"Max Midsun is a good friend of ours. We really like his name, se we just stole it!"

Vocalist Kim Tungvag presents the young Norwegian quintet Max Midsun and its debut album, "Max the 1st", that appeared in October 2006 via Morningstar Records/Plastichead Distribution. Let's find out more about this "bastard child of Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, Tool, Entombed and Alice in Chains"...

Vassil Varbanov: Kim, where are you at the moment?

Kim Tungvag: I'm at my girlfriend's apartment in Trondheim.

V. V.: We can read on your website that you describe your music as a "bastard child of Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down, Tool, Entombed and Alice in Chains". Are you in harmony with this statement?

K. T.: Well, we feel it's quite right, but we're a band who wants to play our own music and not be that inspired by anyone.

V. V.: Who's the guy responsible for the amazing sound on your CD?

K. T.: Our guitar player, Rune Stavnesli - he produced the album.

V. V.: We can see that Max Midsun is quite a young band - you started less than three years ago. Besides having an album, I was impresses by the fact that in November you did a show in Trondheim with a quite different band - Satyricon...

K. T.: Yeah, we're different, but we did the gig to attract some attention.

V. V.: Did you succeed?

K. T.: Yes, because students in Norway are more into the kind of music that we play rather than hard black metal.

V. V.: Actually, Norway is famous mainly for its extreme black metal scene, but at the same time there are so many other bands playing different music, like Gluecifer, for example... What else is happening up there that we're missing?

K. T.: Hmm, probably us, he-he! We have bands like Turbonegro and a few more, but the truth is we don't have that many bands like ours in Norway, that's why I think we're quite unique in the Norwegian scene right now.

V. V.: And what are regular people in Norway into? You have the rock'n'roll scene, you have the black metal scene, and you have Max Midsun, but is there anything that grown up people listen to, especially nowadays, around Christmas?

K. T.: We have folk music that is played in Sweden and Norway, which is more like dance music for old people, but I think it's quite unique for Scandinavia.

V. V.: I see. So what's next for Max Midsun?

K. T.: We'll start working on a new album in January and we'll release it probably next summer. Besides, we'll do a tour in Norway, Germany and England.

V. V.: By the way, what stands behind the name Max Midsun?

K. T.: That's a good friend of ours. We really like his name, se we just stole it, ha-ha!

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock