Motorpsycho - You Gotta Hang On To The Trip You're On...

Article
taken from the Dutch magazine
OOR #7 / 1996.
English translation done by Paul Caspers.

MP are now confusing their audience much less then they used to. Whereas divergent styles like noise, metal, folk and indierock were succeeding eachother in an almost staggering tempo on albums like Timothy's Monster ('94) and especially Demon Box ('93), the band from Trondheim, Norway, now chooses a more measured musical pallet. On the brand new Blissard, recorded in the Abba-studio in Stockholm, the diversity seems to have been exchanged for coherence. "We tried hard to «thic- ken» our sound some more," explains singer and bassist Bent Sæther. "We wanted to put all the ingredients of what would normally grow into a ten-minute song into a framework of three minutes. After Timothy's Monster, we had enough with the long epic songs for a while." In retrospect: "We once started off with the band to create the perfect mix of Sonic Youth and Hawkwind. Later we added a distinct pop-flavour, under the influence of Hüsker Dü. Metal has been an element of Motorpsy- cho for a long while, but even though we're still a heavy band, we didn't think we could deepen our metal-aspect much more after Demon Box."

According to Bent, Blissard is roughly divided into two parts. "The first half is more song-oriented, particularly based on the ensemble of two guitars, mostly tuned in strange keys. We started to listen to our favourite guitar bands from the past again: Quicksilver Messenger Service from the sixties, Televi- sion from the seventies and Sonic Youth from the eighties. The second half of the record has more of an ambient-character, though you shouldn't take that conception too literally. Spacemen 3 and John Coltrane made ambient as well, as far as I'm concerned: soundtrips."

During the following tour, the Motorpsycho-sound will yet again take another turn, because the band is reduced to the hard core for it. "The two guitars from Blissard are in the past already. We're now a trio again, with next to me Gebhardt on drums and Snah on guitar. We don't have a keyboard player anymore, cause Deathprod has been sick of touring for ages and Lars Lien had to deal with a wrist injury because he played too much table-soccer. After that, our light-man Morten Fagervik has been keyboard player and guitarist for a while, but by now he has been promoted to touring manager and he also does the lights again. On stage we're going back to the basics again, although you can always cheat for a bit. We'll have to use a lot of samplers and pedals."

Sæther can't point out any distinctly Norwegian characteristic in his music. "Or maybe the omnipresent melancholy, which is inherent to Scandinavian people, according to people who should know. Take Ibsen, Strindberg, Munch, all «gloomy» artists... It probably has something to do with the climate, long dark winters." Bent has never considered to present his songs in his own language. "We don't want to be comprehensible only to Norwegians. And besides, in Norway numerous dialects are spoken, which differ from eachother a lot. I've lived in a lot of different places in the country and that's why I speak a strange sort of Norwegian, which is why I think I can ex- press myself in English even better."

Wim Niehaus


[media stories: english: 1996]
	Motorpsycho Article taken from the Dutch magazine OOR #7 / 1996. English translation done by Paul Caspers. MP are now confusing their audience much less then they used to. Whereas divergent styles like noise, metal, folk and indierock were succeeding eachother in an almost staggering tempo on albums like Timothy's Monster ('94) and especially Demon Box ('93), the band from Trondheim, Norway, now chooses a more measured musical pallet. On the brand new Blissard, recorded in the Abba-studio in Stockholm, the diversity seems to have been exchanged for coherence. "We tried hard to «thic- ken» our sound some more," explains singer and bassist Bent Sæther. "We wanted to put all the ingredients of what would normally grow into a ten-minute song into a framework of three minutes. After Timothy's Monster, we had enough with the long epic songs for a while." In retrospect: "We once started off with the band to create the perfect mix of Sonic Youth and Hawkwind. Later we added a distinct pop-flavour, under the influence of Hüsker Dü. Metal has been an element of Motorpsy- cho for a long while, but even though we're still a heavy band, we didn't think we could deepen our metal-aspect much more after Demon Box." According to Bent, Blissard is roughly divided into two parts. "The first half is more song-oriented, particularly based on the ensemble of two guitars, mostly tuned in strange keys. We started to listen to our favourite guitar bands from the past again: Quicksilver Messenger Service from the sixties, Televi- sion from the seventies and Sonic Youth from the eighties. The second half of the record has more of an ambient-character, though you shouldn't take that conception too literally. Spacemen 3 and John Coltrane made ambient as well, as far as I'm concerned: soundtrips." During the following tour, the Motorpsycho-sound will yet again take another turn, because the band is reduced to the hard core for it. "The two guitars from Blissard are in the past already. We're now a trio again, with next to me Gebhardt on drums and Snah on guitar. We don't have a keyboard player anymore, cause Deathprod has been sick of touring for ages and Lars Lien had to deal with a wrist injury because he played too much table-soccer. After that, our light-man Morten Fagervik has been keyboard player and guitarist for a while, but by now he has been promoted to touring manager and he also does the lights again. On stage we're going back to the basics again, although you can always cheat for a bit. We'll have to use a lot of samplers and pedals." Sæther can't point out any distinctly Norwegian characteristic in his music. "Or maybe the omnipresent melancholy, which is inherent to Scandinavian people, according to people who should know. Take Ibsen, Strindberg, Munch, all «gloomy» artists... It probably has something to do with the climate, long dark winters." Bent has never considered to present his songs in his own language. "We don't want to be comprehensible only to Norwegians. And besides, in Norway numerous dialects are spoken, which differ from eachother a lot. I've lived in a lot of different places in the country and that's why I speak a strange sort of Norwegian, which is why I think I can ex- press myself in English even better." Wim Niehaus Back to the Media Stories page...