Exclusive Interview with THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

With its brilliant “Searing Light,” the Holy Mountain is returned.

The Holy Mountain, who won praise from all over the world for their single “Remains Unsaid”, have returned with the last taste before their much awaited EP is published. The powerful song “Searing Light” is about catharsis—leaving the dark behind and welcoming a blazing light. Although walking in the light can be both overwhelming and inspiring, it can also entail death. “Searing Light” exists in this tense area where light might imply darkness and darkness can signify light. A little risky, that is. Check out the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: We met at a music community college called Toneheim in Norway, 2010. At Toneheim, we played together a few times, but it was mostly just waltz and Balkan stuff for specific events. I remember we talked about starting a band together, since we had much of the same taste in music and film, but we didn’t start anything before a few years later, in 2013. The story is that Andreas used to improvise repetitive patterns on the accordion while procrastinating at the music academy. Later, he asked Aleksander to start a band, knowing he was into the same stuff. We were both very fascinated with minimalism (music genre) and cult movies at the time. When Aleksander got involved, it was only drums and accordion for years before the band eventually expanded with synths and vocals.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: Yes, we are formally trained musicians in the sense that all three of us have university degrees related to music. Catharina has a degree in jazz performance, Aleksander in music technology and Andreas in classical contemporary music. But it should be said that The Holy Mountain was started more as a reaction to our schooling. It was something totally different and refreshing. We could do only what we wanted to do.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘THE HOLY MOUNTAIN?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: Our biggest first influence was the film Koyanisquaatsi by Godfrey Reggio, with music by Philip Glass. Aleks and Andreas first saw Koyanisquaatsi together at Toneheim (the community college) and were the only two people that remained in our seats seated a while after the credits. It made a huge impact on us, the imagery, the intense and beautiful music, the grandiose ambition and the tragedy it shows. But Koyanisquaatsi was our first big influence, but not the only one. Other filmmakers like John Carpenter and Nicolas W. Refn were extremely influential on us very early on. The whole cult movie aesthetic and vibe. Our band name, The Holy Mountain, is taken directly from the psychedelic and milestone film by Alejandro Jodorowsky with the same name.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: It’s very hard for us to pinpoint the most important aspects of our music. This is more for others to say. But we hope that our music has a dark vibe and melancholic atmosphere to it. It’s introverted with a lot of energy that often tries to communicate some kind of inner struggle. We sometimes say that our music is a mix of synth-pop, Baroque church music and Rock’n roll, where the sound is very much defined by using accordion.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: When you start rocking out fifteen-minute-long minimalistic tracks with only accordion and drums, like we did, you are not so much trying to emulate or appeal to someone else (haha). We did our own thing and gradually built on that over time. This is not to say that we’re not inspired by others or don’t take elements from other artists into our own music, but take a more conceptual approach to it. For instance, in 2020, we did a fully electronic synthwave album, called Ending it All Tonight, where we dove into the whole synthwave/vaporwave world and created something new with those constraints. But directly after, in 2023, we did something totally different again and made a Nordic jazz-inspired album with lots of ballads. Jumping from concept to concept is probably not very audience-friendly, we know this much, but we think it has made the style and sound of our music interesting and very unique. For this new release, we have been inspired by the Twin Peaks vibe (especially season 3), listening a lot to artists like Ruby Haunt, Chromatics, John Maus, Desire, Electric Youth, and other dark synth-pop acts. We like this quirky and melancholic synth music.

6. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: Creating music, producing, getting gigs, promoting etc., is suffering. We definitely spend more energy on these processes than what we get in return. But it’s like this for most artists, right? You have to put everything into it to try to make it work. What keeps us going is simply that the internal drive to do it that is bigger than the drive to not do it. We simply love to make and play music.

7. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: Yes, it usually starts with a melody, beat or set of chords in the head. A feeling. Then there’s a race to get it down on paper or on MIDI before its gone. Andreas usually does the main songwriting and will create demos in Ableton with lots of soft synths and drum machines. Then, we decide how to shape the songs together, experimenting with which instrument should play what part, which synths we should use, tempos, drumming etc., eventually grinding it down to a core song in the rehearsal room a little later in the process. For example, Andreas had the idea for the characteristic bass line on The Third Place, the fourth track of our new EP, when he was on the toilet. On the other hand, the intro to Nature. A Sermon, the very last song on our new release, was inspired by the music of A Clockwork Orange by Wendy Carlos. So, it varies quite a bit where the songs come from, but they all start with an initial idea or feeling.

8. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: Playing live. Definitely. We have always been very ambitions about our live performances, meaning we want to re-create the sound of our albums as best as possible without using a lot of pre-recorded tracks. This has been challenging since we are only three people. When playing live, Andreas has usually had a Boss RC-50 loop station with his accordion to achieve all the layering. This was always a real nightmare because we never synced it to a common clock. Also, Aleksander our drummer has had to play exceedingly more synth parts with his right hand, while playing drums with his left, since our albums began having more and more synth parts. So yes, playing live with The Holy Mountain has been the most difficult part of our musical careers, but we have learned a lot from it and become better musicians in the process. With our current live set, we have taken a different approach, taking what worked well in the past and further built on that.

9. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: To release this new album! This is really the best we have done so far, and we feel very much at home in this style. It’s like we have been fumbling in the dark for ten years and we have finally arrived where we belong. We love it and it sounds great much thanks to our brilliant studio technicians Marcus Forsgren and Espen Høydalsvik.

10. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: No, we don’t feel that it’s important for listener to understand the driving message of our songs. That would be very limiting for our creative process. When we release new music, it’s not ours anymore. It exists out there, and we can’t control what it means to different people.