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Are you as ready as I am for the Rockharz content? Whether you are or not, here we go! I’m also a bit adventurous at the moment, so this is the first interview BEFORE the Rockharz daily reports. Crazy? No, not really, I just couldn’t wait to publish this interview, because on the one hand it concerns a band that I’ve had on my radar for a long time, but for which there has never been a suitable opportunity in terms of interviews. On the other hand, there is a special photo perspective here, because my wonderful photographer joined the wolves and ventured onto the Rockharz stage!
So look forward to this interview with VARG frontman Freki, in which we talk about emotions, their translation and transmission, live shows and the future. To spoil you a bit: The closing words were the best I’ve ever had in the interviews so far!
Thanks to lightinmirror.de for the extraordinary and magical pictures! You really have what it takes!
Shieldmaiden’s Voice: Why should anyone listen to VARG?
Freki: Because we write our music with a lot of heart and soul and because we incorporate emotions and values in our songs that are important to us and are given far too little attention these days.
SV: I think it’s good that the music has a very personal touch for you. What exactly do you enjoy most about your music?
Freki: The greatest joy for me is when the music really unfolds live and comes to life together with the emotions and reactions of the fans. For me, that’s the biggest goal with music: to reach the fans in their hearts. But you can only achieve this feeling at live shows.
SV: Is there anything that you would say is the biggest source of inspiration for your music? So artists, albums, songs, situations in your life that might play a big role?
Freki: Our music is very emotionally driven, both when writing music and when writing lyrics. With VARG it’s not that the songs all have a similar basic theme, they are rather fundamentally different songs that are sad, uplifting or cheerful. We are therefore more inspired by life and our experiences.
SV: You briefly mentioned the live shows earlier and you’re also going on tour again at the end of the year. What is something on this tour that will be particularly worth seeing for the fans?
Freki: We will definitely be playing a special and very long setlist. All fans, including fans of the early albums, will get their money’s worth. As far as the show effects are concerned, we try to improve from tour to tour. We’re really looking forward to it and I think you’ll be disappointed if you don’t experience it!
SV: You were already on tour with the same album last year. What are the differences between these two tours? Otherwise, fans might say “I already saw this last year, I don’t need to go again this year!”
Freki: We already played a setlist of around 100 minutes last year. We’ll do that again this year and of course we’ll also change the songs in the setlist. We now have several albums to fall back on, so nobody has to worry about us playing the same show twice. On the contrary! We will change a lot so that it will be a completely new experience.
SV: With the last album you also tinkered with the line-up a bit and there was a lot of movement in the band in general. What impulses did the new band members bring with them?
Freki: Our new guitarist, Ulvar, has been a friend of the band in the background for many years and he’s also been good friends with our other guitarist, Morkai, for a number of years. So he’s not really new. He was also on our tour with OBSCURITY. So he didn’t feel like someone new, he fit in perfectly because he was already part of the family. He has an incredible understanding of music theory and a good feeling for historical backgrounds and as a person he is an absolute asset to us. In addition, he has experienced the entire Pagan scene as a fan from its beginnings to the present day, which makes him a great addition!
The second new addition is our drummer, Rohgarr. In my 20 years in the music business, he’s the best drummer I’ve ever had the honor of being on stage with. He runs a drum school himself, has various other projects, plays with DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, among others, and has an incredible understanding of my ideas for the drum parts of the new songs. His input was better than I could ever have wished for. His creativity has led to a lot of little gimmicks and dynamics that delight me every time I listen to them.
SV: We saw DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER in Jena in December and I have to agree with you, it’s really something special! Your show at Rockharz was also one where I can say that you have significantly grown in my esteem. The last time I saw you was about six years ago and so I wasn’t up to date in that regard, but I was very pleased with your performance! It was really fun to be in the audience! I also think that the line-up on stage, with Morkai and Ulvar to your sides, Fylgja with you in the middle and Rohgarr at the back, has a great visual impact. This is of course emphasized by the make-up. It all has a very pleasant symmetry!
Freki: That’s also a bit of the reason why we don’t have a bass player live, because otherwise it’s just asymmetrical.
SV: Perhaps we can take a look into the future beyond the tour at this point. What is something you would still like to achieve with the band?
Freki: We’re celebrating our 20th VARG anniversary next year and are planning to play a few concerts outside Germany because we’ve been concentrating on the German market for the last five years. I really miss being in front of an audience that doesn’t understand your lyrics but can feel the emotions you convey with your songs. That’s a very special feeling! In Germany it’s actually always a home game, because people understand the lyrics and that makes it relatively easy to take them on a musical journey. For me, it’s very exciting to stand in front of an audience that doesn’t understand the lyrics and that you simply have to inspire with the show. As musicians, we then have to show to a particular degree what the song is about and what emotions we want to evoke. That regularly leads to thrilling moments! I’m really looking forward to it!
SV: Internationality is generally a topic for bands. Have you ever thought about writing your lyrics in English in order to gain a better foothold on international markets?
Freki: Yes! We also recorded the Das Ende aller Lügen album completely in English, which is also on Spotify. We even shot the Dunkelheit video twice, so the scenes where the singing is lip-synced were simply shot again so that we could release one Dunkelheit video and one Darkness video. It was an exciting experience, but it didn’t have the effect I thought it would. I actually wanted the international fans to understand our songs better. In fact, those who are interested in the lyrical background translate the lyrics into their language using Google Translate anyway. With all that, they still prefer to listen to the German versions rather than the English ones. So it was never an option for us to simply leave out German and just do English. It was just a bonus for our non-German speaking fans on this album, but everything we thought about with the English lyrics, the fans have already done with the German versions.
SV: When you look into the very distant future, what is something you want people to remember about VARG in 30, 40 or 50 years?
Freki: The passion and energy that we bring with us when we go on stage!
SV: That’s a very nice answer, I like it! But I have one last question: What wisdom or maxim that you live by would you like to give people out there as advice?
Freki: I would take a quote from one of our songs and that is: “Never give up, never compromise, a goal is a goal because it’s unique.”
Is that good or is that good? For those who are interested, the quote comes from the song Sehnsucht from the album Wolfskult!
The day after tomorrow we’ll return to our regular program and start the Rockharz content marathon with the first daily report. I’m really in the mood! Stay tuned!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 