Back in 2009, Norwegian progressive metal act Leprous put out their first major release, Tall Poppy Syndrome. It was something to get excited about, with its bombastic songwriting and fantastic vocals. The band has come back with Bilateral, a more focused and honed-in effort. Signing to a bigger label in Inside Out Music will allow Bilateral a wider release that should find favor with fans of progressive music.


I had the chance to speak to guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke about the new album and the band’s experience playing in the U.S. for the first time.

Dan Marsicano: The band’s last album, Tall Poppy Syndrome, got a well-received response. Was the band surprised at the publicity that album got?
Tor Oddmund Suhrke: Well, of course, that’s what we all hoped for. We were very satisfied with the album. I must admit that it had even better reception than I could have hoped for. We’re very thankful.

The band has a lot more eyes on them with Bilateral, as you guys weren’t really well known when Tall Poppy Syndrome came out. Was that exciting for the band or did the band try to keep it in the back of their mind and not think about it when recording Bilateral?
I think we managed to not think too much about what the actual thing we were doing was going to be heard by so many people. Of course, it’s really cool now. It actually seems like we’re getting somewhere. We’re very satisfied that it now finally seems like we’re going in the right direction.

The first thing many will notice with Bilateral is the striking cover art. What significance does it have on the album’s message or theme, if it does at all?
I think with the cover, we started out with the title of the album Bilateral, but then, what it ended up with was something completely different than at least what the title track’s lyrics are about. It’s a very surrealistic painting. I tried to make my own interpretation of the painting. If you’re watching it while you’re listening to the music, there are so many individual ways to see the cover art. It’s hard to make some sense into it.

What Bilateral is about is many things that occur often when I think about the band. It refers to the band having several sides. I think in our music, we try to pick out the best things from the different genres that we know of. It’s very diverse - the music - we try to make. That’s one of the things I like about the album title.

When you got the cover art back, what was your reaction to it?
It was a process where we contacted the artist, Jeff Jordan, and came with some suggestions. We wanted a guy that was strapped onto something and it ended up being an anteater. It was our suggestion to add some juice down his nose. He interpreted that further and made the mermaid that’s swimming in the juice. Of course, when you see it, it’s very surreal. He actually makes our ideas visualized.

He sent over some sketches and we gave him some feedback. It didn’t take too long, but we sent it back and forth sometimes before we ended up with the final result. It wasn’t like we just asked him to paint something and then that’s what came up. We’re really satisfied with it, even though it’s pretty striking.

Did the band take anything away from the studio time spent with Tall Poppy Syndrome that helped them out in the studio recording Bilateral?
When I think about when we recorded Aeolia, which was the predecessor of Tall Poppy Syndrome, we weren’t that experienced in recording. Of course, we learned a lot in that recording as well, but when...we created Tall Poppy Syndrome, we learned a lot of things when it came to how we should prepare before a recording. I think that’s something we understood at that point, when we hired the studio and we had this kind of time limit and a bit more pressure than we had on our earlier demos. We were pretty much aware of how we should use our time.

Then again, when we recorded Bilateral, at least with the guitars, we recorded them at home. We had time to perfect the recordings. It was more responsibility, because I was my own studio engineer on my laptop recording, and being critical to myself. It was a bit different to recording Tall Poppy Syndrome, but we learned a lot from Tall Poppy Syndrome, and we also learned a lot from recording this album. We’ll use a lot of that experience when we record our next album.

Fans that have been following the band since the beginning will notice that there are several shorter songs on Bilateral. Was that a decision made early on by the band to have a few more shorter, accessible tunes or did that just come along?
I think that just came along. Of course, we’re aware of the shorter songs. I think one of the main reasons is when we make music today compared to earlier recordings, we don’t feel like we need 20 different themes in one song, which is one of the things that we did earlier. We pulled in every idea we had in mind, but now, we’re a bit more critical when it comes to what maybe would fit in one song.

I think we’ve become better at making songs out of just one or two or three main parts. From my perspective, I think it’s a step in the right direction, the way we’re managing to make music now. Of course, it’s different tastes for different people. There’s probably going to be people that are going to prefer the earlier things we made, but I really think it’s one step in the right direction with Bilateral.

When it came to writing these songs, did the band try to do anything differently than past albums?
We’re trying to make songs out of fewer themes, and not having endless amounts of things that actually don’t have anything to do with each other. The songs are more individual, but it still has that Leprous mix between different roots throughout the songs. I don’t think we’ve become less experimental within one song. I think it’s easier to listen to, even though I think it’s more complex. I think we’ve changed a bit in the way we make music and it’s not necessarily well thought out. It has become natural as we evolve as musicians.

As a musician, how have you seen yourself evolve from Tall Poppy Syndrome to Bilateral?
As a musician, I’m also one of the composers. I think we’ve all actually become better at listening to each other. If anybody has ideas, we’re open to listen to everybody out. We’re not that egotistical about all things. We’re more open-minded, and I think that being open-minded and listening to the other guys in the band and their suggestions, it’s a good thing.

I was 15 when we started off and now we’ve been playing for ten years. I see very much change in the way we compose music, as least compared to earlier. Then, I had been playing guitar for six months and then we started Leprous. I think it’s very fun to see the band evolve. The way we’ve evolved into more professional musicians, I think that’s been a good thing.

As one of the main composers of the music, what inspired you to write the songs on Bilateral?
I don’t do anything to get in the mood to create things. Sometimes, I can be real eager to know I’m going to sit down and trying to write something extraordinary, but sometimes, it doesn’t work, even though you feel very inspired. Suddenly, out of nowhere, something just pops out. I just have to find a guitar and try to remember what the idea was. When we get together in rehearsals, we put the songs together.

It hasn’t been that much planned the way the compositions should be. It’s just getting a life of its own. I think the way we create music by letting everybody be a part of the arraigning of the songs, no matter who is the composer, I think that’s what makes the songs sound like Leprous, even though they are very different kind of songs.

In your mind, is there one song on Bilateral that represents how far the band has come since the early days?
I really like “Forced Entry,” the number two track. It’s a long track and it’s a complex song and it’s comprised of many different parts. I’m not sure what it is about it. It’s a bit longer and it’s the oldest track that’s on the album. It was the first one we made after Tall Poppy Syndrome. Maybe that’s why I think it’s the closest thing to Tall Poppy Syndrome. Then again, I could say something different about every track. All the tracks have different qualities, but “Forced Entry” was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Did you notice that as the songwriting process was going on, and you got deeper into it, that the songs were moving away from a Tall Poppy Syndrome-type sound into something a bit more unique?
Maybe, but then again, the songs that you hear on the album have been through many phases. Almost all the songs, we made them and then we played them at some concerts, and then we found out what we didn’t like. We did some pre-production of them, listened to what the song is like on tape. We have those recordings and I think it’s very funny because they are extremely different now. The last editing process, many changes were made. Even though we made the songs over a long period of time, I guess in the end, we made them sound a bit like one another, in one way. We never had a plan on how the sound on Bilateral should be. I think it’s nice not to over-interpret and over-plan everything you do.

Now that the album is recorded and ready to be released, what are you proud of most from your work on the album?
The first thing I come to think of is that I write all the lyrics to the songs. When I write the lyrics most of the time, I write them without trying to fit the lyrics on the songs. When I write the lyrics, I may be thinking one rhythm or a way to make them sound. I think it’s really cool how it gets interpreted by Einar (Solberg, vocalist), who does the main vocals and he creates the vocal lines. I give him the chance to find his way of expressing the lyrics without me telling him how I want them to be expressed. I think that’s something that I’m proud of. To be able to hold a copy in my hand and watch the lyrics and listen to how it ended up. I really like that part of the recording, but of course, many other things as well.

The band recently played the U.S. for the first time last year. How did that show go?
I think it went very well. I like the American audience. It’s very unlike the Norwegian audience. The title Tall Poppy Syndrome actually means this trend and this is common in Scandinavian countries. You’re not supposed to try to be something. People have this way of being at concerts, that it’s hard to get the enthusiasm that we experienced when we played in Atlanta. It was really cool. We met a lot of great people after the show. We really enjoyed playing there. We’re going back there. We’re playing at ProgPower this year as well, where we’re playing as the backing band of Ihsahn. We’re really looking forward to that show.

For Leprous themselves, when you guys go on the touring cycle for this album, do you see the band doing U.S. shows, as well as European ones?
Of course, we’re open to anything. We really enjoyed being on tour with Therion and Loch Vostok. We’re really looking forward to going on the road again. We’re still aiming for a support tour, because we’re not capable of filling up the venues yet. We would be just as interested in touring the U.S. as touring Europe.

Who would you want to go out on tour with, if you had a choice?
I will go with the first thing that popped into my mind. Porcupine Tree would be a really cool band to go on tour with. Of course, I’ve been listening to them for many years. You get inspired from things you listen to. I can hear some things I haven’t actually thought about when we made Bilateral, but I find it similar to things I’ve heard. Subconsciously, you get inspired by the bands that you listen to, and I think Porcupine Tree would be a really cool band to go on tour with. They really seem like nice guys, as well.