Lord Pale from the Full Metal Mayhem team chased down the lovely Andrea from Hammerheart Folksters Hagalaz' Runedance and sought enlightenment on the Asatru, her two fellow cohorts and her new book. Greetings Andrea and thankyou for your valueable time . I would like to start by asking you what differences ( if any ) exist between the 3 Hagalaz Rundance albums in terms of music or lyrical concept ? [Andrea] My lyrics are inspired by my thoughts, feelings, visions, dreams, experiences and magical experiences. So I feel my lyrics have alwys been good, emotional, true and passionate. Musically I have advanced a great deal of course over the last years. With the first album I merely tried to put my Pagan concept into music. I only had my visions and feelings, my lyrics and melodies and not much experience in music making or singing, so I am rather embarrassed about my first album and the following EP back in ’99. With Volven in 2000 the music has become really good. I worked hard on the arrangements, tried to find a musician who owns and plays old Nordic instruments, which really is not easy to find, and I worked with my voice. Plus I gained technical experiences, insight in music making etc. My latest release out now - Frigga’s Web - is yet another improvement to Volven. A natural development of course, I have become much more professional, my vocals have become more refined over the years, and I have been working with very good folk musicians. I have used Bagpipes, Bombarde, Colascione, Flutes, Harp, Lute, Lyre, Naglharpa, Hurdy Gurdy and Vihuela for this recording. Frigga’s Web is yet another journey through time, another step higher, another step deeper to my world, where past and present, dreams and reality meet. Focusing greatly on the web of life, the mysteries of birth, death, afterlife and the connection between the goddesses Hel and Frigga. Having heard only Wing's Of Rapture and its remix from the Volven album I was impressed enough to start purchasing your whole catalogue of albums . You manage to get a very organic and 'real' sincerity into your music , you seem to be singing from your heart . How have you managed to stay true to your beliefs in the very competitve musical industry and have you ever had to make compromises ? [Andrea] I see my music as my art, my creative energy, so I create everything, the music, the concept, and the lay out concept of the cover. I do want I want and nobody is telling me otherwise. But of course I am in the music business and promotionally I am kind of owned by the record label and all those people that work with Hagalaz’ Runedance promotion, concerts etc. So I hear a lot of times ‘you have to do this and you have to do that’, I have to do this interviews, I have to answer this fan mail, I have to sort out this and that etc, and thus I feel kind of imprisoned. Everybody wants something of you and you feel pressured to do things all the time. About two years ago my promoter wanted to hype up Hagalaz’ Runedance, get more famous, get more commercial, and there were several things that came up that I said no to. So, no, I certainly don’t do everything to become famous and I would never go against my principles. I understand that you are a member of Bifrost ( the Norweigan Asatru community ) , how does Asatru vary from other pagan cultures ? The Asatru community in Australia seems very elitist and closed off , is it the same in Norway ?

[Andrea] Asatru means ‘faith in the Asir - the old gods’. So this is Paganism that has has its origin in the northern spirituality. Asatru is a registered religion here in Norway. We have just gotten the right to do official weddings, but we are still fighting for the rights to have Pagan burial grounds. Of course we all want gravhaugs (burial hills, where the Vikings were buried in often with ships and gifts) but this might be a little difficult to get through…(hehe…this is a joke). But in general the Norwegian people appear to be proud of their folk traditions and history, it is very much a part of life, it is all around us, this is the reason why I moved here. You can tell people that you are a Pagan or a witch, most would find it weird, but you don’t get discriminated, or at least I don’t. I think people have become more open minded in general. No, it is certainly not ‘elitist’ here or ‘closed off’. We are very open, open-minded and very relaxed people.

I found the remix of Wings Of Rapture interesting , will there be any further developments of this style in the future or was this just a one off bonus track for Volven's rerelease ? [Andrea] No, this was just a one of thing. My studio engineer, who is a good friend of mine, got a new computer music program and was playing around with the new program using my song ‘on wings Of Rapture’. So next day when I came into the studio he said ’hey check this out’, and he had made this remix. I thought it was really cool and wanted to use it. But I don’t plan to do remixes anymore.

Can you give me a little bit of background information on the the 2 folk musicians you work with ? Are they in any other bands or projects ? [Andrea] Yes they are both active medireview musicians and work in their local surroundings. They are members of other folk/medireview music bands and Kristian Nordeide has his own project called Corona Borealis. I see that you have recently written a book on female involvement in Nordic pagan culture , are there any plans for more books as I have read the excerpts on your website and they intrigue me ?

[Andrea] No, it’s not a book about ‘female involvement in Pagan cultures’. My book “The Ancient Fires of Midgard” is dealing with Northern spirituality and the Pagan understanding of life, about the modern society, the damage caused by the monotheistic patriarchal religions, Northern myths and magic, the feminine mysteries, ancient traditions, seasonal rites, the sacredness of trees, herbs, self-development, communicating with the animal souls and natural childbirth. The book is, as all my creations, based very much on my own experiences, observances, studies and personal thoughts. I hope to inspire searching individuals to seek out the wisdom of their Pagan ancestors, to understand the mysteries of Nature and most of all to find themselves… Finally is there anything you would like to say to your fans ? [Andrea] I hope you’ll enjoy Frigga’s Web – feel the nature of the northern spirituality and the sound of ancient Nordic and Celtic instruments. Seek within and you’ll find your true nature.

For more information & MP3s go to Hagalaz' Runedance's Official Web http://go.to/hagalaz-runedance

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