The North brings us…

After ascending to my top 10 releases from 2014, Sweden’s Grimner have returned with an EP entitled “De Kom Från Norr”. Featuring 5 tracks, the EP is all acoustic and traditional based which shows Grimner’s musical ability and ties to the music of their ancestors. Ted Sjulmark (guitarist/vocalist) was able to answer a few questions regarding the EP…check it out…..

Congratulation on your new EP “De Kom Från Norr”….have you gotten some feedback regarding it prior to its release?
“Thank you very much! We have met positive responses so far, since we released the title track, so we’re happy with it and hope people will appreciate the rest of the record as well.”

Nice Acoustics
What was the main inspiration behind doing an acoustic EP?
“Well, we put up videos of our street performance in Vadstena, Sweden, a couple of years ago, where we played acoustic covers of Månegarm songs and some other covers as well. Since then, many people have requested that we write and record some acoustic songs, so we thought it was a fun thing to do for the fans, and we also very much enjoy playing acoustic music.”

How did the songwriting process differ (if at all) from your regular material?
“It mostly didn’t differ that much, really. The main difference was that this material is not as technical or complex as our usual metal stuff. The songs are mostly written in the same way, otherwise. But “Gungner” is instrumental and played on only guitars and bass, while the song “Etterpolska” is written only by Johan (flute, mandola, bagpipes, etc.) and features bagpipes and a drum, nothing more. So that’s a little different!”

Were these songs that were written specifically to be played acoustically? Will they ever appear as non-acoustic versions?
“Yes, all of them were written for acoustic instruments straight from the beginning, except for the acoustic “swing version” of our song Forna Dagar, of course, snce it was metal from the beginning. We might do a metal version of one of the songs sometime in the future, we don’t know ourselves. Time will tell!”

Are there other songs you had written for this release or was it only the songs that appear on it?
“We had a couple of unfinished songs that didn’t make it onto the record, as with all other releases. We always have more songs that we consider in the beginning, but some of them must go, for various reasons.”

What was the thought process behind the “swing” style version of “Forna Dagar”?
“That was just a thing we came up with when we were jamming in the rehearsal space one day. We thought it sounded cool, so we arranged a proper version after that and decided to have it as a bonus on “De Kom Från Norr”. In retrospect, any of our songs could have ended up the swing version, but “Forna Dagar” felt the best, and seems to be one of our most popular songs!”

The cover has a very “old school” feel to it….how did this become the cover?
“First of all, we hired our good friend Daniel “Vargas” Petersson for the creation of the album art. We wanted a gloomy, dark and pretty simple album cover that tells the story of the title track in a clear way, and we think he achieved just that!”

Native tongue
As always the songs here are sung in Swedish….any chance for English versions of these songs or any others down the road? Do you feel that being in Swedish lends more “authenticity” to the songs?
“There will not be any English versions of these particular songs, that is almost for certain. As for other songs in the future, well, we will just have to see what happens. All we know is that we will always write the songs in our native tongue, and we’ll just have to see if we ever decide to make English versions of some songs too. But yes, we find it easier to express ourselves in Swedish, and the lyrics become more sincere that way. It has to do with bringing the songs to life, I’d say.”

Will you be touring at all to support the EP by doing an acoustic set?
“We have a lot of things to tend to right now, so most of our time and energy will have to be put into preparing for our upcoming shows with Korpiklaani and some other stuff. But we have more thrilling news coming up fairly soon, so you won’t be disappointed either way!”

Any other thoughts??
“First of all, thank you for the interview, it was a pleasure. As always, we’d like to thank the fans for all the love and support, and thanks to those taking the time to read this! Also, big thanks to everyone who pre-ordered our new EP, both new and old fans. Remember to always stay tuned for what’s about to happen!”

By: Jeff