Ihsahn, photographed in Notodden, Norway, January 22, 2020
PHOTO BY KEVIN NIXON
MANY OF US will remember getting our first delay pedal, treasuring those fond memories of how one clever little box can make an unaccompanied guitar sound thicker, deeper and, on certain settings, almost orchestral. For Norwegian musician Vegard Sverre Tveitan, better known around the world as Ihsahn — the man who pioneered symphonic black metal in Emperor before pursuing more atmospheric endeavors as a solo artist — the first echoes he employed were right outside his front door.
“I grew up on a farm with a lake in front and mountains on the other side,” he says, looking back on his earliest memories as a musician. “I didn’t have a delay pedal as a 10-year-old, so I would take my amp onto the veranda, and the mountains would throw back echoes. I guess nature has always been a big part of my music. We tend to build on what we know and what’s around us, taking influence from our surroundings. It’s a very primal part of human nature.”