Interview: Mortiis - 7 Deadly Sins - STALKER MAGAZINE inside out of rock´n´roll

Mortiis - 7 Deadly Sins

Even before Håvard, the frontman of ever-changing Norwegian Mortiis and the band’s main writer/composer, heard all the sins, he immediately became very excited about the whole concept: “sins?! Seven?! I do them all!!!”

Gluttony
Do I glut myself, or what do I do? I mean, it varies. Greed is about overeating also, isn’t? I thought it was quite metaphorical. But it’s not right to eat too much. Just eat when you’re hungry!

Sloth
You should meet our drummer! He sleeps! He’s like a sleep-machine. He’s sleeping right now, he slept 14 hours last night, all the time. Sloth is being lazy, right? I haven’t checked the deadly sins for a while, so I should re-watch that movie “7” again, as it’s all about that. Sleeping too much is like wasting your life, isn’t? Resting is not sloth, the rest is resting out, but sloth is being lazy and then you never get anything done. I don’t think I’m this kind of person. I don’t think I’m “bzzzzzzzzzz” all the time either, but I feel bad if I don’t get stuff done – I feel lazy. I can’t wear jogging pants all day, I have to wear proper clothes, because otherwise it’s just like my day is never starting and I feel lazy, you know what I mean? So no comfort for me.

Vanity
To a certain degree it’s ok, but then do it too much and it’s kind of gay, you know? I don’t want to be derogatory towards all those, but... I just was! (laughs) Vanity... (takes a pause) What do you think about vanity? (addresses bassist Levi, who then says nothing, but takes a huge sip out of a bottle of red merlot – ‘cheers’) Right, we’re interesting people. Well, if you want to waste some hours in front of a mirror all day – fine, if it’s all that matters to you, then you’re a superficial person, if that’s what you want to do and that pays your bills, so that’s good for you. I just can never imagine spending all the time on fucking fixing myself up, I will look like a fucking idiot – like a monster! I spend about 15min in a bathroom everyday, and that includes showers, because I can’t even wash my hair. So what’s there to do?! Soap up (does a fast gesture of washing himself) and that’s it – done and ready to go!

Greed
I love to read! Oh, what was this? Greed? Oh right. Reading is not a sin, I forgot, so here you go. But I really hate this one, really. I mean, I just came out of this one fucking record deal which was just saturated with greed, the whole deal was just about them, them, them. I never got to share anything, I never got to see any money, I never got fucking anything. We sold quite a lot of records, but I’ve never got paid. This is greed. It’s a fat fucking pig sitting in an office, and wants everything for himself. He goes to Las Vegas on vacation twice a year, he has a house in Spain, and I here can’t fix my teeth. That’s greed.

He thinks he did some good work for us, promotion and so on, but in fact he didn’t. We sold a couple of singles, that went to the charts in the UK, for a week, but that’s nothing. It should’ve been 10 weeks at least. So if I am greedy for anything, it’s revenge! (all laugh) But not really anything huge... You know, when we were younger and we had a vision of becoming big rock stars, now I don’t even get a shit, all I want now is to be treated fairly, and to be able to make the music that I want, under the conditions that I want, and be able to make a living. I don’t care about rockstars, I fucking hate rockstars. Fucking bloated egos, man. Terrible people. I’m in that scene, I see it and that’s why I can really hate it. I fight it in a way that I try to be cool to people. I walk around with my nose up in the air, smoking Marlboro, like I´m some fucking rock god. I’m not, I’m a normal human being.

Lust
I have a wife, after who I lust everyday. Lust is great – it’s only human. I mean, all those sins they are normal human... I’m not even going to say ‘weaknesses’, but processes of normal human nature. Some good, some bad, you know? Greed is the route to destruction, as far as I’m concerned, sooner or later something’s gonna happen. If you’re too greedy it’s going to blow up in your face. And that’s what I think will happen to our ex-record label, they’re probably going bankrupt soon, having fucked up so many people over. Nobody will want to sign with them anymore, so... It’s a full circle and everything’s coming back at the end.

Wrath
Wrath? Anger? Whatever anger, hatred, frustration that I feel, I try to turn into music, into something creative, something’s that actually productive, constructive, you know? As opposed to taking a baseball bat and beating people, and that won’t get me anywhere but jail. So I’m trying to do a smart thing. If somebody messes with my wife or my daughter, I’d be more than happy to physically defend them.

Envy
Maybe I used to feel envy, but now every time I see somebody with success and I don’t think they deserve it, I just ask myself – “do I really care? No”. Because I am more important than them. Why waste time having hang-ups on other people when you could be spending time focusing on your own well-being. I try to think that way at least, it’s hard sometimes, but you’ve gotta try. I don’t know if there are people envious of me... (laughs) Why would there be? And if they were – I’d say “fuck you!” and stop focusing on me, but focus on yourself. Spend time working on yourself and not being bitter because someone else is making you envious. Sitting around, hating people, just because they have more success or whatever... I just it’s a waste of time, isn’t?

Author: Marina Sidyakina, transl S.Mahrer, photos: Julia Sheremetyeva
Date: 2009-04-04

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