1. How are your names pronounced in Norwegian?
   • Einar Moen, not Ei-nar
   • Anders Hilde
   • Vibeke Stene
2. "World of Glass" was more experimental than the previous cd's. Is Tristania continuing to experiment and what are your plans for a new release?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: When we make music, we don't like to put limits. We expirment when we make music. And we use what we like. So, we try not to have any rules, almost, when we make music. We have some material for the new cd that is not to experimental, compared to World of Glass. But things have a way to change. It's a continuing process, the whole time, untill we enter the studio, and also during the studio recording, things will change, so we don't know.
3. You have performed in USA, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and all over Europe. What are you’re goals with Tristania? Would you like to become more famous in your own country and foreign countries, like Within Temptation did in Holland, by getting into the charts, for instance?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: The main thing is to enjoy, and have fun with the music. Of course, 99% of the bands in the world wants to be bigger, it makes thing a lot easier and it's fun to play in arenas, to have concerts for lots of people. So of course we want te be bigger, but we don't have any specific plans on what we want to achieve before we quit Tristania.
   • Anders: What you said, like Within Temptation did in Holland, that would be quite impossible for us in Norway. Norway is a very small country, only 4 million people live in there. The metal scene is very small. No metal bands make it into the charts. The only exception is Dimmu Borgir, that's the only metal band that made it to the charts. The only gigs we did in Norway is in our hometown, just local gigs. And also, a couple of months ago, we did in a neighbour city called Kristiansand (??). But for us the main market is Europe, and also now more and more Latin America, so that's what we're focusing on.
4. Will you be making more video's?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Anders: Yeah, you can expect that in the future, I guess. The next album maybe.
   • Einar: We are having an offer to do some video stuff now, but contract with Napalm has run out, so everything that has to do with contracts and stuff like that, has been put on ice, untill we decide what we want to do. We don't want to put out a DVD on Napalm Records, untill we decided to stay there. But we'll probably do something, the next cd.
5. A few years ago, you complained about have to do shitty jobs on the side. Are you still having jobs besides Tristania or are you full-time musicians now?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: Still having jobs. Schools and jobs, everybody. There's not enough income to live from. That's probably one of the goals.
6. Which other bands have inspired and influenced you?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: Of course, there are a lot of influences, but it's like everything we like. We like a lot of different stuff, so. We usually don't say any specific influences, like My Dying Bride, or something like that. We use what we like, we try to be ourselves, and use what we like.
   • Anders: Everyone in the band has a very diverse taste in music. And people are also into different things. We try not to make it chaotic, but let all this interact in our sound. To make it interesting. Make a combination of it. To include it, but still have our own sound. Of course all those elements affect us, we put it into our music.
7. Did the band members knew each other before the formation or did you first met each other when the band was formed?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: I think everybody knew each other. Except from Vibeke, she as actually a complete stranger to all of us, when she entered the band, so except from her, I think..
   • Anders: ... we were all friends before...
   • Einar: ..Yeah, I think everybody knew who each other was at least.
8. Between BtV and WoG the band has changed. 1 left, 2 new members joined. How has this influenced the proportions/relations within Tristania? The music making?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Anders: That has changed a bit, because on the former albums, most of the music was composed by Einar and Morten, and now World of Glass was composed by me and Einar, so that has changed a bit, but still we try to include everyone in that process, because it is a band process. It's important to cooperate with everyone. For example the vocalist are very important, that we have a good cooperation with them, when we're making the melodies and stuff like that. They have to sing it. Yeah, and a vocal melody is not something you just make on a keyboard, it has to suit that for certain voice.
9. This question is about track 7 of Beyond the veil. We found the word Simbelmynë in Lord of the Rings, being a sort of grass. Was it named after this?
   • Click here to view the answer
   • Einar: Yeah probably, because... I made the part, but I didn't come up with the title, I think Morten did. So it's not impossible that it came from Lord of the Rings.
   • Tristania.nl: You cannot make it up out off the lyrics, because it's an instrumental song of course :)
   • Einar: Yeah, it has very good lyrics.
   • Tristania.nl: Isn't it based on a real grass or something? Because Tolkien used a lot of Nordic influences.
   • Einar: The title to for that part was just found after the piece was finished, so I can't say what I was thinking or meaning. No, I don't have a good answer for that, the title was found after the part was finished.
10. I would like a very brief response to the following names and places:
    • Terje Refnes
      • Anders: A very talented producer, that has done all our albums. And it's not impossible that we do things for him in the future again, we haven't decided yet.
    • Kjartan Hermansen and The Realm of Tristania
      • Einar: Yes a very close friend, He has been my friend since we were that high, and he's into webdesign and stuff like that, so, it was very nice of him that he did our homepage. He offered himself to do our homepage.
    • Ronny Thorsen
      • Einar: The reason why he's singing on the album is because we heard him sing live a lot, Trail of Tears toured with us, and we needed a good vocalist fast and we knew that he could do the job, and he's done it very good.
      • Tristania.nl: Did you enjoy working with him on the album?
      • Einar: Yeah, we did.
      • Anders: It's very easy to work with him. Because he took everything.... he came down to the studio, everyting was ready. He just took everything really fast. Very easy to work with. And since we had been on tour with him, as Einar said.
      • Tristania.nl: A very professional musician?
      • Anders: Yeah.
    • Østen Bergøy and Kjetil Ingebrethsen, the new members
      • Einar: I think the newest members of the band is... I don't know.. They are real members now, and it's working very good. The band came to ease very good, between everybody. We think they're both splendid vocalists.
    • Wâldrock
      • Anders: Tomorrow. We're looking forward to that. I think it will be very good, since we are playing late at night as well. It will be very nice, and we're looking forward to playing on a festival again, specially since we didn't play on any summer festivals last year.
      • Einar: It's a shit thing we have to play before Motorhead
    • Anathema
      • Einar: Very cool tour
      • Anders: Yeah, very good, and one of our favourite bands, for many of the members of the band. We toured with them and Tiamat, and it was sort of the best tour ever, because we've been into those bands, for many years. And when we got to know them, we saw that they were really fantastic persons and really nice guys, so great guys and great music.
    • Pete Johanssen
      • Einar: Best violin player in Norway. He is something for himself, definetly. It's been a lot of fun working with him in the studio. He's very creative, extremely creative. Some part he has gotten from the keyboard, but 90% of the things he's done for us.. just .. gonna do something here... and just try that 2 or 3 times, and pfff...
      • Anders: He's the kind of musician, who can turn a sort of a boring musical theme into something really interesting. We can't forget to mention that he's starting his own band now, called the Scar. They released an album.
      • Tristania.nl: He also did the lyrics of Lost?
      • Anders: Yes he did. That was actually done when we recorded the song in France. We were out of decent lyrics for that song, and we asked Pete if he had anything to contribute there, and we liked that lyrics very much, and it suited te music. It was after the music for the song was done. He just wrote them when he listened to the song.
    • Petter Hegre
      • Anders: Actually, for the last photo session we used the guy that took the picture from the first cd. He also took those pictures (used in the Tristania.nl tshirt). He's called Emile Maximillian Ashley. He did the picture in the tunnel. He started as a sort of a student, at Petter Hegre's photo studio, and Petter Hegre was in many ways his teacher. Now he started his own photo studio, and he's doing very well.
      • Einar: He's probably the guy we're gonna use in the future.
11. A lot of bands come from Stavanger, like Theatre of Tragedy, Gehenna, Dismal Euphony, TSOTB, Forlorn, Carpathian Forest, and of course Tristania. Do you think there is a reason for this and how this it affect you? A good gothic/music scene maybe?
    • Click here to view the answer
    • Anders: I think it's about friendship and stuff, because it's not like there's a big metal scene in that city, there are few metal concerts there and stuff like that, but I think there's sort of an environment for people who are into that music and people meet people, and one thing has led to another. But I don't think that city has a major metal scene. Because it isn't like that in any city in Norway.
    • Tristania.nl: That's quite funny, because most of the big metal names, are from Norway. Not just gothic, but also in black metal.
    • Anders: I think that for us, and for other bands as well, that before you get a record deal with a company, it's a big advantage to come from Norway, because many of the early bands from Norway, both in black metal, and gothic metal, and whatever, are well known all through Europe and the rest of the world. And I think, for many bands, that has been an advantage. Also for us. But it can also be a difficult thing, because you have to proof something. You can't live forever on just coming from Norway. It has been an advantage for a lot of bands in an early stadium.
12. Anders one time said in an interview "I like the fact that people read the lyrics and make up their mind themselves what they think lies behind the different lyrics." For most songs the choir, or even the clean vocal parts don’t have lyrics in the booklets. Why not, and are they available?
    • Click here to view the answer
    • Anders: Because, there is a reason for anything. That's all :)
    • Tristania.nl: I was afraid you'd say something like that. I saw someone else, who tried it in an interview before, to get some additional lyrics. For instance, my favourite track is Angellore, but is has only 6 lines in the booklet. I'm trying to listen what the rest is, but that's quite difficult.
    • Anders: If you listen very carefully tonight, write it down, while Østen is singing it.
    • Einar: We can get Østen out, so he can sing it, the whole song without music, and you can just write it down while he sings it, right.
13. Are there any un- or not so well known "gothic" acts which you would like to recommend to the public?
    • Click here to view the answer
    • Anders: A band I'd like to mention is, well they're not very gothic actually, but I'd still like to mention them is, that is a band called Madder Mortem, who we toured with togheter on the last tour. They have a female singer, they're from Oslo, the capital of Norway. Fantastic band. And they deserve to get well known.
    • Tristania.nl: Are they on a label?
    • Anders: Yeah, they're on Central Media
    • Tristania.nl: Not so known...
    • Anders: That's the problem, because most people haven't heard of them, but they're a really fantastic band.
14. What does inspire the band’s lyrics? (Fantasy novels, personal situations, frustrations?) Click here to view the answer
15. You have a video out from the Widow's Weeds tour. Are there any plans for more video/DVD releases? Click here to view the answer
16. Do you have any messages for the visitors of Tristania.nl? Click here to view the answer
17. When will you be back? Click here to view the answer