Interviews

First of all, how are you?

Fine, thank you. A bit of a messy organisation but everything turned out good at the end. So... looking forward to get some sleep.

You've already played on bigger festivals like Wacken last year for example. If you compare it to the smaller gig venues, what are the differences for you and which kind of shows do you prefer yourself?

Hm, I think we like both because they are so different in a way. Wacken and even this location here in Lichtenfels today is kind of a bigger show with a big crowd which is cool but then on the other hand we played in London on Friday for 500 people, very small venue, totally packed...

Jussi Wickström (guitar) (whispers): Torstai.

On Thursday, okay. That brings out a different side of us, I think. So on a bigger stage it's easier to get it going but then again on small stages it's much more intensive with the audience... so we enjoy both.

What does it feel like playing outside Finland? Do you prefer playing in your home country or anywhere else?

Actually we don't play much in Finland at all. I don't know why. The last show we played in Finland was last midsummer in June so it's almost a year ago.
So we played one show in Finland last year. We don't play much there and of course it's always a bit different to play in your home country. When we do shows there we tend to do stuff which we can't do abroad because it gets too expensive to involve 20 people for the show and for the crew and all kinds of stuff. So it's always a bit special to play in Finland but when we landed in Nürnberg coming from London last night we said “Okay, Germany... we're home!”

You want to record a new album this year. How are things going, any news?

We're running a bit delayed on it at the moment. The initial idea was to have everything set, do these shows, get back to Finland and go to the studio and start recording. At the moment we're not able to do that, so it's kind of re-scheduled and pushed forward. The schedule is a bit up in the air at the moment, so hopefully we'll be really working on the new album throughout summer. We'll see when we get it to the point that we can actually go to a studio but we're doing so much outside the studio at my home. I'm doing a lot there all the time and have been doing that for a couple of years, working for the album already. So it's a big piece of work and very challenging. We'll see.

What will the new album sound like, will there be any new elements on it which weren't there on the first one? Can you reveal anything about that?

The new album is kind of different in a way, we have a completely different approach to it because we're working on a very historically tight concept album or story. We have a writer for that story who is outside of the band and involved in all that at the moment. I met him in Berlin a few weeks back and we did start with him. So we will come up with this story which will go through the whole album, maybe even continue on the third album. It's a big concept and there's a lot of research to be made and that's what I've been doing for the last couple of years already, you know, studying up, reading, getting background information, kind of plotting everything up. Now we reached the point of the actual writing process on the more prose lyrical side that is beginning now. Musically all the main themes are pretty much done but there is still a lot of work and a lot of arrangements and a lot of programming of samples and this kind of stuff. It will probably be somewhat more massive, kind of epic, orchestrated, more into the soundtrack direction. I think it's right to capture that story in the music as well.

You also have a myspace-site now. What's your opinion about this 'myspace-rush' that's going on at the moment? Everyone has to have a site there...

Well, I don't know. It's basically up there because it is a good kind of channel for people to find new bands. There are a lot of people just hanging out and, you know, commenting back and forth on pictures or whatever, which kind of appears to be more or less a waste of time but if someone likes it it's no problem for me. We have it generally for exploiding ourselves over there, especially in the US it's huge, and we are getting so much exploitation in the US otherwise, so it's a good channel for that.

Something more general... we know that you're the one in the band who is pretty much interested in literature. Who's your favourite writer?

I haven't been reading any kind of prose literature for ages. Mainly historical researches and this kind of stuff. I can't really pick one. I have been a lot into reading sagas and this stuff which goes more into the historical part and, you know, pick your favourite historian is not that relevant. (to Jussi) Maybe you can answer if you have one... he is reading a lot.

Jussi: Hm, yeah, I read much historical stuff at the moment also. So some normal books I haven't read anything like over a year, so I can't name anything like my favourite writer.

So you don't have one.

Which part of history? Is it based on Finnish history or of the whole world or...?

The concept we are working on is tying us up quite much at the moment and I can't reveal that actual idea or what it is at that stage yet but it's... I'd say European history between centuries 800 and 1100.

I asked this question last time already but I didn't have the interview with you, so that was kind of a problem… How important is Zacharias Topelius for you? I'm asking because there were some Swedish quotes in one song on the last album, is there anything special about him for you?

Hm, there indeed was at one time, and when I got the idea and really excited about the theme was when I was reading his work "The Surgeon's Stories". I really haven't read a lot of his other works, so I can't say... Well, I don't have any special relationship or anything with this writer but the text and the kind of theme and idea fitted the song. It was a really early idea to make a song based on that time in history, the Thirty Years War, and the novel he wrote just describes it in a very good way. I liked the idea of it being a fictional story but still he has really done good research and all the background, so there's nothing really contradictory in a way, there's nothing which couldn't have been for real. And this is maybe something we're trying to go for in the next album or albums. So the concept story is fictional but with a lot of references to historical facts and persons. This will make it kind of interesting because you can then maybe find something deeper if you have the knowledge or if you are interested in going to the library and search up backgrounds and stuff.

Which influence have the works of Finnish national writers like Aleksis Kivi or classics like the Kalevala on your lyrics?

Pretty much none. We write in English mostly, so it's very distant from that world. The Kalevala again... there will actually be one song most likely on the new album which is more or less tight to Kalevala and something from that Finnish mythology world - probably even to the point of using some texts straight from there. So we started and I liked the kind of abstract world and abstract way of thinking which to a modern day person may sound kind of incomprehensible in a way. In midst the world can be formed, anything can happen, there might be a person who's bigger than the world and walks... So... to get back on topic, I don't think they influence the lyrical writing directly in any way. Aleksis Kivi is especially not important. He wrote about much more modern things maybe than we do. And the Kalevala is kind of a cornerstone but it's still distant because we don't directly do many things which deal with Kalevala and its meanings.

What about the song writing – how can we imagine your work on new songs? What comes first, lyrics or melodies? Is it like you sit down and write a new song because you need more material now or do you wait until you get an idea?

Well, this is the thing now that is kind of interesting because we have a different approach of writing this time. Normally we are writing from a musical idea which has a certain sound or something, then you get a musical idea of a small piece or a small theme which sounds very good and then you can kind of get the idea of what it's about, even if there's no text in it. And then you fit that in. But we are working on a concept album now, we do a lot of things from the story board-like perspective. We have a story and a drama line to follow to make it kind of interesting. Every song ties every song into each other... it's a big challenge and now we need to go both ways because we have something on the musical side done and some ideas on the story or lyrical side which we need to fit the music with and vice versa, so it goes both ways. (thinks) I could add to that one still that writing the actual lyrics is really the final, the last thing because it's more about having the idea of what it's about and what the story or the theme or idea is and to fit the music to that. The actual lyrics are so much tied up with things like writing and making it fit. If I just take a piece of paper and write something it won't work in a musical way the best way, so from this point of view mostly the lyrics have to fit in, they have to be adjusted to fit the music and not the other way round, that's the most usual thing.

As Turisas is a band with lots of folk elements and also judging from the topics of your lyrics, wouldn't it fit more if you'd sing in Finnish? Or do you think the language issue is always overrated?

There are a lot of bands that sing in Finnish and that are successful and people like them. I don't know if people grasp the idea what a song from a band is actually about. Many bands translate their lyrics, so that would be possible.
It would be easier to write in your mother tongue in a way and you could use language in a completely different way than writing in a language which is foreign to you but... I don't know, I think in English it kind of seems natural. For some things using Finnish or Swedish or Chinese... if it fits the idea, then why not? Well, from this perspective now when I'm thinking of it, it would probably make more sense to do more stuff in Finnish but then again it's maybe the same thing as many movies made about Rome or wherever, they are in English to make more people understand.

I don't know if you want to talk about that... about Georg, who had an accident, how is he doing at the moment?

Well... fine and not fine, I guess. I mean he's not with us here now and if he ever will be is still to be seen. He's still in rehab. We haven't published much news about it lately, mainly because I have been waiting for a long time for him to give a statement for me and I got nothing, so we haven't had much to publish. But basically the situation is that he's in a wheelchair at the moment and there are many things with coordination -from fingers to feet- in a way not working, so obviously playing the guitar is not the first thing at the moment. It's more like learning to walk and stuff like this. So it is completely to be seen. We got so many prognoses like "he will be paralysed from the neck down" but still he isn't, and some doctors were saying he won't be able to talk anymore... they kind of lost their meaning in a way and nobody is giving out any prognoses anymore at this point, so it's kind of a long process and nobody actually knows how well they can get something back to work or not.
But his mind is running sharp and I think he's in good spirits anyway, so he's like the same person still and there's no harm to his head or anything. I haven't noticed him being pissed off or kind of depressed or anything about that situation, I don't know. I think he's kind of the fighter spirit, so whatever the case, he will be able to fight on and enjoy maybe life in a different way.

How did you and he react towards the masses of fan mails etc.?

It was kind of overwhelming. There was a lot of mail and postcards by snailmail coming to the hospital address and our guest book and forums and everything were flooded with greetings. I think it played a huge role because everything was delivered to him and read to him. Even when he was not conscious they were read to him. Yeah, I think it played a huge role because there were a lot of people just saying "Don't give up" and "Keep on fighting".

For we are a webzine about Finnish metal bands, I have to ask something about the metal scene in Finland in general.
As there are quite a few pagan metal or folk influenced bands hailing from Finland at the moment, is it hard to compete with other bands and to be still innovative in this category of metal? What do you think about the hype going on at the moment?

I don't think there's a big competition going on with folk/pagan/Viking metal bands coming from Finland. All the bands are pretty different at the end of the day anyway. The successful ones of them bring more audience to the other ones as well, so at a certain level it's more kind of teamwork than a competition between bands, I think. And here, last night when we arrived, it was kind of an interesting situation, there was more Finnish spoken at the backstage entry because there were guys from Monsorrow and the guys from Korpiklaani and so on. But I think we don't compete that much with each other in that way.

As you're coming from the Hämeenlinna area, what do you think, is it harder for a band which doesn't come from metal centres like Helsinki or Oulu for example to get recognized?

I don't think it really matters in terms of getting shows or getting a record deal or whatever. That's more based on what you have to offer. But I would say it's different because we are kind of outside. Of course we know many of the other bands and the persons on a more professional level but we're not like very personal friends. We are not with them, so even if it's just an hour away we still are kind of outside a circle where everybody knows everybody very closely. We're more distant in that way and you know, not following what's going on in Helsinki all the time. I think it's actually better that way for us than being very tied up in the whole... Helsinki is very small. We're on the outside but still we see most people at shows many times and so on, but we are not personal friends with them.

Is there anything left unmentioned? Any last statement or anything you'd like to add...

No, not really. This whole last words thing is kind of... everybody is asking it but I never understood what you're actually supposed to say. What do you expect?

Hm... some people say "sorry for my bad English" or Moonsorrow told us about Schnitzel and Bratwurst and their tour diet yesterday... (laughs)

Buy our new album and come to see our shows and bla bla bla... (rolls his eyes) So now only the speculation on the point of this eternal question hanging in there as the last one.

Okay, thanks for the interview!