In 2008, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt and his bandmates from Iceage erupted onto the music scene in Copenhagen at the young age of seventeen.  The band’s ominous blend of punk, Goth, and hardcore is not only menacing, but also captivating to the ear.  With his side project Marching Church, Rønnenfelt unassumingly saw it as an opportunity to experiment; pushing himself to explore other outlets and improv freely with eclectic sounds.  The project stayed dormant for a period of time; daydreaming snapped Rønnenfelt into getting back it focus.  Marching Church recently released Telling It Like It Is-an incredible tour de force follow up to This World Is Not Enough.
Ghettoblaster recently chatted with Rønnenfelt to talk more about new album, which was released in October via Sacred Bones Records.
You started Marching Church roughly in 2010.  It was about three years later that you started to put more focus onto the project.  What made you decide to put more time into it?
I wasn’t actually planning to do anything further with the project, but during a stay at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in 2014, I ran into an A&R from Sacred Bones who tricked me into signing a two-option record deal, thinking it was a petition for the casino. They later sent me said contract, saying that they would crush my chances of ever working in this business again, if I didn’t turn in a record within six months. I wasn’t really left with any choice.
What was the beginning like for you with Marching Church?  Did it feel like you were starting anew again?  Much you like when you first playing music.
This current constellation It doesn’t bear any relation to the what it used to be, except for it’s moniker.
You describes the new work “an album which raises multiple flags,” and “the sound of individualism stuck in the center of the modern world, swimming with and against the current.”  What do you mean by that?
Denmark has two mountains, one in southern Jutland called Kronslagerbjerg, and one in northern Sealand named Christians-storbakke. upon the night of finishing the album we split the band into two groups and traveled to each mountain. We were meant to plant flags at both peak on the stroke of midnight. I went on the team for Kronslagerbjerg, but due to guitarist Bo Høyer Hansen’s poor health we didn’t even make it halfway up the mountain. The other guys only made it halfway out of Copenhagen as the car broke down before they got out of Copenhagen. The press release was meant to say “an album which almost raises multiple flags”.
What was it, if anything, that you wanted to do musically with Morning Church that you haven’t with Iceage?
Yes, my new band “Morning Church” is going to be breakfast themed, which is something I haven’t yet explored with neither Iceage nor Marching Church.
Telling It Like It Is-the album title.  Could you please explain the title for me?
It’s an anagram for “Elites Liking It Lit”. You can check for yourself.
Do you foresee yourself going away from Iceage?
Me and all the members of Iceage and Marching Church has talked about abandoning music all together. We’re selling all of our equipment to buy a ship that can fit all for us. I’m not telling you whether we’re going, or wether we will continue to produce music on the ocean.
This World Is Not Enough was filled with freewheeling improvisation.  Do you go about making Telling It Like It Is the same way?
Yes, sure.
Being a musician for as long as you have been, where do you want to go musically?
The north pacific.
Are there plans of coming to the US and dong some touring?
Janurary.
(Visit Marching Church here:
https://www.facebook.com/marchingchurch/?fref=ts
https://marchingchurch.bandcamp.com/)