Guitarist. Vocalist. Bassist. Power metal enthusiast. Psychologist!? This edition of Fistful of Questions goes out to Dreamslain’s frontman Igor.
What is your full name?
Igor Jakobsen. Jakobsen is the family name from my great grandfather, who took his fathers name as a surname instead of a patronym when Norway transitioned from patronyms (like they still have in Iceland) to surnames.
Igor is the slavic version of the norse Ingvar or Ingavarjar, a warrior of Ing, another name of the fertility god Frey. So, I guess, a farmer.
Do you have any aliases?
No
If you had an alias what might it be?
A long time ago Daniel came up with our black metal aliases - him as lord Kräthskogh and me as lord Mölthemÿr. If we ever start a true black metal band we will surely use these as our stage names.
What bands are you actively involved with?
Both myself and Anna are only playing in Dreamslain, while our drummer Daniel is also playing in Amok (https://www.instagram.com/trve.amok/)
What was the first instrument that you played?
It’s actually always been guitar. It was the first instrument I picked up to play with as a child, and the instrument I started learning in music school. Although at that time, I thought accordion was a cool instrument, so things might have turned out very differently.
Tell me about one of your first musical memories?
All my early musical memories are connected to classical music. My parents listened to it often and took us to concerts. My mother would also tell stories while listening to classical music, using the music as an inspiration for the fairy tale she was telling. I guess my desire to use music for storytelling originated there.
What was the name of the first band you were in?
When I started out in metal, I was very power metal inspired and wanted to have a fantasy name. I picked Paladins, because I like the concept. However, I discovered there was another band with that name (never mind that they were in a completely different genre, location and so on). So I made it into “Paladins of Truth” which was long, tedious and a bit much to live up to.
While the band didn’t last, we have reworked two songs from that time: Shadow Warriors, which was released on Tales Of Knights And Distant Worlds, and The Dragon Of Ice which will be on our upcoming album Forge Of Rebellion.
Tell me about the genesis of Dreamslain.
Already with Paladins of Truth I tried to make a band combining different metal subgenres, particularly melodic death metal and heavy metal / power metal. I also wanted a band focused on melodies and solos, at a time when most metal locally was played with no solos and focused on rhythmic riffing.
At the same time as Paladins of Truth was breaking up I met Daniel through the local metal club. We shared an interest in listening to many subgenres of metal, and he was the only one that was both into power metal and extreme metal at the club. He said he had played drums a little, but wasn’t confident in taking on the drummer duties. Instead he tried out vocals at one rehearsal with Paladins of Truth and then for a parody project I did very shortly with the drummer of Endolith.
I tried to find the right band members to turn this into a functioning band at the same time as I was trying out other projects with Daniel, like the blues rock / thrash metal band Blue Light District and a heavy metal project focused on war. The songs Raw War, Return and Question were written initially for this heavy metal project.
When Daniel finally felt ready, we started Dreamslain with the intent of playing a mix of heavy metal and extreme metal. We tried out several different musicians to complete the lineup, but never found anyone that fit, particularly in the role of bass player, which is why we to this day don’t have a bass guitarist in the band.
We were able to persuade Anna to try out on keyboards, and thus our sound was finally set. The combination of classical piano, hammond or church organ together with heavy metal guitar and extreme metal drumming has since been what the band is all about.
What inspired the name Dreamslain?
The name is inspired by band names like Enslaved and reflects the disappointment I felt after several years of trying to get together a metal band in my hometown of Tromsø.
Ironically enough, while one would expect a band with such a name to have really depressing themes for our songs, the lyrics are often uplifting and are attempting to spread hope and motivation for change.
How long did it take you to write and record Forge Of Rebellion?
Very quick if you compare with the previous album Tales Of Knights And Distant Worlds (which is why it got a shorter name). We started writing in 2021, after the previous album was released and were mostly finished by early 2023. We started recording in late 2022 and we performed Burn The Boats for the first time live in December that year. Some tracks had to be re-recorded and we therefore only finished by the end of 2023.
We are also very proud of the drums on this album. They were all recorded live and with very little editing and no drum aligning. What you hear is thus what was actually played in the room.
This album is also an album where Anna got to use more of her classical piano background, which is especially noticeable in her solo on Braving The Storm.
If you could insert yourself into any one band what band would it be and why?
I will have to pick a non-metal band for this: the backing band of Loreena McKennit. I love the music she makes and I think I could learn a lot playing in that band. They have songs with lead guitars and even guitar solos, so I think I would not feel totally out of place.
Have you ever heard a song and immediately wished you had written it? If so… What was the song and artist?
I would do this a lot when I was younger. Now I’m more than content to let the given performer keep their songs, even when the songs are truly awesome. Would the song sound the same if I performed it, even if I played it the same way? Or would the context still change and I could not make it come to life as convincing as the originator of the song?
I think this is one of the reasons I find cover bands boring. They are usually great musicians, but they seldom bring anything of their own into the song.
Do you have any non-metal musical inspirations?
We have a lot of prog rock inspirations in the band. Both when it comes to the use of the hammond organ and the prominent place the keyboards have in the band, but also some of the composition style with long songs that tell a story.
Beyond that, the blues will probably always be a part of how I think about guitar writing. After all, rock was developed from blues, so metal is in many ways just blues with many extra steps.
Classical music is, as mentioned previously, also very important inspiration for me, but that doesn’t translate into the songwriting in a way that most would recognize. I think classical music inspires me to have songs with several melodies happening at the same time and to use music to convey different moods in the same song.
What’s a non-metal song that you'd like to do a cover of?
I would really like to do a metal version of Iron Hand by Dire Straits, but I’m not certain I would manage to preserve the mood of the song. It would at least be interesting to try.
What band have you played with that has really impressed you with their live show?
This spring we performed in Portugal, and I was really impressed with the stage presence of Black Widows. We already knew they had great music from listening to their studio recordings, but seeing them live was very great.
Do you have a favorite venue to play at?
At the very start of our live playing career we were lucky enough to be invited to play a festival in Luzerne, where we got to play at a venue called Schüür, which caters to much bigger bands. They had their own mixing console for monitor sound and had a really great production. I would really love to play there again!
Do you have a pre-show ritual?
Sound check. We are often the band that plays first, so we will have the sound check right before the show starts. If we’re not playing first, we will watch the other bands perform. I don’t think I would call it a ritual, but it’s what we do before we ourselves perform.
What is your favorite thing about touring?
I wouldn’t say we have done a proper tour yet. We love going to new places to perform though. The favorite thing about that is to meet new people and get a feel of the local scene. It’s very nice to make friends this way and get to know a place through the people living there instead of going as a tourist.
What is your least favorite thing about touring?
Definitively carrying all our gear. We travel with our own keyboards (that’s 3 88 keyboards), 2 guitars, rack gear and sometimes also the drum kit. That’s a terribly big amount of stuff, especially if you travel by plane, which we often do.
Is there a city that you love to hit while on tour?
We are happy to play anywhere. We aren’t really able to have a set routing for tours, but if we could play in Oslo, that would be great as almost every plane trip from our home town Tromsø stops there anyway.
The city, besides our hometown, where we’ve played the most is Bergen, so I guess that has to be mentioned as well. Their student scene is underground, which looks quite cool but gives a lot of sonic challenges.
What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had on the road?
Getting paid. That’s the biggest struggle as a musician. Luckily we have done well here and only been cheated once. It happened in Northern Sweden when a fellow larper invited me to do a show. After the show it was one excuse after the other. Later, talking with other bands in Northern Sweden, it turned out to be this booker's usual way of conducting things, earning him a bad reputation that lasts to this day in the whole north.
The year is 2005. Where are you at and what are you listening to?
In year 2005, I had just started going to the local metal club (in fact, it was also just started) and I’m therefore discovering bands like Nevermore, Angra, Arcturus and Elvenking.
What advice would you give young musicians that are just starting out in the music business?
I can’t really say I’m in a position to give that much advice. It’s not like we’re having a big career out of this. What I think is important to consider is: is this a job or a hobby. If it’s a job, remember to not let your job consume you. Don’t sacrifice for a job, but find a comfortable way to do it.
If it’s a hobby, that’s even more important: it should be fun to be in the band, it should be fun to record and release, and it should be fun going on tour.
I think too many get caught up in the idea of “making it” and sacrifice a lot, just to end up with nothing.
What is an absolute band killer?
I think this really ties in with the previous question. I think a lot of bands break up when all their effort proves to be in vain, when sacrificing a month by sleeping on venue floors and earning next to nothing didn’t make the band break through and be booked to all the big festivals.
I think everyone in the band needs to have realistic expectations not only of the business side of music, but also what each band member is comfortable with doing and have an agreement on how much one wants to try to make it big, if that is what one aims for.
For us, the agreement is actually not to try to make it big. We all have day jobs, and Daniel has a daughter to take care of. We can’t spend months on venue floors just to land a label contract. So instead we only do things that are fun for us and where there is a reasonable connection between the work we put into it and the reward we get for it.
Have you ever recorded a song that you really didn’t like, but somebody else in the band really did?
Another part of the band agreement is that we have to agree on things unanimous before we do anything. So everyone has to want to do it. Therefore we only consider a song finished when everyone in the band is happy with it.
If you were to start your own music festival what would be the name of that festival and who would be the three headlining bands?
We actually have our own festival here in Tromsø! It’s called Tromsø Metal & Prog - Fest (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092344789971) and has been arranged 2 times already by us. First year we had Madder Mortem, We Are To Blame and ourselves, and the 2nd year we had Darkest Era, us and Jaime performing.
We will again organize it this year, the 29th of November, but I can’t reveal the lineup before we do it officially in Autumn.
Since it’s an underground festival, I would love to have Eleine, Dark Quarterer and Black Widows as headliners. We actually have been in talks with Eleine about bringing them here, but we didn’t get enough funding from the government and municipality for that.
What’s the longest time you’ve gone without bathing?
I guess that would be the duration of Wacken Open Air. We went there some years ago with the whole band and were all walking in mud up to our knees.
What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?
Probably a great many things, and I’d like to keep it that way. One curiosity I can mention, is that I’m quite heavily into larping (Scandinavian style, not the Northern American boffer focused larps), owning 2 half suits of armour. You would think we would use this for our stage shows, but armour is incredibly impractical to play guitar in.
Is the Fistful of DOOM show in the top 10 of your favorite music podcasts?
My work is listening to people all day, so I unfortunately don’t listen to podcasts. Therefore I’ve missed out on music podcasts as well. I’ve also never been fond of radio, so I doubt music podcasts where you listen to one song instead of the whole album would be my thing.
Do unicorns sleep standing up?
Probably not. If you imagine a unicorn being some kind of horse, then it sleeps like a horse, laying down. If however you go by the probable origins of the myth, the wooly rhinoceros Elasmotherium, we would have to assume it sleeps like a rhinoceros, which again would be laying down.
Give me three albums that I should listen to immediately, if not sooner.
There are so many great albums to pick from. However, trying for some albums and EPs you might not have heard:
Daughter - Silhouettes - a very cool extreme metal project focusing on trans experience and lgbtq+ persecution
Cruel Mother - Cut Down From The Earth - a cool mix of folk metal and doom
Vulvatorius - Vulvatorius - well produced feminist black metal
You’re driving cross-country and you can only listen to one album the whole time. What album will it be?
Cross-county in Northern Norway means a drive of many hours, so I will have to cheat here. The German prog band Eloy recently released two albums titled “The Vision, the Sword and the Pyre” Part 1 and 2. They’re both double albums and are really cool, so this way I would have enough great music for a long trip.
Eloy has actually been an inspiration for me in the way they write songs that have a slow groove that makes you feel like going on and on and on as if in space or on a wide ocean. I was inspired by them for the first riff on the final song on our album, Humankinds Fall.
You are writing a book about your life thus far. What is the title of that book?
“Self centered masturbation”. With so many interesting things to write about, I would rather write a book about someone else.
What is your favorite song by Taylor Swift?
Not really a fan. This is also an artist that is being either put down because she’s a woman whose music got really popular or being proclaimed a feminist icon for the same reason, disregarding the fact that her career is built on having rich parents.
While she has spoken and supported many good causes, the systemic inequalities caused by capitalism, which she greatly benefits from, has yet to be addressed by her in any meaningful way.
Slipknot or Rammstein (if you had to choose)?
Again, as with Taylor Swift, not really a fan. Then again, while Rammstein seemed to avoid going to court over sex exploitation allegations, it still seems likely that things happened that they should not have done. So I guess I’ll go with Slipknot on this one.
Doobies or Boobies (if you had to pick one)?
As a psychologist, there are so many layers to this question. Let’s start with the drugs: 1/200 develop psychosis after cannabis use (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9448725/). Of course, the risk increases with frequent use, while some are able to go harm-free over many years of consumption. Still, is it a risk worth taking?
Next layer is the sexism in the scene. Questions like that assume that the respondent is male and heterosexual. Statistically that is true, because while listening to metal is distributed equally through the genders, there is an incredible amount of sexism and gatekeeping keeping us from seeing the same distribution onstage. I’ve written in length about this for the Anti Racist Metal Blog (https://antiracistmetal.blogspot.com/2023/11/sausagefest-rising.html)
I’m also surprised by how generic the question is set. It’s not like pizza (which is kind of good even when it’s bad). Who’s boobies? What context? Or am I supposed to just fall head over heels over the breasts of anyone, with or without consent, just because of the fact that they exist?
Yes, let’s move over to the waffles and pancakes instead.
Waffles or Pancakes (if you had to pick one)?
Depends on the waffles and pancakes. For pancakes I prefer the Breton buckwheat pancakes, while for waffles I prefer the Scandinavian style over the Belgian. If I had to choose between Breton pancakes or Scandinavian waffles I probably go with the waffles, as that’s what I grew up with.
Star Wars or Star Trek (if you had to choose)?
So: fantasy or science fiction? I really like the world making in Star Wars, I’ve even played tabletop rpgs in that setting. However the movies I find lacking in many aspects. At the end of the day, I’ve seen more Star Wars than Star Trek, so I will still pick Star Wars.
Favorite band t-shirt you own?
My own band's shirts. I really enjoy the album art we have and like to wear it. You can check them out at our bandcamp. Currently we only use No Sweat shirts which are the only guaranteed not made in sweatshop conditions.
Favorite meal?
The midnight snack. Which would also be the band name if I ever started a funk band.
Favorite book?
The Power Threat Meaning Framework by the British Psychological Society. It’s a book that discusses the problems with the modern diagnostic system for psychiatric disorders and proposes a more patient centered understanding of mental illness.
Favorite movie?
Currently I’m mostly watching series. But I liked the Wolfwalkers animated movie that came out recently.
Favorite album?
This is something that really changes all the time. Currently, it’s Riders Of The Ancient Storm by Swedish legends Heavy Load, a band that managed to be timeless, current and old school at the same time! I saw them live at Keep it True some weeks ago and will see them live again this autumn in Sweden.
Favorite video game?
A long, long time ago there was a game called Birthright. It’s based on D&D (as are Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights and so on) where you could command armies to fight, control your own country and try to expand it through negotiation, war or resources or go adventuring in dungeons. This was conceptually very advanced when it was first made, and I haven’t seen such a diverse game since.
Favorite Professional Wrestler?
From a story-telling perspective (and honestly, what other perspectives could be in this form of theater) I’m particular to the Mexican El Santo, based on the myths and legends that were spun around this character.
Thank you for the questions, and stay Metal!
Big, big thank you to Igor for taking the time to answer my questions. I appreciate you doing so. As for the rest of you, please take the time to click on the link so generously provided below and bask in the sonic riches that await within the two songs available from Dreamslain’s latest full-length. You will not be disappointed!
~El Pedo Caliente (aka Uncle Jameson from the Fistful of DOOM show)
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