Black Metal Princess Myrkur

We have been long time fans of Myrkur and were more than thrilled when she agreed to speak with us prior to hitting her European tour this November. She takes us through her musical journey and her shadow self

Your voice is so amazing, what has been your musical journey? When did you first start writing and playing music? 

I have been singing my whole life and started playing piano and violin around age 5. I also started writing songs around that time, mainly little folk / piano pieces. 

Where do you draw most of your inspiration from? 

Nature, norse mythology, folk instruments, folklore + fairy tales, my shadow-side 

Can you take us through your songwriting process? 

For this particular album ‘Mareridt’ it is a bit of a conceptual album written about my nightmares. So I would write down in a book by my nightstand when I woke up from a nightmare, the narrative, the symbolism, the fear etc. Then I would improvise those words on top of for example a drone folk instrument of some sort, until it started taking form and becoming a song. Then write riffs if guitar or string melodies and choirs parts. 

How do you deal with creative blocks? 

I dont, I ignore it and throw my energy into something completely different. I think if you start to obsess about it, you hurt yourself. In the same way if you cannot fall asleep, it is best to focus on something different, or else your mind goes insane. 

You really love the forest and nature how do you find yourself spending time when you are not on tour? 

I spend a lot of time in my house in the forest (danish country side) where I live a pretty simple life cooking over the fire and taking long walks and taking dips in the ocean. I also like to read Carl Jung books and religious philosophy and history books. And of course practice whatever weird instrument I’ve most likely purchased and need to learn from scratch. 

How do you come up with your tour looks? 

I would like to channel in my stage presence, what my music is saying. So I simply let the two melt together somehow. This music is so personal to me that it IS me, and so is my mic-stand Yggdrasil. I like to feel surrounded by natural elements on stage and mix the elements of light and darkness. 

Lastly, what are you looking forward to the most with your upcoming tour and what’s up next for Myrkur? 

I look forward to connecting with people again, through live music and to play new countries I’ve never been to. What is up next is a lot of live concerts and a dark acoustic folk record I am plotting to create. 

Listen to Myrkur's latest release Mareridt here 

Catch her European tour this November with Solstafir + Árstíðir 

All dates can be found here