In the last few years Jørgen Munkeby has become a much sought after saxophonist in the metal world. He has worked with Enslaved, Ihsahn, and others. He also manages to front his band of self-proclaimed "Blackjazz Rebels" Shining. Before setting off on the band's three-year plan, Munkeby talked with Metal Injection about the new album, his musical upbringing, and much, much more.
The changes on the new album were a conscience effort right?
Yea.
What was the reasoning behind that?
To make it simple, any change we do is purely to follow my heart. I need to do, what I feel, inspires me. That’s the reason for all of our musical changes. When I sit down to write the music for a new album, or what have you, I sit down and I grab the stuff that inspires me, and I go in the direction I feel that I will be able to make our music more interesting or better. When it comes to the current changes, the songs are shorter, but on Blackjazz the songs were pretty long. The album in itself was kind of conceptual, it was our particular way of combining jazz and metal. That’s what the album was about. We had longer songs, we had songs that were there mostly to add traditional tracks to give variation to the album, and on the live DVD and album that we released a year later, we had even longer stretches of music. That was from a concert start to finish and we do a lot more improvisational parts in our live shows and we kept all of that. There’s a part were we don’t stop playing for thirty minutes. After doing two of those albums, I kind of felt it would be interesting to continue with the sound of Blackjazz, but trim away the fat, but still maintain the aesthetics of Blackjazz. I kind of started with the songs on Blackjazz that I loved the most, “The Madness and The Damage Done” and “Fisheye,” and I used those songs as a starting point for One One One. They both have clear chords, and a drum groove, and stuff you can remember. I’m into that at the moment.
Who was the inspiration to get you to pick up a saxophone?
It’s a very interesting question. It’s something I could answer if I started later. At age nine, I don’t really think that I gave things that much thought. I’ve been wondering myself. If I had listened to jazz all along it would make sense to pick up the saxophone. But I hadn’t. I don’t think I listened to any music with it (saxophone) in it before I picked up the sax. I always wanted to play the drums. My dad was a hobby drummer. I guess its coincidence. I could have been on fucking tuba or trombone. I happy it was sax. I do play guitars, and I’m singing more and more. I’m happy that I’m not playing a tuba.
In the past few years there seems to be a rise of saxophone in metal music, and I can’t imagine a rise of tuba in metal.
I think you’re right. I think there’s something with the saxophone that goes really well with metal music and there are several reasons for that. One is the saxophone itself kind of sounds like distorted guitar. The saxophone is made in a way to be a modern instrument. It’s pretty easy to play, and you can play fast stuff which usually goes well with metal music. I think it’s the perfect instrument for metal music. It’s made out of metal!
How did you and Ihsahn come in contact with one another for the jazz influence on his stuff? (Munkeby is featured on both Ihsahn’s After and Emerita)
He contacted me. I had grown up with metal music. Death, Entombed, and Sepultura. I did not listen to the Norwegian Black Metal bands and he’s obviously the old frontman of Emperor. I knew about Emperor, but I didn’t have a relationship with their music. I didn’t really have one when we called me either. Him and me, immediately clicked. At that time I was working on the Shining album Blackjazz, and I had been working with Enslaved the previous year with a ninety minute symphony that we wrote together. So he probably understood that. He had a vision for what he was after, and I felt it was relevant for what I was exploring at that time. When we started working together, it was just a great match. I’m really proud of the After album, I think it turned out great. It helped me figure out how to play the saxophone with metal music. One of the many, many things that helped me figure that out. I had been trying to figure that out for twenty years. I remember when I was young, I rehearsed with my old metal album and I don’t really think I sound the way I combined stuff several years later.
That project you did with Enslaved, The Nine Nights of Nothingness, I heard it for the first time recently, and I find it incredible. Do you see anything like that coming up again with you and Enslaved, or anyone else?
First, thank you for taking the time to check it out. I think it was a really cool thing to do, and I’m always interested in doing cool stuff. That was a huge, huge project. We wrote a lot of new stuff in there. I’m also fond of big projects. It gives you the opportunity to go for something on a big scale. I think I would love to do other similar stuff in the future, but there’s no concrete plans for that with Enslaved, or with others. We have more than enough to do at the moment with what we’re doing now. If something turns up, I’d be more than happy to take a look at it and see if it’s possible to do it.
There have been a lot of responses to the new album from U.S. blogs and magazines, do you see yourself coming to the states any time soon?
Yeah, definitely. I see there’s been a lot of interest. Unfortunately, when we released Blackjazz we decided to focus on Europe. We live in Europe and it’s easier to travel through Europe. We had more than enough to do in Europe. We decided to not focus that much on North America. What I saw was a lot of interest, and the interest has grown. We decided that we are going to at least give it a go in the U.S. and come over a few times and see if we can make something happen. We are currently looking for a cool package tour, or a tour that we can be support on. That’s our first goal. If we can’t find something that suits us, we will probably come over for a short tour by ourselves. Our plan is a three year plan. We will be present in the U.S. in the next three years and hopefully, this year. I’m in the U.S. now, and I love being here. Another anecdote would be, metal music is from the U.S., jazz music is from the U.S. also. Our particular brand of music- I’d be happy to bring it back to the U.S. and see what you guys think of it, you know?
When Devin Townsend played his Deconstruction record in London, you guys opened for him. That would be a neat tour.
Definitely. I’m in touch with Devin. He sent me a track today asking me if I could play some sax on it. I just listened to it three minutes before you called. I’m in touch with him, I love that guy. He’s a great guy. I talked with him about that. He doesn’t have any current plans for the U.S. at the moment, but if he does, we’ll have a talk with him and see if that would be a cool package. He’s been touring the U.S. more than us, so that would be a support tour for us.
Who are some of the bands from the U.S. that you’ve been listening to lately?
In Norway, streaming technology, Spotify and that way of listening to music as almost taken over completely in how people listen to music. I’ve always been a guy who listens to all sorts of music and now with YouTube and Spotify and that kind of stuff, I constantly listen to all sorts of stuff. I’d say I listen to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Dillinger Escape Plan. Dillinger has been new for me, so I’ve checked that out quite a bit. I listen to all of the American pop music that comes out to bring me up to date on new production methods and stuff like that. So every time Nicki Minaj comes out with a new single, I look it up.
One One One is out now via Prosthetic Records
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpyrbD-jeFs[/youtube]
