Originally launched by drummer Ken Klejs and guitarist Nicolai Hansen as a heavier side project of the shoegaze band Antennas To Nowhere, Danish quintet Møl spun a lot of heads with its 2018 debut full-length Jord, an immersive sonic tapestry that called to mind everything from Cult of Luna and Deafheaven to Failure and Dinosaur Jr.
“We all bonded over our love of ethereal and whirling sounds initially,” Klejs tells Decibel. “We all came from different musical backgrounds — shoegaze, death metal, post-rock, hardcore — [but had] a unified love for shoegaze and similar genres and different metal/heavy music.”
“The desire to mix shoegaze and more heavy sounds was the initial intent,” guitarist Frederik Lippert adds. “That became more nuanced over time by infusing inspirations from different metal subgenres.”
In the afterglow of Jord the band has remastered and reissued its 2014 and 2015 EPs as a single LP entitled I/II — released by Holy Roar and available in the U.S. now via Deathwish Inc or Bandcamp — and today we’ve got an exclusive premiere of a peek-behind-the-curtain video for the track “Sundrowned” as well as a short Q&A with Lippert and Klejs. Enjoy!
After the full-actualization moment of Jord, it must be an interesting experience to revisit this early material. Delving back in did you find a new appreciation for what you created on these two EPs?
Going back to visit our old material is mixture of nostalgia and realizations about the potential of the future. We can see where we’ve come from, how we’ve grown, and where we might go in the future. It’s very exciting to think about the constant evolution of the music. Building on what you know and gaining new skills and experiences are just some of the reasons why we all love music as an artistic medium. This is definitely something that will carry through to the follow-up to Jord.
On the other side of the equation, a reissue suggests a desire to not only sharpen sound quality, but also to get this material into newly intrigued hands. From the perspective of someone who got into MØL via Jord, do you think I/II provides important context for the band’s journey?
Yeah, listening to I/II would clarify why Jord sound the way that it does. On I/II our influences are very obvious, — as they are for most bands starting out — but there are elements that carried on to the creation of Jord. So listening to I/II after you’ve listened to Jord is sort of like looking at the blueprints of Møl. Ideas and experiments that pushed us into creating Jord.
I’m curious about the original intent of the band. How close did I/II get to the mark during those first practice sessions?
We like to think we came close to making the music we wanted to make at the time when we recorded the EP’s. But instead of feeling like we nailed it first time around, we were motivated to keep pushing and get closer to making the music we want to make. Hopefully, we never get there. If you’re completely satisfied, there is no drive to keep evolving the music. We aim to never stagnate. Revisiting our EP’s has solidified this goal.
Are these songs going to make more frequent appearances in your live set going forward? If so, will they take on different forms?
A few songs from the EP’s have been stables in our live performances. And as with all our songs, there is always room for experimentation, especially on stage. It is something we believe makes a live show “live.”
Now that you’ve had your breakthrough moment and gone back to revamp/resuscitate your past, what does the future look like for Møl?
New music. We’re very early in the demo process, but we are trying to staple together ideas and make music that we enjoy and are proud of. Also — more shows! Looking forward to playing some festivals here in the summer — 2000Trees, Saari Helvetti, Arctangent — and touring in the fall in support of Rivers of Nihil alongside Black Crown Initiate and Orbit Culture. Looking forward to seeing everybody out there on the road and to making more music soon!
