Today I’m giving a presentation at the Norwegian Academy of Music talking about the same issues I covered with my Bachelor paper.

Because of this I choose to publish the summary of my paper here;

Whenever I tell people about the highlights of my 15 years in Borknagar I’m often asked how much money I’ve earned. I tell them that while I label myself as a musician, I need to make a living from a regular job. This is sometimes hard to make people understand, as Borknagar has achieved a great deal of musical success over the years, which to most people imply income.

As I started studying Entrepreneurship, I found some interesting new ways of seeing the historical development of Borknagar and how the musical success didn’t match the economic success. This had me intrigued and I decided to use this paper and the research involved to figure out if I could find any explanation to that. I was never looking for scapegoats, only explanations. I have also found some.

 The first thing that backfired was bringing entrepreneurial theory into the metal scene. Artistic integrity and credibility doesn’t go well with commercial thinking. I found out that I had to take a step back and start this research by pointing out exactly how artistic venture is so closely linked to entrepreneurial theory. I believe I have succeeded.

 The next step was to narrow the research down from explaining the music industry as it’s own universe, to search for key factors in the development of Borknagar. I eventually found that motivation seemed to be important. Motivation is the key to the persistence needed to keep working with your band through all the hard time, what entrepreneurial theory calls «The valley of death». I could see how Borknagar had been in this valley for too many years without breaking the surface, and how that had made the band give up and search for alternative careers. The motivation had depleted.

 I also found indications that entrepreneurial research had neglected the motivation factor for some time and that it is seen as sort of a missing link between recognicing the opportunity and taking action. Exactly the staduim where I could put Borknagar. To explain this I had to point out how Borknagars KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) are not what’s in question here. The band is undoubtedly able to make music and to make the music accessible to the marked and with that enabeling the action part of this equation. So why didn’t we? The easy answer is; because the motivation failed.

 The next phase was explaining exactly how motivation influences a band in the same way as an employee or a firm. Justice is an important part of motivation and it’s not hard to establish that Borknagar felt their lack of reward was unjust. Where had the money gone? Through this process I became more and more aware that we had indeed not been scammed, if there’s anyone to blame it’s ourselves. Our ability to make the right decisions and react the right way in the crucial moments was not the same as for Dimmu Borgir which I used as a comparison. If I should make any complaint it’s that we lacked the awareness of this and we didn’t get any help from the outside like Dimmu Borgir did.

 This phenomenon is in entrepreneurial theory called «product-focused» and can be explained like how a football-player is too focused on the ball and misses the situation. If an Entrepreneur is too focused on the product he’s making and not taking care of the other factors needed to be successful, he’s not going to be successful. In 2001 Borknagar released the Empiricism album, a very strong product. It seems like we were a bit too product focused.

 With this research and my findings I have tried to suggest some helpful advice for bands being in the fase of establishing or looking for an audience. Motivation is a factor that’s important both inside a band and for the entire organization you end up building, including managers, labels, crew and agents. This advice will not give anyone a record contract, but give some points to how you should manage your band from the beginning to avoid conflict later on.

 The 2012 version of Borknagar is much better suited to handle the different aspects of being in a band then the 2001 version. The release of the album «Urd» has also shown Borknagar at the peak of music production. The only drawback is that by now we’re all involved with families and careers and for everyone to give up this to act on the opportunity is a longshot. We have become «Weekend- artists»!

————Jens