Interview with Are Mundal By Christian Moen & Finn Håkon Rødland/The True Mayhem Collection.


Can you please tell us how you and Varg became friends? Did you perhaps grow up in the same neighborhood?

Yes, we grew up in the same part of town which were situated in Fana. We met through the metal scene in southern Bergen and Os. He was a few years younger than me, but it turned out that we both were interested in experimental music, literature and philosophy as well as metal, and we shared a sense of humor.

How would you describe Varg’s personality? These days he seems outgoing and talkative. Would you say he was like that back in days too?

He was talkative, polite and interested in different kinds of music and philosophy as I myself was. He was a bit quirky and a few times he just walked in the door unannounced in the middle of the night at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning if he saw the lights were on.

The music of Burzum is monotonous and dreamy, almost like a "soundtrack". Would you say that these are aspects of Varg's personality too, that are reflected in his music?

Yes I guess so, I would say this reflected his personality too, and he had interests beyond just the marginal music genre he was part of.

What were your musical influences and interests besides music?

My interests was metal music and experimental music together with philosophy, and my commitment to criticizing christianity and religion in general and new religious movements in particular, which I still cultivate to the fullest, due to personal reasons. I also had an old Saab 96 from the early 70's, which we drove around in. Some of the guys from the metal scene called it the "underground car".

I grew up liking classic metal like Priest, Venom, Motorhead and the likes. I still like some metal demo’s like "December Moon" sent to me by then singer of Morbid at the time, and albums from back then, like "War and Pain", "The Return" and "Emperors Return" which makes Venom sound like wimps, according to the advertising in a Swedish catalogue. Of course I bought it at the time, as I was a fan of Venom's music as well. And also "To Mega Therion" even though I couldn’t care less for their Crowley influence, a character that seems to me to be nothing more than a speculative drug addict type, and very dogmatic himself. It’s completely uninteresting, as this is something that reoccurs in trendy pop-occultism. Apart from that I was also listening to music like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Nurse With Wound, S.P.K. and Zoviet France and similar groups.

I remember that I was surprised that Øystein Aarseth was also into some experimental music flipping through some vinyl records in a box I had containing The Residents "Third Reich ‘n’ Roll", Tangerine Dreams "Rubycon" and "Zeit", Cranioclast and more industrial music from the eighties as mentioned above. His taste was diverse. I only met Øystein 4 or 5 times, but he seemed like a nice guy. His interests weren’t limited to metal, but experimental music as well. I remember I went to see Varg in Lille Markevei, and Øystein was there too. I showed him a VHS video of Sleep Chambers "Satanic Sanction" album which he seemed to like.

It would have been interesting to see what he would have published had he lived. His death was a loss to truly alternative music.

I was interested in, and was collecting experimental/independent horror films on video cassettes, and introduced some of them, like those of Argento, Buttgereit and Rollin etc. to Varg in the early nineties. I was also into writers like Lautreamont and horror film soundtracks and collected them, and he asked me to participate musically more on the "Aske" EP, but it never happened. We had ideas like using tunes from the 7' inch movie soundtrack "Der Todesking" etc. drums and sound collages, which never materialized.

Me and some other friends used to swap or buy videotapes in the late eighties and early nineties with more or less obscure films with other people all over Europe. This one graying guy Ulf Bågenhammar from Sweden was kind of an eccentric, and he would send us lists over tapes he had pirated, like Lucio Fulci’s, Luis Bunuel’s, Jess Franco, Argento’s and Bava’s films and the likes of that, of which some were forbidden in Norway, and other more serious and obscure movies that were just difficult to get hold of at the time. These films often had spectacularly great titles like the film "Nude for Satan" and other titles, like the instructional video "Basic Autopsy Procedure U.S. Army" etc. Anyway this Ulf guy suddenly announced that he had a bleeding ulcer and disappeared from the surface of the earth. I suspect he was really in jail... Anyway, he would sometimes include footage of himself at the end of a video tape, like lying on the kitchen table with a plastic axe on his chest and lots of fake blood and screaming. Now that's a genuinely strange chap.

Were you occupied with role-playing games and martial arts like Varg before music?

No, I was never interested in role playing games and that kind of crowd.

Do you know if the individuals that were members of Varg’s band Kalashnikov joined other bands after Kalashnikov disbanded or did they quit playing music?

I don't know anything about this project.

You get the impression that Varg’s philosophy regarding his musical project Burzum was decided from day one. Would you agree that he was very reflective about the musical path of Burzum?

Yes, he seemed very dedicated and knew what he wanted.

Varg was inspired by Lord of The Rings. Do you know how he picked up on this and got the idea to integrate this in his music?

I knew he was into that, but I don’t know much about it as it was not exactly my cup of tea.


Would you say that Lord of The Rings was as strong inspiration source as his love for the Norse heritage?

This could be, however I don’t know about this.

Would you say Varg’s youth was turbulent moving around a lot? On early flyers you can read Skjoldstolen 22, Hammerslandsgrenda 16, Lille Markevei 5, Ibsensgt 45. All four addresses in a short period of time.

No, it did not seem to me that his youth was very turbulent regarding this.

Varg was extremely productive making music. Still in his teens, and within 14 months, he recorded 4 albums and 1 mini-LP. All of them are regarded as masterpieces. Do you have any explanation how he managed this achievement?

I guess it was the energy of the times back in the days.

You took the photos of Fantoft Stave Church in ashes used on the cover of the Aske mini-LP. Would you please share some of the details of this very fascinating story?

Yes, I went to see Varg in Ibsensgt. to deliver some guitar equipment, and he asked me if I could take a picture of the Fantoft stave church that had just burned down. He lent me his camera and I went there on my way home to take the pictures I was asked too. This was later that day, and there were some bystanders on the premises. Firefighters were doing some post fire security work, and I definitely stood out in the crowd of bystanders which made me a little uneasy, and I was concerned the people there would find it suspicious that I was photographing the remains of the church. I definitely did not look anything like a reporter either. When I next saw Varg I returned the camera to him with the film in it. One of these pictures made it to the album cover of the Aske EP. To me it's a very symbolic picture, because this was my Lutheran, bigot, sorrow and misery inflicting grandfathers favourite church.

Anyway, one day a police car stood outside my home place in Fana, and the police man said: "Hi, you know what this is all about don’t you? Just get dressed and get in the car!". Apparently I was a suspect of the fire or something, because I was taken into custody and they took my mugshot and my fingerprints and interrogated me for hours. The interrogations started with screaming and threats, waving Varg's camera in front of my face. It lasted for hours until they let me go. I was also called in for a second round of this, and when the interviews were finished, I heard nothing more from the police, and I never testified to anything in his court case.

The last time I visited Varg in Ibsensgt. was to deliver a cassette tape. This was in August 1993, on the evening of the 10th, after Varg had returned from Oslo. The atmosphere was tense, and after that everything just fell apart.

It is rumored that Varg got one of the Swedish girls to develop the pictures in Sweden to avoid suspicion in Bergen?

I have no idea what he did regarding the processing of the pictures of the stave church. However I did met this Swedish Ilsa girl once at Varg’s house, but she never said a word to me.

In January 1992 Varg and Euronymous had a photo session in the WW2 bunker in Os, however, on some photos both of them are in the same picture, which indicates a third person was present. Would you have any idea who the mystery man could be by any chance?

I guess it was Varg, and I remember he gave me some of these photos as a gift. One of these pictures was ''the spider picture at the bunker'', with Euronymous, and it was later used in the Ablaze magazine in Germany,  and the iconic Os bunker-picture. I met up with this halfwit running it when I was living in Eichwalde in Germany for a year in the late 1990's, where I briefly joined a cult situated in Berlin.


January 15th 1993 Varg did the infamous interview with BT which made it to the front page the 20th. Did he anticipate that he was going to be arrested due to this interview?

That’s plausible I guess.

In 1992 Varg stated that he had recruited session members planning to play live with Burzum and you were announced on synth. Did you rehearse together with (full) line-up?

No, this never happened. I rehearsed once with him at Os rock club playing drums, since he wanted to try his guitar riffs. There could have been some plans, but I was not aware of them.

Do you know how Varg got the idea choosing drawings from Theodor Kittelsen catalogue on the cover for HLTO and Filosofem? It`s a pretty unusual choice in extreme metal music at the time. Was he possibly inspired by the booklet of When’s Black Death album?

Yes, maybe he was inspired by Lars Pedersens When’s first albums. We were listening to the ''Death in the Blue Lake'' and ''Drowning but learning'' albums I remember.

How would you describe Varg as a friend, and did he change after he started Burzum and got to know Euronymous and people in Oslo?

More extreme perhaps. However, he was still the polite and decent friend, and personally I never had  any kind of problem with him. Even though our views of course would, and can, differ.

Can you tell us about your musical contribution for Norwegian black metal bands such as Enslaved and Immortal?

I’ve been making music since the late eighties, when I was still a teenager. I originally played the drums, but drifted into making sound collages using samplers and electronic equipment as well as electric guitars and acoustic instruments. I saw the multiple possibilities and the freedom this music represented, and this was very exciting for me as I could express myself my own way, and still be in control of my own work. My friend from Immortal said: "Are has lost his marbles, now he’s painting his musical pictures like a painter". Some of the guys from Enslaved and Immortal were my friends so that’s why I had the opportunity to work with them.

I cant remember exactly how we got the idea that I was going to collaborate with Enslaved, but I remember that I suddenly got inspired and I created the piece while my girlfriend at the time made dinner. I still worked on it quite a bit after that though.

As for the Immortal collaboration, I suggested to a friend in Immortal that I could make an introduction to one of the songs on the album they where working on. They were keen on the idea and we recorded it. I wanted to recreate the ambiance from the early years, and I improvised parts of it. I was a little unhappy with the result as I disagreed with the way it was produced in the end. People seemed to like it though.

How do you find the metal scene today compared to the early nineties?

When this scene was in its first flush of life it was
young men in opposition wanting to make gut-
wrenching music, however the development of the scene up to date shows a scene where they try to blend in new age, and it now seems more like a wicca mission and square leftism, rater than rebellion, metal and experimental music. It’s now all about blood smearing at festivals and trashy, arty-farty poser tattoos, and where everything is superficial but underneath nothing is real. The whole so called "black metal scene" is now loaded with new age beliefs. I have actually met people who claim to have been to concerts that happened before they were born.

In the early days of this generation of music in the early nineties it was about making furious and atmospheric music.The so called "black metal" of today is boring and have little spirit, burping up some new age banalities about nature and mysticism. It is difficult then to develop one self as a musician in such an environment. A lot of people in the music metal scene seems to be leeches, rats and copy cats, and they try to claim some connection which does not exist. Anyway, it didn't come as a surprise that these incidents happened in areas like Fana, a bourgeoisie,  prudish, religious and conservative place full of new money.

Do you have any stories or info that we should have asked about? 
Please share if you remember something. 

A friend from Immortal encouraged me to apply for the job as the drummer in Mayhem in the late  eighties, and so I wrote  them a letter. Then my friend wanted to put a anti-vivisection sticker on my envelope with my application, but Mayhem never replied. I found out later that this was because of the sticker. Øystein had thrown the letter in the bin without opening it! I found this out at a later occasion when I, my friend and Øystein were talking, and the subject came up. Lucky for them, they hired Jan Axel Blomberg instead. I also arranged for a warm up gig for Old Funeral and Immortal. In June 1991 a slightly terrible band called Junk Food Society was going to play at this rock club Garage in Bergen, and I had the opportunity to arrange for the warm up. So I booked Old Funeral with Varg and Immortal (I think it was one of their first gigs).

I must also recommend Torstein Grudes documentary "Satan Rides the Media", you can find it on YouTube.


I am hoping to release a new album in 2020 of sound collages and dark ambient music. I don't know the label yet.

Pictures:
1. Photography by Tore Bratseth Ca. 1990.         
2. The bunker photos.       
3. Are at home 20.10.2019.       
4. Concert poster with Old Funeral and Immortal. 

For contact: mundal.are@gmail.com

For more information on Burzum - Aske EP, see link to official website below.

Burzum, Aske





Music by Are Mundal now available, see Telesterion Records or Are Mundal, Telesterion Records

https://aremundal.bandcamp.com/

Photo by Finn Håkon Rødland, June 2020