Seiðr (Andreas Westholm) #Interview

Photo by Sagaverse Management
Seiðr (whose real name is Andreas Westholm) is a Swedish musician best known for his band Seid. They play Black Metal with lyrics focused on Norse mythology, ancient times, and Vikings. They released their fifth album, “Hymns to the Norse,” on October 18th, 2024. I conducted an interview with Andreas to talk about this new album, his career, and life in general.
Hi Seiðr, and thank you for agreeing to this interview. How have you been lately, and how do you feel about the reception of Seid’s new album by the metal community?
Seiðr: Greetings, Sílvia. Thank you for the support. The last part of 2024 has been a bit challenging, to be honest. But somehow I like it that way. I am a warrior in everything I do, and so far, I have always pulled through and grown from the experiences gathered through the years. My life has never been a fairy tale, obviously, but I regret nothing.
The new album is different from “Svartr Sól” (the previous one) in many ways. It is more of a thematic album, made for listening from start to finish, and it is not focused on “hit songs,” if you know what I mean; it doesn’t have those elements. Instead, it maintains a consistent standard throughout, slowly creating a feeling, a call to arms from the past, an echo of glorious times. It is an album that keeps growing the more you listen to it.
With that said, the initial reception of “Hymns to the Norse” was a bit reserved. Our vinyl label didn’t want to release it, and our CD label didn’t want to release it on vinyl. Black Metal Promotion didn’t want to premiere it, but through that process, I was pretty convinced things would change, as the tide does. Black Metal Promotion changed their mind, and a premiere was made. Our CD label changed their mind too and wanted to do the vinyl edition. Reviews came one after another with very high scores. People have been posting online and writing to me privately that this is the strongest SEID album ever. So it went from “what is this, we didn’t expect this, we wanted another “Svartr Sól” to “hmm, this is actually really good”. We had a great release party for “Hymns to the Norse” in October, and our new drummer is a great fit for the band in every way. We’ve already been working on some sketches for new songs. They are very dystopian this time around. Without making any promises, I guess you can expect yet another album from SEID. I feel I have at least two more albums in me. SEID, like me personally, is a slow starter / late bloomer but somehow a winner in the end.
How would you describe Seid’s music for those who are not yet familiar with your band?
Seiðr: Blend Motörhead, Bathory’s “Hammerheart”, and Marduk’s first three albums together. Add just a pinch of Dissection and a spice of The Stockholm Sound (Entombed, Dismember, and such). Then, consume everything by yourself in darkness inside your studio – in my case, Dark Prod Studios, to be specific. Dark Prod is where I have been recording, mixing, and mastering all SEID albums, but also a lot of other bands, mainly non-Swedish bands to be honest. Since 2002, I have been creating my own “sound” there, my own sound philosophies, and techniques.
Working with other bands that I like, but didn’t have a part in creating the songs for, is sometimes a lot easier than working with my own music, especially when it comes to mixing. You get a bit blind to your own creations, I would say.
What is your main source of inspiration for writing your lyrics?
Seiðr: Old Norse sagas and Asatru. Cosmos, science, curses, and out-of-body experiences. I interpret many current things with this mindset or “filter.” It has never made more sense since the James Webb telescope and the latest developments in the field of quantum mechanics. We have come to a very interesting point in our timeline, where a scientist can seriously look you in the eye and say, “your guess is as good as mine.” I reconcile my interests in the lyrics for SEID. They are multi-layered and perhaps less direct than your typical pagan black metal in that sense. I understand we seem to be a Viking metal band —and we are— but sometimes that’s just the set stage, or time frame, where this exploration happens to take place.
Which song in your latest album is the most meaningful to you?
Seiðr: Good question. Actually, the first two – the intro called “Hymn to Ivar” and also “The End of Days (Monolith II)”.
When it comes to “Hymn to Ivar”, is a straightforward neo-folk hymn to honor and welcome my youngest son into this realm. I did this for all my children. The album “Ulv” is dedicated to my firstborn son Ulv, and “Svartr Sól” is dedicated to my daughter Sol. Of course, they don’t care so much now, but I think when they get older, they will understand why I did that and respect the amount of work behind it.
When it comes to “The End of Days (Monolith II)”, the lyrics follow up my thoughts and visions from the song “Monolith” on the 2019 album “Ulv”, It felt meaningful for me to do so and to add theories of wormholes to it to finish that path. It is a mix of monoliths, megaliths, obelisks, cosmos, time traveling, and honoring the rune stones all in the same. I also specifically like the song’s texture and structure when it comes to the music, with that jazzy interlude part in the middle and so on. It is actually Pär’s (the new drummer’s) favorite song on the album too, and I can notice that in his fantastic playing there.

Do you already have some scheduled gigs for 2025?
Seiðr: Yes, on January 31st we have the great honor of supporting Thyrfing and Månegarm here in Stockholm. It’s a special gig where both of them celebrate 30 years as bands. In November 2025, two gigs are scheduled: we will headline the ATMF fest in Italy, somewhere close to Pordenone, and we will also play at Club Wakuum in Graz, Austria. We’re always looking for more contacts and gigs.
What pushed you to start composing and playing your own music and forming your band Seid? Was it hard for you, starting as a one-man project and doing everything by yourself?
Seiðr: Well, I have been more or less active as a musician since 1992 in different genres and constellations, and I have had my own studio since 2002, so I wouldn’t say it was hard. But SEID was very much about going back to my roots in black metal. I started SEID as a lone wolf collaborating with different studio drummers, until Arant took the place as a studio drummer. But he lives in Alabama. Then, just before the pandemic, I did two shows with session musicians. After the pandemic, we changed session drummers and did more shows, but they and I got tired of it, basically just getting half the job as a drummer. Now, with Pär as our new drummer (also in Craft and Kall), he plays both on the new album and live, luckily! The studio drummer before Pär was living in Alabama, as I mentioned, so that’s why session drummers were needed. They did great work, but at this level of drumming, good drummers are not growing on trees.
Which aspect of Norse mythology is the most alluring to you?
Seiðr: I grew up in rural Uppsala, where you could find a rune stone on every dirt road. Ravens would fly in pairs overhead, and it was less than a 30-minute drive to the Gamla Uppsala grave mounds. My first blot was with the neighbor kid living 3 km away when we were in the woods at 6 or 7 years old. Thanks to Icken, we always had a blast. My latest blot was in Norrköping less than two weeks ago. So basically, I got this with my mother’s milk, and this question becomes hard to answer when I am still immersed in it 40 years later.
*Note: “blot” means a pagan sacrifice, like in Midvinterblot, when the longest darkness (night) takes place: it’s a ceremony for paying respect to the old Gods.
What can you tell us about Walls of the Desolate? You released an EP in 2024 with this band, along with your bandmates Osgilliath (guitars, vocals) and Simon Samuelsson (drums). How is it for you to play such different music from Seid, and what pushed you to do this?
Seiðr: Yes, Osgilliath is in SEID too (bass), and Simon was our second session drummer (now in Wormwood). We were all fans of “Peaceville Doom” in general. In my case, I am a huge fan of “Shades of God” by Paradise Lost, which got me more into death metal when it came out, and anything with Tom G. Warrior. So we just felt the need to explore that, I think. So we did and self-released an EP on YouTube/Bandcamp, and we are working on new songs there too. Keeping busy as always.
Are you in any other band(s)? Are they active and releasing new music?
Seiðr: I was in Serpent Omega before and parallel to SEID. That band was some kind of democracy where everybody also had a veto. Needless to say, we weren’t super effective and we released only two albums, in 2013 and 2020. This ineffectiveness was what caused me to create SEID from the start—I was climbing the walls, creatively speaking. I am also in a few projects that are not real bands, such as Chaos Battalion (another lone wolf project) and Útgarðar together with Nate who plays bass in UADA.
What kind of music were you listening to as a child and teenager? Are you still listening to it?
Seiðr: As a pre-teen, I listened to ZZ Top, Europe, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Sepultura, Discharge, Dischange, Anticimex, and Alice in Chains.
I was born in 1979 during Lupercalia, so as a teenager in the 90s, I listened to Entombed, Dismember, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, Paradise Lost, Marduk, Dissection, Internal Decay, Impaled Nazarene. The list is long, but to be honest, I was not that much into Norwegian Black Metal back then until I heard Satyricon. I am very thankful to have grown up in the most musically and life-forming years in the 90s since every great band ever had its prime then. Haha.
Which album or band made you fall for metal?
Seiðr: Motörhead and Iron Maiden, along with the “Born Again” album by Black Sabbath.
As a metal fan yourself, is there any musician you don’t know in person that you would like to sit down and chat with for a while, maybe because you admire them or enjoy their music a lot?
Seiðr: Lemmy is dead, so last on my list was Morgan from Marduk, but I had the chance to do that with him less than two weeks ago. So this question comes with eerie timing. I bought him a gin and tonic and described to him what it meant to me to hear “Those of The Unlight” and specifically “Opus Nocturne” (which they had just played in its entirety the same night) as a 15-year-old. He appreciated it a lot.
This is a very cool anecdote indeed!
Now, moving to another subject: do you think the climate in the Nordic countries determines the music made there in some way? And what about your way of living? How do the extreme cold and snow in winter, and the short days, affect your everyday life, if they do?
Seiðr: Definitely. Our old folk music, most easily accessible through Jan Johansson’s “Jazz på Svenska”, and the darkness/short days have a great influence on the music here. Melancholy is everywhere. For example, the most famous Swedish pop band after ABBA even sounds sad and suicidal. Haha, I am talking about Kent. Either you become a hockey player or you start a band, simple as that. Obviously, I sucked at hockey.

What qualities do you value the most in a person? And what do you think is the worst attitude anyone can have?
Seiðr: I respect people who are ready to struggle a bit to get their way or will. Glory doesn’t come easy. We who have been around for a longer while without giving up keep the whole scene alive as the important middle pylon of the scene. We get too little credit for it, but everyone expects us to do what we do. The famous bands are just sprinkles on top. The big festivals should start to realize that they can’t just book the safe bets all the time if they want more bands coming up in the future.
These younger guys whining all the time makes me want the war to come tomorrow to put everything into perspective for them. I don’t like starfuckers (male or female). I’ve seen a lot of guys run up to famous musicians to ask for a selfie and not even take the time to chat or actually say something meaningful, leaving the famous musician directly after the selfie to put it on social media while wanking their own cock, leaving the poor musician feeling like a dirty whore. Female Instagram models in band shirts usually have more followers than the actual bands. Lonely, horny, pathetic men create this syndrome; I am not even blaming the women. Everything is plastic and cliché. Well, not everything, but since social media came, overwhelmingly so. But this is a cyclic thing, I think and hope.
Do you have any “secret skills” you want to share with our readers?
Seiðr: HAHA, so many that I can’t choose, nudge nudge, know what I mean? I make disgusting semla, I am 200 cm tall, and I like old American cars. The Dodge van in the band picture is actually mine, and I have a pickup truck too. A Dodge Charger from 1968 would probably be my dream car. Yeah, you guessed the color right: black.
Do you have any musical guilty pleasures you can confess?
Seiðr: I already confessed to one of them – Alice in Chains – and I also love Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. I wouldn’t be ashamed of that, though. Gil Scott-Heron is probably more unexpected.
Do you imagine yourself not playing music? How important is metal in your life and what does it mean to you?
Seiðr: I had a few years here and there where I wasn’t very active as a musician or songwriter, but in those years I did a lot of work in the studio with other bands instead. However, the urge to be creative is very strong, and I don’t really function without making music. Lesson learned. It doesn’t have to be metal, though.
Many thanks for your answers, Seiðr. Is there anything you want to add?
Seiðr: I just want everyone to think about how important it is to appreciate and share the work of smaller bands too, if you like it, of course. Buying the albums or merch is great, but there are more ways of supporting the scene that cost you absolutely nothing. Big thanks to you, Sílvia, for doing what you do. Give all my respect to Blessed Altar Zine.
Interview by Sílvia
Make sure to check out the new album by Seid, “Hymns to the Norse,” for a great dose of (non conventional) Norse Black Metal. Also, dig into their discography to fully enjoy the band. And you can also check the music done by Seiðr with his other bands. Listen, share… and support the underground.
Seiðr
Instagram
Seid
Official site
Bandcamp
Instagram
Spotify
Facebook
Walls of the Desolate
Bandcamp
Instagram
Facebook
Útgarðar
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre.**
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
#TheZineSupportingTheUnderground