Lande, Jorn (December 2001)

Jørn Of ARK, World Changer

First he made the incredible ARK CD entitled Burn The Sun, then he went Beyond Twilight to study some Nostradamus lectures and finally decided to change the world! What a year Jørn Lande had! But is he ready to try to top this incredible sequence of masterpieces with even more magic next year? Well, let's hear what he says to us...

Igor Italiani: Hi Jørn! How are you doing?

Jørn Lande: Oh, I'm fine thanks. You know ... I'm a little late with the interviews series?

II: There's no problem, Jørn! First and foremost I wanna ask you this: what are the secrets in having and maintaining such a great voice like yours?

JL: Well, secrets? I don't know! I try to reflect life when I sing, my thoughts, the view upon the world; past, present and future ... I try to express myself with a lot of passion, even if I don't do any exercises to keep up my vocals (!). However, when I grew up I had the help of my father, who is a musician as well. He used to live in Spain and I guess he brought a lot of good albums and he took me to his gigs, too. So I learned a lot from this, and also from the bands he bought me, like Free, Deep Purple, Kansas, Sweet. I think I discovered Sweet, for example, when I was five years old!

II: OK. Back to music now. Your agenda is full of activities ... ARK, Millennium, solo stuff, Nostradamus, Beyond Twilight ... what's up next?

JL: Now I'm just gonna have a break from recordings for a little while. I think I'll stop at least until next year, February or March. But I'm already writing some new stuff, some new ARK songs, some new songs for the Jørn project, and I'll take it from there. Burn The Sun is coming out in the USA in February, on the Favored Nations label, so I also want to see how this situation develops, because there are talks of a possible tour there. We just did a festival in Atlanta [Progpower USA 2.0], and we are trying to see what's the reaction of the US market to the new album.

II: But what can be considered your main band at the moment?

JL: ARK is my band, that's where I work right now. The other bands are also my bands, you know! Right now it can be said that I'm working with something that's very busy, something that gives work, but you still can decide if you want to promote a certain thing to the maximum or try to be involved with something else at different levels. Obviously with ARK we have a good thing going on with Burn The Sun. There were other situations in the past when this thing couldn't work, like when I was with Vagabond. The stream was working against that kind of music at the time and maybe we were not focused enough with what we were doing, or we just weren't lucky. We had a couple of albums, and maybe there could be something going if we put out something else, but we came at a time where grunge and the Seattle bands were in, so everything worked against us in a way. But you can always learn positive things even in those kind of bad situations.

II: So you think that this is the right moment to come out for all these new bands where you sing?

JL: Yeah, it's a better time, because people had to go through all these years and now I think they are finally bored to death with all these soulless experimental music. I mean, it's a music that still has qualities, there are a lot of rhythms, a lot of atmospheres, a lot of things that I also like, but it's good to see the performances, the messages and the melodies coming back in a way and make people think, giving them pictures to learn from. I think that this was the same with Beyond Twilight. It's just one album but I'm very happy to have worked with a concept like this one. The fact is that it's really a concept album but it has a lot fresh new things in the music, so I was really happy with the final result. For the moment there are no touring plans with Beyond Twilight, so it's just a matter of finding time to do new projects like this. I'm just living like everyone else in the world, you know, so I've got my idealistic plans on what I want to achieve, and I have to make a few decisions that try to accommodate everything that floats around me.

II: Jørn, can you tell me something about the great musicians that play on Worldchanger?

JL: Sure. Tore Maten, the guitar player, used to play on 3 tracks of Starfire, my first solo album. I think he stuck out in those tracks, he had something I was always searching [for] in a guitarist, he reminded me something about Zakk Wylde, as he clearly posseses that kind of expression. Sid used to play with me in the Snakes, and he also played most of the bass parts on Starfire. In the 80s he used to be in a band very popular in Scandinavia, a metal band fronted by a female singer - and Hellhammer -. well he is the drummer from Mayhem, and he used also to play in another black metal band called Covenant. He brings the classical drumming to the next level, where you can also appreciate the technical elements mixed with a certain heaviness of the sound.

II: Speaking about the tunes ... you wrote every song by yourself, right?

JL: Yeah, almost all. A few ones I worked with Tore [Østby, ARK guitarist]. With him I wrote some lyrics and some riffs, also because I'm not really a guitar player, so?

II: So now can you tell me what's your typical way of composing a song?

JL: Well ... I just go with a guitar; I have an acoustic one for that thing, but I also use electric sometimes. I play it just like a hobby, but I'm able to start from it and try to shape a song out of the things that come out from inspiration. When I have something I write it down or I record it, and I try to take it from there. I'm usually creative for about three hours, with the first one being the time in which I'm most creative. So I start with something that comes to mind, and then I try to add additional ideas and melodies to that.

II: OK. So let's talk about some songs from Worldchanger. One of the best in my opinion is "Sunset Station." Here a very melodic chorus crashes with real heavy riffs, and also with an incredibly epic guitar solo?

JL: Well, I think that this song is really a manifest of what is the album, with a lot of diversity coming in. Yeah, the song has a real classic chorus, like you said, but it also possesses a hard-edged sound. The message it carries is about having ambitions, believing in your dreams, that if you believe and you keep going into your direction hopefully you will go through this life ... you'll get to where it is good eventually.

II: Another strange song is "Bless The Child," maybe the heaviest song you have ever sung?

JL: Mmh, I don't know. It's certainly one of the heaviest songs I've ever wrote, that's for sure. The song reflects on when you are born, you are untouched and you don't know what to expect in life; and the way we are brought up, the way we are protected, with all those values that the parents and society give to us. I mean, I believe in those values, but when you grow up you finally see that some of them are not respected like they told you. So you finally see the world as it really is, with devastating things, such as hunger, wars. The child doesn't know all these things when he is born, so this is why I say "the child doesn't know, there are Demons down below. Save the child, he cannot see." It's a long journey so you better be prepared. Tell the children about the un-rational things in the world.

II: Taking inspiration from the title of the record Worldchanger, what's the first thing you would change in today's world if you had the power of doing so?

JL: First thing I would change? The most important thing for me is to stop wars, stop all wars and create equal opportunities, at the point where it's possible for everyone to lead a decent life. To have a life in which there's enough for everyone. I don't care what's the price to achieve all of this, but I would like to see the world achieve it.

II: Now tell me this ... when are you going to play live in Italy?

JL: Well, I don't know yet. I hope to come next year. Maybe I'll come with both my solo stuff and ARK, who knows? Concerning ARK, a lot depends on how the States will react to the release of Burn The Sun in February. However, I think that, at the moment, Jørn is the most realistic thing to come to Italy.

II: Jørn, you've made quite a few covers in your albums. Can you tell me which one satisfied you the most?

JL: I think..."City Boy," a song I really like, which satisfies me and makes me very happy. I really like to play it live, too.

II: But there is someone else whose music you would like to do but still haven't performed, yet?

JL: Yeah, there are many. Maybe too much to mention just one. But...yeah, there's one song that I really would like to do and that has nothing to do with metal, and that is a Björk song. I would like to perform it in a much darker and heavier way. If I'll record other covers in the future, that song would be one of my top choices.

II: Jørn ... I've read on the Frontiers website that the Italian label is secretly producing a big rock opera. Can you tell us if you'll take part in the project?

JL: No, I'm not. I was asked to participate, but the label couldn't meet my terms. But I've heard something about this opera and it sounds very good, it's very interesting. It's very classic oriented.

II: And when will your official website be active?

JL: Yeah, I hope it will be officially open for Christmas, because actually there's not a lot of informations in there. In a few weeks I really hope to provide a better service even in this category.

II: But are you an Internet fanatic or not?

JL: Well, I don't use it too much. I go on the Internet as little as possible, but sometimes I see some news there, I've got e-mails ... however, my site will be covered by the ones that have already made the ARK site, so I think it will be a good one. There are a lot of informations I'm trying to collect, and that I want to publish on the Internet. There's an extended biography for example, written by a journalist, which is 80 to 100 pages long, and that's being translated from Norwegian to English.

II: Final question Jørn. On the cover of Worldchanger there's a black raven ... are you superstitious or not?

JL: Well, I believe that things will occur sometimes. In fact, the raven in the old times, in the Viking days ... in the Norwegian history, the raven meant different things at certain times... If you saw the raven it could have meant something good or something bad, it all depended on where you saw it, on what occasion you saw it. It could mean you were going to die or it was a good harvest, like the black cat crossing the road. The raven had all those meanings in every situation you saw it. If it was flying, if it was sitting down ... so I brought it on the cover of the album for all this symbolism and to show from where I come from, the Norwegian culture where I was brought up. And it is also black, so it can also reflect to go deeper, and how our souls have been blackened against our will in a way, and we are forced to sacrifice some of our values to carry on in this life.

II: I think that's enough Jørn. I salute you and I hope to enjoy your Italian concerts as soon as possible!

JL: Oh, thank you very much. I'll certainly see you sometime in the near future. Thanks Igor and goodbye for now.

Discography:
Vagabond - Vagabond (1994)
Vagabond - A Huge Fan Of Life (1995)
Mundanus Imperium - The Spectral Spheres Coronation (1998)
The Snakes - Once Bitten (1998)
The Snakes - Live In Europe (1998)
Ark - ARK (1999)
Starfire (2000)
Millenium - Hourglass (2000)
Nikolo Kotzev - Nostradamus (2001)
Worldchanger (2001)
Ark - Burn The Sun (2001)
Beyond Twilight - The Devil's Hall Of Fame (2001)
Masterplan - Enlighten Me (2002)
Masterplan - Masterplan (2003)
Brazen Abbot - Guity As Sin (2003)
Masterplan - Back For My Life (EP) (2004)
Millenium - The Best Of And More (2004)
Out To Every Nation (2004)
Masterplan - Aeronautics (2005) Allen/Lande - The Battle (2005)
The Duke (2006)
Unlocking The Past (2007)
The Ken Hensley Story - Blood On The Highway (2007)
Allen/Lande - The Revenge (2007)
The Gathering (2007)
Live In America (2007)
Lonely Are The Brave (2008)
Spirit Black (2009)
Dio (2010)
Allen/Lande - The Showdown (2010)
Masterplan - Time To Be King (2010)
Live In Black (2011)
Bring Heavy Rock To The Land (2012)
Traveller (2013) Allan/Lande - The Great Divide (2014) Lande/Holter - Dracula: Swing Of Death (2015)

Live In America (DVD) (2009)