KALMAH
By Falber Teles • Aug 26th, 2008 • Category: Interviews
SOURCEWEBZINE – Please. Give us a preview of “For The Revolution”.
Antti Kokko (G) – “For The Revolution” is kind of walktrough of all Kalmah albums. It has the atmosphere of our first album and some pieces of every album in it. But of course everything is packed in new vein of Kalmah with the best sounds we have ever come up with. It is melodic extreme swamp metal.
SOURCEWEBZINE – How does the producing of a new album usually look like for you, especially Kalmah, how do you set about and who does what or do you work together on everything?
Antti Kokko (G) – The basic way is that mostly I write the songs. This album has 2 Pekka’s songs and one is done by Marco. But the process is pretty much the same with everybody. Like me I write the song almost ready at home and the I share an mp3 with everybody and after that I collect the comments and if they are positive we start to work it out at rehearsal place. Everybody can then add or remove something from the song but I have the final word.
SOURCEWEBZINE – If you compare this new album “For The Revolution” with your previous ones, what do you think is the biggest progression you made?
Antti Kokko (G) – For me it is the sounds and playing together as a band has reached very good level. We have grown up to a real band. The songs are kind of more “mature” in a good way and the individual performances are on the top level.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Nowadays people are often talking of music piratism. What are your opinions about downloading music from the internet?
Antti Kokko (G) – That is nothing no-one can avoid. For me it is not a serious issue but I do hope people actually buy the album as well even if they download it to get a prelisten. Of course we loose serious amount of money because of it and I hope people could put them selves in to the boots of an artist. On the other hand internet is very good way to promote the music and the more people download the music the more “village-drum” spreads the word. So it is a double edged sword.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Do have any numbers on how much your albums have sold worldwide ?
Antti Kokko (G) – Yes I do. We have sold a great deal.
SOURCEWEBZINE – The internet is a very important source for many metal fans. How do you use the internet and how important is it for you and other bands?
Antti Kokko (G) – I use internet a lot since my actual work is computer work. I have always done Kalmah’s website and admin it of course for example. When it comes to music I use to check some new songs from Myspace like I did last week.
I listened to the new songs of The Haunted. I don’t download music from the web because I hate the mp3’s. I always buy an album if I want to seriously listen to some artist.
SOURCEWEBZINE – In some past interviews I read that you guys have day jobs, what exactly do you guys do other than playing and composing music? Would you guys like to just make a living of the music you write?
Antti Kokko (G) – Well for example I’m a project manager in a IT-company. Basically I do software engineering and write code. We have one lumber jack, test engineer, media professional and yet another software developer in our band. I guess if we get seriously big I could think of doing just music but right now I’m very pleased with the situation and the fact that doing music is just a hobby for us feels right at the moment.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Could you tell us something about you self, do you have a family and what do you do for a living?
Antti Kokko (G) – I do have a family, wife and 2,5 year old kid. I go to work 5 days in a week and rest of the time I spend with my family and as sport maniac practise a lot e.g jogging and cross-country skiing.
SOURCEWEBZINE – How is the solidarity in the band? Do you get enough of eachother at work or do you “hangout” in your sparetime?
Antti Kokko (G) – We do hang out sometimes but we live kind of separately in geographic way so it is sometimes hard to find the time do it. We do find the time to rehearse but everyone has much personal stuff going on. It is a good situation. For example this Fall we have planned to sit down, drink and go to sauna at my place and think about the future and laugh for the past.
SOURCEWEBZINE – What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?
Antti Kokko (G) – I always have an idea what we practise. We do some jamming of course but mainly the rehearsals are pre planned but in a free way of course. There is no idea to practise hard. We want it to be fun. If we rehearse for a gig we of course have the setlist and we train it and that is pretty much it. If I have a new song to bring at rehearsal place we concentrate on it.
SOURCEWEBZINE – What do you think about the Brazilian metal scene? Do you know much about our bands?
Antti Kokko (G) – Well I do know Sepultura but that is about it. Sepultura is one of the reasons I do metal nowadays. That is why we did the “Arise” cover. I know that you like Iron Maiden and the fans are crazy.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Thank you for the interview! Would you like to say something to wrap it up?
Antti Kokko (G) – I hope we could play in Brazil one day! Thank you very much!
Falber Teles
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