MORTIIS Says He Wasn't Impressed By His U.K. Chart Success

Earache Records has posted an exclusive interview with Norway's legendary eccentric artist MORTIIS. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Q: How has the press treated you this time around? Do you care at this point?

Mortiis: "Yes, I care. It's been pretty good treatment this time. They've pretty much been forced into realizing that my music is to be reckoned with… Besides, you can only crack the same joke twice."

Q: [The new MORTIIS album] "The Grudge" sounds extremely confident. Do you feel most comfortable within this type of "sound?" Why not a straight-forward rock band?

Mortiis: "Because how boring would that be? I like mixing up organic music with electronics."

Q: You entered the U.K. Singles charts with the song "The Grudge". How did that make you feel? Do you feel that "legitimized" what you are doing or trying to accomplish (In essence spitting in the faces of your critics)?

Mortiis: "I never really bothered that much… I thought it was cool when I received the call that we were in the charts, but it did not really impress me to be honest… My first thought was, 'Yeah. Okay, it's the U.K., we have a presence there already, make this happen in the U.S., Germany or Japan and I'll be impressed…'

Q: Is programming difficult? What did you learn during MORTIIS: Eras 1 & 2 that helped you with MORTIIS: Era 3?

Mortiis: "I find it difficult at times, because I always try to come up with new interesting things. Dance club stuff doesn't keep me interested for too long, even though it may sound hard and cool for a while, it's just all the same. I try to find inspiration in various places. So it's an effort to figure out how various things are done. Era 1 taught me nothing, in retrospect I feel it was waste of time that I didn't start programming earlier. I wasted a lot of time playing shit music in Era 1. Era 2 taught me the basics, and Era 3 taught me to try out various things — be more experimental, and collaborate in a multi-person situation.

Q: How do you "develop" or rather create songs? Is writing easy or difficult for you? Does this depend upon your emotional state at the time?

Mortiis: "Yeah, I guess… I don't work well when pissed off or down. I need to be in a fairly positive mood to create music, and songs are mostly created through developing stages, starting points can be anything from a cool theme to a weird sound that may trigger ideas or whatever."

Q: Considering all of the criticism you have faced, is your answer to that criticism reflected in your music?

Mortiis: "Not really, none that I am aware of. I tend to not think about the critics when creating music, as I make music first and foremost for myself."

Read MORTIIS' entire interview with Earache at this location.