Interviews | since the day it all came down | blacklight-magazin.de
01) Nowadays there are many bands that incorporate the rather traditional
Scandinavian Melodic Deathmetal. How do you think does Insomnium stand out from
the crowd?
Ville Friman: Well I think most importantly we have somewhat more somber and darker approach than your average melodic death metal (MDM) “newcomer”. Besides we use lots of acoustic guitars in a way that many MDM band haven’t used before and we strive for more original arrangements and don’t care if the songs turn over the “hit-length”. We are Finnish band but we sound also Swedish because of our “Gothenburgian” influences. Although we have our aggressive side we don’t try to go as fast as possible all the time but rather try to concentrate in creating touching atmosphere.
02) 1997 is back quite a time, yet, how did the whole thing start?
Ville Friman: We were in the same high school and Niilo asked me and our drummer Markus Hirvonen to join and form new metal band. We were very excited and that’s how it really started. Few first years went mainly for practising since I had been playing guitar only one year and never been in any band. Insomnium really got more serious in the spring 1999 when we booked studio for the first time to record our first demo and came up with our name. In year 2000 we recorded our second one and got deal from Candlelight records in the spring 2001. During that same year we recorded our debut album and in the summer 2003 we recorded our new release entitled “Since the Day It All Came Down”.
03) Your new album “Since the Day It All Came Down“, has found impressing favour with the press. Maybe you could leave a few comments on the contents and the inspiration of the several tracks?
Ville Friman: Me and Niilo have composed most of the material in the ”STDIACD” and Ville Vänni made also one melody and one riff for this record. Most of the songs however were given birth this time from my “pencil”. The album starts with soothing piano intro made by Niilo. We arranged some cellos in it in the studio and it turned out great! It’s our tribute to the “thousand lakes”. With songs like “The Moment of Reckoning”, “Death Walked the Earth” and “Disengagement” I tried to approach songwriting from more progressive point of view and with song like “Bereavement”, “The Day it All Came Down” and “Closing words” I strived for faster and More “solid” style to write songs. “Under the plaintive Sky” is kind of “experiment” to write different kind of song which eventually turned out fine at least from my point of view. It’s really hard for me to specify what things have had influence on which songs. I think I can mention one main thing which is music itself. To play guitar or listen other people’s music can be very inspiring and really helpful for get the spark to make music of your own. One precondition is also that you have time to think about what you do and why. If I’m busy with my studies it can take months to even compose one riff. But usually songs take form faster.
04) Especially the most renown band In Flames has quite turned away from traditional
Goetheborg-Style in their last two albums. What do you think about this tendency?
Ville Friman: I can fully understand it because they have doing it for so long time. You get tired of doing things in a same way and I think they have already done everything they have to give within that “Gothenburgian” -style. I like their new album and can recognise them as In Flames from it too. It’s really hard for musician to please everyone, fans, critics, reviewers and so on. Someone says that you should chance and invent something new and the others are saying that you have chanced too much. As a musician you just have to follow your instinct and make music finally for yourself. You have to be your own critic and don’t mind that much what the other people say. I think that if the songs are good then there’s not that big difference with the style you’re playing them.
05) The world keeps turning and so does music. What do we have to expect from Insomnium in the future?
Ville Friman: At least gigging here in Finland and hopefully later this year abroad. Good reviews are also always nice to read :). We have had good response with “STHDIACD” and I really hope that people will like our music and will buy our albums. We have also started to compose songs for the 3rd album but it will take still lots of time for us to make it complete album.
06) Now will we have any chance to get a live impression of Insomnium in 2004?
Ville Friman: Like I said at least here in Finland. I think we are strong and fierce live band so we would definitely like to come for example Germany. We’ll see what happens in the autumn…
07) Are there any other bands you participate in or is Insomnium your only project?
Ville Friman: Our other guitarist Ville Vänni has his own original band called “Watch Me Fall” but it have been at rest for a while. our singer Niilo Sevänen does vocals in it too. I play guitar in another Joensuu based black/dark-metal outfit Arrival (http://www.arrival.cjb.net) and bass in Jyväskylä based melodeath-act Enter My Silence.
08) You offer some MP3-Files on your homepage for download. So what do you think about the whole copy-protection and digital rights debate?
Ville Friman: I think mp3’s are good way for example our size band to spread our music. I’m not either worried that the records won’t sell because of the internet in the future. I believe that if you make good album with good looking covers people will want to buy it even though they had downloaded it from the internet. At least I want to own the original CD with the covers and all, read the lyrics at the same time when I’m listening it and basically own the whole package. For example today I bought second hand version of Dimension Zero’s This Is Hell album even though I had it as Mp3. Many metalheads are also record collectors like I’m. I think that people are making Mp3 the main guilty because their records won’t sell that much. I think that the main reason behind lowered record sales is the fact that there are so many bands around the globe nowadays that just some minority of them can sell loads of records. There aren’t simply that much buyers. I think the CD’s should be made better selling with good graphics and some bonuses that can’t be converted into digital format. After all we are quite materialistic.
09) Coming to more personal questions, which kind would we find in your home CD Player?
Ville Friman: At the moment I’m listening another good Finnish band called Elenium. Their debut album is very good I think. Original and well-written and well played. Another great Finnish band I’ve listened is called Callisto, very good and emotional music. I checked their gig here in Jyväskylä and they were great live band also. I’ve also listened Before the Dawn’s new record which I got from Tuomas in advance. It’s great too. We’ll be playing with them bunch of gigs here in Finland during this spring. Finnish readers: come and check us both live ;)
10) Making music does not automatically make a man a rich man. What about you, what kind of job do you fullfill apart from Insomnium?
Ville Friman: Light years far from rich ;) At this phase we’re long way in minus since we have bought lots of equipments and stuff and only received few euros from this musical “hobby” of ours. We are all students at this moment: I read Biology and geography in the Jyväskylä University, Ville Vänni studies medicine in Turku university, Niilo studies culture histories in Turku university also and Markus will graduate some day from the technical university of Lappeenranta. So we are poor as hell and I’m quite sure we won’t get any richer with our music near future either ;)
11) Finally back to your new album, which has a quite beautiful artwork. Who is responsible for this?
Ville Friman: Glad you like it. We’re very satisfied with it too. Jarno Lahti is responsible from it and you can check man’s other work at the http://www.kaamos.com. Any other band looking for suitable graphic should contact Jarno immediately. He’s great guy to work with and absolutely a professional! We recommend highly!
Thanx in advance for answering the questions - with kind greets from germany.
Macro / Blacklight-Magazin.de
Back
|
