With:	Tomas Liljedahl
Conducted by:	RaduP (video)
Published:	30.09.2024

One of the bands that I approached during my rush of interviewing fervor was Norna, a band that I saw live and photographed and whose last album I was really impressed by. I got to talk with guitarist/vocalist Tomas about it, though the internet connection in my dorm room was so bad that I ended up having to enlist our dear editor in chief to assist in the transcribing rather than uploading a very technical error filled video interview.



Radu: We are here with Tomas from Norna and an assortment of other bands in the past.

Tomas Liljedahl: Yep, yeah.

Radu: How are you today?

TL: I’m good, man, thank you. How are you?

[Ed: I am fine, thank you. How are you, the viewers at home?]

Radu: Pretty good. I’ve just been relistening to your latest album, and I remembered that the first time I listened to it, it was – you know, a lot of albums get released on Friday and I’m trying to burn through a lot of them to see, okay, which ones I might be interested as a journalist to cover, or even if I’m not covering them, if somebody else reviewed them, it’s nice to listen to what they reviewed, and while this happened I was at the gym. And “Samsara” comes on and it’s instantly such an acidic, caustic track.

TL: That was the idea: crush on 1, you know!

Radu: Yeah, it didn’t even wait. I just pressed play and it was instant adrenaline rush. The track didn’t keep that momentum for its entire run time, but for, like, two minutes it was “holy shit”.

TL: Yeah, that’s good, yeah. That was the initial idea, you know: let’s crush from bar one and then go into the dynamics.

Radu: I do have to ask, why is the second album a self-titled, when most bands would usually go the opposite route?

TL: Well, initially we had a title for the album, but it ended up – our label, Pelagic, I talked to Robin [Staps, of Pelagic and The Ocean] and he was like, “Oh shit, Tomas, we just released an album with a band with that title,” and I was like, “Oh shit, man, so what are we gonna do?” “You guys wanna come up with a new title or something?” and I was like no, no, because the title was really connected to the whole theme and vision of the songs lyrically, so we were like, “No, no, let’s make it a self-titled album,” instead of coming up with something that doesn’t really relate to the theme of the album. So that’s why it ended up as a self-titled album. Feels good, you know. It feels okay to have it as a self-titled album.

Radu: Okay. Yeah, so now you know when you’re naming an album to have a plan B.

[Ed: The issue is that self-titling it is the plan B; next time, plan B would be Norna II, which I absolutely will not accept for a band’s third album.]

TL: Yep, yep.

[Ed: And here our subjects break from the discussion to note the instability of their internet connection, which is what prompted this textual version rather than the now-standard delivery of the video. Undoubtedly it is, as with most things around here, Radu’s fault.]

Radu: Back when you first started getting into heavy music, do you remember a specific album or band that made you want to go from being a music fan to actually making music?

TL: Well, this was at a really young age. Of course I’ve been listening to music all my life, and when I was really young, it was mostly heavy metal, British heavy metal. Maiden was like – yeah, that’s cool, all that stuff. Then I went from that to classic rock and soul and blues, still at a very young age. But then I got into the punk scene, you know, and I got really interested in the New York hardcore scene, like the bands Judge, Youth Of Today, Burn, like the Revelation [Records] New York straight-edge hardcore bands, kind of, and that, especially when I heard an album with a band called Youth Of Today – the album is called We're Not In This Alone – I was blown away.

It wasn’t at all the kind of music I play today, I write today, it was more intense hardcore punk stuff. First of all, the energy just fucking blew me away, you know, it was so full of energy. And also their state of mind, the whole punk rock state of mind thing also kind of gave me a new perspective on life, if you will. I started writing music and playing music when I first got in touch with that hardcore scene, and we actually started a bunch of punk rock bands. We had a band called Superdong, which was like a skate punk band, and it got kind of famous. [Ed: Presumably Superdong is the opposite of Bad Dong.] We’re talking ’92, ’93 now, so it’s way back. I guess from that, I kind of got more into heavy music, especially death metal, Swedish death metal, and also – not only Swedish, but mainly Swedish death metal – and some black metal after that. I mean, back then, black metal was Venom. It’s not what it is today. [Ed: That’s true. Now it is Venom Inc.]

But I would say what got me into writing and listening to more heavy music was the death metal scene. That really struck me also, the energy and the dark vibes of the whole thing. I have good friends of mine here in Sweden that used to play in death metal bands like Entombed and Dismember, bands like that, and that totally blew me away. That kind of got me into the heavier parts of music, and I’ve kind of been in that heavy hole since then. I would like to say the last five, six, seven years I’ve become a bit more open-minded when it comes to music and genre, and I listen to music in different ways now than I did before, but yeah, the death metal scene kind of took me into – well, obviously the black metal scene, and also stoner, the doom stuff, all that [sort of] thing. But it started with a straight-edge hardcore band called Youth Of Today.

Radu: I think I know the band by name, but you mentioned the album that doesn’t actually ring a bell. But I will have to check it out. [Ed: So will I. It’s only 20 minutes long.]

TL: Yeah, but it was among all those, Gorilla Biscuits, like the more “spiritual” part of the hardcore vibe back then. [Ed: I get what he means, but it’s still a bit odd to hear the words “gorilla biscuits” and “spiritual” in the same sentence.] You also had, like, Madball and all those New York hardcore, mosh hardcore bands. I was listening to that, too, but more the straight-edge scene. I wasn’t straight-edge myself, but I liked their enthusiasm and their vision and their energy for a cause. One thing kind of took me to the other. But this was a long time ago, early ‘90s, I would say.

Radu: Yeah, back before I was born. [Ed: I was briefly aghast at how much of a baby Radu is before remembering that I’m not that much older.]

TL: (laughs at this child before him) Okay, there you go.

Radu: You did mention Swedish death metal, which almost has a very specific sound, and it’s obviously very famous. Because I’m interviewing with a metal website, of course, people are familiar with the Swedish scene for metal. Not just for death metal – for black metal, for power metal, for… whatever. Everybody’s heard “The Final Countdown”.

TL: Of course.

Radu: But Swedish punk is also a scene that seems to have some sort of reputation but is not exactly very famous among metalheads themselves. Bands like Disfear, Refused, Burst, Anti-Cimex, Skitsystem. What would you recommend for people who would want to get into Swedish punk? [Ed: Ibuprofen.]

TL: Oh, Swedish punk today… Because like you said, it’s not really – I mean, it’s there, but I would say the punk scene today is… I’m not really surrounded by that anymore. I kept the state of mind of the whole punk movement, but the scene, I’m not super familiar with the punk rock scene today. I bet there’s tons of punk bands out there, but… like, you mentioned Skitsystem, of course [Ed: This is where I learned that it is not pronounced “Skitsystem”], they’re actually in the States playing two shows now. Well, they were this last weekend. Yeah, more bands like that. But these guys have been around for so long, you know, and they pop up every now and then. But I bet there’s a punk band starting in a new cellar every day, and I’m not really into that; I’m not surrounded in that scene anymore like I used to be, so it’s easier to talk about metal when it comes to that part.

But yeah, it’s still there, but I think it’s pretty underground, you know, except a few bands like you mentioned. Anti Cimex also, and during the ‘90s you had all those punk bands, like more “happy” punk bands before the skate punk bands arrived; they were influenced by the British punk wave but they kind of made their own thing about it. Like Asta Kask, if you heard about them, and of course Anti Cimex also. But yeah, like I said, I’m not super into the punk rock scene today, so that’s a tough question. But I do enjoy listening to Skitsystem of course.

Radu: Yeah. But I didn’t exactly mention the scene today; if you want somebody who hasn’t listened to any Swedish punk, where should they start? Like, one or two albums?

TL: Well, definitely all the albums by Skitsystem. I think they’re amazing. And like you mentioned Refused. They’re kind of a crossover punk rock/hardcore band. I was more into their earlier albums than what they were doing in the end of their career, and I was mostly into the skate punk bands, like, we were on the same label, like Millencolin and No Fun At All and all those kind of bands. But that’s more skate punk. I would say it depends on what you’re into. If you want to have the British kind of punk style, which wasn’t that big during the ‘90s – that was more ‘70s, ‘80s. During the ‘90s, all the skate punk bands came in; everybody wanted to be a new NOFX or Lagwagon or whatever. Man, where do you start when you want to listen to Swedish punk? [Ed: Discharge, one has to assume.] Like I said, it depends on what kind of punk rock music you want. I guess the attitude is pretty much the same, but why not start listening to Refused if you like punk rock with a twist? But everybody knows about Refused.

[Ed: Tagging all these bands has made me realize just how many punk bands we feature on this heavy metal website.]

Radu: I’ll take that as the final answer. Back to Norna for a bit, it is a bit weird knowing that you don’t have a dedicated bass player. And I’ve seen you live at Rockstadt Extreme Fest in Romania; you also did not have a bass player then. You were both guitarists, sort of. [Ed: To be fair, who needs a dedicated bass player?]

TL: Yeah, it’s a weird setup. We went back and forth with it, but we decided not to have a bass player. We do have a bass rig onstage, and the bass rig has its own pedalboard. It’s done with MIDI stuff – you know, Chris [Macquat], the other guitar player, he’s doing all the switching back and forth, because we have a splitter from the bass rig going to both of our guitar amps. When I’m playing the rhythm guitar, I’m also playing the bass, and when Chris is playing the rhythm, he’s playing the bass, so it kind of goes back and forth between us, which was pretty interesting, because our first concern was are we gonna lack bass? But obviously we’re not. We have tons of bass.

We had to take a different approach when it came to writing music, because obviously you cannot make all those intricate riffs when the bass is supposed to play the same thing, because the bass is going out from the bass rig what I’m playing on my guitar. The riffs and the songs became a lot less, uh… a lot less, I would say. Not too complicated stuff. And that was also an idea that we had – I like the idea of having a riff repeating itself so many times that it kind of becomes its own entity and it kind of becomes its own life of its own [Ed: I also like this idea]. So that kind of matched pretty well with what we had to do in order to make the bass thing work.

We do use samples; our drummer has an SPD that we use, samples during our songs. And there are some bass in those songs also, mostly like Moog ambient bass sub stuff, but yeah, when I’m playing a riff, I’m also playing the bass. And it worked out, and also we actually did the same thing in the studio. Recording this new album, we actually thought, “Maybe we should try to add a bass guitar?”, and we tried. After tons of trying out, we just figured out, no, it’s just better to do it the way we’ve been doing it, because we recorded the album live also. Kind of-ish. I did the vocals in another session, of course. But it worked, so we recorded the bass with our guitars with its own bass rig. But I mean, it works, it works, and it’s kind of nice to only be three people on stage and still have two guitar players.

Radu: Yeah, I bet setting up is a lot easier then.

TL: (laughs) Yeah, we don’t have to deal with too many people. It’s just us three. And it’s also a lot easier when it comes to connecting with each other, because when we play, we like to look at each other and play with each other to get the right vibe, and that’s easier when you’re only three people. Usually when we set up on stage, even if it’s a big stage, we try to set up pretty tight so we can still look at each other and communicate with each other. Yeah, no bass player. Still a bass, but.

Radu: All right. And now a small question more of a, let’s say, Database Master question [Ed: Roll for initiative, Tomas]: when did The Old Wind stop being active?

TL: Hmm… Well, we did record – I moved to the States, I lived in LA for a couple of years, and we recorded album #2 with The Old Wind while I was still living in LA. So I went back to Sweden for two weeks, we recorded the album, and I went back to the States. I was supposed to record the vocals in the States. This was… 2015? Or ’16? Might have been 2016. And I couldn’t really feel it, because, you know… The Old Wind became a band. Initially it was only me. I wrote the whole album myself, I recorded the whole album myself, the first album. [I had] a vision, where I wanted to go with it, and for the second album, I was like, “Okay, I want to play this live”, so I needed to get a band together.

I talked to a bunch of buddies. It was Niklas [Quintana], a friend of mine from Breach, and Robin [Staps again], the guitar player in The Ocean, and also Mattias [Hägerstrand], who’s actually playing the bass in The Ocean right now. He was in the band, in the live setup, and another drummer from Stockholm [Karl Daniel Lidén]. And I also thought, “Well, let’s all write together”. I wanted to try a different approach to it. The first album was only me, let’s try to do it together. But in the end, it didn’t really work out, because I still had a vision, a very strict vision of what I wanted to do, and when you bring in too many chefs, you know, it becomes something else. I can’t say it was bad, but I couldn’t feel it. So at the end of the day I had to talk to Robin, who was releasing it, and I was like, “I can’t do this. It’s not where I want to go with this.” And he was like, “Okay,” he could completely understand where I was coming from, so we kind of trashed that album and I was like, “Okay, I’m still in the States, let’s let it sink in for a while and see where this goes”. [Ed: I don’t know about the band, but the States has definitely kept sinking.]

And then I eventually moved back to Sweden a bit earlier than I was supposed to – I was supposed to stay there longer, but yeah, long story – and I kind of tried to pick it up again, but it was kind of hard because the people I wanted to play with… It was hard live, and it was hard to get it done, and I tried a couple of new members, different members, and we actually wrote songs, we almost wrote a whole album, sketches for a new album, but I felt that I wanted to start from scratch, so we even talked about changing the name. It was impossible to do it. But I still had this urge of doing some things, so that’s when I came in contact with Chris and Marc [Theurillat, drums], and that eventually ended up being Norna.

It was like… it got diluted in cosmos, kind of. But it’s definitely not a thing right now. I don’t think we went out with a statement or anything, but…

Radu: It just fizzled out at some point. You stopped considering it.

TL: Yeah. So that’s definitely no more. [Ed: And thus Radu does not get his answer. Sad for our database.] And I think The Old Wind was something that I should have kept to myself, now in retrospect; it was more like an album, it was more like a therapy session for me, and I should have just been done with it after that. There’s a time and space for everything [Ed: Hold it right there, buster], and I guess I reached that span with The Old Wind. So it couldn’t be done anymore. But I still wanted to create music and I still had a vision, and I met Marc and Chris and we shared the same vision. We got together and started just playing, with no intention, no thought, no nothing, just playing to feel it. Can we connect to each other? Do we want the same things here? And we did, so here we are now.

Radu: So we can say that The Old Wind ended when Norna started? [Ed: You see, readers, this is Radu being sneaky.]

TL: Kind of. Yeah. Not kind of – that’s a good way to put it. Definitely.

Radu: I’m going to use that as a source. [Ed: Yes, I know you will. And I’m allowing it because I’m nice.]

TL: I never thought of it that way, but yeah, you’re right.

Radu: All right, we’re reaching the end of our interview. Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

TL: Not really, no. If you don’t have any more questions, I’m good with it. We’re stoked – I’m leaving now Friday for touring, so that’s gonna be amazing.

Radu: Have fun.

TL: So we look forward to that, yeah.

Radu: Okay. Final question is: if you could get any living director to direct a music video for Norna, who would it be?

TL: Oh, man. Fuck. That would be a hard one. Any living director to direct… I can’t really think. I have to think about that one, but that would be… Oh, tough one. Maybe, like, some weird movie director or something… Actually, I’ve been thinking about – because Niklas, my friend, old bandmate, he was in Terra Tenebrosa and also Breach, he has been making some very interesting videos, and I was actually thinking about approaching him to see if he would be up for it. But I haven’t really been thinking about it, because videos [have] not really been in my – I never really cared about videos.

[Ed: He’s not alive anymore, but I nominate Georges Méliès. Or, just for the hell of it, Mel Brooks.]

Radu: Well, now I planted the seed.

TL: Yeah. It’s also a money thing when it comes to videos, because it’s very costly, you know, and a band like us, we don’t usually have that money to spend. We spend it all – we spent a lot of money on production and recording music. But I don’t know; you planted a seed. I will think about it, for sure.

Radu: Okay. Thank you for the interview.

TL: Thank you for having me.

Radu: Sorry for the shitty internet connection.

TL: No, no, it was only a little bit there. And sorry for being late!

Radu: Yeah, no problem. Well, have fun touring. Bye.