To be main lyricist in Tristania feels like an honour and a curse at the same time.
I know that most of our fans read our lyrics and some know them by heart. We’ve heard you sing along – I have seen your lips – moving to the melodies at our concerts. That is very touching. Continue doing that.
The dark side of the fact that most of you know the words is that We can’t just write some nonsense and expect to get away with it. Not that we WANT to write nonsense of course. We all want each word to deserve it’s space and carry poetry and meaning to each song and to the world. And to you guys.
I have finalized the lyrics for about half the new songs – six or seven of them. So far there are no shubiduas or shalalas or yeahyeahyeahs. And I don’t think that there will be any.
Mariangela, Ole, Anders, Einar and myself have all made vocal melodies and this huge variety – this width of ideas – has made the challenge of writing lyrics even more complicated than before. The new songs are all very strong and the words reflect the moods.
In my best moments I manage to lift the songs and add flavour and depth and meaning. In my worst moments the lyrics are shite and needs rewriting and rethinking. I am quite moody when I do this kind of work, and I complain a lot.
Besides the never irrelevant themes of fucked up relationships, and the feeling that existence lacks meaning, I have tried to imagine myself at another place – a more extreme spot in the world – and tried to understand and recreate what people such places must be going through. I am fascinated by extremism, madness and chaos. I don’t think I want to be more specific than that at this point.
I hope you like the new website as much as we do – Tinko and his team has done a great job – we will try to bring you relevant news about the progress on the new album soon. There is no title ready for the album yet. We’ll get back to you as soon as we have found the perfect one.
Some song titles: Patriot Games, Year of the Rat, The Emerald Piper, Sirens.
Hope to see you all soon.
Østen
