Interviews

1. First of all, for those who don't know you, can you present us Aarni and how it has been created?

MW: Well, in short, I formed a band in 1997 EV which played "gothic metal" - mid-90's Paradise Lost kind of music. I would have liked to go in a more original direction and some of the other band member didn't agree with me on that. So I quit and started my own band Aarni. I had been writing stuff since the early 90's and now was my chance to implement it. The first Aarni demo was released in 2001 followed by another the next year. I got signed to Firebox Records and released a split CD with another local band called Umbra Nihil. The roots of Aarni are in Black Sabbath and doom metal with additional influences from folk, ambient and progressive rock music. Aarni's musical and lyrical themes include Western/Eastern occultism, magick (willed brain-change), esoterism and mysticism, Fennougric folklore, the Cthulhu Mythos, Jungian and Reichian psychoanalytical theories and anything else that I happen to think would make interesting and/or useful songs. Aarni has one, four or five members depending on your system of measurement. There are also two session musicians (Rhesus Christ and Genius Albert Frankenstein) featured on 'Bathos'.

2. The Bathos album is quite original and contains a lot of different influences. But who are the bands which have influenced you?

MW: There have been numerous of course, but the main ones include perhaps Black Sabbath, Metallica, Camel, Piirpauke, Hawkwind, My Dying Bride, Gong, Ozric Tentacles, King Crimson and Candlemass.

3. There are many themes developed all along the album. Can you tell us more about what inspires you when you write the words of you songs?

MW: I think I am simply influenced by the things I choose to see, read, think about, practice and experience. I try to give them lyrical form...they are my interpretations of this thing we call "reality".

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