EMQ’s With Infringement
EMQ’s With Infringement
Hi everyone. Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Norwegian Progressive Rock band, Infringement. Huge thanks to their Lead Vocalist, Hans Andreas Brandal, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hi, my name is Hans Andreas Brandal, and I’m the lead vocalist of Infringement. The band was formed back in 2015 when Stig André Clason, Kristoffer Utby, and I met over good whiskey and a shared love of music.
We independently released our debut album, Transition, in 2017. It’s a concept album that tells the story of a family through several generations, narrated from the perspective of an anthropomorphic house… you know, just your standard Prog Rock stuff!
For our live shows, we were joined by Bård Thorstensen, and he’s refused to leave the band ever since, no matter how hard we’ve tried to get rid of him.
Two years later, we followed up with our sophomore album, Alienism, which documents the patients at the Gentmire Institute for the Criminally Insane, as written in the journal of the Commissioner of Lunacy. A much simpler concept to follow, of course.
To complete our lineup, Emil Olsen joined on bass after the release concert for Alienism, and that’s the short version of our story leading up to today and our current release, Black Science & White Lies.
How did you come up with your band name?
Before deciding on the direction of the band, I had written the lyrics to a song called “Copyright Infringement” while brainstorming. It was a humorous song about essentially not being able to sing or play anything because everything is trademarked or copyrighted.
We never ended up using those lyrics, as we took the band in a more serious direction (who knew we could be so mature?). While I don’t recall exactly how we landed on “Infringement” as our name, I do remember parts of the evening we decided—like how there was a beer cellar involved.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
All the members of the band are Norwegian, most of them from the eastern part of Norway, from the area around Oslo. With the exception of me, who hails from the western part of the country, where beautiful blonde women stand atop steep alpine mountain tops, gazing out over the fjords.
Norway has a strong Rock and Metal scene, with plenty of Black Metal bands (the Inferno Festival each year) and the Tons of Rock festival, which has grown to become Norway’s largest festival. In the last few years, quite a few amazing Prog and Prog-Metal bands have also emerged. I want to give a shout-out to our friends in Avkrvst, whose guitarist, Simon Bergseth, co-produced and mixed our latest album. Go check them out!
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our latest album, fresh off the press, is “Black Science & White Lies”, released on the 19th of September through our label, Crime Records, and WeLåveRock.
It follows a man’s journey through faith, identity, and redemption. Raised under strict religious doctrines in a society that believes in divine salvation, he becomes disillusioned and abandons his faith. Running away from home, he embraces a new ideology and joins a seemingly perfect society. However, his growing doubts about this utopia drive him to escape and face the harsh realities of the world. Returning to his estranged father, he reflects on his mistakes and seeks redemption, ultimately longing to reconcile with the beliefs he once rejected.
We are really committed to concept albums if you couldn’t tell.
Who have been your greatest influences?
It’s a hard question to answer, as it seems to change with age and my own musical growth, but I’ll give you a couple of answers off the top of my head.
I’m a big fan of Mike Patton’s versatility as a vocalist, and I have to mention Glenn Hughes—an absolute legend.
There are probably many more I’ll think of after this interview, but I’ll try not to turn this into a novel.
What first got you into music?
A much too common story, I guess: I grew up with a father who had a genuine interest in music and a decently large record collection. This seems to be a common theme among all the members of Infringement. I’ve always been around music, so it just seemed like a natural thing to start playing.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
It would be amazing to get a phone call from Arjen Lucassen inviting me to do a cameo on the next Ayreon album. So, Arjen, if you happen to be reading this, feel free to give me a call—or an email works too. Seriously, don’t be shy; I’ll be waiting by the phone!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
The drummer in the band, Kristoffer, and I are going to the Cruise to the Edge festival in April next year. It would be awesome to play on the big boat, sipping cocktails half-naked and hanging out with a lot of great bands. Next year’s lineup is amazing.
Otherwise, I would like to see more Progressive music included in traditional Rock and Metal festivals. Sometimes, you feel like the weird, incestuous uncle who doesn’t play well with others. There’s a stigma that comes with the label “Prog,” and it’s just silly. Playing Tons of Rock in Oslo would be awesome.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I don’t think I’ve ever received a gift from a fan, weird or otherwise. I’m not opposed to it, though—bring on the weirdness! Knit an animal or something from your own hair and give it to Stig the guitar player. Let’s make this a thing.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Don’t be the assface who tries to record the whole show on your phone, shuts up during songs (stuff your face with beer instead—support your local venue), and blocks the stairways leading down to the area in front of the stage.
Follow these three commandments, and we’ll be great friends (provided you’re not a racist or a bigot).
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
I’ve been on a bit of a Type-O-Negative kick lately, so let’s bring back the gentle giant Peter Steele, and let’s bring some more self-loathing and misery back to the world.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
What drives the whole band to play and record music is an inherent and deep love for it, as I assume is the case for all musicians. Who wouldn’t love creating something out of nothing and using it as an outlet for their exhibitionist tendencies?
When we’re not rehearsing or recording, we also go to concerts together, drink beer, and have a great time. We’re fortunate to live in a country with strong financial support for the arts through various private and state-sponsored funds. All the members of Infringement have good educations unrelated to music (except Emil, who just started on his degree), which gives us the financial stability to not rely on our music becoming commercially successful. Instead, we can focus purely on having fun and staying true to our artistic expression without compromise.
I realize this has turned into a bit of a long digression, but hey, here we are.
The thing I enjoy the least is the self-promotion—the social media stuff. If you’re struggling with social media anxiety like I am, get some help. Call a helpline, or do what we did and get someone to handle it for you. Huge thanks to Anne-Claire Rallo and Bad Dog Promotions for helping us out!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
The insane prices for shows these days, combined with the dynamic pricing systems set by Ticketmaster and Live Nation, are outrageous. Music for the masses, right? I have a lot of opinions on this topic, but instead of ranting endlessly, I think I’ll just channel all that frustration into a new concept album.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Since I mentioned Patton as a huge influence, I’ll go with Faith No More’s “Angel Dust”.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Whatever floats your boat. Honestly, it all depends on the circumstances, and I don’t see why anyone must be a purist about it. Personally, I’m running a Roon server right now with all of my music digitally available through different endpoints. It’s the convenience, I’m not a romantic.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
That would have to be Night of the Prog in Loreley, 2022. We had an absolute blast being the opening act on Sunday. The heat was intense—just a few degrees shy of boiling—and I nearly passed out on stage after running around in that massive amphitheatre. It was almost overwhelming for an introverted kid from the deep fjords of western Norway.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Well, I have a master’s degree in microbiology, specialising in fermentation. I worked in the brewing industry for the last decade, but now I’m an environmental engineer. It’s a decent enough day job to fund my music addiction (it’s expensive to watch live music shows in Norway, including the beers… uff).
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Louis Pasteur
Dennis Wise
Hunter S. Thompson
Stephen Fry
Ozzy
Should provide for an interesting evening
What’s next for the band?
The first thing, as I write this, is that we have the release concert on the 11th of October, and we’ve started lining up some live shows for the autumn and next year.
There are some ideas for new tracks, and I think we’ll try to start recording sooner rather than later.
All of this, of course, is leading up to the enslavement of the entire human population and total galactic domination.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://infringement.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/infringementband
There’s a long-standing food-based debate here in the UK. And we’d like your help. So… A Jaffa cake – is it a cake or a biscuit? Discuss!
As a scientist, what’s clearly needed here is a scientific experiment to determine whether Jaffa cakes can be classified as either cakes or biscuits based on their physical properties, ingredients, and texture. From this information, a testable hypothesis can be formed.
I would hypothesize that Jaffa cakes exhibit characteristics more closely aligned with cakes than biscuits due to their moisture content, texture, and ingredients. However, I will not draw a conclusion before compiling data and using statistical analysis to look for significant differences.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to showcase ourselves. I would also remind people to get off the couch and go watch a local band, support a smaller venue, and enjoy some local beer. There are a lot of great new bands out there—give them a chance!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
