Sound Shock / April 2008

No link, it seems to have disappeared. It was from soundshock.co.uk. If "yesterday" they were in Essen, this interview was done on April 6th 2008. - Grilo

The Pagan Fest heralds many a fine gem from Europe’s premier folk and Viking metal acts. Soundshock puts the heaviest band on the bill in the hot seat, Finland’s own Moonsorrow, with members Marco Tarvonen (drummer) and Ville Sorvali (lead vocals, bass) doing the honours.

How are you guys, anyway?
Marco: Tired! Tired from yesterday’s show.

Where were you yesterday? Europe, central?
Marco: Essen.

How was that show then?
Marco: Yeah, it was good, I think.
Ville: Yeah, it was cool.
Marco: I don’t remember much *laughs*

So are you well received because although you’re not headlining, Moonsorrow are a pretty popular band. Are the audiences enjoying your show?
Marco: Yeah, I think they are enjoying the show of all bands especially the more melancholic bands within this bunch of folkish bands so people don’t only get this doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo stuff. There is one band that’s playing much slower songs, stuff like that. For me it’s important to see people not only banging their heads and fists but if they can get through slower and atmospheric songs that we can do. It’s also very important to go with the flow.

I’m going to ask you a few questions about your upcoming EP now, ‘Tulimyrsky’, excuse the bad pronunciation. The cover of the Metallica song – are Metallica a big favourite band for you or a big influence?
Ville: Used to be.
Marco: Used to be when we were kids of course they are a very influential band I guess for any metal band. We have thought to do it for many years then we started to do it in this very Moonsorrow-ish form and try to get around the little spice part and I think we managed to try very well with that.

We’ve got a new song on this EP. What can we expect from it?
Marco: The new song? 29 minutes.

So like the ‘Hävitetty’ album then.
Marco: Yeah, it is a story. Very much movie like. We hired an actor to make a speech.

Wow, is it a well known actor then?
Marco: In Finland, yeah.
Ville: Well, I dunno. He mainly does Finnish things.

Ok then. So, musically, how is this different from your other music?
Marco: The song is called ‘Tulimyrsky’. That means ‘firestorm’. We didn’t know, actually we wanted it to start very aggressively. It was kinda black metal, very fast but then it will be changed to a more progressive and folkish stuff.

In the future do you see yourself like bands like Borknagar who started of black metally, folky and then put progressive elements in their music later on? Would you consider doing that, putting a new style of metal in your music?
Ville: We are doing what we’re doing and if it turns out to be a new style then by all means. We’re not trying to invent any genres. Just doing whatever fits us and feels like it works. And the next album will be totally different from this one because all the albums are different from each other.

Definitely, which is a good thing I think. You’ve got a lot of variation in your music.
Marco: As for now, we don’t have any ideas what to do with the next album. It’s very hard to say right now. I guess we start thinking about that next year.

Will you be doing a lot of touring for the EP then?
Marco: Not much. Only this tour and some five or six shows in Finland and then a couple of summer festivals and I think that’s it for this year.

Would you start writing the next album or would you go on a bit of a break first?
Marco: I think that we need a little break *laughs*. It’s been now, like what, 8 years and we have released five albums and one EP. It’s kind of fast releasing schedule.

It’s good to have some time back home as well with family and friends.
Marco: Yeah.

One question that’s always interested me. I’ve read somewhere that you always write your lyrics in Finnish because it’s more genuine but ‘Moonsorrow’ is English. Is there a particular reason for that?
Ville: Ah yes there is one for that. When we started the band back in ’95 we did the stuff in English and later on we changed the language. We didn’t feel like changing the name anymore.

Why did you change the lyrics from English to Finnish?
Ville: We realised that Finnish gives a lot more to the music. We can handle it perfectly and of course it’s the native tongue and we can say whatever we want.

More traditional as well.
Ville: Yes, more traditional.

Why doesn’t Trollhorn play live, or your brother?
He has, and he’s my cousin.

Oops, sorry.
Ville: He played on the first album tour but why isn’t he usually playing - is because of his work and his family back home.
Marco: He’s not very much a touring kind of person. But he wanted to do as much of this tour as possible. I hope it was good for him.
Ville: One week and a half away from his work. *laughs*
Marco: I think he’s been enjoying this tour much.

He’s got Finntroll as well, hasn’t he?
Ville: Yeah, but he doesn’t tour as much with them. Some single shows in Finland in a year, he might do.

You supported Bodom for the Spinefarm release party. Have you got a new audience now or some new fans?
Marco: Hopefully we got…I dunno. How was the audience there? Quite good. It was good.
Ville: It was packed and, well, all the people went there to see the main act so it’s a compliment.

Yeah, you didn’t get booed off stage so you must have done something right!
Ville: *laughs* Yeah.
Marco: It was nice to play in a fully packed house supporting Children of Bodom. Like, what better way to do your debut show in the UK? It was a very nice chance for us.

It was a very very good show. You’re quite an old sort of folky/black metal band. You’ve been around for a while. Who are your influences exactly? Now it’s quite popular to find folk bands around but you’re one of the originals, I would say. I know you’ve got a related Shaman side project, acoustic folk related to the band. Does that have influence? I’m not sure which one’s older, actually.
Ville: No actually. We were quite influenced from a different source from anything that’s considered folk metal. We listened to a lot of Norwegian black metal and a lot of progressive rock from the ‘70s, authentic folk music without guitars and of course, Bathory. The basic sound lies in stuff like old Borknagar or Satyricon, mainly, and then we have mixed it with some folk and progressive rock from the ‘70s. We are huge fans of like Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.

Does that explain the long songs then?
Marco: *laughs*. I think it explains of something what we listen to at home. Our booking agent in Germany when he got our last album with the two songs, he told me: “You are the Pink Floyd of black metal” or something. *laughs*

That’s a compliment!
Marco: Yeah! That’s kind of what we wanted to achieve and we are not as fond of this folk metal thing as in we’re not following them. We enjoy playing with these cool bands; it’s just not the stuff that gets the top of our record piles at home.


So it’s more the black metally and the proggy stuff?
Marco: Yeah.

So when you wrote ‘Hävitetty’, did you sort of have the idea to make two long songs or did you naturally have them?
Ville: it just happened. We had an idea to make…actually the initial idea was something but it certainly wasn’t to make two long songs. It just happened like that. We started writing the songs and when we had the intro for the first song first ready and we realised: “It’s ten minutes before the song even starts. I think this is going to be long.”
Marco: And then we thought: “Let’s make another one!” *laughs*

A lot of your songs on the Kivenkantaja album, I mean ‘Raunioilla’ is ten or thirteen minutes long, so you’re accustomed to making long songs. So you thought you’d sort of take it to the next level?
Ville: Well, yeah. Sort of. We realised that we are actually going to make two long songs. We decided to push it to the extreme and test ourselves – how far could we go with it?

And that album was quite well received, wasn’t it?
Ville: Yeah yeah. I was impressed.

Were you a bit nervous because it was two songs and people might have been…
Ville: No because it’s not our concern. We don’t care about the record sales. More important is that the potential people who might like it might. That’s all. I don’t care if it sells twenty thousand or two hundred as long as we get the budget from the record label to make a new one.

Have you been playing the songs from ‘Hävitetty’ live yet?
Marco: We played the second song. It depends where we are.

And that went down well?
Marco: Yeah, I think it was certainly the most boring period on our set *laughs*. Though actually, it went quite well most of the nights.
Ville: It’s interesting to play though because it’s a challenge.
Marco: It could be a gig-killer for the audience but usually it was very well accepted by the crowd.
Ville: Yeah, actually in Holland they even had stage diving during that song. It just doesn’t make sense *laughs*.

Is it more challenging as you write music because you’re changing your style. If you listen to the ‘Suden Uni’ album and then you listen to the latest release, it’s very different.
Ville: Yeah, it’s developed a lot.
Marco: More difficult to develop new songs? Yeah, it’s getting that. Definitely. Like I said, we don’t have any ideas for the next album yet. Only that we try to make shorter songs, to release an album with six or seven songs so it will be something to go back in our releases. I dunno, but musically it could be anything…except industrial, trance techno or something. We try to keep industrial sounds away from Moonsorrow.
Ville: We try to keep it as organic as possible.
Marco: Actually, we were thinking about going to record it in Norway. In Grighallen studios where all the famous black metal albums were made. But we’ll see. It’s gonna be an expensive trip to go there. I think it’s an expensive studio, expensive country. Let’s see. Anyway, we want to go far from home to record usually. We made this EP in our home town and that’s not the way to make an album because every day after the studio you get home and start thinking about the Monday and things and bills to pay and whatever. That’s not how you should make albums. You should go somewhere to another country.

You say you listen to old Borknagar and a lot of ’70s prog. Do you listen to a lot of modern bands to get any ideas from?
Marco: I don’t…
Ville: Some of them. I listen to a lot of new stuff everyday. But very little of that actually gets into my mind. CDs I just don’t care about. There are some good bands of course; every decade gives birth to several good bands. I’m not saying that all good bands are made in the ‘90s.

Today on this bill Eluveitie are a fairly new band and I enjoy them.
Ville: Yeah, it’s a potential band.

Is there anything else you would like to say?
Marco: Not much. I’m so tired.
Ville: Enjoy the Pagan Fest. We definitely do.

How many more dates have you got on the tour?
Ville: Seventeen.
Marco: We don’t go to America. We only play this European one.

Ah, Turisas go to America. Ok then. Have a good show.
Marco: Thanks.


Interview by Elena Francis