Hi! Would you quickly introduce your band to our readers? When was “Communic” born? Who are the components of the band?
We are a band based on the south tip of Norway, actually as south as you can get. Communic as a band was born in March 2003, but we hang around in the underground for around ten years in different bands and projects before we signed a deal. In short notes, I was doing time as vocalist in another local band, it was here I first met up with Tor Atle (Drums). I mainly consider myself as a guitar player and songwriter, so just doing vocals on someone else's music was kinda boring in the long run, and I had been fooling around with the ideas of forming a new band. One day I asked Tor Atle if he wanted to join me for a weekend in a local studio that we could use for free, we recorded 4 songs just to have some fun, and didn’t have any rehearsals up front. We thought that it ended up sounding cool and I called up Erik, that I had played together with in other projects and asked if he was willing to drop into the studio to put some bass on the songs. He did and then COMMUNIC was born. We started working on the material for a "pro" demo and recorded three songs that we thought showed the potential of the band. Immediately after we released the demo, we got several offers from different labels and in the end signed a record deal with well respected Nuclear Blast. Today every member have full focus on Communic, besides our daytime jobs.

I heard you are recording a new album “Payment of Existence”: there is talk in detail?
Yes, the new album should be available in the shops as we speak. The album has 8 pretty long song, done in “The Communic way” of arranging and putting it all together. The songwriting for this album took around 8-9 months to arrange together, but some of the riffs and ideas dates longer back in time. It was first after we arrived home from touring in 2007 that we started to focus on this new album. We started the recording in mid December 2007 and the drums was recorded during a week in a Norwegian studio. Then we took the drum tracks into Jacob Hansen Studio in Denmark and recorded the rest of the stuff like guitars, bass, vocals and some keyboards during two weeks.

There are stylistic differences with the previous work “Waves of Visual Decay”?
We have not tried to do something totally different. We play the music that comes to our heart, and it is a blend of the musicians that are involved. This new album is more diverse than anything that we have ever done before. Its more heavy and intense that our earlier stuff, but we don't try to do come up with something revolutionary new. We are still a young band and we think that we have found our unique way of doing it that works for us. If we did to many stylistic changes, I believe that a band like us would loose its credibility. This time its more like like defining our style. I believe that most metalfans will find something that they like on this album… if they use the time to listen to it more that once, because the album needs some time to grow on you.

What do you expect from this new album?
I hope that this new album will reach more people and that it takes us another step forward when it comes to the building of Communic as a name for the future.

What is the band that has a heavy influence on your style and what kind of music do you listen nowadays?
My main influences comes from the American Thrash metal from the early 90's. Bands like Megadeth, Testament, Slayer and later I got more into the progressive side of it and into bands like Fates Warning, Queensr˙che, Psychotic Waltz, and just developed my own style from that...

How you define your genre? And if you had to describe your music to a fan that hadn’t heard a single note from the band...
Well that is a though question. It seems like everyone has problems defining our style. I'll guess i would call it melodic heavy metal whit prog, thrash and doom influence.

Do you have a certain way of composing music?
I have a small studio setup at home where I can make song demos and drafts and in the end everything is arranged together with the other members in the band at rehearsal. That is where everyone puts their own influences into the songs and makes it sound like Communic.

The favourite track of “Payment of existence”? And why?
This time some of the songs had a more personal meaning to me, and I guess “Raven’s Cry” is the one who hits me most. This song has all those things that I like to do when it comes to dynamic, groove, progression and melody. Looking forward to play this song live.

What do you think about the metal scene in Norway? Are there good bands that you want to show us?
Well, most people think about BM when they think about Norway, but the scene is getting more and more diverse nowadays. More thrash, death and even progressive metal are growing. Check out Green Carnation, Harm, Chain Collector, Triosphere…

Why the moniker “Communic”?
We needed a catchy and cool sounding name with a metallic ring to it. We ended on Communic as a short for communication and that is what we try to do with our music.

Who is the author of the album cover? And what it represents?
The artwork was made by Jan Yrlund, and he only had the title of the album and the lyrics and he came up with the artwork out of his own inspiration out of that. For me it means that if you focus to much on your carer or success, and forget about those small but important things in life, in the end you are maybe the king of the hill but something will be missing - no matter how much money you hide in the bank or under your bed..

What means metal music for you?
Metal is a lifestyle, its in my blood… even dough I cut my hair J

Projects for the future? Concerts in Italy?
Hopefully we can put together a cool tour to present our new album, but we will have to see what offers that will come. We have booked some festivals this coming summer, so that is what we know will happen. We are really looking forward to get out and play live again now that we have some new songs to present. Hopefully we can come to Italy this time.

Thank you for your time. Please close this interview with a message to all our readers...
Hi, and thanks for reading. Go check out our latest album, hear samples on our myspace site, and if we ever comes to town – come check us out!
Cheers
Oddleif Stensland