Interview: Course of Fate

In May the Norwegian prog metallers of Course of Fate released their full-length debut, titled Mindweaver. Recently DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen did an interview with them.

Hey, congratulations with Mindweaver. It’s really nice.

Thank you very much. We are really glad to hear that people like our music. We have worked on this album for a long time so to finally seeing the end result is really great.

While Course of Fate already exists since 2003 Mindweaver is your full-length debut. Is there a reason behind not releasing your full-length debut for such a long time? If so, what’s the reason behind that?

Well, we of course have always wanted to do an album. But it wasn’t until 2015 we had the line-up you see today. The songs for this album were pre-recorded back in 2013-2014 but with the departure of our drummer back then things kind of went on hold. When Per-Morten joined us in 2015 we almost immediately went into a studio to record the album. This turned out to be a bad idea. Per-Morten hadn’t really found his place in the band yet and the studio we had chosen was really not the right studio. So for the next two years we focused more on playing gigs. Then, in 2017 we started recording the album for a second time. This also took us a good amount of time and the finished product did not see the light of day until 2019.

Earlier you’ve released three demos and one EP though. Does the fact that this is about a full-length, and a new “first”, feel extra special or not?

Yes, it feels a lot more special now that the album is being distributed all around the world. I think that having a record label doing that job for us is really important. I don’t think we’d be able to reach out to so many on our own.

While Cognizance, your 2013 EP that preceded Mindweaver, was released independently, you signed with Rock of Angels Records for the release of Mindweaver. What makes Rock of Angels Records the best record label for Course of Fate at this moment?

I think ROAR, being a fairly small record label is perfect for us at this point. I don’t think the bigger labels necessarily would’ve given us enough attention. The guys at ROAR have really done a lot for us.

Mindweaver is the first Course of Fate release which features drummer Per Morten Bergseth. Did he change something in the creation process?

Per-Morten is a composer himself, so of course he’s contributed to some of the rewriting of the music we’ve been doing since 2014.

There’s also one guest to be heard on Mindweaver, Jeanette Heidenstrøm. What made her the person you were looking for?

Well, we knew about Jeanette from her long career being one of the greatest singers in our hometown. She’s also worked together with Per-Morten before. We wanted to have a female singer with a powerful voice so we knew that Jeanette was the right choice.

Mindweaver was released in May, when the Corona pandemic was already going on. Have you thought about releasing it later? And if so, what made you decide to not doing so?

It actually got postponed for two weeks. But it isn’t really up to us to decide when to release it. That being said I don’t think releasing it during this pandemic is necessarily a bad thing. Time will show, I guess.

You also had to postpone your release gig due to Corona, are you still planning on doing that release gig?

Yes. The gig has been moved to October 3.

Can we, in addition to that release gig, expect some more Course of Fate shows as soon as the Corona virus measures are less tight? Maybe coming to The Netherlands?

Absolutely! We can’t wait to hit the road and play some gigs around in Europe. And The Netherlands is right up there with our top picks.

Since this time is a difficult time for many people, is there anyone you want to give a shoutout to?

That must be all the professional musicians, audio- and lighting tech’s, stage workers and so on that pretty much lost everything this year but still manage to find creative ways to make work for themselves. I really hope 2021 will be a great year for live music.

And of course all health workers around the world working day and night to save lives.

Thanks for your answers! Is there anything you want to say to our readers?

Stay safe, wash your hands and listen to prog!

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