ida haukland triosphere

Interview by: Mary Evans

Date: June 2010

Via email

Photos by: Mary Evans / Triosphere

Firstly Ida, I’ll apologise for not having done an interview with you guys so far in all the time I’ve known you and second of all, apologies for not knowing who this would come to when I wrote the questions..

No problem Mary! What a pleasant surprise! This should be fun!

How are things in the Triosphere camp right now?

Things are really good! We keep receiving fantastic reviews and feedback on our new album The Road Less Travelled which has just been released, and we couldn’t be happier with our new label AFM! It’s all been really exciting so far! We’ve just finished two awesome gigs with Kamelot, here in our hometown of Trondheim, and these are exciting times!

It’s hard to believe but we’re already half way through yet another year isn’t it… How has 2010 been for you?

I know!! Where the hell did all the days and weeks go?!

Obviously, 2010 has been a very important and very strong year for us so far; I mean, signing with AFM and releasing our second album has been a big step for us! But it's been a busy and extremely ‘exciting’ / often exhilarating year at the same time. Firstly, we spent many weeks keeping our fingers crossed on AFM's decision; we weren’t totally certain they would sign us at one point; then, there have been so many other details concerning the release of the album that have taken a great amount of time to sort….; in addition to booking some gigs and doing some promotion???

And, finally when the album actually got released (at the end of May) the work with promoting it began for real!! This is a 24hour a day occupation, so it becomes a little obsessive, ha! ha!

Yes, it must be a very exciting time for you right now, for sure!!

It is. We worked so hard on getting to this stage… And, absolutely, as I’ve already briefly mentioned, we are really happy with the work AFM does for us, so it’s already giving everyone in the band a huge boost. The reviews have been such a pleasure to read so far, that we can already begin working on new material with a hugely boosted self-esteem. He! He!

With Onwards receiving such a great response around the world, did you feel any pressure with the latest album, do you feel?

Sure we did, but the second album always brings a different challenge to the first one regardless of expectations etc. and I think we were under no illusions. On the first album we (and probably a majority of bands), could use material that we had been working on and preparing since even before the band was formed, and the expectations were naturally enough limited to those who had seen us live…

On the second album, though - being in such a humble situation that the reviewers and listeners liked the debut so much - there was (as you've pointed out) a whole different level of expectation! We certainly wanted to meet all of those, but at the same time, we would and could not, make anything that we felt wasn’t cool and right for our band. And, as the album began to take shape, we felt it sounded very different from Onwards, so there was naturally an amount of insecurity connected to this too.

How did you resolve this? Was it a difficult album to write?

As I briefly mentioned in the previous answer, it was a very different album to write, but maybe not ‘difficult’ and I believe we came through in the end! We had an entirely different starting point as we were beginning completely from scratch but, we now know each other a lot better both as musicians and as people, and I think it shows. For example; this album came out a lot more vocal-oriented than Onwards…. Marius had a much greater understanding of how my voice worked and what would suit the sound of the band. He therefore made more riffs and parts with a lot more space for me to write vocal melodies, and also knew more, how my voice would work in certain keys, you know? In this way, you could perhaps argue that it made it an easier album to get "right", but, personally, it was also more mentally challenging as we now had something to "prove"...!

I’ve been lucky enough to hear The Road Less Travelled”already and believe you’ve produced another great album but how would you describe it for those yet to hear it? What does The Road Less Travelled as an album, actually mean to you?

That's perhaps one of the things that are similar with both our albums; it's not so easy to put either album’s sound under just one label? And, this also seems to be the opinion in the reviews so far, which is interesting….

But, I would to a great extent, limit myself by just calling this, “melodic heavy metal with a progressive twist”. In general, we emphasise a melodic element in the material and the songs often have a big, melodic yet dramatic chorus at the same time. We try to make it a chorus you would throw your fist in the air to, if you know what I mean? But, then, you'll also find these melodic parts mixed with other more thrashy and / or progressive features throughout, so the album should contain something to everyone’s liking, He! He!

For me, in terms of the actual meaning to the title, this album is an expression of many possible ideas… And, actually a great deal of the titles’ literal meaning comes through: in the pursuit of making this a lot more dynamic album, as I mentioned, both Marius and I have tried out musical expressions that we more or less, never used before…, so musically it has, indeed been ‘a road less travelled’. We also feel that is much more of a mature and reflective album, where we have paid much more attention to the detail. This is why I always encourage listeners to give the album at least a couple of spins before casting judgement; you won't catch the full depth of it on the first hearing (and this has been mentioned in several of the reviews as well, I might add!)

Which is your favourite track, and why?

Hmm...? Well, I honestly feel that each and every one of them have something special that qualify them to be my favourite right now, but Marionette and Worlds Apart have that little something that makes them stand out a little more; Marionette has the most amazing guitar solo even in all its simplicity, and it was just as magical during the recording of the song as it came out sounding right after the mix! This solo truly is my "serenity now" moment (you know Arthur Spooner in "The King of Queens" anyone?) It has unbelievable presence and is so fragile you barely dare breathe when you hear it! And Worlds Apart has just got this amazing and complex atmosphere and is always really good fun to perform live!

You’re well known for your very powerful and engaging music and lyrics… on Onwards Marius took on most of the songwriting duties, whilst you took on most of the lyrical side of things… has this remained the norm?

Yeah, exactly the same… Marius writes all the music while I handle all the vocal melodies and write all the lyrics!

Do Ørjan or T.O. have any creative input at the songwriting stage?

Some, but Marius has the songs, and especially the guitars, more or less ready when he presents them at rehearsal, so it’s not until later that we all get to air our opinions – I guess it’s as we start to play everything. Marius often has a very clear idea of what the drums should do on various parts so it’s all about honing those ideas; sometimes we all just wing it and see what our interpretation is before Marius shares his vision on the whole - the end result often lies somewhere in between - but it’s the best system for all of us.

The vocal melodies on the other hand, are, to a great extent, only really maturing inside my head until they are more or less finished, Ha! Ha! so that works slightly differently! Thankfully, the guys rarely object to my suggestions as they know that I'll be adjusting and working on them until they sound totally right!!

You mentioned some of the reviews that you’ve garnered since the album was released on 28 May but it’s still very early to gauge an overall opinion? How do you feel about the current reception to the new album?

Oh, I’m over the moon! As I said earlier, we knew that this album had come out sounding very different from Onwards and we were therefore really anxious before the feedback started to come in, but we have been totally blown away by all the 6 out of 6 and 9 out of 10 reviews we have received Mary! It’s amazing and so kind!

Most of all, we are really happy and grateful to see that most of the reviewers really have made the time to really listen to the album…. We know that many journalists have so many albums to listen to that they barely get to listen through the entire album at all, and in this case, as I’ve said, you really won't "get" this one, so that’s been really nice… ! But, at the same time you are right too; we still don't really know what the ‘audience’ really thinks of it and how they will respond to it; we'll start presenting it live for real after the summer, so we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that the satisfied reviewers reflects the overall opinion?

Have you actually played any of the new material live yet then?

Yes, we've tried to as much as we can! We’ve been playing some early versions of Driven and The Anger and the Silent Remorse since late 2008, so people have heard some of the ideas on those, and we added Twenty One, Death of Jane Doe and Watcher to the set-list during last December when touring with Arch Enemy and in the few gig's we've done so far this year….. But, we’ve only really played the album all the way through at our ‘release-concert’ in our home town (Trondheim) on the release date so far, because when we’ve done shows like those we've just done with Kamelot here, we tried to play some new and some "old" stuff too!

Ida, you have a very unique and powerful voice, quite unlike anyone else in the genre right now… do you find that people are surprised when they meet you and find out the voice belongs to you?

Ha! Ha! I hadn’t thought about it like that… Perhaps some of those people who get to know me under non-musical circumstances find it a little hard to transfer their impression of me there to the one on stage when this eventually "hits the surface", so to speak, who knows, Ha! Ha!?

I’ve actually experienced this; people who don't recognize me ‘off stage’, after shows, when I'm out of my "stage-persona" and not shouting and spitting!! Ha! Ha! You appear a lot taller and more aggressive when you're on stage and I’ve experienced people almost laughing when meeting me ‘off stage’, because I'm so much shorter and polite than they're expecting, Ha! Ha!

Let’s talk a little about live shows and touring now; according to your website, your first live show was at the famous Karmoygeddon Festival. Now, that’s quite an initiation for a band starting out on their live career… was this as daunting as it sounds?

Well, none of us were ‘total beginners’ before we formed Triosphere remember, so it wasn’t that as such; we were just really excited about making our live debut at this one, awesome festival! We really owe a lot to festival-manager Johnny Angelund and Karmoygeddon for believing in us and giving us that chance back then! It really was an awesome beginning to Triosphere’s live-career and Haugesund has become almost like a second hometown for us after that!

You’ve gone on to tour with some of the biggest names in the industry including W.A,S.P., Kamelot, Kotipelto and Jorn. How did that make you feel as a young band?

I would say that it has made us simply a lot more ambitious and hungry, basically! The very first band we got to tour with was someone as legendary as W.A.S.P.??!! Hey, that’s magical… But we’ve set out to advance on from that point, working hard and focusing on getting the right slots with different artists. Of course, I remember jumping up and down a couple of times when we've had a "yes" from an artist who's given us a chance to perform for their audience! I love that buzz and we have countless magic memories from playing with all of those bands, but I can't wait for all of those who hopefully are still to come!

In recent times the metal world has been saddened greatly by the loss of the one and only Ronnie James Dio. I know that you played a one off show as support to Dio, which is something most bands could have only dreamed of? What was it like working with him?

Well, unfortunately we did not get to meet the man (‘on the silver mountain’) himself on the night, and in retrospect, for us personally, this is, of course, even more sad. But nevertheless, we got to support him once, which really became one of those magic moments of ours I mentioned just now, and we are very grateful to have been given this opportunity. Ronnie has been so important to so many for several decades and I believe his legacy will be taken good care of and passed on to many generations to come!

Now that the album has been released can we expect to see news of a tour? and if so, do you know if this includes plans to come back to the UK / Ireland?

I’d love it to happen! We are certainly planning a couple of tours and as much live performance as possible to promote this album…. Playing live is, after all, the reason we're making music in the first place!

We have a couple of very exciting tour options which we’re still keeping all our fingers and toes crossed for, but until we have anything confirmed or know the exact tour schedule (e.g. if we'll come to the UK/Ireland) I won’t speculate. We cannot announce anything yet...! Rest assured, we'll announce it good and well upfront when it's "in the bag"!

You’ve previously played in Dudley and Ireland on sadly a very brief visit whilst support to Jorn on his European tour… what was it like for you playing here for the first time?

You’re right and it was fantastic, but I remember it for several different reasons! He! He! Since you asked, I just have to tell you something that's got nothing to do with the live experience, OK?

Dudley was the first gig on the tour with Jorn, so the plan was (as normal) that, we fly in on our own and meet up with them and the tour bus there, the evening before, OK? The thing was, that we arrived very early that day, and due to technical problems, the bus itself did not arrive before close to half past 3 in the morning!!!

We had nowhere to go, everything now was closed (we actually caught the latest movie at the cinema just to remain indoors!!), and all along, we’re holding on to this thought that the bus simply had to arrive at any minute, so we didn't want to blow £50 on a hotel room? Still with me?

So the minutes turned into hours and I remember, that in a last desperate attempt to keep warm (this was November, mind!!), we spent the last 20 minutes all crammed in a telephone booth, half choking on laughter and the lack of room to breathe, Ha! Ha!! You can imagine our cheers when we finally saw the goddamn bus rolling into the venue’s parking lot!!!

That aside; the gig was great! There wasn’t a huge turn out, but we're looking very much forward to coming back! I also have to say that it was a great opportunity to catch up with some good friends, amongst them yourself, Mary!!

If you could choose who you tour next with, who would it be and why?

Hmm..? Should I be realistic now, or say the band that we really dream of? Ha! Ha! To be quite honest, we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have already had the chance to play with some truly outstanding bands in the last couple of years! Arch Enemy and Destruction were (amongst others) simply fantastic to tour with and we would very much like to do that again!

That said, a personal dream of mine is Megadeth!!! I think it goes without saying, but it would be mind blowing to tour with such a killer band and thrash-legend… And I actually think that their crowd would like our sound too? So, if Mr. Mustaine sees this: Please give us a call!

Ok, we’re getting towards the end now so; I was very impressed to read that although there were major disruptions to air travel due to the Icelandic volcano you still managed to make it to your shows with Kamelot in Olso despite the 48 hour bus journey? Now, that’s some dedication! If a volcano can’t stop Triosphere what can?

Ohh, Ha! Ha! You heard about that too?! Man, that was two very stressful days, and there's so much more to that story than what you read on the web, believe me… But I'll tell you all about that next time we meet, Ha! Ha!

To be quite honest, the only thing that could prevent us from doing gigs these days would be a broken bone or something that physically makes it impossible to perform on our instrument! All the guys have done one or two gigs with fever or inflammations of some kind now, and logistically, I've personally have both postponed exams and done home exams in our band’s van instead of cancelling shows; that's how we prioritise in this band! If there is a will there is a way!

You’ve already achieved a great deal in a relatively short time… if you had to pick one highlight so far what would it be and why?

The highlight for me, should be credited as one of the times I've literally jumped up and down while throwing my fist in the air: the day we got the "Yes" from AFM!!

This really was like you would see it in the movies: Ørjan read the email first, called Marius to ask if he saw the same text as him, who called me to double check if the email could possibly be perceived in any other way? I then called T.O., Ha! Ha! Within half an hour, we were all gathered with huge hugs, one badly out of date mini-bottle of Champagne (saved for a special occasion and, consequently having a "Pop" more similar to an old man’s fart, right?) and a beer!! Magical!!

So far, the expected, positive consequences of signing with a big label such as AFM have been met and outdone by far, and this makes all the difference for a band like us!

Things you never leave home without?

School books!!

What do you miss most while you’re on the road?

My dog!!

When did you first realise you had such a musical talent?

Is that a trick question for pompous arses? Ha! Ha! I think that perhaps I more understood that I had potential when I, as a 16 year old, was asked to take on the role as a bassist in a band consisting entirely of 25 year old guys, really? And as a consequence of that, I’ve always been grateful for getting the chance to play with so many really talented musicians who’ve given me the best grounds for evolving my own musical potential!

Have you had any musical education? If so, to what level?

Well, yes! It's a little difficult to explain in English, but between what's called High School and College we have a level of 3 obligatory years of school (from 16-19 years old) where some schools have included an additional music curriculum, and I went to one of those schools. Here you choose one main and one second instrument, and, at this time, as I had not yet started singing, I graduated with guitar as main instrument (I actually played Slayer's Angel Of Death in my electric guitar exam would you believe, Ha! Ha!), and piano as my second instrument….

Besides that we also had various theoretical and historical subjects from where I’ve learned notes. We were detecting intervals and writing simple compositions by classical rules. All three levels had weekly choir rehearsals using the works of Verdi, Bela Bartòk, B. Britten and loads of Norwegian composers, which we had to perform at the end of the year for the general public…. So I've definitely had some musical training, but I have not taken singing lessons aside from the choir-rehearsals…. I learned a couple of things from those!

Who or what are your main influences?

Ronnie James Dio and David Coverdale. I began singing for real with an 80s cover band where we played songs from (amongst many others) Dio and Coverdale, and that actually taught me a lot! More recent influences have been Marco Hietala and the outstanding Richie Kotzen (it's just ridiculous how well that guy can both play the guitar and sing!)

If you were put on the spot (!) what would you say your Top 5 albums of all time are and why?

“* Crimson Glory - Transcendence: A sheer magical album from the late 80's; from a seriously underrated band who to my great joy have now hooked up with a new awesome singer! Hopefully I'll catch a show with them somewhere in the near future!

“* Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin At Dusk: Legendary Norwegian extreme metal and one of my greatest musical experiences as a 16 year old. This combines the extreme and the melodic in a way I had never heard before, and still leaves me in awe when listening to it! You won't find this captivating atmosphere in any other extreme metal band!

“* Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle: I have a special liking for everything Arjen A. Lucassen produces, but this album will always hold a special place in my heart. Very complex, fascinating and unlike anything I'd ever heard. A thrilling musical journey throughout the two discs!

“* W.A.S.P. - Winged Assassins: Ok, so Blackie would probably prefer that I directed the attention to The Crimson Idol and the albums that followed, but this first album of his is just an undeniable classic, packed with immortal hits that never grow old to my ears!

“* Whitesnake - 1987: Plain and simple: I Looove this album! I can't help but smile when I listen to this!

Can you describe you and your fellow band members in a couple of words?

Yourself – Easily absent-minded / forgetful, eager and engaged.

Marius – Focused/determined, hard working and visionary.

Ørjan – NEVER in a bad mood, steady and with a priceless sense of humour!

T. O. – Very much the same as Ørjan, but you can also add the same forgetfulness as I have! Every week, Marius has to remind us of one or even, several things that he's asked about the week before, Ha! Ha!

Do you have a message for your UK fans?

Basically, first of all, thank you Mary for putting together this interview! And to your readers: Please get our album, give it at least a couple of spins before you cast your verdict and I hope, from the very bottom of my heart, that you will like it AND come to our shows! We hope to see you all very soon, from a stage near you!!

Well that about wraps it up! Thank you for answering our questions and hopefully we’ll see you soon! All the best with the new album!

Thanks a million!!