Heilung on what being a Pagan really means, airport woes and how one joins the Warrior Choir — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00people like having a big heart for Satan
2. 0:02I also have a big heart for Satan don't
3. 0:04get me wrong
4. 0:10right uh so one of the most up moments
5. 0:13in uh airports uh for us with our weird
6. 0:16gear I think was which airport was it
7. 0:19that we had the sword problem wasn't
8. 0:20that in Russia that was me in Russia
9. 0:22that was you in Russia because that was
10. 0:24a really that was scary that was scary
11. 0:27yeah
12. 0:28yeah yeah tell it yeah so uh we're we're
13. 0:32coming to Russia and we're on the way
14. 0:34back home right and at that time it was
15. 0:37like that when you wanted to enter the
16. 0:40airport they
17. 0:42already like x-rayed your luggage and of
18. 0:45course like it was slightly chaotic I
19. 0:49don't speak Russian and uh we lost our
20. 0:52translator because it was several
21. 0:54entrances and it was me with a with a
22. 0:57case that was not mine yeah
23. 1:00it I think it was Chris's case right so
24. 1:04I'm standing there it's high long gear
25. 1:05and like I I hand in a couple of cases
26. 1:07and suitcases and everything and then I
27. 1:09suddenly see that guy like getting like
28. 1:12super big eyes he takes my suitcase to
29. 1:15the side looks around ask asking WR I
30. 1:17know what he wants like he wanted to
31. 1:18know like who owns this suitcase so I go
32. 1:22up there and he opens it up and of
33. 1:25course in there is a
34. 1:28sword like full scale real Viking sword
35. 1:32right and he looks at me and like is
36. 1:35speaking Russian I'm like I don't speak
37. 1:37Russian and I can't even say in Russian
38. 1:38that I don't do not speak Russian and it
39. 1:40ended up that he loses it you know and
40. 1:43he just he's pointing at the sword and
41. 1:45just yells document
42. 1:48document this is like theater props man
43. 1:50like like we we're we're not intending
44. 1:52any harm is all fine it it it's we don't
45. 1:54do anything document document you know
46. 1:57like with these like hats and everything
47. 2:00luckily at that point there was the
48. 2:02translator he was going around and then
49. 2:04he realizes okay Kai is in
50. 2:07trouble yeah so the antlers was a huge
51. 2:11incident for us in Bangkok when we
52. 2:13played there last year because it turns
53. 2:14out that you can bring antlers into
54. 2:17Thailand but you cannot export them
55. 2:19again we had no idea about this Rule and
56. 2:23uh so they were stock at the uh airport
57. 2:26in Bangkok I don't remember the name of
58. 2:27it but uh I think there was hold there
59. 2:30for two months because all they wanted
60. 2:32was a stamp on a paper saying that this
61. 2:36uh this equipment belongs to to hilong
62. 2:39and they are are meant to they were
63. 2:41coming in and are meant to be taken out
64. 2:43again like but no Authority wanted to
65. 2:47mess with this uh document on our behalf
66. 2:50because it was um they saw it as a it
67. 2:53became a somehow a legal vulnerable
68. 2:57situation because we had as a matter of
69. 2:59fact fact like not follow the rules and
70. 3:01regulations so but in the end the Danish
71. 3:04music Society blessed them a small
72. 3:06organization in Denmark living their
73. 3:08lives happily supporting musicians in in
74. 3:10their country and they don't they're not
75. 3:13a huge Authority but they were like yeah
76. 3:14sure we'll put a stamp on this one for
77. 3:16you guys and that was all they needed
78. 3:18and they released our stuff but yeah
79. 3:20going in and out of Australia and New
80. 3:22Zealand we have to make special
81. 3:25applications for anything that is a part
82. 3:27of an animal or uh nature anything of
83. 3:30wood skin uh fur uh
84. 3:34bones any earth materials and if I mean
85. 3:38have you seen our show everything we own
86. 3:41is made from Bones and Furs and skins
87. 3:44and and woods so yeah it's uh it's
88. 3:48challenging going through customs in I
89. 3:50think there was an heathow with I I had
90. 3:52all the spares in a in a sewer tube
91. 3:55which is the only sensible way of
92. 3:57transporting spares all of apparently
93. 4:00so I'm walking with this tube on my
94. 4:02shoulder and through the beep machine
95. 4:04and it's like it's full of spares and of
96. 4:06course you have to then explain to the
97. 4:07Customs that yes this is sharp spares
98. 4:10they are weapons but they are indeed
99. 4:12theater props and in in Europe they're
100. 4:14normally more easy to talk to than the
101. 4:18Russian at least we share a language at
102. 4:20least we share a language well what is
103. 4:22the warrior choir I think the warrior
104. 4:24choir is one of the elements that
105. 4:26clearly separates us from all the other
106. 4:29modern Pagan bands because no one has
107. 4:32the energy and the patience to like to
108. 4:35train an army to train an army the
109. 4:38warrior choir uh when we are on stage is
110. 4:41nine people but all over uh it is around
111. 4:4540 people on the planet who are
112. 4:47qualified to do the task and we pick
113. 4:50them depending on where we
114. 4:53go and to get in there it's of course uh
115. 4:57quite hard because uh it is it is not
116. 5:00easy and it's also we are very
117. 5:03consequent with the dress code so you
118. 5:05you will only wear pants and we are
119. 5:08gender neutral so it doesn't matter as
120. 5:10what you identify you will have pants
121. 5:13and you will have a night camouflage uh
122. 5:16body
123. 5:17painting and they are representing
124. 5:21something which is called uh which is
125. 5:22described by the Romans around the first
126. 5:26century as the har e and back then they
127. 5:30were doing exactly what what we were
128. 5:32doing so they got painted black and uh
129. 5:36they had dark clothes they blackened
130. 5:38their weapons and they did something
131. 5:40which was very unusual at the time they
132. 5:42attacked in the night and they ran off
133. 5:45and never uh yeah got never really
134. 5:48defeated there's still scientific
135. 5:50research and discussion going on what
136. 5:53they actually are if they are a proper
137. 5:55tribe or if it was just some Savages
138. 5:57that were trying to annoy the Romans but
139. 6:00as a matter of fact they scared the
140. 6:01out of the Romans because they came they
141. 6:03came in the night out of the dense
142. 6:06Germanic jungle basically right and they
143. 6:09killed a lot of people and then they
144. 6:11went off again
145. 6:12right that was very unusual at the time
146. 6:15because like uh you were when you went
147. 6:17into battle you got dressed into
148. 6:19something super nice you know and to
149. 6:21show respect to your opponent and
150. 6:24especially the Romans they were very
151. 6:26proud and showing off stuff and like
152. 6:28having having a dress back then was like
153. 6:31really ridiculously expensive but they
154. 6:33did exactly the opponents they were not
155. 6:35claiming a kill even right and um so and
156. 6:40the training is very uh very intense
157. 6:43because like when you tour uh the US for
158. 6:46example for S weeks playing every second
159. 6:48day that is really really tough you know
160. 6:51and they need to deliver every day they
161. 6:53need to they need to function as one
162. 6:55entity they need to be in Rhythm they
163. 6:58need to be able to do Road singing they
164. 7:00need to be able to do like death metal
165. 7:02style shouting and dance and until the
166. 7:06point which is not exhaustion anymore
167. 7:09which like really goes into trans and
168. 7:12pronunciation of all languages and so on
169. 7:14and so forth and then they have to of
170. 7:16course stand my critical
171. 7:18eye and if I you can just say two words
172. 7:21about the audition process because it's
173. 7:23uh right now we we've closed the
174. 7:25auditions down for now but um uh
175. 7:28normally you can send an email email and
176. 7:30then you have to send an audition video
177. 7:33and if you pass for Al father heti one
178. 7:35of our songs and if you pass that then
179. 7:38you get another song and if you pass
180. 7:40that you get invited to a boot camp if
181. 7:43you pass that you get invited to try uh
182. 7:46a a live
183. 7:48situation and if you pass that being in
184. 7:52beats being uh able to pronounce being
185. 7:55able to perform being uh like a a
186. 7:57generally a good uh skilled person then
187. 8:01the final test is the
188. 8:03Afterparty say no more say no
189. 8:07more how do this person react after a
190. 8:10few beers is it a a social uh person is
191. 8:14are we able to function because
192. 8:16sometimes you need to sit for 14 hours
193. 8:18in an airplane next to someone it's
194. 8:20important that you can function socially
195. 8:22as well as musically and performative so
196. 8:25it's really hard and I think out of
197. 8:28maybe 500 additions it's 40 people who
198. 8:30made it so yeah it's not an easy task we
199. 8:33we see for instance that from Denmark we
200. 8:35only have one like there's just people
201. 8:38are maybe too shy or not willing to take
202. 8:42that extra step or in the US uh we got
203. 8:45uh a lot uh people are more maybe like
204. 8:48yeah ready to to take the take the
205. 8:51challenge so yeah Germany we have a few
206. 8:55France France and of course Holland is
207. 8:57our main main Core group of of Warriors
208. 9:01because that's where they kind of
209. 9:02started and originated from so yeah I
210. 9:05think the one of the biggest
211. 9:07misconception is that uh as a pagan you
212. 9:11have to oppose
213. 9:13Christianity I think that is one of the
214. 9:15biggest misconcept misconception that
215. 9:17are out there especially in the metal
216. 9:19scene you know there's a lot of people
217. 9:21like having a big heart for Satan I also
218. 9:23have a big heart for Satan don't get me
219. 9:24wrong
220. 9:25[Laughter]
221. 9:27right but when we look at his
222. 9:31it is actually not like that you know
223. 9:33like uh everything that uh that that was
224. 9:35handed or is handed to us uh from uh
225. 9:39from the old times when Christianity of
226. 9:41course was was already existing because
227. 9:43like before the year zero Christianity
228. 9:46was not a topic you know so everything
229. 9:48that is from there is not really
230. 9:50relevant for that uh for that talk right
231. 9:53now but people are ra rambling on like
232. 9:56runes and like Vikings and everything
233. 10:00but when we look at the Viking age for
234. 10:02example that is in Scandinavia also the
235. 10:04time when we have the first Christians
236. 10:07that that are dying there and being
237. 10:09being buried alongside pagans in the
238. 10:12same grave Mount you know like
239. 10:14apparently with total Harmony when we
240. 10:16have the when we look at the runes every
241. 10:19Rune poem that made it to our age
242. 10:22contains also very very clear Christian
243. 10:26hints you know so I I think of course
244. 10:29I'm I'm I'm not a scientist right I'm
245. 10:30just an artist but I I see it like that
246. 10:34that as a pagan you are open
247. 10:38towards other people's gods and whatever
248. 10:41you're praying to when you are my guest
249. 10:44you can do that in my house in my temple
250. 10:46that is absolutely no problem I think
251. 10:49the disappointing part part starts later
252. 10:53when the pagans are thinking that they
253. 10:55can do the same thing in a church and
254. 10:57they're not allowed in you know
255. 10:59but I think that the pagans back in the
256. 11:02days that they were absolutely first of
257. 11:04all welcoming that new belief and they
258. 11:07did not judge it as something that you
259. 11:09should get rid of that you have to
260. 11:11oppose that you have to fight that comes
261. 11:14later
262. 11:15[Music]