Metal Wani / January 2014

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INTERVIEW: MOONSORROW Singer - “We Have Always Liked To Challenge Ourselves And The Listeners And Not Go The Easiest Route”

In the deeply vaste lands of black and folk metal, Moonsorrow have flourished and thrived. From the cold wintery lands of Finland, the brainchild of the Sorvali cousins (Henri and Ville) have definitely made a name for themselves, not only amongst the Scandinavian Metal scene, but beyond. Singing in Finnish and labeling themselves “epic heathen metal”, Moonsorrow have six epic albums (as well as one EP) under their belt. The latest album, “Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa” saw the light of day in 2011. Moonsorrow are, undoubtedly, one of the finest in the genre, distinguishing themselves by incorporating accordion, jaw harp and tin whistle in their songs. Their particular brand of epicness translates quite deftly into long and imposing monoliths of sound, as they draw their inspirations from black and folk metal, with a hint of progressive rock in between.

Metal Wani writer Vânia F. Silva recently caught up with vocalist, bassist and lyricist Ville Sorvali. During this interview, Ville discusses Moonsorrow's sound and lyrics in Finnish, commercial success and much more. Read the entire chat below –

Greetings from Metal Wani. Let me start by thanking you for taking the time to answer our questions. Since this is our first time with you guys, I would like to start with the basics. How did Moonsorrow came to existence?

Ville - Hello there! We started with Moonsorrow in 1995, so we've been around for quite a while now. In the beginning it was just me and my cousin Henri making some demos, but in 2000 we finally got a record deal and found a complete line-up for the band.

There’s an aspect of you guys that I find quite peculiar: The band’s name is the only thing about Moonsorrow that’s in English, since all your compositions are in Finnish. Don’t you find this a bit ironic?

Ville - When we started with the band, the lyrics were in English. When we started to write in Finnish (sometime around 1998), we simply didn't feel like changing the name anymore.

I’ve watched one of your interviews in which you adamantly stated that you will never write your own material in English. Why is this so?

Ville - Never again, to be precise (the first demo was indeed in English). When we started writing in Finnish, it immediately felt like the best solution for Moonsorrow. The Finnish language fits our themes just perfectly, and since it's my mother tongue it also gives me a complete freedom of expression as a lyric writer. It has also given a certain image to the band over the years, so changing back to English now would be a strange move indeed.

But wouldn’t writing in English increase your reach when it comes to fandom, or is this something you are not interested in?

Ville - We've made a name for ourselves by being what we are. Surely writing in English would make our material more accessible, but it could also potentially intimidate our original fanbase. While fame and fortune are nice things to have, of course, I'd never aim at them by making compromises.

You mostly write about paganism, folklore and war. However, in your most recent album, “Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa”, you’ve dwelled into the end of the world. Are there any other lyrical themes you would like to experiment with?

Ville - In the early years we had this one thematical box we played in, and it was heavily based on stories about mythology and legends. After three albums I started to feel a bit trapped, so I  started to explore a bit outside of that box too. "The end of the world" -concept had always fascinated me, and I finally had the chance to dwell into it on "Viides Luku: Hävitetty" and even further on "Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa". However, the next album is going to be something different again. Even I don't know much about it yet. ;)

Even though you had previously done long songs, “V: Hävitetty” was your first album to contain only two tracks, each of a very long duration. What moved you to do such a thing? How risky was it?

Ville - We just felt we needed to do it. Why? To prove ourselves that we can, I suppose. We have always liked to challenge ourselves and the listeners and not go the easiest route. We are constantly aware of the risks of "commercial suicide" but we don't really care.

Your sound has been changing throughout the years – Your demos were much more black metal than your debut, folk-metal, album “Suden Uni”. Then you steadily started shifting to the pretty much progressive heathen black metal you’re doing nowadays. Why the changes? Were you not satisfied with your sound, or did you just want to go back to your roots?

Ville - We don't like standing still, so we are always seeking to develop our sound. We are very much satisfied by all of our previous works, but we don't want to re-do any of them. Progressive rock and black metal might be the strongest connecting links between all the members of Moonsorrow, so elements of these two have naturally surfaced quite often on our albums.

Your artwork is also pretty different from album to album. I feel like you don’t exactly have a pattern, a distinctive and consistent style which you follow every time. How is your artwork decided each time?

Ville - We never sketch the cover art before we have most of the music and lyrics to show for (with the exception of "Suden Uni", both original and re-issue, for which suitable paintings already existed). It's our way to aim at conceptual integrity, and so the covers naturally turn out very different from each other. We have also intentionally used a different cover artist each time.

I must say that the Metallica and Merciless covers you did for the “Tulimyrsky” EP sound pretty impressive. Both of them are completely unexpected, but very Moonsorrow. What compelled you to cover these songs, despite these influences not being directly apparent in the sound that Moonsorrow has forged for itself?

Ville - When talking of the founding duo of Moonsorrow (me and Henri), Metallica and Merciless both had an important role in our musical upbringing. However, the choice of these two covers in particular was purely accidental. Henri made fitting Moonsorrow-style arrangements for both, Metallica just for the fun of it, and Merciless because we already recorded the Metallica cover and wanted to pair it with another. As the whole point of cover songs, in my opinion, is to sound more like the covering band than the original, I think both of these turned out pretty nice.

Can the fans expect more blackened versions of popular metal songs done by Moonsorrow in the future?

Ville - We have experimented on a few others, however we haven't managed to lay the same Moonsorrow-spirit on them as Metallica and Merciless got. We will only record something if it's truly worth recording, otherwise it's just for our own amusement at the rehearsal place.

It’s been an year since you’ve shifted labels and signed with Century Media. Instead of recording a new album, you went on to collaborate with Blood Music on a Box Set comprising of previous collected works of yours. Is there any kind of pressure for you to start working on a new album?

Ville - Indeed we have been signed to Century Media for quite a time already without doing a new album for them. However, they know us very well and they know that putting pressure on us doesn't help in creating new quality material. They will get their album eventually, and I have all the reason to believe that they will be happy with it. The box set was already discussed with Blood Music before any new record deal, it just took its time to take shape and is coincidentally happening now.

Last month you’ve toured Australia and by the end of this month you’ll besharing a stage with Rotting Christ in Tel-Aviv. These are pretty distinctive places – Are there any plans of going to another distinctive place such as India?

Ville - We've always liked to go to new places, so naturally we anticipated both trips (Australia and Israel) with a certain level of excitement. Basically we'd want to play anywhere where people want to see us play, but quite often it's not so simple, due to money, logistics or whatever. India would we a welcome trip as well, let's see if we can make it one day!

As a wrap-up, do you have any message you’d like to leave to your fans all around the world? Maybe to that one small-time band still in their basement, singing in their own language, dreaming of making it big?

Ville - Remember: music is for fun, recreation and therapy. Only a selected few will ever make it big, and it doesn't make the music made by others any less valuable. If you stay true to what you really want to create and refuse to compromise, you will feel proud of your work regardless of whether it sells records or not. And if you manage to sell those records and make a living out of it, consider yourself exceptionally lucky.

We would like to thank Ville for being available to respond to our enquiries, as well as for being so patient and kind! We wish him and the remaining members of Moonsorrow much fortune in all their future ventures and hope to write "Moonsorrow working on new album" soon enough.

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.

SF Media / October 2013

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Interview: Moonsorrow

By Jeremy Vane-Tempest

Finnish metal band MOONSORROW are heading our way this November. We sat down with lead guitarist Mitja Harvilahti to chat about Australia, wombat wrestling and venereal diseases.

First things first, though. MOONSORROW is what Mitja describes as a “pagan metal band with elements of black metal to traditional Scandinavian music with prog rock elements here and there.” What he’s trying to say is that it’s freaking awesome. Their most recent album, entitled ‘Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa’, was released last year. We just had one queston for Mitja: what the hell does that mean?

“It means ‘As Shadows We Roam The Land Of The Dead’, he laughed. “It´s a very conceptual album, it has a post-apocalyptic story line of group of people that are searching for life and future in the dead world. It´s our first complete concept album and everything the music, lyrics and the art work goes hand in hand with the story. I recommend people to buy the vinyl copy of it to enjoy it in the best possible way, with the big pictures of the gatefold.”

“CD really killed the visuality from music, and internet downloading killed the rest, but vinyl is coming back! We have a huge 13 LP Collector’s Edition Box coming out next year! That is, at the moment, the biggest LP box ever in the history of metal. It will be gorgeous with all the art and extra stuff.  Very limited and very collectable too.”

Sounds badass! What’s even more badass is that MOONSORROW are hitting our shores in November for the first time in the band’s eighteen year history. Mitja is understandably stoked. “We are super excited,” he enthused. “It’s really exciting to get to tour on a new continent for us, and Australia is such an exotic location to Finns that it´s even better. None of us have visited Australia before, so it´s a great chance for us to come for a tour! We have no idea how big we are over there, so it will be interesting but also a little nerve wracking. We have no clue if there will be full house every night or two guys and a dog! But from what I know of Australian mentality, the crowd will be crazy and interactive with the bands. That´s what we want to see, because that way we can give the best show possible!”

Mitja continued, genuine excitement reverberating through his words. “We wanted to come for a long time, people have writing to us and asking us to come for years. That was nice but we couldn’t do anything. We don´t book our shows. We can’t just say ‘Hey, let´s go to Australia!’ It has to come from the local promoters and tour organisers. I guess there was so much noise about us that Metropolis Touring took the task, and here we are, coming to Australia finally! So big thanks goes to the fans! And Metropolis, naturally.”

It’s not all sunshine and lollipops down here, though. The vast majority of our native fauna is quite capable of killing the unwary traveller. Still, they’ll have to hug a koala, right? “I happen to know that many koalas are carrying chlamydia!” Mitja exclaimed. “I´m not hugging those dirty, STD infested fur balls! I think I´m going for wombat wrestling instead.”

“Seriously though, we’ll try anything,” he continued. “Learning to surf, drinking beer, getting wasted, going to museums and seeing some wildlife would be awesome! The Australian continent has such interesting fauna. That, for me, is the biggest attraction. Unfortunately, our schedule is so tight that I think hugging a koala would be the closest thing we can see of the natural environment. Frankly, just to get a glimpse of each city would be cool. If you people reading this have any suggestions of what to do in each city, we are more than happy to get some info at our Facebook page!”

Well, fans. You heard the man. Hit up their Facebook page and them what they should do in Australia!

Tour Dates

Wednesday 20th November – Hi Fi, Brisbane
Thursday 21st November – The Gov, Adelaide
Friday 22nd November – Manning Bar, Sydney
Saturday 23rd November – Hi Fi, Melbourne
Sunday 24th November – Rosemount, Perth

Trash Baggery / October 2013

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07 Oct. 2013

Dark Souls Intertwining Australia

Metalheads get excited. Finnish metal band Moonsorrow are hitting our shores for the first time this November and are set to rock.
Incorporating black metal and progressive rock with traditional Scandinavian music, these guys take listeners on a heathen metal journey immersing them in their unique sound and epic musical sagas.

Lead guitarist Mitja Harvilahti filled us in on the Dark Souls Intertwining Australia tour and what to expect when Moonsorrow hit town.

I. Can’t. Wait.

As your first tour in Australia, what are you looking forward to most?

Heh, everything! First of all, the shows of course! That’s why we’re coming anyway. But it’s really exciting to play on a new continent and none of us have visited Australia before, so naturally we are looking forward to new experiences.
We don’t have too much time off, since every day we hop on the plane and get to a new city, but we do our best to get a glimpse of each city we play in.

Why has it taken you this long to get over here? We can’t wait to see you!

I have no idea! We’ve been waiting for this for a long time as well.
I must say that the feedback from Australia have been growing a lot during the last 2 years so maybe it’s only now a good time for us to finally come over. We never had any promotion in OZ except of the social media and however people find new bands. So it takes its time for the word to spread.
But we are thankful for the fans for making noise about us!

What can fans expect from the show?

Fans can expect very energetic shows that will cover material through the whole discography, not just new stuff. I think it’s fair, since many of you have been waiting for a long time and know our stuff thoroughly. We will surely give the best shows we can! And I hope the crowd is as crazy as we’ve heard!

For audiences who are new to you guys, how do you describe your sound?

I usually describe it as blackish metal with elements from traditional Scandinavian music and influenced by progressive rock. We call it Pagan Metal but often we are put in the category of Folk Metal. In the Folk Metal genre we represent the more epic and darker side of it.

Who influences your music?

Many, many bands but the main influences for Moonsorrow as whole are King Crimson, Bathory, many early BM bands, Enslaved, traditional Finnish and Scandinavian music, Pekka Pohjola, Slayer, Pink Floyd.

If you could collaborate with any artist/s, dead or alive, who would it be?

Jeff Hanneman, Kraftwerk, Quorthon, Slash, Motörhead, John Lennon, Windir, Anal Cunt. That’s about it right now!

Party hard or chill in your hotel room, how do you guys celebrate after a gig on tour?

Well that really depends on the day and on the tour.
On a tour like this we will hang out and party after the shows for sure!
But if the tour is long, we start taking it more easy at some point or occasionally. Some guys party more and some might go straight to bed after the show, depending on the day. That’s the nice thing about tours; you’re quite free to do as you please. If you’re in a mood for a party, there is always someone to join. Especially when you’re touring in a big nightliner with 18-21 people. You have the upper “deck” for sleeping and relaxing and downstairs there might be a 24/7 party going on! Like in a party boat! I miss that traveling right now. Been home for waaaay too long. So we’re glad to have some action and come to play some shows!



Dark Souls Intertwining Australia – November 2013

Wednesday 20th –  Brisbane – Hi Fi
Thursday 21st –  Adelaide – The Gov
Friday 22nd – Sydney – Manning Bar
Saturday 23rd – Melbourne – Hi Fi
Sunday 24th – Perth – Rosemount Hotel

Julienne Gillet

The Offering / September 2012

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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.