Interviews

1. MW, what was the main reason to form so unique music as AARNI?

MW: Possibly to have another outlet of creativity and esoteria for ourselves, as well as to receive money and undying adoration from unfortunates with immature sensibilities...
Since staring with Aarni, I suspect its music has steadily grown more and more inwards, with less and less intention of compromising to please the imaginary outside "listeners" - but still, hopefully not total introversion.

2. You play also in another very unique band UMBRA NIHIL. How are your personal thoughts different towards UMBRA NIHIL? Couldn't these your feelings and creative ideas transform also for philosophy of UN?

MW: I enjoy my role in UN as 'just' the second guitarist playing perhaps in a more traditional style than in Aarni. Limiting yourself can sometimes feel liberating, and as UN has been formed as Vilpir's brainchild, I don't wish to step on his big toes. He has his own ideas and vision for the band. Why should I challenge that? Conversely, Vilpir also plays most of the drums in Aarni trying to accord with my ideas without fucking with me - to use a figure of speech :p

3. Can you at least shortly describe the creation of 'Bathos'? Are you satisfied with the result? Does 'Bathos' present what you wanted to create and express, or you didn't have intent to create "specific stuff"?

MW: I cannot describe the creation, I just made it and have forgotten how. I seem to have the bad habit of never being satisfied with my past material, maybe not even the present and future. 'Bathos' may represent what I wanted to create back then, but fortunately since then my skills with audio production have improved somewhat and also my approach to the process of composition. No reason to dwell on the past, as I like to say as a former History major.

4. Variability is eloquent enough word for AARNI concept I think...also specific curiosity springing from variability indeed. It's hard to define your kind of music, elements of Doom Metal, Finnish folk, ambient, avant-gard and it all folded in arcane veil of atmosphere and psychedelia. Every song has "own image", but it's wondrously likely for some people in general :) I think that originality is one of strongest aspects of AARNI. Do you agree?

MW: I guess I do...but nowadays being original seems almost embarrassingly easy, because we live in a cult(ure) of mediocrity. Genre conventions appear so clear-cut and limited that breaking them demands very little effort. I don't understand why so many bands appear willing to live by those restrictive rules. I think that considering yourself a musician entails that you should honestly seek to evolve and progress your art - it can be taken as a privilege and a matter of honour, unless you want to be just a mere player/entertainer living some superficial "rock star" fantasy.

Mixing different styles in Aarni has never really been a conscious decision or an end in itself for me. I merely spontaneously utilise various stuff I enjoy when I feel like doing it.

5. Lyrics are written in various languages (also in dead ones). Why did you choose this style of lyrics?

MW: When I make a song, I first consider its general theme and based on that, what language would fit it best. Because I wish to feature a number of themes, it naturally leads to featuring a number of languages as well. Of course I also like to show off my obsession with linguistics :o

So, when the selected theme is my interpretation of Fennougric/Finnic/Paleolithic mythology, shamanism, folklore etc. I use the Finnish language...I don't know any related languages well enough.

Themes from Antiquity, classical occultism/education and related fields = Classical Latin. Also used generally for a counterpoint to English, as another internationally understood language.

Cthulhoid and most general themes = English. Of course, because for better or worse, it is currently the most used language for international communication. Uncomfortably English is also the tongue of Western popular music convention and so can feel inherently boring and banal :p

Other featured tongues in Aarni so far also include Ancient Egyptian (Old/Middle Kingdom), German, various anagrams and verbal sigilisations as well as made-up languages such as Enochian. Other pseudo-languages as well as glossolalia will likely be used in the future with songs that don't easily fit any of the above categories. Naturally the question also arises as to why use any language?

6. A little hard and philosophic question...is it possible to create music without chance to hear it? Is man able to create music if he never heard music in his life?

MW: I don't think anyone can be in a position of never having heard music, because even if you were raised by animals in the wilderness, you would still be exposed to rhythm and even some melody in the form of your heartbeats and the various nature/animal sounds occuring around you. So at least every sentient animal gets exposed/conditioned to sound right from birth and even before that by our mothers' body sounds...you don't need hearing to sense audio, either.

7. Do you think your music is exceptional? Many bands don't use such unconventional advances, even though it's maybe my subjective view..

MW: Well, I cannot say as I haven't heard all the music in the world. But in any case, I don't seek to make exceptional/common/whatever music, but just the stuff that flows from my mind (or from beyond it?) and somehow "demands to be recorded". Mostly I don't plan or analyse very much things such as song structures, hooks, the listeners' possible expectations, technical execution, tone, sound and so forth when making music. I do usually give some consideration to those matters at some stage, but I don't distract myself overmuch with them, otherwise Aarni would be producing material even more slowly than currently :)

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