by Gregory Burkart, Sat., Sep. 19, 2009 10:00 AM PDT
In: Fear Net
Interview: Mortiis – From Masks to Monsters
Few artists have managed the creative task of building entire imaginary worlds to play in – at least not to the degree that Mortiis (aka Håvard Ellefsen) has undertaken over the past fifteen years. After a two-year run as bassist for Emperor (Norway's notorious black metal outfit), Mortiis began to explore epic fantasy music in several ambitious solo projects, and the worlds he envisioned even led him to transform his appearance for live shows – including an elaborate mask resembling the goblin 'Blix' from Ridley Scott's Legend. The image ended up sticking with him for many years, through his most recent albums The Smell of Rain and The Grudge, even as his music moved further from the dark ambient/neo-classical domain and into gothic and industrial turf – and transforming from a solo effort with a cult following to a full-fledged rock band.
Mortiis retired the mask recently, but ironically his visual sensibilities have turned even darker and more horrifying in the build-up to the upcoming studio album The Great Deceiver – as revealed in the gore-drenched preview footage from the upcoming videos for Doppelganger and Zeitgeist – all of which you can see on the band’s MySpace and YouTube channel. The new material got us so amped that we had to chat with the man himself about the music and the images of Mortiis – past, present and future.
Video shoot images by Robyn Von Swank
FEARnet: You've been performing "unmasked" for a while now. What was your main reason for shedding that image?
MORTIIS: There was a variety of reasons really, but the main reason, was the music simply outgrowing the mask image. I mean initially the mask was created to lend more credibility (or something like that, anyway) to the Mortiis concept. Back in those days, Mortiis was based thematically on this dark and twisted parallel universe. It was pretty cool, and I did several records based around that. But time goes on, and people change, as did I. Eventually Mortiis, thematically, was a whole different thing, more introverted, more angsty and angry... it became a band, and the mask suddenly wasn't really emphasizing anything, and it started feeling like something I was only doing to keep the kids happy. So I eventually figured "fuck it, I’m done with the mask," but I wanted to do it in a cool way and not cold turkey, overnight, you know? Around the time when The Grudgewas coming out, I came up with the idea of having the mask slowly morph off in the artwork on The Grudge and the singles released around it. I also started performing with the mask looking like it had been stitched on, in order to show some of the humanity underneath... eventually I started pulling the mask off during shows. After that, it's history...
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Do your fears influence your art?
The "pain and death" fear I do not really cover in my art – I just don’t consider it tasteful or more importantly, befitting of what I do. In that sense, I do not explore my greatest fears. I do explore my fear of failure now and then, though, as it’s a more real and tangible sense of fear than the kind of senseless dread that your family might be kidnapped by terrorists or run over by a bus. The fear of failure is a fear I face every time I stare at the computer screen trying to build up the courage to start working on music. Every time I try to lay something down, create something new, I always fail in the first few attempts, and as such is a very real fear that I deal with very often... and it sucks every time. So yeah, of course it will find its way into the art in some form. It’s an enemy, but at least it’s inspiring... in a kind of shitty, ex-girlfriend kind of way.
Details on the new album and videos are coming soon, so be sure to keep an eye on FEARnet for news, and check out the band’s official site for more creepy-cool stuff.
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