Interview с Catamenia : DARKSIDE.ru

Let’s begin the interview with talking about the beginning of Catamenia. How did it all start? As it’s known, you were beginning as a punk/death metal act. Why did you turn to melodic black metal one day?

Riku: It was back in 1993 when me and Mika Tonning decided to form a band. First we just started to play for fun after the school. At some point it got more serious cause we wanted to go to record our first demo. Before this we were still seeking our own sound. Yes, we played first something what you can call punk/death, but you’ve to start somewhere right? (laughs) And from the first notes we played our sound has developed into what it is now.

Melodic black metal is very popular in Finland. There are many bands playing in the same musical direction. Do you feel a strong spirit of rivalry? Does that spirit motivate you in any way?

O.J.: I don’t think that melodic black metal is that popular anymore in Finland, since nowadays the thing seems to be playing death/thrash. Of course there are still bands playing the stuff that´s somewhat similar to our music, but not as much as there were a couple of years ago.

You covered Satyricon’s “Fuel For Hatred” on the latest album “Winternight Tragedies”. Why did you pick up that song? Did Satyricon influence you much? What bands are among your greatest influences?

O.J.: Of course Satyricon is one of the bands that has influenced me quite a lot, since “Shadowthrone” was one of the first black metal albums that I heard back in the days. Also Carpathian Forest, Impaled Nazarene and Necrophagia are among the great bands for me.

The name of your band is a kind of shocking. Who came up with such an idea?

Riku: The name was invented by our ex-vocalist Mika. One day he came to the rehearsals and suggested ‘Catamenia’ to us. It sounded great, so we decided to use it as our name. One day after the release of our debut album “Halls of Frozen North” (1998), one of our fans contacted us and said it has a meaning. We were shocked also, ‘cause for us it was only an invented name. That was pure coincidence that it means something.

O.J.: Well, at least the word Catamenia itself sounds cool.

You signed to Massacre Records soon after you’d recorded your first demo. What was that demo like? What do you think attracted Massacre in your music and in your sound?

Riku: We have no i

dea. I suppose they did like the sound in general. I never really asked them about that issue. Maybe I should ask, heh. Our both demos can be heard along all the samples from the albums at www.catamenia.net/audio.

Let’s talk about your last album “Winternight Tragedies”. What are those ‘tragedies’ about? Is there any concept line connecting lyrics of the songs?

Riku: “Winternight Tragedies” is a kind of concept album, ‘cause there are songs about different kind tragedies of winter, for example, from “Winter War”. I think that’s quite a tragedy already. Stories from “Winter War” and fictional stories of various things.

How do you like the responses to the album? Has it made every fan and critic happy, or are there any people disappointed by what you did? What do you feel when anybody says your music is not that good as before?

O.J.: It seems that everyone has liked the “Winternight Tragedies” very much, the audience as well the critics. Of course you can´t please everyone at the same time, but that doesn´t really get in to me at any way.

There are two songs in Finnish – “Verikansa” и “Perinto Pohjolan”. What are they about? How did you like the experience of singing in Finnish?

O.J.: The Finnish language fits quite well in this kind of music since it sounds rougher than English. It has lots of hard consonants which make it sound quite aggressive, especially when it´s shouted out.

Riku: The songs themselves tell about the Finnish winter war. They are a kind of tribute to our veterans and soldiers who fought in the war for our freedom.

Your new album was produced by Kakke Vähäkuopus and Immu Ilmarinen, just like your previous album “ChaosBorn” (2003). And on both of these records Kakke is responsible for the clean vocals. How did it happen? Was it something spontaneous or was it planned in advance?

Riku: We knew already that Kakke was absolutely a great singer and from the beginning we knew we’d use his vocals on the albums. Definitely we’ll use them more on the next album as well, if we find a place on the songs where to use them. Of course we will not ‘force’ the vocals on the songs. You just can hear if they work out or not.

Heidi Sainio recorded female vocals for “Winternight Tragedies”. Why and how did you get a new female singer

? What made you include female vocals in your songs?

Riku: We just thought it’d give some good variations to the songs and that happened. Heidi was the girlfriend of Tero (Nevala, keyboard player) back then and Tero asked her to come to sing on the album. So together as a band we thought the vocal lines for her and they worked out very well. Maybe we’ll use them again on the next album.

All your albums were recorded in different places. How do you choose the record studio? How did you like working in Mastervox Studios this time? What are the best points in your opinion of recording in this quite famous studio?

Riku: In the beginning our label booked us the studios in Germany and Sweden. Then we personally wanted to record some albums here in Finland and that has happened. I think we’ve managed to find ‘our’ studio here in Oulu called Mastervox Studios. There we have recorded our last two previous albums and will go there next time next year. Both of the producers are great and our friends - Kakke Vähäkuopus and Immu Ilmarinen.

O.J.: Kakke and Immu who work at the Mastervox Studio are both great guys and professional sound engineers. It´s also a lot easier to record the album here in our hometown than it would have been to travel abroad.

Thomas Ewerhard did the cover artwork for some of your albums, and for “Winternight Tragedies”, too. How long have you known Thomas and how close do you collaborate with him when it comes to making the cover artwork?

Riku: As a matter of fact, we have never spoke with Thomas himself. Our label gives him the album title and then he comes up with a few sheds of the various album cover suggestions. And then we start making possible changes on the cover. Unfortunately we did not have that possibility on the cover of “Eskahata” (2002). The album was already in the pressing progress when we saw the cover.

There are lots of German resources in the Internet about Catamenia, much more than in other languages. In what countries or parts of the world is your music in highest demand? Do you maintain any contacts with your fans in Russia?

O.J.: There seem to be fans of Catamenia all around the world, but probably most of them are in Germany since Massacre Records is a German label and they hardly do any promotion in other countries, heh. Also looks like things in the United States are starting to roll in a good direction and we´re pl

anning to do a tour there, let´s just keep fingers crossed that it comes true.

The wolf’s image is pictured on your every album cover. If you see this wolf as a symbol of the band or its music, what meaning do you put in it? Why the wolf, not any other animal?

O.J.: Well, wolves are aggressive animals and so is our music, so I think it fits pretty well to our album covers. And people always seem to connect Catamenia with wolves so they´re probably staying there. Or maybe we´ll just put some other animal on the next cover, like a donkey. That would probably surprise a few people! (laughs)

The band’s line-up changes quite often. What’s the reason for it? Were there any band members who achieved any success in music after leaving Catamenia?

Riku: There’s no any bigger drama or bigger reasons for the replacements. They are things that just happen to happen in almost every band. Sometimes it’s a decision of the member itself to leave the band because of personal issues. Or like the last time when Mika and Timo (Lehtinen, bassist) were replaced by O.J. and Mikko (Hepo-oja), the decision was made by the band ‘cause they did not have time to rehearse in the band ‘cause they live so far from Oulu. And when we planned to rehearse together, always something came up for one or both of them. And the studio is not the place to rehearse songs, it’s a way too expensive place to do that. (laughs)

Do you have any sort of mastermind in the band? Do you have a leader who makes all decisions? Who’s mainly responsible for music and lyrics?

O.J.: Riku is the evil leader of the group since he is the only original member left. I think it´s a great thing that he´s composing most of the material so the songs always sound like Catamenia and the plot won´t be lost so easily. Although I´m currently writing lyrics for the next album so there will probably be some different themes than on previous albums. But we´ll see.

Could you tell us about every band member in brief? Are you really so wicked as you look on photos?

O.J.: I don’t think there’s that much to tell, everyone´s a beer loving lazy bastard. And I wouldn´t actually call us that wicked. (laughs)

What memories do you have from playing in St. Petersburg earlier this fall? What impressed you much? Did you manage to see the city? Di

d you have an opportunity to talk to fans?

O.J.: Most of my memories from St. Petersburg were flushed away with the vodka. We didn’t have a chance to see the town that much, although we took a little walk with Riku and tried to buy some beer with euros, which was quite a task. But after the show we had a great time with some local people, they gave us some much vodka that I don´t think I’d ever drunk that much before. I almost got arrested by the police at the train station ´cause I was so drunk. (laughs)

What’s the reason for canceling your gig in Moscow? Is there a chance to reschedule it?

O.J.: The cancellation of the gig in Moscow hadn’t anything to do with us, it was the local promoter who cancelled it only a few days before the show. We would’ve been glad to come there and still are if anyone invites us there.

What countries have you visited lately? Which of them were the most memorable?

O.J.: This year we´ve been to Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Russia. I think that I liked Romania the most since we had a great show there at Club Napoca. Altough all the countries that we´ve been to have been really great and would be awesome to visit them again. Hopefully we´ll get to do that on the next tour.

How do you see the future of heavy music and black metal scene in Finland? What would you do if it comes to the point when melodic black metal is not as popular as it is now?

O.J.: As I said before, I don´t see melodic black metal being as popular in Finland anymore as it was a few years ago. But we´re still definitely continue on the same way, we won´t be changing our style only because some style of music is more popular than another. There are no pictures of dollars rolling in our pockets, we do this kind of music simply ´cause we like it.

Does anybody in the band have any side projects? And what do you do in life apart from playing music?

O.J.: I think that Tero is the only one who´s in some other band, he plays bass in a thrash metal band called National Napalm Syndicate. Everyone else is devoted sincerely to Catamenia. I don´t do anything spectacular besides Catamenia, except drinking beer and doing tattoos.

Riku: Drinking beer and vodka, making websites. That’s about it. Except at the moment I’m working at a university doing some computer stuff.

What would you like to add to round up the interview? Can you say a few final words to your Russian fans?

O.J.: Stay metal and all hail Russian vodka!

Riku: Yeah…Flagman vodka rules! And visit out site at www.catamenia.net.

Special thanks to Art Music Group for arranging this interview

Ekaterina Fyodorova, Anna Babicheva
December 7, 2005
16 дек 2005 the End

Catamenia

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