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We talked with Bjarne – bassist from Huldre – and in this nice chat he told a bit of Huldre’s journey. If you like Folk metal you should listen to them.
GroundCast: To warm up, could you tell a bit of the band’s journey to the people that maybe do not know you?
Sure, well the band started as an idea back in 2006 with Laura, Nanna and Bjarne who wanted to make a Danish folkmetal band (something that’s quite rare still), but it wasn’t until 2009/10, when Lasse, Troels and Jacob joined that we took the name “Huldre” and some of the tracks you can hear today started being composed. From then we have released a demo (2010) and two full length albums, “Intet Menneskebarn” (2012) and “Tusmørke” (2016), to a lot of great reviews. In 2014 we got third place in the international Wacken Metal Battle competition and had the pleasure of playing there, and that really helped things kick off.
So yeah, we have played a ton of gigs over the years and worked on refining our brand of folkmetal where we merge traditional Nordic folk music with heavy metal in a 50/50 hybrid blend.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
Many and none. We do not not have any single influences as a 
band but our music is rather a synergetic product of all our individual influences. Six people with six different approaches who meet and make sweet music J
GroundCast: Huldre has one demo and two Full-Length albums (Intet menneskebarn and -Tusmørke). How you see the band’s evolution since the demo ‘till now?
In the beginning we had a bit more of an anarchistic approach to our songs, which to some extent can be heard on the demo and the first album. Many melodies fight for attention on top of each other. On Tusmørke we tweaked that approached and tried to be better at identifying which instruments carries the melody in a given part and have the other instruments support that melody. It’s a lot more structured and well thought process these days than it was back in the beginning.
GroundCast: Last year you released Tusmørke, being honest I didn’t the band and I really liked the last CD (I still have to listen Intet menneskebarn). Talk a bit about how was to produce and compose the CD and why did it take 4 years to be released?
Well, it was probably a mix of being busy with gigs, being perfectionistic in the compositions as well as the fact that we run the band as a consensus, so all members have to be happy about a song (or a part in a song) before we proceed that caused the 4 year process. With the Wacken Metal Battle in 2014 the interest was revitalized which led to a lot of gigs, so it’s probably a mix of many things that lead to the 4 years production. A few of the songs on the new album was finished not too long after “Intet Menneskebarn” was released and have been part of our live sets for quite some time. We hope it doesn’t take that long until the next album, but you never know J
Otherwise it was a good process, once we sat down and decided to put an extra effort into finished and finalizing all the bits and pieces and get the new album recorded, things naturally fell into place (for the most part) and the songs flowed freely.
GroundCast: What are the lyrics of Tusmørke about?
The main inspiration comes from old folk tales, folklore and fairytales. The old dark and sinister stories of love and death and unhappy endings. Of the clash between Heathens and Christianity and between humans and nature. Folkmusic and folklore generally have very dark stories despite the happy melodies and we continue that tradition.
GroundCast: Since some time lots of Folk Metal bands started to appear and in Brazil we even have specialized events that try to only bring bands of the Viking/Folk metal scene. Why do you think that this happened, what do you believe that is the reason for this?
It’s impossible for us to talk about how it is in Brazil, but there seems to be these resurgences of interest in the genre once in a while. In Denmark there has never been any big interest in folkmetal despite it having many big “waves” in our neighboring countries, especially Germany and Norway in the 90s, so there is also this idea of it being something new (in some circles). But as to why? That is hard to answer in any meaningful way. Maybe it’s because people all around the globe has always been interested in Vikings, and with the hit series of the same name, some might take an interest in the culture? Who knows…
GroundCast: Actually I live in Germany, a place where the metal scene is really strong and powerful, we have festival everywhere. How is the metal scene in Denmark and which are the great names from your scene (except for Mercyful Fate and King Diamond that I believe everybody knows and do not even know he is from Denmark)?
It is definitely also very strong and vibrant. Like Germany, we also have many festivals all over the place, from the smallest one-day affairs to larger events like the most notable: Copenhell (Where we incidentally are playing this summer).
There are many great bands, and it’s difficult to name only a few, but it is of course also a matter of taste if you like them or not.
GroundCast: We are in the internet era and you know how easy it is to download something. Even countries like Germany that is really strict with downloading, lots of people make it (and lots of get a punishment for this too). What do you think about it, this “free” share that the internet became and about the streaming services like Spotify?
In many ways the internet took over the good old fashioned tape/demo sharing of ye olden days. It’s a lot easier for a band, from anywhere in the world to be heard, which is a great thing, but it also means that there are so much more music to choose from, and a lot more bad stuff to sift through to find the gems, because of this. It’s mostly a great thing and even though streaming services pay very little, it has really done a lot for bands of all sizes to be heard around the globe. We have fans from all over the world because of this, and in the end it means more people come by our merch stores and to our concerts so we are all for it, you know.
GroundCast: What are the plans for the band’s future?
The same as always; Make more music, play more gigs and maybe do a music video somewhere along the line
GroundCast: Thank you so much for the interview. Now you can say something to our readers.
Thanks for reading and if you are curious you can find us over on facebook at facebook.com/Huldre. Feel free to write, we don’t bite J