Kylfingar Interview

By Morrigan 

Answered by Viktor Váczi (lead vocals, keys)

 

 

• Hey there and first of all, thanks for accepting to do this interview for Valkyries Webzine ! You are actually one of the young folk/pagan metal bands I follow the more closely so I'm really happy to have this opportunity to ask you those few questions ! Lets start with the beginning : as you know we are originally a French webzine, so many people here don't know you, could you introduce the band to them ? Who's in it, how you met each others, what is the band about ?

 

 

 

First of all thank you for the opportunity which can help our band, Kylfingar to reach more people! All of us are very glad that we have a growing fan base not only in Hungary but also abroad.

Our music is viking/nordic folk metal and we mostly sing about Scandinavian mythology and history including the connection between the Old Hungarians (Magyars) and the Norsemen. Only a few people know even in Hungary but there were some links between the two nations, but now I don’t want to tell too much about this. If you are interested in the question, check out the info section on our Facebook page.

Currently Kylfingar has five members. I am the founder and main composer of the band and also the lead vocalist and keyboardist. Our solo guitarist is Viktor Grócz, my fellow musician friend from our earlier band. The other guitarist is Gergő Lakatos, another old friend who played different music in other group back then. They were the first members of Kylfingar as I invited them immediately when I cooked up that I want to make a viking/folk metal band. Not so much later our bassist, Krisztián Tőzsér joined – he is a real troll fan, so there were no doubt about him. So the line-up began to band together – in these early times we played covers of Ensiferum and Finntroll tracks under the name “Asgard”.

We have had more changes on the drummer post but finally we found our current percussionist, Bence Horváth in early 2014. He is a big fanatic of viking metal so he belonged in the band very quickly and I can say that he is one of the best drummers in Hungary and despite of his young age, he is a great talent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Do they give you something special when you are young in Hungary ? There are so many awesome folk/pagan (and others) bands in there ! What gave you the envy to start this band ?

 

Personally I wanted to create such a band for a long time. But I had no chance to do so as I did not know any musicians who wanted to participate. Actually there were no bands singing about Viking/Nordic themes before us in Hungary. So I thought to myself when I started thinking about this band that it has raison d’être if I can find members who are as decided as I am. Now I can say I was successful in the search and we are on the good path. There are many folkish bands in our home country but none of them write songs about Norse mythology.

 

 

• What about your label ? I must admit I didn't know it so I checked it out, and it's only dedicated to Hungarian bands. Are there sort of « institutions » like that helping young bands to emerge ? Or maybe a strong fan community ?

 

Nail Records is a sub-label of Hammer Records and the aim of Hammer Records is basically to support the Hungarian metal scene. This also includes helping young bands so this is how we got in touch. We are very grateful for their support because with their background our debut album reached thousands of metalheads in Hungary as at first the album was the CD supplement of their magazine, HammerWorld.

 

• This is your first full-length album, after one EP whose songs are on the album, how does it feel to have your first real album out ? How was the response to it so far ?

 

One of the biggest dreams of my life came true but I think all of us feel the same. I was very happy when I was holding the fruit of my hard work in my hands. For more than one year I was writing the lyrics and composing the music and we were in studio to record them continuously if we were not on stages, so we worked really hard on this album.

The fans love it; we got lots of positive response and reviews both from Hungary and abroad. We are glad that we could create something that people appraise.

 

 

• What is the priority for the band right now according to you ?

 

When the album was released, the Viking war chariot started up: we got more invitations, we played at local festivals in July and we cannot rest even in the autumn and the winter as we already have confirmed dates then – even for early 2015.

 

• What does « Kylfingar » mean ? And « Halhatatlanok » ?

 

The band got its name from a group of warriors of the Viking period – their name means “macemen” in Old Norse and they raided and plundered Eastern Europe together with the famous Varangians. They also settled in Hungary and were called “Kölpények” here.

The album-title literally means “Immortals” marking that the glory of the heroes of bygone times will never fade away until there will be ones who sing about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Can you tell us a bit more about the recording process of the album ? How do you compose, how do you put things together, etc...

 

Creating the album was a long and exhausting process. First of all I had to find out a concept then I wrote sketches about the lyrics – what should their topic and matter be, how should I tell the stories etc. When I finished the first versions of the lyrics, I started composing music which was another long process – I did not want to do it all anyhow. When I finished composing in general, we went to our home studio and started recording the tracks. As we are employees and students we could visit the studio only on weekends. In the studio everyone added their own ideas to the songs and the music was finally arranged. Then I polished the lyrics for another sleepless hours but it was worth it. I might not mention that on Mondays how much we were looking for the next weekend to invade the studio again. For me there is no feeling more elevating than finally hearing my own song!

 

• What about the artwork ? It fits perfectly well with the music in my opinion... how was it done and by who ?

 

The graphic artwork was made by my good friend, Viktor Csuka, “leader” of FreddyArt. He created an ideal and fitting artwork which can echo the atmosphere of the album. So he successfully created the artwork I had in my mind. He is both a good artist and a good person and also makes nice tattoos – just check out mine… HAHA

 

• Ok, the lyrics are written in Hungarian, so two questions here : could you tell us here what they are about ? And also why did you choose to keep your native language for composing ?

 

Each song on the first album tells a heroic story, for example about the glorious death of the old warrior in Helheim, the beautiful demi-goddesses in Kilenc Valkűr or the revelry of the warriors and their families in Sörtánc. All of the stories commemorate the deeds, the lives of their characters – their tale will live forever and this makes them “Immortal”.

When I started writing the songs I asked the other members about the language. Everybody said that it should be Hungarian, our mother tongue. Why was that a good decision? Kylfingar is the only viking/folk metal band who sings about this Nordic topic in Hungarian – also using the story of the Kylfings who settled among the Magyars. It makes our music authentic as most of the stories could happen even in Hungary. Isn’t that great? Then why should I sing in English? It’s so boring... HAHA

Also, there are many bands among my favourites who sing in their native language, for example Skálmöld. I did not understand their lyrics until I checked the translations out but I did not need to understand it to fall in love with their music for the first listening.

 

 

• What are your inspirations ? (for the lyrics AND music), is there some Hungarian folklore you use ?

 

On one hand, I love Norse history and mythology, on the other hand as I mentioned, I am also interested in the relation between the Vikings and the Old Hungarians and these inspire our lyrics. In our music you can hear the influence of the big classics of viking/pagan/folk metal and also different epic soundtracks. Hungarian folklore barely inspires us as our main profile is the Nordic genre.

Of course there is ancient Hungarian pagan folklore which is very unique in Europe as it is a kind of mixture of the religion of the Eurasian steppes and shamanism; its elements survived mostly in folk tales and medieval chronicles. Anyway, this inspires most Hungarian folk metal bands, like Dalriada or KerecsenSólyom so we felt that we should gather inspiration from somewhere else.

 

 

• Can you make a top 3 of the albums that are really important for Kylfingar ?

 

Ensiferum - Victory Songs; Finntroll – Nattfödd & Equilibrium - Turis Fratyr – these are the most inspiring three albums for me. But of course I can specify many more others which I love in this genre, but I could never end the list then.

 

 

• I think the most obvious aspect of this album is its epicness, and also its very strong unity... what do you think ?

 

Thank you! We have the same feeling. I think we could create a material which is well constructed and hopefully you cannot lose interest in it too easily. Of course I cannot call it perfect, we are our biggest critics but we are trying to evolve and improve our weaker parts.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• It seems that there are more and more young bands starting to make pagan metal nowadays, what would you say to promote Kylfingar ? What is your originality compared to the others ? And what do you think about the actual pagan stage right now?

 

Our native language and the stories about Kylfings are our most unique stuff. We are also trying to mingle genres a bit, adding folkish themes to epic elements to make the listeners feel that they are in the middle of the story and not just listening to music.

At the moment there are lots of great pagan/folk bands around the world, it is difficult to hold our ground but we will not give up.

 

 

• Do you have a favorite song on the album, and why ?

 

Észak Népe is my personal favourite. The matter of its lyrics and the melodies are very well-made, I love it and cannot tire of it.

 

• What are the best conditions to listen to Kylfingar ?

 

Every condition! If you are on your way to work, Észak Népe energizes you; if you want to go deep in the lyrics, Helheim should be your choice; for party it should be Sörtánc; if you want to listen to some classical music, then there is Széllel… and so on. Every track has a unique atmosphere. Maybe I have not listened to our music only during sex but then I do not really want to hear myself… HAHA

 

 

• I won't get too deeply into the music since I'll review the album a bit later, but what are the main feelings to wanted to convey through your work ?

 

Our main goal was to make the listener feel that he/she is in a bygone era, in the age of withered nations. To make one feel that he/she is fighting, rejoicing and exploring the world or die glorious death on the battlefield by our side. I tried to bring these feelings to the lyrics and the tunes.

 

• « Halhatatlanok »  is entirely on Youtube... don't you fear people won't buy it at all ? Or your purpose for now is just to reach as many people as possible ?

 

You are right about the latter. Now our most important aim is to reach as many people as possible. So everyone can listen to the album for free. But the real fans – who are numerous fortunately – can also buy the album for a very friendly price. And this way they support the band financially – the profit will be invested in other products.

 

• What about next album ?

 

The concept of the next album is sketched in my mind, I already started writing the lyrics and the music – there are also some demos recorded but they are top secret yet, of course. HAHA

I should mention that on it we will go deeper in the stories and legends about the Kylfings but of course there will also be some more classic Scandinavian themes just like on the first album.

 

• Lets talk about live performances ! I know for now there are very little chances I can see you soon and around there unfortunately... So what are Kylfingar live performances like ? Do you play live a lot ?

 

Yes, unfortunately there are financial limits which make impossible to visit your country or our Northern brothers and play there. However if we can go back a few centuries in time we would just pack into our dragonships and sail to the concerts! HAHA

The gigs always have a very good atmosphere. There are dozens of fans who appear on almost all of our shows and make amazing headbangs and moshpits. And this makes us happy so we are even more eager on the stage.

 

• Do you have any plans of touring ?

 

Yes, fortunately we have many invitations and we are organizing gigs for ourselves, too. This autumn we are planning five or six shows as we have no more free time because of our workplaces and studies but we are going to continue the tour in early 2015. At the moment we have only some Hungarian and a Slovakian shows confirmed; a couple of them will be co-headliner club concerts with a fellow fantasy metal band, Elfsong. Of course we would also like to visit other foreign countries soon, but there are nothing confirmed yet.

 

• Are there other artists you would like to work/tour with ? And places you would like to play in ?

 

Whoa, of course there are!!! But it is impossible to answer this question properly as I would tour with all my favourite artists together in a sort of mega-tour. But if I can choose only three, I would go on tour with the trio of Finntroll–Eluveitie–Ensiferum. I would also happily invite the girls from Eluveitie to some studio work, of course only because of music… HAHA

We would happily play anywhere around the globe where people like this genre, especially our songs! But perhaps Northern Europe would be my biggest dream because our music fits there the best.

 

 

• Alright, I think I'm out of questions... I let you have the final words for everybody who will read this ! I hope you will go far, wish you all the best, and thanks again for this interview !

 

Dear readers! Never give up your dreams, fight for them because when they come true they will make you the happiest people in the world! We are ones of the happiest people now and we keep on playing music happily ever after! :D

Thank you again for the interview, I hope one day we will meet personally at a gig, maybe even at a Kylfingar show in France!