Here’s a type up of the little chinwag we had with Norway’s ace punk/pop noisekins Deathcrush’s Linn Nystadnes (guitar, vocals, bass). Read and enjoy!
InMyKitchen: You certainly don’t seem to fit the mould of the average noise rock band. How would you describe your sound and what are your influences, musical or otherwise?
Linn: Well, it’s not like we aimed to be a noise rock band. To be honest, many of the noise rock bands I listen to today are bands people have compared us to after we started playing live. It’s been a great way to find new favorite acts! Still, I have a long list of bands I probably should check out, fill in some holes in my knowledge base or whatever. I mean, I’ve loved Årabrot and Big Black for ages but still don’t know shit about Melvins haha..
Anyway, depending on who’s listening- we get very different descriptions of what we do. Riot Music for the 21st century, a noise rock assault on no wave, Avant-Metal with pop sensibility, neo- grunge, pelvic noise sludge, intensive, dirty, brutal, terrifying to quote some. We’ve been called a mix of Sunn O))) and the Bangles and even been compared to Def Leppard! DIY wrote after the Øya festival: “a mixture of Megadeth, Sonic Youth and Sleigh Bells, but way more sexy.” Sexier than Megadeth! Hahaha!
How I would describe our sound. I dunno.. We love gritty True Norwegian Black Metal, intense, noisy and dancy no wave, and darker and old school hip hop. And of course, we love a great pop song. I get into making each song its own entity more than aiming to get it to fit into a specific “Deathcrush sound”. It’s all us, mentally, physically, so it’s going to sound like “us” no matter. As long as we go all in, it’ll work.
IMK: How did you end up being asked to tour with Sleigh Bells.
Linn: Crazy really, a freak incident that almost didn’t happen. We had gotten an email from the promoter asking if we would be up for opening for Sleigh Bells at Blå in Oslo, but then it went quiet so we thought it wasn’t going to happen. We were all stuck at work when we got a call a couple of hours before sound check. But it happened, and Slay Bells were amazing- and freakin’ excited when we came off stage. But since they’re American we didn’t expect their “come on tour with us!!!’ outbursts to actually turn into something, haha! But the next day we got a phone call from William Morris confirming that they would actually take us on tour with them- like the week after.
I remember reading a couple of interviews waiting to get away from work before heading over to Blå, and thinking “this is so weird. That’s what I would have answered!” And when we met them and their crew it was obvious we were on the same page. Our mentality is so similar I think even though we sound different, we are a perfect combo- on and off stage.
We love those guys and are terribly excited about hearing what comes out of all those months in TreeFort with Shane. Lucky bastards! But, hey, they’ve definitely earned it. Touring for what, a year and a half straight? Sleigh Bells are f**ing hardcore, believe me. I think the next record was almost fully planned out in Derek’s head when they finally got back home to Brooklyn. His mind never rests.
IMK: You live performances have generated plenty of excitement both in your homeland and beyond. When can we expect to hear an album?
Linn: Weeell, we’ll see how we decide to play it but we can’t wait to record. What is available now is limited and doesn’t capture the intensity, the primal side I guess, of what we do. We’ve been playing live so much this last year, we are now trying to take time off to make more music. Although we are getting a lot of questions about making our music available, it feels more like a need than a necessity right now. Things have been so hectic I can feel unmade songs crawl under my skin.
IMK: What does the immediate future hold, can we expect any gigs in Sweden in the coming months?
Linn: Yes! Stockholm and Malmö later this fall fo’ sho’. Will be grrreat! Like I said we’re trying to spend time in our cellar in Oslo but Nuit Blanche in France, Iceland Airwaves, Copenhagen and a few London shows are also coming up. ..there goes our “let’s stay in our rehearsal room” plan.
IMK: At the start of the year you had the distinction of being the first Norwegian band booked to play South by Southwest, but didn’t end up going. It was a brave decision to decide not to play at the world’s top showcase festival. Tell us about it?
Linn: It was an honour to be booked, especially so early on. We’d just started playing live and were getting a lot of positive attention. First by:Larm and then suddenly freakin’ SXSW. But we really weren’t ready for it. We hadn’t decided on booking agents, and didn’t have a team put together yet. It’s so easy to get lost in the crowd over there and in reality- most smaller bands go on what turns out to be an expensive vacation. We had so many great opportunities we needed to take care of we decided to cut our US dates short and just do New York and Boston with Norwegian doomsters Altaar. I think it was the right decicion. ..All though John Doran of the mighty Quietus wrote “watch out SXSW. You are Tokyo. Deathcrush are Godzilla” after seeing us at by:Larm, so who knows hahaha
If you fancy catching them playing here in Sweden, then head on down to Debaser in Malmö, 5th November where they will be tearing it up!
