Konvent
When I first discovered this band they had just dropped “Puritan Masochism” from the not yet released debut-album with the same name. The song hit me like a slow moving train with full force, running over me and leaving me paralyzed. I sat down and listened to their demo as well, and immediately felt the urge to talk to them. We did it in english, that way it can reach all over the world! Because people really need to get to know this band.
Enjoy!
First of all I want to thank you for taking the time to do this! I just discovered Konvent yesterday, and it blows my mind. Especially the newest banger "Puritan Masochism". It’s a beast of a song!
For those of us who are unfamiliar with Konvent - could you tell us a bit about how you started out?
Thank you so much for the kind words! It means alot.
When our first drummer Mette started taking drumming lessons in 2015, her teacher (Nicolai from the band Dirt Forge) told his roommate that he had started teaching a girl. His roommate was our bass player Heidi and she instantly contacted Mette, asking her if she wanted to start a band. It had been a dream of Heidi’s to start a band for a long time but all the musicians she asked didn’t have time in their schedules to start a new project.
Given that both Mette and Heidi were more or less on the same level on their instruments, a band also seemed like an ideal opportunity to practise as well as write music. They looked for a guitar player and asked Mette’s study buddy Alexander (also from Dirt Forge) if he would suggest the idea to his girlfriend Sara, who Mette knew had previously played in a band. They also needed a vocalist and asked Mette’s sister Rikke, who had been taking extreme metal vocal lessons with a metal vocalist for about six months at that time. She was game and we all met up at a rented rehearsal space for an afternoon and tried jamming to The White Stripes’ 7 Nation Army.
The vibe was good and we decided to form the band and get our own rehearsal space. After three years, Mette had to quit the band due to her studies and we were very lucky to find Julie. Julie was only 18 at the time but had played the drums for six years and blew us away with her talent when she auditioned, and it was a no-brainer. Our final formation was established. The fact that we’re all females is completely random. We just wanted to start a band and the people who wanted to join happened to be women.
Amazing how things came together to make this happen! Small world. And even though it's random that you're all females in the band, I think it's important. I'm sure that you inspire a lot of women around the world to take up instruments and start a band.
From jamming "7 Nation Army" to making the hard hitting and relentless EP "Demo"; How did you start writing that masterpiece, and could you tell us a bit about what inspired you to do so?
Thank you for calling it a masterpiece, ha ha.
If more girls and women feel represented on the metal scene that's awesome. Hopefully one day picking up a guitar, a bass, learning the drums or even growling won't be seen as solely a masculine thing. Metal is for everyone!
Well, when we first started out as a band we just tried writing songs and after a while we had five songs. The first song we wrote didn't make it on to the demo because it very much sounded like "a first song", ha ha. We wanted to challenge ourselves and got in contact with Patrick Fragstrup, the owner of Wolfrider Productions, who we had heard a lot of good things about and we decided to record a demo at his studio.
As for the inspiration for the demo, we kind of just wrote and played what we felt like, but after the songs were done we could see that there was a slight theme of losing control of your life.
I really think it is a masterpiece, in terms of a first release, but also in the sense that it hit me straight in my gut from the first listen. Powerful!
Exactly, that's what I had in mind. Thank you for putting it so clearly!
Could you tell us a bit about the time after the release of Demo? You guys have played a lot of shows since 2017, do you have a gig or happening in mind that you could share with us?
Thank you!
Bandwise, it was a big learning experience for us and we definitely felt more prepared stepping into the studio this year. Personally, releasing our demo was huge for us. Finally, we were able to actually send a link to our Bandcamp and Spotify accounts, when people asked if they could hear our music. It felt like we were finally a "real" band, ha ha.
Smaller metal radio shows started playing songs from our demo and we got some pretty decent reviews. It was a great motivation to start writing more songs. And we are experiencing the same motivation now. Already when we were in the studio recording our new album, we felt the need to get going with even more songs for the next album, and we are already working on new stuff.
Our next big thing is our first headliner tour around Northern Europe in the beginning of next year.
It sounds like you guys have started a monster of a train that won't slow down! It must be great to work when you have that much excess motivation and passion in the band. I'm really looking forward to the new material, and to see you live in Oslo. I almost can’t wait that long!
Let's dive a bit into your new stuff. "Puritan Masochism" is the first taste from your full length debut. Could you tell us a bit about the theme and the lyrics? I'm picturing the past, when puritans tortured and burned humans in the inquisitions.
Awesome, we should definitely have a beer together after the show in Oslo!
It's always cool to read others' interpretations of our lyrics. Very cool!
The song is about how us humans have a tendency of putting ourselves in positions that actually harm us. Sometimes without even realising it. And we're trying to say that you don't have to live like that.
We don't like to go too much into details when it comes to our lyrics because we really appreciate it when the listener can form their own stories and images.
Absolutely!
Thank you, important message everyone should take into account.
So, what is next for Konvent? You just released a new song, “Trust”, and you have a bunch of gigs lined up, but what can we expect in terms of new material and merchandise? Can you reveal something about your debut album or is it all under wraps for now?
So, we can’t reveal alot yet but we can promise that the album is going to be super heavy and evil! Our producer Lasse Ballade really worked his Magic on this one.
As for the new merchandise, we have some new items lined up and they're gonna be sick!
Looking forward to this more and more!
Lastly, could you give us five danish bands you want to recommend to our readers, and five venues in Denmark that supports the underground scene, so visitors know where to go?
Our recommendations for Danish bands are: Solbrud, Morild, Xenoblight, Alkymist, Bethmoora, Dirt Forge, Eyes, Redwood Hill, Demon head, Drukner, Afsky, ORM, Himmelflugt, Taphos, Halshug and Ligæder.
Our recommendations for underground venues in Copenhagen are: Basement, Mayhem, Lygtens Kro, Ungdomshuset, Beta, Loppen and Underwerket.
It was alot more than you asked for but we couldn't limit ourselves, ha ha.
All readers: Be sure to check out the bands and venues!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this with me! Looking forward to the gig at Vaterland next year!
Be sure to check out their Facebookpage and music right now! You don’t want to miss this.
Patrick Fardal