Motorpsycho - The psychedelic hard rockers

In February 1996 Motorpsycho released their fifth album, “Blissard”. It marked the band from Trondheim's definitive international breakthrough. In 2013 Motorpsycho decided to perform “Blissard” live in full only on the occasion of the Pstereo Festival.

Ondarock followed the event and interviewed them.

How did the idea of performing “Blissard” live come about, and why in your city?

Bent: Two years ago we did the reissued box-set of “Timothy’s Monster”, because we had so many b-sides, demos and odd recordings scattered around that we needed to gather them all in one place, and when Oslo's Øya Festival asked us to perform it live for them, we said yes. When we reissued “Blissard” last autumn, the Pstereo Festival asked if we wanted to play it here, in our hometown, and we agreed. It felt like the right choice, and we're glad to be doing it here.

Does it feel like something special to play this album here, seventeen years after making it?

Bent: It makes us feel old! You have to try to rediscover who you were before and why you wrote it that way, you need to relive the same process by trying to get back into the mindset you were in when you recorded it. And you realize how much time has passed. At the same time, we've played a lot of these songs live over the years, so they weren't unfamiliar to us, except for a couple we've never played live and for which we had to rediscover the core. Playing it again doesn't feel like covering ourselves, it hasn't been that long, we still feel just as involved.

Snah: For us it wasn't that long ago. I remember clearly coming to Italy for a promotional tour, we did a lot of interviews and some acoustic performances on radio and TV, we even brought the vinyl of the first edition of "Blissard". There was quite a bit of chaos because of the packed schedule... but it feels like yesterday! We're always on tour and you really can't tell one day from another, but it's fun.

Looking at your artistic path, what does "Blissard" represent?

B: The two albums we'd made before, "Demon Box" and "Timothy's Monster", contained everything we could achieve in terms of style and musical ambition, they're a mish-mash! When you listen to those two records, they're like a U-Box, you put together one style, plus another, plus another one still. "Blissard" was conceived, intended and composed as a single song, one whole thing rather than a bunch of things stuck together. It was the first album we made this way - like a concept, a sonic concept probably - it was the first focused idea. And it was the first record we made outside Trondheim, in Sweden with a new sound engineer, which was strange too, it was the first time we pushed ourselves outside our comfort zone and it was in a way something new. It was also a further step away from the more metal stuff we'd been doing, it was less hard-rock and more indie/emo. And it's the first record we made with two guitarists, the first experience of that kind for us - before that we had the keyboardist and Helge Deathprod Sten, who was very noisy with his instruments - so it was different both stylistically and compositionally. It was important. Commercially, we probably widened our audience in Norway and abroad with this record, we'd never been as well known before then. Before that we were mainstream in Norway, and a lot of people responded positively to this album.

How would you describe this moment for you, with the latest record "Still Life with Eggplant" and this performance happening at the same time?

B: It's natural. I think we established something on a sonic and harmonic level that "Blissard" still has, there are harmonies on the record that are still a big part of our sound and our compositions. It's a big piece of the huge puzzle that is Motorpsycho.

S: going back and carefully listening again to the arrangements and compositions inspires you and pushes you to keep being solid and consistent in the way you write music.

B: It's a good record. Before "Blissard" we'd often go into the studio with songs written on acoustic guitar by me and Snah, we'd record the guitar, the vocal line and then build the other parts from there, composing the tracks in that very moment and in that way. This time we rehearsed all the songs a great deal so we could run through them all, from start to finish, even in our sleep. We discussed things a lot and spent a lot of time trying to nail down every detail of the composition. That was our first time doing it that way and I don't think we've ever been as meticulous and thorough since. It took away a bit of the fun of the recording process but the result was positive, we did the right thing.

It was the first record you conceived in conceptual terms, an approach you developed over time up to "The Death Defying Unicorn". What interests you about the concept approach?

B: If you have the image of a mood, a story, or something that gives unity to the album, it's easier to compose a big picture. It's not about small pieces but about making a major statement. It inspires you in a different way, it's more ambitious but it's also more fun.

In this direction, what inspired you conceptually in making "Blissard"?

B: Lyrically it's about feeling old, growing up and looking back to see what your expectations were and what you failed to achieve. Some songs are different, for example "S.T.G." is about the Charles Manson affair, so it doesn't really belong to that mood. The record is mostly about broken promises. More than a lyrical concept it's a harmonic concept, it's more about the harmonic structure of the songs. It has a lot to do with me, the whole record is green because all the songs are in keys that I perceive as green. That, to me, is clearly conceptual. It has nothing to do with wizards or unicorns, but with harmonic colors!

S: We were very prepared and tight before going into the studio, because once we started recording we could hear every single detail, we'd go back and forth, working intensely on every tiny part. We were very frustrated and unsettled, it wasn't that easy because we really felt we could pull it off. That was how it went for every track on the record.

It wasn't recorded in Trondheim like the other records, but is there some mood of the place captured in the record anyway?

B: It's a record that has a lot to do with its time, to me it really sounds like 1995, it's about that era and it's still authentic. In the lyrics and the music it definitely sounds like a record made in Trondheim. But it's hard for us to see it that way because we were here when we wrote it and we thought a lot about what it was supposed to mean and what it was, we were extremely caught up in everything and we didn't really have the perspective that listeners have. Seventeen years later I can go back and read the reviews from back then and mostly agree with what they say... it's strange but also interesting.

"Tonight you'll also be playing with some guests you've invited for the occasion.

B: Matt Burt will be here for the first time in many years to play the song he recorded on the album. Then Ohm, the violinist, with his wife. Reine Fiske of Dungen, a formidable musician, who'll play the second guitar parts. It's going to be great! Gebhardt wants to get drunk so he doesn't want to play... Helge Deathprod Sten is in Oslo working, on some art project in a museum I think... the rest of us will be here. There are a lot of people who grew up with the record who'll be here tonight. For some people it's going to be very emotional, I hope.

Any hints about the new album or upcoming projects?

B: We're going into the studio tomorrow or the day after to record new music, and the album should be ready by next year, January-February probably, if everything goes as we hope. Tonight we're filming the show and we've got a ton of footage we'd like to release - the live performance of "The Death of Defying Unicorn" at the Opera House was filmed too, as were a lot of other similar shows. Always busy, always at work. We're also hoping to come back and tour Italy in spring, probably.

Are you recording it here?

B:  Yes. For the last album "Still Life With Eggplant" we recorded about 15 songs, but the timing was tight, so we didn't finish all the mixes and only some of them were completed. After the album came out we finished off the other songs, so we've got 10 songs already done. Now we're going to record more material, and I think we'll put it all together to make one big album. We hope it holds together - it should be a good record.

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