Oskar Tornborg #Interview

Here’s the man playing bass in one of my favorite Swedish bands: Wormwood. Their two last albums, where he plays, are something out of this world for me. Melodic, emotional, dramatic, fierce, with some folk-ish vibes, ahh damn perfect! But I wanted to interview Oskar for some other reasons. He joined last year the band Circular Ruin, a quite newly emerged Black/Death Metal act from Sweden. Their EP from March 2023 left me very impressed, and it was Elnefial (Symptoms of Sickness) doing vocals on that debut. Nowadays, it’s Oskar having this role in the band, and I’m very curious about their upcoming stuff.

Hi Oskar, thank you for your time answering this interview for Blessed Altar Zine. Which are your thoughts, sensations… now that the new album by Wormwood, “The Star”, finally came out? How has it been the reception of the new album by the public?

Oskar: Definitely a sense of relief. I’m amazed by how well it has been received!

Besides playing bass, do you have any more roles in this band?

Oskar: I also do some of the backing vocals live. I don’t do as much on the albums but if one wants to hear my contribution to The Star it’s a brief passage on Galactic Blood. And on Arkivet you can check out the track Ensamheten!

Do you have a favorite song on “The Star”, where you think you do your best work?

Oskar: Ouf! That’s a tough one… I think my favorite track on The Star is “Suffer Existence”. But what I consider my best work on The Star is definitely the bass on “Ro”.

How was it to join the other guys in Wormwood when the band had already released three albums? It was easy for you all to adjust to each other and make your sound so natural, as if you had been doing that for years? Because this was my impression the first time I listened to “Arkivet”… just as if you had been together since always.

Oskar: Well me and Nine have been making music together since maybe 2006 or so in the band Withershin. A band which Jerry also later joined in 2012. That of course helped a lot. But it took some getting used to of course, getting to know and embrace the feeling and the vision that they had already created. What can I say, it grew on me!

Can you tell us what playing live means to you? I’m asking you about your feelings once you pick your bass and enter the stage and then the music kicks in and everything flows… or, now with Circular Ruin, when you grab the mic and literally you bring out everything you have inside… How intense are these moments for you?

Oskar: In a way it’s everything. Live is what I live for, the feeling before you go on stage should always be that of a first kiss, or the first beer on a Tuesday that you called in sick just because you can. This strange and beautiful excitement, followed by a trance-like focus when everything takes off.

What about studio recording? Is that a smooth thing, do you enjoy when you must give your best ‘cause that has to be p e r f e c t, or can it be stressful?

Oskar: Usually it’s a smooth thing. With Wormwood we record everything but drums ourselves. So it’s more a time for experimentation and trying out things that might not be possible in the rehearsal. The drawback is that it can be hard to decide when something is finished so it tends to be a longer process. It’s not very different from how we’ve been working in Circular Ruin. We record bass and guitars ourselves but for drums and vocals we’ve been using The Overlook studios in Gävle, with the amazing William Blackmon behind the wheels. I wouldn’t call the vocal sessions stressful but I was a bit nervous before entering the studio as a vocalist for the first time.

Speaking about Circular Ruin, how and when was it that you joined this band?

Oskar: I didn’t know them before I joined. I got a call from Christian Thunarf (drummer) early last year with an invitation to do an audition. We have a common friend that probably had a hand in that happening. Apparently they liked it and here we are!

“Future Graves” was the debut EP by Circular Ruin, released in March last year, and there was Elnefial (from Symptoms of Sickness) doing vocals there. Can we expect some new stuff from the band soon? When will we finally listen to your canorous voice in addition to the candylike instrumentation in a new Circular Ruin album? … Because that’s how it sounds, right? …

Oskar: I can’t say how or when, we have a full length album recorded. But, being the pessimist I am, hopefully we can make a release early 2025. It will be downright evil from start to finish! There will also be a guest appearance from Elnefial, among others…

Is there any musician that has influenced you to play bass? And, the same for vocals: did you feel inspired by any vocalist when you started doing this?

Oskar: I was a huge KISS fan when I started playing bass, still a fan. So yeah, Gene Simmons, The Demon, of course. But when I got into the heavier stuff I think Tom Arraya of Slayer and of course Lemmy had a bigger impact on me.

For vocals it’s different, mostly being that I was much older. I don’t have one particular vocalist but I personally prefer angry old man voices, or ones where it feels like it physically hurts when they scream, like something is about to break.

At what age did you start playing music? And, which was the very first band you played with?

Oskar: I picked up bass when I was 13, I played violin before that but it wasn’t really my thing. The first band I played with was a really not good at all cover band. Can’t even remember what we called ourselves. We played live once at the local youth center. Thankfully I don’t think it was recorded in any way.

Asking your inner Metalhead, can you say which bands have you seen live that have impressed you the most? And which ones you still haven’t seen but you are dying for it?

Oskar: Oh that’s hard! First thing that popped up in my mind was a show with Converge in Stockholm. Where they ended the set with a cover of Wolverine Blues, with LG and Bannon on vocals. That was intense! Also a show with Bohren & der Club of Gore. It was like jumping through a portal and ending up like a fly on the wall in a weird episode of Twin Peaks. Maybe not so metal but extremely dark.

I haven’t seen OM or Primitive Man yet but intend to when I get the chance.

How do you see the underground Metal scene nowadays, Oskar? Do you think that these times we are living are better for small bands to be known and reach to more people?

Apart from quantity, as it seems there are a lot of new bands emerging everywhere, do you think there is quality too?

Oskar: I think it’s easier than ever to produce and release music. And I think that in some ways that makes it harder to get above the noise and find an audience. Especially as a small and new band. There’s most definitely quality to find, one just has to dig for it!

What’s the most important thing in your opinion that defines a good musician?

Oskar: Dedication to what you are doing. That and not being an asshole.

Which are the albums, bands… that you love the most? Is there a special song that has a strong emotional sense for you, and that you could be listening to it forever?

Oskar: There’s so many so I will just drop a few in no particular order.

Craft – Fuck the Universe
Anekdoten – Rubankh (from the album Nucleus)
Neurosis – Times of Grace
The Crown – Deathrace King
Bohren & der Club of Gore – Midnight Black Earth
sunn o))) – Black One

I have a lot of songs that mean a lot to me but I have no one I could listen to forever. If I could choose between only hearing one song forever or silence I would choose silence.

Which band(s) was/were your entrance door to Metal?

Oskar: Morbid Angel and Skitsystem

Can you name three things that you couldn’t live without?

Oskar: Cats, music and cheese

What does Metal music mean to you in your life?

Oskar: A lot. To some extent It’s how I think and feel and how I experience the world and others.

It’s been a pleasure having you in our zine, Oskar. Is there anything you want to add?

Oskar: The pleasure is mine, and thank you for having me! If you haven’t listened to The Star with Wormwood yet. What are you waiting for? And if you enjoyed Future Graves with Circular Ruin, keep your eyes peeled, because darkness is brooding on our altar.

Interview by Sílvia

Well, now you’ve been warned! Check out “The Star” by Wormwood and enjoy, and if you are a curious Metalhead go and listen to Withershin, there’s really good Black Metal there. About Circular Ruin, well, we can listen patiently for their new stuff to come, right? Support the bands, support the underground.