Interview with Jens Pedersen of Church Bizarre & more

Questions by Sandi Mujanovic & answers by Jens B. Pedersen
(2024/02/10)


Photo from 2003

Question 1:
I've been in contact with you since you were in Church Bizarre, who released a great full-length, how do you look back on it almost 20 years later and what is your age now?

I look back on "Sinister Glorification" as a thing of the past. The album has not aged super well for me and there is a lot that could have been done better. There is however some good songs and atmosphere on it and I remember the time surrounding the album as great. In general I am not that big on nostalgia when it comes to my own music, once it is recorded and released, I very seldomly listen to it . Throughout the years , there has been so many releases and projects and there is maybe a small handfull of the stuff that I was involved in , that i am 100% satisfied with to this day. It is what it is , and I try to look ahead instead of looking back.No real regrets though, they are all a part of my past. I am getting old mate, in less than two months i will turn 47 and i have the residing hairline, wrinkles and scars to back it up.


Question 2:
What bands are you currently involved in?

I have not been in a traditional band since maybe 2015 , and have not played live since then either (apart from 2 guest appearances for Kill and Diabolicum). I do however have a couple of serious studio projects going. Perdition´s Mire is a black metal band that I do with close friend Lasse Wind and a guy called Simon Skaarup (the latter I played with in the black metal band Ad Noctum, many years ago) Our debut release "The Doctrine of Losing Life" is out on bandcamp and a self released CD since a couple of years. Just before the new year, we recorded seven new tracks that we are currently mixing. Six of these songs will go on a brand new mini album while the remaining one will appear on a quite special compilation LP that shall be revealed in due time. Last year I was on vacation in Australia for the third time and while there, ended up joining a brand new ( yet ancient sounding) dark death metal project called Unholy Redeemer, consisting of Steven Hull (Ex Crucifire/ ex Encabulos) on guitar and Jarro Raphael (Nocturnal Graves, Psychic Mass/ ex Destroyer 666) on drums. So far we have unleashed a digital 3 track demo entitled "A Fever to Dethrone all kings" Physical formats will be out in march/april this year via Sphere of Apparition records and Extremely Rotten Productions. Since the demo , we have been joined by finnish bass player Tommi Grönquist (Desecresy / ex Slugathor) and we are currently hard at work on our next release which will be a mini album entitled "The Sulphur Communion" . Besides that, I am working off and on a more experimental project called The Pale Hand with Morten Straede who i used to play with in Cerekloth and Dwell. A MCD by the name of "Beds of Stone" was released years ago by Death Knell Production. The music has changed quite a lot since then though. We are working on an album but no time frame for that as of now. So as you can see , I still stay busy.

Question 3:
What are the top 5 favourite live shows you ever witnessed? Feel free to comment on them
First I should mention that I enjoy music the most at home in solitude or while out walking and I do not go to that many gigs these days, simply not into the social aspect. On top of my head i could mention some great live shows that I have attended: Metallica (Gentofte 1992 or 93), Black Sabbath (Roskilde festival 1998), King Diamond (House of God / Puppet Master tours), Mayhem performing the "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas" album In Aarhus some years ago was pure magic, I have seen wardruna 3 times and also a private concert with mainman Einar Selvik and those have all been fantastic. Morbid Angel on various occasions back in the day was always flawless as well, Motörhead every time I saw them, Iron Maiden, Alice cooper and W.A.S.P have always great. I am sure there is plenty more. Best recent gigs was Exciter and Destroyer 666 at the Heavy Agger festival last year.

Question 4:
Do you like proto punk such as The Stooges and so on? Can you describe what they mean to you?

Not a huge fan of punk in general but i do enjoy the chaos of The Stooges, good drinking music. I am a huge fan of The Misfits (and Danzig in general) so that would be my absolute favourite punk band . Overall punk is one of my least visited genres, besides Misfits, I do listen to a bit of Circle Jerks, early Black Flag etc on rare occasions..Nostalgia from my skateboarding youth

Question 5:
What new metal or rock talent from Denmark can you recommend to us?

I like a lot of the Copenhagen death metal bands like Phrenelith, Strychnos (allthough not new , but a lot more people seem to get into them now), Undergang, Sulphurous, Ascendency, Sort Sind, Taphos, Deiquisitor, Chaotian, Had etc. I should also mention my close friend Jacques band Temple of Scorn who just released a Killer debut by the name of "Funeral Altar Epiphanies"- crushing stuff. When it comes to black metal, Ligfaerd is the absolute best in Denmark .

Question 6:
Why did Victimizer never record a follow up album you had some killer songs to start with, so what happened?

Well, we did reunite for a mini album that along with the second demo is my absolute favourite Victimizer release. There was a myriad of things, the guitarist and I did not have the same ambitions it seemed and looking back , a lot of it was probably on me since I was extremely fucked up and unstable at the time due to heavy alcohol and hard drug abuse as well as a messy personal life, leaving me quite hard to deal with I suppose.. Stupid shit happens and bridges were burned. It would have been cool to expand on the sound of "Resurrected Abominations" but it was not in the cards


Photo from 2021

Question 7:

What band you regret most not seeing live when you had the chance to?

A friend and I had tickets for Fields of the Nephilim in Malmö, Sweden around 2013 or so..They are an absolute favourite band of mine that had not played in scandinavia since the 80es. Unfortunately we were involved in an accident on the freeway totalling the car (luckily no one got hurt). Afterwards I heard that the show was good but that they did not play any songs of their supreme masterpiece "Elizium" which would have been a huge dissapointment, but still a bummer. Besides that i would still like to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at some point and have for some reason never managed to catch Judas Priest with Halford, hopefully this year.

Question 8:
Has music become more a hobby or still a passion? What mainly keeps you occupied besides your family?

Well realisticly it is a hobby since there is not much to gain from this besides just doing it. But i do however have a passion for it still and consider it a part of my DNA at this point. There is absolutely no ambition these days , apart from expressing myself and being involved with music that I enjoy. It is also some sort of ventilation you could say, without it , I would probably go mad. I was divorced around 4 years ago, so no longer a family man per say, my son is a teenager now and lives with his mother, quite far from me, so I only see him on occasion. There is always something to do and I am very seldomly bored. I listen to A LOT of music on a daily basis, I usually work out around 3 times a week, Do some reading, Spend time with my Girlfriend and friends, watch movies, take long walks, have some beer on rare occasion and so on and so forth. I also spend quite a bit of time writing lyrics and working on arrangements for the various music projects. Usually I focus on one project at a time but they do overlap sometimes.

Question 9 (bonus question):
what city or village in Denmark is most dear to your heart?

Not sure that I found that spot yet, it is certainly not where i live now haha. The closest would probably be in an area called Boltinge where I previously owned a house from 1777 with my first wife. This was a very quiet rural area with very few people. Perfect area with the woods right outside our house . The house was sold when we split up and the new owner unfortunately burned it down by mistake, a damn shame. I am currently looking for the perfect isolated area to move to, hopefully I will find it someday.

That's all, feel free to end the interview with some promo to your new projects/bands:
Stay tuned for new releases by Perdition´s Mire and Unholy Redeemer , both coming this year.

Thanx! JBP