Imagine hearing Lars Ulrich from Metallica saying that your band is his favourite new band and then receiving an invitation to support them on their stadium tour. That would be unimaginable for most bands. But not for this band of brothers from Trondheim, Norway. We’re here today with Jørn Kaarstad from the Kings of Stoner Punk, Bokassa.
So, as I talk to you now, we’re very close to you kicking off your UK tour, which kicks off on the 11th of April. How long has it been since your last go down this Fair Isle?
“Last time we did the headline tour was in 2021 during the pandemic. I remember it because we had to do COVID tests all the time and a lot of other things like distance with the crowd and stuff. But the last time we played in the UK was in 2023 when we supported Therapy. For a lot of dates, I think. But this is the first time back as headliner, so that’s pretty cool.”
Your album, ‘All Out of Dreams’, was released in 2024. Has it been well received? Are you happy with how it’s sunk in with your fans?
“Yeah, very, very happy with the reception of this album. Also, most importantly, how we feel ourselves, because you know, with a lot of albums, you have stuff afterwards. You’re thinking, I shouldn’t have done that; I should maybe have changed that. But with this one, and we lived with it for many years because we recorded it in 2022, actually, we don’t have anything that we are particularly annoyed with. So that’s always a good sign. The crowd seem to love it. They all have different songs that they love, which I always take as a good sign. If it would be just one song on the album that they like you, can think, “oh, maybe that’s the good one!” but it seems everybody has their own, so that tells me that hopefully, it’s a strong album.”
Absolutely, and obviously, you’ve got a couple of collaborations on this album. You collaborated with Lou from Sick of It All on this record. How did that come about?
“We were recording with Tue Madison, who also worked with Sick Of It All, and I had this part of the breakdown, which I thought basically would fit Lou Koller’s voice quite fine. So I asked Tue what he thought, and he just texted Lou, and Tue was basically like, “Just send over the track, and you know if he likes it, he’ll do it,” and then he happened to like the track so then a couple of weeks later we got the version with his vocals on, and it was awesome.”
Now I have to talk to you about the other collaboration on this record because I’m calling you from Leeds, UK. You have a track on the record called ‘Bradford Death Squadron’. Is that Bradford in the UK?
“Yeah!”
Do you name-check Harrogate? I was listening to it, and I grew up there, literally down the road. So why a song about Yorkshire?
“What happened was me and our old bass player and our sound guy, we used to play X-Box together, and we played a game called Outriders. And I just got this idea of writing a song about a couple of gamers, but I would write it as a war song, but you would gradually get that, oh, this is not a war song, this is some gamers, but then that again evolved into me just creating this fictitious gang of gamers from Bradford that call themselves the Bradford Death Squadron. I probably never worked so hard on a lyric because I had to go to Wikipedia and find out about the Bronte sisters and the places in Yorkshire and everything. Then it just evolved into this weird little song about a gang of gamers from Bradford that call themselves Bradford Death Squadron. So hopefully, now someone will hear that song and call themselves Bradford Death Squadron.”
I had to play it back a few times. I was like, “Did he just say Harrogate?”
“I think you’re the first one that’s picked it up. No one’s asked about that song. Of course, they just asked about Aaron from Red Fang, but no one picked up on the Bradford thing!”
So there’s another track on the album called ‘Straight Edgelord’. Is that because you’re a Straight Edge band?
“No, not at all, no!“
Is there another reason behind it?
“Well, first of all, I love a good word pun, and I think Straight EdgeLord is a good pun, but the song it’s from a lyrical point of view; it tells a story about someone who’s straightedge but kind of breaks edge, sharing their own lives to themselves, that’s like the first layer of the song. So, it could come across as just that, but what it’s basically about is it’s just more of a metaphor for people who keep on lying to themselves and go on with their lives. They just find these excuses. I think it is a fairly common thing, so that’s what the song is about, but we just happen to use like a tongue-in-cheek straightedge protagonist for it.”
Yeah, I’ve noticed in your lyrics that you like puns. There are some great lyrics in here, like the one about marrying a Mormon girl and now being bankrupt and having nine wives.
“Oh yeah, from ‘Hereticules’.” (Laughs)
You’re from Trondheim, Norway. You were nominated for a Spellemann Award, which is a Norwegian Grammy, and you won the Bendiksen Award, which is granted by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. How did it feel to be acknowledged like that?
“Well, that one was pretty surprising and fun. They actually tricked us when we got the award because we got this interview request to do a review of some hamburgers at a place. We were like, “hell yeah,” because our booking agent knew that we didn’t like to do a lot of interviews, so we usually turned stuff down. Then she thought, “Okay, we can trick them into doing something here,” and rightly so. So we were really excited, and we went to this restaurant. There were journalists there, and they came out with different burgers. They asked us to give them grades and stuff. We were really serious about it, then, all of a sudden, a guy from Enslaved came out with a bucket of beer, and there were video cameras from TV2, a big Norwegian TV channel, and we still didn’t understand. Was it there for the Burger review? But then they were like, “Yeah, you won this award,” so we went live on TV and talked about it. So it was kind of a crazy day and a crazy way to win it. But it was excellent because it’s the musicians themselves that have voted for us. And with the Spellemann, the Grammy thing, then that’s very industry, people who know. Norway’s a little country; it’s very fixed, you know. But with the Bendiksen awards, we got the feeling that this was just musicians voting for other musicians. So that was pretty cool for us, and we had, not in a million years, thought it would go to a rock band because we were nominated alongside a lot of those like very popular pop and R&B acts, so that was pretty cool.”
We have to mention that you toured with Metallica. Back in 2019, you did 25 dates with Metallica. Now, what are your memories of that tour?
“There’s a lot of things. That adrenaline rush of going on stage at a stadium like Slain Castle, when there were just 60,000 or 80,000 people, was just an insane amount. That was a feeling I’ll never forget. Also, the fact that the Metallica guys were really chilled and down to earth. The times when we were out to dinner with them or maybe out drinking, we had a night out with Lars where we just drank till the next morning, which I will never forget. It was extremely cool. That whole tour, of course, was quite nerve-wracking for us in the beginning because most bands, when they have an opportunity like that, have a manager, a label, a booking agent, and they have people that can help them. We had nothing like that. We were basically as DIY as you get it, so tensions were high; we were pretty fucking stressed out during that tour, at least in the beginning. You know, because will you be able to play? How do you do all this? But then afterwards, we just enjoyed every night basically; they had their own bartender with them on tour, so they had a free bar. We went there; we had the best time.”
Have you started working on a new album at all?
“Yes, not like we haven’t planned an album, but there’s a lot of songs. I just came from our studio today and have been tracking some vocals. We have one song that actually went too high for my voice. We tried a lot of different tunings. I just ended up actually writing a new chorus and a new verse. So, I sent it to the other guys now and they seem to dig it. So yeah, we’re working on new material, and I think we will release something new this year. Not an album, but at least one or two singles, because at first, at least for me when I get in the mode, then I start working, and now we have started working.”
https://www.facebook.com/BokassaBand
Interview By George Miller
All Band Photos By Erlend Lånke Solbu
CATCH THE BAND ON TOUR NOW!
