#36 - Nils Edström (Hindarfjäll)

The Nordic Sound

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(#35 with Rúnahild is only available on Youtube due to unfortunate audio issues on my end)
Today I am joined once again by Nils Edström, the man behind Hindarfjäll perhaps best known for his performance of My Mother Told Me with Peter Franzén from the Vikings television series. I’ve had Nils on before, but now he is back to talk about his latest album Seden which released almost a month ago to the day.

In this interview, Nils talks about his trips to Italy and his experience at this year’s Midgardsblot before we turn the conversation to his origins in the pagan/viking music genre. As is tradition, black metal plays a part in introducing Nils to the old ways, though he himself is not the most dedicated listener of black metal, showing us yet again that the ideology of black metal seems to transcend the music itself. Nils takes us through his nature walks as a kid with his friends as well as his walks with his grandmother learning the names of the trees, where from a young age Nils had an inclination towards animistic questions and perspectives.
He was brought to this genre by the way of Wardruna, Månegarm, and Anders Hagberg, which gave him a more suitable expression for his love of nature, mythology, and older ways. In talking about his growth through the years leading up to Seden, Nils and Jameson talk about the importance of being self-critical (in a healthy amount) to grow as a musician, as well as the experiences he’s had writing and making the music of Seden. We talk about that pesky “is this folk music” question, as well as conflicts of theory and intuition when it comes to writing music. We then spend a long time diving into the mythology of Seden in which Nils takes us through his perspectives on things like Odin, Yggdrasil, Asatru, and thanks to a misunderstanding on Jameson’s part (it keeps him humble): Seidr vs Seden and reconstructionists.

Thank you for coming back on the podcast, Nils, and congratulations on a stellar album.

0:00 Intro

2:57 Midgardsblot

4:20 Performing with Peter Franzén

5:45 Filling in for Gåte

7:21 How Nils got into Pagan folk music

10:21 Nature walks with Nils

12:30 Early Hindarfjäll inspirations

15:17 The rise of Nordic Animism

18:55 The Black Metal influence

20:35 Hindarfjäll’s instrumentation

23:40 The Folk Music Question

30:20 Seden

37:00 The harmonies of Hindarfjäll

41:38 The mythology of Seden

1:04:32 The songs of Seden

1:08:58 Seden restrospective

1:15:17 What’s next?

1:20:02 Nils turns to Scuzzlebutt

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