SiN: Hey Bjørn, this is Sibylle calling ;)! How are you, I guess quite busy with promoting your new album UTOPIA?
GM: Hello Sibylle, I am sorry for the late reply, but we have been very busy with touring and
releaseparties! But now I am getting back to you! Hope all is well with you and your Gothic Family!;)
SiN: It seems you shift your interest a little bit from gloomy monsters to zombies..Is this a reaction to the more and more increasing interest in the living dead from the film business?
GM: I have always been into horror movies. My first favourites were actually Evil Dead and
Prince of Darkness, which in reality are zombie movies. So this thing with zombies
comes natural to me since I grew up with that kind of movies in the 80ties. But it is off
course also very inspiring when new and fresh movies and tv-series like “The Walking
Dead” suddenly appears…even the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest got their shar
of zombies and gloom this year, which was about time! So everywhere we can spread the
message about happiness in darkness = utopia is good!
SiN: The limited edition of your new album is accompanied by a horror concert film.
Unfortunately I couldn´t see the DVD so far… Can you explain the idea behind it? Seems to
contain elements from your „ordinary life“ as a lawyer?
GM: The concept of UTOPIA is inspired by my own life and nightmares – the combination of being a lawyer in daytime and GOTHMINISTER at night drives me eventually insane –
it becomes impossible for me to separate reality from imagination.
Here are my personal comments to each song on the concept album+the film:
The studioalbum kicks off with “Someone is after me”. It all starts when our main
character is a little boy, living in a big old house. On certain sleepless nights he hears a
faint bell in the wind and a harsh cough from some stranger walking across the street.
The rumours said that this man was pure evil, and that he used to lure unawear
children.
In “Utopia”, we are given the description of the perfect world but still some questions
are left unanswered; “Maybe Hell only exists here on Earth”?
And therefore, Heaven, or “Utopia”, may also exist on Earth? And if so, is it the heavenly and good world that is our main character`s Utopia? Or maybe his idea of a perfect world is Hell and pure evilness…?
“Horrorshow” takes our main character further into his fantasy where he finds himself
trapped by sinister creatures.
“Afterlife” reminds us of our limited time here on earth, but it also asks the question
wether there is something else after death. This brings us over to one of the lyrically
most important songs on the album; “Nightmare”. Here we are explained how the main
character as a grown up has turned into the evilness he feared as a boy;
“When I was a child, I used to live across the street from here, on those sleepless nights a
faint bell and a harsh cough filled the air
Nothing will remain
He will ease you from your pain
If you shall reign this world
Embrace your nightmare
They said he once rose from the earth
To help people die, to resurrect and join his
Army of walking undead
He will ease you from your pain
If you shall get your revenge in the end
He was a lunatic from my worst nightmares; they said he used to lure sleepless and
unaware children and in his dark cellar he would end their lives, consume their brains, and
thus reconquer the ability of being creative again, and to live happily as only a child can, in
its pathetic fantasy world
On Sunday nights I often walk pass that old house, where I used to live as a child. Last
night, when I passed the house, I heard a faint sound of a bell in the wind. I was wondering
if others also could hear it, that bell, and my harsh, nagging cough that that I can’t get rid
of
Is this my nightmare
Is this my nightmare
Who the hell am I
If this is my nightmare”
In “All alone” everyone is dead. And our main character realises that his evil work can
not be appreciated if everyone is gone. So he wish them to come back to life again, so, as
he says; “I can scare you once again…”
“Eternal” describes the essence of what will happen; the ressurection of the dead. And
maybe this is what our main character wants; an army of walking undead to serve him
for eternity.
But he also needs to join them, which means he has to end is own life.
“Bogeyman(Death is coming)” is the last song on the studio album, and it describes the
last part of the journey for our main character. His double personality – like a Mr.Jekyll
and Hyde, will end here, at least as a regular human being. And maybe that is for the
best, “maybe this world is better off without the two of us”. Because at that point our
main character does not know if he will manage to raise from the dead…but he still has
his delusions of grandieur, like described in the main characters last words; “I have had
a dream since birth, that the dead will reign the earth…”
And where the studio album ends, the livefilm DVD picks it up…
The livefilm starts with the following quote;
“And while I have hope in God, which they also do, they preach these things: There is
going to be a resurrection from the dead, of the righteous and of the evil.” (Acts 24:15, The
Aramaic Bible)
It is quite clear what we might experience….in the name of life and death.
The story starts in front of Oslo county court, showing our main character as a lawyer,
greeting his client, living his “normal” daily life in a regular city.
But our main character has a hard life, switching between his job as a lawyer in daytime
and the artist and alter ego GOTHMINISTER at night, and this combination slowly
drives him mad. Soon he can`t see what is reality and what is imagination.
When the pictures he sees in his head slowly disappear, the whole world has changed.
The city seems empty, but and everyone is dead.
Our main character needs to find out of this, and in his search for any survivers, he
suddenly sees a little girl running away. So he follows her. And she leads him into a big,
dark venue where he meets military guards and where can see some creepy shadows
without knowing what it is all about.
Suddenly, pale arms pull him into the shadows, and out comes…GOTHMINISTER. The
band goes on stage, and the concert show starts (please see concert presentation in
pictures). The audience consists of living undead, zombies, call them what you want. The
fact is that this is a quite different and much more dangerous audience than what we normally can see on a metal show. 😉
Slowly the audience infects the whole band so each one of them turn into a living dead.
The concert ends when the lead singer (GOTHMINISTER himself) is overpowered by
the crowd and he disappears uderneath them.
He then wakes up in a dark, empty room, and the little girl is there, standing with her
back to him. He can`t see her face.
He needs to know. So he crawls towards her, and turns her around.She looks just like a
normal, pretty little girl. Until he looks closer, and suddenly the most nightmarish face
appears. The whole world now seems chaotic, nowone can be trusted, and our main
character must end his life for real.
And the film`s last scene shows our main character after death; at the morgue.
Then, suddenly, the corpse starts moving and who knows, is this also a part of the main
character`s nightmare, or maybe the ressurection from the dead seems to happen after
all, of the righteous (the law lawyer) and of the evil…
SiN: I guess a lot of people reading this interview didn´t know before that you are a REAL successful (hope so 😉 ) lawyer in „daily business“ and afterworks you turn into the dark metal musician with creepy makeup. How is the reaction from colleagues, clients and the Norwegian public in general?
GM: Hehe it is good actually. Some are also a bit jaleous, they seem to lead quite boring lifes from time to time and wish they also could tour the world with monsters and zombies, as an escape to their everyday lawyer-life.:) Normal people, well…some love it, and a few
don t.
After we participated in Eurovision, one work collegue of my guitar player
suddenly entered his office and told him off for being on tv with all the blood and
makeup, she was extremely angry that he scared little children etc…but as we all know,
most kids (almost without exception, I remember the Gothic Family signing session in
Duisburg/PULP with all the children) love it and they are not scared.
It s all about stupid grown ups who think they know what s best for the children, so they try to speak their cause and over-protect them. Therefore I normally answer; “The children are not afraid, if anyone is afraid, it s the grown ups and the parents…;)”
SiN: Are you specialized on more strange and/or difficult legal disputes? I can imagine that
extraordinary people may have more trust in you as „one of their kind“?
GM: I have worked a lot in the entertainment industry, helping out bands and artists from
pop to black metal to go through, explain, translate and negociate their contracts in
Norway, Sweden, UK, Germany, France and the US etc. In addition to my own law firm
I am now also employed at the Norwegian Film Union as their lawyer, so it s a lot about
music, entertainment and film/TV industry…and my new job came in handy when we
filmed the UTOPIA concert and horrorfilm, we had many of the union members helping
out, being paid tariff salary off course…;)
SiN: The new album seems to focus on your inner turmoil being a lawyer and a „creature of the night“. Is this real or is the album more about a fictional character Bjørn Alexander Brem? Don´t you enjoy the chance to live two different lives?
GM: As you can read from my answer above, some of it is real, some is imagination. But the inspiration comes from my own nightmares and fears, and my own life
experience…although I have never been an evil person, even if the fictional person
becomes that in the end. I guess you ll have to add some fantasy otherwise also my own
life becomes too boring…;)
SiN: A few weeks ago, I noticed that you managed to play at the Norwegian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. I crossed my fingers so intensely for you!
Unfortunately you didn´t win – but I guess it was a fantastic experience? I´m sure, if you
would have managed to win the preselection, you would have become the European
Champion like Lordi a few years ago..!
GM: Hehe many thought so-. We were the favourite with the book makers, odds at 1,25 and number 2 had like 2,35, but still..the blood, gore and the zombies was too much for the Norwegian mainstream I guess. The biggest newspaper in Norway had a huge article about us being “the beast” and the winner of our semifinals, Adelén, being the “beauty” and that even though we were much better, they chose the beauty because they want to see beautiful things. You see, people with this kind of attitude is actually what I fear the most. Everyone has dark sides, and those who don t dear to show them, those who smile nervously and say “no, no, we can t look, we need flowers, and colours and beautiful young girls…” these are the most creepy persons on the planet. I wonder what comes out of them when they finally let their darkness out. I wouldn t like to be there, that s for sure.:)
SiN: Two gigs took place in Germany at the beginning of May. Are you planning more german concerts besides the Mera Luna in Summer?I remember a discussion between you and me about a year ago 😉 – Guess you still need a high ceiling for the announced „remarkable horror stageshow“?
GM: The two concerts were great! We did the full show except the flying bat, this one will be added at the M`Era Luna due to that we need even more space to fly it…;) We had around 700 people in Hamburg and 500 in Cologne, it was really nice to be able to perform such a big show in front of the crowds, now another 25.000 are waiting for August the 0th at M`Era Luna…it s gonna be a blast!
We now have the biggest show in the scene you know, until someone challenges us on
that…;)
SiN: Any special plans for the near future? Soundtrack for a zombie film for example ;)?
GM: We ll continue to do promo, interviews, tours etc and I have already written the next
Gothminister album on a demo stage with 12 tracks (!) So I have been productive. We
are in dialogue with one of Germany`s biggest music producers who really would like to
produce the next album, so let s see what happens…;)
SiN: There are so many movies about the Undead at the moment. You as a specialist, can you
recommend one or two to our audience? I myself am quite courious about WORLD WAR Z, seems to be a little bit different from ordinary brain-eating zombie stuff..
GM: I would definitely recommend a zombie movie called “Pontypool”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226681/
It is brilliant and not so very well known…The action takes place in a radio studio, and they find out that the infection spreads by saying certain words on the radio…it s a new twist to it all. It is not completely new, 2008, but I highly recommend it!:)
SiN: Thank you for your time, all the best to you and the likeable looking guys from your band!
GM: Thank you so much Sibylle, thank you for this interview and again I am sorry for the
delay! We ll stay in touch, greetings to your wonderful family as well!:)
All the best from Bjørn & GOTHMINISTER;)