Metalluminati / September 2012

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"Mitja talks about the difference between touring in the US vs Europe, the latest tour, and the importance of baby wipes on tour."

 

 

Folk-Metal.nl / October 2012

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Updated source 11/VIII/2019

Moonsorrow ‘four-CD collection in 2041′

By: Gur

On saturday, the second day of the Aurora Infernalis festival I had an interview with
Marko and Ville. I spoke with them backstage in the Luxor in Arnhem [NL]

Photography: Metalshots.com

It’s not the first time Moonsorrow is in Arnhem
M: No it’s about the fourth time, once at Arnhem Metal Meeting…

“The Goudvishall was a Cult venue!”

Yeah and two times at the Goudvishal (goldfish-hall)
M: Does that still excist? Because we were just talking about it.

Sadly it closed a few years ago, but it was a great venue
M: The Goudvishal was a cult venue!
V: It had a feeling of it’s own.

I saw you there in 2007 with Swallow the Sun.
V: And the year before we played there wit Primordial.

What do you remember of those gigs, or even Arnhem as a city?
M: Very crowded saturday, the second day of the Aurora Infernalis festival I had an chance to speak with Marko and Ville of Moonsorrow at the Luxor in Arnhem [nl].
V:The dangerous stairs.
M: Yeah the dangerous stairs!

In the back?
V: To the dressing room, very dangerous stairs.
M: with all the gear up and down…….drunk.

You played with Primordial then, did some tours with them and now again playing together in Arnhem. Do they become friends?
M: Yeah, we see them once or twice a year and they are good friends. The’re mentally on the same level also, a retarded level hahaha.

And other bands, do friendships grow while you are touring?
V: We’ve met some cool people in this business, if you can call it a business.

And do they become friends, people you call when you’re at home for instance.
M: Most of my friends are from the musicbusiness, I don’t hang around with other people.
V: You don’t hang around.
If some of the bands from abroad come to Finland I usually give them a call on the showdate and we hang out.

“We have planned that the next albumtitle should start with a C”

I read in a lot of interviews that Henri comes with an idea and Ville does the lyrics. When does a song become a Moonsorrow song?
M: We all have ideas and we try them, but everything goes through Henri’s filter haha. But still we all have our own sound that cannot be copied I guess and it’s the combination of that sounds that makes the Moonsorrow sound.

So Henri doesn’t come up with arranged parts for everyone and then practice the song?
M: Practice what is that? We do only rehearsals with drums and bass and a guiding track.
V: In the studio it is just me and Marko who do our parts in decent takes. When the guitarplayers came in it was just a paper with some notes. Playing a riff and than: oke, let’s try the next one.
M: And I think we gonna do it for the next album also, rehearsals with only drums and bass and maybe some clicktrack or so…

Plans for the next album? ideas, concept?
V: We are planning that we should plan tot plan the next….
M: We have planned that the titles should start with a C.
There is no Finnish wd that starts with a C.
V: I see that as a challenge.
M: We can make up our own title as Enslaved did with Riitir.

But no other ideas about the album.
V: Some ideas about the album and how it has to start musically, but we’re not telling that here.
M: It is not an intro! it’s an outro like Aerosmith did, back in the days haha.

Your  album V:HAVIETTY had you guys on the cover. What was the idea behind that?
V:The ultimate idea was actually that we wanted the band on the cover. Because bands in the metalgenre don’t usually do that. Except for Immortal. There are no coverpictures with actually the band on it. So we thought we could do it because we always want to be a bit different.
M: And we also want the albumcovers to differ from eachother. And always use different kind of artist. I don’t know if it looks good but it looks different.

“I’m not going with my sword to the forest every morning and hunt for my food.”

In an other interview Ville says, and I quote:
I think our main inspiration sources are old legends, history, stuff like deep respect for nature and the concept of paganism; That is hard to explain, I’m not even going to try. It’s definitely stuff that doesn’t fit the world we live in now. I’m not sure if I’ve said anything sensitive, but… (laughs)
M: Respect for nature? Bullshit, you hate the rain
V: yeah I hate the rain but I respect it. It is really hard to explain what inspires us, it is everything around us. Just to differ from all the other pagan metal bands I have to say that it also inspires me to live in the middle of the city. And walk in between buildings.
M: The urban thing, the urban viking.
V: I’m not going with my sword to the forest every morning and hunt for my food.I live in the fucking city and love the buildings. And even if I would there wouldn’t be enough for everyone in this urban environment.

People always question why Moonsorrow songs are so long, don’t you get tired of that?
M: the thing is, we can;t write short songs
V: Nowadays we try to get them under 10 minutes
M: Six or Seven minutes is short for us. We don;t necessary want to do 20 minute songs anymore.

Because you can’t remember how it goes, or…?
V: Yeah we’re getting old.
M: It has to do with how difficult it is to pick the songs for the live set. For example this set tonight, we only play 5 songs and we have 70 minutes….

How do you pick the songs?
M: We try to pick out songs with the same atmosphere, we don’t like to mix songs from the last album with the more merrier songs of our past. Even though our fans would like to here them, we’d like to keep the same atmosphere from start to the end of the show. Some of the fans hate us for doing that, cause we don’t play their favorite songs.

How do you know the fans don’t like it?
V: They come after the show and say: “You didn’t play that song!”. Uh yeah, we didn’t.
M: I’d like to challenge myself with the older material. Just re-arrange it a bit so it goes hand in hand with the newer material. If the guys are up for it.
V: I am!

So when can we expect the new version of the old songs?
V: 2041
M: That;s when our four-cd collection will come out

Best of Moonsorrow
V: Yeah

“I’d like to challenge myself with the older material. Just re-arrange it a bit so it goes hand in hand with the newer material. If the guys are up for it.”

Kivenkantaja is my favorite album and i’ll tell you why. I fell asleep to it for every night during a year.
M: Hahaha did you ever came past the first song?

Yeah, but never past the second.
V: Hahahahaaha

But not because it is boring, because the whole album has on feeling. It’s like a warm blanket.
M: If you want to put it like that haha.

The last song ‘Matkan Lopussa” is a beautiful song with a female singer. Can you tell me more about that?
M: It is an old Russian traditional song but we convert it to Finnish. And put finnish traditional stuff in it and totally own lyrics.

And Petra was the female singer, was she in another band?
M: No don’t think so, she was a schoolmate of Henry right?
V: Yeah. But we ont know what see is up to right now. We have no contact, she just helped out on the Never thought of that…….That would require a lot of imagination to connect all the albums together.
M: I don’t know why album.

Last question, one of the readers of Folk-metal.nl asked if you have a global storyline across your albums.
V: What? someone would think that.
V: Then again, it was already the third album when Morbid Angel realized the album titles where in alphabetical order and the’re still doing that.
M: hahaha they should have done that hahah

And then you’ll have to come up with an albumtitle with a C, and there is no Finnish word with a C
V: We’ll come up with it.

“Next year Kivenkantaja is 10 years old and we might do some special shows, maybe do a full album set.”

Thanks you so much for the little chat!
V: Thank you, and enjoy the show
M: No Kivenkantaja songs!

That doesn’t matter, it is always a good show.
M: Next year the album is 10 years old and we might do some special shows, maybe do a full album set. There is still one song on the album we’ve never played.
V: Tuulen Tytär/Soturin Tie

We will definitely be there!

Spirit of Metal / September 2012

Link

Interviews Moonsorrow - September 2012 “Well, really, when we started the band we had a goal in mind: to have a record contract, someone who is actually paying for the making of the album and releasing it. We got that! Then, we got some shows here and there. And then we were thinking like: it would be nice to tour… it grows all the time, in our own heads. But, fundamentally, we are happy that we got the first record deal. Everything else is just bonus.”
Check out the chat that SOM had with Ville Sorvali (bass and lead vocals), Marko Tarvonen (drums) and Markus Eurén (keyboards) from Moonsorrow!!!

You guys will be playing tonight with Korpiklaani, Metsatol and Tyr. This is an incredible lineup. Was this planned between you guys (the bands) or was it planned by “management”?
Ville: Blame the manager. No, no… seriously, we don’t really make those decisions but it is always nice to tour with people who are actually friends and not just “other bands”.

Marko: Korpiklaani was about to do this tour and we were invited as a direct support for them. We said: “Yeah, why not?” We’ve been together for many tours before. It is a good combination, really.

Ville: It is the fourth tour [we do] with them.

April 2010 was the last time you had toured North America. How much has the band changed in between these couple of years? Do you feel like you have grown since then?
Ville: We party less… we are getting old (laughs). I can already see that.

Marko: And we have new material out to play in the States, we have a new album. Well, actually, it is not out in the States because the record labels fucked up the whole American release. It is only available in iTunes and that’s a very sad thing. We really can’t do anything about it because it is about the corporate and stuff like that. We kind of got into the crossfire of two different labels and the new one, Century Media, was willing to put our latest album out for this tour, in the States but the previous one, Spinefarm, somehow fucked it up with the licensing contract, blabla… It is all legal stuff…

Ville: The business part of it…

Marko: But, as for your question of what has been changed from the previous tour, it is really nice to play the new material here and to actually see the people liking it. It doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s released physically or not; people are downloading it and stuff, and they are still coming to the shows, buying t-shirts. So, it is very cool to see that we still have a growing fan base over here.

The other side now: Has your fans and public in general changed since last time?
Ville: I think that the turn outs are increasing tour by tour. People get to know us and tell their friends.

Marko: It’s better than with Finntroll [previous tour in North America]. Actually, somehow, it is more fanatic during this [current] tour, the moshpits and everything…. it is more intense.

Markus: It is because of the set list (laughs).

Marko: Well, we really tried hard to put on a set list that kind of “moves” people, actually.

Ville: That actually has everything… we have two songs of the new album that takes half of the set already… (laughs)

Marko: It is always really hard to pick the songs from the past catalog that “fits” with the new songs, together. I think that the set list that we’ve been doing on this tour is working very well.

Ville: Yeah, it’s working.

From 70000 tons of metal to label change. This year has been a “big” one for you guys. Any new big things coming up until the end of the year?
Marko: No… when we finish this tour we still have one occasional festival concert in Holland coming up in October but after that there’s really nothing. I think we have to prepare for the new material…

Ville and Markus: Yes.

Marko: That’s always…

Markus: …challenging.

Marko: A big challenge and a big discussion!

Ville and Markus: Yes! (laughs)

Ville: We have been touring for this album for one and a half years now.

Marko: Quite many shows…

Ville: [It is] better to start concentrating on new material soon…

All or most of you guys have side projects. How do you split your time in between these projects and Moonsorrow?
Ville: It is quite easy. The word “side” project already involves the concept of priority. Actually, none of us is spending time in other serious bands except for him [he points out to Marko] and Janne [Perttilä], who are in Barren Earth. The other ones just have projects. Pro

jects can be done at anytime when you are not playing with your band.

Marko: And personally, I think that we are spending more time with our personal lives than on the side projects; our personal every day life, going to your “normal” work. That takes more time out of Moonsorrow than the other bands because we don’t get paid so well for this [playing]. So, we cannot afford to quit our day jobs. It’s [just] like that…

Is it too hard to have your day job and the band?
Marko: It is hard and it is not… it depends. At the moment, I have this “alternation leave”, that we have in Finland that allows me to take, for example, 6 months off from work to do touring. But, it is not every year it is like, after 10 years working history behind you, then you can apply for this leave, which I did, and I got it, and I’m really happy about it.

Now, I have been able to tour 3 tours with Moonsorrow and one with another band. So, it is kind of cool to spend a little bit more of this “rock n’ roll life style”. (laughs). But then again, on October 1st , I need to go back to work and have the normal daily routine again.

You have mentioned that you have changed labels (from Spinefarm Records to Century Media). How big is this change for you guys?
Ville: We haven’t done anything with them [Century Media] yet so, it is hard to say. It seems that we have a very good relationship already, on a personal level. They were interested in signing with us. We had a couple of meetings before even talking about the contract. They were just like, trying to figure out where we stand. I’m really happy with that. They came to shows and just wanted to meet us.

Markus: Like yesterday, we met for the first time their US staff.

Marko: And also some friend’s bands like Finntroll, Insomnium and Turisas: everything that we’ve heard from them about Century Media is positive. So, that’s something we can trust on.

You mentioned earlier that you are planning to start working on a new album. Any ideas of what directions will be taken for this next release?
Ville: Yes and no. We’ve been in discussion about it, but…

Marko: Like [I] said: it is a big discussion first and then it is a lot of work.

Ville: The point where the direction of the album is actually determined is the point when you actually start writing it. When we have the first material at hand then we know where it is going.

So, when can your fans expect the new album? Any idea?
Ville: Before 2020 (laughs)!

Marko: I think it should be out the end of next year/early 2014.

Markus: Yes, something like that.

Marko: Something we don’t want to do is to work with schedules. We hate the schedules, we hate the record labels setting certain dates that: this must be finished until this date. There’s when usually things get fucked up, like on the last album, the German release got fucked up because the schedules went wrong. It wasn’t our fault, we delivered everything on time, but labels fucked it up in the end.

Ville: They didn’t communicate.

Marko: They had a schedule for us and we delivered everything by the schedule but in the end they fucked it up. So, what is the point of having those schedules?

Ville: And the thing with Century Media is that already, at the early stage, our artist and relation person told us that he know our band very well (he has been following us since the beginning) and he knows that we don’t work with schedules and he respects that. So, he is not pushing us to make a new album like, right now. He accepts that the new album will be ready when it’s ready.

About these schedules: could they hurt the creativeness of the writing process, in case you get closer to the due dates? For example, the time you had the schedules with Spinefarm?
Ville: Actually, in truth, I wouldn’t like to be talking shit about Spinefarm. They didn’t make those schedules, we made them. They just asked us to make “A” schedule. We told them that we needed time and they also respected that.

But talking about anybody: if someone asks you to set-up these schedules and you end up getting tight, would you have to sacrifice the creativeness because of that?
Marko: Not for the music. Usually, if we have to sacrifice something it’s the promotion mainly and maybe some parts of the cover art or something like that.

Ville: Yeah, because the schedules are made so you have the product in your hands at least 3 months before the release so, you can have to promote it. If we set these schedules in stone, which we always have to do in the end anyway, if we delay the finalizing of the product then the times is taken off from its promotion. We don’t sacrifice the music.

Markus: No… never.

Marko: We hardly book the studio before the album is written.

I know this question is the basic standard one but I can’t resist! I have to ask you: you guys have been growing so much the past years, getting more and more known around the globe. What is your personal goal out of this? What would be your ultimate goal that would make you feel as you are an accomplished musician?
Ville: Well, really, when we started the band we had a goal in mind: to have a record contract, someone who is actually paying for the making of the album and releasing it. We got that! Then, we got some shows here and there. And then we were thinking like: it would be nice to tour.

Markus: [It would be nice] to do some gigs out of Finland.

Ville: Yeah… outside Finland. Then we got that. Then we started to think about touring and then suddenly we got a booking agency, we toured Europe a few times…

Marko: And somehow we got some money and that was the turning point (laughs).

Ville: Yes. And then, after touring Europe a few times we thought: “It would be nice to tour outside Europe as well”. And then we got an offer to do an American tour. We came here, did that and then we said: “We want to come back here again! And actually we want to see some other places than Europe and North America!” Then we got an offer for Japan and China. And now, we are talking about other continents then these 3… it grows all the time, in our own heads.

But, fundamentally, we are happy that we got the first record deal. Everything else is just bonus.

Marko: In the end, if this was supposed to end tomorrow, we would still be happy that we got the first record deal.

Ville: Yeah… especially that (laughs)… they screwed us over so bad!!

Marko: Seriously, we are very down to earth we don’t have big plans…

So, it is milestone by milestone…?
Marko: Day by day…

Ville: Whatever happens, happens…

Marko: There are other people who may have some schedules and big plans for us. Well, they may discuss about them… we are all ears but, we are very good saying “No” to things. We have always been…Since the beginning, we were offered so many bad tours. For 5 years, we were offered such bad European tours we just had to say no.

Ville: We just had to wait and see if somebody would come up with a reasonable offer and we did that. We basically did the ground work with only a few shows here and there.

Marko: And I think we were very wise with that decision, to not take part of those crappy tours.

Ville: Yeah, because we would still be in debt if we did 2 or 3 of those tours. It’s what it costs.

Any messages to the SOM readers?
Ville: It is always pretty hard to answer this question because I don’t really have “last words”, I have so many words to say before I die so, I would’ve like to finish it here (laughs).

Marko: Kick ass!!! Drink “metal” (laughs)!! Freeze hell! Come to the shows! Have some good time with Moonsorrow, we are very friendly and nice and… come to see us after the shows and have a party.

Ville: Offer us some alcohol!!!

Marko: Cheers! (laughs) We are able to drink all your money!!! (laughs)

>

Interview done by Deesse_de_la_nuit

Metal Psalter / September 2012

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This interview was conducted by Philip A. Wickstrand with vocalist/bass guitarist Ville Sorvali at the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR on September 10, 2012.

Few bands in Pagan Metal have been able to make a catalogue of music like MOONSORROW. Each release is unique from the others and maintains a high degree of excellent musicianship, complexity and great song writing. With six albums under their belts thus far, their growing number of fans are eagerly awaiting to see what number seven will bring.

Phil: First off, how’s the tour been so far?

Ville: It’s been absolutely great. We’ve had thirteen shows, lucky number thirteen, and all the shows have been great. We’ve had a very good response from the audience in all of the places. We went to some new places where we haven’t been before, actually on this tour, so it’s been really great, better than we expected.

Phil: How has the signing with Century Media so far?

Ville: We haven’t done anything with them yet so I wouldn’t know, but the collaboration between us and them has been really good and we seem to have a very good business relationship, but of course we don’t know yet because we haven’t released anything on them yet.

Phil: Will you be having them do a North American issue of your most recent album?

Ville: I hope they would, but that’s a contractual thing. They don’t have any rights to the previous albums.

Phil: It’s been a real pain in the ass to find in North America, unless you want to pay twenty bucks on Amazon (for an import).

Ville: Yeah, I know. It’s a pain in the ass. All we can do is bring them with us on tours, so at least the people who come to the shows have the chance to buy them.

Phil: Have you put any thought into what you will be doing with the next album so far?

Ville: We have some rough ideas but it’s way too early to talk about them anyway. We probably will start thinking more about it when the tour is finished and I don’t have any idea about the recording schedule or anything.

Phil: Speaking of writing, is there anything that you’ve had in mind for MOONSORROW that you haven’t had a chance to experiment with that you would like to?

Ville: I don’t know. A lot of things. Always when we stat making a new album we kind of want to do something a bit different from the previous one. It’s like, we don’t actually know the direction before we actually start writing the material; it kind of just appears from somewhere.

Phil: Stream of consciousness?

Ville: Yeah.

Phil: Always a good way to tackle it, that way you don’t end up doing the same thing over and over again like a lot of other bands do.

Ville: Yeah. In my opinion we did six different albums so far.

Phil: Definitely. Will there be any reissues of the older demos?

Ville: I don’t think so. I personally like the fact that the demos are collectibles for the fans who were actually fans back then. And anyway, you can find them on the internet; you can just download them from a torrent site. [laughter]

Phil: Yeah, but the sound quality’s usually pretty crappy on those.

Ville: Well, the sound quality’s pretty crappy on the originals as well. [laughter] We were recording on cassettes.

Phil: Have you given any thought to doing a live DVD or maybe a documentary on the band’s history?

Ville: Yes. We have been working on it for quite awhile, actually. And I have no idea when it’s going to be out; it’s not even nearly completed yet. But we will definitely release it someday. We have been working on it and there will be a lot of interesting things on it. I’m not revealing anything yet because actually we don’t know it yet either. [laughter] But it’s definitely not going to be one of those live DVDs that every other band releases with just one show and ten minutes of behind the scenes stupidity. It’s going to be something else.

Phil: What would you consider to be your best shows with MOONSORROW and what would be the worst one for you?

Ville: We have had quite many shows that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I wouldn’t pick one before the others, but… I think when we went to Russia for the first time, that was something we really hadn’t experienced before. It was really insane; the audience was really like… coming towards you. We went outside for a smoke and there were like a hundred Russian people screaming for autographs and photographs. [laughs] It was really insane, something that we are not used to. Well, it doesn’t happen that often, anyway.

Phil: So basically, you felt like a rock star, almost.

Ville: No, I felt like an idiot. [laughter] I am extremely uncomfortable in those situations. I think when we played in more exotic places; those are the things we will remember, like for example in China. One of the towns, we were actually the first Western band ever and that was something quite spectacular and the people went absolutely nuts; threw beer on the mixing table and stuff and our sound guy wasn’t that amused by it. [laughter]

Phil: Have there ever been any shows where you’ve kind of just shaken your head and thought they were a complete disaster?

Ville: Uh… yeah. [laughter] Like that one in… where was it? Sudbury, Canada in 2007, I think. It was like the farthest distance from home, at that time, where we’d played. It was a ten hour drive from Toronto and when we got there we realized that the backstage doesn’t have any sort of heating and it was thirty Fahrenheit outside, so we had to have our winter clothing on in the backstage and when we finally hit the stage, we realized that “Okay, there are ten people inside.” They were really into it, actually, so it was probably a very special show to them but driving there for ten hours, nearly freezing to death and playing to ten people, we were kind of thinking “Is this worth it?”

Phil: Yeah, and especially with frozen fingers, I would imagine that would make it very difficult to play guitar properly.

Ville: Yeah. But the more time goes by, we just laugh about these things. They are part of the band’s growth and these are the incidents that actually pull the group together. We are still with the same lineup after all these happenings.

Phil: At Heathen Crusade 3, I remember after the festival, I was hanging out with a few people and I saw you guys getting in your van to go to the next show and one of the bags got left behind. We were kind of wondering “Are they going to come back for that?” Snow starts gathering on it, “Okay, we’d better take this into the hotel lobby and give it to the desk.” How long did it take you to realize that the bag was left behind?

Ville: Until the next show.

Phil: Oh jeez. [laughs]

Ville: I actually… if you’re interested, and I think you are, you have to link this - I have a tour diary from that whole one week tour that started from Heathen Crusade, I have a tour diary about that on our website, Moonsorrow.com in the archives. It’s right there. You’d better read it - it’s very interesting. There is no exaggeration anywhere - it’s just the plain truth. That was only the incident where everything started. It’s full of interesting facts.

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Ville: Damn. I haven’t actually read a book in a very long time. [pause] Hmmm… [laughter] I like to read documentary books, but… it’s just here and there. I don’t really read whole books; I read excerpts from here and there, mostly on the internet, like historical facts and stuff. So I can’t really recommend a book. It’s probably made me look like a very unsophisticated person, but… [laughs] But I’m still literate.

Phil: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Ville: Not really. I never have any last words because I have so many words to say before I die. I just hope that people have enjoyed these shows so far and will enjoy all the upcoming shows as well. It really has been a good time in America and we definitely want to come back as soon as possible.

The Offering / September 2012

Link

September 1st, 2012 (the day after Cleveland)

I doubt very very much it's actually Henri saying something there, basically because he wasn't present in that tour. But I don't know who else it is.
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After two years Moonsorrow has finally come back to the States to the delight of all their fans. Along for the ride to North America is Moonsorrow’s fellow heathens, Metsatöll from Estonia; the mighty Týr from the Faroe Islands and brothers in arms Korpiklaani. The last time Moonsorrow toured the States was in 2010 with Finntroll and Swallow the Sun where they all appeared on the first Finnish Metal Fest. Since then the men in Moonsorrow have been up to many adventures and drunken shenanigans and have released a new album titled “Varjoina Kuljemme Kuollleiden Maassa”. Alcohol was spilled everywhere, dances were made merry and not a single person was able to escape from the enchantment of the night. And this written interview is what is left prior to the massive metal wreckage in Joliet.
All aboard the Moonsorrow tour bus! I had the great privilege of talking to Ville Sorvali and Marko “Baron” Tarvonen. Occasionally, Henri Sorvali would stick his two cents in. As soon as I walked into the nifty tour bus with its flat screen television that I almost smacked my head on I was offered a beer to console my near death experience. Now that’s what I call Finnish hospitality! Baron proceeds to complain about the lack of alcohol and I proceeded to talk about what a beer snob I am and Ville high-fived me for wanting something stronger then piss water only to have one of the Moonsorrow men sneak off outside to “borrow” some pop and steal back their vodka from the Korpiklaani tour bus. “Shhh!” “They never expected it!” “What they don’t know won’t kill them.” In the midst of confusion and utter tom foolery is how this interview begins and ends. It begins with alcohol and ends with alcohol.
The Offering: Hei! (Finnish for Hello)
Marko Tarvonen: Hei!
Ville Sorvali: Hello!
TO: How’s the tour going so far?
MT: Pretty good. It’s very nice, honestly. We started in Canada and it was a terrific three shows. Yesterday was pretty good in Cleveland. But it’s only starting now.
TO: I recognize that. First week?
VS: First week.
MT: Anything could happen. Anything CAN happen.
TO: Anything CAN happen? Anything? So will you guys play any tricks on other bands?
MT: Well we’ll have to see for when the tour starts to roll and big stuff starts happening and of course the last show of course which is usually the case.
MT: So, uh looking forward to like uh…it’s Saturday for fuck’s sake!
VS and MT together: YEAH!
VS: Damn right. My drink is quite strong.
MT: That’s good!
VS: I accidentally poured a bit too much whiskey.
TO: You accidentally the whole thing?
MT: Now you’re going to play like shit.
VS: No. I’m going to play like an angel.
MT: Alright. Shit for that.
Henri Sorvali: Finally! So you’re going to flap your wings and fly away?
VS: You know I couldn’t fly away.
TO: I’ll just sing Charon’s “Little Angel” while you fly away.
(Ville Sorvali, Marko Tarvonen and Henri Sorvali snort loudly.)
VS: Yep.
TO: How do you guys prepare to get ready for the show?
MT: Like this.
VS: Like this.
TO: Lots of drinking I understand is the Finnish way.
MT: Lots of drinking, less talking.
TO: Less talking?
VS: Yes.
MT: I have to do both now because you’re doing the interview. (Laughs) Other than that I really don’t talk that much.
TO: I’m under the understanding that the more alcohol you give a Finn the more they talk? Is this true?
VS and MT: Yes, this true. (Laughing)
MT: It’s the only way to get the Finns, the Finish man to talk to you.
Moonsorrow laughs together
TO: What about hockey?
MT: No. (Firm No.)
TO: No, hockey?! You guys don’t do hockey? (Disappointed rabid Blackhawks fan)
MT: Yeah, but that’s only screaming!
VS: It’s not pretty.
MT: (screams and imitates a Finnsh hockey fan) GAHHH AHHHHHHHHHH!!! (Tarvonen stand up and flails arms up and down) COME ON!!!!!
TO: How different is touring in Europe in comparison to touring here in North Anmerica?
MT: Better hospitality.
VS: Better alcohol!
MT: Showers!
VS: Russia and all the slavic countries have really bad showers. They’re still living in the medieval ages.
MT: Kind of. The venues here don’t have showers.
TO: I have heard from the band that I’m wearing right now (points to Turisas shirt) that England has the worst showers in the world.
VS: That’s right. After centuries they still couldn’t figure out how to mix the water. They have got hot and cold in separate.
MT: Separate. Separate taps. I don’t see how that works.
TO: So it really is that bad.
VS: Unbelievably. It’s very medieval.
TO: It is very medieval.
MT: Yeah, it is.
TO: Does it make you miss your sauna?
VS: Everything does. (sigh) I’m missing it right now. I don’t have one but I’m missing it.
MT: You miss sauna?
VS: Yeah, MY sauna!
MT: With this heat outside?
VS: Yes!
MT: I don’t miss sauna. You go outside it’s already a sauna.
VS: You can’t be naked in the public!
TO: Sure you can but, you’ll get arrested.
VS: Yeah, exactly.
TO: You can if you wanted to.
MT: Why do you have such laws in here? Why can’t you be naked?!
TO: Honestly, I don’t want to live here either.
VS: Come to Finland. Actually, I don’t think you can be naked on the streets in Finland either.
MT: You can. Course they’ll give you shit and ask that you to leave. But you can.
TO: Yeah, my Finnish is very limited. I can swear proficiently and say thank you.
VS: That’s enough!
TO: I can say kiitos, perkele, vittu, paska and that’s about it.
VS: Can you order beer?
TO: No I cannot. Do you want to teach me?
VS: Yeah! Olut, kiitos! Actually you don’t have to say the kiitos. Just olut.
TO: Olut.
VS: Yes!
VS & MT: BEER BEER!
MT: Beer! But you have to snap your fingers.
TO: What are you guys listening to currently?
VS: Right now?
TO: Yes.
VS: There is no music playing? (Laughs)
TO: Smart ass! It doesn’t have to be heavy metal? But I mean on your free time what do you listen to?
MT: Psychedelic. Mmmm…shit like drug related shit. Anything you can find.
TO: Techno.
MT: Yeah.

Henri Sorvali, Marko Tarvonen and Ville Sorvali of Moonsorrow

TO: What about you? (Points to Ville)
VS: I’m forced to listen to his bullshit.
(Moonsorrow laughs)
MT: I didn’t ask you.
VS: Unfortunately.
MT: I’m the DJ.
TO: So one day when I was on YouTube I came across Finnish rap and I couldn’t stop laughing.
VS: Finnish rap?
TO: Yes, Finnish rap.
MT: That’s cool.
TO: Can you answer this question? What do Finns have to rap about? How can you be ghetto in Finland?
VS: Things are not a roseberry either for some people. There are a lot of unfortunate people.
TO: Well I understand that. It’s the economy. It’s affecting everyone no matter what country you live in.
VS: But anyway, I think Finish rap is cool.
MT: That is something I can accept. The worst thing. The worst thing is Finnish reggae. THAT IS HORRIBLE!!!! WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THAT?!
TO: I thought there was nothing worse than Finnish rap.
MT: They’re pretending to be Caribbean whatever. (snorts)
TO: In the video they were all ghetto like this and riding in a white low rider car and they had bandanas on their shaven heads and they were making gang signs and singing in Finnish and dancing with a bunch of bitch and hoes and putting money in their thongs and tits. They had bling as big as my head. I just don’t understand why would you want to be America?
MT: This is a turning point! We’ll never recover!! We must drink more.
(Tour manager enter the tour bus)
VS: We’re going to make you an alcoholic.
MT: I’m already an alcoholic. You made me an alcoholic.
MT: More drinking!
VS: We’ll make you an even more alcoholic. I want to see that part of you.
MT: Who was the one who was having eight shots with Eluveitie?
VS: In where?
MT: I caught them having the pre-ritual shots of vodka before the show. The only problem is that I could them get them all together so I would have a shot with four of them and then a shot with two of them and then a shot by myself. And then three of them?
TO: Is Anna Murphy a light-weight?
MT: Are you fucking kidding me? With a last name like Murphy? That girl pretty much drank everyone under the table.
VS: She’s a hot girl.
Everyone laughs
VS: Where were we?
TO: We were having a tender metal moment.
VS: I’m going to pity you when you have to write all this down.
TO: It’s ok. I live for shit like this. This is soo much better than asking you guy so what are your influences? What is your band based on? Why are you called Moonsorrow? I’m sorry you guys don’t want to hear that.
MT: Yeah, fuck that shit.
VS: We don’t answer those questions.
TO: You don’t want to hear that.
MT: Hell no! We don’t need that shit. No one is interested in that shit.
TO: You’ve heard that a million fucking times.
VS &TM: Yeah! It’s so refreshing.
TO: I like asking different things.
MT: Just don’t ask. Keep it recording. (points to phone)
VS: There you go! The real life of Moonsorrow!!
TO: Who else have you played with? I also like Omnium Gatherum. I think it would be awesome if they toured here.
VS: We have played festivals with them. We have played with lots of bands.
TO: What is the breakfast of campaigns for Finns?
MT: Whiskey and coke!!
TO: Not vodka!
MT: Nope. Whisky and coke.
VS: I love Mojitoes.
TO: I love vodka!
MT: Have you tasted the Fisherman’s and vodka in here?
TO: Nope. But Keijo of Rotten Sound told me to put gummy fish in licorice alcohol.
MT: It’s great.
VS: No. It’s awful!
MT: If you don’t like that we have an even worse version in Finland.
TO: Really?
MT: Yeah, it’s very salty and very licorice.
TO: I don’t like eating licorice but I like drinking it.
VS: I like drinking. In all forms.
MT: They love it in Finland. Salmiakk.
MT: Now we have a question for you?
TO: Shoot.
MT: Don’t you want to hear what we think of our last album? (laughs)
VS: It’s fucking awesome! Epic!
VS: I really have something to say. We clearly got the inspiration for the album from supernatural forces like Darth Vader.
TO: And drinking!
VS: Darth Vader drinking. You have not seen Darth Vader drink.
MT: Anyway, it’s a science-fiction album. Like conception.
VS: Post Christan science fiction. (Laughs)
TO: So no Kalevala, no Vainamoinen.
VS: No, no. They’re all dead. We write music from the times when Vainamoinen was already dead.
MT: So I saw two transformers yesterday. I saw this one crazy homeless couple dressed up in metal cans and had shinny gunnels and transformer symbols they made out of duct tape and pieces of aluminum.
TO: That’s weird. I guess that answers the question of what’s the craziest thing you have seen on tour so far.
MT: They were the craziest.
VS: No, I think the guy we saw in New York.
MT: Yeah. You’re right.
VS: He was probably the best out of all of them. Well he was really nice. He looked like Woody Allen. Woody Allen from Hell.
MT: From Hell.
VS: And he had a facial tattoo. You don’t see facial tattoos that often but then there are some. But then again you don’t see tattoos like that ever. It looked like he made it himself because it was really bad quality. He had a bat on his forehead, a spiderweb all over.
TO: Maybe he was in jail.
VS: No, no. It was great. He as a really cool guy.
MT: What a joke! If you’re reading this interview you’re the best. Because he was coming to the show anyway. Chances are he’s going to read this or comment about this.
TO: Who did the artwork for the album?
VS: It was a photographer by the name of Juha Arvid Helminen. We had ideas of the concept album. Every page of the album is part of the story. So it starts with the cover and ends with the back of it. And we discussed how the story line goes when I sat down with the photographer. We made sketches of what happens. So it is more like a movie anyway.
TO: Kittos. Thank you very much for this interview. It was great just hanging out with you guys.
VS: No problem!

Power of Metal.dk / September 2012

Link

September 23rd, 2012 (last day of Manala North American Tour, featuring Korpiklaani, Moonsorrow, Týr and Metsatöll)

Interview with Ville Sorvali and Mitja Harvilahti - Moonsorrow, October 2012

Power of Metal: How are you guys doing this evening, ready for the show?


-Mitja: Yes, getting ready and well...


- Ville: Getting ready for going home as well, yeah. As you see we're going to have to pack everything. The last days are always the most frustrating part of the tour cause you have to collect all your stuff... all around the bus.


PoM: This is the last day of the tour?


- Ville: This is the last one.


PoM: Any crazy stories so far?


-Mitja: There have been a lot of crazy, crazy stories. Some of them we can't tell.


- Ville: Most of them we can't even classify.


-Mitja: On this tour, a lot of things have happened. A lot of interesting stories, a lot of crazy people we have met. (laughs) I don't think we can even tell those stories, they we're a little bit too bizarre.


- Ville: Yeah, bizarre exactly. At least I managed to get really wasted yesterday in New York. Just warmed up a couple of hours ago.


PoM: What do you think of the American crowd, how do they differ from the Finnish crowd?


-Mitja: Well, the American crowd I would say they are very energetic. They give a lot of energy to the band because we work very hard on stage to give the best performance we can for the audience and the American crowd is the best you can find, definitely.


-Ville: That's right. It's the 6th member of the band, the audience, it really is. If the audience is boring it's pretty hard to play live. But here it's really easy to just play and enjoy yourself on stage.


-Mitja: It doesn't feel like work.


PoM: Throughout the years, who has usually taken responsibility when it comes to writing the music and lyrics of the albums?


-Ville: That would be Henri - the guy who is not with us.


-Mitja: Yeah but you do all the lyrics.


-Ville: I do all the lyrics, yeah. (laughs)


-Mitja: Henri is responsible for 90% of the music.


-Ville: Our drummer Marko and I contribute in writing, but whatever we do he still rearranges so it fits the Moonsorrow pattern. So he really is the guy behind the sound.

---

PoM: Was it a conscious decision to evolve the music the way it did after ?Voimasta ja Kunniasta? or was it natural progression? It seemed to have drifted away from the folky and ?paganistic? nature of the first two albums into a more epic direction as a whole.


-Mitja: Yeah. I mean it was always an obvious choice for us to take the direction that we did because the second and the third album are quite symphonic and quite orchestrated, then we decided we really want to go back for more organic sound, more raw sound. We really didn't want the over pompous production to be present in our music so much anymore.


-Ville: Yeah, after those albums we kind of felt like we've done it all already - we want to do something different.


PoM: Have you played any bits of ?V: H?itetty? live?


-Mitja: Yeah, half of it, the second song. The first one we'd never played live. We never even tried it at the rehearsal place.


-Ville: We didn't actually even record it in one take. It's too long to remember. (laughs)


PoM: Where do you draw the inspiration to the stories told in your songs?


-Ville: I have a mouth full of nuts. Please start... (laughs)


-Mitja: No, you have to finish your nuts, I'm sorry. (laughs) Take your time, I'm not answering this question. It's one of the most difficult questions to answer. (laughs) It's obvious, but still, it takes a long time...


-Ville: ...yeah. Inspiration to the music, lyrics or both?


PoM: I'll go with both. (laughs)


-Ville: For the music, that's quite hard because that's Henri. When he writes music and I write the lyrics; we don't even have to communicate with each other and that's how we have this weird link - that we do stuff which fits together. In any case, maybe because we've been writing music together for... almost 20 years. (pause) I think our main inspiration sources are old legends, history, stuff like deep respect for nature and the concept of paganism; That is hard to explain, I'm not even going to try. It's definitely stuff that doesn't fit the world we live in now. I'm not sure if I've said anything sensitive, but... (laughs)


PoM: It must be difficult to create lengthy, functional pieces of art. What the Hell possesses a person when that happens? How do you do it?


-Ville: I would say that in the case of this band, it would be even more difficult to try to make short songs, if that makes sense. We are just somehow driven to do that in what we are doing.


-Mitja: When you start writing epics like this, you learn how to work with the structures, how to build up the tension and stuff. We started making longer and longer and more complex songs until the point that we already made an album with 2 songs, and then we had to go back a little bit. I think we had found our formula and the form that our music is and will be. It will always be pretty much long songs. We can move from shorter to longer, which ever way we want, but making a 6 minute Moonsorrow song, it doesn't seem like it's happening very fast.


-Ville: I wouldn't say that we have any sort of time limit. For example, if we for some weird reason came up with a 3 minute song that could really fix the concept of Moonsorrow, then we would use it, of course. I would compare the music to the story, even the song in itself, even without the lyrics, it's a story. If you have a book that has 300 pages, you don't stop reading after you've read 60 pages, the story isn't finished yet. (laughs) It doesn't make any sense to me.


PoM: Have you heard any complaints from the fans about the length of the songs, saying they're too long?


-Mitja: Yes.


-Ville: Of course there are always people who'll complain about anything that we do. Of course it's natural.


(interview gets interrupted)


-Mitja: Yeah, so... uhhh what was the question again? (laughs)


PoM: Complaints from fans... (laughs)


-Mitja: Of course some people don't like overly epic music.


-Ville: You can't please everyone.


-Mitja: ...and we don't care because we only write the music we want to. That's the only way to make good music. If we start listening to the record label's opinion, the manager's opinion, the audience's opinion, it would never work because then it would not be our music anymore.


-Ville: We want to write music we can also listen to ourselves.

PoM: How would you describe your music to someone who is unfamiliar with this band?


-Mitja: One of the other questions that's most horrible to answer.


-Ville: Try. (laugh)


-Mitja: Well okay, I'll try... (pause) Moonsorrow's music is metal that has elements from traditional Scandinavian music and for example folk music, like ummm, progressive rock and black metal...


-Ville: ...traditional Scandinavian music like progressive rock?!


(both laugh)


-Mitja: Oh no... Well, yes! Exactly. (laughs) What else?


-Ville: Black metal.


-Mitja: Yes.


-Ville: There's a lot of black metal in it actually. And I think that the fans acknowledge that, pretty much. On this bill for example, we are the black sheep of the crew.


(mumbling in the background)


-Ville: No, I'm not black.


-Mitja: You're just a sheep.


-Ville: I'm just a sheep. (laughs)


PoM: As a little sidetrack, what are the future plans for Lakupaavi? (side project of Moonsorrow) Could you give us an update?


-Mitja: Well, the update has been the same since we recorded. I have... I'd say 20 songs that are brilliant. But we can't release them right now.


-Ville: I also have a few. One of them is a blues song, actually. We will record them when the time is right. We just have to feel like it. It's like, 'oh we're going to do it', and then we go to the studio or whatever.


-Mitja: Actually we're not even allowed to have it done because there's a record contract which says that only two members of the band can be in the same (other) band.


-Ville: Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't think they would mind. (laughs)


-Mitja: Maybe they won't, let's not tell them. (laughs)

PoM: You appeared on Finnish TV last year at the time of your latest album (Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa)...

-Ville: Oh yeah, that was a really awkward moment. I've never been on a broadcast that reaches 1 or 2 million people.

PoM: There were talks of covering a song called 'Rekkamies'...

-Both: Ahhh!

PoM: Is that really in planning or was that merely a jest?

-Mitja: Well...

-Ville: It's actually a song that we could cover but...

-Mitja: ...it's not impossible. It was requested by the guy who was interviewed before us on the same program and well, we might do it. Moonsorrow with some truck samples sounds a little bit strange but still, it might work.

-Ville: Vikings do not have trucks... (laughs)

PoM: It might not be too awkward, I think. Ensiferum just did a cover of Bamboleo.

-Ville: Yeeeah they have done some crazy stuff over the years. They are the fun band, we are not. We are dead serious and fucking depressing.

(both laugh)


PoM: Nah... So what's going to happen after this tour?


-Mitja: Oh, after this tour we have one other show coming up in the Netherlands and then...


-Ville: ...and then we will just relax and try to make our livers work again.


-Mitja: Yeah and start negotiating about a lot of stuff like a DVD...


-Ville: ...and then a new album.


-Mitja: And the new album as well. We have to start coming up with ideas - slowly start putting it together. That's the main part, anyway.


-Ville: Yeah. I can promise that it will be out before 2020. (laughs)


PoM: What would you like to say to the fans out there?


-Ville: You're good at this...


-Mitja: The message that I would like to say is: I hope you enjoy our music and I really hope you'll always come to our shows because we really want to play live and we want to see them, too.

Finnish Undergröund Rädiö / August 2012

...interviewed by Narri
with Ville Sorvali of Moonsorrow
filmed by Nick Knudsen
@ Rocky Point Cantina, Tempe AZ
August 15, 2012
US Tour 2012





TRANSCRIPTION


The tour started out kind of crazy, how is it going so far?

We had a lot of good times, it's been great so far. At this point we are getting [tired?], but we had two days off.

Are you working on anything new?

We never do any new work on tour. I know bands who actually compose new material on tour, but I don't feel comfortable with the idea. I just like to concentrate on the shows.

A lot of Finnish bands that are beginning to have global success are starting to write lyrics and sing in English. Is that a trend Moonsorrow might follow?

Never. We will always stick with Finnish.

What are some themes or inspirations behind your lyrics?

I guess the main thing is that the lyrics, whatever they are, they always have the pagan undertone. You can't describe it in one word, but it's like... I'm influenced by the old traditions and the old culture before Christianity, and the respect for nature that our ancestors had, stuff like that. It's basically that I want the lyrics to be somehow apart from this fucked up society that I don't even want to live in, but I have to. I don't even have a choice, because there is no time machine. The lyrics for the new album actually take place in the future; this isn't tied to any period in time; they just have the same undertone [incomprehensible couple of words]. On this new album is what happens after the end of the world, when almost everyone died and there's just a group of survivors. It's a story, it has a beginning and an end, and it's basically that these guys have to find their way, because the whole system collapses, so they have to go out into the wild and try to find [ruins?]. The story is a bit less than one year and in the end everyone dies, so they don't survive even for one year.

Does Finland or Finnish culture influence your music? How so?

I always felt that I am Finnish, and I'm very interested in everything that people before [?] how they were thinking abouit the world. Finland is a very special place. Every winter we are like, "why the hell did Finnish people think about settling here?"

What is the strangest thing that has inspired you?

I have absolutely no idea. They just kind of pop up in my head. I have been writing, for example, when I was travelling alone in a train, looking out of the window, and grabbing my notebook.

How do you think Moonsorrow's music has evolved from the first album?

Quite a lot, I think. [laughs] Of course. Some of the others might disagree, but we have been taking huge steps forwards with each album and we always try to explore some new territories without forgetting our roots. Every time we sit down and start writing material for the new album, that is the turning point where we actually know what it's going to be like. Maybe we had some rough ideas, but it's only when we start writing that we know.

It's been said you consider yourselves Epic Heathen Metal. Can you explain what that is?

We don't want to describe our music, it's alive all the time. But it's metal, that is for sure; it has the term "epic" because it's kind of... You know, "epic" doesn't mean long songs or anything, as most people think. Epic as a word means "telling a story", and our songs are... it's a cliché to say it, but our music is more than just music, it's supposed to paint a picture in the head of the listener. So that's the "epic" part. And the "heathen" because we are heathen, we don't really like this Christ dude. [laughs] We want to describe our music as heathen or pagan metal because we don't want to tell too much about the music, we want to tell about the influences that we have.

Your fifth album, Viides luku: Hävitetty, is comprised of two 30-minute songs. How do you get inspired to write such lengthy tunes?

No idea. Why did we do that? It was how it felt at that time. We started writing and realized that Henri, who writes most of the music, had the intro for the first song and it was already six minutes, so we kind of knew that this was going to be something very extraordinary. We didn't stretch it intentionally, it just happened. Then we were like, "ok, we have one 30-minute song, let's have another one as well, let's see where we can go with this." It was a thing we had to do.

Throughout the years of the band, was there ever a time where you felt like you wanted to throw everything out and just start over?

No. All of us have had our moments, especially on tours, where we think "is this really worth it? I'm flying home, you carry on," but it's never that serious. We are a tight unit, every one of us is basically married to this band.

What's one thing you have learnt about people while being on the road or travelling?

More than about people, I've learnt a lot about myself, especially when I'm spending time alone in some foreign place. That's what I'm aiming to do, actually; I want to... I think everyone needs to know themselves; not everyone wants to, but I do. I take these experiences as an opportunity to get closer to myself by seeing other places and people who live there. When it comes to the people, [cuts abruptly and ends].

 

Transcribed on 23·II·2021.

Die Metal Krieger / September 2012

13/09/2012 CA - Santa Ana, The Observatory (USA)





TRANSCRIPTION

Hello, this is Markus from Moonsorrow and you're watching Der Metal Krieger!

This is Carol from Der Metal Krieger and we are here at The Observatory in Santa Ana, just a few hours before Korpiklaani's headlining Manala tour, and here with us we have Moonsorrow, who are supporting them tonight. We have Ville, Marko and Markus from the band. How are you guys doing tonight?

[Various jokes]

I think you are a little more than halfway done with this North American tour. Tell me a bit about what you've seen as far as the energy of North American crowds versus what you guys are used to out in Europe.

Ville: I wouldn't compare, because I can't remember that far, but on this tour the energy of the audience has been outstnding.

Marko: Even quite fanatic at some venues. In San Francisco it was mad.

Markus: Way better than in the previous tour.

Marko: I don't know what the reason is, maybe it's our setlist.

So did it surprise you? I definitely know that sometimes, especially here in L.A., one kind of gets the feeling that people are sitting there with crossed arms, but it seems like you guys have definitely gotten good responses.

Marko: Yes, very intense, with moshpits and all.

You had moshpits here?

Marko: Several.

Really? That's very interesting, considering some your newer material, which we'll certainly talk about later. Your newest album is called As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead, it was released in February via Spinefarm, and since then you've had some time to get some feedback. What has been the general feedback?

Ville: Critics like it, and audiences like it as well, judging on...

Marko: Even we like it!

What do you guys think?, you have evolved quite a bit from your folk metal roots, in your  Chapter V: Ravaged album you took on this huge black metal. How are you guys feeling as far as the evolution of Moonsorrow goes?

Ville: We just do what we want to do.

Marko: It's been very natural since the beginning, the whole development of things. For example, on the third album we got those progressive rock elements besides all the traditional folk stuff or metal in general, and during 2005 or so we just got the idea that we had to make our sound much rougher and grimmer. Then we sort of went back in time to the roots of Moonsorrow, to the demo period...

Markus: Yes.

Marko: ...and we are still continuing in that way, that path of mixing the sound of the early days, that was based on mostly symphonic black metal, and... and... I don't know, there is this blacker stuff and progressive stuff, and lately, the traditional influences have been put away a bit.

Ville: They appear in a different shape. We still have a lot of that folky stuff over there, but...

But it's harsher, it's something like Chapter V, where there was this distinctive very black metal.

Ville: Yes, but it had folky elements as well, it's just not as prominent as with the other bands in the same league.

Marko: It's not that happy joy-joy oompa-oompa fiddle fiddle. It's darker, it's more intense... In Finnish traditional folk music, the majority of it is very dark, very sad and melancholic, and we always took our folk influences from that kind of music. So that's why we sound so depressive. :)

Ville: We are depressed.

One thing that does add to the depressive mood is the length of your songs. I was going through your discography and you realize that once you get to album 4 you guys started to get bold and brave with your 12-minute, 15-minute—the longest is 30 minutes and 25 seconds, I believe. How do you keep your energy when you're playing to live audiences, and how do you keep the energy of your audience too?

Ville: It just happens...

Marko: Eating healthy food, [everyone laughs] try not to drink so much before the show...

Just say that alcohol puts you in a trance or something so that the 12 minutes go by.

Marko: I think people, the crowd, are just acting very naturally to our songs. The energy from the crowd comes very naturally. We almost don't have to do anything. If we just stood there, shoegaze, whatever, they would still be doing the moshpit.

They did moshpits here, that I find very interesting.

Marko: But then again, we don't shoegaze. We headbang a lot and...

Ville: We have a lot of energy on the stage.

Marko: It's like doing exercise or something, like workout, really, for me.

Markus: For all of us, somehow.

Marko: It's good sport, you lose weight and everything.

All your records have been released on Spinefarm. However, you've recently made the switch in April to Century Media. Why did you make this change, and what do you think Century Media is going to do for your future records?

Ville: The answer to the first question is that sometimes you just...

Marko: The contracts run out.

Ville: ...you need a change. Contracts ran out several times and we re-signed to Spinefarm a few times, but sometimes you just need a change, and we felt that this was the right time.

Marko: I would confirm the Spinefarm era as a marriage that after certain years is just not going anywhere, you know... I don't know if you're married or not, but... [in a mocking voice] I've been married for one year and I can feel it now! It doesn't go anywhere! [everyone laughs]

There's a whole other interview to tell Marko's personal life!

Marko: But you know the expression. We somehow felt like it didn't go anywhere. The promotion was always the same, very... there was something, but not really anything special.

Okay, I totally understand you.

Ville: With Spinefarm we all have to realize that they certainly helped to establish the band, they actually made us what we are now. It's not out of disrespect to them or anything, but we felt that we needed a new kick to the butt, and we all thought that with Century Media it might be possible. They have been really interested, we had a few meetings before they even directly asked about the signing.

Now comes a question from a fan on Reddit. Asator wants to know if the shift from the folkish sound was fully intentional and if we can expect a return of your folk elements in the future.

Ville: You never know. [laughs] We never know ourselves. We just do what we do.

Marko: I think on the next material there will be more dynamics. The way I see Chapter V and Like Shadows, they're very like... you put the CD on, they are like CHVVVVV [separates his hands vertically, moves them to the right while he makes this low-pitch "white noise", joins them again at the end] and then it ends.

Ville: Yes, it's a crushing wall of sound.

Marko: But for the next one I'd like, we would like, to do something more like this [moves his hand from left to right drawing a wave in the air].

Something more unpredictable?

Marko: ...probably...

We never know! You know what? Who will come and interview us, they will know! [or something like that]

Markus: That's true.

Marko: At the same time, we want to have our listeners crushed under the wall of sound and fierce blackmetalish blast beats and everything. We want to include as much as possible. But still to keep it within some limits and not to go too far, too psychedelic-progressive or too fast, I don't know, Darkthrone.

Oh, no, please! We'll have an intervention if that happens.

Marko: In Moonsorrow it's easier to say what we cannot do than what we can do.

Ville: And we can do a lot of things.

Marko: It's easy to say that there will never be any kind of industrial elements in Moonsorrow, or electronic.

Ville: But it's as easy to say that in Moonsorrow you haven't seen anything yet.

But we're all looking forward to seeing it and seeing you guys progress! Thank you all so much and good luck with your show tonight.

Transcribed on 22·II·2021.

Onslaught Radio / August 2012

Link


10·VIII·2012
Bloodstock Open Air, UK






TRANSCRIPTION

You played on the Ronnie James Dio stage earlier today. What was the experience like for you?

Playing on a stage with that name is an honor, and we don't play in England too often, so that's a very special occasion for Moonsorrow. Although it was an early show, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the audience was full of energy and we were very warmly welcome, as usual in England. We like it very much in here.

What are the English crowds like compared to the rest of Europe? Here we have a reputation for being a little bit crazier.

It's hard to tell, because we played so early. Considering that, it was fantastic, but if we had played at 9 o'clock in the evening, who knows what kind of havoc there would have been! But as for comparison... There are good audiences everywhere. There are different types of, let's say, fanaticism, for example in Mexico, or last October we were in China, and on one show we did there, they had never witnessed any Western rock and roll band. It was in a city called Harbin. And well, obviously, because they never saw any rock bands, it was very easy, Ville just told them "let's go fucking crazy" or whatever and people were spilling beer and whatnot. But it doesn't really matter where we are playing, in what conditions we are playing. Of course, playing here is top notch...

We had a good weather today as well, didn't we?

Yeah, it's better than in Finland! This is very rare during summer.

To us too... So, if somebody was to find Moonsorrow for the first time, how would you describe your sound? What makes you unique? I've heard the term "epic heathen metal".

We made that up ourselves some years ago. But then again, the word "epic" nowadays... Do you think it's a bit overused?

It is getting that way, yes, but it's still very much relevant.

It is, yes. You could say Moonsorrow being epic as fuck. Can I say that? [laughs] Yes I can? But some words... We're definitely Finnish, because we sing in Finnish and we're not going to change that, it's gonna be Finnish or nothing.

Superb, that sounds fantastic.

It's very hard to tell. We are the band that does very long, boring songs, for some people, for most of the people, but those who understand what it is all about get it very easily. Even my father, he's 70 years old and...

Big metal fan?

No, not at all, he sings in a choir and... But he respects a lot what we are doing and he comes to our shows in Helsinki. It's crazy.

Pretty awesome, actually. So, your last album was released in February 2011 — are there any sort of plans for a new album in the near future?

Yes, we just secured a new record contract with Century Media, and Henri, our main songwriter, he's also in Finntroll, as you perhaps know, he's doing a new Finntroll album first, and after that, and after whatever stress vacation he must have after that, we will slowly start to write new songs. Or actually, maybe we will start with Ville and Mitja and Markus even before the whole Finntroll stuff is finished. We're just trying to go to our rehearsal place and do it the old school way, because that's not really the way we have done the albums in the past. It's normally being Henri or myself, at home, doing MP3s, sending them over, "I have these ideas", or even whole ready songs. But this time we really wanted to do it the more old school way, just have some... well, maybe jamming is not the right word, but just on a normal way, "I have this riff, what do you have?, oh, maybe those could fit together". We try to approach it a bit differently than what we have done before.

Superb. So...

As for the schedule or whatever, I would say late next year for a release.

I look forward to that. Do you have any more shows lined up after Bloodstock in the UK?

Actually, tomorrow we are going to do our first show ever in Ukraine, in the Carpathian Mountains, there is this metal festival about which we don't have much information beforehand, but from what we heard, it's located in the mountains, over a thousand metres high, so I'm looking forward to the view and everything. That will be our last festival for this summer, and in three weeks we will start the North American tour with Korpiklaani and Týr and Metsatöll from Estonia. It's going to be a 4-week tour covering the major cities in the States and something in Canada also.

Are you going to be due back in the UK anytime soon?

I hope we can do some mini-tour at least next year, because we regret we have been skipping the UK all these years. But, I don't know, you must push your local promoters more, because we play everywhere. Last October we did China, four shows in China with very primitive equipment, but we had a lot of fun. We were totally tourists there. But hey, we played in Shanghai for 600 people, we played in Beijing for another 600, and we never thought we would play for that many people in China. It was awesome.

That sounds very awesome. To wrap things up, do you have any messages for your fans, anything you'd like to say?

In the UK? Well, uhm, I don't want to be sorry for not playing here more often...

No, don't be sorry.

...but be patient, push your local promoters and whatever. I hate to play only every four years here. It sucks that most of our tours are skipping the UK for some reason. We will make a correction for that next year or... Yeah, next year.

Superb. Thank you very much for your time, it's been an absolute pleasure, and [to the camera] catch you guys later!

Transcribed on 19·II·2021. I was in that Ukrainian festival up on the Carpathian mountains, the name was Carpathian Alliance, and it was fucking awesome. It was terribly cold for August and the sound in most of the concerts was horrible, but the general atmosphere and especially the location were amazing. The place was a ski resort called Zahar Berkut, in a village called Volosyanka, few hours away from Lviv. Other bands in the line-up were Arkona from Russia, Týr, Carpathian Forest (in an actual Carpathian forest!), Inquisition, Dark Funeral (who gave me a lift to the hotel the first night) and a few smaller ones, including a then-promising but eventually short-lived Ukrainian act called Viter. You can check some of my photos and videos here, here, here and here.