OLA S. HANA (INSENSE): BLACK METAL IS NOT TELLING MUCH TO US

Norwegian metal band Insense is not well-known in our region. The band was founded in 1999 by Tommy Hjelm (vocals, guitar) and Martin Rygge (guitar). Considering that musicians are from Norway, they play rare melodic death metal. First album of this quartet was relased in 2002 and it has had same name as band has. They relased their second record, album Soothing Torture, in 2005. Their third album is called The Silence Epidemic, it was relased in 2007 and it was produced by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Meshuggah, Strapping Young Lad). This renowned producer gave their record to In Flames singer Anders Friden to listen and in that moment things has started to move in right way. Friden has become the manager of this band and Insense signed with norwegien label Indie Recordings. New album will be relased on April 8th. That is reason why we contacted their bass player Ola S. Hana, who we were talking not just about news, but also about beginnings of this interesting band.
First of all, please describe us your band. How did you start? Who came with this idea?
Insense was created in 1999 by Tommy (vocal/guitar) and Martin (guitar). After some lineup-changes, the band today also consists of  Truls (drums) and Ola (bass). Insense actually started up as a side-project, but after  realizing that we had something special going on, the band became very serious and important for all of us.

Norway is a promise land of black metal. You play kind of different style, more typical for Sweden. Why have you chosen melodic death metal?
Yeah. Norway is well known as the Mecca of the black-metal-scene. As soon as you say that you play in a metal-band from Norway, people assume that you are a black metalist. We`re not very into this genre, nor will I say that we play typical Gothenburg/Swedish-metal or plain American death-metal or hard core. But we have taken the best parts of all these different music-styles, and put it into our own metal-jug. We have grown up with classic death-metal and have always loved that genre. But we`re into all kinds of other  music too, I think you can detect that if you listen to our music. You will find lot of melodic stuff, in between all the hard parts and the darkness.
We have no limits when it comes to make music. It doesn’t have to be brutal or aggressive all the time. If we compose something we like, we`ll try to make it fit into our composes. That is important if you want to make something special and outside the normal. Don’t copy other bands, make your own expression.   

Your manager is Anders Friden (In Flames). What about this cooperation? How was it formed?
It was producer Daniel Bergstrand who teamed us up with Anders. They are good friends and associates way back. Danne showed him our latest recording, which Anders, luckily for us, really liked. He had just started up a record company/management together with his collaborator Daniel “Tive” Tivemark, a nice little company called Selective Notes, and they were kind of scanning the scene for suitable bands for their roster. So now Anders and Tive are our managers, and they have so far done a very good job! They`ve been in this industry for a long time and got network and connections that we could only dream on. Things are really starting to progress these days.

You were working with producer Daniel Bergstrand on your last album Burn In Beautiful Fire. You met him in 2007 before relasing The Sllent Empire, actually. What can you tell us about cooperation with Daniel on Burn In Beautiful Fire?
We mixed our last album, The Silent Epidemic, at Dannes studio Dugout Production back in 2007. We were really satisfied with his work, and had never a doubt that we would work with him again. So when we had written our material for our upcoming album, Burn In Beautiful Fire, we booked Danne to produce it. This was a new experience for us, we had from earlier always done everything by ourselves. So with the expertise of Danne, we had to work a little different from what we were used to. In a positive different way, though.
He is a very devoted man, Danne, precise and accurate in everything he does. That can be heard on our next record. Our sound is better than ever before, and Dannes perfection and professionalism shines through the whole album. 

Have Anders from In Flames had some influence on your music style?
Anders did not listen to our stuff until after everything had been recorded and mixed, so no, he didn`t have any impact on the recording-process, if that is your question.

You have relased three albums already, but I have to admit that this is first time I heard about you. Do you think that moving to Indie Recordings label can help you to succeed in Europe and world?
Indie Recordings has in short time become one of Norways most distinguished record-companies. They have got hold on some of our countrys finest and well-known metal-acts, and have by now quite an impressive catalogue. I think it was the best alternative for us, as an underground band, to sign with Indie. They`ve shown that they know how to  build and promote bands both in Norway and abroad, and we are very satisfied with our new record-company. We`re really excited to see how far Insense and Indie can reach out with our new record.

Your album is going to be relasen on April 8th. Are you going to support it by some tour? Can we see you on some bigger summer festivals?
In the nearest future we have some Norwegian shows in front of us,  together with two other metal-bands from Norway; Purified in Blood  and Djerv. Then we`re doing some festival-gigs in Norway and Sweden, and are going to do some rough, badass touring across Europe during the fall. Details about this tour are not set yet, but will be revealed in a short time.

Influence of bands such a In Flames or Dark Tranquillity is recognizable in your music. Is there any other band which influenced you in your teen age in way you said to yourself „I want to be musician“?
Of course, we were all fans of the typical metal-bands that every metal-kid listened to back in the old days: Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, Machine Head, Obituary, Death, Napalm Death, Sepultura and so on. These bands were huge for me when I picked up my guitar as a kid. I was in fact on a Slayer/Megadeth concert in my hometown Oslo just some nights ago, great fun, felt almost like a teenager again.

Do you know Slovakia, or have you ever been in our country?
We have been to Slovakia once. We played in a club in Bratislava called Randal Club when we were touring with our friends in the Czech metal-band Locomotive. This was in 2008. We didn`t see much of Slovakia unfortunately, we had only one gig there, but it seemed like a nice country.

At the end, some words to your fans from Slovakia?
Hope to visit Slovakia soon, and we would really appreciate if you will check us out then! And don’t forget to listen to our new album, we are really proud of it. And our old records too, of course (laughter).

Author: Stillborn

Translation: Fiju

Photo: Joern Veberg