Posted on Jul 7, 2006

by Anders

Before receiving Wuthering Heights new album "Far From The Madding Crowd". I had heard some tracks from their 2 first offerings, though they didn't make me pick up the albums. But after the first listen to the new album, my breath had disappeared, the grandiose symphonic power metal, with elements from progressive metal and folk music, was incredible, a perfect blend of catchy metal and astonishing technique. I hooked up with mainman Erik Ravn and interrogated him about his band.

Will you please start the interview off, by introducing yourself and tell us why you are playing metal?

Well, well, well…hello! I'm Erik Ravn from the band of mad metal minstrels who go by the name of Wuthering Heights. I'm the one writing the tunes and the words, I play a little guitar and bass and some keys and do some odd vocals and…well, generally keep things going and supposedly have the big overview on things. I've been playing music ever since I was tall enough to reach the piano keys and I have been moving around a bit in various genres. But anyhow, I guess I discovered heavy metal relatively late - that would be the late eighties - and to me it was the perfect combination of what I had really liked in music up to that point - the raw energy of the early rock n' roll - Elvis, Little Richard and so on - and the technique and big sound of seventies pomp/prog-rock. I basically think metal is great because it's so versatile, it can be so many different things. And it can be extremely emotional. In other words it's exciting both to the musician and to the audience.

Will you introduce the rest of the band, and tell us a bit about their weak and strong sides?

We got Rune Brink on the keys, who's the one that's been with me the longest in the current line up. He's got a great ear for orchestral arrangements as well as being a great soloist. So he's usually involved a bit in arranging some of the tunes. Henrik Flyman plays the guitar, a great emotional player and also a good sound engineer. We did some of the pre-production in his studio. Then there's the amazing Morten Sørensen on the drums. Apart from keeping our age-average relatively low his simply a natural talent. He has an almost photographic overview of music which is very beneficial when you do this kind of relatively complex stuff. And of course at the mic we find Nils Patrik Johansson, who joined the band after our last album. He has a very varied voice which we have only started to explore. You may know all these guys from their other various projects - Rune is in Cornerstone, Henrik has played with Moahni Moahna and Zool and most recently Evil Masquerade, Patrik is in Astral Doors and Morten is busy as always in several bands, Aurora is one of them.

You are now ready with your new album "Far From The Madding Crowd", how do you feel about the album?

I'm extremely pleased with it, as I think everybody in the band is. It was fun to make and it turned out just like we wanted it, so it was a generally great experience. I have been aiming at doing this kind of album for a long time, but it's a long way from the idea and till you're actually able to pull it off. But I think we have reached a very good blend of the various elements of our sound. There's definitely a better, more organic flow to this album compared to the first two.

What do you expect from the new album?

Well, it's hard to expect anything. I mean, the music business works in mysterious ways. Even if you're getting good reactions and people generally seem to like it, there's no telling whether you'll sell any albums. But anyway, I think the important part is not so much the number of people who buy it, but what those people actually think about it. If you can move people in some way, do something that means something to them, then that's already a kind of success. But…haha…of course selling a load of albums would make it easier to make the next album and playing live and all that.

How has the reactions, you so far has got, been?

Amazing! It's been almost exclusively extremely positive. So that's nice. When you've worked so hard for something and really poured your heartblood into it, it’s nice that people - other than your mates - enjoy it.

How well have your 2 first albums done?

Hard to say, since I don't have any sales figures from the various countries who have licensed the records, but it's definitely still very underground. I mean, I know it has been hard for some people to get a hold of the album at all. You know the shops are very reluctant to take in anything new, so that means that you mainly reach people who are fans of the band or the genre already. And I think that's kinda sad, since I believe our music should appeal to almost any kind of rock fan. But hey, that's music industry for you.

Did the 2 first albums live up to your own expectations?

The first one definitely did. On the second one, I think the material is amazing. But we could have used some more studio time, since that one was an extremely complicated record to make. So the sound is not perfect. Also because the final mastering, which we didn't do ourselves, somehow drained some of the energy from the sound. But those are minor things. I think at the particular time they were the best albums we could possibly do, and that's really all you can ask for - and in fact, if they wasn't the best, I guess you hadn't tried hard enough. You know bands always say that their latest album is the best. And actually I think, that's how it should be - if they didn't think they had done the best possible album, maybe they should stop. You should always try the hardest to do the best for the fans - I mean, we're entertainers, right? So we should really put on one hell of a show each time.

On the new album are you delivering symphonic power metal with a great deal of progressiveness, what has inspired you to play this type of music?

It's hard to point to any particular inspiration. My tastes are so many and various that I have never tried to shape our sound after any specific bands, really. I set out to play heavy metal - simple as that, not progressive-power-symphonic-whatever, just heavy metal - because as I said, I think there's enough room within the heavy metal frame to try and do all kinds of crazy shit. Anyway, I guess you could say the main ingredients in our sound is the metal we started listening to - Helloween, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Riot and so on, seventies rock - like Styx, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy - and then the traditional folk music. And in fact when listening to music, I prefer to listen to one of these things at a time. I'm not particularly inspired by other current metal bands that may blend some of the same elements. In fact, many of the bands we have been compared to, I haven't even heard….hehe.

You are also incorporating some celtic folk music, how did that idea resurrect?

I started getting into folk music not much later than I got into metal. And since I thought the two kinds of music had some of the same energy, the idea quickly developed to try and mix the two. But like anything else, it's not something you just learn to do overnight. It needs some experimenting so the folk/metal blend has been developing over these three albums. But now I think we have reached a good mix of the genres, it's quite close to what I had in mind. What way the future will take this mixture remains to be seen, of course.

What is the concept behind the album?

If you mean lyrically the whole album trilogy has a loose concept to it. It's not very specific, but it deals with the journey through life, searching for answers and maybe finding answers you didn't expect. But it moves in several layers. Some of it is very personal, but some of it also deals with mankind's development and particularly mans estrangement from nature. Indeed a strong sense of the forces of nature runs through it all. And I think the folk elements really help underlining this.

Is it a pure concept album? at times it seems like and sometimes not.

It's a concept in the way that there are ideas and opinions behind everything I do, so basically you can say that the concept is that I write the stuff. It's all based on my own experiences and thoughts. I don't just invent some fantasy story, which quite a number of people seem to think. I kind of think that if you don't base your music on yourself you don't really give the audience full value for their money. It’'s too easy. That doesn't mean that it shouldn't be made entertaining and imaginative - a lot of what I do is somehow creating myths or stories based on reality - but I think there has to be some core of truth in it all to be really exciting. But as you point out it is not so much a continuous story line, I think the songs can stand alone, even if they share the same emotions and worldviews.

Who is writing the music in the band and where are the ideas found?

I write the main part of the material, but of course the guys are free to come up with anything for their particular parts that could improve the whole. It has just turned out that way. When we started nobody else was really writing anything, so I basically had to do it if we wanted to have songs. Also the guys are so busy doing their other projects that I rather think they would panic if I asked them to join in the writing…haha! And again ideas can come from all kinds of places, but it's usually something I have experienced or just my thoughts on the world. As far as the actual music goes, you can of course get little ideas here and there from other bands, but I have never really tried to follow any particular style or genre. I think it is more interesting to stay in my own little musical world and see where that will take me. Maybe I should listen more to current stuff, because sometimes some really cool new band pops up, and you think - what have I been missing? But then again, there's so much old stuff, that I haven't finished with yet…hehe.

The music is at first sight very listenable, but contains at some places very complex song structures. Is it intentional that the music is catchy, but tricky underneath?

Not very much of this is particularly intentional in any way. But as an afterthought, I think that's actually quite a good way to put it. I like the music to have many layers that you can explore as a listener, you don't want to know it all after playing the album once. On the other hand I don’t really see the idea in making music - however technically good - if you don't have the tunes. In other words, you need strong songs, but that doesn't mean it should be stupid. I think there is a general agreement among many metal musicians that you either do weird, technical stuff or you do totally sing a long knight-and-dragons stuff. And all I can say is: why? Why must music that holds to the virtues of true heavy metal be uninspiring or un-progressive. I fail to see that.

The grandiose storyline, the complex yet catchy music and the musical and vocal presentations on the album, reminds me about the great Avantasia project. How do you feel about those albums and have you found inspiration in them?

I like Avantasia, especially the first album. Although I don't think it is very original, it hardly gets any better within that particular style. I do think the music is the best part however, the lyrics didn't do much for me. In general I think Tobias Sammet is rather a great artist and entertainer. I'm looking forward to hearing the new Edguy album. Though as far as inspiration goes, it's too new a band to have had any influence on our stuff. We were hard at work already back then. But I like it, although as far as rock operas go I prefer Ayreon - now that's art!

Are you going to tour to support "Far From The Madding Crowd"?

I don't think we will be able to go on a tour as such. There simply isn't the money for it. But we have one festival booked already, and perhaps a few more could come.

What about a visit in Aalborg, isn't that about time?

Definitely. That would be great! I would like to play anywhere, sadly it's all down to finance and logistics. But hopefully it will be possible.

Will you share your 3 all time favorite albums, with the Danish metal heads?

Sure, that would be "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, "Bat Out Of Hell" by Meat Loaf and "Level Headed" by Sweet. I guess with Tori Amos´ "Boys For Pele" and Gamma Ray's "Heading For Tomorrow" as runners-up.

Thanks a ton for answering my questions, the final words are yours!

Thank you a pint! Don't listen to what they tell you to - listen to what you like. And hopefully you will like the new Wuthering Heights! Herne protect you!

[conducted in the end of 2004]

Wuthering Heights website

Review of "Far From The Madding Crowd"

Buy the album at

Buy merchandise at