Northwind Promotion / February 2012

Link

(Took place in Stuttgart, during Niflheim Festival)

Interview with Ville and Henri Sorvali from MOONSORROW – 17.02.2012

You’ve come a long way from your first demotapes in the 90′s to the latest album. How much impact did the growing fame and success have on your lives and on Moonsorrow?

Ville: (laughs)

Henri: I got vacation from work today. I had worked beforehand, last week. You know, office job…And I laughed at my wife who had to go to work this morning. Ok, here I am, I am supposed to be a “folk metal legend” according to the promoters and I’m shoveling snow this morning, before I go to this airport and I have to beg my stepfather to give me a lift there, because the taxi is too expensive. It’s affecting that much.

Ville: That was a good question to start with, actually. For my part, I can say that whenever we are touring and stuff I can actually support my low standard of living. But when we’re not I have to do the everyday stuff that I did before.

You went to China last year. What experiences did you make? Did it meet your expectations?

Ville: I had no expectations at all, because I didn’t know what to expect.

Henri: Expect the unexpected!

Ville: It was certainly a blast to be there. It was a totally different world – I have never experienced anything like China, because I’m used to the western way of living. Especially in the small, more “Chinese” towns that we had there - towns with 2 million people – the way of living was nothing like what I am used to. And I ate really weird food…

Henri: Dogs!

Ville: I don’t know if had dog, but at least I ate soup made of pig’s blood and chicken stomach and some kind of half-developed duck-eggs (laughs)

Henri: Did you seriously eat that shit?

Ville: Yes, I did.

What about your last tour with Týr and Crimfall? I read on Facebook that you guys were sick. Would you say it was the hardest tour you ever did?

Ville: We had a lot of fun. It was hard for those two weeks when everyone was sick and we just tried to pull off the shows, not to vomit during the shows. Some people did, actually – Mitja also threw up two times during one show.

But you didn’t cancel any shows.

Ville: No, no.

Henri: We have never ever canceled a show.

Ville: No, we have canceled one show, some ten years ago when we were supposed to play with Finntroll. When Somnium died. Then we canceled the show.

Henri: Yes, but normally we don’t cancel because we are fans. Everybody who is in Moonsorrow is also a fan. The people who play in bands are also fans of other bands. So who would be so fucking rude to their fans who are like us? They pay for the ticket and they’re waiting to see the band, and the band doesn’t play because somebody has bad throat or something?

Henri, why are you playing so rarely with Moonsorrow, although you are the main songwriter?

Henri: To put it in a nutshell: I have steady job, like many other guys also. But as I also got Finntroll and a family – I got a kid. So it’s really hard for me to go touring all the time. It’s much easier to get some other guy to do all the shows – like 75% of the shows. It’s much more convenient and the people know that it’s always the same guy who’s coming. I could basically pull of half of the gigs and half of the gigs I would have to cancel, but the thing is that it is much easier to have someone steady to do all the shows.

You seem to enjoy touring a lot. What is it that you like most when you hit the road?

Henri: (points to his beer bottle)

Ville: (Laughs) That too. But basically it is that when I’m on the road, I might have some worries at home or whatever, then I can’t do anything about them. Basically, I’m free when I’m on tour.

I enjoy the feeling. I feel the most alive when I’m in the tourbus and do the same thing every night, waking up in a different city every day…

Henri: …still having the same hangover.

Do you prefer small clubs or big festival stages?

Ville: Small clubs. I mean, big festivals are also nice like for example last summer when we did the Wacken main stage. But still small clubs give this kind of intimate atmosphere, more of an interaction with the audience and a better light show.

Many of your albums have a completely different sound. Do you have a vision of how an album should sound beforehand?

Henri: Yes, we love to experiment. We actually talked about the new album today. We were thinking about whether to continue with this…

Ville: …crunching wall of sound…

Henri: yeah, or if we should be doing something else. You know, which sound would guys prefer to hear, into which direction should we develop? It’s basically like a journey, when songs are done we start thinking what kind of sound would suit these songs.

Do you also experiment in the studio or do you have the perfect idea of how the songs should sound after the songwriting?

Ville: We experiment a bit.

Henri: Yeah, pretty much we have the idea. We actually make the album in two types. We first make the demos and if you would hear the demos you could say “Hey, I know this song, that it this and that song”. They are pretty identical to the actual studio version but in the studio the real magic happens. We experiment a bit and that is how the final stuff comes to be.

How does a Moonsorrow song emerge? Do you write everything at home, or do you also have jam-sessions?

Henri: We don’t jam. Basically what happens is that I get an idea, or somebody gets an idea. It’s not necessarily me who gets the first idea, but what happens then is that I stark to work with it. I work as an audio designer for a games company, so I deal with the music at my work. So, I have everything there. If I have this Moonsorrow idea in my head I just switch on the computer and do that. So it’s really easy for me to just open the software and start recording because that’s what I do for a living and the setup is always there. And in my spare time at work – note to everybody, note to my boss here – well we have this kind of mutual agreement that I can do my own stuff at work, too, whenever it doesn’t distract the workflow. So, basically I do this at work and I try to evolve things and try different things.

For the new album there is this song called “Tähdetön”. Maybe you remember in this song we have this break, when it goes into this folkish melody. After that part we used to have a different song. And I showed it to the guys and everybody thought it was okay. And I didn’t feel either that it was very good. I had been doing that part for like one month but it didn’t give me goose bumps. After two weeks I decided to – Cubase is the software we’re using – cut everything after the folkish part, and did it from scratch again. I just deleted everything – there was like 6 minutes of music – and made it exactly the way it’s on the album in half a day. Before that it took me one month to do it.

Ville: And that is how it works, basically.

Henri: How it should work. Bad ideas are always those which are forced. Good ideas are those that come to your mind and you have to write them down quickly before you lose them.

Ville: Henri is responsible for most of the music. You could call him a dictator or whatever, but the thing is if he does something the rest of the band doesn’t approve, he does it again.

Nobody has the veto right?

Henri: In theory I do have that. But I don’t think I ever used it. Everybody knows I have that, and that is why I never have to use it.

Ville: Yeah, it really is like that. He does it all but everyone else has to like it as well.

Henri: You have to have a dictator in the band. You might have heard this saying: “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. If it’s too democratic, it’s just a fucking mess. You end up pleasing nobody. So in Moonsorrow it’s basically one guy’s vision approved by everybody else.

What are the most important characteristics of your sound and lyrics? Which elements should never lack on a record?

Henri: We need this ride-cymbal-thing. The fast beat, or with the hi-hat.

Ville: Something that happens all the time is also a distortion of the bass…

Henri: Oh yeah, the bass is really important. We like to crank the bass.

And lyric-wise?

Ville: I don’t know how to explain it. There is always some sort of the same framework, but I don’t really know what it is. It’s mostly just in my head but there is always like the same kind of undertone in the lyrics. I think and I hope that all the other band members can also sign under the lyrics that I write in my personal madness. I don’t know what it is that makes all of them together, but there is something, definitely.

Henri: Half of the Moonsorrow stuff wouldn’t be anything without Ville’s lyrics. I was listening to the newest album “Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa” about two days ago and it kicks me in the nuts every time I hear Ville screaming in this song “Muinaiset”. It gives me goose bumps every time. His lyrics, his performance, Moonsorrow wouldn’t be anything without it. If I haven’t said that before – here I said it (laughs).

Ville: Seventeen years, and I heard it now. Thank you (laughs).

After having developed a unique sound over so many years, are there still new things influencing you?

Henri: What’s the new things on the albums? How long have you been following Moonsorrow?

…since 2005

Henri: Okay, was there something new after 2005? After “Verisäkeet” there came “Hävitetty” which is something I would refer to as new. And then came “Tulimyrsky” and there were also new elements. You know there is the old stuff and the new stuff, but basically you can hear it yourself.

Is there something that inspires you as a musician?

Henri: Musically, as I write most of the music I can talk about this a little bit. I get inspired heavily by some stuff, for example “Verisäkeet” which was heavily inspired by the oldschool stuff like Satyricon.

Ville: And then “The Cure”…

Henri: “The Cure” was a huge inspiration for “Hävitetty”. Well, everything in my life was like totally going down the drain so it was not an easy solution, but somehow a reasonable solution that I somehow picked up “The Cure”. I went to these guitars, these clean guitars on the top of the heavy metal guitar sound – we call them “cure guitars” – and we still have them after since. They have become a vital part of Moonsorrow, too. And then again, I heard Alcest, and they have these “Cure guitars” also, and then I saw the promo pictures and I thought “What the fuck is going on with the scene?” I mean these feathers in his hair – I thought “man, this is black metal!”

What are you guys listening to at the moment?

Ville: Whatever band is playing right now (laughs). No, during the last few weeks I mostly listened to “Swallow the sun”, because they released a new album – that actually hit number 2 in the Finnish charts.

Henri: Well, to make the Germans proud, I really admire “Mad Sin”. It’s basically Rockabilly mixed with punk, or in “Mad Sin’s” case punk mixed with rockabilly. It’s called psychobilly. You know, it’s like Bad Religion with an upright bass.

Ville: That’s the second best thing that ever came out of Germany.

And what’s the best thing?

Ville: “Secrets of the Moon”.

That’s it guys. The last words to your fans reading this belong to you:

Henri: I’m really bad on last words.

Ville: Thanks to everyone who is reading this.

Henri: Thanks to everybody who’s buying our albums, we love you! (laughs). You couldn’t get more generic bullshit.

Ville: But we don’t have that many people who are buying albums, so we have to thank them (laughs).

Thanks for taking the time and answering the questions

Ville: Thank you!

Henri: Thank you!

Hall of Metal / November 2011

LINK


Recorded in Bilbao during the Dead Tyrants Tour, November 2011.

[Most questions written by me!]

After some festivals, this is your first club tour in Spain, right? How were the gigs so far? Better than expected, worse, different?

Ville: It was great. The Spanish audience is very lively, they have always welcomed us well.

You're introducing some songs from the latest album. How has the response been, both in the tour in general and in Spain?

Mitja: Sometimes you can really tell that people know the new songs. In Spain I think people don't know them so well. I can tell that especially the first song of the album, people are more listening to it, not knowing what's going on, but the last song usually works very well.

Ville: Actually that was a big surprise for me, how well it fits the situation. People always seem to go a bit nuts during the last song, even though it's slow and it's not the hit song kind. But people seem to like it a lot.

I saw you in Madrid for the first time and you didn't have blood! It looked very much like ink! What happened?

Mitja: Hmm. Maybe someone put too much water in the mixture... [laughs]. We have to use fake blood, we cannot use real one on the tour, it would get so bad in a couple of days, so we have to make it from artificial blood and put some water in it, and sometimes you make it too loose. That's what happened. But it also depends on the light: if there's red light on the stage you won't see it at all, if there's blue light it shows very well.

Did you choose Crimfall as support yourselves?

Mitja: Yes.

Ville: Yes and no. They were one of those that were offered, and in the end we didn't really choose it, because it was the agency's decision, but we voted for them, we can say that.

And why Crimfall, why did you vote for them?

Ville: They are cool guys and deserve to be in a long tour. It's their first tour, and immediately five weeks long... It should educate them pretty well!

I also noticed this is the first tour you're not playing Pakanajuhla...

Ville: ...and not the last. [laughs]

Why did you make this decision? It was omnipresent in the past.

Ville: It's kind of haunting us. It's not a song that we like that much. But I can understand why people like that song, there are the elements, but for us it's a bit too different from what we want to do nowadays.

And you are playing Sankaritarina in every show! This wasn't so usual either, no?

Ville: We found out that this song really works, both for us and the audience. The audience always sings along, feels like being in a footbal match, and we all enjoy playing it, it's a really fun song to play.

And now you started to play it in its full length.

Both: Yes.

Ville: You can blame Marko for that. He wanted to have the ending. And I think it fits.

Which are your favourite and unfavourite songs?

Mitja: It changes all the time. I would say my favourite song at the moment would be something from the album Verisäkeet, maybe Jotunheim; or something from the new album, right now the last song, Kuolleiden Maa.

Ville: My absolute favourite has to be Kuolleiden Maa. There's something personal in it, especially when playing live it gives me an extra kick of energy, and it's definitely my favourite of all the songs we have done.

And the one you like least?

Ville: You can't really discriminate between your own kids... But I can still say it's Pakanajuhla. [laughs]

Mitja: Yeah, I would say it's Pakanajuhla. I'm also a little disappointed on the song Kaiku, because it didn't turn out as good as we wanted. [Ville makes signs of agreement.] It works, but it could be a little bit better. Some of the vocal lines are a bit off... If we had more time it would be better.

Ville: We kind of wanted to have an authentic five-guys-around-the-bonfire feeling, very simplistic, but I think we overdid it and it's a bit too naked now.

Cameraman: I just wanted to say that the album in my t-shirt [Hävitetty] is the best in the world.

Mitja: Travis Smith is the guy who designed the cover artwork, responsible for this image too.

The next question is an angry one: Y U NO HUUTO???

Ville: [laughs] You're not the first one to ask that!

I'm sure!

Ville: [turns to Mitja] What is the answer?

Mitja: Marko! That fucking asshole refused to play it.

Really?

Mitja: Yes.

Ville: Angry question, angry answer. I don't really know what is the exact reason, but...

Mitja: Some people in the band think it's not a good live song. I think it would be a great live song. But there are very big differences in opinion about this subject and about this song in general. I would definitely want to play it. Some people don't... We also didn't have much time to make it work and rehearse it for playing live, it's a huge challenge.

Ville: It's a very complicated song to learn for live situations, and we would have to make some new arrangements for the keyboards and stuff. But I can promise that in 2021, in the 10th anniversary of this album, we will play that song. [laughs]

Hopefully before that!

Mitja: If we're alive!

My perception may be wrong here, but I think you grew exponentially after the year 2007. You had some albums already, but after that, your popularity increased a lot. Am I right?

Mitja: That's very hard to say. If you look at the record sales, they have been pretty much the same since 2007.

What about attendance to concerts and everything?

Mitja: That's hard to say, because we have done so many of these Paganfest tours where there are loads of bands, and you get to play for 2000 people in a night every night, but that doesn't tell where you are exactly, only where the package is. But yes, there has been a lot of increase, especially because we have toured a lot in America lately, and there you can really say if... We were there for the first time in 2005, and the increase from there on has been very big.

When I started listening to you, I searched some videos on Youtube and there were three and a half pages of videos; now there are more than fifty, and this happened in very few years.

Ville: Yes, because of pocket cameras and stuff became so popular nowadays, everyone has them!

Well, but also the original songs...

Ville: Of course, yes. People seem to... There's a loyal bunch of people who really seem to care about the band, that bunch also seems to be growing, and it's really nice.

You have recently been in China, in four cities, Moonsorrow 4 - 0 Metallica...

Everybody: [laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter]

...tell us about China, how you got there, how come their first Western band is such a difficult one to listen to.

Ville: I could probably write a book about it. It was... an experience, definitely. Something completely different.

But why do you think that, instead of getting AC/DC or any more popular, easy-listening band , they took you?

Mitja: It always depends on the promoters, and there's one promoter in Taiwan, Soundforce Entertainment or something, who has been bringing metal bands to China: Lamb of God, Arch Enemy, what else... I'm not sure... They already wanted us some time ago, and now it finally came true. It was one of the most interesting experiences ever, to play for a crowd who hasn't seen so many metal bands...

Ville: ...and to play for a crowd who has never seen a band from outside of China.

Mitja: Yeah, in Harbin and Changchun.

Ville: No, in Harbin they had, some years ago there was an Italian band, so we were actually the second non-Chinese band to play there.

Mitja: And it was very hard to know what to expect, but when the intro started and the crowd started to sing along the melodies we just knew that it was going to be great.

Ah, they knew the songs and all?

Mitja: Yes, yes.

Ville: This is the point where I'm going to make an anti-anti-piracy statement, because without them having access to illegal downloads they wouldn't know the songs. I'm pretty sure that no one sells our CDs in China at all.

Maybe by mail?

Ville: Yes, of course, a few people, but the import CDs are so expensive and they don't have so much money there.

I think it was you who said that you wanted to be like an antithesis of folk metal, with different pictures, not dressed like Vikings and everything... Tell me about it.

Mitja: We kind of became one, because we never... We have those in the early days in the pictures, but we didn't take it to the stage imagery. When the trend went to where everybody was wearing furs and harnesses and looking like knights, we weren't so interested in that any more. When we started we were pretty young anyway, and we really liked having all these swords and stuff, playing with the idea, but then we realized that... When Turisas and all our friends, they did their ways... we decided that maybe we should go somewhere completely different.

Ville: Also because musically we always kind of made our own path. All the albums are different. We didn't choose to be folk metal, people just put us in the box. I mean, it is folk metal, but not in the way most people understand it.

When you changed your image, you also changed your music: in the first three albums, the songs are very epic, we are warrior kings, bla bla, but then they got darker. It's a very big difference suddenly.

Ville: It's quite easy to say now, when time has passed, that Verisäkeet was actually a conscious counter-action to all this folk metal thing. At that point we wanted to separate ourselves from it  as much as possible, and go back to the roots, because our demos are quite much black metal, more than this Viking thing. So we wanted to take a step back, or a few, and see where that would take us.

You also talked about filming a DVD. Have you been filming songs or something in this tour?

Ville: [points at Mitja] He's always filming.

Mitja: We have material coming all the time. It's just that when we can put it out, that's a different thing. We still need a proper concert to be filmed in a proper way. We have been planning it for two years and it's still on the way. We hope to do it in the winter, but we never know.

Ville: Mañana. [laughs]

Aren't you filming individual songs?

Mitja: Yes we are.

Ville: They can make some clips, but...

Mitja: From the tour it's going to be pretty much just clips of certain songs, then some on-the-road material, and then again some clips. Because that's not a proper way to make a DVD, just with two cameras. I don't want to release anything like that.

Ville: The bottom line is that we have to put a lot of money in it to film a proper concert.

Mitja: And it has to be the perfect timing.

Ville: We have to hire a crew of... I don't know how many people, you know better.

Mitja: Well, pretty much... a huge crew.

What about parallel bands? You had some, right? Vere, Section 8 or something like that...

Ville: Yes, I have some projects going on.

With Mathias from Finntroll, right?

Ville: Yes, but we just did that one demo and after that we've been talking that we should make another one. We both have songs, but we never find the time, because when I'm not touring, he is touring.

Has that demo been released?

Ville: Only in the internet. On Myspace. myspace.com/vereofficial [it's actually myspace.com/officialvere].

Finally I wanted to talk about the fact that you never take pre-recorded material onstage. In your albums you have a lot of things going on, but on the stage you never... Why?

Ville: That is one thing that we won't compromise. I think everyone in the band agrees: there are no backing tracks.

Do you limit yourselves in the studio not to do things that you won't be able to take live?

Ville: No. In the studio we do exactly what we want, and that is the fun part of it, because then we have to challenge ourselves again to make the songs work live. But fundamentally, when we play live we want to be a rock band with five members and do as much as we can with five members.

I've heard that sometimes Henri plays in Finland with Finntroll and they have two keyboards on the stage. Haven't you thought of doing the same thing with Moonsorrow when you play in Finland?

Mitja: Actually we have... not maybe...

Ville: Not two keyboards, but three guitars would be an interesting idea.

You've never done it yet, right?

Both: No.

Mitja: But we might make a DVD with three guitars, and if it works out... Depends on how we see it, how we want to make it. We really have to talk about it and sit down and try it. Three guitars will also be very challenging to make it tight enough for a DVD release, and we have to rearrange everything in that sense. There's no point in three guitars playing the same riff and it all sounding mushy.

Ville: There are a lot of options and arrangements.

That was all from me. Anything you want to add?

Ville: We have to thank the Spanish promoters for finally fixing us here for more shows than just one.

 

Transcribed on 18·II·2021. I should have waited three more days and do it on the 10th anniversary of the album. I doubt anyone cares anyway. Or anybody ever reads this.