SKITLIV - Interview With Former MAYHEM Frontman Maniac

SKITLIV - Interview With Former MAYHEM Frontman Maniac

www.Sheol-Magazine.com has posted an interview they conducted with former MAYHEM vocalist Maniac after his band SKITLIV's recent gig in Salzburg, Austria. An excerpt follows:

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: What do you think about the club here? Did you really expect a cave when you heard "Cave Club"?

Maniac: "No, not really. But actually there's a place in Norway, that is almost the same."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: What is the place in Norway called?

Maniac: "Hulen in Bergen. It's inside of a mountain."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Is it that place, where Gorgoroth made their video-clip?

Maniac: "Yeah."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: This is one of the last gigs on this tour. Are you happy to go home again or would you like to play more live gigs?

Maniac: "Both I guess. I mean I could play many more shows, but it'll also be good to come home. But we'll have to spend Christmas Eve in Amsterdam. We couldn't get tickets for the plane. So I, Niklas, the merch girl and Spacebrain are staying in Amsterdam on Christmas Eve."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: What are you doing there on Christmas Eve? I think everything is closed and all people are at home with their families…

Maniac: "We're getting really drunk there!"

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Niklas of SHINING is also playing in Skitliv. How did you get together?

Maniac: "We live together actually."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: He's living in Norway?

Maniac: "Yes, and when we first met many years ago we hated each other. We couldn't stand each other, we really hated each other. But then he moved to Oslo and now we're the best friends in the fucking world. We live together in the same apartment. And he's a very important piece of Skitliv, he's really important."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Who else is playing in the band?

Maniac: "It's Spacebrain on bass, Wedebrand on drums - he used to play in Shining before, and Ingvar on guitar."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Are these members also playing in other bands?

Maniac: "Of course Niklas is playing in Shining, the other members are not playing in other bands."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: When will your album be released?

Maniac: "We will record it in February. I guess when I come home now first I will go to Japan in January and I will stay there for fourteen days to visit my girlfriend. When I come back home then we'll record the album in February. I have still not signed a record contract, but I think it will be signed when I come back home. We have offers from different companies, but I think it will be an English one."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Have you any material out now?

Maniac: "Yes, we have a mini-CD out. It's called Kristiansen and Kvarforth Swim In The Sea Of Equilibrium While Waiting. We just recorded two songs before the tour and we had to do it ourselves so it's just a CD-R. But it will also be a single out on Cold Spring Records with one more song and they will also release some of the songs that we did live in London. Hopefully that will be out quite soon. But I think, if we record the album in February than probably that one will be out in April or May. Me and Niklas have most of the material ready, so it will be six or seven songs, because the songs are so fucking long. The more we play the longer the songs get."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: What are the songs about?

Maniac: "Oh my god! I was in London for three weeks and I wrote all the lyrics there, and they are so long - it's like a fucking book. They are really long it's gonna be hard to remember them live. I think it's a mix of nihilism and misanthropy, but also actually some of the titles are inspired by Pirates Of The Caribbean. They're called like 'World's End' and 'Set Sail' and stuff like that. So it's very difficult to explain what they're about, because it's like a mix of philosophy and really strange religions."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Will the lyrics be in the CD-booklet?

Maniac: "Yeah, the booklet will be very big."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: I saw photos of you wearing a pink jacket with cartoon animals. Is that jacket part of your live outfit or was it just a gag?

Maniac: "No, I used it a lot, because I don't care about make-up and all that shit anymore. It's just a part of the music actually to fuck up people's minds."

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: Where did you get it? Normally it's for children I think.

Maniac: "It's from the merch girl!"

www.Sheol-Magazine.com: You were on tour with Gallhammer a few months ago. Why did you play only one gig in Germany?

Maniac: "I don't know really, because the promoter just set up six shows. Gallhammer were doing maybe twelve shows or something. I don't know why we didn't play more shows, but actually the show in Berlin was very good. Now I think we're doing about six shows in Germany."

Head to this location to read the interview in its entirety.