Interviews

You’re done recording the album From Afar, and I’ve listened to it. How long did the recording process take?

We were in-studio, I think… about seven weeks. Six weeks first, but then we had to record some additional vocals, and some folk instruments. I think it was like seven weeks.

Are you happy with the results overall?

Yes, extremely!

Is there anything you wish you had more time to do when you were recording? Is there anything you’re unhappy with? That you wish you could’ve done differently, or anything like that?

Well of course, when you listen to an album you can find some things and say “Ah shit, we should’ve done something different on that one.” But… I really hoped there would’ve been more time for mixing, because we were in a hurry to leave for the Summer Slaughter tour. So there’s maybe some little details, especially in orchestrations, that would’ve been nice to get a little bit louder, just like… for a couple of seconds there might be some very nice string line, or other very small things. You can still hear them, but it would’ve been nice, you know, to have had a little more time in that one. It’s always like that with albums.

Speaking of the orchestrations, when I listened to it, for me From Afar is definitely your most epic album, with a lot more orchestrations and a symphonic influence. When you started recording it, was that your intent? Were you looking for that symphonic element? Did you say when you started recording “We want to add a symphonic element and make the most epic album we’ve ever done”, or was it unplanned? Did it just kinda happen?

It was kinda unplanned. We had a guy from outside doing the orchestrations, and we weren’t expecting much because it’s nothing new to use strings and horns and choirs in our music. So maybe we were expecting something smaller. (Laughs) But the first time, I remember it was… I think it was Heathen Throne, which was the first song we heard with orchestrations… And I fell out of the chair. (Laughs) It was so unbelievable that someone could hear music you had written and arrange that kind of stuff for it. Of course, we had all the ideas and we gave him all the melodies, but just how the guy who made those made the most of them… Because he’s like a professional guy, he really knows how a real orchestra would sound like. Because so far we have just said “Okay, here’s the keyboard, and lets have some horns, da da da da!” But he really made it sound like a real orchestra. We really wanted some new feeling and more realistic sound. But he totally went over the top.

Well that’s what I thought too when I was first hearing it! I couldn’t tell whether it was a real orchestra, or something done with keys or on a computer, so I was really impressed with it.

Yeah, actually, I even heard that Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish went to the studio where we recorded and Tero Kinnunen, our producer / recorder, was there doing some cleaning up of tracks or something like that, and Tuomas thought that it was a real orchestra, and that’s like a really big thing! (Laughs) I really think he would notice the difference between real and fake.

One of the songs on From Afar, Twilight Tavern, which is one of my favorites on the album, has a female vocalist on it, and I don’t think I’ve heard her on your other albums. Can you tell us a little about her?

She was actually on the Iron album, and it was really four female singers on that part, so it’s like a small choir. When I wrote that part, I said to Markus “We’re going to use this in a song, and I want a female choir, because the lyrics are about a warrior who fell in battle, and Valkyries come and take him to Twilight Tavern to drink with ancestors. We’re not going to put in male Valkyries.” (Laughs) And he said “Yeah yeah, let’s do it!” I don’t know why he’s always so understanding with my crazy ideas. (Laughs)

You joined Ensiferum in 2004 after being in a band called Rapture. Can you tell us why you left Rapture? Did you just like Ensiferum’s sound more, or was it something you wanted to do musically? What was your reason for leaving?

I didn’t really “Leave” Rapture. Rapture’s drummer is from Finntroll and all the members have other bands, so Rapture has always been a very difficult band in that way, because finding time for all the members to do gigs was very difficult. At one point I even thought they ended up quitting, the whole band, because Tomi Ullgren, the main songwriter, went to play in Impaled Nazarene. But I just talked with Petri, our singer, and they did gigs in Estonia and stuff like that. But it’s much easier to be honest and say “Okay, I’m in Ensiferum now, I’m gonna be pretty busy”, so you’re fucked big time if Rapture would’ve had a gig. They did like five gigs a year, and I didn’t want to have to say “No, I can’t do that because I’m in Ensiferum.” It’s much better to be honest so they can say “Okay, let’s get a new guy who can play those shows”. So no big drama there.

So when you joined Ensiferum, you were still in Rapture?

Yeah, because I was just recording Rapture’s third album when I got to know Markus, I think it was a few months after that when he called me and asked if I wanted to try and play a few songs with them and that they might need a bass player. So I think I was still in Rapture.

Let’s go back to talking about the orchestral parts. Some of the songs sound like they would fit in well on a movie soundtrack, like Lord of the Rings or something like that. And that got me thinking: Where does Ensiferum’s folk influence come from? Does it come from traditional Finnish folk music, or from movie soundtracks, or where?

I think it comes from folk music. Of course, there are shitloads of good movie soundtracks, and I’m not afraid to say that the original Conan The Barbarian soundtrack is great, just unbelievably great. But I think, because Markus is the main songwriter, I think he really got his influences mainly from folk music. And, well, Stone Cold Metal, there’s also some influences from the American Spaghetti Westerns.

That’s what I noticed, and I think that was my favorite track on the new album, because I love Westerns, so it’s really great to hear that.

Ha ha ha!

What's that?

I was just laughing, you know, because, heh, almost every interview I’ve done today, they’re all saying, “Stone Cold Metal, that’s like the best song on the album!”

Well I don’t blame them, and that’s what I said in my review, that that’s one of the songs that I think Ensiferum fans are really going to like!

(Laughs) Yeah, I like it also, I really enjoyed when we were writing it with Markus, because there have been other Western oriented songs, like on Iron, where we would steal the Western style, but this time we just decided “Okay, let’s go over the top and give it 110% and let’s not look back!”

Ensiferum is one of those bands where sometimes you sound like you’re taking yourself seriously, and other times you sound like you’re just having a ball doing all the songs and recording. Would you say that’s your ideal when you’re in the studio recording? Like, you want to be professional but have fun with it at the same time?

Yeah! Isn’t that what music is about, when you start thinking about… Hmm. Do you play anything yourself, or are you in a band?

Well, I don’t play in a band but I play a few instruments.

Okay but, you know, when you start playing and jamming with your friends? I don’t know when you started playing, I started playing bass when I was eleven. But the main thing was just to have a good time and write music that you like. The main thing is to have fun, it has to be fun, the writing process.

That’s something I really feel is apparent while listening to the band, that this is a bunch of guys that really know how to write fun music and have a good time.

Yeah. And I think that’s also something that’s present in our gigs, also. People can be in the wildest mosh pits, and the wall of death, and then the next song people can raise their pints and say “Let’s have a beer!” So it’s not so dead serious, you know?

So even the serious stuff, even that’s fun for you, like Smoking Ruins from the new album? Even at the live shows, you still have fun even though the tone of the song and the lyrical content is more serious?

Yeah, well the idea to those lyrics isn’t that funny, but you have to enjoy it, and not be too bitter. You don’t have to be laughing while you’re doing it, but you have to enjoy doing it all the time.

So, you just finished up the Summer Slaughter tour with Suffocation and Necrophagist. How was the tour for you? Do you think it was a success with the fans, and of course you had fun since we just talked about that, but do you think it was one of your better tours?

It was a very good tour, and a very good opportunity to reach new listeners, since most bands were pure death metal. I have no bad things to say about it. But on the other hand, it’s very difficult to say which tour was best, because I don’t have any bad tour experiences.

Like you said, that would really be a way to reach out to a new audience, because Suffocation is pure Brutal Death metal, so all the kids that go out there to get in a mosh pit and bang their heads, they’re going to be real surprised when this folk metal band comes out on stage!

Yeah yeah, we come out and we’re topless with beer bellies and no tattoos and laughing on stage! (Laughs) So we were definitely, I’d say, the white sheep of the tour. But it was a very good tour, and all of the other bands were great, with great people. And I really love Darkest Hour; I’m a fan.

You guys played some songs from the new album on the tour, right?

On Summer Slaughter? No, we didn't.

Have you played anything from From Afar live so far?

Not yet. We had a few shows after Summer Slaughter, but we kinda wanted to end the Victory Songs world tour, kinda, and we want to start totally fresh with From Afar.

So until that album is released, you’re pretty much just playing songs from Victory Songs and other past albums, and then once it comes out that’s when the From Afar world tour begins, right?

Yeah, yeah, well we don’t have any more gigs before the tour starts, which is actually nice because we have a lot of rehearsing to do, you know, to get all the new songs to the point that we can play them live and hopefully even bang our heads. (Laughs)

How long do you plan on touring for From Afar, and where do you plan on touring? Just the world over, or is there a certain area you’re focusing on?

We’re having a European tour, and after that we’re coming back to the U.S.; well actually North America, because we have gigs in Canada, at least I hope. Yeah, I think we have gigs in Canada too. We’re going to come back with Hypocrisy and Blackguard and Ex Deo.

Sounds great!

Yeah, and Hypocrisy is releasing a new album, so it's going to be a very good tour.

On past shows I read that you had to cover for Petri and become the frontman for a few shows?

Yeah, in Russia.

Is it difficult to make that kind of a switch, to suddenly change from being the bass player and maybe doing backing vocals to suddenly becoming the leader of the band?

Well singing, it wasn’t that difficult because I like to sing when I’m playing. That’s something I’ve always done, that gets me in the mood all the time, so it wasn’t that difficult. And we had very good substitutes; Jukka-Pekka Miettinen, the old bass player, was playing guitar on those Russian shows, and he’s a very good friend of mine. We had a very good time, so it wasn’t that difficult. But, on the other hand, I can see that it’s very hard, which I realized on those few gigs, Petri’s position is, because he has to scream his lungs out for so many songs. It’s much easier to sing those few clean vocal parts. So, respect for all the lead singers in the world! But I would do it again if I had the opportunity, it was fun.

Do you prefer playing bass or do you like being the frontman more?

Well that was the first time I was ever the frontman of any band. It was weird because I’m not really used to being the center of attention, but it was fun. But I’d rather be just the bass player.

You were the main lyricist on Victory Songs. Is that the same with From Afar?

Yeah, I wrote all the lyrics.

What inspires your lyrics? Folktales, or something else?

Hmm… Inspires… well, real life issues inspire me, you know? But, for example, the title song for From Afar, the idea for those lyrics came from a dream that I had. It depends; there are so many things in life. You just have to keep your eyes open and you start thinking about something. Maybe some news that you read, or maybe you had a good drinking session with your friends. (Laughs) You might get some ideas from that kind of stuff also. Or just thinking about life, if you want to go deeper. World politics if you REALLY want to go deep. But I’ve always liked metaphors, so it would be very weird to write things really straightforward and use real names. That’s also a good thing, because Ensiferum lyrics are fantasy based, so it’s nicer for me to put those lyrics in a fantasy world. And that’s nice for listeners also, you can interpret it as “Okay, grab a sword, kill the enemies and have a beer”, or if you want you can find a deeper meaning. But I don’t really want to explain lyrics too much, because I really want to keep things open, and I don’t want to spoil it if someone has an idea and I come and say “No no, that’s wrong, I meant this and this!” I think that’s important in art, that everybody gets their own visions of things, their own… interpretation, if that’s the word.

There’s something I’ve always wondered about ever since I started listening to Ensiferum. On every album cover, there’s this old Viking warrior guy, I don’t know who he is, I’m not sure if he even knows where he’s going or if he’s even going anywhere! Does he have a story?

(Laughs) Uh, that’s a good question! I have to ask that from Markus and Kristen, who paints the album covers. (Laughs again) That’s a good question, where is he going? Hm. Well, From Afar isn’t a theme album, but there’s a presence of death and mortality and afterlife in many songs. So maybe, if you remember the first cover where the guy is coming with the boat, and on the Iron cover he was in the middle of a fight, and the same thing with the Victory Songs cover. Maybe this time he’s… well, the dark stream, maybe that’s like the dividing stream that divides the worlds of living and dead. So maybe he ended up dead in the battle! Shit! I dunno, Markus is going to kick my ass after this one. (Laughs)

So he’s not leaving the album covers any time soon unless he’s dead, huh?

No, no no no no no. I think he’s gonna stick around. We’re going to bring him back to life if he’s dead this time. But maybe he’s on the living side of the stream, and he’s not dead yet.

What’s the band’s plans for the future? On this album you’ve really progressed in your sound, and to me it’s like “Okay, where are these guys going to go next? How are they possibly going to make the next album even better?” Do you have any plans on stuff you want to do in the future?

Actually, we were so lucky when we were writing new material, because we already have two complete songs for the next album. Well the next album… I don’t know, but I think it’s going to be not so epic, because I don’t see how we could go anymore. I think it’s going to be stuff with traditional instruments, but something new, again. Finding another angle to do our stuff.

So now the only place to go is back, because you’ve gone so far ahead in terms of being epic, right?

Yeah! But let’s see… maybe not going “Backwards”, that sounds like you’re out of ideas. We’re going forward, but into some different direction. But Markus already has some ideas for the new songs. So hopefully we can start writing them as soon as possible, because it would be so cool to do another album in less than two years. But let’s see how many gigs we have, because that’s always the main issue.

Well I hope you do more gigs, because I’d love to see you play live sometime!

Yeah, that’s what we like the best also. So we’ll see!

So do you have any real preference? Making albums, or just going out and playing for all the fans? Creating music in a studio, or playing it all in real time on a stage?

I really like playing live, and I really like jamming with nice people. I really like that way of, you know, creating. Just like when you have one riff and you keep jamming it, and it evolves that way. But in Ensiferum that’s not really the case. There’s so much happening, small things that I don’t think most people notice. Like small differences in… when there’s like, a riff that comes four times in a verse, usually they’re all different in Ensiferum. That’s the way Markus likes to write music. But I personally like playing live. Studio is okay, but I enjoy playing live much more.

So you would say that right now you’re really comfortable where you’re at, with your sound and the direction the band is going?

Yes. I’m really looking forward to playing new stuff life and seeing the fans’ reaction. I’m very happy about our situation, our very privileged situation that we have now. The chance to do this and do tours… you have to be humbled from time to time. You have to remember from time to time where you started. I still have my first bass that I got 20 years ago, and… It almost brings tears to my eyes, and I see old photos when I’m practicing Stairway To Heaven or some Black Sabbath riffs with my big brother. But it’s healthy to keep your feet on the ground.

Well, everything sounds really good, and I think I’ve run out of things to ask you unless you have anything to say to Ensiferum fans in general, or just about the new album, or anything else.

Well, enjoy the new album, and see you on tour! Actually, we’re having a gig in Australia, and we have plans to go to some exotic countries.

Sounds good. Well, thank you for calling and spending some time talking to me, it’s been a real pleasure!

Thank you, and take care!

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