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Recorded in Bilbao during the Dead Tyrants Tour, November 2011.
[Most questions written by me!]
After some festivals, this is your first club tour in Spain, right? How were the gigs so far? Better than expected, worse, different?
Ville: It was great. The Spanish audience is very lively, they have always welcomed us well.
You're introducing some songs from the latest album. How has the response been, both in the tour in general and in Spain?
Mitja: Sometimes you can really tell that people know the new songs. In Spain I think people don't know them so well. I can tell that especially the first song of the album, people are more listening to it, not knowing what's going on, but the last song usually works very well.
Ville: Actually that was a big surprise for me, how well it fits the situation. People always seem to go a bit nuts during the last song, even though it's slow and it's not the hit song kind. But people seem to like it a lot.
I saw you in Madrid for the first time and you didn't have blood! It looked very much like ink! What happened?
Mitja: Hmm. Maybe someone put too much water in the mixture... [laughs]. We have to use fake blood, we cannot use real one on the tour, it would get so bad in a couple of days, so we have to make it from artificial blood and put some water in it, and sometimes you make it too loose. That's what happened. But it also depends on the light: if there's red light on the stage you won't see it at all, if there's blue light it shows very well.
Did you choose Crimfall as support yourselves?
Mitja: Yes.
Ville: Yes and no. They were one of those that were offered, and in the end we didn't really choose it, because it was the agency's decision, but we voted for them, we can say that.
And why Crimfall, why did you vote for them?
Ville: They are cool guys and deserve to be in a long tour. It's their first tour, and immediately five weeks long... It should educate them pretty well!
I also noticed this is the first tour you're not playing Pakanajuhla...
Ville: ...and not the last. [laughs]
Why did you make this decision? It was omnipresent in the past.
Ville: It's kind of haunting us. It's not a song that we like that much. But I can understand why people like that song, there are the elements, but for us it's a bit too different from what we want to do nowadays.
And you are playing Sankaritarina in every show! This wasn't so usual either, no?
Ville: We found out that this song really works, both for us and the audience. The audience always sings along, feels like being in a footbal match, and we all enjoy playing it, it's a really fun song to play.
And now you started to play it in its full length.
Both: Yes.
Ville: You can blame Marko for that. He wanted to have the ending. And I think it fits.
Which are your favourite and unfavourite songs?
Mitja: It changes all the time. I would say my favourite song at the moment would be something from the album Verisäkeet, maybe Jotunheim; or something from the new album, right now the last song, Kuolleiden Maa.
Ville: My absolute favourite has to be Kuolleiden Maa. There's something personal in it, especially when playing live it gives me an extra kick of energy, and it's definitely my favourite of all the songs we have done.
And the one you like least?
Ville: You can't really discriminate between your own kids... But I can still say it's Pakanajuhla. [laughs]
Mitja: Yeah, I would say it's Pakanajuhla. I'm also a little disappointed on the song Kaiku, because it didn't turn out as good as we wanted. [Ville makes signs of agreement.] It works, but it could be a little bit better. Some of the vocal lines are a bit off... If we had more time it would be better.
Ville: We kind of wanted to have an authentic five-guys-around-the-bonfire feeling, very simplistic, but I think we overdid it and it's a bit too naked now.
Cameraman: I just wanted to say that the album in my t-shirt [Hävitetty] is the best in the world.
Mitja: Travis Smith is the guy who designed the cover artwork, responsible for this image too.
The next question is an angry one: Y U NO HUUTO???
Ville: [laughs] You're not the first one to ask that!
I'm sure!
Ville: [turns to Mitja] What is the answer?
Mitja: Marko! That fucking asshole refused to play it.
Really?
Mitja: Yes.
Ville: Angry question, angry answer. I don't really know what is the exact reason, but...
Mitja: Some people in the band think it's not a good live song. I think it would be a great live song. But there are very big differences in opinion about this subject and about this song in general. I would definitely want to play it. Some people don't... We also didn't have much time to make it work and rehearse it for playing live, it's a huge challenge.
Ville: It's a very complicated song to learn for live situations, and we would have to make some new arrangements for the keyboards and stuff. But I can promise that in 2021, in the 10th anniversary of this album, we will play that song. [laughs]
Hopefully before that!
Mitja: If we're alive!
My perception may be wrong here, but I think you grew exponentially after the year 2007. You had some albums already, but after that, your popularity increased a lot. Am I right?
Mitja: That's very hard to say. If you look at the record sales, they have been pretty much the same since 2007.
What about attendance to concerts and everything?
Mitja: That's hard to say, because we have done so many of these Paganfest tours where there are loads of bands, and you get to play for 2000 people in a night every night, but that doesn't tell where you are exactly, only where the package is. But yes, there has been a lot of increase, especially because we have toured a lot in America lately, and there you can really say if... We were there for the first time in 2005, and the increase from there on has been very big.
When I started listening to you, I searched some videos on Youtube and there were three and a half pages of videos; now there are more than fifty, and this happened in very few years.
Ville: Yes, because of pocket cameras and stuff became so popular nowadays, everyone has them!
Well, but also the original songs...
Ville: Of course, yes. People seem to... There's a loyal bunch of people who really seem to care about the band, that bunch also seems to be growing, and it's really nice.
You have recently been in China, in four cities, Moonsorrow 4 - 0 Metallica...
Everybody: [laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter]
...tell us about China, how you got there, how come their first Western band is such a difficult one to listen to.
Ville: I could probably write a book about it. It was... an experience, definitely. Something completely different.
But why do you think that, instead of getting AC/DC or any more popular, easy-listening band , they took you?
Mitja: It always depends on the promoters, and there's one promoter in Taiwan, Soundforce Entertainment or something, who has been bringing metal bands to China: Lamb of God, Arch Enemy, what else... I'm not sure... They already wanted us some time ago, and now it finally came true. It was one of the most interesting experiences ever, to play for a crowd who hasn't seen so many metal bands...
Ville: ...and to play for a crowd who has never seen a band from outside of China.
Mitja: Yeah, in Harbin and Changchun.
Ville: No, in Harbin they had, some years ago there was an Italian band, so we were actually the second non-Chinese band to play there.
Mitja: And it was very hard to know what to expect, but when the intro started and the crowd started to sing along the melodies we just knew that it was going to be great.
Ah, they knew the songs and all?
Mitja: Yes, yes.
Ville: This is the point where I'm going to make an anti-anti-piracy statement, because without them having access to illegal downloads they wouldn't know the songs. I'm pretty sure that no one sells our CDs in China at all.
Maybe by mail?
Ville: Yes, of course, a few people, but the import CDs are so expensive and they don't have so much money there.
I think it was you who said that you wanted to be like an antithesis of folk metal, with different pictures, not dressed like Vikings and everything... Tell me about it.
Mitja: We kind of became one, because we never... We have those in the early days in the pictures, but we didn't take it to the stage imagery. When the trend went to where everybody was wearing furs and harnesses and looking like knights, we weren't so interested in that any more. When we started we were pretty young anyway, and we really liked having all these swords and stuff, playing with the idea, but then we realized that... When Turisas and all our friends, they did their ways... we decided that maybe we should go somewhere completely different.
Ville: Also because musically we always kind of made our own path. All the albums are different. We didn't choose to be folk metal, people just put us in the box. I mean, it is folk metal, but not in the way most people understand it.
When you changed your image, you also changed your music: in the first three albums, the songs are very epic, we are warrior kings, bla bla, but then they got darker. It's a very big difference suddenly.
Ville: It's quite easy to say now, when time has passed, that Verisäkeet was actually a conscious counter-action to all this folk metal thing. At that point we wanted to separate ourselves from it as much as possible, and go back to the roots, because our demos are quite much black metal, more than this Viking thing. So we wanted to take a step back, or a few, and see where that would take us.
You also talked about filming a DVD. Have you been filming songs or something in this tour?
Ville: [points at Mitja] He's always filming.
Mitja: We have material coming all the time. It's just that when we can put it out, that's a different thing. We still need a proper concert to be filmed in a proper way. We have been planning it for two years and it's still on the way. We hope to do it in the winter, but we never know.
Ville: Mañana. [laughs]
Aren't you filming individual songs?
Mitja: Yes we are.
Ville: They can make some clips, but...
Mitja: From the tour it's going to be pretty much just clips of certain songs, then some on-the-road material, and then again some clips. Because that's not a proper way to make a DVD, just with two cameras. I don't want to release anything like that.
Ville: The bottom line is that we have to put a lot of money in it to film a proper concert.
Mitja: And it has to be the perfect timing.
Ville: We have to hire a crew of... I don't know how many people, you know better.
Mitja: Well, pretty much... a huge crew.
What about parallel bands? You had some, right? Vere, Section 8 or something like that...
Ville: Yes, I have some projects going on.
With Mathias from Finntroll, right?
Ville: Yes, but we just did that one demo and after that we've been talking that we should make another one. We both have songs, but we never find the time, because when I'm not touring, he is touring.
Has that demo been released?
Ville: Only in the internet. On Myspace. myspace.com/vereofficial [it's actually myspace.com/officialvere].
Finally I wanted to talk about the fact that you never take pre-recorded material onstage. In your albums you have a lot of things going on, but on the stage you never... Why?
Ville: That is one thing that we won't compromise. I think everyone in the band agrees: there are no backing tracks.
Do you limit yourselves in the studio not to do things that you won't be able to take live?
Ville: No. In the studio we do exactly what we want, and that is the fun part of it, because then we have to challenge ourselves again to make the songs work live. But fundamentally, when we play live we want to be a rock band with five members and do as much as we can with five members.
I've heard that sometimes Henri plays in Finland with Finntroll and they have two keyboards on the stage. Haven't you thought of doing the same thing with Moonsorrow when you play in Finland?
Mitja: Actually we have... not maybe...
Ville: Not two keyboards, but three guitars would be an interesting idea.
You've never done it yet, right?
Both: No.
Mitja: But we might make a DVD with three guitars, and if it works out... Depends on how we see it, how we want to make it. We really have to talk about it and sit down and try it. Three guitars will also be very challenging to make it tight enough for a DVD release, and we have to rearrange everything in that sense. There's no point in three guitars playing the same riff and it all sounding mushy.
Ville: There are a lot of options and arrangements.
That was all from me. Anything you want to add?
Ville: We have to thank the Spanish promoters for finally fixing us here for more shows than just one.
Transcribed on 18·II·2021. I should have waited three more days and do it on the 10th anniversary of the album. I doubt anyone cares anyway. Or anybody ever reads this.
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