BURZUM Mastermind VARG VIKERNES Speaks Out From Norwegian Prison

BURZUM mastermind Varg Vikernes recently gave a rare and lengthy interview to the Russian BURZUM site Burzum.org about his escape from prison last year, his political views and the possibility of a BURZUM resurrection at some point in the future. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Burzum.org: When you tried to escape from the prison in October 2003, there were quite a lot of publications in Norwegian newspapers about it. According to the statement of your lawyer John Christian Elden in Aftenposten, you "had no concrete plan except that you wanted to get away from Norway" and "wanted to go somewhere where you could live without being treated as a leper because of your past. That is why you considered the French Foreign Legion." Though nobody has heard a word from you. So if possible can you tell people what was your real motivation to escape the prison and what were you planning to do?

Varg Vikernes: "You should never trust anything reported by the media. Their first priority is to spread propaganda, their second priority is to make money. They never really care if they tell the truth or not. As for my real motivations we'll see about that later."

Burzum.org: How do you feel now in prison? If possible describe your ordinary day: what are you allowed to do and what not? Are you much threatened by the other prisoners and the wardens?

Varg Vikernes: "No, I am not threatened by anybody. The prison system in Norway is fairly civilized, by world standards, and so are the prisoners and the guards. I get along well with just about everybody.

"Recently, I got to have a computer in my cell and will study computer programming the coming year. Apart from that not much is happening. In my block we sit 23 hours a day in a one-man cell and spend one hour in the yard. We have a TV in the cell and once a week we can go to the library. That's all there is to say really. If I want to do anything I have to do it on my own in my cell, or during the one hour we get each day in the yard. I take some push-ups, lift some bottles filled with water and things like that to stay in shape, and I run in the yard."

Burzum.org: A lot of people asked me to forward the following question to you: Why you terminated BURZUM and is there any hope for its resurrection in the future?

Varg Vikernes: "There are many reasons for that. First of all I was very tired of listening to silly rumours about BURZUM and figured the best way to shut people up was to tell people BURZUM had ceased to exist and wait for everybody to forget about it. Secondly it was very difficult to continue when I was in prison. Sure, I was able to make two electronic albums, but I didn't think it was worth the trouble, so to speak. Any inspiration I had left was pretty much finished off by the many silly rumours regarding both BURZUM and myself anyhow. Thirdly I didn't want to be associated with the new so-called 'black metal' bands. They embarrassed me and I was very tired of having to explain people I met or talked to that I had nothing to do with these people, their image or anything they did. In fact I felt misused by the media and saw the whole growing 'black metal' movement as a result of the media lies and their ludicrous presentation of, amongst others, me. Further I was rather puzzled by the fact that my electronic albums were placed in the 'black metal' shelves in the record shops (or so I was told). It seemed that no matter what I did people would cling to the (erroneous) picture the media had made of me in 1993. So what was the point?

"Finally I must say it was not very inspiring to see that tons of new bands emerged from nowhere and started to play the exact same music as I did. Why would I want to play this type of music, when tons of other bands did too? For all I know they even did it better than I ever did! So why would I bother anymore? Do we really need a million bands playing the same music? Isn't it enough with one PARADISE LOST, one DAS ICH, one VANGELIS, one DEAD CAN DANCE, or one PINK FLOYD, one IRON MAIDEN and so forth? Why would we need a thousand clones?

"I figured that if they want to rip off the early 'black metal' bands that is fine by me. There are other things I can do, so I moved on.

"If there is any hope for a resurrection in the future? In the case I release another album it will be something new altogether. If it sounds just like any other band I won't bother. For now I only have a few new songs, but I guess it is not unlikely that I will make more music in the future."

Read Varg Vikernes' entire interview with Burzum.org at this location.