Interview с Korpiklaani : DARKSIDE.ru

Yesterday in Finland your new single “Vodka” was released. Have you received any opinions from your friends, relatives or fans about it?

The problem is that I haven’t heard anything from anyone yet, it’s too early I think.

But I won’t believe that you didn’t give your album to your relatives and friends to listen and appreciate!

My friends have heard it, the whole album, for a few times. I have had it at home. But I haven’t played the whole album for them, because I don’t want to annoy them by playing my own stuff.

Why annoy? (laughs)

Yeah! I see it like this. I think it’s a little bit strange to come to your friends and say, “Come on, listen to this”.

Your latest album, "Korven Kunigas", was released a year ago and entered the Finnish charts at position № 16. What do you think that it will be more successful than the previous work?

At least we are quite confident about the album, we are confident about it, it is a really good album. It has a lot of… Well there are a lot of varieties in the music, it is probably more interesting than the previous one was. I don’t know if we have any expectations about the charts or whatever. Of course we hoe and we wish that this album will take us like one step higher again on the band ranking. So we just with this album can play more shows on bigger venues, Probable getting the band bigger, I don’t know. I don’t say that this album will make us stars at one night, but slowly it will get us bigger and bigger. One step closer to the big goal in the end. Hopefully it takes us a bit higher again.

You mentioned that the new album will contain some new elements, some new things, innovations, so what shall we, fans, e

xpect from the new album? Of course we are sure that there will be again wild dances, beer, now even vodka.

There is also some heavy stuff that was not so common at our albums previously. Of course as you said we have the usual stuff, the funny songs, the drinking songs, but there is also some heavy stuff, not really doom, but heavy anyway. So there is something different in this sense, and also this album has been produced by different producer than the last three, so it sounds a bit different. It is more guitar-driven, guitar-oriented album, than the previous ones were. And we also worked much more in the studio, There are a lot of changes in the small things that in the end I think make a big difference – when you hear the final product. And as we hear it – it is a more interesting album.

Why did you think it was necessary to make these changes and to lead band into more heavy stuff?

There wasn’t any intention in that sense. It happened quite by chance, as almost everything that we do. We never think beforehand of what we are going to do – if we are going to do a fun album or a heavy album, or something else. We just do the album from the songs we have at the moment. And I think if you start defining them beforehand, then you are on the wrong track, because when you stop being honest to yourself, then you start think what others want from you and not what you want to do. That is a really wrong direction for the band, so we decided not to be untrue.

So you just express your emotions with the music, and what happens that happens…

Exactly! That is something that people appreciate in our band – that we are an honest band. We don’t try to be anything else, but what we really are.

We haven’t had an opportunity to listen to

the whole album, only with a single called “Vodka”. Of course the ansrew to this question is rather predictable, but still – what is the story about creating this song? And why vodka this time, has it become your top priority and left beer behind?

One famous man – I don’t remember who it was, probably some famous writer, when asked “How did you become a good writer?” answered, “You should always write about things that you know” (everybody laughs) So I guess we are following this advice and writing about things that we know. We sang a lot of songs about beer drinking in the past, but we also drink about vodka, so we decided that probably we must sing about this as well.

Is beer no longer strong enough for such strong forest clan as you are guys?

Oh, no no! They are both good for different situations. You should know that, you guys drink a LOT of vodka!

Yes, we do! Not exactly me, as I don’t like vodka, but in general we Russian know this pretty well! (laughs)

Oh, I thought that everybody drinks in Russia! (laughs) I think you start feeding your babies with bottles of vodka!

You are the funniest guys in the world when you come on stage, you are very jolly and crazy. Is it your usual state of mind and body or in your private life you are not like that, is it just a very well rehearsed behavior?

Yeah, in general we are quite a funny band. When we are touring most of the time we are having fun. But of course it can never be fun all the time. But of course when we play live we are full of this fun, it is also a part of the music business. To play live in front of the huge audience that we usually have - I mean how can you not smile when you are on stage playing this kind of music? I

think it would be strange to play this music and stay gloom and doom and not smile at all.

The cover artwork of your album was created by a long term friend of yours, Jan 'Örkki' Yrlund. And who created the cover of your single? Is it the same person? I ask because they differ greatly and it the album cover is rather in the style of Korpiklaani, the single artwork seems to be taken from some caricature.

Oh yes! The two things were created by the same person, Jan. The album cover the sort of follows the line that we had at previous albums. For the single this time we just wanted something different, this is actually drawn in the style of another Finnish writer and painter, Mauri Kunnas. Mauri Kunnas has made a lot of children’s books, a lot of really funny stuff and this is just a kind of tribute to his.

On the cover of your album we see a long term friend of ours, this famous peron. What is he doing there? Is it a kind of shamanism?

Oh, no – he is getting drunk! The album is called “Party” so I think he drinks vodka from the horn.

The other song on the single bears a Finnish title. How can we translate this and what is this song about? Why did you chose this song to couple with “Vodka” on the single?

The song is called “Juodaan Viinaa” (taken off “Yhtenä iltana” album [1990] by Hector – ed.) and this is not actually our song, it is a cover. This is a song from a mainstream Finnish artist called Hector (real name Heikki Harma – ed.) Probably you don’t know this name, but he started his career in 1960-s, and this is a song that he released about 20 years ago, maybe in 1991. It is quite famous in Finland. At least people here often sing it when they are drunk. And “Juodaan Viinaa” basically means “let’s drink”,

like alcohol. Of course we couldn’t call it “Let’s Drink”, because on the previous album we already had a song by this title. But this song is also considered as a drinking song. This is thought to be a kind of tribute to alcohol, but I think it isn’t, I think it is a little bit dark song. It sounds like it’s full of fun and joy, but it isn’t, it is more a sarcastic song about how great it is to drink alcohol, but on the other hand, it is said that it is not that fun, because your life sucks and you drown yourself in alcohol. That is basically what this song is about.

And why this particular song for a cover version? I think that in Finnish folklore there are a lot of drinking songs deserving being mage a cover on…

Jonne heard this song, and I don’t know why, probably he was drunk, but he decided, “Hey! That will make a nice cover!” Just the original has the accord and everything already. He did a demo of that song at home, then he emailed this demo to the rest of us and we were like, “Yeah, it sort of works…” But I think that really no one else wanted to record that. We thought that this was a joke from Jonne, when he said, “This is gonna be on the next album!”, and we were like, “O’k! Funny joke! He-he, ha-ha!”

So you didn’t believe your friend?

No, no at first. Actually I didn’t want to record that song. I felt like that everybody will think that we are trying to get it easy, to get a hit song by doing that, because this is a very famous song in Finland. And I didn’t want to get this kind of reputation. But we did it anyway and it turned out that the album is full of very good songs so that this song didn’t even stand out from that. It is just one of the songs on the album, so now it doesn’t matter.

You said that on this album you, to be

exact Jonne sings about vodka, beer, some party, but you also mentioned some heavy stuff. What other themes do you touch upon?

It is basically the same stuff that we had, it is the Finnish mythology and the Finnish folklore and the old Finnish traditions. I don’t know how much you know about Kalevala…

Of course I know this epos! We have some Russian bands that are fascinated and inspired by Kalevala.
So we have about two or three songs about Ilmarinen, my favorite song on the album is “Kultanainen”, golden woman, is a story about how Ilmarinen creates his wife out of gold, and how he becomes obsessed by this golden woman, how he goes crazy. So both the lyrics and music are quite manic on that one, and I like it quite a lot. The funny thing is that we released an album that has several songs about Ilmarinen, and Amorphis released an album not long ago called “Skyforge”, which is devoted to Ilmarinen.
Has anything changed in your life since Korpiklaani gained this success? Do people in the streets of Finland recognize you, no?

No, not really. And what a funny thing – even if they recognize us, they won’t say anything. This is different if you are in Germany or Spain, or Italy or Russia where people come to talk to you, ask for a photograph or something, but in Finland even if they recognize you they will never come up to say anything to you. I don’t think much has changed in this sense. The big change is that now we are now less home. No we play over a hundred shows a year and most of them are outside Finland, so we are quite a lot away from home. Those in the band who have families and children – they have more problems, it is more difficult for them anyway.

You spend a lot of time out of home. Do you miss it when you are traveling? Or

did you already get used to this neverending traveling and can’t imagine your life without it?

I think that the human nature is so annoying that when you are on tour you miss home and you miss you families. But when you are home you miss being on a tour. I think the human nature is that – one can never be happy hear and now, we want something different all the time.

Korpiklaani is one of the most productive bands on the Finnish metal scene – you release albums every year, but it doesn’t affect the quality of your works – they are as catchy and wild as they were. What is your secret?

Well, first of all I’d like to say that now there are four composers in the band, that is why plenty of stuff is coming from us. And as for the secret – I don’t know, probably we ARE just productive. When I was a teenager growing up in 1990-s – my favorite bands released albums every year – Iron Maiden for example, they released their first five albums in a five years and they played about two hundred shows every year. And if they managed to do that, I think that everybody can manage to do that. Those albums are a classics now, and they were made very quickly. First five Black Sabbath albums were released in a three years, even in less than three years, Kiss released two albums every year in the 70-s. I don’t think we are anything strange, I think the other bands are strange, I think we are normal. (laughs)

Have you heard about Eurovision?

(signs deeply) Oh, ye-es, I do!

Your fellow-countrymen from heavy metal band Lordi were the winners of the Eurovision. Don’t you want to try your fortune – who knows maybe Korpiklaani one day will be the winners…

Oh, no! We don’t want. Why would we? I think that the well k

nown fact about music business is that the faster you go up, the faster you go down.

So you are afraid of very fast going up?

Yes, but if you do like we are doing it – we are doing the ground work, we are touring around the world, we go to the new places we haven’t been before and play in small clubs and slowly grow. So I think this is the right way to do this and not like this overnight success which comes from competitions like that. When you grow slowly, then in the end you fade out slowly.

So you are afraid of being very quickly forgotten?

No, not quite, we are not afraid of that. But some bands should be afraid of that.

Do you have any plans of shooting a video clip for this or that song off your upcoming album? I think “Vodka” is taken for granted!

Yes, we’ve already done a video clip for “Vodka”. But as for ther plot, I don’t know it, because I haven’t actually seen the finished production. It’s going to be quite simple I think. Our part – the band’s part – was shot before the tour a month ago, we were shot at the background of a screen, and the surroundings were added later without us. So I don’t know what it is going to be. I think this is gonna be a bit different than a normal video, but … Honestly I don’t know.

Maybe any other songs for video clips?

No, so far no plans for more videos. So far this is going to be the only one.

Korpiklaani feel in Russia at home, and there is even a joke that Korpiklaani might already get the Russian citizenship. When are you going to gladden your Russian fans and sing in Russian for them?

We have never talked about that, but I can never say “never”. I think so far we are ra

ther happy with our current language. Moreover, as I’ve already said we don’t plan things that far ahead.

The limited edition of your previous album, "Korven Kunigas", was released in a limited edition of 500 copies, it was a very beautiful digipack which included apart from bonuses, a
special horn. Do you plan to include anything special for your fans into the new album, into its limited edition?

That’s basically more a record label business and not ours. I’m sure that they are going to release something about that. But I don’t really know yet, we haven’t paid much attention to such matters, but maybe we should, because sometimes they come up with very stupid ideas and make quite strange decisions, that is why maybe we should interfere with such things. So sorry, but once again I have to say that I don’t know. Of course, we try to keep them from doing something really stupid, but our work is to do a good album, and their job is to make a good package for it and sell it.

I hear that Finntroll, another folk metal band from Finland, had to split with their vocalist, because of some problems with his vocal cords. Does Jonne care much about his voice? Hot milk before the show or honey? Nothing?

Oh, no. This is not for Jonne. He doesn’t do things like that. He doesn’t really do much about his voice. But probably he should, because this is also an instrument, and he should take care of it.

Jugging from your MySpace page you plan a very wide world tour. What do you expect of this tour and what countries do you want to visit most of all?

We’ve done so many tours already, that I don’t think I have much expectations about it. But I think that most of all I have expectations concerning new places. We also plan to visit tw

o new countries – Ukraine and Israel.

You are going to play at Wacken Open Festival this year. Do you like such big venues? I think it’s more difficult to perform before the huge audience, before people who came not only for you?

Both have good and bad sides. We have spoken about this and, for example, Jonne, likes the small venues and the small clubs more, than big ones. And I prefer bigger venues. Of course, it is good to be in front of your own audience, in front of your own fans, but it is also a really really nice feeling, when you are playing before people who are not really your audience. You can get all these people, who haven’t known you beforehand, you can get them involved. That is a great moment as well.

What kind of music do you personally prefer? Do you have free time for this?

Of course, I listen to the music a lot. All my free time, or maybe not all, but most of my free time I listen to something. I listen to a lot of different stuff. Heaven And Hell new album, I like Black Sabbath whatever album, Motorhead, I can listen basically to any music.

All people have occasions when they gather with their family, sit around the table in a family circle, celebrate something. In such cases do you listen to Korpiklaani?

No, never. It is not the matter of me being tired, it is just that I feel very uncomfortable in such cases.

A lot of folk musicians believe in omens, signs and superstitious beliefs. Do you believe?

No, I don’t believe in anything. A lot of people do a lot of stuff that I don’t do!

By the way, once when you came to Russia we saw you sitting and eating your own food, that you brought together with you from Finland. Is it a usual practice that you are treated like that, shouldn’t promoters provide you with food?

Well, if you mean that we have some food in a bus, then yes it is a usual practice. But Usually I think promoters should take care of food. Moreover, for example, I’m a vegetarian and it is next to impossible to find vegetarian food in Russia.

It is!

No, it isn’t when you don’t speak Russian (laughs)

And traditionally a couple of words to your Russian fans and to the readers to Darkside.ru.

I don’t actually have much to say. But one thing is that we’ve always been to Russia at least once a year, but now we haven’t been there for a while and I don’t know why it is like that. I am sure that we should come to Russia again. Sorry about that we haven’t been there for so long.

Interview by Ksenia “Wolfin” Khorina
© Russian Darkside E-Zine
19 июн 2009 the End


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