Artist: Port Noir
Origin: Södertälje, Sweden
Genre: Progressive Rock, Post Rock
Label: Century Media Records
Links: https://www.facebook.com/portnoirofficial and http://www.portnoir.com/
Band Members:
Vocals and Guitar – Love Andersson
Guitar and Vocals – Andreas Hollstrand
Drums – Andreas AW Wiberg
Right before the show in Underground 2 in Cologne on 17 May 2016 I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to all three guys of Port Noir about the bands‘ history, about life on tour and some other things. I won’t mention for each answer who gave it because that would extremely extend this article 😀
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
So today is the second show of your tour. How was Hamburg?
Port Noir:
It was way smaller than here. There were 20 visitors, and it was packed.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
I could imagine that you have different local support bands for the shows. Did you know these bands before? And if not, did you give a listen to them?
Port Noir:
We don’t know any of the supporting bands. We listened to a couple of them but not that much.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Why do you do this small tour with only six shows, of which four are in Germany? I think it is very exhausting to travel all the way from Sweden and then drive crisscross through Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, back to Germany and then back home.
Port Noir:
We want to play as much as possible, but it’s hard to book gigs. We wanted to do a bigger tour, but only these six dates were possible. After the release of the album we wanted to do some shows, and we didn’t want to be too picky. We just wanted to show ourselves to the people. For the route of this tour we don’t know, because it’s the booker who did the arrangements, and we just say „thank you“ and follow 😀
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
During this tour you only have one day off. Do you see anything else of the different towns besides the venues, or is the schedule too tight for something like sightseeing? Obviously in Hamburg you had some time before the show, because you posted that picture of you, sitting in the sunny Hamburg and having a beer.
Port Noir:
Depends on how long we have to go. Yesterday in Hamburg we had some time so we were lucky. Today we just went here, so we didn’t see anything else than this venue.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
In my review I already admitted that I got to know you only with your last album Any Way The Wind Carries. What milestones in your career did I miss, apart from the debut album of 2013 and the EP of 2015?
Port Noir:
Well there was a year of preproduction, building connections and stuff like that. Finding a record label etc.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Further I gave a short overview of your history and the very quick proceedings you gained right from the beginning. Was it really as smooth and one after the other? One of the most famous Swedish Metal musician (Anders Fridén) discovers the video for your first song and short time afterwards you already sign the first contract with a record company? That’s what many bands are dreaming of, e. g. both supporting bands of this evening.
Port Noir:
Yes, it was just a week after we released the video, when we were contacted by the label. Anders Fridén is driving the label. He saw our video, contacted us and asked us about the situation with any label. We were quite inexperienced, because we just got together two weeks earlier, wrote this song and produced the video. We just told him that we want to write more music. All in all we were very lucky at that time.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
What is the meaning of the band name Port Noir? If I would translate it from the French language it would mean black harbor, but why does a Swedish band chose a French band name?
Port Noir:
There is no meaning behind it really. From the beginning we wanted something short, and first we only wanted to be called „Port“, but there were already some bands with that name. Therefore we needed something else to extend the name, and then the „Noir“ came. We had so many other names in our minds, but Port Noir sounded good, so we thought „let’s stick to it“.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Do you read each and every review or only the ones of the most important magazines or only the final rating? And do you sometimes wonder what comparisons the writers find and with which categories they label you? For example I wrote in my review, that Any Way The Wind Carries could be described with „Agent Fresco meets Soen meets Leprous“, and I didn’t mean that you copy them, but if I had to explain to somebody, how you sound like, I would use this comparison. But on your Facebook page you write as genre „music“, so obviously you don’t like these categorizations…(?)
Port Noir:
We read all reviews from the beginning till the end, because we want to know what the critics say. Sometimes we wonder about the comparisons, and for the bands Agent Fresco and Leprous we really don’t see the connection respectively we don’t listen to them. But I guess you can say it’s the same genre, means heavy meets soft.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
In my review I didn’t mention it but I have to admit that I don’t understand the cover of the album. To me it looks like some rubber donots are placed in a cake pan. Further to me the sobriety of the cover is in contrast to the emotional songs. Could you please explain the meaning behind it, if there is any?
Port Noir:
We just wanted to do something different, because a lot of these bands always have a dark cover with these weird things, and we wanted something different, something more clear. We wanted more color this time, because we only did black and white in the past. Therefore we chose this color for the cover, and when you see it in the record store you say „wow, that’s something different“. And these are not donots, but it’s a photo of lamps. This photo is taken from the ground upwards into the direction of the lamps.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
Some weeks ago I did an interview with another Swedish band, and one of the guys told me, that he would be quite impressed of the variety of German bread, but he would nevertheless be happy to get back home again soon (I did this interview right before their last show in Germany). Today is only your second show in Germany, but is there anything, may it be food or drinks, that you already know and that you are looking forward to? Please don’t mention German beer 😉
Port Noir:
Well we already have been to Germany but only for one or two shows, so we didn’t try that much yet. We know some Germany meals, for example the sausages, but we haven’t tried them yet. You know we just drive with the bus, then it stops and there’s the Burger King 😉 On the venues you sometimes just get cold catering with some bread and cheese or salad. But we also have a great variety of bread in Sweden, especially when you live in the big cities. We live in Stockholm, and there you do the things by yourself.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
So I’m really surprised but that was already my last question. Thank you very much once more for your time.
Port Noir:
Thank you for this interview and also for the nice review.
Time For Metal / Heike L.:
As I already said it was the first time I listened to you, but I was immediately hooked. I couldn’t give 10/10, because there has to be some space for improvement for the next album, and I believe it will be very hard to do a better album than this one 😉
Port Noir:
We can do a lot better, it’s just the beginning!