Interview with Asger Mygind of VOLA
VOLA are one of the most exciting new acts that ROCKFLESH has come across. They ply a really interesting mix of prog, djent and pop. Yes, you read right, pop! The result is a heady mix of accessibility and intricate musicianship. Rebellion in Manchester was the second stop on their first ever European headline tour and before they went on stage (review here) our very own satanic majesty Johann Wierzbicki sat down with vocalist and guitarist Asger Mygind for a chat.
“Hey! Nice to meet you Asger. We, at Rockflesh have been really excited about this tour as you blew us away earlier on in the year supporting Haken. How did the opening night in London go?”
It was really awesome, it had been a very long day because we flew to the UK earlier on, but eventually the place sold out and there was very heavy crowd welcoming us, so it all ended very well, I would say.
”Not only is this your first UK headline tour, but it is also your first time topping the bill in Europe too. How does it differ from supporting and festivals?"
I would say there is more responsibilities on our shoulders because we are the host of the evening, there are more practical stuff that we have to worry about, and there is of course a longer set set every night so we have to prepare more music, it is definitely more work but every minutes of it is worth it.
“Last year you launched your own IPA. As opposed to some band beers we could mention, you seemed to have been really involved in its creation. Was this something important to you as a band?”
It was actually a surprise that we got involved in that, it was a guy from Newcastle, Rossi, who said “ I am a huge fan of the band and I have a brewery, can I make a beer with you?" It wasn’t something that we thought about, but once the opportunity came about, we could not say no, it was too much fun to not do it.
“Have you taken few cases on tour and is it available here tonight at Rebellion (he asks for a friend), or is it purely for the Danish market?”
It isn’t for sale here sadly , but it will be eventually. It is on sale somewhere, in some places in the UK and other countries too, as well as Denmark.
“Back to the music. As a band you seem comfortable with mixing styles and, to these ears, mange to effortlessly combine pop with more distinctly heavier influences. Do you think the rise of streaming services means that emerging bands have a much larger pallet of influences or are Scandinavians just more rounded and varied in their tastes?”
It is definitely easier to listen to different music very fast, you can go on full discovery mode with streaming services, I don’t know if there is a difference between people from Nordic countries with southern countries. I would say we have a very strong welfare system in the north which means that we have strong social safety nets which mean that we have to worry less about surviving, we can indulge more in just being creative and that might lead to us having more time to dive in in different kind of arts
“When you last toured the UK (as support for Haken), it was without keyboardist Martin Werner? How did that work out for you and was it weird to suddenly become a trio?”
I definitely felt that there was more awareness about each of us on stage because we were only three, so we were a bit more on the spot which made me more a little more nervous, at least in the beginning. But are we contemplating going back to three? No, it is nice to be four, I prefer it that way.
“You played both Bloodstock and Damnation festivals last year, two very distinctly metal affairs full of growling and blastbeats. How does it feel to do those type of niche events when you tread a more proggie and intricate metallic path?”
I would definitely like to play more festivals that have a broader range of music, I would like to see that happen. But it has been really cool to get people’s attention by playing these niche festival. There is a really big crowd for tech metal and prog metal festivals at this point, so it has been a nice place to show what we do. I consider this as a sort of a step on a ladder that we are going up on, and I hope that there will be more festivals in the future with a wider range of genre.
“Prog as a musical genre seems to be healthier now than it ever was in seventies, bearing in mind that you weren't even around then why do you think it has become such a draw and obsession for your generation?”
It definitely seems like it, it started out as an internet phenomenon with bands like Animal As Leader, Periphery and Tesseract. I think it started out by their guitar players being very present online, and that has influenced a lot of other guitar players, and also the so called “Bedroom Producers”. Suddenly were given more tools, like software, giving the possibility of having guitar sounds without an amp, just on the computer, all these possibilities came around the same time as this new djent movement, so it became very easy to create music at home. And there is no restriction from record companies, so if you wanted to release something on streaming services, you could if you wanted to. It seems that there was a genre of music colliding with all the possibilities new technology offers, creating this prog movement.
“At ROCKFLESH Towers, we think your last album, “Applause of a distant crowd”, had a mellower sound compared to your previous record. We loved it but has people’s response to the album met your expectations?”
It is more mellow overall, it also has a more organic compared with our debut album, which was more mechanical sounding. We did write some ideas at the beginning which did sound like our previous album, but that just felt dated. So instead we tried something else and tried a different direction in the production of the album just to go somewhere else. In terms of people's expectations, they were some people that seem disappointed that it wasn’t version 2 of our debut album, but most people seem to accept the change and went along for the ride, I am really happy about that.
“Have you got any idea on the direction the next album will take? Bearing in mind Scandinavia seems to be the home of modern glam have you ever considered going that way?”
Let’s see what happens, all I know. I am pretty sure it will be very different. We have some ideas which sound a bit heavier than the second album and it is just really exciting to create something different from what you’ve done previously. I think, we will continue doing that.
“So finally what are your future plans after this tour?”
We will continue with the European tour and then start recording the new album in early 2020.
Brill, thanks a lot for chatting with ROCKFLESH and have a good gig! (and the gig was good and you can read about it here)