Behind the Video: This Gift Is A Curse Vocalist J. A. Holmberg Discusses the Clip for “Kingdom”

As a musical act, This Gift Is A Curse has a gift for the extreme. They ignore trends, movements, or examples and choose to carve their own path forward. That’s been the name of the game for this Swedish ensemble since their formation in 2008. Due out on March 7th, the album is the long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s A Throne of Ash. In a time of great uncertainty, this mighty black metal act has reemerged at just the right time, ready to unleash its latest apocalypse. Like much of the band’s history, HEIR (Season of Mist) is designed around the extreme. It is a relentless pursuit of the extreme, finding beauty where others may not. There is light within the darkness and good within the sinister. The band makes one thing very clear with HEIR. They are not to be outdone, standing tall amongst their black metal peers. HEIR features ten new masterpieces with each song carefully composed and epic in nature.

The members of This Gift Is A Curse are very careful when they write a new album, hence the lengthy wait since the release of A Throne of Ash. But the wait is oh so worth it, a fusion of black metal fire, sludge-laden doom, and haunting ambience. Everything they do, they treat with a maximum level of seriousness and focus. They don’t take for granted the gift they have for songwriting, and they thrive within the darkness.

Like many great bands, This Gift Is A Curse takes the visual components of their music just as seriously as the audio components. You see that in their latest music video for “Kingdom.” Lead singer J.A. Holmberg joins us today for a Behind the Video interview. We discuss the new video clip, its elaborate concept, and we touch on his views on videos in general.

Who directed the video?

J. A. Holmberg: “Our friend K. Karlberg, who works in media here in Stockholm, Sweden. We have been planning to do a music video with him ever since 2015. He was part of making a previous video for the album All Hail the Swinelord (2015). To us, it feels like he always understood what we want to go with this band aesthetically.”

Did the band have a concept in mind based on the song, or was Karlberg given full reign to come up with a suitable visual companion?

“Karlberg and I met up a couple of times during the spring of 2024 and wrote a script. I talked to Karlberg about the lyrical theme and what kind of atmosphere I wanted to create. We understood each other directly. We talked a lot about time loops and ‘rooms in between rooms.’ Spaces where time has been standing still. Or a motion that has been stuck in just that ‘room.’ Like a memory, you can access but not change. We also talked about man’s struggle to make sense of his nature and social world, the clash between the physical and metaphysical world. Past trauma and the different paths to deal with that. In the end, we are all just alone in the dark. No matter if you travel into space or just close your eyes.”

What’s the concept behind the video? Help us to understand the video’s concept in more detail and how it ties into the lyrics.

“We wanted to make something that feels like you step into another ‘world.’ Like a gateway into a metaphysical space. A void in between what is reality/dream. As well as a ladder into the unconscious. To me, the process of creativity within this band has always felt a bit abstract and otherworldly. Or at least when we put all the pieces together; music, sound, lyrics, and visuals. It can be hard to describe if you are not in that headspace or ‘bubble’ we in the band have made for ourselves.

“When we record albums we tend to create isolation as a tool for inward traveling. Or a means to be able to drag out whatever is hiding in the shadows and place it in the picture that we are painting. We might not understand WHAT it is, but we understand that it is important to add to what we do. That ‘thing’ you can’t make sense of or understand. I try to deal with abstract lyrical themes through esoteric and occult symbolism.

“What you see in the video is close to how I perceive things. And if you have followed this band for a while you will recognize a lot of visual ‘keys.’ In the lyrics, I talk about a ‘kingdom.’ That is what you see a glimpse of: a hidden inner kingdom. Or maybe just shards of a distant memory of a dream. This is a place where no laws or rules apply to what we understand as a reality.”

Where was it made?

“In Svartådalen, in the county of Västmaland, Sweden. We have a member who lives close to a lot of places where the video was shot. Since the beginning of this band, we have done a lot of things around there during the creative process. Some parts of the album are recorded in a small band/horse stable there, like the vocals. We wanted to catch that ‘vibe’ of isolation and raw darkness that exists out there. When night comes in those parts, it is like a different world. The dark is very dense, and it kind of swallows you whole. Like walking into a vacuum or another dimension.”

What was your favourite part behind the creation of the video?

“My favourite thing is to journey into that darkness. We in the band talked about this afterwards and we all agreed on this. It feels like stepping into another world, where what we do as a band makes the most sense, to us at least. It was exciting to travel on small roads during the night and in the early morning. Visiting all these isolated and forgotten places, not exactly knowing what will happen or what rabbit hole we might stumble down into. It was a journey, for sure.”

Based on how this one was made, are you looking forward to doing another?

“There are plans to do a ‘follow video’ to ‘Kingdom.’ That will take place in the same dimension and physical location. It will probably happen during spring 2025. We are also working with an animator to do another kind of style of music video. So, there will be more music videos and moving pictures from us next year.”

What are some of your favourite music videos? What about when you were growing up?

“I always liked the music videos of Radiohead. Like ‘Karma Police,’ ‘There, There,’ and ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out).’ Other music videos that really stuck with me as a kid were the Prodigy’s ‘Breathe,’ Fever Ray’s ‘If I Had A Heart,’ Röyksopp’s ‘What Else Is There?,’ and Sigur Rós’ ‘Untitled #1 Vaka.’

“I really like indie horror and arty weird movies and directors. I think me and Karlberg talked more about that before making the music video. We both like the work of directors like David Lynch, Stanly Kubrick, and Ingmar Bergman. The suggestive vibes and atmosphere they invoke in their pictures. I also like series like True Detective, The Sinner, and Jakten På en Mördare (Swedish). And movies like It Follows, The Shining, Mandy, and Color Out of Space. I think these things were all in the back of our minds when we wrote the script.”

What should a music video set out to accomplish? Do you feel like yours did that?

“To me, the best music videos enhance the creative idea an artist conveys with their music. But it can also be interesting with a music video producer/maker that ‘puts a twist’ on things. I feel a lot of interesting things can happen when someone interprets your ideas into what they see in them. Like to give it away and let it become something else. To lose control. The idea you had from the beginning shapeshifts and becomes ‘more.’ Or ‘weirder.’ I think weird is good.”

Which statement seems most true to you: Music videos are a “high” form of art; music videos are a “low” form of art; music videos can be “high” or “low” art; it doesn’t matter, all art is art; it doesn’t matter, nothing really matters.

“It is all of that.”

What’s your favourite thing about music videos?

“I really like to work with craft. To get your idea into visuals. To bring some kind of life into an abstract world. And to see how it affects other people outside the band.”

Any concepts where you started and midway through thought, “What the fuck are we doing?”

“Yes. All the time. I was thinking, ‘Will anyone be able to make sense of what we are trying to say or convey here.’ But then I reminded myself that it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone… but us. When we release it, it will be free for anyone to perceive and understand it any way they want it. It deals with abstract themes and emotions, and all humans are different in how they understand their world.”

How important are music videos in terms of increased exposure?

“I’m just glad that the medium of music videos still exists. I grew up with that. And I always like movies and TV series that have a well thought out soundtrack or score, that attack all your senses from every direction.”

Is a well-made DIY video just as good or beneficial as a professionally made/directed video?

“I think a good idea and using the circumstances to your advantage is better than whatever money can buy. To me, less is often more, or in what you lack is where you can find true power. I like the creative solutions found when trying to bridge a problem. When you really lack the means to do it, that’s where true passion and ingenuity comes into play, in my opinion.”

How much of the new video was self-made?

“All of it. We had one camera, a couple of flashlights and… infinite dark space.”