Post-grungers Audrey Horne caught many by surprise when they first emerged in the early noughties – especially given the band’s roots within the likes of Enslaved and Gorgoroth. Now having shunned such preconceptions and won over more than their share of cynics, lead singer Torkjell ‘Toschie’ Rød allowed Soundshock an insight into the group’s origins, their imminent new, self-titled album and why High School Musical will always triumph over Hannah Montana.
Hello sir! How did you chaps get together then?
Basically we were just a bunch of guys in different bands like Enslaved and Sylvia Wane, and we all hung out at a local rock club in Bergen called Garage every weekend. We started talking about doing something together, as some of us played in different types of bands, but we all grew up listening to the same music, and we all thought about doing something that would be more of a straight-up hard rock band. So we sat together and wrote some songs, and it soon started to become a proper band.
Do you think you took people by surprise when they first heard you?
Yeah I think so. At first when we did it, people thought it was too middle of the road, but when we put out our first album and did our first gig, I was surprised by how well we were received from the people that we thought would never like us, like the Immortal guys for instance. They came up to us soon after and said they liked our music! And so we have actually been very well received from that community, although obviously this music isn’t always going to be for black metal kids.
So the extreme metal community has been quite supportive?
Yeah definitely. The thing is with that community is that if they like something they tell you, and if they don’t like it they still tell you!
What about bands and fans from the post-grunge/hard rock scene? Have they been open to Audrey Horne?
Yeah very much, a lot of those bands have wanted to play with us and we’ve toured with lots of those bands. It’s been a good atmosphere, and I think if you like good music and you play good music well, then people are going to take it for what it is.
As an artist, how has Audrey Horne helped you to express yourself in ways that wasn’t possible with your previous bands?
Well the main difference is with Enslaved there’s Iver who writes all the music and is the captain of the ship, so to speak. We’re more of a traditional rock band where we play together, write music together and, without saying anything harsh about Enslaved in any way, I think that they’re more within their own genre of music than we are. Bands like Enslaved are more aware of their genre and their image. Having said that, they are one of the more open-minded extreme metal bands out there, but I think that Enslaved are more aware of their audience, whereas we’re more of a traditional hard rock band.
Would you hope you could expose some Enslaved fans to new genres of music through Audrey Horne?
Yeah I think we very much are, because we did a European tour with Enslaved, and we toured as ‘special guests’, and we played to that audience every night. It was great, because we were received extremely well; we pulled in a good crowd and we got a few new fans.
Tell us about the upcoming album.
It’s coming along really well. The recording and mixing is done now and we’ve just got the artwork done. We’ve gone back to [renown producer] Joe Barresi for the recording...
You lot seem quite keen on Joe.
Yeah he’s really good. It’s very important that you work together musically, but it’s also important that you function well as people. You’re stuck in a studio for an amount of weeks with this person, and we have a great relationship with him, so he keeps asking us to come back and we keep coming back! He understands where we’re coming from and he understands where we wanna go, so we don’t need to sit down and explain things to him. It’s what kept Metallica working with Bob Rock for so many years, you have to have someone who you feel understands you and almost works as a member of the band. You want to keep doing that until you reach a point where you feel like you want something new. This has been a great relationship, and for now he’s a brilliant man for us to work with.
The album is to be self-titled, which some people might see as a statement.
Yeah it is. I talked to some people about it and they were like “You wanna call it ‘Audrey Horne’? That’s what people do when they’ve done eight albums, or you do it for the debut album.” But when we started out we were seen very much as a side project, and when we went to Los Angeles to record this album we felt that we needed to say that this is the main focus for people who are in Audrey Horne. There is a stronger musical focus on this album, and this is the album where we feel that we’ve reached the point that we finally know exactly who we are. Also, there are a lot of people out there who haven’t heard us, and for them this might be a starting point.
Sounds like a plan! Right, to finish, some quick-fire questions. Metallica or Megadeth?
Erm, I would have to go for...ah.... Megadeth.
Alien or Predator?
Alien.
Cheesecake or banofee pie?
What’s the second one? What is that?
You’ve never had banofee pie?! You have to try that shit! It’s amazing!
Okay, well I’ll go for that then!
Good man. Finally, ‘High School Musical’ or ‘Hannah Montana’?
Er, I would have to pick ‘High School Musical’. Hannah Montana is one person, but there’s always a pretty girl I can look at in ‘HSM’.
Outstanding. Cheers Toschie, and find yourself some banofee pie, stat.
No problem, I will do that.
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