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I met Haken at Chevy’s on a concert in Stavanger were they had been playing. It was a magnificent night, and the audiences really had a blast. I later contacted Haken for a portrait
interview of them, and I got a reply from Ross, the lead vocalist of the group. This is what he told me.

Back in 2007, when we were aspiring musicians recording demos in our bedrooms, we had many influences but it was the music that took us on some kind of journey that appealed to us the most. We were inspired by and wanted to create pieces of music rather that simply ‘songs’ which stimulated the senses and provoked a plethora emotions for our listeners. It was always important for us to include a variety of musical instruments and timbres to achieve this, with deep and meaningful lyrics that might also have a narrative which could tie in with the emotions created by the music. To avoid the self over-indulgence of an orchestrated or cinematic sound, we like to have a balance of this ‘music for musicians’ and a more accessible sound, without loosing sight of the fact that we are entertainers after all!

What made you choose to start a band?
For all of us, it’s a dream job! We’re all creative people. None of us are really made for desk jobs although the reality of it is that some of us have to juggle our dreams with our realities. All musicians will say that it’s not about the money, however there comes a point where if you are devoting 99% of your time and energy into something, it’s going to have to be able to support the survival of you and your family, or it becomes impossible. Business aside, there is a very spiritual reward in performing for people, expressing ourselves through our words or our guitar solos. You can’t put a price on that! I think we all had our musical heroes when we were younger and we have just been working to achieve that status for ourselves and inspire the next generation of young musicians…

What significance does this for have for you?

There is nothing more rewarding than being able to pass on your knowledge or wisdom to someone, or to entertain a group of people and give them a good time. To be able to create this kind of music in the first place and for people to embrace it and appraise it is a fantastically rewarding thing, even if it’s not quite paying the bills just yet, we do begin to have a sense of purpose in the world.

I identify myself with the characters I sing about. Much of our lyrics are fantasy tales or adventures where the mood is set by the music.

How would you say you identify with your music, and why did you chose exactly this music?
In the same way that you might identify with a piece of cinema and the characters within, as the vocalist & lyricist, I identify myself with the characters I sing about. Much of our lyrics are fantasy tales or adventures where the mood is set by the music. I would also suggest that there is a connection between the emotions we inject into music and the way in which we see the world around us. Our drummer, for example, is young and full of life and I believe a lot of this energy shines through in the rhythm department. Some of us are consumed by the stress of a city life which may also subconsciously transpose into a fast paced heavy guitar motif or in juxtaposition may trigger the need to have softer moments as a form of escapism. This is all very psychological though, It’s quite possible that maybe it’s not to be so deeply analysed. We’re all highly educated musicians who are in control of our output. We play the genres of music that we would like to hear, it just so happens that between the six of us, our influences are extremely eclectic, so the result is a melting pot of styles & emotions.

What does your music mean to you, and what made you choose to focus so heavily on music?
Without a doubt, we all believe we were born to do this, at least if only for this fraction of time that is our lives, but it’s amazing to think that our music has been immortalised in the form of a recording and that in 100 years time, it’s quite possible that someone, somewhere will still be listening to us. That idea of legacy is fascinating to me. We all get a lot of fulfilment from the work we put into composing, writing stories, the recording process, to performing the pieces to the public and seeing the rewards of positive feedback and devoted fans! It has always been about having that ambition and devoting ourselves to our craft, putting in the hard work, the training and practice, which will continue to happen because it is something we all love and something we all believe in. All music is the food that feeds the soul and it means the world and a childhood dream come true that we now have the opportunity to contribute to some of those dishes on the menu.