Interview: Dimhav

Good day readers! Sam here. This time it’s a little bit different. For the first time in this blog’s history we have done an interview. I don’t know what to think about this yet, but my team seems pretty convinced that us doing more interviews is a good thing. So you can likely expect more of these in the future. And if you’re a member of a prog band, I guess you can also contact us for interviews now.

Alright enough. It’s time for me to shut up and give the mic to the one who conducted the interview, Matt:

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On November 8th, a new three-piece called Dimhav released their debut album on Bandcamp. There wasno marketing campaign, no warning – just a sudden explosion of huge, ridiculously epic music where there previously was none. Power metal fans quickly took note because of Daniel Heiman’s presence on vocals (Harmony,ex-Lost Horizon.) It’s pretty safe to say we’ll try anything he sings on, and it turns out the music here is no slouch either. I was lucky enough to get an interview with drummer and cowriter Olle Lindroth:

Thanks for doing the interview. Your new album is a huge production, sort of a blockbuster event for this style of music, but it came out very suddenly. People were blindsided by it, and are wondering “who are these guys?” How did this project come to be, and how long have you been secretly working on it?

A couple of the songs have been around for quite a while and were meant for the band that Staffan and I were active in, around 2013. The songs didn’t really fit but we liked the style of them a lot. To give them a context we decided to continue writing material with a similar tone and collect the songs under a new name. We were chasing a specific feel during the process, a sense of forlorn coldness perhaps. The inspiration came from numerous places; other metal music, jazz, fusion, classical music, film scoring, tv-games, nature, literature, art and so on.

I believe there has not been anything secret about this album or reason to keep it secret.

What’s the name “Dimhav” mean? A google search only turns up the band.

Literally it just means ”sea of mist” in Swedish. The word is mostly used in literary or poetic context and has some connection to Romanticism. It was short, simple and not too grandiose, it’s also fun to somehow mark the origin of the album with a native word.

Was the music written with Daniel in mind, or did he come on later? How did you get his ear, and what’s it like working with him?

Originally we actually considered a different, more baritone kind of voice but it became more and more obvious that someone capable of high pitch singing should do it. We have always adored Daniels singing and we were very happy he agreed on taking part in the album after presenting the songs to him. The vocals was the last thing to be added to the music and the working process was really smooth. Daniel recorded all the vocals in his own studio. We were really impressed how he improved on and added a noticeable depth to some of the melodies and vocal lines.

You recruited probably the best singer in metal, and opened the album with a ten minute instrumental. Was this meant to be a statement? I’m sure the internet’s obsession with the “celebrity” vocals can become a little tedious.

The track order was set before Daniel came along. Regardless of who sings we wanted to set the tone of the album in a certain way and try to spark the listeners interest for the music, even without vocals.The instrumental aspect of the music has a big role throughout the whole album.

You’re credited with both drums and “keyboard arrangements.” I take that to mean the orchestra parts, since Staffan plays synths? Are you as involved in writing the melodic parts as the drums?

To divide the work a bit we decided I would do the keyboard arrangements. That includes the symphonic parts as well as the keyboards, synths and effects, everything except the keyboard leads/solos. I started playing the piano in the early years, before the drums, and still play but this was the first time I made arrangements at all. As the actual song writing goes, we have contributed with roughly equal amount of material, either by writing together or individually.

This album has one of the best-sounding VST orchestras I’ve heard. What libraries are on it? What’s the process like? It can be hard to write orchestra parts and mess with fiddly virtual instruments at the same time…

I think a metal song never can lean only on the arrangements. The backbone needs to be solid. The parts I came up with lacked guitar and Staffan had to come up with fitting guitar parts afterwards, and then there had to be adjustments back and forth until it was set. That was a fun and different way for us to write some of the parts.

The symphonic libraries used are pretty well-known, mostly Symphobia and LASS. We wanted to have a balanced mix of symphonic elements and ”synthier” sounds, for those I have used Omnisphere a lot which really is a fantastic tool.

I’ve been debating this question with a friend. Do you prefer recording drums first or last?

The drums were the first instrument to be recorded on this album, I mostly recorded them without a backing track, just the click. Personally I think it’s a lot harder to lay down the drums afterwards. I think Staffan preferred to record guitars and bass to the real drums rather than just the click or programmed drum parts.

Are there any particular plans for Dimhav’s future? Is it a band or a project? Will this lineup be around for awhile?

Staffan and I will continue writing as good music as we can. Since we like to play and jam around different styles of music there are many possible outcomes in the future. It’s too early to say what will happen with Dimhav, it all started out with a desire to make great music and that intention is still there. At this point I guess Dimhav is better described as a project than as a band.

Will there be a physical release of The Boreal Flame?

There certainly seems to be an interest in a physical product and right now we are looking into different solutions for that. We didn’t know for sure how popular cd’s are nowadays so we decided to start out all digital. Personally I rarely buy cd’s or search among my cd stands.

Do you have any favorite bands that deserve more attention?

I really enjoy the EP from Paralydium. They are some incredibly talented guys who write catchy and breathtaking songs. I’m eager to so see what they will bring us on their full length album next year!

Anything in general you want to close with?

Thanks a lot for taking interest in us! We want our music to reach everyone who appreciates it and hopefully it can inspire others to continue writing music and challenge themselves. We wish the best of luck to you on the Progressive Subway!

Sincerely // Olle

Thanks Olle. Readers can expect to see a formal review of The Boreal Flame when our November edition comes around, but if it wasn’t already apparent, I’m blown away.

Dimhav’s pages can be found at:

http://www.dimhav.com

https://dimhav.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/dimhavofficial