Following last year’s ‘Kingdom Of Oblivion’, Norway’s Motorpsycho are currently gearing up for the release of their brand new record, ‘Ancient Astronauts’, due out on August 19th via Stickman Records.

Along with releasing two albums during the pandemic, ‘The All is One’ (2020) and ‘Kingdom of Oblivion’ (2021), Motorpsycho was involved in two projects. One was a loose film idea developed with De Utvalgte, a Norwegian theatre group that was also involved in the Begynnelser project in 2017. Not really liking all the “live streaming concerts” they saw so many bands doing during lockdown, Motorpsycho put their heads together with the De Utvalgte folks to see if there was a better way to portray the band’s music in a visual way during a time when traditional live musical performances were almost impossible. This project is still underway, and the band will let us know if and when it is finished. The second project was one in which Motorpsycho played live to a dance performance by Homan Sharifi and Impure Dance Company called Sacrificing. Due to all the restrictions at the time, audiences were kept small and over the course of a year only several hundred people got to see the live performances in person. The dance piece was inspired by the idea of The Rite of Spring, which was also the inspiration behind the band’s song suite ‘N.O.X.’ from ‘The All Is One’, so the two pieces were put together and found to work very well. But more music was needed to be written for the dance performances, and two of those pieces can be found on this album, ‘Mona Lisa/Azrael’ and ‘Chariot of the Sun’. To bring this all full circle, De Utvalgte watched one of the dance performances and everyone involved felt that the flow of the music in the show worked so well that it could be used for the film project too. Also in the audience was Deathprod, once full-time member of Motorpsycho, and who remains involved in all of their recordings. He liked this new music so much that they agreed that they would focus on them for the next album, and he would be the producer.

The album was recorded in Amper Tone studio in Oslo in the Summer of 2021. Since Covid was still making international travel very difficult, Stockholm-based Reine Fiske wasn’t in the studio with the three core Motorpsycho members, making this the first album in years that they recorded as a three- piece. Recorded mainly in live takes with only a few overdubs and the vocals added afterwards, this is essentially the band playing live in the studio. At times fairly frantic and angular yet grandiose and hypnotic, this is a very explorative album without a whole lot of choruses. The cover consists of stills from the movie project, filmed at dawn in early August at Skottbu in Norway. The title ‘Ancient Astronauts’ remains a bit of a mystery: are Motorpsycho following clues left by earlier travellers or are they perhaps leaving some themselves?

We are only a few days away from the release date of your upcoming album, ‘Ancient Astronauts’. How was it to work on it and how long did it take?

Bent Sæther: We wrote most of it around the start of the pandemic. We then included the two long songs in a dance production we did with Impure Dance Company from Oslo, and worked on the arrangements as that project developed. So the pre-production period was long and thorough, but the studio recording was done in just five days. Obviously, a few overdubs were added later, but it is all live takes of drums, bass and guitar, and that went fairly quick. Our producer Deathprod saw the dance performance and really thought we had the core of the record right there, so we only needed to add one more song and an improvisation to have a full album’s worth of material. Sometimes you go in with a big batch of tunes, and sometimes you just have one specific thing in mind. This was certainly one of the latter!

The three of you are living together in an old farm building. I guess that gives you an advantage to have your own studio room and to feel like one big family. Do you feel that affects the music you create?

Sure. But that’s mostly because of the ritual communal drug sessions I think [laughs] – the washing up and the cooking doesn’t do much for the music! Also the improvisational relationship we try to keep with concepts such as Reality and Truth gets well developed when you have so much fun with them. Both in real life and in constructs like this interview.

I feel that your latest album is a bit more “relaxed” in sound in comparison with your previous albums. Would you like to share what the production work is like?

Relaxed? Well… I don’t know quite what to say about that statement, Sir! The two longer songs are musically in turn both quiet/meditative and loud/aggro to my ears, but perhaps there is a vibe there that we don’t pick up on or even feel? Sometimes those who do are the ones worst situated to experience objectively, and this might be one such instance, because relaxed isn’t quite the word I would use! I would perhaps agree to “cinematic” or “epic” or something like that – and the music partially lends itself to quite a meditative state of mind if you let it, I guess? It needed to be danceable too, so the rhythms are pretty straight forward at least on side 2, but if you find 11/8 and 7/8 relaxed time signatures, I applaud your musicality!

Tell us about your gear, pedals, et cetera you are using these days?

I don’t know quite specifically what the guys used on the recording, but Tomas has some kinda deal with Pearl, Vater and Sabian, so all of his stuff is from those guys. Snah mostly played a 2010 SG Standard that was living in the studio, and borrowed a couple of JMPs from a friend across the hall. I did all my stuff on a Danelectro 4/6 double neck, on a Model T and an Acoustic 470. Stompbox-wise I can’t really remember, but the Catalinbread echorec and the EHX pog was on my pedalboard for sure. I probably used my Fjordfuzz Embla and Schaffer Vega Storm for a lot of it too. Oh, and my John Kallas ones of course. Deathprod brought a couple of Cornish pedals for Snah, and both the 301 and EP-1 we brought were utilized at some point for sure. Keys are mostly modern digital Mellotrons but the Taurus 3 is on there and so is Deathprod’s original Buchla. For the live situation, we change out the contents of the pedalboards all the time, but Snah usually sticks to his two Hiwatt amps on 4×12’’ cabs and I to either Hiwatt, Sunn or Acoustic amps on 2×15’’ cabs. The Mellotron is ubiquitous and on the last tour we brought three of them!

Can you share some further words about the material on your latest album?

I don’t quite know what I want to say… Sometimes I get annoyed at artists overexplaining their thing, and I don’t want to be one of those (anymore), so these days I try to leave it to the audience to decide what the music is about and sort it out for themselves what it might all mean to them. That is better, and it certainly is more interesting for us! But to me it feels like “a proper record” in that all the bits serve the bigger picture, and it all feels like One Thing. That is a very difficult thing for us to achieve, and not a lot of our previous albums have succeeded in doing so, but this one feels like it did. Proud and happy!

“In sculpture the stone decides what the figure is. In music, most of the time you don’t decide, you wait until it reveals itself.”

How do you usually approach music making? Was this time any different?

Writing for me is a multiphase thing: first I need to noodle until a decent idea presents itself. Then I must noodle more to find complimentary bits, then I must try to figure out which bit is what and what needs to go where, and then we have to play it to figure out what kind of approach is best for the music, then optimize that, et cetera – it is in other words a pretty long process. I sometimes liken it to sculpture: within the big block of stone there is a figure, you just have to chisel away at the dross to reveal it. It is kinda the same with music: there is just so much dross you need to remove to find the perfect shape, that it sometimes takes years. Also – in sculpture the stone decides what the figure is. In music, most of the time you don’t decide, you wait until it reveals itself. This time was no different, but since some of this was arranged to be danced to, that kinda helped reveal what worked and what didn’t in a way that we don’t usually relate to. But it was a good way of doing it, and we like the results a lot!

Do you feel that your latest album (well at least according to the lyrics) is based around a certain concept? And what do you generally feel about concept albums?

Nope, no concepts. The only real concept albums we have done are the commissioned works that were written for something particular (‘The Unicorn’, ‘Folk Flest’). The others might have lyrically and/or musically at various points have had through lines, but the music was never program music written to serve a plot or anything like that. I like ‘Thick as a Brick’ as well as the next guy, but defined concept albums are only ever about one thing, and you kinda use them up a bit faster when they leave nothing up to you the listener to figure out, so I am ambivalent. It is a challenge to try to write bigger structures than a pop song, but it’s really hard and often frustratingly unsuccessful work.

What are some of the most important players that influenced your own style and what in particular did they employ in their playing that you liked?

As a bass player my first hero was Gene Simmons. His tone on ‘Alive II’ is pretty much what I’m gunning for still! Later Lemmy and then Geezer Butler, John Entwistle, Chris Squire and Felix Pappalardi all taught me about sound and what role the bass could have in the music. I started out as a drummer, and still today need a sound that will give me approximately the dynamic reach of a drum kit: I need bottom for kick drum, mids for the snare and highs for the cymbal energy… I think like a drummer and play like I do because of that I think. More than any specific bass player.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Right now I have no other side projects. Sugarfoot, my main no. 2 group, is on a hiatus, and I quit Spidergawd in 2015. There aren’t any production gigs lined up right now either, but we have much more work to do in Motorpsycho, so I won’t get bored!

What are some future plans?

We recorded a bunch of tunes during the pandemic that we need to decide what to do with, so that is first. We also have more new music that we need to work on, and obviously we want to get out there and play this new album for the people! Also there are box sets of our first few records coming out this fall through Rune Grammofon. Lots of both new and old action!

You released over 25 albums!!! Please don’t kill me, but it would be fantastic to read a sentence or two about each of your albums. What are some thoughts that run through your mind when listening to it again?

I never listen, but I will think aloud below!

‘Lobotomizer’
The new remaster is actually amazing. The released version had no bass, but the mixes did, and now it finally sounds like it should!

‘Demon Box’
Our breakthrough record. Canonized to the max and we are tired of it, but it’s a good little record and we “became ourselves” on this one for sure.

‘Timothy’s Monster’
The “one larger”! Nah, not really, but it kinda is. Less metal, more pop than ‘Demon Box’, but recorded with the same people in the same studio and clearly just the follow through. Maybe a better album. Some days it is!

‘Theo Buhara Presents: The Tussler – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
A two day joke that turned into a real thing that was actually really good. You never know!

‘Blissard’
First “proper studio” experience. Overwritten and stiff, but pretty near perfect. More work than fun, but who am I to argue with the result?

‘Angels and Daemons at Play’
Freedom! A return to the trio format and to looser structures. Seven of the songs were recorded between 8pm and 1am one evening. Bam, bam, bam. Fierce!

‘Trust Us’
The culmination of our one chord trio phase. Behemoth.

‘Let Them Eat Cake’
The realization that we needed another chord occasionally set in, and we went all in as songwriters more than rock group, consciously trying to do something else. It worked!

‘Phanerothyme’
Trying to perfect this new approach, this is almost Steely Dan type studio perfection. Unplayable live, but by design. It amazes me to this day how good it sounds and how many balls we had to go there!

‘It’s a Love Cult’
Is actually the second LP of the ‘Phanerothyme’ double LP. Pair them and sort out the tune sequence a bit differently, and you have “the MP masterpiece that never was”. A missed opportunity, and a pretty non cohesive album on it’s own, but it was only ever ’the other half of ‘Phanerothyme’ to me. Record company hassle, time hassle, money hassle and a sense of burnout caused it to go that way.

‘In the Fishtank’
Three day session in Holland in the middle of a festival tour with the horn section from Jaga Jazzist. Good fun!

‘Black Hole / Blank Canvas’
After the 2002 tour ended MP was done. Over. We restarted The International Tussler Society to stay sane and find some way back into the music, and recorded the second Tussler album in 2004. After that Snah and I wanted to get back to the real MP while Geb the drummer didn’t. So we recorded this as a two piece in Holland. Some great tunes are mostly of the indie rock persuasion, but the most important thing about this one is that we proved to ourselves that we could still do it.

‘Little Lucid Moments’
Enter Kenneth Kapstad. Man, it felt good to get the muscle car Motorpsycho back! This was the start of that whole phase and this music still feels great to play!

‘Child of the Future’
Four days in Chicago with Steve Albini. But no songs. We recorded jams and edited songs out of them when we got home. Ass-backwards, but still surprisingly functional! Mastering job sucks on the vinyl. Must be remastered asap!

‘Heavy Metal Fruit’
First proper outside producer (since ‘Phanerothyme’) Kåre Vestreheim came in on this one and got to pick the material. We hoped to feel even more ‘produced’, but I think this was pretty much spot on and returned “the old MP” back to the fans. Also a great sounding record.

‘The Death Defying Unicorn’
Rock opera. Full on. Same production team as on ‘Heavy Metal Fruit’, but with Ståle Storløkken and the Trh Solistene chamber ensemble added. Insanely ambitious and totally beyond. Great fun!

‘Still Life With Eggplant’
The reaction to the tight structure of the opera. We brought Reine Fiske to Trondheim for the first time and recorded a bunch of tunes with him. These made up the core of both Eggplant and ‘Behind the Sun’.

‘Behind the Sun’.
So these two are pretty much part 1 & 2 of the same record. First 2-guitar line up since Blissard, and really inspiring/-ed rock stuff!

‘The Motorpnakotic Fragments’
The leftovers I guess, even if a few of the tunes are the best ones of the bunch! Released as a 7’’ book for subscribers only! Obviously!

‘Here Be Monsters’
… was the third project we did with Ståle Storløkken. The second was ‘For Folk Flest’, a 2LP/DVD of a concert for rock group, church organ and choir in the Nidaros cathedral. In Norwegian! ‘Here Be Monsters’ started out as a commissioned piece but turned into a 1973-style hi-fi psych album. Kinda mellow in parts, but also quite beautiful I think!

‘Begynnelser’
DVD and 2×10’’ vinyl record of the theatre piece we played live more than 40 times (DVD) in the Fall of 2016, and the demos of the original music (2×10’’). A very important period, since it was the first thing Snah and I did after KK left and the first thing we did with De Utvalgte who we still occasionally work with.

‘The Tower’
First album with Tomas. Recorded in California when he’d been in the band for 3 months! A new beginning as well as a new band. Big sprawling double LP born from positive “new beginning” vibes and political insanity (that choad Trump)

‘The Crucible’
The slightly more contained and focused second go around with Tomas. Recorded in Wales with Deathprod and Andrew Scheps. The logical continuation from ‘The Tower’, but further! Side 2 out and out prog opus.

‘The All Is One’
Reine is back! Another of these reactions to containment: we recorded something like 20 tunes in one go in Black Box, France but divided the spoils between this record and ‘Kingdom of Oblivion’.

‘Kingdom of Oblivion’
While also adding recordings from other sessions and places on both. Closely related, but still too close to say anything smart and concise about! Two musically very well balanced albums showing the entirety of the modern day Motorpsycho!

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

Oh, plenty! These bands/artists have all released great new stuff this year that is extremely listenable, and I’m sure there is more just around the corner: Color Green, The Burning Hell, La Era de Acuario, Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, John Cale, Dungen, Ultimate Painting, Yard Act, The Mars Volta, Black Midi, Alex Crispin, Marthe Lea Band, Dean McPhee, Brad Mehldau, Minami Deutsch, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Richard Dawson & Circle!

Thank you. Last word is yours.

Don’t believe everything you hear. If it’s too good to be true it usually is. Oh, and why let the truth get in the way of a good story? I try not to, and I’m sure it’d all be more fun if we all did. Except for all these right wing politicians of course. They are no fun.

Klemen Breznikar

Headline photo: Terje Visnes

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