Metalscript.net / August 2014

This interview was posted in August 2014; there's no better indicator for its date. This is supposed to be the first half, however I couldn't find the second one.

SOURCE

Митя Харвилахти (Moonsorrow): «Людям стоит внимательнее относиться к истории». Интервью

Август 8, 2014 Новости, Статьи Decadence

Metalscript.Net публикует эксклюзивное интервью с гитаристом-вокалистом известной финской viking metal-команды Moonsorrow Митей Харвилахти (Mitja Harvilahti), которое наши корреспонденты взяли на родине группы в Хельсинки. Знакомьтесь с первой частью этой интересной беседы.
– Влияет ли на твое творчество тот факт, что ты являешься гражданином Финляндии и чтишь ее историю?
– Все это началось в дольно раннем возрасте, когда нам было около двадцати. Тогда мы обнаружили, что писать музыку о наследии своей страны очень интересно. Кроме того, мы поняли, что по-своему интересна культура каждой страны, все традиции, верования. Так у нас появились новые идеи для творчества. Я имею в виду, что, безусловно, мы слушали black metal и многие другие жанры, которые основываются на какой-то своей философии или идее. Нет ничего удивительно в нашей симпатии к языческому мировоззрению, ведь в нем так много интересных аспектов, в том числе исторический. Всяческие легенды, верования – всё это стало для нас идеальным источником вдохновения.
– То, что вы исполняете музыку, которая базируется на финской народной традиции – это ваша принципиальная позиция гражданина или вам просто интересно?
– Конечно, это чрезвычайно важно. Многие люди ничего не знают о прошлом, о той культуре, которая процветала в их стране до вытеснения её христианством. И всё же в той же России, где мы сейчас находимся, и в других странах, где доминирует христианство или какая-то другая религия, старые верования существуют по-прежнему, однако в скрытом виде. Многие традиции, которые мы знаем, появились более 2000 лет назад, а мы до сих пор считаем их христианскими. Например, Рождество. Некогда его праздновали как что-то еще, а потом появились христиане, которым пришлось заменили старые традиции новыми. То есть для христиан лучшим выходом из положения было приурочить свои новые праздники к старым. Очень важно признать это. Людям стоит относиться к истории внимательнее.
– Многие финские музыканты начинают играть очень рано, еще в школе. Поэтому когда им исполняется уже 18-19 – они записывают альбомы хорошего качества, которые находят слушателя. Как это было у вас?
– Мне кажется, что родители каждого из нас относились к нашему творчеству с одобрением. Я и другие парни присоединились к группе, когда нам было по 19, Henri и Ville основали команду всего в 15… Кроме того, родители многих из нас тоже музыканты. Например, мой отец, отец Henri… Все мы с раннего детства, лет четырех-шести, учились в музыкальной школе. Поэтому у нас никогда и мысли не было, что наши родители не одобрят нашу игру. У нас очень прогрессивные родители. Поэтому запретов типа ты не можешь слушать то или это, это плохо и т. д. никогда не возникало.
– В Хельсинки в музыкальном магазине мы встретили мальчика лет девяти, который выбирал себе электрогитару вместе с папой. У нас такое встретишь не часто. Расскажи о вашем музыкальном образовании, у вас же в школах уже активно учат играть и рок-музыку?
– Музыкальное образование для детей у нас на очень высоком уровне. И обучение строится не только на классической музыке, но теперь уже все больше и на рок-музыке. Поэтому найти школу, где тебя научат классно играть на гитаре, не составит особого труда. Меня не учили игре на электрогитаре, и много лет мне приходилось играть на классической, что мне не доставляло особого удовольствия.
– А вашим прогрессивным родителям нравилось-нравится то, что вы делаете?
– Не думаю, что им нравилось все, но отдельные моменты уж точно. Я думаю, что они гордятся тем, что я потратил все эти годы учебы игре на гитаре не впустую. То есть они отдали меня в школу, и это действительно мне пригодилось. Ведь с очень раннего возраста, лет 3-4-х, меня уже привлекали гитары и игра на них. Да, это как раз по мне!
– Во время прогулок по Хельсинки мы почти не встретили афиш, но я знаю, что концертная жизнь Финляндии очень насыщенная. В Беларуси она также становится очень активной и музыканты даже начинают жаловаться, что слушателей попросту нет, потому что все играют сами.
– Вокруг много метал-баров. У нас запрещено вешать плакаты на здания, но метал-концертов всегда проходит много. Все клубы работают. Например, даже в четверг может быть четыре концерта. И конечно, бывают случаи, когда на все не хватает посетителей. Но в целом метал у нас очень популярен, он примерно на том же уровне, что и поп, и поп-рок. Если вы посмотрите на рейтинг топ-40 или даже топ-10, там всегда будут по крайней мере 3 метал-команды. У нас действительно много металхедов, это не просто стереотип.
– А репетеционные точки? Студии?
– Студии постоянно закрываются, потому что теперь люди имеют возможность записываться дома. Поэтому сложилась довольно сложная ситуация. Репетиционные точки найти непросто, и они стоят дорого. Сложно сказать, помогает ли группам государство. У нас есть дома для молодежи, где есть репетиционные точки, то есть молодым есть с чего начинать. Но ситуация могла бы быть лучше, ведь найти места для репетиций все же чрезвычайно трудно.
Например, в течение нескольких лет мы делили репетиционную с Turisas, и это обходилось в 600 евро в месяц. Не особо дешево. Я думаю, что цена зависит и от города. Наверно, за пределами Хельсинки цены пониже.
– Расскажи немного о финской природе, которая вас вдохновляет?
– Природа всегда была для меня священна. Если бы у меня была религия, то это бы и была природа. Я ухожу в леса и погружаюсь в раздумья. У нас много красивых мест, особенно на востоке и на севере, которые сохранились в их первозданном виде. Многие люди отправляются в походы по лесам. Если бы у меня был свой дом где-то, я бы хотел, чтобы он был окружен девственным лесом, а не какими-нибудь подстриженными деревьями. У моих родителей есть летний домик, который располгагается в национальном парке. Это своего рода святое место для меня.
– Вы записывались в лесу для создания атморсферы? Это был какой особенный языческий лес?
– Да, мы записывали вокал для последнего альбома в хижине. Нет, это не было какое-то особое место. Просто оно нам подходило. К тому же там было довольно красиво. Не было такого, что мы идем в какое-то специальное место. Эта хижина принадлежит нашему другу. До нас там записывалось еще несколько команд, поэтому мы знали, что с звуком все будет в порядке. Записываться там было здорово, вдали от городской суеты и всего прочего.
– А как это технически осуществить?
– Я думаю, если место имеет хорошую акустику, если у тебя есть необходимое оборудование, тогда да, многие вещи можно записать, особенно гитары. Вам понадобится своего рода будка, хорошие микрофоны, звуковая изоляция. Всего этого будет достаточно, чтобы записать музыку в каком-нибудь летнем домике, и вам не придется платить 500-700 евро в день. Это хорошее решение для записи гитары или других электроинструментов.
– Вы сделали ваши композиции более короткими по сравнению с 30-минутными треками. Почему?
– Мы не хотели записывать альбом всего с двумя песнями. Не думаю, что эти песни по 15 минут подходят для радио, но все же этот вариант лучше, чем получасовые композиции. Тем не менее, они не появятся в радиоэфире, и в этом нет ничего удивительного. Мы всегда обещаем друг другу, что в этот раз мы попытаемся сделать наши песни покороче.
Мы всегда так говорим, даже записав альбом из всего лишь двух песен. И я думаю, что 15-минутный формат – это как раз то, что нам подходит и на что мы будем ориентироваться и в будущем. И только если мы придем к чему-то совершенно новому, к новым песням, стилю, тогда что-то может измениться и они могут стать короче. Других причин я не вижу.
– Как создаются композиции?
– Появляется какой-то рифф, начало первой части песни. Ты должен понимать, куда ты хочешь направиться. Так ты начинаешь конструировать песню. Так происходит с любой историей, драмой, чем угодно, ведь должна быть некая структура.
Если песня длится полчаса, то у нее тем более должна быть какая-то композиция. Этот процесс занимает много времени. Ты как бы все время должен быть на шаг впереди и понимать, как ты хочешь развить песню. И если в каких-то местах ты хочешь использовать гитарные риффы, тебе нужно заполнить промежутки и сделать так, чтобы все это звучало.
Мы много импровизируем. Обычно это происходит в домашней студии, но никогда во время выступления, потому что тогда для исполнения каждой песни потребовалось бы года два. И когда у нас готовы материалы, мы смотрим, как их лучше сочетать. Иногда на это уходить много времени, а иногда песня готова за пару дней.
– Мелодии вы придумываете сами или черпаете что-то из финского фольклора, например?
– В нашей музыке не так уж много традиционных мотивов. Она, скорее, рождается в голове людей. Конечно, мы могли бы использовать что-то народное в нашем творчестве, но это было бы не то, чего мы хотели. У нас есть одна песня, в основе которой лежит старинная русская мелодия, но вся другая музыка, которую мы исполняем, может принадлежать только нашему же авторству, за исключением краденых песен. (Смеется.)
– Апокалипсис был одной из главных тем вашего последнего альбома. Когда и где, по-вашему, он наступит?
– Катаклизмы происходят постоянно, человек уничтожает природу. Разрушается окружающая среда, вымирают виды. Люди уничтожают себя. Я имею в виду, что, когда из-за жадности мы калечим планету, мы уничтожаем и наше будущее. Я не знаю, когда это случится и в каком масштабе, но многие последствия необратимы. Ведь мы не можем воскресить вымершие виды, вернуть леса, растения… И нам пора признать, что апокалипсис является своего рода символом того, что мы делаем сами с собой и с природой. Мне кажется, есть какие-то способы остановить это, но мы не хотим. Нам по душе жить в роскоши, разрушая все вокруг.

Продолжение следует.

(It was never continued.)

MTV Iggy / February 2015

Link

Feb 19th 2015

Moonsorrow Goes Beyond Folk Metal, Talks Neopaganism

Photo courtesy of the artist

"we have a very deep connection to nature, even when it's not mentioned in our lyrics. None of us are religious pagans, but there's a core of paganism and it is nature"

By MTV Iggy
March 16, 2015 

By Julia Neuman

Finland’s vast forests, plentiful lakes and icy winters bring forth some of heavy metal’s most powerful tales of paganism and nature. No band recounts these tales quite like Helsinki’s Moonsorrow. The quintet, founded by cousins Ville and Henri Sorvali in 1995, channels their admiration for the great outdoors into epic sagas sung all in Finnish. Their songs are chocked full of heathen spirit and intricate musicianship, sometimes running for as long as 30 minutes.
The band often gets lumped into the larger category of folk metal, but in reality, they’re forging their own legacy. When folk metal’s popularity exploded in the early 2000s, Moonsorrow didn’t waiver in their style to match the trends. We caught up with bassist and vocalist Ville Sorvali and guitarist Mitja Harvilahti in Bergen, Norway, just before their 2:00 AM set at Blastfest, where they talked about Finland, their unique role in the folk metal craze, and the direction of their new album due out later this year.

How did you first develop your deep connection with nature?

Mitja: We were born in Finland, so we still have that kind of connection within the country. It’s not very hard, even if we live in big cities, we still have a bond with nature. One part of Finnish culture is that almost every family has summer cottages. Either they own one or rent one.

When you started Moonsorrow, what else was going on in your lives and in Finland in terms of music?

Ville: With my cousin [Henri Sorvali], we had a lot of musical projects going on. He had some sort of recording equipment at his parents’ garage. We basically went there every weekend when we didn’t have school. We recorded whatever ­– and Moonsorrow was actually one of those “whatevers.” We decided we were gonna do something more with it.

M: Yeah, and a little bit later, when we were in our late teens and early 20s, there were already bands like Ensiferum, for example. Many of the bands like Finntroll were emerging as well. We were already connected with a lot of the bands who were already playing. And the Finnish metal scene hadn’t grown that much yet in the year 2000, so when we were releasing our first album, it was still going up and catching on with the bigger bands like Children of Bodom and Nightwish.

At what point did you decide you wanted to separate yourselves from the genre of folk metal or viking metal?

V: If I’m to be blunt, it was the point when they started doing the same thing in Germany. But that’s not the whole story. We basically got tired that the whole thing got so popular within its own circles. Suddenly everyone started making music that tried to sound like us, or Finntroll, or Ensiferum. No one was really bringing anything of their own anymore. So we decided – because we always made stuff that sounded like ourselves – that now it’s time to do something different because there are already bands that sound like us.

How do you want to be known in the context of heavy metal?

V: I would settle with doing something that people remember after we’re done with the band. It doesn’t matter how they remember it, but if they remember it when the band is gone, then we’ve done something we wanted to do. I wouldn’t want Moonsorrow to be remembered as “the band who made the 30-minute songs,” because we’re much more than that. [Laughs] It’s become a bit of a burden, actually, that we made those three half-hour songs. Now people are asking, “When are you making an album that has 60-minute songs?” We did that and it felt right in the moment but it wasn’t the only thing we did.

There are some neopagan movements happening in Finland. Do you see yourselves as a part of that?

M: As far as I know, we’ve been an inspiration to people. I can understand that because we have a very deep connection to nature, even when it’s not mentioned in our lyrics. None of us are religious pagans, but there’s a core of paganism and it is nature. To worship nature is to respect and take care of it and find the deity in nature itself. In that way, we are very pagan.

V: When it comes to the old gods, back then when people couldn’t explain what was going on, they came up with these gods. And I can understand it perfectly and I respect it, but I’m way too scientific to start thinking that whenever there’s thunder, Thor is up there throwing lightning bolts. [Laughs] Back in the day, it was their own explanation. There is no reason for people to believe in that anymore, but it’s a good symbol.

How does Finland embrace your kind of music?

M: Well it does. Finnish metal is an export and public image of Finnish culture. It became so popular that the metal bands are one very important part of Finnish image. There are stupid awards that are given to the bands, but…

V: Yeah there’s also the Finnish Grammy for the best metal act, and we were once even nominated, because it’s a PR stunt. They always nominate one band outside of the mainstream just to make themselves look more credible. Those bands never win anything.

M: But we don’t have to be nominated or credited. It’s not about them giving us some respect. We are doing what we do, if we tour abroad, people like it somewhere, then that’s it.

A lot of metal bands wear blood, but what does it symbolize to you? Why did you start using it?

M: We started it in 2001. We had a Bathory cover show.

V: We were thinking, what would Bathory have done if they did live shows? Then we came up with the blood. Yeah, now that I remember it, it’s nothing more mysterious. [Laughs] It’s actually a very important part of the preparation of the show, at least for me. I can be very tired before the show, nothing interests me — I have just enough power to go to the fridge to grab a beer for myself — but then when I start putting on the makeup, and especially when I splash the blood and it’s cold, it kind of wakes you up. Oh yeah, I’m here to play a show!

What are you doing for your new album at the moment?

M: We have about 70% of the album ready musically. The whole process of just composing it has already taken years, and we ditched everything at some point. Within a couple months now we put together most of it, so it doesn’t require so much anymore to finish the songs, and then we’ll start writing the lyrics and stuff. But our way of working is very different from other bands. We don’t rehearse at a rehearsal room.

What kinds of vibes are you getting from writing?

V: Norway. We have a lot of influences from a lot of places, but it comes up every now and then that we were all brought up music-wise during the ’90s with Norwegian music. You can probably hear that again on the new album. Enslaved was basically our main influence when we started the band.
M: But otherwise, it’s quite variable musically.

V: Yeah, there’s a lot of progressive rock. Just not so in-your-face that you would actually recognize bands like King Crimson or Yes, but there are a lot of hints in chord progressions.

What’s your drink of choice?

M: Hmm! Right now I feel like gin and tonic.

V: For me, it’s usually beer, but gin and tonic is healthier.

Guitar World / May 2009

Link

(Interview date: May 4th 2009)

PLEASE NOTE: The names seem to be messed up in this interview. It was Janne who had his guitar stolen, and it was Mitja who started liking the Beatles at the age of four. Therefore, I have decided to modify them, so they are correct in this blog entry.

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Pagan Metal Roundup: Moonsorrow

Posted 11/13/2009 at 11:15am | by Brad Angle

When the popular Paganfest II tour rolled through New York last spring, featuring Korpiklaani, Moonsorrow, Blackguard, Swashbuckle and more, we caught up with Finnish pagan metal band Moonsorrow.
In the following Q&A, guitarists Janne Perttilä and Mitja Harvilahti discuss their pre-Christian beliefs, anti-nationalism and the future of pagan metal.
By Brad Angle. Main photos (and following gallery) by Sarah Sturges.

This is a paganfest tour. What the hell is pagan metal?

MITJA HARVILAHTI Well, I think pagan metal is just heavy metal with lyrics about spiritual themes, our ancestors and the pre-Christian beliefs in Finland.

JANNE PERTTILÄ And in Scandinavia in general. Things that tap into our heritage.

HARVILAHTI In Finland, it’s part of everyday life. These traditions are mixed in with the Christianity traditions and you have to seek a little bit further to understand why these traditions exist and the deeper meaning behind them. We’re not here to preach about it. We’re here to make people aware that they can see for themselves that their nation has its own history and traditions.

What specific aspect of pre-Christian beliefs interest you?

HARVILAHTI Nature. All of the old beliefs were tied in with nature. If you listen to our more recent albums, you can feel a sense of nature in the music. The lyrics are a bit more abstract, ranging from water to darkness and so on. The themes don’t always have to deal with Finnish traditions, but they should give you the feeling of being in Finland or the Finland/Scandinavia region.

So you guys are sort of tapping into these spiritual forces.

PERTTILÄ We do it for the sake of building an atmosphere, at least that’s what I personally believe.

HARVILAHTI We use it to show respect rather than to tap into one particular tradition or belief.

PERTTILÄ There are obviously fans of this scene who take it really far and actually living it out, like they’re trying to be Vikings or something. [laughs] Well, to each his own!

Do you have any wild fan stories?

HARVILAHTI I have a good one. We were in the U.S. a couple of years ago for Milwaukee Metal Fest and this guy comes over to me. I was wearing this rune and he asked me what it was. I began to explain it to him and he said, “Do you believe in Odin?” I told him no, that I was an atheist. He told me to fuck off and that I was not getting in to Valhalla! [laughs]

PERTTILÄ There are a lot of people that are surprised to find out we are just normal guys.

Moonsorrow's Janne PERTTILÄ. Photo: Sarah Sturges

What do you consider to be the roots of pagan metal?

HARVILAHTI For me, it’s definitely Enslaved from Norway. I got introduced to them when I was 13 or something and they were definitely the most influential pagan black metal band during that time. Vikingligr Veldi, their first album, really opened my eyes to the use of pagan mythologies in the music. Plus, back then, even though there were some Norwegian bands that sung some songs in their own language, it was almost exclusively in English. But these guys sang the songs in Icelandic and gave me the idea to explore that in our music. We are not viking metal, but on our last EP, Tulimyrsky, we explored viking metal themes. It was just an EP and we wanted to do something fresh, but otherwise we are much more pagan metal than viking metal.

What made you first pick up a guitar?

PERTTILÄ The Beatles.

HARVILAHTI Yeah, same here. I was four years old when I first started listening to the Beatles. In all of those pictures where they’re holding their Rickenbackers, there’s just something really magical about those instruments. I’ve been obsessed with guitars ever since.

PERTTILÄ My parents had a few Beatles records from their youth in the Sixties. I got hooked on to their Sgt. Peppers LP, and the package was so nice. It blew my mind. When I was like seven or eight, I gradually bought all of the Beatles’ records with my allowance.

Did you guys take guitar lessons when you were younger?

PERTTILÄ I borrowed some self-learning materials from the library and played along to records. Then I eventually started to take proper lessons. At the same time, my parents made me take violin lessons for like eight years, and I absolutely hated it. [laughs] In hindsight, it was probably a good idea because I wouldn’t have learned all of the theory and musical knowledge at such a young age. Then when I hit puberty, I discovered punk rock, beer and women. [laughs]

HARVILAHTI I took classical guitar lessons for like 15 years, but I suck at it nowadays. I more or less learned how to play electric guitar by myself. Since I was nine, I’ve always been in some kind of band. I would start in one class, then move on to a new school and make new friends to start a band with, and so on. My earliest bands were black metal...but not when I was nine. [laughs]

What guitarist most influenced your style?

PERTTILÄ Guys like Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, [Dave] Mustaine, Dimebag Darrell, Alex Skolnick – whose solos are just godly – and Trey Azagthoth.

HARVILAHTI For me, I’d have to say [Spanish classical guitarist] Francisco Tárrega and his complete opposite: Jeff Hanneman. [laughs] I love how Hanneman can play the same lead in every song for so long. Plus Slayer have this punk attitude when they play. They are a perfect example of how you don’t always have to be always perfect in your technique and still be able to express your aggression through your guitar.

Do you bring that same mentality when you’re playing?

HARVILAHTI Not really. When I compose my guitar solos and such, as well as the other instruments, I always make it fit the music. I never do the Jeff Hanneman stuff in our music because it doesn’t fit. I take the existing parts of the song and write my leads to that, rather than writing leads just to have leads. They have to have meaning to the song. If I was playing more aggressive music, then I would go ahead and explore that realm.

One characteristic of pagan metal is its use of instruments that aren’t traditionally associated with extreme metal. What other instruments do you employ?

HARVILAHTI In the studio, we use a lot of these old instruments, like the accordian and Jouhikko [traditional Finnish violin]. We stay very true to our roots so we never had any awkward situations with the hired musicians. A lot of folk metal or pagan metal bands these days can’t write good heavy metal music or good folk music. They should just concentrate on writing good heavy metal songs and if they want to add in some folk stuff, concentrate on writing good folk songs.

PERTTILÄ And it doesn’t help now that the scene exploded in Europe and it’s starting to happen here in the United States as well. All of these bands are coming out of nowhere, and some might have something, but most of them don’t.

What guitar technique/approach makes you stand out from the pack?

HARVILAHTI I’d have to say my Pete Townshend stage move and hanging my guitar lower. [laughs] That’s it. Well that, and a sense of melody.

PERTTILÄ I'd say the fact that we try to avoid harmonizing in the style of Iron Maiden, and do something with its own flavor.

What piece of gear is crucial to your sound?
 
HARVILAHTI My Gibson Flying V. I’ve been using it live for a few months and it’s the best live gear I’ve used. Buy it also depends on the situation. For amplifiers, I need an amp that has a straight-forward rock sound but with a bit more edge and a natural sounding EQ. I can tour with the effects easily. I plug straight into the PA, and through the head. That way if the head breaks, I am still on in the PA. As for my guitars, they are all Gibson. I have a collection of them, starting from ’79 to the modern ones. I mainly use the ’98 Natural Limited Edition, the Gothic, and, if I have the courage to bring it with me, the Silverburst from ’79.

PERTTILÄ I don’t have mine anymore. [laughs] I had a nice ESP custom shop star guitar that was stolen at the beginning of this tour in Montreal. The guitar I’m playing now is an ESP Eclipse, the standard model. For amps, I use a VHT rack unit with an ENGL preamp. Unfortunately, it’s hard to bring your own backline, so I would say that the most important thing is to be able to dial in a sufficient sound with whatever the gig gives you.

Pagan metal seem to have representatives in many different cultures: U.S., Finland, Ireland, Norway, among others. Is the scene filled with people that have strong national pride? 
 
HARVILAHTI Unfortunately, historically there are some countries, like Germany or Russia, that have destroyed pagan cultures and beliefs while employing pagan symbols to represent their views. I hate that. I hate it when people associate us and these symbols with the Nazi movement, or think we are right wing nationalists.

PERTTILÄ Of course, there are some good reasons for us to use these symbols, but it’s a touchy subject for some people. It’s hard for us to explain it without sounding like nationalist bigots. When you talk about pride, it’s not about thinking you are better than someone else or the self-righteous aspect of it.

HARVILAHTI And you have to keep in mind that there are pagans all over the world, in places like Siberia, the Amazon, Africa. It’s just recently that Europeans are rediscovering their pagan history. We came from these Christian backgrounds and are rediscovering our history after many generations of being away from it. We should be supporting these smaller nations who are struggling to keep their pagan culture alive after all these years.

What’s up with the costumes, chainmail and facepaint that many people and bands wear in the scene?

PERTTILÄ Well, it’s always funny to see people in hats with horns...and it always makes my day. [laughs] Living in today's culture, it’s always refreshing to see people dress out of the norm. It seems as if you include the word “heritage,” it makes the scene more “real” and attractive. It’s not something that I would do, but I can definitely understand it if you wear a costume to the party.

HARVILAHTI On our earlier albums, we dressed up like that for the pictures in the booklet. But not anymore. I have nothing against it, and I think people should have some fun once in a while.

This movement is just getting going here in the States. Where do you see it heading?

PERTTILÄ Hell. We've played so many pagan metal festivals in Germany with so many sucky Finntroll copies that it’s unbelievable. Occassionally, some good bands pop up but I wish it wouldn’t escalate any further.

HARVILAHTI And if you look at the lineup for this tour and other similar shows, it’s always the same bands because there aren’t enough bands with potential, yet. The scene really needs some new blood and quality music. Otherwise, these same bands will tour for another 10 years.

PERTTILÄ You just can’t mix distorted guitar with an acoustic guitar or accordian and say you’re as good as Korpliklaani or Finntroll. It’s like the Sunset Strip in ’84—if you had big hair you would sell lots of records. [laughs]

Le Francofil' / December 2010

Link

Moonsorrow : le géant se remet en marche

Rédaction 28 décembre 2010 Finlande

Moonsorrow est sans aucun doute l’un des fers de lance de la musique métal finlandaise. Proposant une musique épique semblable à aucune autre pour son intensité et sa splendeur dramatique, le groupe était jusqu’à peu, bloqué dans le studio pour accoucher de leur sixième opus qui aura la lourde tâche de succéder au magistral Viides Luku. Nous avons rencontré, dans un bar du centre de Helsinki, Vile Sorvali, chanteur et bassiste du groupe afin qu’il nous révèle plus l’histoire et le fonctionnement de ce grand groupe.

Bonjour Vile, comme LeFrancofil’ est un journal d’information général, nos lecteurs ne sont peut-être pas familiers avec l’univers du Métal. Pourrais-tu présenter Moonsorrow à ces néophytes ?
Moonsorrow est un groupe de métal finlandais. Nous nous désignons nous mêmes comme faisant du métal païen. Nous avons cinq albums à notre actif et existons depuis 1995.

Un des points les plus remarquables de votre carrière est le fait que les membres du groupe n’ont pas changé depuis le tout premier album. Comment pourrais-tu expliquer cette singularité ?
Je n’en ai moi-même aucune idée, il doit y avoir une bonne alchimie entre nous, Il n’y a jamais eu aucun problème dans le groupe… je ne peux pas vraiment l’expliquer, c’est vraiment rare tu sais.

Comment se passe le processus d’écriture musical dans le groupe ? Moonsorrow est-il un groupe où tous ont la possibilité de s’exprimer ?

Normalement, cela se passe toujours de la même façon ; Henri, qui est notre claviériste écrit généralement la plupart des morceaux. Si quelqu’un vient avec une idée, il le fait savoir à Henri qui réalise alors une démo sur son ordinateur. Nous n’écrivons jamais vraiment rien dans la salle de répétition. Les morceaux prennent vie sur son ordinateur.

Vile, en tant que chanteur principal du groupe, tu es également en charge de l’écriture de la plupart des textes. Comment procèdes-tu exactement ?
Il peut m’arriver d’écrire quelque chose avant que les chansons ne prennent corps, juste quelques lignes qui me viennent à l’esprit, je peux toujours les écrire sur mon ordinateur afin de les sauvegarder. Néanmoins, j’écris toujours les paroles d’après les titres définitifs car je veux que celles-ci reflètent ce que la musique m’évoque. C’est également plus facile pour procéder à l´arrangement vocal des chansons.

Une autre singularité du groupe est le fait que toutes les chansons sont écrites en finnois. Cela a-t-il été une décision bien planifiée ? Penses-tu qu’il soit important d’utiliser ta langue maternelle pour t’exprimer artistiquement ?
Oui, je pense que j’en ai besoin pour m’exprimer proprement, et cela va parfaitement avec le groupe car tout ce que nous faisons est, quelque part finlandais ; ce ne serait pas la même chose si nous écrivions en anglais. Mais nous n’avons jamais eu de réunion pour décider de notre orientation artistique, nous avons un accord commun sur ce que nous faisons.

Pourrais-tu décrire le concept lyrique de Moonsorrow en une seule phrase ?
Dans un sens, je pourrais même le résumer en un seul mot : païen. Nous aimons exprimer notre nature païenne, la culture qui fut en Finlande avant l’arrivée du christianisme. Il reflète également une opposition aux valeurs modernes que nous avons aujourd’hui.

Ces dernières années, on a assisté à une croissance sans précédent des groupes de métal utilisant des paroles ou un concept inspiré des temps préchrétiens. Crois-tu que ce genre d’attitude ne diffère pas de la majorité des groupes de métal ou bien penses-tu que cela demande un engagement plus personnel ?
Question difficile. Je pense que la plupart des gens qui écrivent sur le sujet y croient. Il y a certainement aussi quelques individus qui agissent ainsi parce qu’ils suivent la mode ou je ne sais quelles autres raisons, mais je pense que le mouvement est quelque chose de positif. Cela peut rendre les gens conscients qu’il existait une culture avant la chrétienté ou même avant notre soi-disant société moderne. Peut-être que cela fera penser à plus de monde que la façon dont nous vivons aujourd’hui n’est peut-être pas la seule qui existe.

La plupart de ces groupes choisissent généralement, sans regards pour leur héritage culturel, de parler de la frange nordique du paganisme. Penses-tu qu’il serait plus convenable que ces groupes puisent dans la tradition qui leur est propre ?
Oui, totalement. Je veux dire, si un groupe français, par exemple, a envie d’écrire au sujet du paganisme nordique, pourquoi pas, mais il y avait également une culture païenne vivace en France. Alors ce genre de groupes devrait peut-être creuser plus profondément dans l’héritage culturel qui leur est propre…

Es-tu inspiré, dans ton écriture, par les épopées et autres récits préchrétiens ?
Certainement, mais le problème est qu’en Finlande, il n’existe aucun texte préchrétien car avant l’arrivée du christianisme, personne ici ne savait écrire, il n’existait donc que quelques éléments de savoir dispersés ici et là. Notre épopée nationale par exemple ne fut posé par écrit que quelque chose comme 700 ans après l’introduction du christianisme.

Quels sont les groupes qui vous ont le plus inspirés musicalement ?

Je dirais au début, des groupes comme Bathory et Enslaved mais nous aimons constamment intégrer de nouveaux éléments à notre musique et certaines influences sont apparues plus tard. Le groupe était très orienté black-métal à ses débuts mais il y avait encore beaucoup de choses à venir. Nous sommes également influencés par le folk et la musique progressive ainsi que bien d’autres choses. Je ne dirais pas qu’il existe une simple source d’inspiration pour notre musique.

Votre dernier album était très impressionnant; il ne comptait que deux morceaux pour une durée totale de 56 minutes ! Comment vous-est venue une telle idée ?
Je ne sais pas, c’est arrivé c’est tout…C’est une réponse ennuyeuse et peu informative mais…nous étions juste en train d’enregistrer le premier morceau de l’album et cela s’est juste développé à rallonge…et à la fin il totalisait trente minutes au compteur ! À ce point nous nous sommes dit, pourquoi ne pas écrire un second morceau du même acabit, pour tester nos limites…Nous n’avons jamais eu de plans préconçus, nous écrivons juste ce que nous ressentons.

Les paroles de cet album étaient particulièrement sombres, peut-ont s’attendre à quelque chose dans le même style pour votre nouvel album ?
Je dirais que cette fois-ci non plus il n’y a pas de lumière au bout du tunnel. Cela à pris une tournure encore plus sombre que je ne l’avais envisagé au premier chef.

Au niveau du format des chansons, avez-vous gardé cette tournure jusqu’au-boutiste ou bien êtes-vous revenus à écrire des chansons plus courtes ?
Tout ce que nous faisons est en quelque sorte sans compromis mais nous avons tout de même fait des chansons plus courtes que la dernière fois, elles ne dureront pas une demi-heure cette fois-ci. Elles restent longues pour tous les standards mais restent bien plus courtes que sur notre dernier album.
Pour ce qui est de l’inspiration pour faire de si longs titres… j’ai toujours aimé les groupes comme King Crimsom, ils écrivaient des épopées, leurs chansons étaient des histoires à elles seules, j’ai toujours aimé cette approche. Nous ne venons pas avec des titres aussi longs de manière intentionnelle mais nous avons beaucoup de choses à dire et en conséquence nos morceaux ont tendance à être extrêmement longs. J’aime penser que nous faisons de la musique pour ceux qui aiment la musique, pas seulement les chansons.

À part votre participation à la tournée européenne du Paganfest l’an prochain, aura-t-on la chance de vous croiser sur la route ? Et qu’en est-il de vos fans finlandais, auront-il aussi droit à quelques concerts ?

Oui, après le Paganfest nous ferons quelques concerts en Finlande, ils ne sont pas encore confirmés mais nous les ferons et quelques festivals estivaux bien évidement. Je n’ai aucune idée de ce qu’il se passera l’automne prochain mais je n’ai pas besoin d’avoir des certitudes si loin dans le temps.

J’ai pu, en faisant des recherches sur le groupe, trouver que tu avais fait partie d’un groupe appelé May Withers, peux-tu nous en dire plus sur ce groupe plutôt inconnu ?

Le projet existait avant que tout ne soit sur Internet. Nous avons juste enregistré une démo et ce fut tout. C’était chouette quand cela existait bien sûr…c’était une sorte de métal mélodique dans le veine d’Anathema, ce genre de choses. On appelait cela pop-métal même si ce n’était pas exactement pop.

Moonsorrow est un groupe de métal finnois, or la Finlande est un pays dans lequel le métal est considéré comme une musique populaire. Quels sont les avantages et les inconvénients d’une telle situation ?
Ah…je pense que l’on peut gagner de l’argent grâce à cette situation (rires), je blague, on ne se fait pas tant d’argent que ça en vérité. Cette situation est bonne pour les groupes bien sûr, ils ont plus d’opportunités pour faire des concerts et faire des albums de qualité avec des moyens conséquents et de se faire connaître.
Étant donné que le métal est en quelque sorte accepté par tous en Finlande, il attire des gens qui n’y auraient jamais eu contact et qui n’en connaissent pas vraiment la finalité. Le métal, comme le punk, est une musique de rébellion et maintenant qu’il est accepté par tous, il n’est plus vraiment rebelle… tout semble apparaître sous un jour différent aujourd’hui car on peut vraiment y gagner de l’argent. Je pense que c’est HIM qui fut l’un des premiers à populariser la musique métal en Finlande.

Que représente Moonsorrow pour toi ?
Une très grande part de ma vie. J’ai fait partie du groupe, si l’on veut être précis, la moitié de ma vie et c’est quelque chose dont je ne pourrais pas me débarrasser même si j’en avais envie. Je ne me suis jamais senti pareil dans aucun autre groupe, cela fait partie de ma vie au lieu de n’être “que” de la musique.

Musicalement, à part le métal, qu’écoutes-tu ?
Beaucoup de choses ! Je ne peux pas mettre mes goûts musicaux dans des cases. Aujourd’hui j’écoutais Madonna sur mon ordinateur par exemple.

Tu veux vraiment que j’écrive ça ?
(rires) Vas-y, ce n’est pas un secret. J’écoute différents styles de musique. J’étais également en train d’écouter Gojira durant la même heure. Cela peut en quelque sorte, représenter mes préférences musicales ; le style importe peu du moment que la musique est bonne.

Quels sont pour toi les meilleurs et pires groupes finlandais ?
Le dernier groupe finlandais qui a retenu mon attention a été Ghost Brigade. Je trouve qu’ils sont réellement impressionnants et ne sonnent comme aucun autre groupe. Beherit fut une grosse influence pour Moonsorrow. Amorphis, en tant qu’influence précoce fut très important… Swallow the Sun, nous avons tourné avec eux à quelques occasions, c’est vraiment un très bon groupe, ainsi qu’Insomnium dans le death métal mélodique.
The 69 Eyes, je ne les apprécie pas plus que ça, c’est le cas de beaucoup de gens, mais ils sont connus malgré tout. Ils faisaient de bons trucs au début mais ils ont changé leur style. Mais je ne déteste personne, je préfère trouver la face positive de chaque groupe. J’ai même fini par apprécier Korpiklaani (rires) ! Nous étions en tournée ensemble et j’ai du les écouter tous les soirs et j’ai finalement appris à comprendre leur musique.

Quelle a été ta dernière découverte musicale ?
Je n’ai fait aucune découverte aujourd’hui tout du moins. Mais j’aime essayer de faire le plus de découvertes que possible. Quelle était la dernière ? (Long silence…) Ha, subitement, je peux plus me souvenir…ha, oui ! Ma dernière découverte fut ce groupe de black métal finlandais, Raate.

Merci beaucoup pour cette interview Vile, je te laisse les derniers mots :
J’envoie mes salutations à tous les citoyens français qui se sont aventurés en dehors de leur pays et qui, pour d’étranges raisons, ont terminé ici. Bonne chance !
Le nouvel album de Moonsorrow devrait arriver dans les bacs de tous les bons disquaires vers la fin de l´hiver à travers le label Spikerarm. Soyez patients.
http://www.myspace.com/moonsorrow
http://www.paganfest.eu/news.html
http://www.spinefarm.fi/showband.php?id=36
http://www.moonsorrow.com/moonsorrowcom/moonsorrow.html
Propos recueillis par Lyonel Perabo

Metal Sucks / May 2014

Source: Henri's blog

This text was published at www.metalsucks.net as a part of their "Idol Listening"- section. As it was only concerning the albums found from the upcoming Moonsorrow vinyl box set, the last chapter- concerning Varjoina...- album and the future, was left out. So, for those who are interested, here is the whole story in it´s whole bori...uhm, epicness. If you´ve already read it, skip to the last part straight away, as the rest of the text is completely identical with the already- published version.

THE INFLUENCES OF MOONSORROW THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

a.k.a “how we managed to steal everything and never got caught”

Written by Henri Sorvali 2014

“Andi Fara/ Prologr”

This story begins in a boring suburbs of Helsinki, Finland, in summer 1995 at my parent´s garage.

When we weren´t tape- trading together like hell and hanging at the record stores with my cousin Ville, we spent our time doing project- esque rehearsal demos with my four- tracker at that garage. And among others, there was something called Monhzur.

1995- 1998 : The early years.

Our feeble, partly Finnish- sung attempt to rip off Burzum (sic!) recorded half of a demo, which we found not good enough to even finish (especially because of the cheap drum machine we used at the time) and left us quite a load of ideas and riffs for future use. After the halted demo recordings, we still wanted to do black metal, so it evolved into something we called as "Sorrowwoods". I remember us being quite influenced by Carpathian Forest, Bethlehem, Emperor and Celtic Frost at the time and blended it all together badly, resulting in "Thorns of Ice", which was recorded in different takes during the year 1996. Shortly after making the demo covers, we thought Sorrowwoods was a rather bad name for a band and thought we could use "Moonsorrow" instead, (being a song from Monhzur, actually) and thus the name you nowadays recognize better was used instead.

In early 1997, being heavily inspired at the time by Enslaved´s debut and the last Behemoth demo, we started creating a proper demo instead of using different takes and recordings, resulting into "Metsä". Originally called "Thrymgjöll" but changed in the last minute, we were proud of the result and this time we actually thought this could be worthy to release to other people as well. I guess it´s also safe to confess now that as we didn´t have any "medieval battle"- samples available for our intro nor we had the possibility to record them straight from Conan The Barbarian like they did, we actually took them straight out from Demoniac´s "Prepare for War"- album. Recycling at it´s best!

When I finally got a real sequencer and recording facilities in 1998, we thought only the sky would be the limit. Tämä Ikuinen Talvi was something that had to be done in order to realize that it wasn´t the musical direction we wanted to go after all...but the visual, almost theatrical audio was definitely there to stay, though! Both Enslaved´s “Eld” (obviously) and Emperor´s “Anthems” were a huge influence to us, especially the latter with all the synthwork, and there are traces of Immortal, old Dimmu Borgir and tons of Obtained Enslavement (especially in the last song) scattered everywhere. The demo earned us our first record deal, but before it was even released to the public, we had already dwelled into more slower, heavier- and most of all- folkier sounds, which would be known more as of our style in the following 15 years.

1999- 2003: Slowing down a bit.

Less than two months after the release of the last demo, we were already rehearsing our first full- lenght album with Marko- the strongest influence being Bathory´s “Blood on Ice”, which had completely blown our minds earlier. Combined with a dose of Hades´ “Dawn of the Dying Sun”, Borknagar´s debut, Thyrfing´s “Valdr Galga” and Einherjer´s “Odin Owns Ye All”, we felt we had found our spiritual and musical home. One can still find traces of Enslaved and Ulver scattered every here and there, but the "Finland´s answer to Bathory" was probably the most used term for our debut album.

We continued the path onwards and Marko participated on composing for the first time with us on the next album, “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”. The creation of the new material already begun a couple of months after the recordings of our debut album, and while we were still influenced by the abovementioned albums -Bathory being even stronger influence than ever- this time we brought even more folk music to the package. I was listening a lot of Scandinavian folk at the time (Garmarna, Annbjørg Lien, Hedningarna and Nordman (!!!) being my favourites), and picked a ton of influences from there, while Marko also brought in some ideas from 70´s proggressive rock for the first time. We also listened a lot of punk and vikingarock while drinking together, and brought some ideas from there too- especially in the song "Kylän Päässä".

The natural evolvement of our sound and tendency for dramatic pompousness led to creating the massive opus "Kivenkantaja", which was the first album we had the artistic courage to blend in any kind of elements we had previously thought not to fit our music. Like Marko, I also have a history with progressive rock, so we listened a lot of old prog vinyls (Rick Wakeman´s “King Arthur” being the most influential record for us at the time due to the historical themes it sported as well) and experimented with all sorts of instruments we could think of. We felt we combined every single musical influence we had ever had in our lives, resulting in a rather interesting blend of metal, folk and progressive music. Jumalten Kaupunki was very much inspired by Bal- Sagoth, and Kivenkantaja bows heavily to Windir, who we all loved. The sampled vocals in the beginning of Tuulen Tytär were taken from a Mari Boine- album, and even though I don´t like Pink Floyd, I had to borrow some influence from them to the ending of Raunioilla with the guitars. (And as you probably know, that sure wasn´t the only one “being inspired by” - part done with that song, hah!)

But when everything is done, topped, creamed and overproduced...how are you supposed to do it even better? With Kivenkantaja, we felt we had painted ourselves into a corner and there would be no way to make another, even more epic and over - the- top Kivenkantaja #2.

So we decided to BLOW THE FUCK OUT THAT CORNER instead.

2004- 2008: Speeding up again.

When me and Ville gathered for the first time to think what would we want to do with the next album, we both agreed to wave goodbye to the overproduced epicness and concentrate more on moss, woods and more "traditional" production. The first song which was completed was “Jotunheim”, and it had a completely different, Kivenkantaja- sounding music in the middle of it at the time. After having started with “Karhunkynsi” and turning it into the enslavedesque it became, I quickly went back to Jotunheim to realize it needs more of that "traditional approach" as well, which was the turning point for the whole sound to become. Soon we were basically inhaling our records shelves like crazy, being heavily inspired by pre- 2000´s era Satyricon, Enslaved, Burzum ...and many other less pompous Norwegian bands who were a big influence for us in the beginning. When the recordings were finished, we were sure no- one would like the album but us. To this day, still I consider Verisäkeet having the best atmosphere from any of our records thus far.

Picking up from where Jotunheim was left, we continued working with Hävitetty in spring 2006. As a band of eternal opposites and controversy, it was pretty natural move to make a way slower album after a rather fast one. During the time we composed and recorded the album I was also having the worst period of my personal life ever, which reflected quite much on the musical side and production as well. I was listening to tons of Cold Meat Industry bands (In Slaughter Natives and Puissance in particular), but held Drudkh, Esoteric and the debut albums from Katatonia and In The Woods extremely inspiring at the time. For what it comes to the biggest influences, though, I can safely say that without “Forgotten Legends”, “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Disintegration” (The Cure) we would had probably sounded way different. My purpose musically was to create a web of music where tones and timbres tangle into each other, forming into a tightening and suffocating grip resembling of drowning, depicting how I felt at the time. I still cannot listen to Hävitetty due to the memories it brings me from the time it was recorded, and consider the album being the most personal I have ever done in my life.

In 1992, there was Conquest of Paradise. Twelve years later, there was Arns Rike. And as I couldn´t wait my turn to rip Vangelis off at 2018, we did Tulimyrsky already in 2008 to break the tradition. The composing of the song started with Marko´s main riff (4:50 onwards) and ended up being probably something Jethro Tull or Yes could had sounded like if they played Enslaved- inspired black metal. The song was probably our most technical entity thus far, it´s structure and arrangements resembling more of a progressive rock song from the 70´s or classical music rather than straightforward Bathory- rip- off. While we had implemented quite much sound effects to our music earlier, Tulimyrsky also took that to completely into another dimension and featured even acting and foley sounds behind the music. (The tradition which kept continuing in “Varjoina”- album later). We were doing the album at our friend´s studio with no strict schedules, so we had time to test ideas, drink beer and have fun as well instead of extremely organized working we were used to do under pressure. While we make extremely visual, dramatic and pompous music on purpose with absolutely no irony on it, we often tend to hide some musical "tributes" here and there for our own amusement. And as usual, all sorts of them were also present this time. Vocal delays done purposedly out of time in the true Norwegian tradition, some parts sounding so much like old Amorphis that we actually asked our friend Tomi Koivusaari to grunt on top of them, and in one riff the vocal arrangement was mimicking Ulver´s "Soelen Gaaer Bag Aase Ned" as closely as possible. The best thing for myself, however, was to actually have a chance to finally hide a Wilhelm scream to the part where the ships were attacking, haha!

2009 onwards: The heavier combination of everything above.

Dust settling and firestorms slowly extinguishing in early 2010, I wasn´t totally satisfied with Tulimyrsky as a composer. I felt it had way too many parts and sometimes stumbled into it´s own technicality. As a personal statement, I wanted to open the next album with something slow, crushing and celticfrosty, resulting into the first minutes of "Tähdetön". We were completely sick of post- black metal (spit!) bands popping out of everywhere and wanted to make a clear distinction on them as well, and thought it had the perfect start for the album. And as the whole concept and tracklist was written before the composing started (!), we ended up creating all the songs in the order they were intended to be, in where the first chords of Tähdetön served us as a great starting point from where to continue onwards. We took inspiration from other stuff as usuall- from the metal side I listened a lot of albums like Thyrfing´s “Hels Vite”, Melechesh´s “Emissaries" and Raate´s “Sielu, Linna” to name a few, and you can spot traces from Gentle Giant, Paul Simon (!!) among other weird influences. And believe it or not- 1800´s traditional Scandinavian funeral music (played with pedal harmonium and other folk instruments, which I unfortunately couldn´t find from Youtube, so this was the closest reference I could dig up and has nothing to do with folk music in particular) was a huge source of inspiration throughout the process, which can be mostly heard in especially in “Kuolleiden Maa”. Perhaps the most influential record during the arrangement- process, however, was the stunning debut album of Triptykon, which inspired us to take heavy (pun intended) advantage on guitar department- adding quite a lot of feedbacking and very bottom string- structured playing to our music besides our usual string arrangements. Which, I believe, will also play a huge part in our upcoming album we are working with as we speak.

“Epilog/ Slaget”

As a music fan first and then a musician, I have never found any shame on giving credit to the artists who have inspired me in my own art. Without the abovementioned artists, albums and songs Moonsorrow wouldn´t probably existed in the first place and I´d like to express my sincere gratitude towards all the people behind my inspiration and influences. Hopefully this wall of text has shed a bit light on the creation of Moonsorrow´s sound throughout the years, and I thank you for actually reading this far. We´re currently in the process of composing our new album, which is scheduled to be recorded at end of 2014 if everything goes as planned. Expect to hear traces of everything listed here with a ton of new elements and other nasty tricks up our sleeve.

Hails,

Henri Urponpoika Sorvali, Moonsorrow.

Soundscape Magazine / February 2015

Link
Alternative link

February 20th, 2015. York, England. Click the link above, because the interviewer doesn't seem to want it compiled.

Pagan Storm Radio / March 2015

Brescia, Italy, right before Bixia Obscura Festival.

TRANSCRIPTION

Welcome to Pagan Storm and thank you for your time. Let's start from the future of the band... You've always worked silently to your albums: how is it with the writing process and the preparings going? Are you pretty satisfied yet, or not?

Mitja: Yes, we've been working on it for a long time actually, and we even almost composed the whole album, and then we deleted it completely and started again. Right now we're again pretty much on the final run of the songs, 30% of the album is still unfinished, but other than that it's going great.

Can you tell us a period in which you think will the new album came out?

Ville: Not yet, but it's probably gonna be out a year from now.

 

A year from now?

 

Ville: Along those lines.

In the next fall, something like that?

Ville: Fall... or winter.

Mitja: The timelines are so long. If we go to the studio in summer, it means it's gonna come out late that year, or even next year.

During the years, you actually have forged your very own trademarks: what do we have to expect from the new album? Maybe something new from this point of view?

Mitja: I would say, we never try to find an album and repeat it sound-wise again. It's gonna be very different from the last one, and again, it's going to be a very different mix of elements completely. That's something we always do, and the time we find out we cannot do it any more, that we cannot find a new approach or a new aspect to the music any more, then it will mean that we have come to the end of... But so far so good, it sounds great.

Ville: I'd say the new album sound-wise is gonna be more black metal than doom metal.

In the latest stuff of your career, starting from Verisäkeet, one of your trademarks are long timing and structured songs. How will the new songs be under this point of view?

Mitja: It's not gonna be that long songs this time. They are long for sure, it's very hard to get out of the 15-minute format that we found on Verisäkeet, but it's not going to be 30-minute songs or anything. We really didn't want to repeat ourselves in that aspect either.

Ville: Definitely, on our scale there are gonna be radio hits. [Something something] is gonna be a real radio hit then, compared to our previous works it's gonna be more accessible.

Good for us, because we are a radio and it's very difficult to share your songs, we have to cut them. How do you work in creating new stuff, usually? From what do you begin? Do you work all together or each on his own?

Mitja: We don't.

Ville: The magic just happens. Nah, it's Henri who does most of the work, and he does it at home.

Mitja: Everybody can contribute to that process and give riffs and songs and ideas, and usually we either just send him the material or we go to his place and we have sessions with him, or we start arranging the songs. It might be that the next day everything that we did is gone already. He's very fast when he's working, when he starts building up a song he can write five or six minutes in no time, with all the orchestrations and instruments, but if he feels "nah, this isn't good enough," he just presses delete or puts it in some folder that's hidden somewhere. It's amazing what kind of stuff you can find there over the years.

Ville: Years of folders.

Mitja: Yeah, if you find them.

Ville: Legendary riffs that will never be released. For the good of everyone.

I think from the deleted part of Moonsorrow maybe seven or eight good bands can grow and publish a lot of good albums.

Ville: Maybe seven or eight bands, but I don't know about the "good" part.

One year ago, your "Heritage: 1995-2008 - The Collected Works" came out in only 100 copies. Why did you choose to press them on such limited quantity?

Mitja: Actually it was 450 copies, there's just 100 of each edition, because there are different ones: plain black vinyl, white, splatter, and then the diehard one that was 150 copies. The whole point was: if you make such a deluxe item, it's very costly to produce anyway, there's no point in pressing two thousand units or something, because if even 100 of them don't get sold, the company would go bankrupt completely. It was done based on the demand and assumptions of how many people would buy it. And it was very carefully planned in every stage of it.

But it sold all copies, I think.

Mitja: Yes, it sold out pretty fast. I would say, if we had 50 more it would be still be sold out, but I think it was very cleverly calculated how many would move.

It would be interesting to know your favourite bands, and then the ones that in your opinion have influenced Moonsorrow's music the most.

Ville: Venom. (laughs) No. I don't even like them.

At all?

Ville: No, I really don't. Bathory I do, they copied Venom a bit in the beginning and then they copied Manowar. It made it so much better! One fo my favourites definitely, and you can probably hear it in Moonsorrow's music as well.

Mitja: When you hear Manowar in Moonsorrow's music it means we've been copying Bathory. There are lots of bands, like Enslaved, that influence us all actually, very much. Also the language thing, that you don't have to sing in English. It was one of the first bands we came across that actually made us think: wait a minute, you don't need to sing in English, you can do this in your own language or... Well, it wasn't their own language, it was Icelandic or whatever they were using, but...

Ville: Their ancestors' language.

Mitja: But it's much more interesting to do it in different ways than the other bands. Of course we all have our personal preferences, like Slayer and so on, which doesn't have anything to do with Moonsorrow, and then King Crimson has been very influential for many of us, you can also hear it in the music, we have this progressive rock element and that's definitely from there. But I would say Scandinavian black metal is the key, like many bands.

Ville: And Satan.

Mitja: Of course.

It is not a band, so...

Mitja: It IS a band! From the UK!

Ville: Very true.

Are there any bands born after the year 2000 that you enjoy or usually listen to, or even non-metal bands?

Ville: There's so very few of them, because I don't follow music any more. I just listen to what I used to listen to when I was a kid. I don't find that many new bands. There are a lot of interesting bands, of course, music is constantly evolving, it's not like all the music after 2000 has to be crap, there's a lot of good bands, but I'm just too lazy to check them out. I know a few, but...

Mitja: For me it's the same thing, unfortunately. For example, in 98 or 99 I grew tired of the black metal explosion, because there were so many bands coming up that I couldn't follow it any more, and then I realized most of those were crappy anyway. Then, after a few years I started to listen to the new bands again and I think black metal is still doing very well right now, for a few years already. That's interesting. But it's very hard when you've lived the years where you find your favourite bands and all these things to follow all the time some new forms of metal, for example. I do listen to a lot of other stuff also, but it's very hard to find new metal bands that would really catch me.

In the end of the 90s there was a blast of new bands coming out from Scandinavia, something similar to what happened in the 60s in Great Britain  for the Rock Music. Why, in your opinion, this situations occur?

Mitja: There are many reasons, but one thing... Well, I can only speak for Finnish bands, and I know that we didn't have a national identity in what comes to music or metal or rock music really, we had some really good local bands singing in Finnish but we didn't have any breakthrough internationally until some bands started to do what they really wanted to do in their on way, and not trying to copy Swedish or American bands or something, and they started really gaining attention, and other young upcoming bands realized they could do that in their own way, they could do this a bit similarly or something and take influence, and suddenly they're just growing and growing en masse and you get this huge scene that's lifting up. In Finland it caught on during the early 2000s.

Are there not economical reasons, in your opinion, or political ones, social...? Only musical?

Ville: I would say that Finland has always been a very safe and boring country when it comes to economy and politics, there are no big uproars anywhere in our history

Mitja: And if you have a band and want to make money with it, you're already going on the wrong track, because none of the bands who formed and became successful and influential started it for the money. It would be the worst business move to form a band. (laughs) Anything is better than that.

You can just go to pop.

Mitja: Even that is difficult. You have to be really talented to make it in pop music.

Ville: My advice would be to work for bands.

 

Not for money?

 

Ville: Not work in a band, but work for bands. Like the technician or whatever, outside the band, so that the band pays you, and you get money. The band doesn't get money.

Thnk you, this interview is Finnished, thank you very much.

 

Transcribed on March 15th 2021. Thanks for appreciating the phonetic license I took at the end, glad you noticed what I did there. Aren't I hilarious?