Interviews

Was everyone on the same page with the decision to put the band to rest? Did anyone not want it to end?
Yes, eventually everyone was on the same page. The decision was not something we rushed into, it took us almost 2 years to go through the whole process before recording the last album. Obviously it wasn’t an easy decision, but I’m still 100 % sure it was the right call. Continuing would have meant a lot of compromises, and Sentenced was always a band that hated any kind of compromises. Doing it the way we did – with a conceptual funeral album and a farewell tour – actually fits us better than anything else. This is the way it was supposed to be.

Did you all have the same reasons for deciding to go out on a high note? What were your reasons?
More or less, yes. We were never a band that enjoyed touring, and there was just going to be more and more of it. On the other hand a couple of us already had families and going away all the time was becoming harder and harder. There comes a time when you just have to decide what is more important, and family of course comes first when it comes to that. You can double-check that with the Corleone family… At the same time we also had the opportunity to make a difference with our ending, to do something that wasn’t really done before, and something that still fitted to everything we had done before. And writing our own swan song, that was probably the most challenging and interesting task we ever had. We were all thrilled about it. And still are.

Can you give give us a run down on what each of the Sentenced members are doing now? (Well this interview will let people know what you're up to, and most know Ville has a band called Poison Black).
Ville has Poisonblack, they released their second album “Lust Stained Despair” last year and toured for it quite a bit. Check it out if you yet haven’t, it’s a great band. Sami K. also has a band, in which he plays guitar, but for the moment they are more or less just jamming together. I haven’t heard any specific plans on recording or anything like that yet.

Miika and Vesa have been planning on putting together a new band for quite some time now. That will certainly be worth checking out when they get things going, I guarantee it. Vesa is also a professional photographer and puts a lot of his time to that these days, and recently he also opened a bar in Oulu with a couple of his friends. The bar is called PSK Kaupunni. The Sentenced coffin is in that bar, by the way…

Do you stay in contact, and hang out, with the former Sentenced dudes?
Sure, all the time. Including Taneli Jarva. There was never any bad blood between any of us, so naturally we are still in contact.

Do you expect to do a reunion show in say 5 to 10 years? Or maybe someday reunite to do a new album? Sentenced pioneered a lot of new ground for bands and for metal in Finland, I expect your legacy and cries for some kind of a reunion will be heard loudly and for a long time!
No, there won’t be anything like that. The band is buried and there will be no afterlife for Sentenced. The stupidest thing after an ending like that would be to reunite. Comebacks are for scumbags.

Would you once again like to start a band and take it to the levels Sentenced attained; tour the world, release albums, etc.? OR...do you view performing music more as a hobby now?
No, at least what comes touring the world, and by this I mean heavy 4-6 weeks tours 2-3 times per year. Doing shows here and there is good fun though. Releasing albums with another (new) band is in plans already, and taking everything up from zero is interesting and inspiring as hell. But yes, the plan is to keep the stuff more or less on the hobby-level. That doesn’t of course mean that I’d write new stuff half-heartedly or something. It’s always all or nothing with that.

What do you miss the most AND the least with regards to Sentenced? Do you miss the spotlight, touring, and the attention?
I don’t really miss any of those things. I was never that comfortable in the “spotlight” or in the midst of attention anyway. What I miss is writing music with those 4 other bastards. All of them are very talented and during the years we found a writing method that was working 100 %. I think we also managed to create a style of our own, and that still feels great. We had some glorious moments on tour as well, but they always came in the same bag with a huge chunk of shit, you know – the other stuff that’s related to touring… But anyway: the good memories remain and can never be taken away, whatever happens.

How long of a break was it after the last show before you played guitar again and what was that like?
It was more than a year. That was weird, I surprised even myself with that. I kept the guitar home under the bed, and just never felt an obsession to drag it out of there until recently. Then again, I’ve played drums once a week all the way through. Maybe that was enough to let the steam out. Until recently…

Are you now playing guitar daily or how often?
At the moment 3-4 times in a week. I’m writing new stuff which is always an on-going process and even forces me to grab the thing all the time.

I understand you've been doing a bit of jamming recently. Tell me about it and what the plans are.
Yeah, in the drums! I can’t really play, but I can play enough so to speak. We have this band called T. Mäkelä & Märäntynyt Hauki (which translates to T. Mäkelä & The Rotten Pike). The music is… well, some perverted rock with folk music influences, hard to describe in words really. The not-so-radio-friendly lyrics are in Finnish. I’m purely just the drummer in that band, I don’t write any of the music or the lyrics. It’s a great freedom to only go to the cellar once a week, beat the fucking things there for 90 minutes and then just fuck off. We have a lot of songs already and who knows, we might end up in the studio one of these days.

What happened to the Sentenced song "The Glow of the Thousands Suns" that was recorded for some rare 5-song promo did back in the day (the Taneli Jarva -era)? Why did it never get released officially, in one format or another?
There was another song as well from that session, work titled “Amok-Run”. The tape was recorded 1993 or 1994 I think. They weren’t released simply because it was just a demo. We still have the songs lying around though, and now when it’s all over we might as well throw them onto some release, for those who are interested to hear them. A lot of people certainly have been asking for them during the years.

At the end of your live performance on the DVD, Ville says something like 'and now we reach the hard part of the evening, the last song'. As a fan, that was quite an emotional moment to witness, even on DVD. I can only imagine what it was like for you. What kind of thoughts were in your mind at that time?
Yes, that was hard on stage. A variety of emotions went through us during the whole set, but especially with the last song. Personally I was in tears through the whole song, “End Of The Road”. Mostly out of being grateful for all those years and of course for the very last evening, being able to finish like that – in our hometown in front of an audience like that. I’ll never forget that. And if I do, I can now put on the DVD and go through our own funeral all over again…

Looking back over your time with Sentenced, do you hold any regrets or wish things might have gone down differently? Would you do it all over again?
I think regret is useless after you’ve learnt from your mistakes. Certainly there are things I’m not too proud of, but they are part of our history too and I accept it. We always did just what we felt like and I think that always pays off, even if you change your mind about some things later on. Work hard to please yourself, and in the long run you will please others as well. If I was 13 again, I’d probably do the whole thing again.