DIMHAV: "Trying something new and challenging is maybe the biggest inspiration!"
Swedish band DIMHAV already caught me back in 2019 with their impressive debut "The Boreal Flame", so another album from their feather was highly anticipated. Their new opus "Ondine" will see the light of day on 20th May and marks a huge step forward for Dimhav on many levels, bringing together a broad variety of stylistic elements with skillful musicianship and wonderful playfulness.
Band-Links: BANDCAMP / WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
Welcome to join us for a chat and learn more about their background, marvelous music, and the stunning cover artwork:
Hey, thanks for making time to answer my questions. How are you today?
You’re very welcome, and we’re glad to be here. Thanks for taking interest in our music and the new album! We’re doing well - spring has arrived after a long winter, and we’re very much looking forward to the album release coming up.
Promising :-) Could you please introduce yourself and Dimhav to our readers?
Certainly! Dimhav is in essence a two man band made up of us, Staffan and Olle Lindroth, as a vehicle for writing and producing the kind of music we enjoy playing and listening to. And, importantly, on both the previous album ("The Boreal Flame") and the new release ("Ondine") we’re joined by fellow Swede Daniel Heiman on vocals. Staffan plays guitar, bass and keyboards while Olle plays drums, writes arrangements and plays keyboards, too.
You’re set to release your second album, “Ondine”, on 20th May. How do you feel about it, and how was the reception so far?
We feel very good about this album, and look forward very much to the release! As always, when you are working on an intense project of this magnitude, it is difficult to keep the distance and perspective to the material, but we feel that it very much represents what we set out to do and the reception - albeit limited in scope so far - has been very good!
Awesome! Let’s take a look at the stunning cover artwork: What can you tell us about its origins, and how does it reflect the album thematically?
Thank you! The cover artwork was done by me (Staffan), as I have always enjoyed painting and drawing alongside the music. We had a few different options in terms of drafts early on, and funnily the album title was not yet decided upon when the artwork was done.
The idea with the artwork is of course to reflect a few different aspects of the album narrative, depicting a voyage through nautical turmoil, with representations of the entities that make themselves known in the song “The Sunken Star”. The connection between the depths of the ocean and the greater cosmos, as well as the true nature of the “Ondine” character come into play here as well, although she is not explicitly depicted.
The painting is oil on canvas, and I will not deny that the late, great Polish master Zdzisław Beksiński was a big inspiration in terms of style.
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Absolutely love it :-) Could you dive a bit into the album’s story with us, please?
Sure! To start from the beginning, Olle had the idea early on to have a “nautical” or oceanic theme to the next album after "The Boreal Flame", and the writing process started with that in mind. At a certain point, fragments of a story appeared, and we built on from there.
The idea is for the narrative to be somewhat loose, as we kind of enjoy leaving room for interpretation and intentional vagueness. But in short, the album starts off with the protagonist lamenting the loss of his loved one - a beautiful being brought to him be means of the sea, and then lost to illness. Something tells him that, although her ashes were spread to the wind, she still remains out there, and he proceeds to search for her. The song "Windward Bound" reflects an almost mad optimism in this regard, while the following songs temper this optimism significantly, and he ends up in places and scenarios that were far from his plan and vision. Without giving too much away, one will learn in “The Sunken Star” what the destiny of her soul is, and the final song ties the story together in a way.
Again, the story is not meant to be overly obvious and we take more interest in the “symbolism” and thematic interest that the narrative creates, rather than attempting to write a “rock opera” or such.
Musically speaking, “Ondine” is a beast of an album and a stylistic melting pot, in which you bring together the melodic lines of Powermetal with the raw energy of Death Metal, seamlessly weaving in beautiful Classical elements. I love this broad variety within the compositions, and the mesmerizing virtuosity in your playing. What is your musical background, and where do you draw your inspiration from?
It’s great to hear that you pick up on this variety, and if the weaving of these elements comes across as seamless that is very much what we would hope for!
As for our musical backgrounds, we both started playing musical instruments at an early age. I (Staffan) picked up the guitar at 8 or 9, inspired by the hair rock bands of that time and discovered a lot of bands through my older cousin who provided me with tapes of Yngwie, Judas Priest and Helloween. From there I moved on to listen to a lot of the shredders of that time (early-mid 90’s) of which I still appreciate guys like Tony MacAlpine a lot. I also discovered bands like Morbid Angel early on, and really enjoyed the raw energy of their music. Apart from all this, classical music was always present at our home, and at a certain point the tie to specific genres became less important.
Nowadays, in terms of metal my main inspirations are, to make a brief selection, bands like Meshuggah, Animals As Leaders, Nile and Fallujah alongside Wintersun, Devin Townsend, Symphony X, Opeth and many others. Of course certain classical composers have had an impact on my music writing as well, but the list quickly gets very long there. My main leaning is towards the romantic and post-romantic eras, with guys like Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Shostakovich being on heavy rotation.
I (Olle) got introduced to Staffans musical preferences from an early age being the younger brother, both the rock/metal and classical music, and started playing the piano at the age of 10. A friend of ours played the drums though, which I of course thought seemed like a very cool and powerful instrument. Fortunately I had the opportunity the get an acoustic drum set and started to jam a lot with Staffan.
Through the years the musical input has varied a lot. For this album metal bands like Wintersun, and Xerath have been present, but also Virgil Donatis “Dawn of Time” and classical works from Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov and Poulenc. Incorporating the feel from classical composers in other ways than just adding symphonic elements is very fun and challenging. As for many others the world of H.P. Lovecraft is a great source of inspiration. Jules Verne too, to name another fiction author.
Both Staffan and a I tried a new harmonic and song writing approach with the sole purpose of reaching the overall tone we visioned for the album. Trying something new and challenging is maybe the biggest inspiration!
That's a really diverse mix. Could you briefly describe your writing and recording process, please?
Most of our material is actually written individually by each of us, with some variation in how finished the songs are before we start working on them together. To give some examples from the album, “Tides Immemorial”, “Pilgrimage” and “Embraced” were written entirely by Olle, with the intended guitar parts initially being represented by synths. “Windward Bound”, “Call Of The Deep” and “The Sunken Star” were written by Staffan while “A Clarion Soul” was a collaboration, initially based on some of Staffan’s ideas.
We spent a good amount of time actually playing and refining all songs prior to recording to make sure we were happy with the forms, transitions etc. With the refined demos in hand, Olle began recording drums in our own studio. From there Staffan added bass and rhythm guitars (as well as temporary vocals that shall remain securely archived on a local hard drive), while Olle continued refining the arrangements, and with these elements in place Daniel could begin working on vocals.
And he absolutely nailed it again. Let’s make a little time trip: When and how did you guys join forces for this project?
The Dimhav project originally came up as a means of finalising some songs that were written for our previous band, but did not quite fit in. This was back in 2014-15. And when the band we played in at the time was put on hold, we switched our energies entirely to Dimhav and released "The Boreal Flame" once that material was finished. The process of writing the new album began a couple of years thereafter.
How did you come up with your band’s name, and is there a deeper meaning behind “Dimhav”?
“Dimhav” means “sea of fog” in Swedish, and the name was most certainly inspired by the painting “Wanderer above the Sea Of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich (in Swedish this title would be “Vandraren över Dimhavet”). This painting is probably on every cover page for every exhibition about Romantic art ever, and not without good reasons of course as it is quite iconic. We feel that the name represents our music well as we enjoy concepts related to exploring the unknown, the relationship between man and nature, and the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of the elements and nature in art.
Will there be a chance to experience this epic live, or is it a pure studio project?
It would be awesome, at some point, to bring this to the stage but there are no such plans at the moment. Both of us enjoy playing live, under the right circumstances, and it would of course be a great experience, but it is not in the cards for the near future.
Sweden is well known for being the home of countless great rock and metal bands. How would you describe your local music scene, and did you notice changes over the recent years?
Yes, we’re lucky to have been surrounded by great, local music through the years. The live scene here in Stockholm has changed a bit through the years with some venues closing, and others appearing outside the city borders, but it’s still possible to go out on any weeknight and enjoy live music, especially if you have a broad taste.
When it comes to metal, I think we are both a bit out of the loop as to what is “up and coming” locally, and it is somehow a bit more difficult nowadays to differentiate between local and global given how influences spread. One good trend that we see is how genre becomes less and less important, and how bands like Knower can seamlessly move between free jazz, neo-soul and and metal with people appreciating that flexibility. Then again, it is sometimes difficult to say what is spawned by actual musical intention and what is more of fashion gesture in this very visual age.
Absolutely! As an independent band: Where do you see the biggest chances and challenges in today’s music business?
Very good question. As for how we work, we do not rely on the model that perhaps most traditional bands adhere to, with tours and merch sales financing each upcoming project, and we do not necessarily aim at maximum attention either.
Our focus has always been on the music, while still of course wanting to get it out there in a professional manner to those who enjoy what we do. If we were more of a traditional band, we would likely find the challenges of today’s music business greater, and probably opt to be less independent, in terms of collaborations surrounding PR, marketing, publishing and management.
As for the biggest chances nowadays, it is of course great that an independent band can reach a global audience through the platforms that we have today!
Indeed. What can you tell us about your future plans?
In the short term, we’re very excited for the release of this record, and hopeful that it will be received well. Production of CD and vinyl is under way, and we will of course announce on our channels when these can be ordered or preordered. Going from there, we will most certainly continue making music, exploring new concepts and territories.
Band-Links: BANDCAMP / WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
Before we wrap things up, do you have any further thoughts you’d like to share here?
We’re very glad that we got share a little bit about the background of the new album, and about Dimhav! Hopefully we’ve sparked some interest in checking out our music, and we wish that anyone that does will find something to enjoy!
That's the perfect closing. Thanks again for your time and these amazing insights into your work. and all the best for the release!