Crimson Dawn / December 2002

Link 1 - Link 2

Answered by Henri Sorvali

Interview with Henri Urponpoika Sorvali (Moonsorrow) 16.12.2002

Text: CaT & Kris

C&K: As far as we know,the band was recently in studio recording the new album, so what's the name of it and how many tracks it includes? (if it's not a secret :)

Henri: The name of the album is called "Kivenkantaja", which stands for "Stonebearer" in English. It was actually mastered today (today is 16th of December 2002 :) - Kris), thus making it absolutely complete, fokken majestic and EPIC as Hell!!!!!! The album will contain 6 tracks, and the total running time is 53:48, so we're not exactly try to challenge old Napalm Death here, heh.

C&K: Where was the album recorded and how long did it take? Any funny crap happened while recording session? :)

Henri: The album was recorded in Tico-Tico studios in Kemi, north Finland, as usual. We were so satisfied with Ahti's engineering skills, as well as a person, of course, that we didn't see any other options when choosing the studio. It took us 11 days to play everything and 4 days to mix it. It was pretty hard job, as we had something like 70-90 tracks on each song, but we made it after all!

Any funny crap? Shitloads, including lots of beer... (Whenever there is beer, there is funny crap, as you might know ;) And of course Autopsy's "Mental Funeral" is always listened at full volume in Moonsorrow-crew's parties! Check the studio-diary out from our webpages, at http://hem.passagen.se/metalmusique/moon/moonsorrow_studiodiary.html and find out, why did Ville fight some imaginary dragons, how badly we thrashed the hotel-lounge or why yours truly was trying to find someone particular to get him beaten into a pulp in a bar at 3:30 am.!

C&K: What was the source of inspiration for this album? Is there any special concept or theme on the new album?

Henri: For me, the inspiration came pretty much from "older" records this time, as I was basically only listening to classical film scores, Richard Wagner's various works as well as Rick Wakeman's solo albums and old Folk music. So I really wasn't so keen on metal as a "musical inspiration" (which actually has never been my mug of mead, as I really don't listen to any music in order to get inspired to compose something similar...as long as we are speaking about the passion in making music and not the job.) What it comes to Marko, or "Baron", if you prefer, he was,as far as I know, inspired mostly by old prog such as Rick Wakeman and ELP, and metal such as Bathory or Iron Maiden. And I think that these influences can be heard in the forthcoming album, too. For the concept or theme I really can't say anything, as they are Ville's things.... I just make music. :)

C&K: Do you think that Moonsorrow's style changed on the new album?

Henri: Yes and no. We still are the same band that produced "Suden Uni", or Hel, even "Metsä"-demo, but by all means, I could never have dreamt of using Mellotrons of Moogs in our music back then, although we have always found them extremely interesting and cool instruments, as we all have listened to 70's prog for very long. However, I'd say we definitely carry the same concept, ideas and ideals, but now musically expressed in more "mature" and "daring" way, as we didn't want to go for the "safe" way, so to say. And of course in my opinion we have always had this bombastic "more is more"-attitude for what it comes to the arrangements, heh.

C&K: Will we have a pleasure of hearing the drunk vikings choir doing the backing vocals again? :) And maybe some interesting guest appearances?

Henri: Yes, and this time there are way more of them! On the choir-side, guest appearances are pretty limited this time, as the Thyrane-guys (who basically are the Kemi-scene, if not counting the trendy faggots from Sonata Arctica *spit* ) had to be in Savonlinna for recording their upcoming (godly) album, but of course there was our "official drunken Viking" Janne Perttilä again. He's very good and professional singer, so he adds some real singing in our quasimusical howling, heheh. Also Lord Eurén took a plane from Helsinki to participate on the choirs, as well as our Swedish webmaster Stefan and his brother Robert came to shout and clap their hands.
What it comes to other visitors, we have Hittavainen from Shaman playing some fiddle in three songs and an old friend of mine singing the last song.

C&K: Who'll do/has already done the cover art?

Henri: The cover art was made by a certain group who are specialized on that certain kind of ancient art. I won't reveal here how it will look like, as it's going to be a surprise, but I can assure that if you're into the Viking age, you will most likely like it!

C&K: Is it planned to release the album outside Finland and if it's possible to define, when? 'cause in most cases Europe gets albums at least with 2 months delay from the Finnish release and we all envy you damn much. :)

Henri: Of course! And trust me, it won't take something like two months, if counting on Spinefarm's way of taking care of things.They are fast and professional in these matters.

C&K: Do you have something like a tour or at least a couple of festival appearances outside Finland in mind?

Henri: Actually, I don't know. There has been discussion about a small tour inside Finland with Ajattara and some other (maybe foreign) band, but I don't think we're going to tour outside Finland's borders. But of course single gigs can be arranged abroad, be it a festival-appearance or just a single club-gig with some other bands. The problem is, that, as we're not so big band, the organizators are not willing to pay us much, but we can't either afford to go to a gig if we don't get all the expences paid. It's frustrating to go play a gig just to loose money, you know. Trust me, as we're all pretty experienced on this matter...

C&K: In your opinion, can the fact that you sing in Finnish become an obstacle when promoting the band in other countries?

Henri: Has Burzum, Enslaved, Horna or every second Norwegian band had any obstacles caused by their performing language? ;) Besides, I think that it's more like a bonus if you play Pagan metal and use in your native language in the lyrics and the titles. And of course there is this certain fact about no-one ever getting any sense from the vocalist's growls and screechs anyway, heh.

C&K: Are you going to make a promovideo from this album? If yes, what would your dream video look like a clip with some story behind it or just band playing?

Henri: A video would be nice, but as our songs are not the shortest around, it would pretty frustrating to edit the songs to last for 4-5 minutes, as they tend to lose their musical meaning then in my opinion. If we ever did one, though, it must be done very professionally and good-looking. This kind of band has all the elements of failuring the video lurking behind, as there is a very fine line between "pompous and dramatic" and "pathetic and laughable". If I could choose, it wouldn't be a "story" but more like a scenario, or "sum" of the story of the song. And of course it would include forests, castles, horses, swords, battles, fire, and things like that with no guitars etc. at all. Now imagine how easy it would be to turn a great, Ýberpompous video-idea into a massive pile of world's most pathetic crap a'la Grave Digger or Rhapsody. Got the point? ;)

C&K: Which bands you would most of all like to tour with?

Henri: I would love to tour with Bal-Sagoth, as they are one of my favourite bands and most likely are a killer band on stage. Also Thyfing would be really nice, as they are our friends and make some fokken great music! From the Finnish scene, a tour with Ajattara, Ensiferum (they are pretty known as very good and energetic live band) or maybe Thyrane would be nice.

C&K: Is it possible one day to hear Moonsorrow taking part in somebody's tribute album? What kind of tribute would that be?

Henri: First of all, I'd really like to express my humble opinion about the fact that 99% of the "tributes" aren't nothing else but a lame excuse to copy the tributed band as closely as you can. And I mean, why? Have you ever heard a Motörhead tribute album? If yes, can you please explain me why almost all the bands and especially the singers are desperately trying to sound exactly like Lemmy and co.? I think, that when you make a cover song, it is a shame to not put something your own into it. For example, Terra Firma's version of MotÆrhead's "Bomber" is incredible, 70's styled killer hippie song. (!!!!) Bathory's "Ace of Spades" sounds like it was written by Quorthon himself. Oh, you get the point. What I was trying to say, that no, you really can't see us tributing half-heartedly some old band with our "version" of their song, the only difference being screechy vocals and some synth. If we do a cover-version, it must sound like US. Period. And thus the opportunity to see us on some lame umpteenth Venom- or Metallica-tribute album is pretty much close to zero, unless there is a song we really want to do in our style.

C&K: I know that most of the metal bands become really annoyed when being compared to some other bands. What does Moonsorrow think of all that?

Henri: We don't, as long as anyone doesn't compare us to Finntroll, which irritates us (and especially me) pretty much. Of course there are some similarities, but Finntroll is WAY more "joyous" music than Moonsorrow, and it irritates us a lot if someone finds too much joy or happiness from Moonsorrow's music, as I personally think us as a very gloomy and "dark side of the folk-music"-kind of band. Well, this shall be fixed as soon as Kivenkantaja will be released, heh. Anyway, comparisons with Bathory or Bal-Sagoth are not so "far", but in the end I think that at least with this upcoming album we have most definitely found our own style. To sum this up; People can compare our music to Elton John for what I care, because it really has nothing to do with our own opinions, whether they find resemblances with A-ha or Cannibal Corpse.

C&K: Was there any special story behind making the complete Suden Uni album available for download at mp3.com?

Henri: Yes. That Peruvian bastard no-business-talent-whatsoever Carlos from Plasmatica Records (spit on him) took an extra pressing of the "Suden Uni"-album without telling us anything, to flee away for paying the royalties. (What a dishonourable subhuman.) We found this out, and mailed the fucking retard to send our payment immediately, or we will come and visit him with some baseball bats. He kept promising and promising, "yes, I send you money" for over a month and finally, when nothing (surprisingly) happened, we put the "Suden Uni" to the internet for free download, because we thought that people want to hear and buy the album but because of Carlos they can't, so let's put it into a free download and simultaneously show Carlos that "if we don't get our money, you won't get any profits either". We're mostly likely getting rid of him soon anyway, as he has violated so many parts of the deal that we can pretty surely sue his poor ass and have the legal rights to the album all by ourselves. Besides, this unloyal cunt owes us 2000 euros, so there really are millions of reasons why this unprofessional dick should be beaten into a pulp and get his money.
Happy for the explanation? :)

C&K: What do you think of all so-called fantasy metal bands?

Henri: It depends pretty much of the band. Some bands, like Summoning, Heresiarh or Bal-Sagoth can escape the ridiculousness as they do a great job with their stuff, but unfortunately there are some too many "Tolkien-inspired" bands, who pour their musical crap into the recording industry, playing those a-thousand-times-heard-so-called-medieval-melodies with drum-machine and singing about Sauron and the Uruk-Hai, trying dramatically to sound as much Summoning as possible. Besides, fantasy is most often situated in the Power Metal scene, and I really can't stand that cheesy crap. :)

C&K: Can we expect Moonsorrow playing at summer festivals in 2003 in Finland?

Henri: Most likely, but at this time of the year it's pretty impossible to predict anything.

C&K: The question I always wanted to ask (hihi) Is that an absolute necessity for the pagan to be evil or it's just for metalscene and a common pagan is as mean as a teddybear? :)

Henri: Heh, I get your point. However, Paganism has nothing to do with the concept of Christian, or any kind of "evil". It's more about things like honour, harmony, enjoying of life and being yourself. I, for example am propably as mean as a teddybear (with similar outlooks, hih), as I have never found the "celebration of supreme evil" or whatever to be intelligent enough. The whole concept of being a walking asshole isn't based on any religion anyway. :) Why to be "good" or "evil" when you can just be yourself? As much as I hate Christian "goody-two-shoes"-attitude, I despise even more
the "evil" attitude. It's just plain stupidity. We all have our nice and mean sides.

C&K: When you're on stage, do you look at the audience? If yes, what is more pleasant to see cute girls in the first row or moshing big men? :)

Henri: Of course! I think that the band must have contact with the audience, as nothing is more lame than see a band on stage who just keep on staring their instruments or the floor. We try to have that contact with the audience, as the both parties enjoy it. For the latter part of the question; I actually prefer "big men" in the first row as our music is very powerful, somehow violent and requires an audience who is metaphorically kinda "similar" to it. Then again, if I played in The Back Passage Boys or whatsoever, it would be most embarrassing to see those long-haired men in the front row. It all depends on the music. ;)

C&K: Does Moonsorrow already have crazy fans who stand at the front of your houses crying for autographs? :)

Henri: Luckily no. I prefer privacy extremely much, and can't even stand any ass-lickers or idiots, who think we're so great because we have this band. People who don't know us as persons, people who don't realize that we would do this even we didn't have a record deal. So I really strongly dislike the concept of the word "fan", if it has something to do with non-musical things. Besides, we have sold like 7000 albums so far, so I don't think there are any crazy Japanese fans in the near future standing in our front yards, heh.

C&K: Have you already decided what you wanna get as a Christmas present?

Henri: The ultimate present would a huge sack of peace of mind, with some additional good literature. And maybe a new calendar would be nice.

C&K: Now the finale :) We thank you veeeeery much for the interview and waiting either for Moonsorrow coming here to play or we will come to Finland ourselves! We're leaving this final point to you, you're allowed to ask us smth equally stupid to the interview or/and say some cool and clever stuff to people who will (maybe?) read all that :)

Henri: I tried really hard to invent a really stupid question, but it didn't seem to go very well, as I couldn't come up with anything. :( Anyway, thanks for the interview, and KEEP ON ROTTING IN THE FREE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!