Ouorthon > Yeah! And I say, well, it sounds like you`re concentrating more on an experience that`s going on inside your mind, when you`re listening to a record. So please continue to listen to the record! I don`t wanna kill your ideas or your opinion what a Bathory show could be like! Because when I gotta go on stage, I´m just gonna say: “Hey! Look at me! I`m here, having jeans, T-Shirt and a pair of sneakers and I´m gonna play some old songs for you! Hope you don`t mind!” . I´m not gonna have any flying drums and horses running by, you know!

It´s all music! I don`t wanna be anybody`s guard or rockstar! And if people are getting those ideas from just listening to music, you could achieve being something really really special… if given people visions from noise. And if you try to put that performance on stage, you`re gonna kill those people ideas about. You know, it`s : “OOhh, it´s not what I was hoping for!” or “That song sounds a lot better on the record!” So: no!! That will never happen! First: who the hell is gonna be on stage? Two: which songs are we gonna play? Three: you would take an army of people to make the kind of show that people would respect! Because now after 20 years people have been making these huge plans what a Bathory show could be all about! And everytime when I talk to musicians and other bands they say: “Oh, it`s cold in the bus and bad soundcheck…” and, you know… “cheap beer and cold Hamburgers”! It`s just a mess! And you don´t make any money from it! So they are really envious to my position, I´ve been able to do this for 20 years and still no tours… and just one video-clip in 20 years! So I wouldn`t want to ruin it! Not for myself… not for anybody else!

Twi > It´s a clear opinion!
Ouorthon > Well, it`s a clear opinion, but you can always step on a lot of people`s feet, when you`re honest about things, because now somebody, 14 years old, adoring Bathory, living somewhere, realises: “Oh, I´m not gonna ever be able to see Bathory live!” And that might somehow make that person lose enthusiasm for Bathory! But I´ve been saying that for fucking 15 years! So people should realise that by now! So it couldn`t  come as a surprise to anybody!

I think it was in an Italian or south-east-european fanzine > a small add: “Bathory live”! 22 nd of December somewhere, this was 10 years ago, and it said: “Send in 25…” whatever the currency was “and you can get a ticket”! And a lot of people would send a lot of money, and this fanzine hadn`t checked the address out. And somebody was sitting somewhere, collecting all those money for the tickets. And 6 months later I get to know about this and I said: “What Bathory live in…?” whereever this was… Cypress, or something! Are you kidding? And you`re sending 25 whatever.. .Drachme… or whatever to get  a ticket?! Well, if you`re easily fooled, well… then, so be it!

Twi > Okay… alright… now…

Ouorthon > So you don´t have anymore questions?

Twi > No!

Ouorthon > No! Great!

Twi > I have a lot of things that don`t go out of my head anymore now!

Ouorthon > Alright…

Twi > So I wanna thank you again…

Ouorthon > Ja!

Twi > … for giving this interview!

Ouorthon > Oh, you know, good luck with the website! And if there`s anything you want, any pictures or anything like that, to illustrate the article, just drop an e-mail!

Twi > Some pictures…. ?

Ouorthon > We haven`t taken any new pictures since 1988 anyway … not any official ones! Any pictures that are younger than 1988 are snapshots taken by fans or journalists! Like “Quorthon!” – “Yeah?” > click!

Twi > Do they send you those snapshots sometimes?

Ouorthon > Yeah! People send me snapshots! There was one girl who came to Sweden just to have a cup of coffee with me!
Twi > Cool!

Ouorthon > And she went all the way from Denmark! And she said: “Can I take a picture?” and I said: “Sure! You can take whatever you want, baby!” And she took that snapshot, and I found that picture on the internet! So I sent her an e-mail and said: “Hey, why don´t you send me a copy?”… I could put it on the website then…

Twi > Where is it? Where can I find this picture?

Ouorthon > I have it in the computer somewhere! I have 5 or 6 different harddrives. And we are working on the chapters for the next 15 albums, we´ve only produced 5 or 6 chapters so far! We have 26 chapters to work on! So it`s gonna take … well, half a year, before we have all the chapters out on the web!

Twi > Okay… alrigth…

Ouorthon > Like I said, good luck with the webzine… and if there`s anything I could help you in… extra information, pictures, … just drop us an e-mail!

Twi > Alright. I will send you a link then, to the interview, when I typed it.

Ouorthon > Ja. Okay.

Twi > Well, have a nice evening!

Ouorthon > Yeah, I´ll call this radio station in 20 minutes and see, what kind of questions they have! Probably a lot of swedish oriented questions like “What do you think about the hockey- season so far?”

Twi > Yeah, as I told you, if you don´t say anything about the new album, there`s only this kind of questions left!

Ouorthon > Well, there isn`t anything to say… probably a lot of people are thinking, we`re writing in the middle of a studio right now, working on it… but we`re not! We haven`t even entered the studio yet, so there`s really nothing to talk about! We haven`t even talked about the new album with Blackmark! So the new album is far far away into the future! And probably we`re not gonna do any kind of promotion until in 6 months anyway! So … we`re talking about summer here… so that`s how long it`s gonna take before we have anything to present! So this is right in the middle of 2 albums… quite normal… but … ähm… as we have experienced tonight, there are always a lot of things to talk about! Condoms with strawberry flavour and Apfelstrudel and…

Twi > Oh god… * Twi is emberrassed *

Ouorthon > Well, that`s life…

Twi > Yes, of course… sure! Sorry, I´m confused…

Ouorthon > Have I just killed the image of a rockstar for you, or have I caught you on a bad evening?

Twi > No! ….ähm, yes, it´s a bad evening anyway, but … ähm….

Ouorthon  kidding > Oh… that`s right…  you are sick… blame your Arzt!

Twi > No no… I don`t go there! Ähm… no, but I didn´t wanna hear about condoms with strawberry flavour….

Quorthon kidding > Oh, you`re one of THOSE girls!! Oh, I´m sorry… you don´t like strawberries!

Twi laughing > No I don´t like condoms! Ähm… no…

Quorthon > Me neither! I always go “Ph ph ph” ((imitates the noise of spitting))

Twi ((not able to get honest anymore now)) > Alright! Have fun!

Quorthon > Have fun?!?!? I always have fun!!

Twi > Okay!

Ouorthon > You only get one life! You have to have fun all the time! Otherwise you`ll think about Erich Honecker, or the high taxes, or the EU… so you need to have a lot of fun every day, otherwise you just prepare yourself for the grave! Which is a very good topic for a lyric, preparing yourself for the grave. But I don`t think a lot of people would understand the reasons, why you shouldn`t prepare yourself for the grave… you know… have a laugh on a daily basis! Because they want to have the cruel, the blood and all the kind of stuff!

So all the laughs and all the things that belong to the Bathory circus, that we keep in the studio! But you will seldomly have any of that on the record! So jokes is one thing, and Bathory is a completely different thing! So you have to separate those two! And we do that in the studio! But, when the record comes out, there`s absolutely nothing of that sense of humour on the album! Except for “Destroyer of worlds”, where we had a couple of jokes! And people didn´t understand it! They thought that we were crazy! “How can you sing about motorcycles?” , “How can you sing about Satan`s penis?”. Well, I ride motorcycles, but I don´t ride Satan`s penis, so… there`s the answer…

Twi > Alright…

Ouorthon > Yeah? So just stay in touch, whenever that Damned child, “der verdammte Kinder” is back from his holiday! Ask him, if your website really needs some pictures of this asshole and if you do, then just drop an e-mail and we will have anything you want sent! Or you can just copy it from the website, I don´t know, how that works, I haven`t checked it out! So if there`s anything that you want, then just please feel free to copy whatever you  like!

Twi > Alright, I will tell him!

Ouorthon > Yeah! And whenever there`s a new album or any substancial to talk about, then drop an e-mail to Bathory, and we`ll work something out! Because like I said, whenever there`s a new album coming out, then usually 200 to 300 people are annoucing an interest in talk! And there`s quite a time-schedule!

Twi > Alright…

Ouorthon > Jawoll…. Take care! “Alles gut”

Twi > Okay, have a nice evening, I already said that! Thank you again! And it was nice talking to you!

Ouorthon > Well… nice talking to you too…

Twi > I don´t think so, but okay…

Ouorthon > Why not?

Twi >Because I have no experience with this! I have a feeling like I was talking nonsense!

Quorthon kidding > Never tell a guy you don´t have any experience!

Twi >… with interviews …

Ouorthon > … oh interviews….

Twi > Alright?

Quorthon > That`s one of the things you should never tell a guy…

Well… anyway, in 6 months time you will probably have done 25 million interviews and that will be nothing to you! It`s just like talking to anybody…  and usually people you`re interviewing are so dead and tired  talking about themselves… anyway… they sound like parents… so anything that would break the pattern or would make an interview special, can actually be quite interesting sometimes. Because you can only imagine, having been sitting down, talking to 200 people answering the same questions over and over again, that`s kind of a drag. So, no other flying horses for me… “Die fliegende Pferd…” that`s a good title for the next album! : -)  … I´m not serios…

Twi > Alright…

Ouorthon > Yeah… and… well, let`s see what this article is gonna turn out like! It`s gonna be in German, right?

Twi > Äh… german and english!

Ouorthon > German AND English…

Twi > Yes…

Ouorthon > So we can read it in stereo! I had a CD booklet a couple of years ago in English AND German. And everybody who didn´t speak any German, became absolutely furious: “Why do you serve the Germans the text in German?? … but you don´t serve US the text in French!”

Twi > I have this booklet too, but I thought that in every country it`s in English and the native language!

Ouorthon > Yes! Oh, Blackmark had the main office in Berlin those days, and the entire staff was consisting of German females… deutsche Mädchen… and they said: “Oh, but in Germany nobody speaks English, so you have to have the text in German as well!” and I said: “Aahh… okay!” Shouldn`t we have the text then in Italian and French and see the booklet consisting of 2000 pages, it`s gonna be very expensive! But they were insisting and said: “No, it must be in English and in German!”

Twi > I really didn`t know it! I really thought, there`s a translation for every country!

Ouorthon > No!

Twi > I mean, what do those French wanna do with the German translation!?

Ouorthon > Oh…no, when we released the modern version, we took away the German language! And when we released the LPs we took away the German text!

Twi > You released a lot of records on Vinyl again!? Was it a good idea? Did the fans enjoy it?

Ouorthon > It was actually the fans asking for it, because we received about 10 000 e-mails and letters over a period of a year and a half and most of them talking about: “Why can`t you release Vinyl?” because a lot of the young people had never experienced Vinyl. You know a lot of the old people, they recognized and had a lot of LPs in their collection. But a lot of the very young ones were to young to have any LPs or to have been around when LPs was a standard format. And so they said: “I cannot find Bathory LPs anywhere! Can you release it or where can I find it?” and then we realised, we don`t have any LPs! We thought, LPs were out, dead and gone… and so there was an enourmous boom going on for the past 5 years! But producing LPs is extremely expensive! Because first of all you gonna have to take the original tapes and master that! And then you`re gonna have to go to a factory and produce a matrix for every side! And that costs an enourmous amount of money! And then you`ll have to produce the Vinyls! And even though the Irak conflict was very short, we were thinking: “What about if they have some radioactive weapon down there in Irak and they gonna blow all these nuclear bombs… and all the oil is gonna be radioactive .. .and… ((* laughs … to no understandable reason *))

Anyway, we produced the vinyl, because the fans were asking for it. Blackmark said: “Let`s just produce 6000 copies!” because that`s what they thought we could sell, and now we have sold 65 000 copies!

Twi > About increasing prices… on the Blackmark side… do you have any influence on the prices? Because I saw… what was it?… a Sweatshirt or a Hoodie…. For 35 Euros, which is 350 Swedish crowns… which is double as expensive like from other bands, you know!

Ouorthon > Yeah, but probably other bands will only give you one color! And the prices we have are identical with such big T-shirt deliverers as Nuclear Blast and EMP! So we synchronise the prices with them! So we don´t have any more expensive prices than others!

Twi > Really? I have to check again! Because I thought so…

Ouorthon > Yeah, well we have our own production! So we take all the risks ourselves! With other bands, they perhaps have a company producing the shirts, so the bands would not have to spend any money or take any of the risks! But we produce everything ourselves! And we use only full colour… ähm…multi-coloral-shirts and motives, highest quality possible  t-shirts, longsleeves and hoods. And we don´t have anybody working for us, doing that, you know, selling the shirts, packing and everything! And also it`s very very very expensive to just send five or six t-shirts to an American kid in America! So just the postage will be almost the same as the shirts themselves, and we don’t  receive any money for that… the postal system does! So, it is very expensive to produce your own merchandise, if you don´t have a big factory behind you and then to have a big stock of that, pack it all yourself and then ship it out yourself! So… we have to keep the prices that are synchronised with the biggest suppliers of t-shirts, metal t-shirts, such as Nuclear Blast and EMP. They`re the biggest ones on continental Europe and we synchronize our prices with them! And the prices haven`t been any problem so far anyway. If people are used to underground T-shirts produced in a basement in Poland, I think, people might get a shock if they check out our prices, but we haven`t had a single complaint so far, and we have sold more than 60.000 T-shirts in 1 and a half year! That`s a lot of T-shirts. And I know, every second month their stock is empty! I remember now before Christmas they ordered 5000 T-shirts, because they knew a lot of people would come in before Christmas and order a lot of the shirts for Christmas presents and so on. And they would spend more time packing T-shirts than buying gifts for their relatives! At least all those shirts went off before the holidays, so I think a lot of kids got their shirts for Christmas. And now when it`s really cold, people really want hoods! Because that`s big fleece- quality! … I have one myself!!! …

Twi >You should have, I mean…

Ouorthon > Well, actually, I think I have 4 or 5 T-shirts somewhere, but I cannot wear them when I go downtown Stockholm, because a lot of kids would recognize me anyway! One of the most emberassing things, if you have a date with a girl, and you`re sitting in a restaurant and you go from the restaurant to the movies, and from the movies down to the subway station to go home and have some  “I don`t know” …and 4 or 5 Bathory fans jump at you and go: “Uuuuhh, Quorthoooon!!” … it`s really emberrassing!… so… ähm… you have to separate those things… so I use my Bathory T-shirts to sleep in!

Twi > Okay… now I took another lot of your time…

Ouorthon > Well, I´ll call them in 4 minutes … oh, 2 minutes…

Twi >  Okay! Then… let`s stop it here!

Ouorthon > Jawoll! “Alles gut!” ((*trying to say Goodbye in German*))

Well, like we just said a couple of times before: anything > just send an e-mail and we will work things out!

Twi > Alright! Okay…bye bye…

Ouorthon > I get the link and I´ll read it and see , if I can get a laugh from all of that!

Twi > Everybody who reads it will have a laugh from that, I think!

Ouorthon > Well, that`s okay! Rather they laugh than cry!

Twi > Okay… have a nice day!
Ouorthon > The same to you!

Twi > Okay, bye bye!

Ouorthon > Tschüß!  

Quorthon/ photo used with personal permission of Quorthon in February 2004

 

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In memory of Quorthon I decided to copy the interview tapes (2 hours of talking/ Quorthon and me) for every Bathory fan, who want`s to have it as a memory, free of pay (only postage required). If interested, just contact me: twilightheart@hotmail.com