The Gauntlet.com interviewed ENSLAVED guitarist Ivar Bjørnson and bassist/vocalist Grutle Kjellson last month in Chicago. The following is an excerpt:

The Gauntlet: ...Another new experience - you’re with Indie now. I’ve read a little bit about how you followed guys who had been at Tabu, but aside from that, how has it been working with a new name?

Grutle: "Well, the most important thing is that they’re pretty young, so they believe in the stuff they’re doing. They’re enthusiastic and decided to only sign their favorite type bands, so they really want things to work out in the best possible way. Now it’s very difficult to release albums because of all the downloading going on all the time, so it’s been very difficult to actually sell an album, a product, you know? But they just want to make things work and are really on top of technology and stuff like that. I think that independent labels, like Indie Recordings, are suffering not half as much as the bigger labels. Metal is not the genre that suffers most from the downloading conflict, anyway, because it still has a very..."

The Gauntlet: ...loyal fanbase.

Grutle: "Yeah, exactly."

Ivar: "And I think also that they are people who aren’t looking for work - they’re working to change something. The whole idea of having a career is secondary."

Grutle: "Yeah. They’re into it because of the music."

Ivar: "When you mention a lot of the hardships of bigger labels, it’s the fact that they’re facing a shift in paradigms among listeners, where it’s not so much about the product but philosophy, lifestyle, and attitude. So these smaller labels, I think, will survive indefinitely."

Read the full interview at this location.