Metal Psalter / May 2010

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May 6, 2010

Moonsorrow has gained a considerable following amongst the underground over the years with their blend of epic folk and black metal. In recent years however, they have gained more fans as their exposure to the United States crowd has increased, whether it is Heathen Crusade III in 2008, or their appearance on the Pagan Fest tour last year with Korpiklaani and Primordial. This year brings another tour for the band in the form of the Finnish Metal tour with fellow Finns Finntroll and Swallow the Sun. Recently, Metal Psalter caught up with Ville Sorvali and Marko Tarvonen on the Portland, OR stop of the tour to discuss all things Moonsorrow, as well as cultural differences and the importance of naps after an evening of heavy drinking.

Peter: First thing, you guys woke up from your nap. How was it?

Ville Sorvali: My nap, it was about five minutes and kind of refreshing.

Peter: Tonight, you’re here in Portland to play a show as part of a tour. Would you mind giving us an update on the tour so far?

Ville: It’s been great so far. Every show has been good and the package has been great: a tour with lots of partying involved, which is why we have to take all these naps. [laughs]

Peter: This is actually your second tour of the United States, with the first being last year’s Pagan Fest. What did you learn from last year’s tour that you’re applying to this year’s tour?

Marko Tarvonen: What we learned…

Ville: What did we learn? [laughs]

Marko: Well, we’ve learned that America is a huge country. We also had a good experience in America last year, but I don’t think it’s too different from Pagan Fest.

The mood is pretty much the same.

Ville: The fans are pretty much the same.

Marko: It’s a little different touring Europe, though because of the distances, and it usually takes about two days to get to a show. [laughs]

Peter: You don’t have to worry about crossing many borders.

Ville: Yeah, in Europe, we have a lot of borders.

Marko: And even though we live in the European Union, when you go outside a country, there are borders. It’s a normal thing.

Peter: For this tour, you’re touring with Finntroll and Swallow the Sun, who are all Finns.

Ville: Very good friends.

Peter: How did that tour come about?

Ville: Can’t remember, actually, but there were plans for a Finntroll tour…

Marko: Actually, there was talk about doing this kind of tour last year, with Spinefarm Records bands plus Finntroll, who used to be on Spinefarm. Eventually, it became Finntroll plus us and Swallow the Sun. There would have been a fourth Finnish band called Survivors Zero, but they didn’t get their visas approved for some reason, so only three bands now, plus the locals.

Ville: I think I overheard when Finntroll was coming up with the tour, the record label gave them this huge list of bands for support, but the band turned them down and they were like, “We want these bands.” They’re our friends. [laughs]

Marko: Yeah, that’s how it goes because we have good ties to many Finnish bands; we’re good friends, we share the same mentalities, same cultural…

Ville: Cultural drinking…

[both laugh]

Yeah, it’s the most important single tour in that it doesn’t matter what kind of bands are playing, it matters if you can get along because you have to share the same space all the time, so they have to be good people. We happen to have some really good people, so that’s the most important part of the tour.

Peter: Speaking of drinking, what has been the best alcoholic beverage you’ve had on this tour so far?

Ville: I don’t know about the best, but I’ve had the worst.

Marko: What did you have?

Ville: It was in Vancouver, and it was a shot that combined Canadian whiskey and tequila. [laughs]

It wasn’t really that good, but it was free, and free alcohol is always good, even if it isn’t all that good. [laughs]

Marko: Most of this tour has been a vodka and beer tour, which is more of our thing. Last night, I managed to hit the Jaeger bottle…

Ville: For the first time. The results were disastrous. I’m glad that I didn’t sample the tequila in Denver. I shouldn’t try that stuff. [laughs]

Peter: Everybody has their limits.

Ville: You never know where your limits are until you test them.

Peter: Is there an update on a possible new album that you can give us?

Ville: Yes, there will be a new album out about a year from now, and we will be hitting the studio in September. As we speak, our main songwriter (Henri Sorvali) is at home writing the material.

Marko: He isn’t touring anymore with any of his bands. He just isn’t a touring kind of person.

Ville: He’s the driving force behind Moonsorrow and Finntroll, but doesn’t like to tour. In this case, it’s good because he’s there writing music and we’re here because we couldn’t write the music while touring, anyway because we are drinking. [laughs]

Marko: There is at least one new song written and while it isn’t one hundred percent finished, what we have heard sounds very promising. There will be a new page turned in the Moonsorrow saga, introducing a heavier song that is more brutal, but at the same time, there will be the folk elements as well as progressive rock.

Ville: We’ll be diverse.

Peter: So definitely something for everyone to look forward to down the road.

Marko: Hopefully, yeah.

We’ve never done similar albums; they’re all kind of like different entities with properties of their own.

Ville: They’ve kind of surprised us, as well. It’s like a few months before we make an album, we have no idea what kind of album it’ll become.

Marko: Exactly. It’s good to have something to surprise ourselves after the tour.

Peter: Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Ville: Yeah, there was a hobo festival when we arrived here this morning. [laughs] One guy from Finntroll woke up, looked out the window, and asked, “Is there a festival? There’s all these people backpacking here,” and I went, “No, they’re hobos, and they’re camped out in front of the venue.” There were about fifty of them.

Marko: Yes, they were waiting to get into the venue. [laughs]

Ville: They drove the other guys away.

Marko: I guess the hobos will appear again after the show…

Ville: In their night camper or something…

Marko: We don’t have those in Finland.