Few acts have managed to capture attention quite like Eihwar. Emerging just over a year ago with their initial tracks on YouTube, this duo has been on the rise, garnering a growing fanbase with each passing month.
Eihwar’s allure lies in their approach to neopagan fusion. They’ve coined their sound “Viking War Trance”. It’s a blend of Viking-themed pagan folk with electronic dance music. The result is an experience that’s primal and futuristic, rooted in ancient traditions yet something brand new to the table in the great hall.
The duo recently signed with Season of Mist, and have been getting ready for their debut release, aptly titled ‘Viking War Trance.’ Set to hit September 20th, this album will bring together the tracks that have been steadily winning over fans and showcase Eihwar’s unique style to a wider audience.
I recently had the privilege of speaking with Asrunn and Mark, about the origins of their project, the intricate process behind crafting their sound, and the experiences that have shaped their recent live shows. From the genesis of Viking War Trance to their plans for the future, Asrunn and Mark offered insights into one of the most exciting new acts I’ve seen in a long time.
Thanks for speaking with me today. How have you been doing lately?
Asrunn: Hi there! Thank you for having us! I won’t lie to you, we are super excited and grateful for this incredible adventure, but we also are really tired!
It seems like things have been moving at lightning speed for you. What’s been the most surprising or exciting development for the band in the past year since your first YouTube video?
Asrunn: Actually every step has been a source of joy and excitement. Of course, dancing and singing on such beautiful stages as Temple stage in Hellfest, being so warmly welcomed, have been some delightful moments, but we enjoy every part of the journey. We feel really lucky.
Let’s start at the beginning. Can you take us back to the origins of Eihwar? How did the band come together?
Asrunn: We didn’t plan anything. For the French touring mini-festival “La Nuit des Sorcières”, Mark wanted to create some “after-party-dancefloorish” tracks as he couldn’t find any existing pagan songs with enough kicks and beats. So he composed “The Forge” in a few hours, put headphones on my ears and without having heard the music beforehand, I went straight into a trance and recorded the vocals as a one-shot.
Mark then uploaded the song to YouTube that same evening, February 15, 2023, so as to have something for venue programmers to listen to. And without promoting it in the slightest, the thing exploded on its own. Eihwar was born.
I’m curious about the development of these characters. Could you walk us through the process of creating them? How much thought went into each persona, and what were the key elements you wanted to incorporate?
Asrunn: Once again, it was a kind of artistic outpouring, not really thought through, and it was these sort of Viking-inspired superheroes that emerged from the maelstrom of our inner creative mess. We just knew we didn’t have any historical ambitions.
Mark: Our human hosts allowed us to take possession of them in a 100% intuitive, almost animal-like way.
How do your characters and music interact and influence each other in your creative process for Eihwar, and what unique possibilities or enhancements does this persona-based approach bring to your music and performances?
Asrunn: My human host has little to do with me. When she summons me, I’m everything she doesn’t allow herself to be in society. I’m the airlock that lets her vivid anger, her primal rage, out. And having my face painted allows me (and her) to be totally free, wild, bestial, ferocious, creative, fearless, limitless. Eihwar isn’t just about the music, it’s about living life to the full, taking back power, healing deeply, with my feet firmly planted in the earth. I am the embodiment of an intense survival process for my human host. It’s not just art.
Mark: For my part, I think that music has nevertheless greatly influenced our creation and emergence. The voices recorded in trance states at the very beginning carry within them a whole imagination. We took this form after our human hosts let their voices come out of their throats. As the music video Völva’s Chant says, the creation of speech is a powerful thing.
Your Viking War Trance style has introduced a brand new perspective to folktronica. Can you walk us through how you developed this unique fusion of Norse folk and electronic dance music?
Asrunn: In reality, it’s always tricky for us to answer these questions about our will or our approach or our thinking, because there weren’t really any upstream, it just sprang from us, and then we refined what was a primal creative explosion.
All we can say is that we wanted a wicked, banging, danceable sound, with what we found inspiring in the legends, heroes and fantasized values of the Vikings.
Mark: I believe that electronic music has always been called to enter into communion with folk music. Since the dawn of time, music has allowed people to enter altered states of consciousness, to connect to higher forces. Traditional music in the whole world often seeks trance in repetitive and hypnotic rhythms. Electronic music allows us to go to the end of the path of regularity and repetition with extremely low bass drum hits which allow an absolutely regular repetitive pulsation. What’s better to get into a trance?
What do you think makes these seemingly disparate elements blend so well?
Asrunn: We just followed the magical flow of artistic creation, as simply as we drink when we’re thirsty. It was a natural, sincere and completely authentic impulse of the heart. And it took that form, with elements that may indeed seem completely WTF at first.
Norse-inspired music has seen artists like Heilung, Wardruna, and Eivør create a new genre that often leans towards a serious tone. They’ve crafted a sound that feels ancient, despite our limited knowledge of authentic Viking-age music. What inspired you to take a different path and infuse this genre with a more energetic, celebratory atmosphere?
Asrunn: In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietsche makes his character say “I would believe only in a god who could dance“. This philosopher, whom Mark and I adore, hugely supports the idea of Laughter. Life is just one big laugh. Seriousness is also for him “an obvious symptom of poor digestion”. Many bands make Nordic folk music in a wonderful, serious way…
Mark: But for Asrunn and me, what is funny, joyful, instinctive, savage, energic, natural, primal, the peaks of sap, the bursts of laughter, if possible laughing at oneself, those little things are the most important…
Asrunn: Everything that keeps us away from the stiffness of our completely desiccated human spirit! Eihwar is a bit of all that at the same time. It is the Joy of childhood, the primal movement which knows neither judgment, nor morality, nor ridicule, nor constraint, nor rigidity. Watch a child dance and sing, and you will understand Eihwar.
The album is a collection of your singles, with some pretty cool updates. How did your artistic vision or technical skills evolve between the original versions and and some of the reforged tracks?
Mark: In the case of Ragnarök and Berserkr, we were really happy with the compositions and we didn’t want to damage these songs. We have only, and humbly, reworked their technical aspect by redoing their mixing. In this way these titles have been decompressed to have better intelligibility and greater dynamics. For Fenrir, we thought it could be interesting to try to give him more power, more violence. And we really remixed it to get a more uninhibited dancefloor effect. Fenrir also benefited from better dynamics and greater relief.
Did the reforging process inspire any new directions for your future music, or rather how you might fine tune certain tracks?
Mark: No, I think we simply reworked these old pieces without trying to transform them too much and retain their progressive dimension. Currently, especially since Berserkr, we’re writing shorter, more explosive songs, but that’s just a natural evolution. Rather, it’s the energy of concerts that makes us want to be even more explosive.
You recently released the music video for ‘Viking War Trance’. Can you take us through the creative process behind this song and the visually striking video?
Asrunn: Thanks for the compliment! We saw VWT a bit like “Berserkr”’s daughter. We imagined this music video as if we’d had the budget, the equipment and the time we needed when we filmed Berserkr. (For the record, this “Berserkr” music video was shot by Mark and me in three days, and the final fight by our best friend who had never held a camera in his life before, on a zero budget). That’s why it has the same energy: the dancing, the screaming of the body, the fury.
Speaking of war, the concept of “war” features prominently in your artistic statement. Can you elaborate on what this “war” represents for you beyond the literal interpretation?
Asrunn: Of course, the term “war” should not be taken at face value as a war against others or against the world. Once again, it’s a very Nietschean concept. It’s a war against our fears, our anxieties, our inner limits, our mental and physical stiffness. In short, everything that limits us.
Mark: War here opposes order and stagnation. From a more symbolic point of view, war is the primordial chaos that allows the act of creation. This term also refers to the way of the warrior. The warrior does not want his best enemies to spare him nor to be spared by those he loves from the bottom of his heart. He fully embraces his responsibilities.
You got to play some major festivals this summer, including Hellfest. How did these opportunities come about and what was that like?
Asrunn: It’s quite a crazy story, we didn’t believe it ourselves at first. In fact, we were booked at Hellfest by sending… just an email. That was in September 2023, just 6 months after ‘The Forge’ was posted on YouTube and just 4 months after our very first gig. And it was the same for Wave Gottik Treffen and Leyendas Del Rock…! Crazy indeed.
I haven’t had the chance to see your live shows yet, but they look incredible. There’s this one moment that stands out – Asrunn, when your drum broke, you just started pounding it with your fist instead. It’s such a cool way to turn a mishap into something savage and Viking-like. How do you channel that energy and quick thinking to engage with the crowd during your performances?
Asrunn: Thank you! Yes it was really a silly moment during Trolls & Legends Festival hahaha! Well, in fact, I couldn’t tell you where this reflex came from, but I think that when you’re up against the wall, without a safety net, you find unsuspected resources! It was a very ‘Viking’ moment indeed: I was quick, adaptable and strong (because hitting a shamanic drum with your fist for more than 4 minutes requires a certain amount of concentration to forget the pain)!
Connecting with the audience is the most important part of my work. People are in the audience to experience a moment of communion with the artists. So I make it a point of honor to be there with them, despite any technical problems.
As far as the energy I channel is concerned, it’s true that before I go on stage I have a whole ritual that enables me to connect with what I call “Above” (“Plus Haut” in French). I ask the Forces that surround us to use me as a tool to transmit messages, healing or strength energies, and solutions to whoever needs them during the concert. It’s a very strong call, which I can only obey.
And out of curiosity, how many broken drums do you have at this point?
Asrunn: 1 drumstick and 3 Shamanic drums. Mark broke his second drumpad during Rockstadt Extreme Fest this week-end… That’s an expensive journey :’-)
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. As we look ahead to the release of your album, I’m curious – what aspect of this project are you most excited for fans to experience? And also is there anything else you’d like to say to the fans?
Asrunn: People asked us a lot about our background, our languages and our lyrics. So we decided to give us a real chance to put it all down in a 20-page booklet that will accompany the album. We hope this will satisfy any curiosity and question.
To conclude, I call on all people touched by our music to experience it as the trance that it is (whether during our concerts or elsewhere). That is to say with the body, without trying to understand it with the mind: surrender to the primal movement, laugh, sweat and dance like me, barefoot in the dirt.
More From Eihwar
Pre-Order The New Album
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eihwar.music
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/eihwar.music
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@eihwar
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eihwar
