Black Art Zine / July 2000

Link

Answered by Ville Sorvali

hi...how's life goin there?

[Ville] Hello yourself and thanks for asking! It’s a warm and sunny day out here and I just got home from work. Now I’m sitting under the smiling sun answering this interview with some relaxing Hades Almighty playing in my walkman...

a boring but necessary question:can u give us some info bout the history of MOONSORROW??ur releases,members etc...

[Ville] Alright, so the saga of Moonsorrow begun in 1995 when I and Henri got together for another project. Back then we didn’t expect it developing into a serious band, but as it obviously was something we have always wanted to do, things just happened. (Theoretically) we have 5 recordings by now: ”Thorns Of Ice” demo 1996, ”Metsä” demo 1997, promotape 1997, ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi” demo 1999 and ”Suden Uni” album 2000. ”Thorns Of Ice” and the promotape were however never released because of severe failures. Up to 1999 we had only 2 members - Ville Seponpoika Sorvali (bass/vocals) and Henri Urponpoika Sorvali (guitars/keyboards) - but after ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi” Baron Tarwonen (drums) arrived to strengthen our line-up.

ur last album TAMA IKUINEN TALVI is very dark and melancholic.can u talk bout the general style and the lyrics??

[Ville] The general style of Moonsorrow is heathen metal, and although the main ingredients in our formula (bombastic metal and folk music) have always remained the same, we have managed to vary our music enough on every release. Almost exceptionally ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi” is perhaps as blackish as we will ever get. Our greatest influences may have been Bathory, Enslaved and Emperor, but I’d say that we sound more like Moonsorrow than a copy of anyone.
The atmosphere of the music is supported by the lyrics, which are also very heathenish, and perhaps the most commonly handled topic has been the battling against christians in medieval Finland. The lyrics are mostly written in an indirect and poetic style, leaving room for interpretations, nowadays also almost unexceptionally in Finnish language (on ”Suden Uni” there is though an English frame story to each song).

why did u choose to live with BLACK METAL?????

[Ville] Even though there may be certain parellels between Moonsorrow’s music and black metal, Moonsorrow has nothing to do with black metal itself. Moonsorrow lives and breathes heathen metal exclusively.

as we read in the cover of tama...MOONSORROW only consists of 2 members:u and henri.what r the advantages and disadvantages of this???

[Ville] As I already mentioned, Moonsorrow did consist of two members until 1999 but the temptation of using live drumming drove us to invite Baron Tarwonen into our line-up (before him we worked with a drum computer, that is). The primary advantage of being a duo was that it was easier to achieve unanimity in completing the songs, and another advantage was that it wasn’t so hard to arrange rehearsals or recording sessions when there were only two people to appear. I however don’t consider things much more difficult now when we are a trio; Baron Tarwonen is musically quite on the same lines as we when it comes to Moonsorrow, so completing songs doesn’t contain much arguing, and actually the results are even better than previously. And it still isn’t impossible to get all the three of us to a same place at a same time, it just demands a little arranging. Moreover, an additional advantage of this line-up is that we now have one more adjustable unit at rehearsals. The ultimate disadvantage of these kind of small line-ups is obviously the limited possibility of playing live, but as we have two session members (Shadow from Tyrant and Lord Eurén from Gorewinter) in frequent use, there are no such problems.

does the weather of there effect u too much?? I ask this question because the deepest anddarkest black metal bands r mostly from SCANDINAVIAN countries.

[Ville] Without actually being Nordic Moonsorrow wouldn’t ever sound so Nordic, that’s for certain, but it’s not just about the weather. We all have a long Finnish bloodline that subconsciously reflects in the music we make, together with the influence of our beautiful nature creating the ultimate Moonsorrow-sound and its Fennoheathenish surroundings. The freezing winters (and the warm summers) are of course inspirational, but as we live on the south coast we don’t get much of the the extremities of the Finnish weather.

what other things inspire u??

[Ville] For me the biggest outmusical inspirational source must be nature, but I am also very fascinated about primaeval cultures, history, legends and all that stuff. The strongest force that drives me to write music however is simply my love for music (and my need for self-expression). Earlier certain other bands inspired me very very much but nowadays I just concentrate on Moonsorrow itself.

let's turn back to talk bout albums...ur releases r distrubuted by ur own distro:meathook productions.r u gonna get in touch with bigger companies???

[Ville] Meat Hook Productions is just our small d.i.y. demo label having no business-alike relevance, and it would’ve been the same if we had released the demos without a namely label behind them. After ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi” we got in touch with some bigger companies with the hope to obtain a record contract for Moonsorrow, and eventually we were approached by four relevant labels. Then, after serious considering we signed a deal with Plasmatica Records for one album.

when's the next album comin??

[Ville] Well, we already recorded it in February 2000 and it should be out by the time I’m writing this (July). Everyone interested can ask for it either from Plasmatica or from us.

will it be too different from tama...??we hope not:)

[Ville] No, it is in no way too different. Perhaps surprising because of the slower overall tempo, the ever-growing folkish influences, the utter bombast and the tighter playing, but it definitely is Moonsorrow. If there are people who can’t accept our development, it’s their loss. This is how we wanted it to sound all along.

have u had musical education and can we have ur opinion bout this ???

[Ville] I am just an amateur and most of what I know about music is self-taught. As a kid I played the piano under a teacher’s supervision for about a year, but then I got fed up with it which is unfortunate because I would be grateful for that skill now. Later on I got interested in the guitar (as everyone else did) but I never learned to play it, and about at the age of 13 came the drums and the bass. I soon forsake the bass and chose to concentrate on the drums, and at the age of 16 I even took lessons for a year. After ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi” I got more interested in the bass again and started to rehearse by myself with the hope of learning something someday.
The other members of Moonsorrow are more musical, though; Henri has taken piano lessons since the age of 4 (yes, he is a hell of a keyboardist now) and he has also been playing the guitar for long, mostly by himself though. He also has little training in the bass and the drums and he is more or less able to learn any instrument within a reasonable time (as he learned to play the accordion in a few hours in the studio). At current he is at Helsinki pop/jazz conservatorium in a full-day musical education. Baron has played the drums for 15 years now, 13 of which in the conservatorium, and also he has played the guitar for several years. In my opinion musical education is a great bonus, but it isn’t totally necessary if you know how to improve your skills by yourself.

there's a new style called :millenium black metal which's represented by THE KOVENANT.DO U respect this new style??

[Ville] I couldn’t care less about what others are doing. I think that The Kovenant is just another rider on the industrial trend wave and not even a good one, but it’s really their shame. They admit they’re doing it for money and I respect that.

and ville ,u have got a distro called meathook productions .r there promising bands that'll take the old bands' thrones??

[Ville] In my explorations to the underground I have confronted many good bands (yet even more terrible ones), and I can assure that there will always be fresh newcomers who can inherit the mantle of the older bands. Of course there is no match for Slayer or Bal-Sagoth, but at least Neglected Fields can hold up to the quality of Atheist and we can take over Bathory, ehh...?

what would u like to say else???

[Ville] Thank you extensively for this interview and keep the pagan flame burning bright!!!