Interviews

Metal From Finland.com conducted an interview with the vocalist/guitarist Jonne Järvelä from Korpiklaani. Jonne shared his thoughts concerning their forthcoming Finnish Fire-tour with Battlelore, Falchion and Kivimetsän Druidi. He also shed some light to their new Korpiklaani album and their plans to tour the US in the future.

MFF: Finnish Fire-tour which contains Korpiklaani, Battlelore, Falchion and Kivimetsän Druidi starts in mid-november and during one month there are over 20 shows. What are your thoughts for the tour?

Jonne: We are starting the tour with great expectations as always. Playing our music to people around the world is what we love and want to do. This is exactly what we were dreaming ever since we were young guys. It is always nice to reach new countries where we haven't played before and on this tour Portugal is going to be one of them. We will also do more shows in Spain and Italy where we have only done festival shows until now so it's all good.

We just arrived from Calgary, Canada where we played a sold-out gig. That was excellent!

As for Finnish Fire-tour and 4 bands that play on that tour, things always happen while touring but we are familiar with each band and have toured with them in the past so we have nothing but good and positive expectations for the tour.

MFF: Having a tour with 4 bands is a huge task basically every evening. Are the bands playing in same order each night or are there any variations? How about the playing times for each band?

Jonne: I heard that Falchion and Kivimetsän Druidi are changing positions as an opener each night. They made those decision themselves and us being a headliner we obviously didn't have anything against it. Korpiklaani will play a set of around 90 minutes each night and I have no knowledge how long the other bands are going to play.

MFF: Are all the venues on this tour familiar to you (Korpiklaani) or are there new ones?

Jonne: As a matter of fact there are very few familiar venues on this tour cause we are playing on slightly bigger venues than normally. And also in different cities than normally. Korpiklaani has been doing few tours per year for some years already and there has also been individual shows here and there so there is a danger of 'wearing out' locations and venues. On the other hand it's very nice to see that the places we've played before are still showing interest of having us back playing there. It shows that we have done something right.

MFF: On a personal level, have you prepared yourself to this tour normally or has the tight schedule forced you in some special preparations? After all you are the vocalist of the band.

Jonne: It only requires physical basic condition. And of course the playing throughout the whole band has to work well. On the latter part there is nothing to worry about since we haven't had a break from touring that lasted more than a week in a whole year. And we have been quite busy in the rehearsal room putting together new songs for the forthcoming album. Composing part is already done and we have all the new songs ready.

We also decided to make 3 different setlists for this tour and we will be rotating them. Doing that keeps things fresh and interesting throughout the tour cause now even the people who come and see us on 3 nights in a row will see and hear 3 different setlists and it won't get boring to them. And to us of course. We've been practising lot of old songs again cause some of them haven't been played in years and some of them haven't been played live ever.

MFF: Does Korpiklaani have any specific plans after the Finnish Fire-tour? Are you going to start working with the new album or is it time for a break?

Jonne: After the tour we will take a very short one week break and we'll take that opportunity to spend time with our families. But since we start recording our new album on February 2009 we are not able to rest much now. Right after X-mas we will make a short tour with In Extremo and after that it will be spring before we will tour again.

On spring we are trying to fulfill one of our longtime goals and tour the US. There was a US tour already in the works but to our great disappointment it was called off by the tour organizer. They said they had found a more suitable band for the tour. That was a direct hit to diaphragm cause now we have to start all the arrangements from scratch again.

We are hoping to get contacts from organizers asap cause we get a lot inquiries from our American fans everyday asking when Korpiklaani is finally going to tour the US. When it comes to money, we are not greedy in any way and we do realize how small band Korpiklaani still is. Of course while touring, there are constant expenses coming from various of places and since we have families, we are not able to tour without monetary compensation. Our little Finns back home needs their morning porridge after all :)

MFF: How is Korpiklaani taken around the world? After all you are equipped with quite exotic instruments like violins and an accordion?

Jonne: Really well I must say. We are allowed to make music with our own terms. Use instruments we want and take our music as deep to our folklore as we want. And we don't need to even think about the musical trends that goes on in the world. But I do have to say that we never expected to get this far with such music that Korpiklaani represents. We have the opportunity to play around the world in sold-out venues and we sing mostly in finnish.

We have noticed that abroad, Finnishness is very popular at the moment. And finnish metalmusic is very unique and being from Finland is a proof of quality itself these days. Every band has their own identity and way to make music but our roots are the same. Being a Finn and touring around the world is something that makes us very proud and happy. We (Finnish people) are a hardworking and honest forestclan and it has been recognized around the world and it is also something that gives a positive reaction amongst people.