Zierler, Finn (Beyond Twilight) (December 2001)

Beyond Twilight Get Devilish

I wasn't so impressed with his first project called Twilight, but now Finn Zierler seems to have switched gears, compiling one of the best albums of the year so far, the dark masterpiece entitled The Devil's Hall of Fame. Well, who knows ... after all, this could be the place where you find yourself as soon as you go beyond twilight!

II: First question I would like to ask you, Finn, is how much is Beyond Twilight an extension of Twilight and how much is a thing standing on its own?

FZ: Well, Twilight was very different. The music was different and the members were different. With Beyond Twilight we've moved into a new musical direction and I think it's important to tell that the bands really can't be compared to one another. We have chosen the name Beyond Twilight because we want to indicate that we have changed our musical direction. And because of that we have changed our line-up, too. Besides from that, the name Beyond Twilight pretty much explains what the music we play is all about.

II: Finn, the debut of Beyond Twilight includes the stellar vocals of Jorn Lande. Can you tell me how you were able to contact him, knowing how busy he is with other groups as well?

FZ: I was looking for a new singer and I got in contact with my manager. He has got THE metal collection! So we had a lot of these listening meetings where we listened to ... I don't know how many records. He loaned me records and I brought them home and listened to all of them. At one of several listening meetings he suddenly put on an album with Jorn and I instantly went: "That's the guy." We got in contact with him; he [had] heard some of the Beyond Twilight stuff and only a short time after he flew to Copenhagen where I met up with him. Together we started working through some ideas and we instantly blew each other away.

II: But what are the immediate plans for Beyond Twilight? And will Jorn follow the band on a hypothetical tour?

FZ: We are scheduling a tour right now. We hope to be on the road from December on ... but I can't be more accurate at the moment.

II: Finn, can you tell me something else about the other guys rounding out the line-up of Beyond Twilight?

FZ: OK, no problem. I've played before with Tomas Freden in Twilight. He went to L.A. to study drums and music, so when he came back we started to pick up things together again. He is a really great drummer and a very precious member in the band. He has his own playing style and you'll always be able to recognize when he is behind the drum-kit. The guitarist is Anders Kragh, I heard him playing in Sweden. He is an extremely skilled guitar player ... he went to a school for musically specially gifted young children. He is also playing the flute and a wide range of other instruments. When he is not playing in Beyond Twilight he is touring the world playing in a classical orchestra. Anders Lindgren, the bass player, was introduced to me by Anders Kragh. He is also a way out of this world musical talent. He is the fastest learning musician I've ever met. He also plays on multi instruments.

II: However I was really captivated by the biography of this project, especially when it refers to the fact that you wrote the songs while you were in the Sahara desert and on the Atlas mountains ... and without instruments! Is this true?

FZ: Yes, the music was written on paper without any instruments. Before I went on the journey I had already written the storybook for the album. So I settled for surroundings which could offer me the kind of moods which were in the story. At the same time I was looking for extremes, places where I could be totally isolated from the outside world and from any civilisation. This helped me to be able to focus 100% on writing the compositions for the album. It was a huge experience, it was a very developing process both as musician and as human. It gave me the adrenaline kick and peace I was looking for. At the same time I wanted to try something completely different. You see, normally I write/compose music on an instrument, this time I wanted to try to write everything by hand. This was a big challenge and the result became very different from anything I've written before. When you write music this way it's more like painting a picture or writing a poem. The music tells its own story; the songs to me are like small children who live their own life ... they are talking, dancing and whispering, but unlike humans they are immortal!

II: Finn, most of the songs of the album have dark and fierce riffs, propeled by the strong and powerful voice of Jorn. It seems to me like new Abstrakt Algebra material to me (if you know the band)!

FZ: I've heard Abstrakt Algebra and I really like their music. We've been compared to so many different things; I don't really care about comparisons. It's not so important to me. However I like Abstract Algebra a lot, but I know too little about them to know if we can be compared to each other. But if we can, then it's cool with me!

II: Why did you choose such a strange title like The Devil's Hall of Fame for the album?

FZ: The Devil's Hall of Fame is the soul of the story, the 4 dimensions. The Devil's Hall of Fame is a storybook which is happening in four dimensions. The storybook is a mix between fiction and reality. It's about a guy who hacks through a computer into his own brain. He finds out that he has a computer chip implanted in his brain. As the story goes on he discovers that some of his files in his brain are corrupted while others are missing. He travels through time to the past and the future, and the past beyond the past and the future beyond the future. He is falling in and out of love with the same person through time. And he experiences his own death without being dead but while being alive. As the story continues he starts to wonder if everything we're surrounded by is one big illusion. The story also deals with philosophy and religion. It questions whether philosophy really is religion or the other way around. It's really a deep storybook. At the end the main character finds the truth at last, and this is where it gets really twisted. Whenever he tells the truth to people they instantly die. So how can he [be] the only one [who] hold[s] the truth and yet not die? The truth is self- destructive. So he cannot tell the truth, he is alone, completely alone. And now that he knows the truth what are his thoughts? ... "It's perfect dark in the Devil's Hall of Fame"...

II: The album starts with the lines "Before me now, I see a dying planet" ... unfortunately they seem prophetic lines, considering what happened recently in NY. Do you really think that the Earth is slowly dying?

FZ: The concept of the album has nothing to do with what happened in NY, nothing whatsoever. What happened in NY is fucking terrible. I hope that the world stays cool. I hope that we'll get united and focus on fighting terrorism instead of creating a third World War.

II: Returning solely to music, what can you tell me about the two instrumentals that adorn the CD? "The Devil's Waltz" is powerful and with a really "sick" feeling, while "Closing The Circle" is sweet and melancholic, with that strange vocal intro?

FZ: Yes these are very good descriptions. "The Devil's Waltz" is a very twisted track. The music fits together with the song title. Listening to it is like sitting in a carousel that goes round and round, you almost get dizzy and want it to stop. You can almost see the Devil dancing the waltz in front of you while his crazy laughter is haunting you. You'll get the picture when you listen to it. "Closing The Circle" is a very moody and beautiful track. Technically it's very difficult to play but at the same time it's a very nice song to play. It really brings you in this special mood. The song will bring you on a journey with the main character, where he once again is meeting up with his love of his life through time, not knowing if he is ever going to see her again or if it's all one big illusion.

II: Any final thought before leaving us? Will you be able to come here [Italy] soon?

FZ: We really want to say thanks to all the people who have kept supporting us. We wouldn't be here without you. We really can't thank you enough. We hope to see you soon on tour, so get ready for the madness!

Discography:
Twilight - The Edge (demo) (1992/1999/2000)
Twilight - An Eye For An Eye (1995/2000)
The Devil's Hall Of Fame (2001)
Section X (2005)
For The Love Of Art And The Making (2006)