Mirkwood / February 2001

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Answered by Henri and Ville Sorvali

First of all, let me congratulate you with the debut album. I was just astonished with the quality of your new material: perfect melodical parts with palpable influence of folk traditions - they don’t sound very often in such accurate performance! Could you describe the feelings which your creation arouses in you; are you satisfied with the final result?

[Henri] Thank you for the kind words! We are very satisfied with the result, although there could be some whining around because of the record company. But of course it has nothing to do with the music, which we, as I said, find very successful. And what comes to the feelings right now, I could say that the album is perfectly as good as it could have gotten back then, but I promise our next album will be even better! New stuff will be even more pompous, more folkish and 100% MOONSORROW!!!! We guarantee it will fucking kill!!!!!!!!

Probably, the only unpleasant moment with your new album is that awfully long waiting for its realization. I guess, it’s a fault of the label - Plasmatica Records. Why did you decide to deal with this new and not well-known label?

[Ville] Yes, it was very irritating to wait for the release of the album. Whether it was a fault of the label or not does not matter anymore, after all one should be able to expect these kind of setbacks when dealing with small labels. They just don’t have the money to push things their way with the desired pace. There were all kinds of troubles concerning the supposed release, all the way from simple communication obstacles to the last-minute fuck-ups with the manufacturing company (they had the masters idle for two months or so, so I guess we should question their working morals a bit too). Surely many people question afterwards why did we choose Plasmatica Records, but why shouldn’t we have signed the best contract we were offered? Working with new and not well-known labels usually isn’t that efficient - as we have learned - but there are always two sides to a coin if you think about it. On a small label every band has priority and there should be no questions about artistic freedom unlike on some bigger labels.

You also run not a large underground label Meat Hook Prods, on which first Moonsorrow demo-albums were released. So why did you decide to co-operate with another label? Is it lack of money, or some other reason?

[Ville] To cut it short, Meat Hook Productions is (was) just a d.i.y. demo label somewhat equal to a self-financing band and it could never have succeeded with an actual album release. It was quite natural to release our demos on MHP, but we always knew that we would need another party to finance our debut album if such was to be recorded. Certainly lack of money played a role in that, but also the fact that the promotional and distributional capabilities of Meat Hook Productions were badly limited. We didn’t ever have enough contacts, let alone any knowledge of the market, so if released on MHP our album would probably have sold some 400 copies. Also, there are only 24 hours to a day, so having to do all the promotion ourselves would’ve surely gnawed our efficiency as a performing band.

The sound quality of ”Suden Uni” pleasantly surprises. How did you manage to achieve such, let me say, crystal sharpness of sound? Did the previous experience you got while realizing your demos play the basic role in it?

[Henri] A huge credit goes absolutely to Ahti Kortelainen and his always so great Tico-Tico Studio, where we recorded the album. (And will also record the next one, which is scheduled to happen in July/2001.) We had a perfect vision of what our album should sound like when we went there, and Ahti managed to make it sound just like we wanted to and even better. Of course there is this very fact that everyone of us has had previous studio experiences (Moonsorrow is most certainly not the only band we have ever recorded something with), and it does help a lot when you can just tell the engineer what you want with clear ”studio-terms” and stuff like that, but on the final hand it’s all about the studio and the engineer.

Something unusual is present in the musical palette of Moonsorrow such untraditional instrument for black metal as accordion. Was it made for the sake of greater originality, or is using of accordion typical for Finnish folklore?

[Henri] The accordion (”Harmonikka, Haitari, Hanuri” etc. in Finnish), is a very typical Finnish folk music instrument besides of course violin, mouth harp, recorder and other more obvious instruments you can hear e.g. on our album. The reasons to include it to the songs were the very facts that a) it is an old folk music instrument which creates hell of a more folkish atmosphere when used as a substitute for e.g. a plain electric guitar melodyline, b) it sounds fucking great when blended with metal music and c) of course it sounds pretty original, doesn’t it?

I hear some statements that the Finnish language and metal music are incompetible. Personally, I don’t agree with such beliefs, because it won’t take long to find the proof of the opposite! How much does it mean for you to perform songs in your native language? Can I say that for pagan and black metal it’s more natural to use national languages?

[Ville] Who has told you that? I have never heard that Finnish language wouldn’t suit metal music, I have just heard that it won’t sell. Finnish is a very grim language and I in my opinion thus blessed for metal music, actually. I’m glad that you appreciate it at least. To me it’s important to be able to perform songs in my native language, because my expression is not bound to any language barriers then. I don’t force myself to write in Finnish, though; if some verses are to come out in English or Swedish, so shall it be. I only seek for the most natural way of creating lyrics. It just happens that when speaking of ”Finnish” matters the words usually come out in Finnish. I don’t know about black metal (the message is satanic and Satan, whosoever believeth in him, can handle all the languages of the world), but within paganistic contexts it is of course more natural to use national languages. The primordial feeling in the songs comes forth much stronger in an authentic tongue, and the linguistical honesty of the message is a bonus for those who actually understand the text.

You work hard in the underground - a band, a label, a ’zine... Do you have enough time and will to deal with all these projects?

[Ville] Enough will, yes, enough will for even more but not enough time. That’s why I’m burying Meat Hook Productions in the first place. I already have two bands and several projects, one ’zine of my own and another one I’m writing for and I think that’s enough. Not all of my life is in the underground anyway. Behind the curtains I still have my studies, my work, my unclassified hobbies and my lovely fiancée.

Meat Hook(ed). Your label and magazine have such name. The name seems quite strange to me and I think it would better go with some ”brutal deathsters”. Why did you make such choice?

[Henri] From where exactly have you actually got your information about Meat Hook Prod. NOT having anything to do with brutal deathsters??? We deal with Death, Black, Thrash, Grind and even freakin’ Ambient/Darkwave and that obviously includes brutal Death Metal as well as, say, industrial Blackthrash, my friend. Just order our ’zine and/or the catalogue and you’ll notice that yourself. MHP represents quality music, and although the name points more to a Death Metal direction we are not and we have never been into just only one style of metal which to publish. (However, I admit that it might not be a great - although pretty original, heh - idea to name a die-hard BM-label as ”Daffodils In Springtime Prod.”) For the namegame, I, for it was yours truly who chose the name back then in 1995, just preferred it to be more ”deathish”, partly because of my liking of brutal Death Metal and partly to step aside from the gray mass because of the millions of ohh so veeeeeery evil Forestwinterblasphemyravenlordpazuzu-styled DIY-labels or ’zines which were the unfortunate everyday of 99% of the scene back then. Besides, I have never been into that satan-thing, really. To sum this conversation up, a quality label is a quality label, be it’s name anything from Gory Gutfucking to Cold Mountains Of Axuzulghraaab, basically. Or has anyone ever given a flying wank of Hervé’s obvious fond of plant biology? After all, it’s METAL, for Odin’s sake!

Can we say now, that Moonsorrow has joined ”mainstream” (realization of cd & so on)? Or are these just trappings and you still keep to underground principles?

[Ville] What is the mainstream you’re talking about? I consider mainstream selling half a million albums and daily airplay, so really we are practically as far from the mainstream as we were in 1995 when we started. These days releasing a cd is almost a necessity if a band wants to be heard, and of course we want to be heard! We’re still firmly underground and that’s how it goes with metal music.

[Henri] I don’t get it. Do you consider Darkthrone to be a mainstream band just because they’ve done six (or something like that) cd’s? If a band records their music for releasing it on a cd, but it will in the long run sell only 50 copies, have they still became a ”mainstream” band? I basically understand your point and I respect your views, but I think it’s all about the band whether they leave their ug-principles behind when they step into the world of shining discs (which I find very arrogant and the most stupid thing to do). We, however, are always going to be an underground band, no matter if our albums sell 20 or 20000 copies.

The interest in ancient traditions - is it just your inner world, or does the pagan essence of your world-perception somehow influence your contacts with the exterior world? Does it require to be realized in ceremonies and magic arts?

[Henri] On this one I can only speak on my behalf. However, I find my personal religion and world perception being more like a mixture of the abovementioned things. Of course it comes from inside me, as I am what I think and how I view the world, but on the other hand it has a clear influence to the exterior world in common things like how I treat other people etc. I try to be guided by the nine virtues (courage, truth, honour, fidelity, self-discipline, hospitality, industriousness, self-reliance and perseverance), an old Nordic life-code, so to say, and try to live my life as I tend to think what is right. As for the rituals I have some own small things but I am not so keen to talk about it. They’re those little personal things that I’d like to keep just within me for no one to expose. Anyway, they have nothing to do with ceremonies and magic.

For me Finland is inseparatably connected with ”Kalevala” - a real masterpiece of traditional epic craft. Does the work of Moonsorrow base on the images and ideas of this epos?

[Ville] Ehh, that’s Amorphis you know. Although a fascinating epic, Kalevala is only a small fraction of what Finnish mythology has to offer, and that’s really not our job to rewrite traditional poetry anyway. The work of Moonsorrow is based on the ancient Finland and heathendom as a whole, and our lyrics are about whatever related subjects between the earth and the sky.

[Henri] And to make a small but markable notice, the Kalevala is actually a Karelian epic, and be it also the national epic of Finland, it doesn’t mean we can speak of ”Finnish mythology”, as there actually isn’t a definition for that kind of a term. The religious beliefs of ancient Finland were both of the Karelian mythology and the Asatru, of where we basically have taken our image from.

You got me interested by words that you have something to say about your political views. And here I give you a possibility to speak them out. Moreover, I would like you to do it as capital as you can, because this topic really involves me (sometimes even more than music - if it won’t sound paradoxically). What are the ways out from the moral and spiritual corruption of the modern society, as you see them?

[Ville] Yes, I’m a passive fanatic and I have a lot to say about my political views, but I’m quite uncertain whether anyone’s interested. What can I say? At first... yes, many so-called pagan metallers will be disappointed now, but I have nothing to do with any right-wing ideologies. I detest all kinds of fascism and I despise all proclaimers of that ”superior race” bullshit. As a heathen I’m naturally attracted to national romanticism, but if any people seriously think that would make me a nazi, that’s their stupidity not mine. I’m more of a socialist type (but huh, don’t mistake me for a communist either); I believe in democracy and a working social service system (which the politicians of Finland seem to have forsaken), I’d hope for more reasonable taxation and a more equal distribution of income and I would definitely reduce the power of the church to minimum. I’m also strongly anti-militaristic because the obligatory army system is completely inhuman and outdated, modern warfare has absolutely nothing to do with honest battling and wars are not the solution to global problems anyway but rather the opposite. Above all I support environmental policies, because nature is what we should preserve and not our disposable ”information society”. (However, at this point I would like to disassociate myself from the fanatic groundlessness of the lineless ”green party” of Finland.) We need information, grounded opinions, well-directed suggestions and action to save the environment, and if the only way of achieving it is to annihilate the mankind, so shall it be. But that’s it for the politics. The modern society is rotten to the core and we live among an unthinking, superficial and narrow-minded flock. A moral and spiritual corruption indeed. The only way out from this disgustingly real nightmare, as I see it, would be to educate people and help them open their ears to the voices of their heathen ancestors, but the real difficulty of the task is that these people really don’t want to hear that this paradise of all possibilities they’re living in is nothing but a technocratic prison. People actually believe that text messages, logos and dial tones are the salvation of mankind and that’s amusing... and really sad. We can just hope for something to awake them before it’s too late.

In my interviews I try to pay more attention to ideological basements of musical creative work (probably, this one looks like an exception, but I’m going to reach the goal in the future). And what interests you most, when you make interviews for Meathooked ’zine?

[Ville] I’d say that the music and the minds behind it interest me equally. As a (sort of a) musician I have an interest towards music itself, and while talking with other musicians it is natural to change a few opinions on the matter. On the other hand, I’m also interested in the minds that create the music and so I tend to lead the conversations to ideological fields later on. I don’t really care what do the artists think but I do care about the relevance of their arguments. What is the meaning of art without a thinking mind behind it anyway?

[Henri] When I start to think of whom to interview I always have certain principles. First of all, I really must like the interviewed band’s music (no shit, huh...) and mostly I try to pick a band who hasn’t been in every ’zine lately. (Like, what’s the point of contacting a band who gets tons of letters a day from all around the world and can’t really give a shit of going in-depth in the interviews or just has their faces in every fucking magazine around already, be it a Polish underground one or some goddamn Terrorizer?) Secondly, I try to pick a band whose image is something I find interesting. (As You have also seemed to understand, a good interview is something where the interviewee is asked to discuss of something else than answering to those always-so-exiting questions like ”Do you like your new album?” or ”Are you a Satanist”, and goes in-depth, having various of topics from music to everything else.) And of course if I have an option to have a chat with a guy who I admire for his musical (playing) skills, like Mr. Maudling from Bal-Sagoth, it is a great pleasure to me. But the most important thing to me when making an interview is to go as ”in-depth” as possible (without insulting the interviewee by stepping too much into his personal life, of course).

Because you often give interviews as a member of Moonsorrow, and on the contrary, ask questions for your own magazine, I’ve got an (maybe strange) offer: ask yourself a question on which you would like to answer, but which no one asks you in interviews. If you got such a question, so please go ahead!

[Ville] There are plenty of questions I would like to answer but I can’t.

In your musical work I feel an influence of Bathory (especially of the time of ”Hammerheart”). Am I right in this supposition and can we call these Swedish Vikings the inspirators of the musical development of Moonsorrow?

[Henri] Phew... what can I say? All of us are very fond of Bathory and especially the ”viking-albums” and I somehow proudly admit the influences from Quorthon’s works. But I do not think that we in any case copy the band. The new Moonsorrow-material will also have it’s influences from Bathory and besides, tell me one single Viking Metal band who doesn’t sound like them and I can point you a band who hasn’t done its homework. :)

My motherland Belarus comparatively recently got its independece, and I wonder if people from the west know anything about this small, but having a very rich ethnic-cultural heritage country.

[Henri] Yes... but as I am poisoned by the american filth + other crap media, the first thing that pops into my mind is the Fanta commercial that was on tv something like a year ago, where some Belarussian fellas were watching football and drinking soda. Well, actually I know some other things about your land, too. Let’s see... I am very aware of your rich cultural heritage, especially what comes to things like music, food and of course your infamous vodka, heheh. About the latest history of your country I know that you were a part of the Soviet Union/CCCP for some time, but now luckily have your own system, based on not-so-ultracommunistic rules, which I hope turns out to be more humane than the previous one you had (if not counting the latter times of Gorbatshov and glasnost, which I thought were a great improvement, at least when observing things through the eyes of the so-called ”western” citizen). And yeah, didn’t you guys fight against us during the 2nd WW? (And the first one too, actually.) Well, what the fuck. I didn’t fight there anyway.
.....LET THE PAGAN FLAME BURN AGAIN..........FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!