Gravkväde Pt I
Art that oppose to being limited by any fixed formula is always of interest to Hinsides, and Gravkväde is yet another example of this principle. A project that offers a concentrate of well crafted sounds in the intersection of different genres. Their latest release: Grav|Ruin and their ingenious interpretation of Dark Thrones ”En vind av sorg” made your favorite magazine aware that a good conversation were within reach if only the originators would allow themselves to speak out from the shadows? Luckily enough they did respond to our cause, and the following text represent parts of what got caught on tape.
Text: Hinsides
Images: Gravkväde
(Used with kind permission)
Grav|Ruin 2020
Hello there, and welcome to Hinsides Magazine! Please introduce yourself and the place you are at right now. Is it a place suitable to canalize the voice of Gravkväde or would you rather be somewhere else? (And if so; what would the ultimate situation look like? Warm and cosy with good wi-fi or lying dead cold in a coffin?) The word is yours…
- Greetings and thank you for having us! I go by the pseudonym of ‘’Ezra’’. I suppose the place I’m at right now is as good a place as any to convey the voice of Gravkväde, since a lot of my inspiration stems from the reflections and emotions I gather from my everyday experiences. Thus, the intentions and ambitions of Gravkväde are not necessarily dependent on the shape and form of my life experiences. With that being said, I wouldn’t mind having some more time and energy to visit interesting places and find new ways to produce the sounds we’re looking for. I’m nowhere near as musically productive when I have a lot going on in my professional and personal life and finding ways to distribute my energy evenly can be quite exhausting in and of itself. But overall, I wouldn’t really change anything since my inspiration needs to come from a very natural and organic place for things to work.
Ok, to start things off it would be interesting to know how you would picture the purpose of Gravkväde to someone totally unaware of the kind of sounds and writings that you make?
- Great question. I think I would prefer to speak of Gravkväde in the same manner even with people who are more familiar with extreme metal since the purpose has always been to create an authentic and artistic expression of the way humans experience pain on an existential and emotional level, rather than a simple contribution to a certain genre of music. We wish to make an audible interpretation of the emotions that we as a species generally attempt to avoid feeling in different ways. Honestly, I don’t see our continuing in the subgenres of extreme metal as a necessity for this vision to be effective. It’s just the means of expression that have felt the most natural and effective to us thus far. For instance, I find myself gravitating more and more towards incorporating visual elements to our craft as this adds another dimension to the experience. Maybe Gravkväde will be something completely different a couple of years from now, or maybe it won’t…
Regardless, I’m always slightly more enthusiastic about receiving feedback from people who are not used to this kind of music at all and yet manage to be moved by it in some way. I want the music to have a large impact on whoever is exposed to it.
Logo by Domedag
So when and where did the birth of Gravkväde happen then? What would you say are the most important pieces behind this project and what is the story of how they came together?
- The birth of Gravkväde took place one evening in the year of 2016. I was away on a trip of some sort, talking on the phone with my long-time friend ‘’Domedag’’. Our conversation inevitably moved towards the topic of music as it tends to do, it being a subject of mutual passion and all. For whatever reason, I recall this particular conversation gravitating towards the way certain negative emotions are represented and portrayed in music. I think we were both somewhat dissatisfied with the ways in which the bands and artists we were listening to at the time handled this matter. Since a big part of our relationship has been about creating music together, we started to consider making something of our own that would depict these kinds of emotions in a way that would feel uncompromisingly authentic and genuine to us. Soon thereafter we met up and tried to convert this inspiration into something concrete. These first attempts turned into our first demo, ‘’GRAV|SORG’’. For some reason we both felt encouraged to continue on this path, and so we have kept on developing our ideas and producing miserable sounds to this day. I think the most important pieces of this project were our like-mindedness and sources of inspiration at the time. We spoke the same language and had the same views on music and art, simply put.
How would you describe your journey into the views and emotions that you express with the music of Gravkväde? Is it a search of more and more harsh music that has led the way or is there any other kinds of crucial experiences in the pot there as well? Please unveil Gravkvädes most important moments in terms of inspiration and formative events.
- It's interesting to me that you describe it as a journey into something, since that largely reflects how I’ve felt about Gravkväde over the years. I suppose in the beginning the dimension in which Gravkväde exists was something more unknown and abstract to me personally. Now that I think of it, this is probably the reason it was all so intriguing to explore in the first place. The emphasis was never to simply create more harsh music, but rather to communicate the central themes and emotions of Gravkväde in a more and more authentic way. I view the inherent harshness of Gravkväde largely as a by-product. The more music we create together, the more it all becomes sort of like its own universe with its own order of things, if that makes sense. I find it easier to navigate in this abstract dimension now, which allows for more interesting compositions and more authentic sounds. Like I mentioned earlier, a huge source of inspiration is the essential experiences that make up a human life, or more importantly the thoughts and emotions that surround these events. Like attending a funeral, for instance.
As far as formative events go, I view the entire history of the band as a single formative process where every single individual experience plays its own part. Of course, the unexpected breakthrough we had with our first album in 2018 was a very important experience since we never expected people to connect with our work in that way. I think it gave us a lot of motivation and energy to continue evolving. Ideally, I wouldn’t care about things like this too much. But I would be lying if I said the reception of our work didn’t have some kind effect on me.
Grav|Aska 2018
What kind of circumstances and state of mind has to be aligned in order to create the kind of material that fits the concept of Gravkväde and how do you relate to the inherent contradiction of using your sparks of life to focus on and express it´s demise? Is it possible to put into words what you gain on a personal level from doing something like Gravkväde?
- I think a sense of creative freedom is essential to me. This may also include having the necessary tools to experiment with sound in different ways. I need to give myself time to let ideas and songs develop properly. We usually continue changing and adding things to our compositions right until the very last moment. This requires time, space, and a certain flexibility I suppose. When it comes to our state of mind, I think my best creations come from a completely blank space. I like to keep my restrictions to a minimum, and just let whatever happens happen. Challenges and experimentation are also crucial. Sometimes I will use people that are not even members of the band and have no understanding of extreme music as a tool to create devastating melodies and riffs. If the person cries or has any strong kind of reaction, then I know that I’m onto something valuable.
I don’t feel that the using of our sparks of life to express its demise needs to be contradictory in that sense, although I can certainly understand why it would appear that way. I think so much of the art created by humans is inevitably related to the fear of death, entropy, and the impermanence of all things in this world. There is certainly a lot to be gained by exploring these very uncomfortable topics in different ways. Since the fear of death and the general attempts to avoid negative emotions are an essential part of the human experience, it becomes as relevant to express through art as anything else we experience. So, in some ways it can be understood as a coping strategy, as well as a way to face and confront the things we automatically try to repress otherwise. I do not believe that death, impermanence, and other painful aspects of our existence are inherently bad.
They are simply there, and it would be more contradictory to avoid these things since this kind of behaviour just generates deeper suffering.
You´ve just read the first part of a interview with Gravkväde made by Hinsides Magazine Oct 2021. The whole conversation will be published in the next physical issue of the paper in question. Previous issues can be ordered here: