Hello girls, what's going on in beautiful Bergen?

Hello! We’ll the weather is really beautiful right now. Besides that we are rehearsing intensively for our release concert.

Will you please start by telling about yourself?

Octavia started out in the year 2000. Four of us (strings and vocal) were already friends, we used to go to a lot of concerts (and drink a lot beer ). We had a common interest in metal music and had all been thinking of playing in a band ourselves. Needing a drummer Silje Røyseth joined us. Being relatively new musicians we started working hard, took courses and started composing our own music. In the beginning Silje (vocal) also played the synth parts, but after a while Tone who had been playing classical piano for many years joined us and played synth. Silje Røyesth our first drummer had to leave the band after a year or so due to her and her fiancée deciding to get pregnant. Hege Larsen then joined us and, was our drummer until just before Christmas 2004. Now Kikken is our rehearsal and session drummer and we are all really pleased with the arrangement. In 2002 we released a self financed EP called Guilty. Being our first recording the EP was primarily intended for promotional purposes in order to get us live jobs. Over the years we have played several gigs and festivals around Norway. We have always been recognized as an innovative band in the already crowded Norwegian metal scene. Summer/fall 2004 we joined forces with British Candlelight Records.

Why the name "Octavia Sperati"? Does it have any special meaning?

The band name was Trine’s idea, and it is taken from the most beloved sister of the Emperor Augustus of Imperium Romanum. Octavia was wise, beautiful and strong, ‘a pearl among women’, recording to her brother We like the idea of using the name of a woman who symbolizes both strength and integrity. When we discovered that there was another band called Octavia, we added the ‘surname’ of another Octavia; Octavia Sperati (also with an Italian connection). She was an actress at the local theatre, and is now haunting the building. We usually just use the short version of the name, but officially it's Octavia Sperati.

Octavia goes under the term "Gloom Metal". Do you care to elaborate about your playing style please?

We have a doomish sound, and the female vocals give it a beautiful and soft touch. In combination with riffs that are inspired by more extreme music, it might give our expression a certain ambivalence, and might be the reason why we think it is a little hard to categorize ourselves. Other people tend to invent new genres to describe our music, probably from the same reason...We simply call our music melodic, doomish metal!

In your opinion, why should people unknown to Octavia Sperati check you out?

Because we're an interesting band and we really have something to contribute to the metal scene! Anyone who likes melodic metal should give “Winter Enclosure” a try.

You still miss a drummer. Any news on that front?

Currently we have a rehearsal and session drummer named Kikken. He also plays with a band called Fortytwo, and is a really talented and sociable guy so we are all very pleased.

Ok, you are about to release your debut album entitled "Winter Enclosure". How was the recording process – did it go as expected? How does it feel to finally have an album out on the market?

The sessions started in October 2003, was paused in 2004 due to a ” lack of money”, and finally completed in November / December 2004 after we signed a deal with British label Candlelight records. The entire album is recorded in “Earshot Studio” in Bergen, with the producers Herbrand Larsen and Arve Isdal (Enslaved, Audrey Horne), except the grand piano which was recorded in “Grieghallen” by Pytten (a studio which should be well known to any fan of Norwegian metal). It feels great to finally have an album out there. We have been working hard for a long time now and this is the culmination of five years of determined and dedicated work.

What musical backgrounds do you girls have – have you been playing music for many years?

We are all really into metal music. When we started Octavia we were relatively new as musicians. Most of us are “self taught” except from Tone who has played classical piano for several years.

What brand of guitars and amps do you play?

Gyri: Gibson SG guitar. Marshall Valvestate amp and Marshall cabinet.
Bodil: Gibson Les Paul Classic guitar and Peavy 5150 amp and Laney cabinet.
Trine: Hagstrøm bass and Fender amp and cabinet.

"Girls can't play metal". What is your response to people with that attitude? Do you feel you are being accepted in the metal scene?

Of course girls can play metal, it's just that normally, they don't! There are not many females around playing hard rock or metal, not in Norway nor anywhere else. If there were more female musicians there would be more people to look up to and to identify with, and consequently lower barriers for girls to start playing. Scepticism and prejudices towards everything that is “new” is a know fact. For us this cuts both ways we probably get some extra attention for being all girls, but then again we have to prove that we are “good enough”. We just have to make the best of it and focus on what’s important to us-THE MUSIC. But it actually seems like things are changing lately – that more and more girls pick up their instruments and join bands – and that's really cool.

How much of an importance are the lyrics on "Winter Enclosure"? Any special topics you care about or is there a concept behind the album maybe?

The album, both title and songs, reflects our Nordic in heritage by expressing the energy and creativity that dark, long, Nordic winters may evoke. But it's not really a “concept album”, as the songs and lyrics have been made during quite a long period of time, even if there are clearly some themes recurring in the lyrics. Actually, Silje should be answering this, so we can refer to an answer she gave to a similar question: “The lyrics are based on moments or happenings that made impressions on me and encourage me to express the story in a new form. They reflect my life and put words on my history as I write them down. When put together on the album, the songs naturally melted together in a satisfying enclosure. It was like looking back on the power of life, death, pain, joy, sorrow & relief, thinking ‘let’s keep the stories in the past, now it is time to move forward’. The songs are written during the last three years and tell their own individual stories, but looking back you can see them belonging together in a short term life history”.

Will we get the chance to see you nice looking girls on the road pretty soon? I guess Century Media has planned a promoting live tour already, or?

First of all we are signed to Candlelight Records not Century media (Ed:Ooops, sorry girls). There are plans for touring, and we will place dates and venues on our homepage as soon as they are confirmed. What we do know at this point is that we have some dates confirmed in UK in June, and we're also going to do some festivals and mini tours in Norway after the summer.

I'm always interested in the song writing process; do Octavia have a main songwriter and what is the best atmosphere to write songs in?

We always collaborate in the song writing process. One of the string instruments usually come up with a riff and a suggestion for how to arrange the song, then we all “jam” in. Silje our vocal writes most of our lyrics. I don’t know if we have a special atmosphere that works best to write songs in, it usually just “pops up”. Since we all participate in the process and we have individual styles and preferences and we always inspire each other.

Do Octavia feel game to list you top 5 releases ever by Scandinavian Metal bands only?

Ha, ha this was a hard question: This is what we could agree upon (in random order):

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Arcturus – The Sham Mirrors
Bathory - Destroyer of Worlds
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Enslaved - Monumension

Thanks for giving me this interview. The last words are yours if you have any!

Thank you for the interview. Please check out our homepage www.octavia-sperati.com (which is finally up and running again). Well post news and tour dates here as we get them. Cheers!!!!!!

[This interview was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]