SATYRICON Bassist Talks About New Material

TOTALT JÄVLA MÖRKER bassist and longtime Warwick endorser Victor Brandt recently spoke to Warwick.de about his new gig as the bassist for the Norwegian black metal band SATYRICON.

Brandt was chosen out of hundreds of candidates from all over the world, including the U.S., England and South Africa, for the highly coveted gig. "I ended up getting picked and that felt good," he says. "We're all pros and like-minded people, striving toward the same goal. Playing-wise and personality-wise it is a fit."

For Brandt, SATYRICON marks a distinct change from the leadership role he plays in his other bands, especially DOMINION, where he is the driving force, writing, singing and playing guitar and bass. In SATYRICON, Satyr (vocals/guitar) is the singular creative force and Brandt had to adapt to music (and more specifically, basslines) he had no hand in writing, creating or recording. "I really like being creative," he admits, "but in SATYRICON there are clearly defined roles. I knew that and I accepted it." Brandt says that playing in SATYRICON affords him an opportunity to focus on the live performance aspects of his playing. "I don't have to worry about anything else," he says. "I can go into my job 100% focused on playing live. And I get to do that much more with SATYRICON," he says.

Brandt was also faced with the task of learning the new album without being able to listen to it. "I went over to Satyr's place and he showed me the songs," he says. "But there weren't any recordings that I could listen to or take home and he didn't want me to record the riffs he was teaching me. So all I had were my notes." The first time Brandt heard the songs from "The Age of Nero" (the new album) in their entirety was in rehearsal with the band. "It felt a bit extreme; I like to listen to the songs that I'm learning," he admits, noting that that option was unavailable. "We had regular rehearsals during the days, leaving me with less individual practice-time. But I learned the whole album in five days. I am really amazed and quite proud of this."

Another big challenge for Brandt was tweaking his right-hand technique (he plays with a pick). "SATYRICON play really fast," he says. "So I put a lot of time into relaxing my right hand while playing as fast as possible." The band spends up to eight hours a day rehearsing, and combined with his individual practice regime Brandt wanted to avoid the muscle pain that can come from straining or over-practicing. "It's like chronic inflammation. I know players who practice 'too much,' straining their muscles in a bad way and getting chronic pain, which forces them to stop playing. I wanted to avoid that." Brandt discovered something else about his mechanics along the way as well. "I learned that I used my shoulder more than I needed when picking."

Because of his combined use of a pick and distortion, Brandt has been known to describe his tone as a "rusty tractor." Though the pick remains he turned down the distortion a bit for SATYRICON, saying the band requires "as much tone" from the bass as possible. Speaking of bass, his Warwick basses remain a constant for him, whether he's touring in SATYRICON, recording with TOTALT JÄVLA MÖRKER or writing, singing and playing guitar and bass in DOMINION. "The first time I played a Warwick I understood why some stuff is called pro gear and costs more," he says. "They have their own individual thing. And it's always cool to see how people react; everyone is impressed: both fans and techs." He also says that with Warwick, "I don't have to think about the technical aspects of the gear. There's never a problem. I can trust my gear totally." It is perhaps because of this trust that he occasionally refers to himself as "Warvictor."

For more information, visit Warwick.de.