Interviews

J-P Muikku: While most of the people in Finland consider Finnish 'ancient' pagan past just a fairytale, you are not one of those.

Master Warjomaa: Do they? Maybe people do that on a conscious level, but I think the old animistic/shamanistic ways are deeply encoded in the Finns' genes...the recent intrusions of Protestant Christianity and Industrialisation haven't changed that. I see traditional Finnish folklore as something I can relate to most easily, as a Finn it's the most natural thing for me. To deny that would result in the existential emptiness modern people seem to suffer from. But I don't believe in magic or the deities as being something supernatural...rather I regard them as having the powers of autosuggestion and archetypes and/or representing hitherto undiscovered laws of Nature.

JPM: Lovecraft was/is/will always be dull to read.

MW: Never. He made every effort to make his stories as interesting and 'pulp' as possible...while his literary style had its flaws, his imagination more than compensates for it.

JPM: Hang the Pope and all Swedish guitar players too.

MW: The popes tend to hang themselves slowly, they don't need help from others..
Sweden has produced a number of great guitarists and I'm against hanging them. After all Yngwie's instrumental stuff made me start playing the guitar in the late 80's, although he has later become overweight and overrepetitive. Fortunately I use this neoclassical stuff only for warm-up exercises, it doesn't feature in Aarni's music. There are too many Yngwie rip-off bands around already.

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