It’s nice to fling a nice noisy act at you once in a while, and they don’t get much noisier than Aspherium!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Norway! Right now we are spread across three cities, Moss, Oslo and Drammen. But at one point Moss was home for three of us, and that’s where it all started!
How did you meet?
Torgeir (bass/backing vocals) and I (Marius, guitars/vocals) had been playing in a band together for a few years, and we went to high school together. We played some cover songs with this great drummer Bjørn Tore and some other people at a couple gigs, and when it was time for Torgeir and I to start a new band, Bjørn Tore was the first guy who popped into our heads. And he nailed his audition!
How long have you been playing as a band?
We started out in 2007, and recorded a demo as a three piece. It took a long time to find another guitar player, so we didn’t really get started until 2009 when we found Morten. Then we started playing live shows, and stayed working on our debut album that was released in 2011.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
I came up with the band name while I was working on combining different words and trying to find something unique and cool that wasn’t already another band. The name Aspherium kinda happened, and it seemed to fit!
What are your influences?
Our main influences are bands like Opeth, Devin Townsend, Nile, Metallica, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Pantera. There’s also a lot of influence from death metal in general, and of course from black metal. We have a lot of black metal riffs in our music, people don’t really seem to notice that for some reason. And then we also dig stuff like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. We make the music that we want to listen to, and that becomes a good mix of different stuff!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We make music that can take you on a journey. The music itself is a story even without the lyrics in mind. We like to start off in one place and then move across various musical landscapes, and we work really hard on the songwriting to have everything flow very well together. And of course a big focus on awesome riffs, creative drumming and some catchy bass lines.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
We make concept albums, and the main theme is to find hope even in the worst situations. It might seem like everything is horrible. But there is always some light. Some way to make things better.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We put on a great show, we consider ourselves a really tight unit live, and we try to always bring a good amount of energy and get people excited. I actually have no idea how many shows we have played. But we have played a good amount of shows every year since 2010, so it has to be quite a few by now.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We saw a band break up on stage during a show once because the whole band was so fed up with one of the members being a complete jackass, that was pretty funny/sad!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We have a lot of different stuff, but some of the main stuff for the band is:
- Marius: Skervesen Raptor 7 string guitar, Agile Intrepid 830 guitar, AxeFX II.
- Morten: Ibanez JBM27 7 string guitar, Ibanez white 8 string guitar. AxeFX II.
- Torgeir: Dingwall NG2, Darkglass and other pedals.
- Bjørn Tore: PDP drums, Sabian cymbals.
What are your plans for 2020?
Getting back on the road in April, and we will be making more music videos and play through videos for our YouTube channel. Will also be working on new music!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before.
Would love to support Gojira, that would be incredible. And the our good friends I Wyruz could open the show. We’ve played with them several times, and they are great guys! Norwegian thrash/death.
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