SOURCE WEBZINE | We don’t have readers - we have believers.

SOURCEWEBZINE - The current production has been published by Spinefarm Records again. Seems that they’re doing a good job?

Eve (keyboards) - Actually it’s released by Spinefarm Records and published by Universal/Bottom Row. Well, let’s cut the crap… Spinefarm has quite a good status and contacts around the world, the distribution also works really well. You can get the albums both from big stores and little webshops almost anywhere. We also got as much time in the studio as we requested, we didn’t have to fight about that. The other side to the story is that they have a lot of bands in their roster and some of them are way bigger than we are, so you have to stay busy and loud to have their attention. It could be better and it could be worse…

SOURCEWEBZINE - How does the record deal that you have with them look like?

Eve - Well, let’s just they that they still have a few options left. Let’s see if they wanna use them. The deal is quite basic, it’s the one that they do with all the new bands that aren’t yet in a position to demand that much, haha!

SOURCEWEBZINE - Is there anything you’re not satisfied with? How did the preparation differ from the last ones?

EVE - Well, it could be better but it could still be much worse, as I said before. You just have to be satisfied with what you have and try to cope with the reality. The band of course thinks that there should be more promotion and stuff, but it’s just reality that there is a limited amount of money to use. And we’re not their priority, no yet at least, haha!

SOURCEWEBZINE - How would you describe your musical progress from the “The Red Frame” demo to now?

EVE - There has been some natural development for sure. Hundreds of training sessions at our rehearsal place, a bunch of gigs… It would be really strange if those things didn’t have any effect on the band. I think that as we’ve got to know each other better during these years, it’s also easier to say if some thing doesn’t work, musically or personally. It’s also really important to give positive feedback to your mates on the band. That’s a thing that has always worked really well in this band. The basic thing is that “The Red Frame” and “Orbit Dance” (our debut album) set some kind of basics for our sound and this time we took things further. We haven’t been afraid to experiment with daring elements either. When you’re older, you’re usually more confident too, if you know what I mean. You don’t care what other people say that much, you just do your thing. I guess this goes with the band too.

SOURCEWEBZINE - How much of an influence has the band had in the song selections on “Signs Of Existence” ?

EVE - Do you mean that who has got to choose the songs on the album? Well, Spinefarm or anyone else didn’t interfere with the song selections. Actually we managed to record demo versions of the songs like a week before the studio sessions began, haha! So there wasn’t much of a use on that tape for the sound engineer either. We just had to tell everyone to trust us that there are good songs coming.

SOURCEWEBZINE - “Signs Of Existence” got rave comments/reviews and really put the band on the heavy metal map in my opinion. Did you expect this immediate success and what do you think of your firstborn yourself?

EVE - Thank you for the compliment! (I guess you mean “Orbit Dance”? Well, the reception was far beyond what we expected. Although we’re still a small band and “Orbit Dance” didn’t sell millions or anything, it was a surprise how fluently people adapted the band. We didn’t have a long demo phase and fans over there when we released the album. So I guess Spinefarm did something right with that, haha! We’re still really pleased with “Orbit Dance”, it was a good debut album and reflects that period of the band. There were many good songs but not that much of risk-taking as on “Signs”.

SOURCEWEBZINE - I’m always on the hunt for quality music within the Metal genre, and therefore I would like to ask you if there are any bands you would like to recommend.

EVE - I guess I’ll skip the most obvious ones like Opeth, Katatonia and the rest. I could recommend you to check out Profane Omen, it’s some kind of a “death rock” or how should I put it… Their vocalist Jules, a dear friend of ours, is visiting on “Signs”. Just check out the second song, “This Perfect Chaos”. I could also recommend Ghost Brigade, a young band that also comes from Finland. They play stuff that’s a mixture of Katatonia, Cult of Luna etc. Really interesting music. Luckily there is also real music rising from the underground, as a contrary to the shit that comes from MTV, radio and so on.

SOURCEWEBZINE - What do you think is the reason that metal has become so popular in Finland. Do you feel that people are into the music or after an image?

EVE - I don’t have a straight answer for that but at least there’s a lot of bands for people to choose from… The success of metal music has been growing for many years now and I think it’s finally reaching the point that it can’t grow any bigger. For me, who has listened to metal for a long time, it somehow feels that something has been stolen from me cause metal has become so mainstream and widely accepted. There isn’t much rebellion in it anymore, although music is the most important thing, of course. It’s a double-edged sword for the bands also. There is a lot of opportunities cause metal sells and there are fans for every band, but on the other hand as Finland is such a small country, it isn’t only a good thing that for example in Helsinki there can be five metal gigs on the same day. There just isn’t people enough to attend all the gigs so there’s a few people in all of them. Lordi’s victory on the Eurovision song contest was the last nail on the coffin and our newest Finnish Idol happens to be a heavy metal singer also… so people are acting the same like they do when we win the F1 races or ice hockey: suddenly everyone’s interested. And those kind of things create “fans” that without question are only after the image. Posers!

SOURCEWEBZINE - A lot of newcomer band are releasing DVDs nowadays. Do you already have plans in this direction or are you going to release some more studio material first?

EVE - No no, we haven’t had any discussion about that yet. We don’t have the money nor the material to release a DVD yet. You have to search Youtube, I guess you can find something from there!

SOURCEWEBZINE - The media tells us that finish pupils are the best in the world. How were your grades?

EVE - Hehe, I guess I was a little better than the average in elementary school but as I entered high school, my grades dropped a bit. I’ve always liked music lessons, as well as languages, history, religion and philosophy.

SOURCEWEBZINE - Do you regular go to the sauna? What is your favorite infusion there?

EVE - Hehe, well I don’t have a sauna at my home, unfortunately… but every time I go to my parent’s house, I gotta get there. It’s really relaxing – especially as you take a couple of beers with you. It’s also one of the best things in the summer to go to the cottage, go to the sauna and swim a bit in a lake. THAT is Finnish if something is. Oh shit, can’t wait the summer!

SOURCEWEBZINE - Where do you rehearse?

EVE - We rehearse in a training complex that’s located about 10 km from the centre of Helsinki. It’s actually a perfect location for me, cause I live near it. I guess there is around 20 or 30 bands training over there. We share a room with some rock band. The place is OK, although it gets very hot in the summer as there aren’t any windows!

SOURCEWEBZINE - What type of bands caused you to start getting interested in heavy metal music? What were your early influences?

EVE - One word: Amorphis. I could say that their album “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” changed my life as it came out. I had been listening to some metal bands before that, Metallica and the basic stuff but Amorphis really opened my eyes for metal genre as a whole. I was impressed by the fact that they were so melodic and rough at the same time – I had never heard anything like that. I still love that album and have been following their career since then. It was so great that they managed to find as awesome new singer as Tomi Joutsen is, it’s like the band has been born again. Amorphis also made me realize that you can use keyboards in a band without sounding gay. It didn’t take long as I joined my first band and that’s partly due to Amorphis.

SOURCEWEBZINE - Thanks for taking the time to allow me to interview you. Do you have any final words for the people at home?

EVE - We hope you like “Signs of Existence”, check it out as it comes out in February! See you on the road.

Mygrain
Mygrain - Myspace
Spinefarm Records

Related Posts:

• MYGRAIN - “Signs of Existence” (0)