By Norwegian folk metal crew Trollfest is on the road with Korpiklaani, and they’re celebrating a new full-length album release along the way. The band’s vivacious and sometimes over-the-top release, “Norwegian Fairytales”, features themes from their homeland.
In case you’re planning to catch these merrymakers on tour, expect a boisterous set filled with instruments ranging from standard metal guitars and drums to accordion, fiddle, saxophone and more. Trollfest co-founder Trollmannen gave insight into the band’s life on the road, as well as some of the crew’s most notorious non-musical
Metal Solstice: “Norwegian Fairytales” has been out for a few weeks now; what has been the fans’ thoughts so far?
Trollmannen: So far the response has been quite good overall, there are always some extremes at both ends of the scale, but in general it seems the fans are liking it. Then again it is a self-serving conundrum, as in if they don’t like it, they are in a way technically no longer fans and as such their opinion doesn’t matter in this case, so all in all, all the fans love it.
MS: How did the band land on this specific set of fairytales and legends to include on the album?
TM: We usually start with a concept and let the rest follow from that. In this case, the theme was Norwegian and so the inclusion of Norwegian folklore seemed necessary.
However the lyrics are based on mythological beings from Norwegian folklore and not actual fairytales; it is a collection of new fairytales, if you like.
MS: Trollfest has so many sound influences- from Scandinavian to Balkan and more. Which of these are the most influential styles present in “Norwegian Fairytales”?
TM: On this particular release there is hopefully a strong Norwegian folk music influence. Some of the regular Balkan influence actually had to give way to make it happen, so we really hope it works.
As for unique sounds, we have never used a Hardanger fiddle before and we did this time around so that was quite special. It has a very very cool folk tone to it.
MS: The band has a pretty intense tour schedule between now and the end of March. What is life like on the road with Trollfest?
TM: We do our best to observe the weekends and we sometimes try to get up early in the morning, but mostly we try to have as much fun as possible.
We also spend a lot of time looking for waterparks and aquariums or similar fun stuff. On rare occasions we will not have a beer, but those occasions are few and far between.
MS: Do any of the band members have hidden talents?
TM: Oh yes! I myself am a very talented couch potato and procrastinator extraordinaire. Mr. Seidel is a five time award winning Master knitter in the local knitting community and has a good chance of going regional this year. Lodd bolt is a very good hair dresser and does hair for a lot of celebrities. Kjelkje has a long history of very impressive cabbage farming and has won both the biggest cabbage prize and cabbage of the year award.
Fjernkontrollet is a medieval historian and has written several scrolls about medieval life and how to live it in today’s society. He is also the author of the best selling book “Fuck Technology – Living by Your Own Muscle”. Drekkadag is a very adept cartographer and has most likely drawn some of the maps you’ve seen, whereas Grimdrap Fleskeng is one of the most talented lawyers in all of Norway, except the practicing ones, the ones being educated, and those with any aspirations towards law whatsoever.
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