, ultimately to support political motives. That man was ahead of his time. Other than that it is yet another useless release and I am deeply ashamed for what I have done. There is a sickening force that drives me to create more and more and I do not know how to stop it. I am at war at myself - how could I possibly win?
• BELLVM GERITE: What do you envision for the future of Brente Engler? Are you already working on another album?
• Kjell Hagen: That is a question I could not possibly answer with any certainty. Unlike my music, my behaviour is quite unpredictable - even to myself. I do not have any plans for the future, I just wake up every morning, well, or night, and I have no idea what is going to happen to me that particular day. Everything is uncertain, frightening and distorted and most of the time I feel unable to deal with even the most simple tasks in life, like going outside to go shopping for some groceries. I really wish it could have been different but this is the way I am, these are the genes I have been given and I am trying to make the best out of it.
• BELLVM GERITE: Thank you, Kjell.