FINNTROLL Singer Mathias Lillmåns Talks About New Album - "There Has Always Been A Punk-Side In Finntroll ? Not Only In Music But Also In The Lifestyle"

pecial report by Viktorija Maksimovic

Tremble, mortals! Century Media Records have recently announced that trolls' hibernation is over and they are ready to prove that there is still a shot in their locker (or whatever trolls are meant to have in the lockers). It seems that metal humppa virtuosi FINNTROLL have prepared for us several surprises: first of them and the most apparent is the change if their image. The latest Finntroll album titled Nifelvind will be released in Europe in February and on March 9 in the North America. Viktorija Maksimovic from BraveWords.com managed to catch Finntroll singer Mathias "Vreth" Lillmåns somewhere in between his 25th and 26th interviews that week and chat about the new album.

BraveWords.com: You must be pretty tired of all the promo interviews you have been doing this week?

Lillmåns: "Yes, it was quite tiresome. For example, on Wednesday I had 14 interviews."

BraveWords.com: How do you think, your recent change of the record label – now you are signed with Century Media, will it affect much the things happening with the band?

Lillmåns: "I’d say it will influence the band situation a lot. We spent whole week at Century Media office doing the promotion things and could see a huge difference comparing with how it was happening before. Marketing plans and our sales plans look very impressive."

BraveWords.com: Did Century Media find you or was it Finntroll looking for a new label?

Lillmåns: "We were looking for a new label. But we had some contact with Century Media before because they were taking care of Finntroll distribution in the Central Europe, so it came out kinda naturally."

BraveWords.com: From what I heard during the new album pre-listening session in September, your music has become even more elaborate and mature, still being in some way punkish. So, have the trolls grown up?

Lillmåns: "There has always been a punk-side in Finntroll – not only in music but also in the lifestyle. I think our music in Nifelvind has become more complicated, each of us is becoming better as a musician with time. So all that naturally results in making more progress of a new album."

BraveWords.com: Correct me if I am wrong, but some of symphonic parts on Nifelvind reminded me greatly of ENSIFERUM's latest release From Afar.

Lillmåns: "Yes, actually it stroke us too when we were recording those parts in the studio. And it seems that everybody doing them nowadays. Of course first we were not aware of what Ensiferum guys were doing. Actually that sympho-fashion started some years ago, for example DIMMU BORGIR did that. Then this fad was forgotten for a while and we decided that it would be good to try doing sympho parts, but then we realized that not only we came up with this bright idea: SONATA ARCTICA, NIGHTWISH, Ensiferm – all they had sympho parts on their latest albums."

BraveWords.com: Your latest video for the first song from the latest album, 'Solsagan', also seems to be quite symbolic – it shows the trolls who are waking from long-lasting sleep. Or does the video imply that someone had tried to kill them before and now they are kind of resurrecting?

Lillmåns: "No, no, trolls are not dead in that video. At the beginning they are in some kind of hibernation or lasting coma and then they are woken up."

BraveWords.com: Whose idea lays behind your new public image? I totally liked the new photo session – on the pictures you guys look like trolls who decided to relocate from the forests and mountains to a town.

Lillmåns: "I actually don't remember exactly whose idea it was. About a half year ago we were at some festival and we were bored sitting around because we had to wait for about ten hours. At some point one of us had that crazy idea to do some kind of troll circus thing. Later we used it for the photo session. And also this time we have that idea behind that we want to blend in modern society with troll legends.."

BraveWords.com: For us who is not that good at Swedish, could you tell what are the songs on Nifelvind about?

Lillmåns: "The texts of the new songs are more or less based on legends and myths. Especially on those ones, which repeat themselves in time, but still remain quite modern in the sense that the story behind can be applied to modern-day situation. Each song tells a separate story."

BraveWords.com: Did you take part in writing the texts?

Lillmåns: "Not that much, at least not in creating the content because it is still done by Katla, I was just fixing some small things and had to re-write some parts so it would be more comfortable for me to sing."

BraveWords.com: As you mentioned, Finntroll lyrics are very often based on Scandinavian myths or folk tales. Do you have any favourite tales or is there any which you would like because it could also be applied to the modern-day situation?

Lillmåns: "It’s hard for me to talk about this because I don’t check that much out those tales and myths. But I actually really like a story about a guy, who went to the mountains on winter evening and out of a sudden a year has passed: when he is about to come back he realizes that the summer has already gone and another winter is about to start. So he has spent in trance or in some kind of coma the whole year in the creatures’ kingdom without realizing how much time has gone by. I think that has much connection with the world today – time runs very fast."

BraveWords.com: Exactly – or during summer festival season you basically don’t see how the days go by between weekly festivals and you are usually so surprised that it’s autumn already.

Lillmåns: "Yeah that would be also a good reading of that story! It’s a really good metaphor for festival summer."

BraveWords.com: When you are on stage, what mythological creature could you identify yourself with?

Lillmåns: "Ahm… I’m gonna skip this one. Everybody is trying to compare us with something."

BraveWords.com: Well, it’s a natural approach when a band has something to do with mythology or folklore.

Lillmåns: "Yeah, so let’s skip this one… Because everybody is trying to picture me as an elf or something."

BraveWords.com: Elf? I would much more compare your stage persona with mischievous Loki, making a lot of mess in the Odin’s kingdom.

Lillmåns: "Oh, that’s a good one. I would prefer that one to be compared with.'

BraveWords.com: Quite some time ago I discovered that Russian band SVARTBY, which is an absolute copy of Finntroll. Although to me they sound a bit weird: Russian guys who try to sing in Swedish employing humppa motives and at some points totally copying Finntroll. What do you think of them?

Lillmåns: "Yeah I have heard some of their songs. Actually in some way it’s quite an honour being a source of inspiration to them and it’s nice to see how dedicated they are to what they do. Actually I think I heard that the guy from the band started learning Swedish just to be able to sing in Swedish. But I think they should get hold of someone in Sweden who could help them out with lyrics because they still make small funny mistakes which are natural for the people who don’t really speak Swedish. In some way the thing they do is a little bit strange, it’s the same as some Finnish band would dress up like Vikings – everybody knows that there were no Vikings in Finland. Or like Finnish bands from the 1990’s which were singing in Norwegian. But , still for some reason, seeing such bands as Svartby around feels like a big honour – that they use our music as a source of inspiration."

BraveWords.com: You have a pretty busy touring schedule for the upcoming months. Are there any gigs you would be particularly looking forward to?

Lillmåns: "Actually, most of them. And I am really looking forward to having a US tour with MOONSORROW. We have been talking so much about it and now it is finally happening. And we are also having SURVIVORS’ ZERO and SWALLOW THE SUN on this tour. So it will be much more of a friends’ trip. It will be a crazy thing – four Finnish bands in the States."

BraveWords.com: Which band would you call your favourite tour mate so far?

Lillmåns: "It’s really hard to say, but one of those really good ones is ELUVEITIE whom we are doing this European tour with. It will be really nice to see them again. We did a tour together in 2008 and it was so much fun."

BraveWords.com: And the last thing I would ask you is related to your other project, CHTONIAN. I am not asking you to compare Finntroll and Chtonian, because it would be much more of comparing a cucumber with a tomato, but in general what is the feeling for you performing with each band?

Lillmåns: "Well, the feeling is a little bit different because Finntroll is a relatively new band for me and I almost grew up with Chtonian, we have been together with the guys since 90’s , collecting our riffs and working very closely together on the songs. We are very good friends and we have been together for nearly 15 years. Nowadays I’m mostly concentrating on Finntroll, because Chtonian guys live up north in my hometown, they all have day jobs and families already . So for us all nowadays Chtonian is a kind of therapy. Of course we are having some gigs together and we released our album with Chtonian at the same time with Finntroll album."