Kari Rueslåtten

The new year has just been awaking from the winter’s sleep and now it’s squinting in the face of a first musical Highlight: Norwegian songwriter KARI RUESLÅTTEN, ex-singer of Progressive Doomers The 3rd & The Mortal, is publishing her fifth solo-album. A good reason for a chat with the charming singer…

Kari Rueslåtten

Ole: What’s striking about your songs is that in many of your songs there is always an „I“-narrator. Are your songs autobiographical?
Kari: No. It’s more, that I’m taking the view of other people and try to ask, „what would you do in their place?“

Ole: Please tell me something about the title-track Other People’s Stories. What is it about?
Kari: It was the first song, that I wrote for this album. I simply liked the difference between the soft melody and such strong words. It’s not, that I agree to what this women did, but I simply wanted to show somebody with such obsessed emotions.

Ole: In that song, you sing „I just killed a man“ and „I did it for you“ – Is there anything for you worth to kill to?
Kari: I guess, injustice is something, that could make me want to kill somebody. I don’t support violence, but you can either kill somebody metaphorically.

Ole: In Push you sing „I drove all night, all the way from Berlin“? What about your relation to Germany?
Kari: I studied German language for a time, and I once met a woman in Switzerland and she invited me to come to Germany, but I never been there up to now.

Ole: In your music one may find trails of other artists. Where do you take your influences from? Who or what inspires you?
Kari: In general, I like music of people, who dare doing different things, for example Diamanda Galas. It’s not that she’s writing very melodic songs, but it’s about doing your own thing.

Ole: I think, one may hear influences of folk-music, Loreena McKennitt, for example. Would you agree?
Kari: It’s possible. I like her music, too. But I think, I’d rather refer to traditional Norwegian music.

Ole: Tell us something about the way you work. What is first: lyrics or music?
Kari: Actually, the core of my music are the lyrics. I prefer building a melody around the lyrics. Often, when I’m playing on the piano, and if I discover a strong melody, I take it to the computer and then to the band. But everything doesn’t work, if you don’t have good lyrics.

Ole: In 1998, I read about your solo-album Mesmerized. Actually, I first noticed your name on the cover of Tears Laid In Earth. What was the reason for you to quit working with The 3rd And The Mortal?
Kari: I was more interested in traditional Norwegian music and the other guys wanted to do more experimental kind of music. It wasn’t easy for me, but I decided to quit. In the beginning, I was quite unhappy with that step and even cried. Nowadays, I live in Oslo, but we still meet, every time I am in Trondheim.

Ole: Would you agree, that The 3rd And The Mortal anticipated Gothic Metal with female Vocals, as we know it by Nightwish or Within Temptation?
Kari: Maybe. When we started with the band in 1994, there was an album by Anathema with beautiful female vocals besides, and we wanted to do something like that. It seemed, that rock was a boys kind of thing and the others at first wanted to add male vocals, but I said: „No way.“

Ole: Do you like bands like Nightwish?
Kari: Yes, of course. I think, they have very catchy heavy metal-pop songs, but I’m more into melancholic atmospheric kind of music.

Ole: What’s coming in the near future? Will you be on tour in 2005?
Kari: Yes, I hope so. We’re working on it. And maybe we will be in Germany, too.

Ole: OK, thank you very much and good luck for that.
Kari: Thank you. Hope to see you there. Take care!