Metal-Experience.com has issued an interview with BORKNAGAR guitarist Jens Fredrik Ryland. The following is an excerpt:

Q: Although your new album, Universal, has been postponed to an early 2010 release, we’d like to ask you a couple of questions about it. First of all, could you start this interview off with a short introduction of the members, you’ve had some lineup changes so can you give us a quick update on Borknagar?

A: "I guess you can say there was a revitalizing within the band as the Century Media contract expired and gave us room to look for other possibilities. Nothing wrong with CM, but you know: it's like getting a fresh start with someone else. So Øystein phoned me up one day and told me there was a contract suggestion from Indie, and things just started rolling from there. In between both Tyr and me were playing the live shows anyway, so it's not like we all lost connections. Somehow it feels more like I've been on vacation from Borknagar than having left and returned. Those are the changes you talk about, Tyr and me rejoined."

Q: How did you launch into writing material for Universal and how much time did you spend on the songs?

A: "The writing process is Øystein's, and him being one overproductive fellar he’s had some of the riffs on tape since the late nineties. The song named 'My Domain' was actually intended for The Archaic Course in 1998, that's also why Vortex was brought back in to do the vocals. Then there is the actual pre-production work to bring it all together, but also here most of the work is done by Øystein."

Q: What approach did you take to create this album, did you go for a more raw exposition... or something more reminiscent of your previous other works, or something all together different?

A: "The key words here are “fresh start” and the spirit within the band also reflects on the album. We want to move back in time a bit and recreate a bit of rawness in the sound and the songs themselves. Still the album is the best produced work we have done so far, Øystein is getting really good at this."

Q: How can we imagine you work on new songs, what's the typical writing process like for Borknagar?

A: "The actual writing process has changed over the years. As we live quite far apart we can't work things out in the rehearsal- studio, so we use Cubase to exchange files. Usually Øystein has most of the songs done anyway, so it's more about arrangements and details by the time we get the files. Øystein also always has a lot more material than we actually end up recording, and part of the process is to filter out what we don't want to use."

Read the full interview at Metal-Experience.com.