C: So following on from the imagery of Tri-Danielson, I was wondering about the repeated images in your songs and how you present your output and your band. For instance, where did the idea of playing in the tree come from? It's something that's been an idea of yours for a while, hasn't it?
D: Oh yeah, it's been around for a long time. It's this Nine Fruits Tree and it's bearing the good fruits. The symbols of when we play live, whether it's the doctors and nurses uniforms or me in the tree or the outfits we wear as the Danielsonship, they are very one dimensional in terms of 'they are what you see'. It was important to me that they be this stark image, which stays as a constant, whilst the music is dancing around this thing that won't go away. I'm not really interested in changing the live imagery so much, I'm quite happy with the three and keeping it that way. The music will be the thing to keep changing as it dances around these images.
C: We were wondering when we were looking at your tree before and when you were setting it up and at the Union Chapel, we thought it looked quite new and professionally made? Have you gone through many trees?
D: Thank you! This is the third tree; the first one was 18 feet wide and 12 feet high, the next one was 10 feet high and about 12 feet wide and this one's 9 feet high and whatever wide.
C: So is this the travel tree?
D: This is THE tree now. I don't use the others anymore; I have such a great relationship with this tree. It dances with me and it moves with me, but the others were quite stiff, and this one folds down into a bag and I love it! It's the tree, for sure.
C: There were some other instances of imagery in some of the products that you sell, that we wanted to ask about.
L: I'm quite intrigued by the concept of the Great Comfort Stuff. Where does that come from?
D: The Great Comfort. It's the Great Comforter, it's the Holy Spirit, it's the one, it's the identity. So the idea is that these products are playing with the whole product idea, a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek idea. I'm very interested in the hand-made process and really pushing that. It's more pricey, but that's the way it is! A hand-made object compared to a machine-made object is a very different thing. I have plans to explore that whole store of hand-made things and to bring that much further. The Great Comfort Stuff is this idea of things that are pointing to the one that made them.

C: Am I right in thinking that there's a kind of wilderness myth in some of your work? There's many references to hunting the Hart and going solo and the canoe imagery and breaking off on your own with your compass. Is that all about just trying to find your way in the world?
D: Yeah, I think so; it's the journey we're all on. I like the wilderness connection; I think I'll steal that from you!
C: We were also intrigued by the Eye Blinders, when did you come up with those?
D: It's the same idea of looking forward and not looking to the left or right, just pressing on towards the goal, and the things that are actually keeping the eyes forward are these giant hearts that are directing you. It's always symbolic objects that make up the Great Comfort Stuff.
C: Is that important when you play live as well? Is it something, with your tree, that helps you to perform? Does it give you more resonance with your audience and who you're trying to affect?
D: For me, it's the input through the eyes and the input through the ears and it's doubling what your rece iving. The visual aspect has just been important to me; I haven't really been very interested in just the kind of rock'n'roll stage presence, so from that point I started making experiments to see what worked and what didn't work.
C: What didn't work?
D: Just changing costumes and things like that, I think it gets too much. I really like the idea of sticking with the thing. Of course, there's other alter egos that I'm working on, but I'm really happy just for now.
L: Are the alter egos going to be different musically?
D: Oh, I don't know.
L: Because I read somewhere, that you had this idea before of making electronic noise records?
D: Well, that was in high school and college. But not really electronic, just more like Big Black-type stuff, like two vocalists doing yelling then melodic stuff. But really basic song writing, just really examining the song-writing structure was our main fascination. So for me, there wasn't much difference between writing a song with noise on top of it and then stripping all of that away and then just using the acoustic guitar, to have a clear vision of the song, the bare bones of the song.

L: I was reading an interview and it said that the new album's going to have a 'living room' sound?
D: Yeah, that was one of the rumours!
L: What does that mean? Is it true?
D: I don't know, we'll see. We're recording in my parents' house, so there's going to be some of that for sure.
L: Was it just a desire to make things sound more natural or spontaneous?
D: I think they'll be tracks recorded in our living room, so I guess we'll see what it sounds like.
C: Finally, you're going on tour through Europe now, so are you looking forward to that and what are you doing for Christmas?
D: We're going up to Norway actually. My wife is Norwegian and she's there with my little girl, hanging out with her parents, so I'm looking forward to having a great Norwegian Christmas.
L: Is there anything particularly special about a Norwegian Christmas?
D: Oh yeah, sure, you get to pull the Christmas tree in to the middle of the room and then you dance around it and sing songs, it's really great!
C: You might be able to work that into a live performance!
D: It would be nice, wouldn't it?

interview and photo by Chris Tipton