1. Greetings, Mr. Soderlund. I'd like to ask you, firstly, why you've chosen your moniker. Historically, Parnassus appears to be a mountain of Northern Greece, being sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Have you some interest of the culture or history of this region?

Hmm... i cant say that i have any real interest in any special region, i can agree that some may have a greater cultural significance than oters but hardly to the point that it concerns my creativity or my music. I do agree that the ancient greek society has had a great impact on how our lives are lead in the western world today but some of it apears to be a bit overblown, the greek society is often portraid as first step towards the social structure that we have nowadays. i belive this to be a bit of a misconception because the ancient greek democracy was a pretty segregated and not many people had a right to get in on the decisionmaking anyway, much like today in fact but i belive we even have less of a democracy now, the world and our lives are mostly controlled by media-fascism and money-empowered markets and the large multinational companies that supply us with televised brainwash programs and controls the social structure in a way to indoctrinate and ruin teh creativity in the minds of children by selling useless toys to unqualified overworked parents. In short i do see inspirational value just as much in the modern world as i do in history, basically because the are pretty much the same.

2. I would think that Parnassus qualifies as one of the more obscure and lesser known bands of the metal spectrum, as observed from the relative scarcity of your product in larger metal distribution chains and your considerably low profile. Are such characteristics premeditated in some way, or is it something that has arrived from circumstances outside of your control? Would you prefer a smaller cult following, or would you ideally like to broaden and become more conspicuous in the future?

I dont know if i want any following at all, im simply a writer and i write music and lyrics, if someone feels that they can find anything they can relate to in them that is of course good, but i dont really want anyone to follow me,i much rather see them go do their own records and releasing them, that way maybe more people can get involved in the same philosophy that i proclaim. I am sincere in my contempt for the human race and anyone who agrees with the termination of human life is a friend of mine, i hope that more people will get interested in the pointlessness of and that we can possibly start working on a bigger scale, not just in music. I am glad to say that there has been an increase in people who write music and enjoys music about Armageddon, but sadly most of the new bands are ill educated and have no real intention with their lyrics, most of the new apocalypse acts are just acts and have no ground to stand on when questioned on what they really believe, i´ve been doing this for quite a while now and im sorry to say that the intellectual level of underground musicians are at an alltime low, but then again things move in cycles so im hoping for a change in the near future, i think many of the brainless bands will abandon the apocalypto style in the next year or so when all this millenium hype is done with. But i guess we have to wait and see.

3. One brilliant aspect of Parnassus that I've always enjoyed are the album covers, being incredible paintings from earlier ages. Can you elucidate upon some of the art you have used in the past, it's origins and so on, and what you generally aim for in a visual presentation of this band?

Hmm not really (im not really familiar with the word elucidate, are you sure you dont mean elaborate?) I havent used theese paintings for any other purpose thatn their beauty, i do belive that since my lyrics deal a lot with the judgement day that i should reserve a spot on each cover for some religious references like jesus pictures and things like that, i do still feel quite strongly about the bible and find it a useful reference manual for christian/satanic ethics and specualation. But in short i cant say that the pictures are used for any other purpose than the estethic.

4. Outside of violence and certain art, is there something that inspires you in your work? Are there any films or books that catalyze your imagination, or perhaps dreams and nightmares?

I dont like films too much, i feel that most of them are a bit too obvious and hence a bit too dull, basically the only tv i watch are losy tv-series and crap like that, i find them to be very usueful for blanking the mind and getting some rest from the stress that i often find myself under. I rarely dream and when i do its mostly pretty wierd, not anyhting exceptional just ordinary dreams and i almost never find them inspiring.

5. I've noticed that from the transition of the first to the second Parnassus album the track titles and lyrics, presumably, have become a bit less fantasy-oriented and more realistic. There is no longer any usage of Latin, which I personally enjoyed for its obfuscation. What led to this change?

Parnassus have never been very fantasy oriented, im not much itno that kind of stuff, not tat i dont enjoy a good story but i cant really relate to that kind of stuff, the songs on the first parnassus that were in latin or partial latin were made as such because i felt it had a nice ring to it, i dont really find any language intreaging or mysterious, but sometimes it is good to use a variety of languages to get a special feeling into a song, and thats what i did on some of the in dolioriam gloria tracks. The change came pretty naturally, i simply did not feel any need for latin on the second album.

6. It is written in the liner notes of "Let The Stars Fall And The Kingdom Come" that you had run into some problems with the lyrical content of this release. What could have prompted such an unsettling reaction to your lyrical expressions, and do you think this is justified when there are so many artists in black metal today that utilize satanic and 'extreme' imagery that experience few problems? How would your views differ from any others in this respect?

Well there is quite a lot of difference i belive, there is a different in being considered controversial and actually writing dangerous material, anyone can write a song that says "shoot people and kill everyone..." but its a different matter if you in your lyrics supply detailed information on how to cause nuclear meltdowns in reactors and graphically describe what kind of tools are needed to cause maximum damage to powerplants and what weather and season is best for the nuclear dust to spread to cause cancer in as many people as possible, to actually provide people with a terrorist manual is illegal in most states, but just saying that you hate people is not, to simply claim that you wanna blow up the planet is pretty harmless but to actually provide a solution for how to do it is apparantly very illegal and thats what i did, that is why the lyrics could not be printed. I guess that explains it pretty clearly.

7. In the creation of each track, how is the writing process undertaken? Do you compose from keyboard and then build a guitar line around the melody, or vice versa? Will the synthesizers always remain an integral part of Parnassus' music?

That differs from track to track, i have no standard way of composing...

8. Do you feel comfortable being labeled a black metal band? What is your opinion of the status of the underground scene today? And do you believe there is an end in sight for black metal any time soon?

Well i think black metal is pretty ended as it is, there arent many good bands out there anymore, most people dont have any real conviction anymore, and most of the songs i hear simply are abut crap issues and have no value whatsoever. I guess black metal will be replaced by new music for the ones who actually are looking for anything controversial, because i dont think the black metal of today has very much to offer.

9. Is there a chance that you will perform live? How will that be worked out, if it were so?

I doubt it and I dont know.

10. When can we expect some new Parnassus material? Do you have some conception of where to go after "Let The Stars Fall?"? Is there a certain theme you would like to ideally pursue in the music of Parnassus on future releases?

Oh im not sure, ive done a few tracks but i have many other things to work on, at the nmoment im working with mårten from algaion on a project which will be pretty different, it will deal primarily with anti-media issues and other fun stuff, i dont think there will be a new parnassus out really soon but then again if i get enough feedback on it i might consider cooking something up. in that case i´ll try to use some of the old lyrics and disguise them enough to make them publishable, or maybe even trying to locate someone who can print it in a country were they dont care, but of course i could not put my name on the album, but on the other hand that doesnt matter too much.

11. Does Parnassus partake of any kind of specific political or ethic philosophy?

Nope, no politics none at all actually, i hate politics, i think they are mainly a boring concept invented to blur up issues to the extent that voters eventually loose interest so that the elected assholes can rule the world as they (or maybe i should say as their masters "the multinatonal corps.") please. Politics are just too unimportant to care about, thats how i feel about it, When it comes to ethics i can safely say that i dont belive that any now living human really has earned his right to exist, and that all people should be killed. People just acts too damn stupid and are to narrow minded, i hate people.

12. What's your opinion of Erebus Magazine?

I have no opinion, i havent read it, sorry. (ah...classic - ed.)

13. Thanks for your patience with my questions! Allow this last section to serve as an outlet for any other thoughts you may have.