Dear readers, we have the pleasure of interviewing a new band from the Norwegian Prog scene, with their debut album “The Approbation” due out in June 2023 via InsideOut Music. We welcome AVKRVST.
Hi, how are you?
Hello! We’re good, thank you!
You are a new Norwegian Progressive Rock band, where did your passion for this genre come from?
Martin and I (Simon) basically grew up with progressive rock as our fathers are prog-heads and also had (and still have) there own progressive rock band called Tammatoys! We’ve been fed prog since the day we were born, really, haha.
Norway has a good tradition in progressive rock, which artists have inspired you the most and to whom are you the most attached?
Absolutely! I actually think we have been listening more to other neighbors Sweden to be honest. We grew up listening to bands like Anekdoten, Opeth, Katatonia, The Flower Kings and Meshuggah. Not to mention one of our favorite bands Mew from Denmark!
We announced on our webzine the release of your debut album “The Approbation” for June 2023, how would you describe this work?
It is an atmospheric, massive sounding concept album which crosses the line between prog rock and metal, with lots of pop references as well. It is an album we made during a period of time of 6 weekends at a cabin, where we didn’t try to make anything specific at all – so its just about 50 minutes of music that came really natural to us, to be honest.
This work will be a concept, what themes do the lyrics of the album deal with?
It’s quite a depressing story where you follow this main character who is left all alone with his mind. Isolated on a cabin far away from civilization, trying to accept that the time has come to leave earth.
The album is characterised by a very elaborate sound with guitar twists and extensive use of keyboards, how would you describe the sound of this work?
It’s massive piece of music, with everything from lush, melancholic moods to more heavy, aggressive atmospheres. I think that most people will find something they appreciate in regards to the sonics of the album.
The album features some sounds such as rain or horn train recorded outside the studio, what particular technique did you use?
All the soundscapes and field recordings on throughout the album is recorded with an iPhone just outside of the cabin. The wind, rain, steps, train horn etc. We wanted to capture the mood of the album and recording process in the album itself – and it’s quite majestic to hear the echo from the train hour bouncing off the mountains that surrounds the cabin in the middle of the night.
We also released some news about the singles taken from the album, are there any more official videos planned?
Not at the moment, but there might be a little something planned!
Many Prog fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
Absolutely! We’re actually playing our first show this Saturday with The Flower Kings and Pendragon amongst others – and there will be more live shows in the future.
Music and Prog in particular are constantly evolving, how do you see the future of the genre?
That’s what’s nice with progressive music, isn’t it? There are lots of great prog band, both new and old, and I believe they all inspire new musicians in the genre in some way. It will evolve, and it should evolve, because that really is what it’s all about.
What advice would you like to give to young artists approaching the musical world by proposing a more elaborate genre such as yours?
Don’t do what you think others might like or dislike, just make the music exactly like you imagine and want it to be. Do it for yourself and not for others, basically. If it’s «good» it will be discovered by someone in the end, I believe.
The AVKRVST project has signed to the InsideOut Music label, one of the leading labels in the Prog genre, what can you tell us about that?
We didn’t plan to release the music at first, but after contacting some Norwegian labels and getting great responses, we thought that this might be something to consider after all. We almost signed with one of the labels, but a few weeks after sending an email to InsideOut we got an interesting reply. One thing led to the other and now we’re here! We grew up with listening to everything that came out on InsideOut, so it’s like a
childhood dream come true to us.
Do you have any other passions or artistic projects outside of music?
We all work with music as our profession and our passions outside of music is probably… music, haha. We live and breathe music.
I would like to thank AVKRVST for the interview and wish them all the best for the continuation of their artistic career.
Pre-order the album here: https://avkrvst.lnk.to/TheApprobation
