Mikkel Rev
INTERVIEW - MIKKEL REV - 2026:
The Norwegian band Mikkel Rev caught our attention with their superb album, ”Ingen ro”, and having said that, we wanted to find out more about this brilliant band. Here´s the answers:
Greetings from Stockholm. How´s the current mood in the Mikkel Rev band?
It’s good! Spring is here and we feel the urge to play as ever before!
For the last couple of weeks we have been listening to your fantastic LP, "Ingen ro", released in 2025. How did you give birth to this album? Can you tell us about the process in compiling the songs for this LP?
We recorded the album in the hot summer days of 2024 with Hans Uhre at Sprengstoff studio in Frosta, Norway. Everything except vocals was recorded live and some of the tunes we learned a couple of days before going in the studio. I guess we like to keep things raw and unpolished, in order to leave room for spontaneity and unpredictability.
Equally interesting to know...how, when, where and why did you start the band?
Three of us studied folk music together in Rauland in Telemark. Years later at a collective in Ås, outside Oslo, things started happening as we felt like turning the volume up with drums and electrifying the fiddle and guitar. A lot of psychedelic jams and late nights later a band was formed called Mikkel Rev.
We really find your music to be very uplifting and soothing for your soul. Was it a conscious decision to also play some of the songs in the major key?
A lot of the hardanger fiddle material we use in the band is often in a major key. I guess we often pick tunes that have some sort of interesting melody and cool groove and then we try to play it and see if it works out.
Speaking about major and minor...why do you believe that quite a lot of the folk music is being performed in the minor key? Is the mood of the Scandinavian people a little bit sad and melancholic?
Maybe that is so! I think a lot of the Swedish and eastern Norwegian folk music is often perceived as more melancholic but along the coast of Norway, and I believe to some extent Sweden too, the melodies are more in major. We like all the styles!
You also have some songs with lyrics. What in life inspires you when you add lyrics to your jams?
People have been telling us that it’s nice when there is some singing too in between the long jams! But we do actually like to sing and we all write songs on our own as well as writing songs together.
You hail from Norway, but your bass player, Mats Nystam, are from Sweden. How often do you rehearse and have you played in Sweden yet?
Super rare! We played on one occasion at Mats’ friend Malins birthday party outside Stockholm once. We’d love to play more in Sweden.
You have a very original sound, but we can also hear some kinship with old progg bands like for example Kebnekajse, Träd Gräs & Stenar and Fläsket Brinner, just to mention but a few. Do you feel any connection to these bands or do we purely overanalyze this?
Mats the bass player has introduced us ignorant Norwegians to these bands among
other great Swedish bands. So yes we definitely feel like these progg bands
have inspired us and we have heard several times that people associate us with
them.
Speaking of bands that you love...which artists and bands would you invite if you would arrange your own festival? Would you arrange it in Norway and if so, at which location?
This is a funny question because we do arrange our own small festival where we invite up and coming bands to come and play. Locations are varying, we like places which are in scenic and enclosed environments with forests, mountains and lakes/the sea! Artist which we’d like to come and play would be: Frederic Bech, Pumpegris, Diket, Reolô, among plenty others!
We have come to the end of the journey together with you for this time. Is there any last reflections or words you would like to say to your listeners?
Go out and see live shows! :)
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