WHITE VOID // What Existence Really Means: “Interesting music deserves interesting thematics”

The soundscape of Anti, the label debut from Norwegian outfit White Void, encompasses wonderful ’70s psychedelic nuances coupled with your standard ’80s rock, yet packs an incredibly unique twist by which White Void establish their own character and personality.

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This is largely amplified by the album’s philosophical themes and some very introspective ideas–but we’ll get to that.

At the helm of White Void, Lars Nedland has been in several bands in his time–Borknagar, Solefald, Age of Silence to name a few–though the majority of his musical dabbling has been in black metal. White Void sees Nedland step away from that palette and into what he describes as something softer. “That’s one of the real fun things about it,” he says of the new project, “to be able to explore a different side of my own musicality, not being bound by the strict boundaries that you have when you do stuff that comes from that black metal environment, I guess.”

By way of an example of those markless boundaries Nedland mentions, he pinpoints the album’s vocals, saying they lend a huge inspiration to bands like Duran Duran and Eurythmics and the way they constructed their melodies. White Void’s path toward the overall eclectic sound became a natural choice. “We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted to achieve sound-wise and how we wanted the sound to lift these elements up in the way that it’s mixed,” says Nedland.

“We wanted to mimic a bit of that 80s production, with a lot of reverb, when you feel that you have a lot of space around the vocals. We did quite a lot of experimenting with that when we produced the album to lift that up.

“I guess that’s one of the reasons why it feels like Anti; it twists and turns, and you get all these other inspirations just breaking through, the grittiness of the rock that’s the basis of the music.”

[It’s] a beautiful way of seeing something that seems as a huge negative, the fact that existence is absurd, and just turning it around and saying that yes, there’s no way around that.
[ Lars Nedland ]

White Void have traversed three or four decades of musical evolution to blend a sound that will uphold the nature of the album’s thematic interest, riddled with philosophical contrasts and references. “Interesting music deserves interesting thematics, don’t you think?” Nedland says, pensive yet teasing.

It’s true. That marriage is what makes it so easy to become very quickly invested in Anti as you listen. “I always thought hard rock and metal bands, in many respects, underestimate their audiences,” says Nedland. “When I wrote the music and the lyrics for White Void, I just decided that I’m going to write material that enables you to find things if you start digging.

“I want this to be substantial, to have something that you can take from it, [to] be led down a path to examine your own life and think about things in a different perspective. The music’s eclectic and, in many respects, the lyrics are eclectic as well. On this album, they’re all connected.”

Eclectic, yet cohesive. A systematic madness. Nedland continues, “This is not just me trying to throw everything out there at once. There’s got to be a connection between all the dots or else you just got a whole lot of dots; you don’t get a proper picture out of it.

“I connected all the lyrics on this album to a philosophical direction of absurdism, developed by Albert Camus in the 50’s, the French-Algerian writer and philosopher. I think it’s an interesting way of looking upon our own existence.”

Following Camus’ theories, Nedland says he’s attempted to write Anti’s lyrics a stream of consciousness, mimicking the way that the brain handles bad information and how it transforms it in a way that we conclude that in fact, we live an absurd existence. “[That] we have no inherent sense and direction in our lives,” says Nedland. “There’s no reason for us to be here. The universe goes, “There you go. You exist,” and then you go, “Okay. Thanks, I guess. Now what?” And the universe goes, “Eh, I don’t know.””

“The point is these are basic questions,” Nedland continues, enthusiastically. “These are questions about why [and] what are we supposed to do while we’re here? And there are no really good answers to that. That’s what philosophy tries to wrestle with.”

“Then Jean-Paul Sartre comes as the modern existentialism is developed and says, “you can create this bubble that you create your own meaning within.” And Camus comes, and he says, “Yeah, but that’s still eluding the fact that that universe has no direction for you, that existence is, in its core, absurd.””

“Camus [then] says the only way to counter the absurd is to actually accept it, because by accepting that the absurd state of existence that’s rolling underneath you no matter what you do, that’s the basis of your life, then you’re free from that thought if you just accept it. And that’s the road I’m going down.”

So, in accepting that there is no reason, approaching with the most open of minds, you come to understand the delicate yet staggering nuances of Nedland’s intentions with Anti. “[It’s] a beautiful way of seeing something that seems as a huge negative, the fact that existence is absurd, and just turning it around and saying that yes, there’s no way around that.”

“However, you’re able to handle that in a way that can make your life worthwhile, nonetheless. So that’s the easy explanation of what this album is about.”

 Purchase and stream White Void’s Anti here.