Link
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.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Xtreem Magazine / July 2009
Link
Juanma Torre (03.07.2009)
MOONSORROW es una banda finlandesa que con su particular visión del Viking Metal, no dejan de sorprendernos con cada trabajo que editan. Desde sus inicios mas Folk hasta su Viking mas crudo y agresivo, no hacen mas que ganar adeptos. Y seamos sinceros, la calidad de esta banda es realmente sorprendente. Gracias a la amabilidad y predisposición de Ville Sorvali, podemos conocer un poquito mas a esta banda.
Lo primero, me gustaría saber de vosotros, de vuestros inicios y vuestras últimas actividades como banda.
Nos remontamos allá por 1995, cuando comencé este proyecto con mi primo Henri. Mucho tiempo ha pasado ya desde entonces, pero la idea básica todavía es la misma; hacer pagan metal épico. Hemos tocado con la misma formación (Ville y Henri Sorvali, Marco Tarvonen, Mitja Harvilahti, Markus Eurén mas Janne Pertilla como músico de directo) durante casi una década y hemos pasado muy buenos ratos juntos.
Los proyectos mas recientes de MOONSORROW implican realizar un paréntesis en las giras lo que queda de año para poder componer y después entraremos en el estudio para grabar nuestro sexto álbum en enero/febrero del 2010.
Personalmente, creo que con cada álbum vais evolucionando hacia un sonido mas crudo y menos Folk. ¿Estás de acuerdo con esta idea?
No necesariamente, por que en realidad cuando comenzamos teníamos menos influencias Folk que en nuestros tres primeros álbumes. Hemos ido desarrollando nuestras ideas en varias direcciones, pero también es verdad que hemos vuelto un poco a nuestras raíces mas Black con menos elementos Folk, pero siempre logramos incorporar nuevos elementos a nuestra música. Lo que quiero decir con esto, es que no sé si nuestro próximo álbum podría ser mas crudo que “Tulimyrsky” o no, ya se verá.
Cuéntanos un poco como es el proceso de composición de vuestros álbumes.
El trabajo siempre sigue la misma rutina; Henri graba las demos de los temas en su estudio casero y nos envía los resultados para que cada uno de su impresión. Después hace los cambios oportunos según nuestras sugerencias (es el compositor principal, pero todos tenemos que estar de acuerdo con los resultados). Cuando las demos están terminadas,(esto puede tardar varios meses), ensayamos los temas, les damos los últimos retoques y nos metemos en el estudio.
En vuestros inicios, incluíais varios temas en cada álbum, en cambio en “V:Havitetty”, tan sólo hay dos, con una duración total de 56 minutos. ¿Como se os ocurrió esta idea?
Simplemente quisimos hacer algo diferente, salir de nuestros esquemas con algo grande. En principio nuestra intención no era crear dos temas demasiado largos, pero tras componer la intro, comprendimos que esta vez los temas iban a ser muy extensos. De todos modos, decidimos seguir adelante y ver que pasaba. Creo que hicimos bien. Seguramente el próximo álbum incluirá algunos temas mas cortos.
Después editáis “Tulimyrsky Ep”, con un tema nuevo de 30 minutos de duración, mas dos versiones y dos temas pertenecientes a vuestras demos. ¿No teméis que vuestros seguidores piensen que la duración de los temas es demasiado extensa?
Para nada. Escribimos exactamente el tipo de música que queremos escribir, y resultó que los últimos tres temas que compusimos acabaron con una duración de 30 minutos cada uno. No es un modelo a seguir, simplemente surgió así. “V:Havitetty” y “Tulimyrsky”, deberían ser apasionantes para nuestros fans mas antiguos también, aunque sean bastante diferentes que nuestros tres primeros discos. Me gustan las bandas que tienen su propio sonido, pero que al mismo tiempo experimentan y evolucionan un poco.
¿Por qué las versiones de METALLICA y MERCILESS, y no otras bandas?
Tan sólo ha sido una coincidencia. La versión de METALLICA la grabamos en en el 2005, entonces no teníamos ni idea del Ep. Cuando comenzamos a planificar este Ep, sabíamos que esta versión todavía estaba libre y que podríamos incorporarla. “Back to North”, la habíamos estado tocando en directo entre el 2000/2001 y también había sido una gran influencia para la fundación de MOONSORROW.
¿Cuáles son vuestras mayores influencias?
Hay muchas influencias dentro del mundo de MOONSORROW, ya que escuchamos mucha música diferente. La banda fue fundada principalmente influenciados por bandas tales como ENSLAVED y BATHORY, pero un poco después comenzamos a incorporar cada vez mas elementos de la música folklórica tradicional, además de Rock progresivo, aunque esto fue mas tarde. Es difícil poder etiquetar nuestra música, personalmente lo prefiero así.
A parte del DVD que incluis en la reedición de vuestro álbum debut “Suden Uni”,no habéis editado nada en directo. ¿para cuando un álbum en vivo o un DVD?
Hemos tenido proyectos para un DVD en directo durante mucho tiempo, pero hasta ahora no ha habido presupuesto para ello, el tiempo lo dirá
Pienso que utilizar vuestra lengua nativa para las letras es un dato muy interesante, ¿tenéis pensado utilizar el inglés en un futuro?
Probablemente no. Cuando comenzamos a usar el finlandés como idioma para nuestra lírica, mas o menos sobre 1998, comprendimos que era la opción perfecta para nuestro concepto global. Hay una fuerte conexión entre nuestra música y la cultura finlandesa y el mejor modo para expresarlo es a través de nuestra lengua nativa. Puede haber traducciones para cada tema, pero en realidad no creo que vayamos a escribir letras en inglés
¿Crees que el Viking es un estilo demasiado saturado?
Bien, el Pagan/Viking/Folk, es un estilo que tiene infinidad de bandas y es posible que algunas sean como clones de otras. Musicalmente, en definitiva está saturado porque la mayor parte de las bandas no tienen ningún punto musical que los haga destacar del resto. Hay pocas formaciones que en realidad inventen algo nuevo y tengan su propio sonido. Ideológicamente, sin embargo, lo veo como una cosa buena, porque cada vez se demuestra que hay mas lugares que se interesan por sus propias raíces y la cultura que existió antes, alejándose de la cultura consumista, la cual devora nuestro planeta vivo y hermoso.
Está claro que tenéis una buena legión de seguidores en todo el mundo.¿Qué opinión tienes acerca de esto?
Estoy muy feliz sobre el hecho de que MOONSORROW tenga tantos seguidores fieles en el mundo entero, ya que esto quiere decir que hay mucha gente con una actitud similar a la nuestra. Nuestro objetivo no es reunir a ninguna legión, pero desde luego, nos gustaría que nuestros admiradores pudieran extender el mensaje a su gente mas cercana y hacerles entender el verdadero significado de la cultura y que se olvidaran del consumo excesivo que venden en la TV.
¿Tenéis pensado volver a vuestros inicios mas Viking Folk?, o ¿seguiréis la tendencia de vuestros últimos discos?
Como ya he comentado anteriormente, no sabemos como será el próximo álbum, francamente, podemos tirar en cualquier dirección, no tiene porque ser como nada que hayamos hecho antes. Para mí en MOONSORROW no hay ningún patrón establecido de cómo debemos sonar.
¿Conoces la escena Underground española?, ¿hay alguna banda que te llame especialmente la atención?
No estoy demasiado familiarizado con la escena española y tampoco he seguido el Underground en la actualidad. Tengo unas demos, pero no recuerdo sus nombres, ya que justamente me estoy cambiando de apartamento y todavía deben estar dentro de las cajas de embalaje.
Pues con esto hemos terminado, muchísimas gracias por tu atención.
De nada, gracias a vosotros.
Juanma Torre (03.07.2009)
MOONSORROW es una banda finlandesa que con su particular visión del Viking Metal, no dejan de sorprendernos con cada trabajo que editan. Desde sus inicios mas Folk hasta su Viking mas crudo y agresivo, no hacen mas que ganar adeptos. Y seamos sinceros, la calidad de esta banda es realmente sorprendente. Gracias a la amabilidad y predisposición de Ville Sorvali, podemos conocer un poquito mas a esta banda.
Lo primero, me gustaría saber de vosotros, de vuestros inicios y vuestras últimas actividades como banda.
Nos remontamos allá por 1995, cuando comencé este proyecto con mi primo Henri. Mucho tiempo ha pasado ya desde entonces, pero la idea básica todavía es la misma; hacer pagan metal épico. Hemos tocado con la misma formación (Ville y Henri Sorvali, Marco Tarvonen, Mitja Harvilahti, Markus Eurén mas Janne Pertilla como músico de directo) durante casi una década y hemos pasado muy buenos ratos juntos.
Los proyectos mas recientes de MOONSORROW implican realizar un paréntesis en las giras lo que queda de año para poder componer y después entraremos en el estudio para grabar nuestro sexto álbum en enero/febrero del 2010.
Personalmente, creo que con cada álbum vais evolucionando hacia un sonido mas crudo y menos Folk. ¿Estás de acuerdo con esta idea?
No necesariamente, por que en realidad cuando comenzamos teníamos menos influencias Folk que en nuestros tres primeros álbumes. Hemos ido desarrollando nuestras ideas en varias direcciones, pero también es verdad que hemos vuelto un poco a nuestras raíces mas Black con menos elementos Folk, pero siempre logramos incorporar nuevos elementos a nuestra música. Lo que quiero decir con esto, es que no sé si nuestro próximo álbum podría ser mas crudo que “Tulimyrsky” o no, ya se verá.
Cuéntanos un poco como es el proceso de composición de vuestros álbumes.
El trabajo siempre sigue la misma rutina; Henri graba las demos de los temas en su estudio casero y nos envía los resultados para que cada uno de su impresión. Después hace los cambios oportunos según nuestras sugerencias (es el compositor principal, pero todos tenemos que estar de acuerdo con los resultados). Cuando las demos están terminadas,(esto puede tardar varios meses), ensayamos los temas, les damos los últimos retoques y nos metemos en el estudio.
En vuestros inicios, incluíais varios temas en cada álbum, en cambio en “V:Havitetty”, tan sólo hay dos, con una duración total de 56 minutos. ¿Como se os ocurrió esta idea?
Simplemente quisimos hacer algo diferente, salir de nuestros esquemas con algo grande. En principio nuestra intención no era crear dos temas demasiado largos, pero tras componer la intro, comprendimos que esta vez los temas iban a ser muy extensos. De todos modos, decidimos seguir adelante y ver que pasaba. Creo que hicimos bien. Seguramente el próximo álbum incluirá algunos temas mas cortos.
Después editáis “Tulimyrsky Ep”, con un tema nuevo de 30 minutos de duración, mas dos versiones y dos temas pertenecientes a vuestras demos. ¿No teméis que vuestros seguidores piensen que la duración de los temas es demasiado extensa?
Para nada. Escribimos exactamente el tipo de música que queremos escribir, y resultó que los últimos tres temas que compusimos acabaron con una duración de 30 minutos cada uno. No es un modelo a seguir, simplemente surgió así. “V:Havitetty” y “Tulimyrsky”, deberían ser apasionantes para nuestros fans mas antiguos también, aunque sean bastante diferentes que nuestros tres primeros discos. Me gustan las bandas que tienen su propio sonido, pero que al mismo tiempo experimentan y evolucionan un poco.
¿Por qué las versiones de METALLICA y MERCILESS, y no otras bandas?
Tan sólo ha sido una coincidencia. La versión de METALLICA la grabamos en en el 2005, entonces no teníamos ni idea del Ep. Cuando comenzamos a planificar este Ep, sabíamos que esta versión todavía estaba libre y que podríamos incorporarla. “Back to North”, la habíamos estado tocando en directo entre el 2000/2001 y también había sido una gran influencia para la fundación de MOONSORROW.
¿Cuáles son vuestras mayores influencias?
Hay muchas influencias dentro del mundo de MOONSORROW, ya que escuchamos mucha música diferente. La banda fue fundada principalmente influenciados por bandas tales como ENSLAVED y BATHORY, pero un poco después comenzamos a incorporar cada vez mas elementos de la música folklórica tradicional, además de Rock progresivo, aunque esto fue mas tarde. Es difícil poder etiquetar nuestra música, personalmente lo prefiero así.
A parte del DVD que incluis en la reedición de vuestro álbum debut “Suden Uni”,no habéis editado nada en directo. ¿para cuando un álbum en vivo o un DVD?
Hemos tenido proyectos para un DVD en directo durante mucho tiempo, pero hasta ahora no ha habido presupuesto para ello, el tiempo lo dirá
Pienso que utilizar vuestra lengua nativa para las letras es un dato muy interesante, ¿tenéis pensado utilizar el inglés en un futuro?
Probablemente no. Cuando comenzamos a usar el finlandés como idioma para nuestra lírica, mas o menos sobre 1998, comprendimos que era la opción perfecta para nuestro concepto global. Hay una fuerte conexión entre nuestra música y la cultura finlandesa y el mejor modo para expresarlo es a través de nuestra lengua nativa. Puede haber traducciones para cada tema, pero en realidad no creo que vayamos a escribir letras en inglés
¿Crees que el Viking es un estilo demasiado saturado?
Bien, el Pagan/Viking/Folk, es un estilo que tiene infinidad de bandas y es posible que algunas sean como clones de otras. Musicalmente, en definitiva está saturado porque la mayor parte de las bandas no tienen ningún punto musical que los haga destacar del resto. Hay pocas formaciones que en realidad inventen algo nuevo y tengan su propio sonido. Ideológicamente, sin embargo, lo veo como una cosa buena, porque cada vez se demuestra que hay mas lugares que se interesan por sus propias raíces y la cultura que existió antes, alejándose de la cultura consumista, la cual devora nuestro planeta vivo y hermoso.
Está claro que tenéis una buena legión de seguidores en todo el mundo.¿Qué opinión tienes acerca de esto?
Estoy muy feliz sobre el hecho de que MOONSORROW tenga tantos seguidores fieles en el mundo entero, ya que esto quiere decir que hay mucha gente con una actitud similar a la nuestra. Nuestro objetivo no es reunir a ninguna legión, pero desde luego, nos gustaría que nuestros admiradores pudieran extender el mensaje a su gente mas cercana y hacerles entender el verdadero significado de la cultura y que se olvidaran del consumo excesivo que venden en la TV.
¿Tenéis pensado volver a vuestros inicios mas Viking Folk?, o ¿seguiréis la tendencia de vuestros últimos discos?
Como ya he comentado anteriormente, no sabemos como será el próximo álbum, francamente, podemos tirar en cualquier dirección, no tiene porque ser como nada que hayamos hecho antes. Para mí en MOONSORROW no hay ningún patrón establecido de cómo debemos sonar.
¿Conoces la escena Underground española?, ¿hay alguna banda que te llame especialmente la atención?
No estoy demasiado familiarizado con la escena española y tampoco he seguido el Underground en la actualidad. Tengo unas demos, pero no recuerdo sus nombres, ya que justamente me estoy cambiando de apartamento y todavía deben estar dentro de las cajas de embalaje.
Pues con esto hemos terminado, muchísimas gracias por tu atención.
De nada, gracias a vosotros.
Revolver Mag / January 2009
Link
As soon as the members of Finnish pagan-metal band Moonsorrow introduce themselves at Spinefeast 2009, Revolver Associate Editor Kory Grow knows he’s in for an interesting chat. Vocalist-keyboardist Henri “Trollhorn” Sorvali, who also plays in pagan-metal phenoms Finntroll, calls himself “John Longhorn.” Vocalist-bassist Ville Sorvali (Henri’s cousin) says, “Just call me ‘Nashville.’” (Henri adds “Son of Dolemite” to Nasvhille’s name.) Luckily guitarist-vocalist Mitja Harvilahti gives his real name. What follows is just as tongue-in-cheek as the band’s introductions.
REVOLVER None of the bands on this boat sound alike. What is it about Finland that produces such a wide variety of metal?
VILLE SORVALI It wasn’t always like that. It changed in the late ’90s when some bands started making—
MITJA HARVILAHTI Their own music instead of copying each other.
VILLE Yeah. My words exactly. [Laughs] Glad you said it. We should fire you.
HENRI SORVALI But wait a minute, I take it back. We’ll rehire you. Finland in ’92 was, music-wise, Poland in ’83. It wasn’t bands doing their own music…I think we all could agree that HIM were the first ones to open the vision of Finnish bands and labels to realize that Finnish people can also do their own sounding music and still succeed, and not to copycat foreign bands.
HARVILAHTI And after, like, Children of Bodom and Nightwish got bigger.
HENRI Yeah, those were two pioneers.
HARVILAHTI So there’s a lot of skill in the Finnish metal scene. There are a lot of really good musicians.
HENRI There are good and bad bands.
HARVILAHTI Let’s leave the bad bands out of this.
HENRI [Annoyed] Yeah, I know. [Mocking voice] Don’t mention it.
Didn’t Moonsorrow form in 1995?
VILLE Oh, you mentioned the name. [All laugh]
HARVILAHTI These guys formed the band in 1995.
That’s a little bit before HIM was popular, at least worldwide.
HENRI Yeah. The thing is, the black-metal scene was in its own little world, which was famous. It was like a parallel world; there was this commercial world and the black-metal world. Something that would be a huge hit in the black-metal scene would not affect anything in mainstream metal. Being mainstream in any goth genre doesn’t have anything to do with us. We were in a different league, so to speak. We just wanted to play.
But since then, obviously Moonsorrow has gotten popular. We recently did a feature on pagan metal, and many of the bands cite you as an influence.
VILLE Yeah, yeah. I’ve noticed it. Some years ago, it wasn’t big in the States yet, but Finntroll got very big there. And folk metal and pagan metal are still the only new genres of metal that have come up in the last 10 years. So there’s no reason why you wouldn’t catch on in the USA.
HENRI The new thrash metal, death metal, black metal.
VILLE Then folk metal, pagan metal, whatever.
HENRI What I said in an interview before is that people are feeling ruthless these days with all this plastic culture surrounding us and reality TV shows and culture, blah, blah, blah. That’s why people are searching for something more deep and more profound.
HARVILAHTI I’ve seen bad examples of that as well. Folk metal in central Europe is such a big trend. A lot of people make folk metal by adding stupid fiddle melodies on top of Bathory.
HENRI [Mocking voice] We are descendents of Vikings. Yes! I do Viking metal, jah! [Normal voice] I’m not referring to any specific countries, but you can read between the lines. Jaaaah.
Have you been surprised by the interest in the US?
VILLE Yes and no. We’re surprised that it’s so big already. I thought probably in the next five years it would catch up.
HENRI I thought it wasn’t that big but two interviewers from the States have stated that it’s big over there. I have to rethink my thinking.
VILLE Well, you’re the guy behind Finntroll, but you haven’t toured the United States.
HENRI Well, I don’t fly.
VILLE Finntroll was definitely the first ones. They have been opening up doors there for a couple years already.
Before we wrap up, Henri. I understand you have a joke to tell.
HENRI A kick drum, snare, and a crash cymbal fell off from a cliff. Bu-dump-tsh.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Kaosguards / July 2008
Link
MOONSORROW le 06/07/2008
Par Evildead
Interview réalisée par mail avec Marko Tarvonen, le batteur.
Mais finalement, l'Espagne a gagné. Ha! - Grilo
1. Essential question ; speak us about this idea (For V:Hävitetty) of only two songs making….
- It was not planned like that 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 totally out of question to split the tracks to many indexes.
2. Was it a challenge to the music business or a real inspiration, or both?
- We never think about if our albums were selling this and this much. It’s not like that at all. Mostly we do this for ourselves so it was really just honest inspiration.
3. Let us speak now of “Tulimyrsky » on the first title you propose another song of thirty minutes. It is new Moonsorrow?
- Yes. After last year’s summer festivals we just thought of doing something different and there came the idea of doing an ep. The concept of Tulimyrsky (a song that’s very aggressive and more back to our roots) has been in our minds since 2005 or so. Now we had the right time to make it real. At first I and Henri started just writing some riffs (this is how we always start writing songs) . I had this opening blast beat part and I showed it to Henri and he was like “dude, that’s it!”. After that he started to write more and more stuff and then we realized this is going to be a very huge song once again, haha! I told Ville that it would be cool to have a story about the revenge and to have some references to our previous albums (mainly Voimasta ja Kunniasta because it also is lyrically a concept album). And suddenly there we had 29 minutes massive dramatic Moonsorrow song written.
4. Why to have chosen Mika Jussila for the mastering?
- We have always used him for the mastering duties as he’s a trusted guy for Spinefarm releases. He’s very easy and cool to work with.
5. In which purpose have you commercilaiser this cd, to make the fans wait up to the next album or to publish songs which deserved the light?
- This was something really special package for the fans really. It has nothing to do with the next full album though. We thought lets include some special material (covers and older songs) with the title track and release it as mid-price.
6. Why covers of Metallica and Merciless?
- « For Whom The Bell Tolls » was just one of those songs we used to listen when we were kids. We just tried to do it as moonsorrowish as possible. It was recorded already in 2005 and it was now a good idea to put it on the ep. Also some of us have been huge fans of Merciless so it was nice to arrange one of their songs too.
7. Which feelings after the concerts of the pagan Fest tour?
- The tour was excellent. Very good package of bands, good friends and sold-out venues. It was great indeed!
8. How doing a good song of pagan folk?
- I really don’t know. Just have to feel your inner thoughts and what’s in your blood and then writing a song comes quite naturally.
9. I know you are attached to your traditions, how do you live with that each day?
- Well not necessarily every day but the way I see it the cultural traditions and paganism in Moonsorrow means anti-christianity, respect of the nature, family and our cultural heritage... but we as 5 individuals it can vary a lot, but it was never meant to be just as an image of the band. It’s our manual of life. Of course there is a bond to nature as I believe it’s the highest force on this planet. Personally I’m not a religious person at all, more like an atheist type. I believe in this day and what I do and what I keep true to myself.
10.Do you feel more Finnish before European?
- Finnish definitely because of our different mentality, culture and language.
11. What are your relations with the others Finnish bands?
- Very good actually. We know most of the metal bands from Helsinki area (Amorphis, COB, Ensiferum and Impaled Nazarene to name a few). Good friends to hang in the festivals and bars.
12. As mens of the North you are more inspired to compose in summer or in winter?
- Uhh… I don’t see the difference. We believe in the power of different extremeties, such as fire and ice, summer vs. winter, calm vs. storm, beautiful vs. ugly. And we always try to reflect these powers in our music and cover art concepts.
13. Do you think your music can only be done by the peoples who live in the North of Europe?
- No I think any people who has a true heart to do their own thing without commercial values is capable of creating such art.
14. What are your projects for the next months?
- Going to spend some holiday and then a couple of summer festivals. Quite relaxed summer of 2008 for Moonsorrow.
15. Have you got a last word for your French fans...
- Thanks for the insane show in Paris (Paganfest). You ruled supreme!!! Thanks for the interview. I hope we come back to France very soon. Good luck with football euro-championship games : )
MOONSORROW le 06/07/2008
Par Evildead
VERSION FRANÇAISE
Interview réalisée par mail avec Marko Tarvonen, le batteur.
Issu des froides contrées finlandaises, Moonsorrow propage sa musique à mi-chemin entre un Black Metal sauvage et un Metal Viking rendant hommage à leurs croyances et leur culture. Célèbre également pour leurs titres longs à n'en plus finir, ils se démarquent de leur frangins du Nord en proposant un metal plus original et varié. Entretien avec les gars d'Helsinki plus chaleureux que leurs températures locales!
1. Question esssentielle :parlez nous de cette idée (pour « V : Hävitetty ») de faire un album avec deux chansons seulement…
Ce n’était pas vraiment prévu comme cela au départ. En fait, nous pensions faire un album de Moonsorrow tout à fait normal. Mais ensuite, lorsque nous avons commencé à écrire les chansons, nous les avons trouvé suffisamment épiques et de ce fait, nous avons décidé de faire ainsi ! Les choses ont donc naturellement tourné de cette façon. Nous avons écrit des milliers de riffs différents et de parties de chansons, et nous avons commencé à dégager les meilleures idées dans le but de créer un opus aussi bon que possible. Et il était totalement hors de question de diviser les pistes afin d’en faire plusieurs.
2. Etait-ce un challenge pour le business ou une réelle inspiration, ou les deux ?
Nous n’avons jamais pensé que nos albums se vendraient comme ceci ou comme cela. Cela ne se passe pas comme ça. En priorité, nous faisons ceci pour nous-mêmes, donc honnêtement c’était juste une inspiration.
3. Parlons maintenant de « Tulimyrsky » : sur la première chanson, vous proposez un titre de 30 mn. C’est un nouveau Moonsorrow ?
Oui. Après les festivals de l’été dernier, nous avons simplement pensé faire quelque chose de différent, en l’occurrence, nous avons opté pour un EP. Le concept de « Tumilyrsky » (une chanson plus agressive et proche de nos débuts) ne nous a pas quitté depuis 2005. Maintenant, nous avons le temps de nous y consacrer. Au début, Henri et moi avons simplement composé quelques riffs (c’est toujours comme cela que nous commencons à écrire nos chansons). J’avais ce blast beat en ouverture et je l’ai montré à Henri qui s’est exclamé : <
4. Pourquoi avoir choisi Mika Jussila pour le mastering ?
Nous avons toujours travaillé avec lui pour le mastering car c’est un gars de confiance pour Spinefarm. C’est très facile et cool de bosser avec Mika.
5. Dans quel but avez-vous commercialisé ce CD, pour faire patienter les fans jusqu’au prochain album ou pour faire connaître les titres qui le méritent ?
C’est vraiment une sorte de package pour les fans. Cela n’a rien à voir avec la sortie du prochain full-lenght. Nous avons pensé ajouter du matériel un peu spécial (covers et vieux titres) avec le titre éponyme et l’enregistré à bas coût.
6. Pourquoi des covers de Metallica et Merciless ?
« For Whom The Bell Tolls » est l’un de ces titres que l’on écoute quand on est jeune. Nous avons simplement essayé de les accomoder à la sauce Moonsorrow le mieux possible. On l’avait enregistré depuis 2005 déjà et c’était une bonne idée de le mettre sur l’EP aujourd’hui. Quelques uns de nous avons aussi été de gros fans de Merciless donc nous avons fait un arrangement de l’un de de leurs titres.
7. Quels ont été vos sentiments après le Pagan Fest Tour ?
La tournée était excellente ! Un bon packaging de groupes, de bons amis et des salles sold out ! C’était vraiment génial !
8. Comment créer une bonne chanson de pagan folk ?
Je ne sais vraiment pas. Il faut juste se concentrer sur ses pensées intérieures et ce qui coule dans nos veines et ensuite, écrire une chanson naturellement.
9. Je sais que vous êtes attachés à vos traditions ; comment vivez-vous avec chaque jour ?
Pas nécessairement tous les jours, mais la façon dont je perçois la culture des traditions et le paganisme dans Moonsorrow signifie l’antichristiannisme, le respect de la nature, la famille et notre héritage culturel…mais en tant qu’individu, nous sommes cinq et donc différent, mais cela n’a jamais vraiment été l’image du groupe. C’est notre façon de vivre. Bien sûr, j’ai un attachement à la nature car je crois que c’est la plus grosse force sur cette planète. Personnellement, je ne suis pas impliqué dans la religion, je suis athée. Je vis au jour le jour, j’ai confiance en ce que je fais et j’essaie de rester vrai.
10. Te sens-tu plus Finlandais qu’Européen ?
Finlandais définitivement, du fait de nos différences de mentalités, culturelles et de langue.
11. Quelles sont vos relations par rapport aux autres groupes Finlandais?
Très bonnes en fait. Nous connaissons la plupart des groupes aux alentours d’Helsinki (Amorphis, COB, Ensiferum, et Impaled Nazarene pour en nommer quelques uns). De bons amis pour se retrouver en festivals et dans les bars.
12. En habitants du Nord, vous êtes plus inspirés pour composer l’été ou l’hiver ?
Euh…je ne vois pas de différence. Nous croyons en la force des opposés, comme le feu et la glace, l’été et l’hiver, le calme et la tempête, le beau et le laid. Et nous tentons toujours de refléter cette puissance dans notre musique et dans le concept de nos covers.
13. Pensez-vous que votre musique puisse être uniquement composée par les gens qui vivent dans le Nord ?
Non, je pense que chaque personne qui a à cœur de faire ses propres réalisations sans attente commerciale, est capable de créer une telle forme d’art.
14. Quels sont vos projets pour les prochains mois ?
Prendre quelques vacances, puis partir sur les festivals d’été. Un été 2008 assez relaxant pour Moonsorrow.
15. Avez-vous quelque chose à rajouter pour vos fans Français ?
Merci pour le show à Paris (Paganfest). Vous avez été supers !!! Merci pour l’interview. Nous espérons revenir en France très prochainement. Bonne chance pour l’Euro 2008 !
Mais finalement, l'Espagne a gagné. Ha! - Grilo
ENGLISH VERSION
1. Essential question ; speak us about this idea (For V:Hävitetty) of only two songs making….
- It was not planned like that 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 totally out of question to split the tracks to many indexes.
2. Was it a challenge to the music business or a real inspiration, or both?
- We never think about if our albums were selling this and this much. It’s not like that at all. Mostly we do this for ourselves so it was really just honest inspiration.
3. Let us speak now of “Tulimyrsky » on the first title you propose another song of thirty minutes. It is new Moonsorrow?
- Yes. After last year’s summer festivals we just thought of doing something different and there came the idea of doing an ep. The concept of Tulimyrsky (a song that’s very aggressive and more back to our roots) has been in our minds since 2005 or so. Now we had the right time to make it real. At first I and Henri started just writing some riffs (this is how we always start writing songs) . I had this opening blast beat part and I showed it to Henri and he was like “dude, that’s it!”. After that he started to write more and more stuff and then we realized this is going to be a very huge song once again, haha! I told Ville that it would be cool to have a story about the revenge and to have some references to our previous albums (mainly Voimasta ja Kunniasta because it also is lyrically a concept album). And suddenly there we had 29 minutes massive dramatic Moonsorrow song written.
4. Why to have chosen Mika Jussila for the mastering?
- We have always used him for the mastering duties as he’s a trusted guy for Spinefarm releases. He’s very easy and cool to work with.
5. In which purpose have you commercilaiser this cd, to make the fans wait up to the next album or to publish songs which deserved the light?
- This was something really special package for the fans really. It has nothing to do with the next full album though. We thought lets include some special material (covers and older songs) with the title track and release it as mid-price.
6. Why covers of Metallica and Merciless?
- « For Whom The Bell Tolls » was just one of those songs we used to listen when we were kids. We just tried to do it as moonsorrowish as possible. It was recorded already in 2005 and it was now a good idea to put it on the ep. Also some of us have been huge fans of Merciless so it was nice to arrange one of their songs too.
7. Which feelings after the concerts of the pagan Fest tour?
- The tour was excellent. Very good package of bands, good friends and sold-out venues. It was great indeed!
8. How doing a good song of pagan folk?
- I really don’t know. Just have to feel your inner thoughts and what’s in your blood and then writing a song comes quite naturally.
9. I know you are attached to your traditions, how do you live with that each day?
- Well not necessarily every day but the way I see it the cultural traditions and paganism in Moonsorrow means anti-christianity, respect of the nature, family and our cultural heritage... but we as 5 individuals it can vary a lot, but it was never meant to be just as an image of the band. It’s our manual of life. Of course there is a bond to nature as I believe it’s the highest force on this planet. Personally I’m not a religious person at all, more like an atheist type. I believe in this day and what I do and what I keep true to myself.
10.Do you feel more Finnish before European?
- Finnish definitely because of our different mentality, culture and language.
11. What are your relations with the others Finnish bands?
- Very good actually. We know most of the metal bands from Helsinki area (Amorphis, COB, Ensiferum and Impaled Nazarene to name a few). Good friends to hang in the festivals and bars.
12. As mens of the North you are more inspired to compose in summer or in winter?
- Uhh… I don’t see the difference. We believe in the power of different extremeties, such as fire and ice, summer vs. winter, calm vs. storm, beautiful vs. ugly. And we always try to reflect these powers in our music and cover art concepts.
13. Do you think your music can only be done by the peoples who live in the North of Europe?
- No I think any people who has a true heart to do their own thing without commercial values is capable of creating such art.
14. What are your projects for the next months?
- Going to spend some holiday and then a couple of summer festivals. Quite relaxed summer of 2008 for Moonsorrow.
15. Have you got a last word for your French fans...
- Thanks for the insane show in Paris (Paganfest). You ruled supreme!!! Thanks for the interview. I hope we come back to France very soon. Good luck with football euro-championship games : )
Unfashionable Creatures / September 2008
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Benzoworld.com / February 2008
Link
MOONSORROW - 27 Febbraio 2008
A cura di Night Wolf
MOONSORROW - 27 Febbraio 2008
A cura di Night Wolf
Il pagan metal sta godendo di grande fama anche grazie ai finnici Moonsorrow. Non capita spesso di riuscire a parlare (anche solo tramite e-mail) con il gruppo capitanato dai cugini Sorvali, considerata anche la natura schifa di questi imperturbabili vichinghi. Noi di Benzoworld non ci siamo persi d'animo e, dopo qualche tentativo a vuoto, siamo finalmente riusciti a scambiare quattro chiacchiere con Ville Sorvali, singer e bassista dei Moonsorrow.
Ho aspettato con ansia l’uscita di 'V: Havitetty' e sinceramente sono molto soddisfatto: è davvero un grande album, il migliore nella discografia dei Moonsoorow. Tu cosa ne pensi Ville?
Grazie per i complimenti! Anch'io la penso come te, ma questo è normale: se non sei soddisfatto della tua ultima uscita, allora sarebbe il caso di cambiare mestiere! Analizzare il proprio lavoro in prospettiva non è cosa facile... ci vuole sempre un po' di tempo e, riguardo ad 'V: Havitetty', penso che sia molto differente dai dischi precedenti. Puntiamo ogni volta a creare qualcosa di nuovo.
Nell’album sono presenti solo due canzoni che complessivamente durano sessanta minuti. Come mai avete deciso di strutturare in questo modo 'V: Havitetty'?
Pura coincidenza. All'inizio avavamo in mente di scrivere delle canzoni più corte, ma quando l'intro del primo brano è stato completato ed abbiamo notato che raggiungeva i 6 minuti di durata, allora abbiamo deciso che sarebbe andato bene lo stesso. Alla fine ce ne siamo usciti con due sole canzoni, le quali raccontano l'inferno e la sua evoluzione, dal principio alla fine. Sono due racconti, e come ben sai, alle volte i racconti hanno bisogno di molto spazio per rendere al meglio. Ti posso assicurare che non era nostra intenzione scrivere pezzi di mezz'ora solo per dimostrare di essere in grado di farlo.
Ho notato che in queste due tracce è presente un po' tutto il vostro background stililistico. Mi spiego meglio... ho notato alcuni elementi che facevano parte di 'Sude Uni', altri di 'Voimasta Ja Kunniasta' e altri di 'Kivenkantaja' e 'Verisakeet'. Come ce lo spieghi?
E’ vero e sono contento che tu lo dica! Quest'album non introduce solo delle novità, ma combina al suo interno un feeling a noi già familiare, tutto in un unico pacchetto. Poi non penso sia giusto cominciare a conoscere i Moonsorrow partendo dall'album più facile, ahah!
Ville commentaci 'Jäästä Syntynyt / Varjojen Virta' e 'Tuleen Ajettu Maa'.
Questi due pezzi raccontano due storie che descrivono due lati diversi della natura dell'uomo. 'Tuleen Ajettu Maa' ha un taglio universale mentre 'Varjojen Virta' è stata scritta prendendo in considerazione un punto di vista più personale. Credo fermamente che questi siano i pezzi più ispirati mai scritti dalla band, e non solo perché si tratta dei brani più lunghi ed epici nell'intera storia dei Moonsorrow.
Le registrazioni dell’album come sono andate? Credo siano state complicate essendo le due tracce molto lunghe e particolari...
A dire il vero con questa formazione le registrazioni sono sempre molto facili. Tutti sanno già cosa fare e nessuno di noi inizia a comporre in studio. In genere buona parte del materiale è già pronta prima che inizino le registrazioni, ed in studio non abbiamo altro da fare se non ultimare gli ultimi dettagli dell'opera. Per 'V: Havitetty', l'intero processo (registrazione e mixaggio) si è svolto in cinque settimane, in modo peraltro molto rilassante.
I Moonsorrow sono ormai delle icone nella scena pagan metal. Come ci si sente ad esser considerati tali? Vi aspettavate di arrivare fino a questo punto?
Non avremmo mai previsto di arrivare fino a questo punto, ahah! All'inizio volevamo solo produrre uno studio-album e fare qualche spettacolo dal vivo: le solite cose, come tante altre bands. Dopo averci preso gusto e dopo aver percepito il crescente successo all'interno del panorama pagan metal (con Finntroll ed Ensiferum), ci siamo accorti di come certi riconoscimenti sono importanti per tutti noi. E' questo che ci spinge a migliorarci continuamente.
Il cinque Aprile (quasi un anno fa) siete stati qui in Italia col vostro tour da headliner. Ricordi qualcosa di quella giornata?
Ricordo che presi l’influenza il giorno prima in Slovenia, ed infatti il concerto fu per me molto difficile. Tuttavia è stato bello intrattenere i metalheads italiani che sono venuti al concerto quella notte e credo anche che i Moonsorrow abbiano messo in piedi uno spettacolo di tutto rispetto! Purtroppo non ci sarà una data Italiana nel nostro prossimo tour ma speriamo di poter tornare presto a farvi visita.
Come vi siete trovati con il pubblico Italiano?
I fan italiani sono assolutamente grandi quando assistono a certi show. C’erano alcune persone quella sera assolutamente fuori di testa.
Dal vostro sito ufficiale ho notato che da poco avete concluso il tour. Ora che farete? Ci sarà un momento di pausa?
Al momento siamo in studio di registrazione per completare il nostro nuovo ep, 'Tulimyrsky', per cui non vi sarà alcuna pausa. Quando l’ep sarà pronto in primo luogo saremo a Londra di supporto ai Children Of Bodom e ad Aprile torneremo on the road per un intero tour con Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Tyr ed Eluveitie. Dopo faremo un breve tour in Finlandia e presenzieremo ad alcuni festival estivi. Allora forse sarà arrivato il momento per una pausa, chi lo sa?
Come ultima domanda vorrei chiedervi in quale festival vi piacerebbe suonare quest’anno.
Qualsiasi festival che sia ben organizzato, affollato e che ci dia la possibilità di entrare in stretto contatto con la gente.
Molto bene Ville, l’intervista si chiude qui. Questo spazio è tutto tuo, dì quello che vuoi...
Grazie per l'intervista e grazie a tutti i fan italiani per il loro sostegno! Stay as insane as ever!
None Louder / January 2008
Link
On Friday, January 11, 2008, I had the distinct honor of speaking with Pagan metal icon Ville Sorvali, frontman of the Finnish band, Moonsorrow (Spinefarm).
Joined by the esteemed Adrian Bromley (The End Records), and Ville’s personal photographer, Terhi Ylimäinen, I conducted my interview to the subtle sounds of the shutter snapping and the air vent humming overhead.
SAM: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
Moonsorrow: Tough question to start with. Biggest musical influence... Bon Jovi. No. I think a lot of the stuff came from Ritchie Blackmore when we started and Bathory. There is a lot of progressive influence, a lot of traditional folk music influence. I think the biggest influence that concerns the whole band is Norwegian black metal from the 90s. That’s the only thing that connects us.
Sam: Any specific people that really inspired you?
MS: Definitely a lot. I think the biggest influence is Bathory on a personal level. He started the whole thing anyway. We’re just trying to continue his legacy.
SAM: What would you say are your nonmusical influences?
MS: “Love?” History, people, the world around us. I as a lyric writer I have a few Finnish poets.
SAM: Other stuff besides poets?
MS: I used to read a lot of stuff. I haven’t read any in years - of history, folklore, mythology.
SAM: How would you say your band has progressed over the years?
MS: A lot on every level. We’ve definitely developed as musicians since our first album, as songwriters, and we’ve also come closer to developing our own style. The stuff we really want to do, we get closer to everyday. It’s constant progress that each of us develops everyday.
SAM: How would you say you’ve progressed as people and friends?
MS: We’re getting more and more close to each other definitely. Sometimes it feels like a marriage of five people. We have our disagreements and stuff, of course. It’s a bunch of good friends definitely. Even outside the band we hang out together. Like, if somebody is going to a bar, he calls the other guys and stuff like that.
SAM: It says on your Web site on your profile that, “If you’re not into metal, you’re not my friend.” Is this a statement the whole band stands behind or a personal philosophy… kind of joking?
MS: It’s kind of joking. We are all definitely metal, of course, but it’s a joke because most of the stuff I listen to is not metal, and I have a lot of nonmetal friends as well. It’s kind of a statement in a joking manner and, of course, a tribute to Manowar. (laughs)
SAM: Most of your songs are pretty long. What do you think is the benefit of having longer songs?
MS: I don’t know if there is any benefit because I know radio stations don’t want to play it. We can’t make short songs. The way we make songs is we write something and the song tell us ‘I’m not ready yet. Please continue.’ And we continue until the song tells us it’s ready. Lately, we have been writing very long songs. The next one we’re writing that’s going to be on the new EP, I think it’s 28 minutes.
SAM: According to your Web site, Moonsorrow has only performed once in America and that was in January of 2006. Is there a reason you haven’t played in the United States?
MS: The reason is cruel. It’s financial. We had a mini-tour in Canada last year, we had five shows. It’s very hard to get here, to have anyone organizing a show for you or a tour for you because it’s so expensive to get here. Most of us are people in day jobs. We can’t take unpaid holidays. We can’t come here and end up paying for it ourselves. We would definitely love to play here as often as we can, but so far nobody has offered us the financial backing
SAM: So there’s no plan to come here in the future?
MS: There’s always a plan to come here. We’re just searching for the right package.
SAM: You’ve performed in a lot of places and seen a lot of audiences. What places stick out in your mind as being unique?
MS: I think Eastern Europe as a whole. All those countries we’ve played: Russia, Czec Republic, Croatia, Romania... That’s a bunch of insane people there. I think still in many of those countries they don’t have too many Western bands coming so if there is a concert they are all going there, and they are really giving everything.
SAM: Are there any experiences that stick out in your mind?
MS: There are a lot of insane drunken adventures at many places after shows. One of the experiences was Moscow. We went outside from the venue before the show with our keyboard player to have a smoke. We were outside for like two seconds and there were hundreds of people surrounding us yelling, ‘Autograph, autograph!’ And they were offering us vodka and stuff like that. It took us almost thirty minutes to get back to the venue. That was insane.
SAM: How would you compare the Finnish metal scene with the rest of the world?
MS: It’s unique. In Finland, I think it’s the only country in the whole world where metal is on the charts on a weekly basis. The reason for that I can’t answer, I seriously don’t know. It’s weird, metal is very popular in Finland.
SAM: When do you expect to complete recording Firestorm?
MS: Actually, the band started recording that today while I’m still here. I’m going to fly back and join them Sunday or Monday.
SAM: Is there a projected release date for that?
MS: It should be in March. Late March, I think, but it’s up to our record label.
SAM: Is there a story that’s going to be going along with this one?
MS: Actually, there is this one song that is going to continue the story that was started on our second album. I don’t know why we decided to go back to our second album, but we’re going to continue that story.
SAM: Your music has been described as folk, Pagan, progressive, black metal, etc. What do you think best describes your music?
MS: I call it Pagan metal because Pagan is not a musical term. I don’t like musical categorization at all. It doesn’t do justice to most of the bands anyway. I think we play a lot of metal music that has influences outside of metal, and I don’t like to put it inside of any box or anything. I prefer to call it Pagan metal because that describes the ideological points in the music, but doesn’t say anything about the music itself. So it’s up to the listener.
SAM: Some metal Web sites I was looking at to prepare for this interview referred to you as “Viking Metal” and it’s my understanding that you don’t like to be called Viking Metal. What is Viking Metal and why is it that you don’t like to be associated with that?
MS: It’s just like if somebody calls us Viking metal or folk metal, it associates us with all these bands that we actually don’t have anything to do with. It’s also not just our point of view but their point of view as well. These bands don’t have much to do with each other. You call a band Viking metal, for instance, Inscrum and Amon Amarth who are totally different bands but still under the same label. I don’t know who started it or when, but musically it doesn’t do justice to anyone. It doesn’t say anything about the music itself. I think Viking metal started to grow as a trend some years ago. I don’t mind if people call us Viking metal if it helps them to understand what we’re about then by all means call us Viking metal. But I don’tlike to call us Viking metal.
SAM: What does the future hold for Moonsorrow?
MS: Hell raising and beer drinking.
SAM: You’re in a couple of other bands, Human Death and Lakupaavi. What instruments to you play in those?
MS: Human Death never recorded anything yet, but I think I should do vocals.
SAM: So there’s no actual music?
MS: There are a few songs.
SAM: But you don’t know what you’ll be playing on there?
MS: No, but it’s old-school death metal, like Obituary.
SAM: Any others?
MS: Yeah, there are a lot of bands or projects. I’m a fairly untalented musician so I just do the vocals. (laughs)
SAM: You also play bass and drums right? Do you play those in any other bands?
MS: I played drums for a band of my friend’s a few years back because their drummer was injured.
SAM: Is there anything you’d like us to say about you?
MS: Don’t write anything bad about us.
On Friday, January 11, 2008, I had the distinct honor of speaking with Pagan metal icon Ville Sorvali, frontman of the Finnish band, Moonsorrow (Spinefarm).
Joined by the esteemed Adrian Bromley (The End Records), and Ville’s personal photographer, Terhi Ylimäinen, I conducted my interview to the subtle sounds of the shutter snapping and the air vent humming overhead.
SAM: Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?
Moonsorrow: Tough question to start with. Biggest musical influence... Bon Jovi. No. I think a lot of the stuff came from Ritchie Blackmore when we started and Bathory. There is a lot of progressive influence, a lot of traditional folk music influence. I think the biggest influence that concerns the whole band is Norwegian black metal from the 90s. That’s the only thing that connects us.
Sam: Any specific people that really inspired you?
MS: Definitely a lot. I think the biggest influence is Bathory on a personal level. He started the whole thing anyway. We’re just trying to continue his legacy.
SAM: What would you say are your nonmusical influences?
MS: “Love?” History, people, the world around us. I as a lyric writer I have a few Finnish poets.
SAM: Other stuff besides poets?
MS: I used to read a lot of stuff. I haven’t read any in years - of history, folklore, mythology.
SAM: How would you say your band has progressed over the years?
MS: A lot on every level. We’ve definitely developed as musicians since our first album, as songwriters, and we’ve also come closer to developing our own style. The stuff we really want to do, we get closer to everyday. It’s constant progress that each of us develops everyday.
SAM: How would you say you’ve progressed as people and friends?
MS: We’re getting more and more close to each other definitely. Sometimes it feels like a marriage of five people. We have our disagreements and stuff, of course. It’s a bunch of good friends definitely. Even outside the band we hang out together. Like, if somebody is going to a bar, he calls the other guys and stuff like that.
SAM: It says on your Web site on your profile that, “If you’re not into metal, you’re not my friend.” Is this a statement the whole band stands behind or a personal philosophy… kind of joking?
MS: It’s kind of joking. We are all definitely metal, of course, but it’s a joke because most of the stuff I listen to is not metal, and I have a lot of nonmetal friends as well. It’s kind of a statement in a joking manner and, of course, a tribute to Manowar. (laughs)
SAM: Most of your songs are pretty long. What do you think is the benefit of having longer songs?
MS: I don’t know if there is any benefit because I know radio stations don’t want to play it. We can’t make short songs. The way we make songs is we write something and the song tell us ‘I’m not ready yet. Please continue.’ And we continue until the song tells us it’s ready. Lately, we have been writing very long songs. The next one we’re writing that’s going to be on the new EP, I think it’s 28 minutes.
SAM: According to your Web site, Moonsorrow has only performed once in America and that was in January of 2006. Is there a reason you haven’t played in the United States?
MS: The reason is cruel. It’s financial. We had a mini-tour in Canada last year, we had five shows. It’s very hard to get here, to have anyone organizing a show for you or a tour for you because it’s so expensive to get here. Most of us are people in day jobs. We can’t take unpaid holidays. We can’t come here and end up paying for it ourselves. We would definitely love to play here as often as we can, but so far nobody has offered us the financial backing
SAM: So there’s no plan to come here in the future?
MS: There’s always a plan to come here. We’re just searching for the right package.
SAM: You’ve performed in a lot of places and seen a lot of audiences. What places stick out in your mind as being unique?
MS: I think Eastern Europe as a whole. All those countries we’ve played: Russia, Czec Republic, Croatia, Romania... That’s a bunch of insane people there. I think still in many of those countries they don’t have too many Western bands coming so if there is a concert they are all going there, and they are really giving everything.
SAM: Are there any experiences that stick out in your mind?
MS: There are a lot of insane drunken adventures at many places after shows. One of the experiences was Moscow. We went outside from the venue before the show with our keyboard player to have a smoke. We were outside for like two seconds and there were hundreds of people surrounding us yelling, ‘Autograph, autograph!’ And they were offering us vodka and stuff like that. It took us almost thirty minutes to get back to the venue. That was insane.
SAM: How would you compare the Finnish metal scene with the rest of the world?
MS: It’s unique. In Finland, I think it’s the only country in the whole world where metal is on the charts on a weekly basis. The reason for that I can’t answer, I seriously don’t know. It’s weird, metal is very popular in Finland.
SAM: When do you expect to complete recording Firestorm?
MS: Actually, the band started recording that today while I’m still here. I’m going to fly back and join them Sunday or Monday.
SAM: Is there a projected release date for that?
MS: It should be in March. Late March, I think, but it’s up to our record label.
SAM: Is there a story that’s going to be going along with this one?
MS: Actually, there is this one song that is going to continue the story that was started on our second album. I don’t know why we decided to go back to our second album, but we’re going to continue that story.
SAM: Your music has been described as folk, Pagan, progressive, black metal, etc. What do you think best describes your music?
MS: I call it Pagan metal because Pagan is not a musical term. I don’t like musical categorization at all. It doesn’t do justice to most of the bands anyway. I think we play a lot of metal music that has influences outside of metal, and I don’t like to put it inside of any box or anything. I prefer to call it Pagan metal because that describes the ideological points in the music, but doesn’t say anything about the music itself. So it’s up to the listener.
SAM: Some metal Web sites I was looking at to prepare for this interview referred to you as “Viking Metal” and it’s my understanding that you don’t like to be called Viking Metal. What is Viking Metal and why is it that you don’t like to be associated with that?
MS: It’s just like if somebody calls us Viking metal or folk metal, it associates us with all these bands that we actually don’t have anything to do with. It’s also not just our point of view but their point of view as well. These bands don’t have much to do with each other. You call a band Viking metal, for instance, Inscrum and Amon Amarth who are totally different bands but still under the same label. I don’t know who started it or when, but musically it doesn’t do justice to anyone. It doesn’t say anything about the music itself. I think Viking metal started to grow as a trend some years ago. I don’t mind if people call us Viking metal if it helps them to understand what we’re about then by all means call us Viking metal. But I don’tlike to call us Viking metal.
SAM: What does the future hold for Moonsorrow?
MS: Hell raising and beer drinking.
SAM: You’re in a couple of other bands, Human Death and Lakupaavi. What instruments to you play in those?
MS: Human Death never recorded anything yet, but I think I should do vocals.
SAM: So there’s no actual music?
MS: There are a few songs.
SAM: But you don’t know what you’ll be playing on there?
MS: No, but it’s old-school death metal, like Obituary.
SAM: Any others?
MS: Yeah, there are a lot of bands or projects. I’m a fairly untalented musician so I just do the vocals. (laughs)
SAM: You also play bass and drums right? Do you play those in any other bands?
MS: I played drums for a band of my friend’s a few years back because their drummer was injured.
SAM: Is there anything you’d like us to say about you?
MS: Don’t write anything bad about us.
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