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Ahead
of the last date on their UK tour with Finntroll, I had a chance to sit
down with Tomi
Mykkänen (Vocals) and Maria Honkanen (Keyboards) to find out what’s
going on in the world of Battlelore.
MM
- So, how’s everything been going on the UK tour so far?
MH - It’s been great. Actually, the
Finntroll guys are real nice. What can you expect from two Finnish
bands, eh? Lots of booze and lots of partying!
MM
- So staying up ‘til 6am every night then?
TM - Actually 7am!
MM
- Haha, brilliant. So what are Battlelore’s plans for when the
tour’s over?
MH - We have another tour coming up in
October/November with a few gigs in Russia.
TM - And then we’ll start making the new album. It should be
recorded by next summer and hopefully be out before October.
MH - So for about 6 months we won’t be doing many gigs.
TM - Hopefully we’ll play the summer festivals though.
MM
- Cool. So how was Bloodstock? Did you enjoy it?
MH - Yeah, Bloodstock was great, our
slot was really early. We were expecting only a handful of people, but
there were lots of people and they were actually awake!
TM - Very different to the Finnish festivals – if you start
early, you won’t get any people, everyone is so hung-over that they
will come out much later. So we were waiting for that, but we were
really surprised when we got on stage because there must have been 4 or
5 thousand people!
MM
- Well, we don’t get many festivals like Bloodstock so it’s really
the only chance many people get to see bands like Battlelore and
Finntroll and bands like that. I know you’ve been to the UK before for
shows in London and a few elsewhere with Korpiklaani, how are you
finding places in the UK that you’re visiting for the first time?
MH - There are a few new places this
time round, like Nottingham and Wrexham; we like it a lot.
TM - It’s good being in the other big cities too. Like
yesterday, we were in Glasgow and there’s a population of around 3
million people living around that area and if you think that in Finland,
we have around 5 million people in total with only 500,000 people in
Helsinki and the surrounding area. So it’s very different to see real
metropolis instead of small cities.
MM
- All the English fans who may not have seen Battlelore before, what can
they expect from your show?
MH - Lots of head banging! And lots of
swords and long hair!
TM - If they have heard the albums, they will be surprised at how
much heavier we are on stage.
MH - And we have no backing tapes or anything like that so it’s
all live.
MM
- Are the visual elements of the show just as important as the music for
you?
MH - I think so. Not as important
of course but still very crucial to the show.
TM - Yeah, we wouldn’t do a show with just jeans and T-shirts.
MM
- Yeah, I think people appreciate something to look at in a live show.
TM - We’re hoping that we will soon
be able to expand the show to have more props on stage as well...
MH
- But no Stonehenge!
TM - Haha, no, definitely not Stonehenge! We just watched
‘...Spinal Tap’ the other day, it was great.
MM
- Have you seen the Anvil movie yet?
TM - Somebody told me about that a few
weeks ago, apparently it’s awesome.
MH - Yeah, we’ll definitely check that out soon.
MM
- You had the new CD ‘The Last Alliance’ released last year and it
seems to have got Battlelore more attention in the UK. Did you do
anything different with that album than you’d done before?
MH - We had a different studio and
different production and the mixing was done by Dan Swäno who is like a
metal god, so you can’t really expect anything bad coming from him.
And he was really dedicated to mixing the album. Like once he was
taking a bath, listening to the album and all of a sudden he’s like
“this part sucks! I have to get out and fix it right now!” And
I think that it helped that everyone in the band was feeling good about
their lives which made them even more dedicated to it.
TM - Yeah, totally different to 'Evernight'
which was more about the band’s personal lives which is why it became
such a dark album. This one is a bit less dark and more cheerful but the
whole production was different too because we decided to use a different
studio and different mixing and we were based in Helsinki so it was
easier for us all to get to. But as far as song writing, it’s the same
as always.
MM
- Is it sometimes hard getting songs finished with so many band members
contributing ideas?
MH - Sometimes we have to talk about
things but they usually work out for the best because people see the
bigger picture and usually the producer has the last word, so they will
tell us “this part sucks, go change it!”
TM - When we got the demo done for 'The
Last Alliance' it sounded pretty much ready. There were some small
changes in the studio but if you listen to the two now they’re nearly
the same so the demos were very good I think.
MM
- Cool. So when you were starting out, which bands were most
influential to you?
MH - I was 14 when I was in my
first band and back then I listened to lots of black metal and also The
Gathering from The Netherlands, they were a big band for me also.
TM - Yeah, the black metal stuff mainly, but also some classic
heavy metal like Iron Maiden and AC/DC too.
MM
- Obviously the lyrics centre around Tolkien and his works. Is
that something you guys have been in to for a long time? And what is it
for you that makes Tolkien really stand out from other writers?
TM - Well Jyri (Vahvanen, guitarist)
was playing in a black metal band who had some influences from Tolkien
but then he decided he wanted to have a band that just used Tolkien’s
works for its inspiration. Mostly we have been using 'The
Silmarillion' but the whole thing is just so huge, you can do pretty
much anything with it and of course Jyri has come up with some of his
own stories so we’ve also got songs about what could have happened.
MM
- So kind of taking it and putting your spin on it?
TM - Of course and we have also used
some Finnish influences such as traditional folk tales which have
similar roots so we end up with a good mixture of both.
MH - And with Tolkien, what really stands out is the whole world
that he created. The maps, the language, the whole is amazing and I
don’t think many others writers have done what he has.
MM
- Very true. Well in the last few years or so in the UK, we have been
getting a new Finnish band to check out almost every week it seems and I
was wondering what do you think makes Finland such a good country for
producing metal bands?
TM - I guess it’s us and Sweden
really. Norway has quite a lot but they seem to have the same few
people playing in many bands. Like 5 guys playing in 10 different
black metal bands, haha!
MH
- It’s in our blood. The winters are so dark and long so we have
to do something to pass the time!
TM
- And heavy metal seems to be really big in Finland. Of course we
have only 5 million people so if you check the top 40, you don’t have
to sell that much to get in it and it’s always nice to see 10 or 15
metal bands in the top 40.
MM
- What Finnish bands that we in the UK might not be aware of yet should
we look out for?
MH - I would say Avartha. It’s a band
involving a friend of ours who filled in for Tomi last year when we
toured here.
TM - I would tell all the readers of the website that there is a
tour coming up here in the UK with Swallow the Sun and they will have
Ominium Gatherum and Insomnium as support and that will be a really good
tour to check out. It’s a really good mix of Finnish bands and
really shows the quality of the metal scene in Finland at the moment.
MM
- A lot of the folk-metal bands that come out Finland and come
over here seemed to have helped a lot of English people that seem to
have forgotten a lot of their pre-Christian roots remember a time before
that so we thank Finland for that!
TM: Haha, you’re very welcome!
Although you seem to have the Pirate thing happening here too...a little
odd but cool!
MM
- We do yeah, we have Alestorm and we have the Skull-Branded Pirates who
are on first tonight. It is a little strange but I think it
started and was able to continue because of the Finnish bands such as
yourselves coming over here and showing us a different style of metal
than what we had seen before.
TM - Haha, well you’re welcome! I’d
not thought of it like that before but that is interesting, yeah.
MM
- I guess my last question would be: What is your favourite character
from Middle-Earth?
(Long
pause for thought and conversation in Finnish with other band
members....)
MH - There
are so many to pick from but I would say Luthien because she is a tough
bitch!
MM
- Ok cool, well thank you very much and good luck for the show tonight.
TM - No problem, thank you.
Interview: Adam G. |