“Hailing from the innovative musical landscape of Sweden, Port Noir is a band that defies easy categorization. Seamlessly blending alternative rock, dark electronica, and infectious grooves, they return in 2026 with their haunting new album ‘The Dark We Keep’ via InsideOut Music. Today, at Sound Stories by Jo and metalwar.gr, we caught up with the trio to discuss their new era, their evolving sound, and the creative fire behind their art.”

12+1 questions

Jo: Welcome to Sound Stories by Jo and Metal War! It is a pleasure to have you with us for the first time. Your brand new album, “The Dark We Keep”, feels like a natural but deeper evolution of your sound. What is that “darkness” you are referring to? Is it a personal shadow or a reflection of the world around us in 2026?
Love: Thank you for having us! The “dark” we are referring to represents the darkness we all keep inside ourselves, for good or bad. Everyone has something hidden from plain view, some of it as a dark secret or something beautiful that we keep just for ourselves. The whole album is circling darkness in different ways, anything from dark thoughts, betrayal, the obscure, dreams, concealed love to darkness itself.

Jo: You’ve recently joined forces with InsideOut Records. Does this new partnership signal a new creative freedom for Port Noir? How has this change influenced the atmosphere of your upcoming material?
Love: I don’t think it has influenced us in any particular way when it comes to the songwriting, we’re always doing whatever we want to do without compromise. Although it is always nice to have great backup in the form of a label that believes in us which is inspiring in itself!

Jo: You’ve managed to blend rock, electronica, and groove in a way that is uniquely yours. When you are in the studio, how do you know when a track is “Port Noir” enough? Do you have a “litmus test” for your melodies?
Love: Good question haha It is not something that we think about that much, when all of us are happy with a song the “Port Noir” vibe is usually there. It is like a rule of three, when all three of us are in agreement it usually has all ingredients that we need, but this usually takes a lot of time and work.

Jo: Being a three-piece band requires immense chemistry. How has your internal dynamic evolved since the early days? Does the limitation of being a trio actually help you become more creative with your arrangements?
Love: We have been playing together for quite many years now and we’re almost as siblings by now, for good or bad. In the beginning everyone was a bit more open minded I think and now everyone is a bit more set in their ways and have a clearer view of what we want individually. Being a trio has its challenges for sure but I would not have wanted it in any other way, we’re having a lot of fun always and it keeps us creative which makes each album like a new adventure.

Jo: How does the creative process for an album like “The Dark We Keep”begin Does it usually start with a rhythmic pulse, a synth texture, or a vocal hook from Love? Also, how do you manage to balance that “danceable” groove with your heavy rock foundation throughout the entire record?
Love: We don’t really have certain recipe for how we go about it, every song is different and has its own journey. For this album we jammed a lot and recorded everything, then we listened to it and chose which parts that had something special. Then we worked from that and sort of puzzled together some of the songs. Some songs I wrote from scratch and we reworked them together in pre-production. I usually start with finding a musical theme for a song that becomes the foundation for the song, a riff, drumbeat, electronic element, bass sound etc. I rarely start out with vocals, I see myself as an instrumentalist first and vocalist second even though I spend a painful amount of time into my vocal arrangements haha.

Jo: Your lyrics often carry a sense of melancholy and introspection. Is songwriting a form of “exorcism” for you, or do you prefer to keep the meanings open for the listener to interpret?
Love: The lyrical part of the songwriting is a bit messy for me, I don’t really know what I want to write about when we start with the vocals. Usually I improvise vocals for all songs and piece together a pre- production that I’m satisfied with and then I transcribe the lyrics from my improv. Pretty much always there is a clear theme to what I’m singing about, almost like I’m subconsciously telling myself what I need to get out of my system. Then I’ll rework the lyrics from there and shape it into the final lyrics.

Jo: From your album covers to your music videos, Port Noir has a very specific, high-end visual identity. How involved are you in the art direction, and how important is “image” for a band in the digital age?
Love: When it comes to design, artwork, videos, we have a lot of interest and we have pretty much always did everything ourselves. For us the visual part of an album is almost as important as the music, how it’s packaged and visually represented has a lot of weight with how the music is perceived in the end. So, being extremely meticulous as we are we don ́t leave much to chance haha It’s a lot of work though.

Jo: You’ve shared a lot of history with bands like Leprous. While you started in the “prog” world, you’ve moved into a more “modern/alt” territory. Do you still feel connected to the progressive scene, or do you feel like “outsiders” now?
Love: We have never really identified ourselves with the prog-scene, we have always had a very different self image. But as the years go by and I look back on our earlier albums I do understand why we got labeled as “prog” even though I didn’t see it at the time. I have pretty much given up on finding a genre to be labeled under, so maybe we’ll just go with “world music” from now on, haha.

Jo: The production on your recent tracks is incredibly crisp and punchy. What were the main “sonic goals” you set for the new sessions? Were there any specific instruments or plugins that defined the sound of “The Dark We Keep”?
Love: We wanted to create something that felt I bit more contemporary that would fit in the metal-scene on this album. It is something that we do have a lot of experience with from our previous bands and we’ve never really done it with PN which felt interesting and creative. We actually ended up mixing the album ourselves this time. The drums where recorded in Studio 33 with Daniel Bergstrand and Fredrik Thordendal but the rest of the album is recorded by us. Fun fact is that all vocals were recorded with a Sm58 without pop-filter or any pre-amp. I was only recording a pre-production and the plan was to re- record it with a better microphone later but the stakes were too good so we decided to stick with them.

Jo: Sweden is famous for its “pop sensibility” even in heavy music. Do you feel that your environment influences those infectious hooks that stay in the listener’s head for days?
Love: I have no idea actually, I guess there must be something in the water…

Jo: Port Noir on stage is a high-energy experience. How do you translate the complex electronic layers of your studio work into a raw, live performance?
Love: We do try to play as much as we can with samplers and such, most of the arrangements are made with that in mind from the beginning. But, we do use some backing tracks at times so the audience will get a full experience even though we’re just a trio.

Jo: With the new single out, is there a full-length album on the horizon for late 2026? What can we expect from your upcoming tour dates? This is a bit of a weird question. Maybe, the album releases 15 th may?
Love: The album is being released 15 th of May and we’re looking into a tour for later this year hopefully.

Jo (+1): The Last Thought: If you had to keep only one “dark secret” through your music, which song from your entire discography would be the perfect “keeper” of that secret?
Love: Difficult question in deed, every album has it’s dark secrets and I wouldn’t want to part with any of them.

“Port Noir continues to prove that the most interesting music happens at the intersection of different genres. We thank them for their time and their unique vision. Make sure to check out “The Dark We Keep” and follow them into their most ambitions chapter yet”

Interview – text: Joanna Gonas