Interviews

Text: Kris & the support :)

The WebTeam thanks Ike and Sami for the interview and hopes that Embraze will soon get a new contract, record new albums, play gigs and make the fans all around the globe bang their heads once again. ROCK ON!!!

As we know usually the story of Finnish bands starts like that: two (insert any number here) guys have been friends since early childhood (once met), played guitars, wrote songs but had no band… and one day they decided to gather all the stuff together and make the band :) Is the story of Embraze same or different?

Ilkka: Lauri and I knew each other long before we formed Embraze. He played guitar and I played drums so in the end of '94 we decided to form a band
that we could have something to do in this little village called Kiiminki. It was a great way to spend some time and have fun

Was Embraze the first name the band got and whose idea was that?

Ilkka: Lauri had a piece of paper where he had scratched a few proposals. And there Embrace was between the other names and we liked it most. Later came
out that there was another Embrace in England, so we had to change the whole name. Someone came up with an idea, if we replace letter C with Z, we can keep the name. All in all EMBRAZE looks much better than written with C.

How did Embraze deal with the common metal problem of military service (absence of bandmembers & cut hair)?

Ilkka: It wasn't really a problem. Hair grows back and military service in Finland is only from 6 months to 12.

How would you describe your music to people who’ve never heard of Embraze?

Sami: Rock-metal filled with guitar- and synthmelodies and catchy choruses.

Try to imagine a “typical Embraze fan”. How does this person look/act :)

Ilkka: Metal fans, in general, looks always the same. Dressed black and getting drunk in the shows.

Endless Journey, was released some time after Intense. One can’t help but notice that those albums have quite similar tracklists just Intense is really hard to get and it includes three songs that are not on EJ. Will those rare songs together with the b-sides from Sin, Love and the Devil be re-released or made available for listeners some other way? (upload, upload the single :)

Sami: Endless Journey is an european version of Intense. That explains the allmost identical tracklist. Re-releasing those songs is not at sight.

When I luckily grabbed my copy of Intense the first thing that caught my sight was the “parental advisory” sign :) What’s so criminal about this album that little kids can’t listen to it? :)

Ilkka: Well, you can hear some "fuck me"-kind of things there, but we weren't really serious about that sing. Nowadays we are against all fucking censorship-bullshit.

Is Laeh an abbreviation of the song title Looking Ahead to the Embrace of Hell? :)

Sami: Yes it is.

There are many songs about the Moon, the Sun and the stars on every album - so why is the celestial theme so important in Embraze lyrics? :)

Sami: I haven't written those lyrics, but my guess is that it reflects our deeper longing to the great unknown in far beyond our minds.

Why the song lyrics appearing in the booklets are incomplete?

Sami: In that time it felt a cool thing to do, but fortunately people can see all the lyrics on our website.

What comes first - the melody or the lyrics and who gives the basic song concept in the band?

Sami: First comes the melody and then the lyrics. Usually riffs comes from Lauri or me and then arrangements are made with the band. Lyrics are mostly written by Heidi or Lauri.

One can read in Embraze biography that for inspiration there’s nothing better than a lake, cabin, forest, moose horns etc :) So if the situation is that important - imagine a hypothetical situation - the band is locked in a cabin located deep in the dark forest, it’s fucking cold wintertime, frozen meet for dinner… and wolves howl at the Moon. Will Embraze (inspired by all that) then start making true black metal? :)

Sami: At first it's a matter of survive.No seriously, that could be very inspirational situation. But I don't think it would be THAT inspirational, that we would start to do some serious black metal.

Do any videos, live videos or self-filmed performances of Embraze exist?

Sami: Yep. We've filmed songs like Charm of Wilderness, Amid Peals, Sin, Love and the Devil, Sinmaker and Closed. Nowadays it's hard to get videos in rotation witch reduces making of them.

What would your dream Embraze music video look like and which song would you use?

Sami: My Star and free hands to director Quentin Tarantino.

Ilkka: My Star. It would be cool to make a video with Tim Burton. Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner would do the schemes with us. Lots of action, gothic scenery and wild gangbang.

Do you read the reviews in press and how does Embraze take critics in media?

Ilkka: Of course we are interested of media's opinion about us. It doesn't matter is it good or bad. It's always constructive and makes pushing the limit. Fact is, that you can't please everyone so the shit keeps coming every now and then.

Who usually keeps contact with fans and who deals with the media?

Ilkka: Mainly I and Sami. Lauri joins us in interviews because he's a singer and songwriter, so it's hard to speak on behalf of him.

Embraze plays live really rarely compared to some other bands but usually you guys seem to have gigs at Nummirock? Why’s that?

Sami: We have always suffered a lack of management. That's why we haven't made any bigger tours, which is sad. We have been able to create good
connections with a few festivals, Nummirock is one of them.

Do you go to summer festival not like members of performing band but to watch and enjoy life and gigs? :)

Sami: Summer of Finland is full of festivals with good artists, so you can bet your life for seeing us hanging around there.

Your funniest / most embarrassing experience on stage or in studio.

Sami: I can honestly say that making of Katharsis in Lappland was the best trip I've ever done. Sauna, beer, moonshine (home-made booze), bandmates and nature made it memorable.

Ilkka: The most embarrassing incident happened when we were at Jyvaskyla in '98. The gig went down pretty smoothly 'til it happened. We were doing"Passion" and there's a break at the beginnig of the song. I stood up and tried to take the crowd. Then I sat down and accidently pushed my drumchair. As you can imagine, I crashed right on the floor and guys wondered what a fuck is going on. They kept on playing and I got up and joined for the song. I was so ashamed.

Endless Journey and Katharsis both have quite abstract covers. Who has drawn them and what’s the purpose of the covers - just decorative or they reflect the mood of the record somehow?

Sami: There's really no direct connection between the songs and album covers, but you can recognize certain mysticism in both.

There’s a great mystery around the new vocalist of Poisonblack and there is a popular speculation that it’s gonna be Lauri. Is that so? :)

Sami: You have to ask it from Lauri, but my guess is no. We haven't even give it a thought.

There are some new 2004 demo songs on the official site. They are absolutely amazing (our strong favourite is Memory Trace of Our Time though) and it seems like Embraze is changing style a little bit again and Lauri’s vocals became softer somehow… Comment something on that and when can we expect the new album?

Sami: First, THANKS. Yes, you're right. New material is kinda different than earlier Embraze-stuff. Lauri's voice has improved and sligthly cleanier
style fits it very well and prings up the best qualities of his voice. Co-operation with former label ended and we haven?t signed yet, so you have to wait 'till we get a new contract. Now it's time to create a new, mind blowing shit.

Describe each of the bandmembers (including yourself) in two words :)

Sami:
Olli-Pekka: Joker, Pessimist
Heidi : Good Fella
Ilkka : Optimist, Grotesque
Lauri : Dreamer, Conscientious
Sami : Humorous, Whorish

Ilkka:
Olli-Pekka: Maniac, Talented
Heidi : Decisive, Dude
Ilkka : Perfectionist, Porn-Addict
Lauri : Strong minded, Kind
Sami : Computer-monster, Humorous

What do you think about the band of freaks Sleepy Sleepers? :)

Sami: Fucking freaks.

Ilkka: It's a bad joke. They have never made me laugh.

Can you dance Tango?

Sami: Yes I can

Ilkka: Absofuckinglutely!

The best Finnish beer is…

Sami: Sandells.

Ilkka: Karhu.

What’s your favourite Middle-Earth race? :)

Sami: Ents.

Ilkka: Elfs.