Would-be The Breathless Sleep / February 2015

 

 

 

TRADUCCIÓN AL ESPAÑOL (aproximada)

¿Cómo va esta mini gira?

Estuvimos, sobre todo, viajando y esperando. Parece un solo día muy largo. Tocamos ayer y hoy parece el mismo día por los vuelos y demás. Estamos muy cansados.

Oí que Marko tiene un problema en la rodilla.

Sí, lo operaron al principio del año y puede tocar siempre que tenga cuidado.

Hace poco sacasteis la tremenda caja. ¿Cómo surgió la idea? ¿Estáis satisfechos con el resultado?

Creo que fue hace unos dos años cuando empezamos a hablar de ello. El sello Blood Music quería hacer este bicho y nos moló la idea y nos pusimos a recopilar material. Quisimos hacerla de modo que nadie se pudiera quejar.

¿Y te gusta cómo quedó?

Sí, es tremenda. Tengo una en casa. Estéticamente chula, pesa mucho, suena guay. Hay cosas inéditas. Dos maquetas perdidas y luego recuperadas. El material perdido sigue perdido, aún hay dos canciones que grabamos pero no existen, pero juntamos todo lo que teníamos para la caja.

Thorns of Ice se perdió, pero ¿por qué no sacasteis Promo en su momento?

El sonido era horrible, como se puede comprobar. Henri hizo lo que pudo con ella. El sonido era horrible. No sé qué pasó. Pero no teníamos mucha experiencia aún. No pudimos sacarla, era horrible.

La caja era muy cara. No discuto que el precio esté justificado, pero ¿no es un poco injusto que quien no se la pueda permitir no tenga acceso a esas maquetas?

La verdad es que no creo que sea difícil encontrarlas en internet si alguien quiere escucharlas.

Lleváis años reuniendo material para sacar un DVD en el futuro. La caja incluye un DVD. Supongo que eso no es todo lo que teníais, pero ¿esto iba a ser parte del DVD grande futuro?

Sí, eso se suponía, pero decidimos meterlo aquí porque se centra en la gira del quinto disco. Es un año de gira. Digamos que completa el paquete. Ya haremos otra cosa para el DVD. Tenemos mil movidas, pero ni idea de cuándo saldrá. Somos épicos por una razón: todo lo hacemos despacio.

Hablando de lentitud, ¿cómo va la composición del séptimo álbum?

Pues por fin tengo buenas noticias. Ya tenemos un 60-70% listo y lo vamos a grabar este año. O sea, que saldrá. Ahora lo sé y puedo confirmarlo.

¿Va a ser conceptual? ¿Retomará el concepto del anterior?

No, será distinto. Conceptual, puede, pero con historias diferenciadas, para mantener el interés. Hemos hecho discos muy pesados.

Hace menos de un año que empezasteis a tocar Aika, a pesar de que la canción tiene catorce años. ¿Por qué no os decidisteis hasta ahora?

Sinceramente, no lo sé. Cuando planeábamos repertorios el año pasado decidimos que había que añadir algo, aunque no tuviéramos material nuevo. Entre las canciones que no habíamos tocado, elegimos esa. No sé por qué no la tocamos antes. Creo que suena bastante guay.

Pocas quedan que no hayáis tocado, ¿no? Varjojen virta...

Esa no la vamos a tocar nunca. Demasiado compleja. Y aburrida.

Hiidenpelto...

No creo que metamos mucho esas canciones de 30 minutos, porque queremos tocar más temas. Sí, Hiidenpelto es otra... Pero no quedan muchas. Haaska es otra. Hemos hablado de tocarla. Ya veremos.

Espero que tenga más éxito que Karhunkynsi. Me encanta esa canción. Creo que me dijiste tú que a la gente no le gusta.

No fui yo, fue Mitja. Está convencido de que no gusta. No sé. A mí me gusta tocarla. Pero igual se hace pelín aburrida. No sé.

Tiene una parte súper rápida... Bueno, es igual.

Súper rápida y súper larga.

¡Sí, pero mola!
¿En qué se inspira Aika?

Tiene que ver con el fin de la Era Vikinga. El año está mal, de hecho. Debería ser 1066.

Sí, esa era otra pregunta. ¿Fue un error?

Probablemente. No lo puedo decir. Seguirá siendo un misterio.

Ahora mismo, en este momento estamos muy cerca de Stamford Bridge [el lugar donde se libró una importante batalla en 1066]. ¿Pensáis visitarlo?

Nah, no tenemos tiempo, por desgracia. Hoy nada fue como planeábamos. Tuvimos que esperar un montón para el hotel, esperar un montón para la prueba de sonido, la cual fue bastante mal por fallos técnicos... No tuvimos tiempo para hacer turismo hoy. Es una pena. York es una ciudad interesante.

Y ahora están con el festival vikingo anual. Mi pregunta es si para vosotros es especial tocar en este festival aunque no hayáis tenido tiempo de verlo, pero formar parte de él.

Sí, claro que es especial, aunque no hayamos podido ver nada. Pero mola ser parte de los eventos. Para acabar con el tema del turismo: hay que aceptarlo como parte del trabajo. Nos pagan para dar conciertos, no para hacer turismo. Si hay tiempo lo hacemos, pero si no, trabajo es trabajo. No parece trabajo, claro.
Y viajar... Viajar es peor que trabajar.

Otra canción de tema vikingo es Tulimyrsky. Por lo que sé, la canción cuenta una historia. Háblanos de esta historia. ¿Es real? ¿Dónde tuvo lugar?

No, no es real. Para el álbum Voimasta ja kunniasta me inventé una historia sobre un ataque a una ciudad vikinga, y Tulimyrsky es la continuación. Los vikingos van y se vengan. Es todo inventado, cero elementos históricos.

O sea, ¿que el Voimasta es conceptual?

Sí, eso se supone.

Ya que sólo son cinco canciones, ¿puedes decir brevemente de qué va cada una?

Va de dos hermanos. Uno se deja cegar por el dinero: en un saqueo se queda en el pueblo saqueado, se pone a negociar con los locales, les da consejos tácticos sobre cómo saquear su propio pueblo y le pagan por esta información. Luego, en Tulimyrsky, esta gente va a vengarse y continúa la sangría.

¿Volveréis a hablar de vikingos algún día? ¿O ya os llegó de eso?

No sé. Los vikingos son interesantes pero creo que ya hemos hablado bastante de ellos. Puede que hagamos otras cosas en el futuro, puede que no. Ya veremos. No quiero adelantar nada del nuevo disco, pero probablemente no habrá vikingos.

¿Alguna vez os apeteció hacer algo acústico, o sinfónico, o alejado de lo habitual?

Si lo hiciéramos, sería con otro nombre. Si alguien tiene interés puede hacerlo como mejor le parezca. Probablemente sería Henri el que hiciera algo así, pero no sería como Moonsorrow. Nosotros tocamos rock and roll.

¿Qué piensas de la loudness war?

Es una bobada. A mí me gusta el sonido de los 70.

Aun así, el rango dinámico del Hävitetty es bajísimo.

Sí, ya sé. No fue decisión mía. Estoy muy disgustado con eso. Pero es lo que hay.

¿Fue cosa del sello o del grupo?

Henri es el que se encarga de la producción, así que eso hay que preguntárselo a él.

Pasando a cosas menos serias: ya no sales desnudo al escenario. ¡Pobres mozas!

Yo creo que es mejor para ellas. Podrían traumatizarse de por vida.

Para acabar, ¿qué podemos esperar hoy?

Canciones. Un buen e intenso repertorio munsorriano. ¡Nada menos!

bleeding4metal.de / January 2007

 

 

SOURCE

 

Interview mit Marko Tarvonen von Moonsorrow
Ein Interview von CaptainCook vom 24.01.2007 (6635 mal gelesen)
Only a couple of days ago, MOONSORROW published their 5th album, Viides Luku - Hävitetty. Drummer Marko Tarvonen found the time to tell us a bit about it and much more. Hey Marko! First, please tell us a bit about the new album „Chapter V – Ravaged“. What is the concept all about? Marko Tarvonen: There’s an end-of-the-world concept through the whole album. It reflects the old beliefs that the new world will be born after the old one dies and it’s kind of adapted into this day. Just watch the news and you know what it is all about. Most of it is [MOONSORROW vocalist - ed] Ville’s feelings and some mythological symbolics. „Chapter V – Ravaged“ features only two songs. Was that your plan from the very beginning or did the music just develop into these epic dimensions? Why didn't you separate the two songs into a couple of CD tracks to make it easier for people to listen only to parts of the album? Marko Tarvonen: No it was not planned at first. Actually we thought of doing a very normal Moonsorrow album. But then when we started writing the songs we found them quite epic enough and thought, whatta hell let’s do it in a big way then! So they kind of just turned out like that. We had written thousands of different riffs and song parts and started to sort out the best ideas and tried to arrange the best possible effort as a whole. And it was out of question to split the tracks to many indexes and I’m sorry how would it be easier to listen the songs with just some parts? Thomas Väänänen of Thyrfing performed some of the vocals on „Chapter Five – Ravaged“. How did it come to that? Marko Tarvonen: We met him first at Heathen Crusade festival in USA last January and asked if they had thought of doing some lyrics in Finnish with Thyrfing because Thomas is a Swedish Finn. Then we contacted him after some months and asked if he was available to contribute on our album and he liked to do it very much. So I guess this was the first time he sings in his mother’s tongue. He did a superb job. Old fans will miss some of the folky tunes on „Chapter V – Ravaged“ (especially on 'Born of Ice Stream of Shadows') that were a part of your former recordings. What made you write a more traditional Black Metal album? Marko Tarvonen: Umm... I wouldn’t say black metal at all but yes I know what you mean. We got bored with this folk metal scene totally and wanted to do something very different already on Verisäkeet. There will always be some folkish echoes in Moonsorrow’s music but most of all we’re metal bands for gods’ sake. If you want easy-listening happy melodic shit, try Korpiklaani then. They do it very well but it isn’t my cup of tea. In contrast to your last recording „Verisäkeet“ you have reduced the guitar work to mere powerchord strumming on large parts of the new album. Don't you think that this is a restriction on your expression? Marko Tarvonen: No, as there are not so many actual powerchords played on Hävitetty. You have to listen more carefully... almost all the time there are two different chords in the riffs + a different bass line. They are not easy to block out but I can tell they are not those ordinary powerchords we use. We use those very big chords where every string on the guitar is used. So yes, the album is more guitar-orientated than previous albums and reflects our live sound as well As always, you recorded the album at Tico-Tico studios with Ahti Kortelainen. And as always, I'm not happy with the sound, particularly the vocals and drums. Why did you never chose to change studios as MOONSORROW was growing bigger? Marko Tarvonen: We don’t want polished sound. We want cold mean shit and Tico-Tico is perfect place for us to get that. We don’t care if people don’t like that. MOONSORROW has been very productive in the last couple of years. „Chapter V – Ravaged“ is already the fifth album since 2001. How do you keep your creativity flowing? Marko Tarvonen: Maybe that’s because we haven’t toured so much. But now that seems to change too as we’re getting more and more shows so I guess the next album won’t be there anytime soon. When you were headlining the Ragnarök Festival in Lichtenfels last year, you had to play late at night when most people were already exhausted from the day. Nevertheless you decided to come back this year... Marko Tarvonen: Well, the festival is at the same time we’re touring so it was easy to organize that on our schedule. I heard that there will be only one song on the final MOONSORROW album. Are you already thinking about quitting? Marko Tarvonen: Someday yes, haha! Thanks and keep up the good work! Marko Tarvonen: Thanks for the interview. See you on tour, cheers!

 

Marko on Barren Earth for Obscuro.cz / August 2018

 This is not Moonsorrow but it is Marko and this is my fucking blog and I post whatever I want okay??

 

SOURCE

 

“We want to keep it alive” – Interview with Marko Tarvonen/Barren Earth

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By Ms Cesar Little on 1.8.2018 English, Finský koutek, Interview, Nummirock

Barren Earth @Nummirock

Marko Tarvonen (photo: Ms Cesar Little)

There have been quite some changes in Barren Earth lately either within the band line up or affecting the band dynamics. When there was never a doubt that Kreator would limit Sami’s [Yli-Sirniö, guitar] availability for Barren Earth the question arose how Oppu’s [Olli-Pekka Laine, bass] return to Amorphis would affect the band. And then of course already the tour with Insomnium and Wolfheart back in January 2017 brought more new faces on stage as for example due to Marko’s child being born not long before so his family had priority. So how are things right now with Barren Earth?

Meeting Marko Tarvonen was not exactly planned during Nummirock and even less the way it turned out to be in the end. But I met him along with all the other musicians and crew members from Moonsorrow, Rytmihäiriö and Barren Earth when arriving at Nummirock and saying ‘hello’ I took my opportunity to ask Marko if he would join my drummers’ series. Of course he would! When we met it took quite some time before we finally spoke of drumming. Very obviously Barren Earth matters a lot to him and he was eager to tell me about his perspective on my favourite band. I hardly spoke at all.

Without any specific question Marko says: “I don’t know what’s gonna happen to that band. We don’t want to quit it. We want to keep it alive somewhere there.” And he is happy to add that Barren Earth are invited to play at a very big US American festival in 2019. It will be the first time the band returns to the USA since the tour with three other Finnish metal bands back in 2011. “We have been a bit unlucky with tours and of course our daily schedules didn’t let us play more shows”, and he adds in a considerate and summarizing tone in his voice: “Yeah, that’s what it is.”

Jón Aldará, Oppu [Olli-Pekka Laine] (photo: Ms Cesar Little)

As I mention that Barren Earth is my favourite band Marko replies: “Yeah, we really like the new album very much.  Really, really succeeded in what we were looking for. A little bit different sound this time and with some new members in the band like Antti [Myylynen] on the keyboards.” I noticed earlier how much the older band members appreciate Antti in anyway. “He brought some different sound to what Kasper used to do. A bit more modern and updated keyboard sounds whereas Kasper [Mårtenson, keyboards] – he was more into these 70s sounds with Hammond organ and moods and stuff which is not a bad idea either. I love both sounds and players.”

The atmosphere between Kasper and his former band mates is apparently still very trustful and close. He attended their release gig some months back in Helsinki for the “A Complex of Cages” album. Marko speaks very highly and appreciative of Kasper and tells me about his current occupation and how much he loves this. “You have to do what you love”, he ends.

I word my somewhat floating thoughts that in my perspective it seems like Antti and Jón [Aldará, vocals] only sped up the musical evolution that was heading for the same direction anyway but slower before they entered the band. Marko confirms: “They both put a lot of effort for this band. You don’t really need to give them guidance what to do, especially Jón. He writes everything on his own. He writes his own lyrics and vocal melodies and arrangements. We don’t need to guide him whereas Mikko [Kotamäki, vocals] was pretty much ‘Here are the lyrics and the parts and sing like this.’ Then he did. He wasn’t really doing a lot stuff by his own. Anyway.”

Janne Pertillä (photo: Ms Cesar Little)

He continues: “Sometimes this whole thing with Barren earth has been a bit frustrating because nothing happens for a long, long period. Nothing happens, then an occasional show here and there. So you need to activate the whole system again, start from the beginning with the rehearsing. When like five or six years ago we were more like daily practising. But now we gave up the rehearsal place and everything. I don’t know. It’s kind of bad in a way. You don’t get easily active when you don’t have a room for rehearsals and gathering together.”

I mention that I noticed some differences between the two release shows and that they impressively well managed some technical difficulties. “I think we had three or four rehearsals before the first show, only. Yeah. I think the first show wasn’t really good. I think we had much tension and the Tampere show was more relaxed with all the fuck ups and everything. It was more the core and it came out very naturally.”

Marko Tarvonen (photo: Ms Cesar Little)

Marko just goes on: “It’s a shame, I could have done a few more shows in a row. Now when you are in that mood again and you are prepared and then all of a sudden it ended again. That’s what I mean. It’s a bit frustrating. Once you’re going into that mood and then they take it all of a sudden away from you.”

I am aware of the challenges the schedules of the many bands they’re active in mean for touring with Barren Earth. I found Kimmo [Korhonen, guitar] and Timo [Ahlström, guitar] (and Eero [Wuokko, drums], of course) very good stand-ins. “Time. But would rather do the gigs with our own line up.”

But if the question is touring or not at all? “Even Oppu told us when he joined Amorphis: ‘Look guys, you can do Barren Earth’ – even without him.”

During the January tour 2017 already I was thinking that Oppu is the one person that could not be replaced by whatever amazing stand-in and so a more than surprised “Really??? I cannot imagine Barren Earth playing without him. Not at all”, forces itself out of my mouth. Marko agrees entirely: “Yeah because he is primus motor in that band. Kind of the guy who formed the band and kept things going. And yeah he wrote the major share of the new songs. It would feel a bit weird to play without him. I wouldn’t do it that way but let’s see. We may have to do that at this American festival next year because we don’t know if Amorphis has something going on. He has to be there. He has some contract with them to do two years. He has taken that leave, yeah from his day job for two years. For two years then he is going back. He works for our government, house of Parliament as an IT assistant for parliamentary people. I am happy for him. He was yearning to play tours and music. So I am really happy. I told him: ‘Look mate, do it. Do it! Go there!”

Jón Aldará (photo: Ms Cesar Little)

“He has nothing to lose with only pausing his day job”, I say. “Yeah now when he is still under 50 years.” I ask him not to make us feel even older than we are already with a frown. “Maybe he cannot do that anymore when you’re 55 or 60. I’ve been considering my future as metal drummer because it’s a very physical job to do especially Moonsorrow with singing a lot.”

And so we’re drifting into the actual topic of our appointment which is another story for another occasion. I had met Jón the night before attending the show of Septicflesh. He told me with a frown and a good deal of irony that they felt honoured to have such a popular warm-up gig for Barren Earth the next night: Saxon. The show Barren Earth played that very night was unique. The setting was extremely atmospheric underlining impressively the music. It was rainy and thereby quite dark considering the midsummer brightness. The wind from the lake added perfectly blowing the stage fog in thick clouds and soon off. Jón has remarkably progressed literally from show to show, never mind if I saw him with Hamferð or Barren Earth. But this Nummirock gig was the most expressive and intensive show he delivered I have ever seen of him. Yes guys, please, keep this alive!