Under his pseudonym Teloch he is known to Black Metal listeners as the guitarist and songwriter of Mayhem and Nidingr. Under his real name BERGETON the Norwegian now enters the trendy genre „Retro-Wave“. Morten Bergeton Iversen about the revival of a music style believed to be dead, vinyl, cocaine and an extra portion of pink.
I hope that where you are, Corona is somewhat under control and all people in your private environment are safe – what is the general situation with you?
Hey there! Oslo, where I live is considered red at the moment. As many other cities in Norway. We now have a wave of young people being infected. But our corona deaths is still very low at around 270 people in total. So for now we are better of than most countries in EU. It might be that we are already, before the covid hit, very good at keeping a distance. (laughs)
Corona brought the live industry to a standstill, also MAYHEM as an otherwise constantly touring band was stopped by it. How do you deal with this, what do you do with the time you have freed up?
No surprise that our main income/work is playing live, and now that we can’t do that we are broke and have tons of spare time. Problem with me and the rest of MAYHEM is that we need something to work against. We were just about to continue our very successful “Daemon”-tour, and we will pick that up again as soon as it’s possible. So starting on something new now before we are done with the “Daemon” album is not point.
Personally I’m focusing on my YouTube channel and learning how to create content on that platform. It was a plan I had before Covid as well, I was about to start making tour videos from the road. So right now I try to put out one video a week. Lots of work and shit pay, but its cool to see how my community is growing on both YouTube and my Disord channel. I kinda get the same feeling I had back when Myspace was cool. (laughs)
Is there also something positive you can take away from the crisis – or has it hit you hard personally?
One thing I really like about the crisis is that we had to slow down everything, instead of this constantly chasing. The tempo everything has these days suits me much better.
With BERGETON you are now releasing a solo album in the synth wave genre. I call it a stroke of luck that your name fits so perfectly for a project of this kind. Did you know right away that you wanted to use your middle name as project name?
The thing is that I always thougth that name was special, and I had numerous friends in the past asking me why I dont use it for a project. I could not really see me using it for a Black Metal project. The time was rigth now to use it, I think. Actually I had a different name on the project at first, Haxan Summer, but if I went with that I would have constricted the name to suynthwave only, in my opinion. With the BERGETON name I can create stuff more freely and not being constricted to any genre within the electronic world. Its about freedom for myself to use my creative force as I want.
Most fans might know you more as Teloch from various Black Metal projects and bands. When did you first come in contact with Synth-Wave, what inspired you to start a project in this genre – and which acts/releases sparked your love for the genre?
Carpenter Brut opened that door for me. And I started checking out the rest of the genre, I must say I found tons of boring stuff where everything sounds the same. (laughs) A bit like Black Metal, I guess. But some bands were really good and got me inspired. Inspired enough to have my own go at it.
The genre has experienced a real revival in recent years – not least from the metal scene. Do you have an explanation for this? What do people, and especially metalheads, suddenly like about Synth-Wave?
I have no clue. One theory is that most metal heads is gamers, or ex gamers, I suppose. Or maybe it’s the melancholy side that they like. Not sure actually.
Is Retro-Synth-Wave automatically limited by the „retro“ and only a trend that will disappear sooner or later, or do you see a way for the genre to evolve and stay exciting?
Im not at all an expert on this genre. I liked a couple of albums then did my own take on it.
Synth-Wave is a rather cheerful, light sound – the most extreme opposite to Black Metal. Do you still see parallels in both worlds?
Im not sure I can see the cheerful side in it, as I said I think its quite melancholic. At least thats my experience with it and what I get out of it. I might be broken though. (laughs)
When did you yourself start writing music of this kind – and did you have any experience with electronica/sythnesizers or at least keyboards?
I had a couple of keyboards in the past, but don’t remember at all what they were. (laughs) It’s a long time ago. But I have been playing around with the genre since early ’90s I guess, and I emphasize „Playing“ nothing serious. I did have a period in 2000-2005 where I was a bit more active in the genre actually and I produced about 30 songs under the monicker TRKTR. But I never released anything, only gave burned CDs to friends.
Let’s get nerdy: Some synthwave artists use special old synthesizers and hardware – how do you work? Which tools did you use for „Miami Murder“?
I dont have any physical synths at all. I’m using Reason, and have used that since V1. For this album I usually created sounds from scratch. But i have some third party synths as well like Serum, Arturia Analog lab and Komplete 12, but have not used the last too much yet.
How do you approach songwriting for BERGETON – especially in direct comparison to black metal songwriting for MAYHEM or NIDINGR?
Its very different, for me at least. Where my other projects are more riff based, this music is more about sound scaping in a way. I normally start by creating some sort of synth sound I like then I make the music after that set sound. This is maybe what triggers me, this totally different way of creating music.
What inspires you musically or when are you in the perfect mood to write this music?
All my creations starts with me playing around or trying out stuff. I’m never in a certain mood when creating, but it starts out as playing around, then it turns into a creative mode if I like a sound or an idea.
The album is called „Miami Murder“ – can you explain the idea behind the title?
Cocaine is the red thread here. The album cover is the murder of a lady of the night/stripper that gets murdered because of her lust for coke. You can see on the album cover she has some residue of coke in her nostrils and I also put the chemical structure of cocaine on the vinyl version: C17H21NO4. In the „Miami Murder“ video, you can see the last things from the night the murderer remembers before killing this stripper. (laughs)
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The aesthetics of the cover reminds me strongly of the computer game series GTA – is this parallel intended? What was the idea behind it?
The idea was something that just popped out of my head when I found the title Miami Murder. I made a really bad sketch and sent it out to Christian Hall (American Vendetta) along wiht the colour scheme I wanted and he made me that super nice cover.
In general, there is a great enthusiasm for purple and pink tones in the retro/synthwave-scene. As a Black Metaller, what is it about these aesthetics that excites you – or did you join in because it simply belongs in this genre?
As a black metaller we usually work in very dark colors, I felt it was a bit refreshing and intersting to do the total opposite. Thats also why I ordered the vinyl with an extra pink colour for the inside of the vinyl.
The album is released on CD, but also on LP. Retrowave on vinyl – you can hardly get more retro feeling. Do you share the general enthusiasm for vinyl?
I do! To me its like an album is not released until its out on vinyl.
Various synth wave bands also perform live – mentioned Carpenter Brut for example. Before the Corona crisis destroyed the live sector, did you also have such plans – or rather: Will this happen at some point? Or is BERGTON a pure studio project for you?
Would be nice to do some live shows indeed. But I want more material to chose from first. So for now its a studio project. I would also think about how I want to present this live. Honestly I dont want to think about live gigs at the moment. Cause its not even possible.
Finally, bring us up to date on your other projects: When will there be a successor for NIDINGRs „The High Heat Licks Against Heaven“?
No idea, we are without a label these days. But we are discussing and trying out some stuff. No rush, it will come when it comes.
Are you already working on a new album at MAYHEM?
We started out with some ideas. But the inspiration is not there at all. So we will wait until we are inspired and when the „Daemon“ tour is finished i guess. But who knows, we will see.
… and does NUNFUCKRITUAL still exist?
It kinda does, I wrote the follow up album a long time ago. It‘s for now just laying on a hard drive. No rush there either. (laughs)
Thank you for the interview! Please let us do a short brainstorming in the end of this interview. What comes in your mind first reading the following terms:
Donald Trump: Funny
Your favorite album at the moment: Jacco Gardner – Somnium
A meal that always makes you happy: Pizza
The perfect time and condition to listen to BERGETON: When driving
A place where you lose track of time: Forest or in the studio creating
BERGETON in 10 years: Stadiums, baby!
Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Thanks for the support and hope you check out and buy my new album!
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23. Oktober 2020 Moritz Grütz
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