KOVENANT INTERVIEW
with Lex Icon - 3/24/00

Lex: Did I wake you?
ID: No, I just worked all night. You sound tired, too.
Lex: No, I'm just insane.

ID: Oh, well, that explains it.
Lex: [Laughs]

ID: I'm sure every interviewer asks you right off the bat why the spelling change (from Covenant to Kovenant).
Lex: Well, the truth of it, we got sued by some Swedish people, a band called Covenant. An electronic music band. So they actually sued us, and threatened to put a stop to the distribution of our new album if we didn't change it.

ID: I take it they had the name before you guys then...
Lex: Yeah, they've existed since like '86 or something like that. I mean, we sell probably forty times more albums that they do, but it didn't matter.

ID: They weren't even willing to let you guys buy them out?
Lex: Nope. We're looking forward to meeting them...

ID: [Laughs]
Lex: That might be in the summertime actually. We're going to be playing the same festival as them.

ID: That should be pretty interesting, confronting them about that.
Lex: Yeah, we have a drummer who's pretty big, so...

ID: The pseudonyms changed as well. What was the purpose behind that?
Lex: Well, since we had to change the band name and everyone else thinks we've changed everything else, we sort of also wanted to adopt more appropriate names for ourselves. Since you're not Norwegian, or Swedish, or Danish you don't understand that "Lex Icon" is actually a "black" joke. It means "encyclopedia" in Norwegian, if you put it together.

ID: Like "lexicon"...
Lex: Yeah. But I mean it sounds more appropriate for the kind of style we've gone into, ya know? It's more Mad Max meets The Matrix. That's the kind of thing we've always been into, so we wanted names that were science-fiction sounding. Instead of calling ourselves a name like fucking Troll of the Dark Forest or something...

ID: How did you each pick your names?
Lex: It just came to us, ya know? Just put two words together, "Ooh, that looks cool..."

ID: All that and your entire image changed as well.
Lex: Well, it didn't change that much, it's just that we started putting on makeup.

ID: Right, I was just gonna say, usually when black metal bands change, they tend to take off the makeup.
Lex: Everyone else is taking it off, so ya know...If 10,000 people say yes, we have to say no. It's just in our nature to do things like that.

ID: Basically, when you were doing the whole black metal thing, did you feel like you were being true to yourselves?
Lex: When we were 16 we probably did. We thought we were a part of something really cool and evil. After we grew up and after seeing the whole music scene change, because it is a music scene first and foremost, the whole thing just got more religious than musical, you know? We didn't feel a part of that anymore so we just felt like we had to go in our own direction.

ID: You weren't really into the whole black metal/Satanic thing then...
Lex: No. Well, not the black metal thing anyway.

ID: Well, can I ask what your religious beliefs are and if they play a part in what you write?
Lex: Well, of course it plays a part in what I write, but I don't write about my beliefs. I don't have religious beliefs. It's more of a Church of Satan philosophy.

ID: Do you ever get any shit from Norwegian bands that have stayed black metal?
Lex: All the time. They hate us. That's what they're there for, you know.

ID: Who's said bad shit about you guys?
Lex: There's a lot of bands. Satyricon is one. They worked with Christians, they even had a Christian person in their band. I think it's really stupid, but I don't care.

ID: Yeah, there's a whole [issue] over here that you HAVE to be TRUE Norwegian black metal...
Lex: Oh, is it that now? I'm so behind on these things...

ID: [Laughs] Yeah.
Lex: For once, America is behind.

ID: Oh yeah, we always are when it comes to "trends."
Lex: Don't tell Clinton. He'll send the Air Force. "Give us our black metal back!" [Laughs]

ID: [Laughs] Yeah! Anyway, would you have foreseen these kinds of changes eight years ago when you formed the band?
Lex: No. We were so young when we started. We got interested in the whole black metal music style. Not at first the imagery, but the music. It just sort of developed from there.

ID: When you're that young do you think you would have hated yourselves as you are now?
Lex: Yeah, probably. We did actually. We hated people, like Fenriz from Darkthrone. When we heard that he wore silver pants, you know, we couldn't BELIEVE that he wore silver pants instead of black.

ID: [Laughs] I think a part of that, too, is your maturity levels...
Lex: Yeah. I mean, our drummer is turning 31 this year, he's getting married. Pretty bizarre.

ID: You don't ever see yourself getting married?
Lex: Well, I dunno. Not really. I think the whole marriage thing is...

ID: ...overrated?
Lex: Yeah.

ID: Yeah, I have to agree.
Lex: Yeah, it's stupid. The whole "ring thing," I agree with that. But marriage, I can't really agree with that policy.

ID: I think it's more for show than anything nowadays...Was the departure of former members, such as Astennu, due to personal or musical differences?
Lex: Both. Because he hates music like this. He's more of a Cannibal Corpse fan. He loves that stuff. There's also personal problems as well. He couldn't decide where his priorities were. He wanted to do Kovenant and Dimmu Borgir, but couldn't. So I made the decision for him.

ID: Well, it sounds like it'd be a hard decision to make though.
Lex: For him, it was.

ID: Do you regret it at all? I mean, are you guys still friends?
Lex: Yeah, of course we're still friends. But we have a new member who's more dedicated.

ID: What did the former members bring to the band that you still feel influences the music you write now?
Lex: Well, me and Psy Coma have always been the people that made the music and the lyrics. There's really no difference in the band because we write everything. Even down to the drums. We just tell Hellhammer what to play and he plays it. [Snickers]

ID: Yeah, he's a huge icon over here. That's different that a lot of bands I come across over here. They all write the music. I notice that a lot of Norwegian [and Swedish, and European...] bands tend to only have one or two members that write everything.
Lex: We're control freaks...

ID: Yeah. [Laughs]
Lex: We're all so Viking over here.

ID: Yeah, that's it, you just hit it.
Lex: It's in our genetics.

ID: I've read that your lyrical content is much more straight forward and to the point now. What inspires you or what are you writing about now?
Lex: Morons. We're writing about morons. Religious morons.

ID: Oh, Americans, you mean?
Lex: That too. We have actually one song about the American nation. One of the chorus lines is "One nation under a whore, with arms outstretched and begging for more." But I love America the way it is. Sort of, like, the whole cliché thing. It's like if a computer tried to make itself again, that's how I view America. God bless America.

ID: So, do you hate it here?
Lex: No, I love it! I've never been there. I just watch Oprah and Ricki Lake.

ID: You want to go to the Ricki Lake Show?
Lex: If I can, yeah!

ID: That would kick ass...[Laughs]
Lex: Yeah, I'll kick her ass. Go on the Jerry Springer Show and kick his ass.

ID: Okay, I'll get tickets.
Lex: Yeah, that'd be cool. Where are you from, actually?

ID: Michigan. I'll be seeing you guys when you play Detroit. Actually, one of the bands I manage will be opening on that particular show.
Lex: Cool. We'll be hanging out and partying...

ID: Cool.
Lex: Yeah, that's what we get paid to do. Travel the world, play for one hour, then party the rest.

ID: Do you make enough where you don't have to have day jobs?
Lex: No, none of us work.

ID: Ahh, you're lucky.
Lex: That's the thing, we're LUCKY. One of these days we're gonna stop being lucky and then I'm gonna have to start being a huge criminal or something. A big kingpin. If I wasn't into music I would do something like that.

ID: Are you serious, you actually would?
Lex: Yeah, I can't STAND working. I tried it; I was an electrician.

ID: [Laughs] Oh really?
Lex: I HATED it! I always take the easy way out.

ID: Can I ask how old you are?
Lex: 22.

ID: God, you're young.
Lex: Yeah, exactly. Me and Psy Coma are the youngest ones.

ID: You were like 14 when you started!
Lex: Yeah. I was actually 11 [when I got into it]. But I'm more mature than probably 99% of the musicians, in Norway, anyway.

ID: What do you feel makes you more mature?
Lex: Because I'm more open, I guess. Who cares anyway? I enjoy what I do.

ID: Well, it's like you said, you're mature about your music, but the rest of the time you're partying anyway.
Lex: I just do what I wanna do and I don't listen to anyone else. Well, I do, if I can benefit from it.

ID: So if you're going to become this big kingpin someday, what are you going to be a kingpin of?
Lex: I dunno, pushing drugs and firearms and slaves...I dunno, something like that.

ID: Well, be sure to include me in this so I can make a couple hundred thousand dollars or so...
Lex: You can be one of our groupies.

ID: Oh. Gee. Thanks. And do you have groupies?
Lex: [Dejected] No.

ID: Liar!
Lex: Seriously. We've had one groupie.

ID: Wait until you come to the States. I don't know if it's like that over there, but you're gonna come here and you'll see all these little groupie girls who will be wearing strings for clothing and they don't care about the music. They're just there to get laid by a hot metal musician.
Lex: Well, we don't do that.

ID: Yeah, suuuure.
Lex: No, I'm serious. You'll just have to take my word for it.

ID: Well, if your drummer's gonna get married...
Lex: Well, yeah. Our guitarist has had a girlfriend, but me and Psy Coma haven't had one except for twice.

ID: You've never been in a long-term relationship then?
Lex: Well, twice. It's difficult when you're a musician. Has to be a special kind of woman to do that.

ID: Yep, I think it takes somebody who's familiar with the scene.
Lex: But you never know what you're going to get with them either.

ID: That's true, too. Are you still playing old songs on stage?
Lex: Not from the first album. Because this is the year 2000, well, according to Christians anyway. So it is the future. I have to tell people this all the time. We use computers and DAT machines and stuff. We have this big black box on wheels that we call the Terminator. You push a button and hope it works. We took the original vocal recordings of female vocals and put them on the computer, so it's like 50% of a computer and [50%] of a playback machine. I do the vocals, a lot of the guitar is played live, other things like keyboards and loops are like computer stuff.

ID: A lot of bands are delving into that. I don't have anything really against it.
Lex: Over here you have to defend it everyday. That's probably why we have this Mad Max/Matrix thing. When people see us they know they're not getting Darkthrone, for instance. You know that you're getting something that has some electronics in it.

ID: What are your fans saying about the new Kovenant image and music?
Lex: It's all been positive. Out of 100, we probably got one that was negative. I guess that people that listen to Kovenant are generally more open-minded. People never know where we are gonna go next.

ID: Well, congratulations on the Grammy award. Have you won one or two now?
Lex: Twice. We're writing history over here.

ID: Over here, you just don't see that in the Grammies.
Lex: Well, you didn't exactly do that here either until last year when we won our first one.

ID: Who were you up against?
Lex: Dimmu Borgir and some other Iron Maiden sounding band. There's always three bands for every category. Actually, we have three [Grammies] now. This last one got stolen from us. The guy that was giving out the award was a close friend of one of the band members of one of the bands. So he was like, "The winner is..." and they didn't actually win. Then they took off with the prize. Then there was this television program they were on, so I went into the studio and took it from them and walked out.

ID: That's kind of dumb. It's not like it has their name on it.
Lex: No, it has our name on it...

ID: Right!
Lex: They were only doing it for publicity.

ID: What is it like for you to win something like that three times in a row.
Lex: Well, you know, the first time didn't mean shit. We really didn't know anything about it. It was like, "Oh, we won." Then we saw the after-effects of it. Which was...the usual Hollywood thing. Then the second time we won it, it was really cool.

ID: So are you getting mobbed for autographs now?
Lex: Yeah, they do that. I've even been stopped at the library by, like, ten-year-old kids. Of course, you have to start with the younger ones. That's when they're the most easily influenced, ya know?

ID: Oh yeah, that's how I started my brother on metal, so I know. So do you feel that an award like that pushes the band more toward the mainstream then?
Lex: Yeah, but the most important thing is that it makes us more recognized as a serious music act. Not just as some lame-ass Satanists who burn churches. We're taken more seriously as a band, which is what we're after, you know. Because we don't have any commercial ambitions at all, we just do this because we like it. And one day if I don't like it and I don't get enough money, I'll become a kingpin.

ID: [Laughs] I heard Kovenant was scheduled on a late-night talk show in Norway, but the show ended up being cancelled by the producer. What were they afraid of?
Lex: The guy who did the show, he's a famous talk show comedian; he's like the Norwegian Jay Leno. He asked us, and then the bosses, some sixty-year-old fucking retards who should be in a retirement home instead of in TV, they called us up and said, "No, we can't do it, it's too violent."

ID: Is there a lot of that conservatism over there?
Lex: Yeah, Norway's a Christian country with a Christian government. Well, it's not as bad as the States, but it's still Christian. Ya know, people have to be protected from themselves, that's what they say.

ID: What do you hope to gain from the tour you're about to do in the US?
Lex: I hope to gain some cool tourist photos, cool souvenirs, something like that. Some "I Love New York" shirts or something.

ID: [Laughs] So you are actually planning on seeing some of the US...
Lex: Well, yeah, we're only playing one hour everyday.

ID: Yeah, I know, but I always hear from bands that they never get to see anything like that when they tour.
Lex: That's because they're too drunk.

ID: Are you into the music of your tourmates, Amorphis and Moonspell?
Lex: Yeah, a little bit. I'm not too much into the music scene anymore. I don't actually listen to much music anymore either.

ID: Why is that? I hear that from quite a few bands.
Lex: Really? I thought I was the only one.

ID: Well, you're gonna have to start listening to more so you're not trendy.
Lex: Yeah, shit.

ID: Who would you ideally like to tour with?
Lex: Monster Magnet, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Nine Inch Nails.

ID: You liar, you wouldn't...
Lex: [Giggles] No, actually, I would like to go with David Bowie or something.

[Insert lots of talk about doing interviews and doing a magazine...]

ID: Are you planning on expanding on the state of the band as it is now or do you think you're going to end up changing again at some point?
Lex: No, I guess we're going to do the same kind of music style. Like with this album we sort of sat down and said, "Let's do exactly what we want to do." With the first one we were trying to be a part of something else, we wanted to be a part of the whole black metal scene. The second album, we signed to a major label and we were signed based on the first album, so we felt that we couldn't suddenly come up with a Rage Against the Machine album. We felt pressured by everyone not to go as far as we would. I guess we're always going to combine this electronic thing with metal. But I guess our new material is going to be a lot more of this Psycho Circus thing. Like bizarre carnival music mixed with electronic elements.

ID: Are you working on your next album already?
Lex: Oh, we've done a few things. Working with things, just playing with things. We're not trying to do anything by the end of the year.

ID: Any last words?
Lex: America must be destroyed.