Myrkur's come a long way from her black metal roots. This year, the Danish songwriter – real name Amalie Bruun – threw her hat in the ring to represent her country at Eurovision. But while Touch My Love And Die wasn’t selected – always next year, eh? – she has got plenty to keep her occupied, including working on a follow-up to 2023’s Spine.
In the meantime, Myrkur answers your questions on King Diamond and her former skills in… astral projection?
Will there be a Folkesange II?
Andy Edwards, Facebook
“The short answer is yes. Will it be like part two of a movie? No, it will have its own identity. But absolutely, I already have that album [written].”
What’s the story behind playing Jenny in The Lonely Island’s Jack Sparrow music video? Lawlessness666, Instagram
“I lived in New York when I was younger, and I somehow got a job at a photo agency with no experience. I was just an assistant to the agents. They had rented some of the office out to some Saturday Night Live writers.
And one SNL writer in the office looked at me while I was emptying the trash and said, ‘Do you want to come to Coney Island tomorrow and play Jenny, because you kind of look like that woman from Forrest Gump?’ I was like, ‘What?’ So I got picked up the next day. I think I got $100 to do the job, and it was a full day with Michael Bolton for that. I’m featured in literally a split second, but that’s how it is, right?”
What’s your Tetris high score?
Daniel Clark, Facebook
“I’d say around 350,000 on Game Boy!”
What’s your favourite Nordic tradition?
Daniel Poobalan, Facebook
“This is not a specifically Nordic tradition, but I do love how we celebrate Midsummer. It is the celebration of the change of the seasons. We call it Sankt Hans Aften [Saint John’s Eve] because it’s been Christianised, but it’s very ingrained in pagan beliefs and also it’s so deep in Nordic people’s culture and our blood, because we have very different seasons, and it affects life very deeply.”
Hammer: How do you celebrate it?
“I could sit here and mention all kinds of pagan rituals and burnings, but really, for the normal Danish family, we will go to the beach where there’s a very big bonfire. When it gets a little darker they light it, and we sing old fatherland songs about how we love this country, how we love the beautiful summer, and all the different aspects of the year and what nature brings. We say cheers – skål – and have a little party. Now that I’m a mom, it’s something that I just couldn’t wait to bring my son, Otto, to.”
My five-year-old son and King Diamond had a really nice little friendship.
Myrkur
You recently requested (from fans) a number of 1980s/nostalgic film soundtracks to listen to. Which were you most drawn to?
Matthew Krafthefer, Facebook
“I asked for help to find them on vinyl because I finally got a vinyl player again, so I got obsessed with finding these physical things now to get away from screens. I managed to get The Dark Crystal, I’ve got 1986’s Troll. That was a harder one to find, and the soundtrack is completely bonkers. I also got Vangelis’s Opera Sauvage and Blade Runner.”
Hammer: What’s the best film you’ve seen lately?
“A recent one that I have been obsessed with is a three-hour-long musical/ Bollywood film called Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - listed as DDLJ on Netflix. Apparently it’s the biggest film in India ever. The performances of specifically the two main characters are some of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. It’s almost like spell casting.”
What’s your favourite film ever?
Charlotte Eve, Email
“The cartoon Valhalla from 1986. It’s probably the film I’ve seen the most in my life. It’s by Danish artist Peter Madsen. It has been dubbed in other languages, but the soundtrack, again, is on the level of The Dark Crystal. Fantastic soundtrack.”
What was your favourite part about getting to tour with King Diamond?
Reagan Wehrman, Facebook
“It was between actually being onstage and singing with him, because we often sang in unison. Also I brought my son - who was five years old then - on the tour a lot. He was on the tour bus with us. He and King had a really nice little friendship, because he loves his music. For the Halloween show in Brooklyn, he got my son out onstage to present the song Halloween, which he loves. He came out in his little skeleton costume and introduced the band!”
What shampoo and conditioner do you use?
Paul Gibson, Facebook
“I can happily tell you at the moment, I’m using my husband’s body wash as my shampoo! He bought it from the health store, so there’s plants in it, and barely anything else. It’s amazing.”
What’s been your favourite gift you’ve received from a fan?
Jimi McAmhaidh, Facebook
“One fan carved a little wooden wizard woman, in Norse known as a völva. Another made an oxidized silver necklace with a purple crystal in it that I wear a lot. I have a really nice little wooden box I keep my jewellery in too. Very creative stuff, and I keep all of it.”
What are your motivations for representing Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest?
Xavier Baesens, Facebook
“Well, I think I could boil it down to: I want to do this for my country, and also a little bit for my father, who passed away. He was a songwriter, and he wrote a very important song, which is the football anthem. In my opinion, nothing has gathered the country together as much as that song. I don’t think my song can do that, but I guess I was drawn to representing him and my country in the same way.”
Hammer: What’s been your favourite historical Eurovision performance?
“There was a song that won in the 60s in Denmark that I still really like, called Dansevise. It’s one of the three or four times Denmark has won. But that song is beautiful. It doesn’t sound like a Eurovision song or anything.”
When I was a kid I could quite literally zone out and levitate in my own head.
Myrkur
How far does your herding call carry outdoors? Does it depend on the terrain?
Ian Bellard, Facebook
“Oh, 100%. I was just in Norway filming the music video for Touch My Love And Die, and we were on top of a mountain. We could not drive in a car there. So I got picked up at night, and on snow scooters we went 30-40 minutes up in the darkness to this closed-down hotel and stayed there for days. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do some kulning [an ancient Scandinavian vocal technique used to summon livestock] up here!’
But because there’s so much snow, it’s just a blanket. It was completely like insulation, so there was no sound and my kulning died. So if I had stood on a mountain with a valley, maybe something on the other side, some grass, whatever, then it could carry. But it’s hard to say how far it can go, other than ‘really far’. It’s like an arrow.”
Do you like turtles?
Larue Joseph, Facebook
“I had four growing up. They were, of course, named after the characters of the Ninja Turtles. We had little races with them. I adore turtles. I wish I could have one now."
When you feel homesick for a place that doesn’t exist, where does your soul reach out to?
Rune Valdemarsen, Facebook
“I think childhood. When I was a kid I could quite literally zone out and levitate in my own head. It’s very weird, but I’d be completely detached and almost look down on the world, not in my body. And I lost that ability. But I can recall where I would go, and I think childhood is when you have access to these places, because your mind is wide open in those years. You don’t know what it is you’re looking for, maybe home or something.”
Hammer: Are you talking about astral projection?
“I don’t know what it was and in a way, I don’t want to know. I could just sit down and look into something until I disappear from this realm. It’s similar to when you’re asleep and you have lucid dreaming. I could induce that in my wake state. It was pretty awesome.”
Are you a spiritual person and if yes, how do you integrate it in your day?
Schmarthur Schmooner, Facebook
“I’d say I’m a highly spiritual person. But I rarely talk about it because I don’t like the word religion so much. My entire day is spiritual. I still have to do meetings, emails and boring things, but I think a lot about astrology in the bigger sense, where the planets are, what the moon is doing, and I plan a little bit around that. Older myths, like Norseology, can be quite useful in studying and understanding human life, challenges, the planet, nature and everything that’s connected.”
Touch My Love And Die is out now via Relapse
