The ever-active Grafjammer have been steadily making their way within the Dutch Black Metal scene for several years now. Although new work is always on the way, with some recent reissues on vinyl (via the Zwaertgevegt label, among others) this seemed a good moment for reflection. A bit of looking back, what is Grafjammer today and what does the future bring? Singer, poet and all-round sophisticated visionary Jorre tells us…
Hi there Jorre and welcome to our pages. Although you have some new recordings coming up, we decided to have this little conversation before their subsequent individual releases. But that leads to the first question, you do seem to keep quite a steady working pace, what is driving you?
Hello Felix. Thank you for wanting to interview us in what is a period of relative silence to the outside world. This year we have not been doing any shows but decided to focus on completing our line-up and finding a permanent drummer. Now that we have achieved that since a couple of months with Jicht behind the kit we are now busy writing a new album. And becoming a tight unit together before we start appearing live again.
The question of what is driving us is a relevant one. When our previous drummer Jahwe and guitarist Jouter decided to leave Grafjammer last year that put us in a bit of an impasse. Although their parting happened very amicable and was inevitable since they both wanted to pursue more professional and full-time goals within music (which would never happen in Grafjammer) it was quite a setback nonetheless.
It made me personally question for a while how much I really wanted to continue. Or instead starting a vegetable garden or ride model trains or something like that. Bass player Jelle and guitarist Jeroen had similar thoughts.
But after a little introspection and some talking we found out that we were not willing to quit just yet. Simply because we had still too much fun doing it. There was a lot of stuff and ideas lying around that we did not want to abandon.
For the basis of Grafjammer is creating stuff. The simple joy of making something that was not there before. Be it a song, an album cover, a shirt of something as banal as a Facebook post. Everything that can be an outlet for creativity. And have a nice time doing that with likeminded individuals. As hippy and unTRVE that may sound, I think that is the core of it. And it was only enhanced by the joining of Jammerhout and Jicht.
There is no higher calling or mission for us, the universe is without point and so are we. We just like to enjoy ourselves, messing around in the half light of a rehearsal room. If people are willing to buy our stuff and come to our shows we naturally appreciate that very much. But it is not the main goal, more a welcome bonus. And we don’t seem to be done just yet. We don’t really have big plans but just like to see where this ship of fools is going to beach.
Your music is unquestionably only to be labeled as Black Metal, yet, on a more detailed musical level there seem to be going on a lot more. At least you have quite a distinctively different sound, can you take us on a trip through the minds of Grafjammer? You come across as a person and musician with a serious and clear vision on how to deal with things, how did the Grafjammer sound came into being?
How I come across must be a complete pose then, pretending to know what I’m doing. Because like I said, there was never much planning involved. When I started Grafjammer in 2007 with Harry it was just the idea of making raw black metal with Dutch lyrics in the vein of Darkthrone with a lot of punkvibes and Motörhead. That never really changed, although through the years our sound became more defined. But mostly just by way of evolution and not by intelligent design. It’s always been a thing more of feeling than of clear vision.
Every new Grafjammer member through the years brought new ideas and input and I like to just see were things go with that. It has always been a group effort. Also because of the small but not completely unimportant detail that I’m only a vocalist and can’t play any instrument even to save my sorry life. So I’m dependent of what the other guys come up with. Although I know very well what I like and don’t mind saying so.
But somehow in every incarnation of this band there has always been a strong feeling of what suits Grafjammer. There never have been real discussions or big words about style. We just start with some riffs or a rough idea for a song and then see where it takes us. ‘Just smear some paint on it when you’re looking at a blank canvas and don’t know what to do’. I think it was Vincent van Gogh who said that. If that was good enough for him, it sure is for us.
Picking up on the previous question, you have quite a diverse background when it comes to musical experience. How much of that do you incorporate into Grafjammer’s musical direction? That seems to be true to a lesser extent for the others, apart from Jammerhout, the guitarist who joined the band in 2022, most of the musicians who are or have been part of the band are Black Metal oriented, while Grafjammer’s music is not necessarily so, or am I seeing that wrong?
Hard question… I never really analyze our music that deep. It just comes out of the oven the way that it does……it’s true that we all did a lot of things outside black metal in the long years that we have been dabbling in music. Surely that influences the stuff we do now. But to what extend exactly I don’t dare to say.
What I like about Grafjammer is that we always tried to maintain a bit of a ‘first wave’ Black Metal feel. When there was no fixed template for black metal (or any other subgenre really) and bands where just doing what they thought sounded brutal. We never tried to adhere to a fixed BM blueprint. Whatever that is anyway. But again, we never talk about it much. If something works, we use it.
And I’m certainly not going to claim that what we do is in any way revolutionary of groundbreaking. What’s most important in my taste is the ‘swing’. It that respect we might be more a rock ’n roll band instead of black metal. We like it catchy and recognizable and thus steer clear of technicality, complexity and atmospheric shit.
Something I really appreciated from your first (?) band are your lyrical antics, although back then they were adolescent jokes and gags you now seem to address more serious (local) historical topics. However, your signature is still recognizable in creative use of language and yet again that sense of comedy. You seem to spend a lot of time and care on this, how do you get inspired?
Well thank you very much. Although for the record I have no idea what previous band you speak off. But I do like to spend a lot of time on my lyrics for Grafjammer. I can keep filing away at certain sentences for weeks and I’m always on the hunt for forgotten Dutch phrases and words. The inspiration for topics come mainly from books. I’m an avid reader and I like to collect old books on myth and history and old Dutch books in general. But ideas can just as easily come from something as simple as a weird road sign or the name of a street when I’m riding my bicycle. Anything can tickle my curiosity and I’m a true Wikipedia junkie. If there’s a good story hidden I’m on it like a fly on a dead dog. Especially if it’s a local story and if it’s a dark one.
I sometimes interweave those stories with more personal reflections, but not too much. The function of the lyrics is to follow and enhance the atmosphere of the songs. It’s certainly not a personal diary or psychotherapy.
The comedic in it is never completely absent. Partly because it’s something that happens natural but also I because I firmly believe taking existence too serious lies at the root of most problems. The joker is always the best card of the deck. In that part we might be a bit Unblack metal. We don’t pretend to be the Unholy Lord of Black Sperm while everybody knows that on Monday morning you have to run for the bus like every other sucker.
You sometimes classify your own music as something that translates to Dutch Primitive Necrorock. Now, the basis of the music is perhaps a rough (and thus primitive) mix of bands like Venom, Bathory and Motörhead. But I still don’t think of Grafjammer as a standard Darkthrone/Carpathian Forest-type, how do you look at this from the inside?
I think it has to do something with the song structures. To that we have a more blues/rock ‘n roll/punk approach. The more extreme music is, the more I think it needs hooks and swing to keep it recognizable. It has to have a catch and I strongly believe in the power of an irresistible chorus and simplicity.
In that respect we more akin to something like the Exploited than to a lot of black and death metal bands. When songs last longer than 4 minutes and have more than 5 riffs I’m usually out. I have the attention span of a goldfish and sophisticated and intricate musicality is wasted on me.
But again, that was exactly the approach of bands like Motörhead and Venom and precisely what I like so much about them. Anyway, that’s where the Necrorock moniker comes from.
The ‘primitive’ also relates to the Do It Yourself spirit I like. I can’t really draw and have close to zero knowledge of DTP or filmmaking. But I still love to make (or partly steal together) our shirt designs, covers and lyric videos. If necessary literally with spit and cello tape. It would probably look better and be easier if I outsourced that kind of stuff, but that would be no fun. And it wouldn’t really be Grafjammer.
I cited it briefly already, you keep a pleasant work pace. A re-press of your split 7” EP with fellow townsmen Wrang was recently released via an unnamed channel, but there are also some new releases on the way. Can you maybe share anything about that already?
Absolutely. Like you said a new repress of the ‘Koude Gracht/Gramme Werf’ 7 inch split with Wrang was just released through the Worship the Goat label. This time on black vinyl and the artwork in a beautiful blue hue instead of the red from the first batch. I really like how nice it turned out again and also that it’s not ‘just’ a repress but that there is a clear difference between the two batches. I have fond memories of the day that we recorded both those songs live in dB’s together with Wessel from Catacomben Studio.
And I’m waiting anxiously for the new split with Abrahamic Liars from Antwerp to arrive from the pressing plant. It’s called ‘Saptem & Gadoot’ and will be released on 150 pcs of red vinyl. ‘Saptem en Sterf’ is the song contributed by Abrahamic Liars and ‘Gadoot’ is a new Grafjammer ditty that we recorded in Studio Moskou with our stand in drummer Jenever last november. I release that one myself through my own microlabel ‘Smeerenburgh Grammofoon’.
After all the Covid drama and our line-up shifts we were eager to release at least something new this year and I’m really happy with the result. I can’t wait to hold the thing finally in my hands. Talking about the drive you asked about in your first question, I think for me that is the essence of it. You start with a vague idea in the rehearsal room and after a lot setbacks and gnashing of teeth there is something there that did not exist before. Something that is completely ‘yours’ in all it’s flaws and imperfections.
7 inches always present us with the small trouble that they require songs that are a little longer than we usually feel comfortable with on the fact that you don’t want to waste costly vinyl. So ‘Gadoot’ clocks nearly 5 and half minutes. That’s practically a rock opera for us. But I think we get away with it.
Continuing on the previous topic, from the sidelines you seem like a hard-working guy who is clearly busy managing the band. I got that impression from the always prompt responses I got from you (which certainly shouldn’t be considered the norm), but also from the fact that you release a lot of your music on your own label set up for this purpose (Smeerenburg Grammophone), but also arrange and keep track of your foreign shows and connections. How do you handle that?
It’s not so hard to keep up with the messages for Grafjammer since I definitely don’t get dozens a day. And even then I sometimes manage to overlook some e-mail or order on Bandcamp. Grafjammer is certainly not a buzzing 24 hour professional business if you got that impression. And I have no ambition whatsoever to make it so.
Concerning the foreign contacts and such, that was our previous guitarist Jouters’ domain. He was the real networker. When the new album and new shows are due I’ll have to try to emulate some of his PR skills. But that is not something that comes natural to me or something that I like.
I’m busy enough as it is with my job and my family and the dealings of everyday life. Grafjammer is supposed to be my get away, not another job. I like to have time left to read books, go cycling or just be lazy. I think that counts for all the guys in the band these days.
The same goes for my ‘label’ on which I must correct you that it’s called Smeerenburgh GrammoFOON. Dutch of course. (Sorry!) I don’t even have a website for that so I’m not a record tycoon to speak off. It’s just a name that I slap on the back of the stuff that I release myself for Grafjammer. Gives it a little more professional look. But that is just a ruse.
You come from Utrecht, a place that has slowly developed into one of the hotbeds of the Dutch Black Metal scene. Though as usual is the case with these types of booming local scenes, it mainly relies on a selective group of musicians who pop up more than once in the bands involved. Still, how do you explain these fertile breeding grounds of the city of Utrecht?
Another very good question, but I’m not sure if I’m the one to give you an in depth and well considered answer to that. Apart from our good friendship with the guys from Wrang we have always operated a bit on the outskirts of the Utrecht BM scene. A lot of these bands play a more sophisticated and ‘avant-garde’ style then us and are very ambitious. And although we have no quarrel with anybody that will never be our thing. But we feel comfortable on the margins. That fact that we all now qualify as ‘older youngsters’ will probably also have something to do with it. What certainly helps is that nearly all of those bands rehearse in dB’s. A great place where also a lot of BM shows are hosted. So you’re always running into other people and there is lot of interaction. Musically and socially.
At least for now. Since the municipality of Utrecht has sold the ground of dB’s tot the Moloch of project developers the place is to be converted into overpriced condo’s for expats and hipsters. Our democratic overlords claimed to take dB’s plight to heart and realize a new location, but that plan hangs by a thread at the moment and it’s nowhere from guaranteed that there will be a dB’s left in the new year. So then a few hundred bands will be back to garages and garden sheds and cellars. Very KVLT and underground of course, but let’s hope it does not come that nonetheless.
Since you have a clear vision of where you want to go with the band, how, musically, do you look back on the Grafjammer releases so far and how do you foresee the future?
Not so long ago Alex from Zwaertgevegt released our first two albums, ‘Koud Gemaakt’ and ‘Schalm & Schabauw’ on vinyl. That means that our complete discography is now etched in the black gold, which I found a memorable occasion. It also made me listen to those two releases in it’s entirety again since quite a few years. And to my surprise I didn’t peel of the wallpapers overcome by revulsion and shame. I was actually quite satisfied with what I was hearing. I like the evolutions we went through as a band and how different we sounded with different line-ups, yet always entirely Grafjammer.
With our most recent recording ‘Gadoot’ again we explored some new territory. This time with the great contribution of Jenever, our stand-in drummer from last year. As I said we hope to receive the split 7 inch with the song on it very soon and plan some sort of a release party together with our associates from Abrahamic Liars.
But foremost right now we’re focusing all of our energy on becoming a unity as a band again with Jammerhout and Jicht. That works out very well until now, both socially and musically. Both are excellent musicians and overall very agreeable people that have the same mindset as the rest of us. We’re in the process of writing a -hopefully- banger of a new album. The first four songs are almost completed and a lot more are on the wharf right now. Expect a lot of high energy, high paced stuff with lots of d-beat vibes and a fuck you attitude. I make no definite claims about how the final result will eventually dry out but the inspiration and energy runs rife.
After that, the world. Hopefully we’ll play some nice shows again and by that time we will probably also have thought of new stuff to conjure. If we don’t die in the process that is.
Well, Jorre, thank you so much for your comprehensive and in-depth answers and the insight into the soul of Grafjammer. Will you keep me up to date?
Definitely. We’ll keep you informed. Thank you for having us!
Some pictures by Marc van Peski.
