Ensiferum
The Price Of Glory

16.01.2009

Touring life can sometimes be very hard on musicians, and not everyone is able to hit the road regardless of all health or personal issues. This is exactly what happened with Finnish melodic folk death metallers Ensiferum, who found just a few days before leaving for Russia that their singer /guitarist Petri Lindroos is down with some sickness, and couldn’t perform live. Nevertheless, the other guys didn’t give up and made some really great shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg even without Petri. Shortly before the Moscow gig we sat down with guitarist Markus Toivonen and bassist Sami Hinkka to discuss the band’s urgent troubleshooting activities and its career in general.

It is your third gig in Moscow tonight. What are your impressions from previous visits to Russia? Has anything changed here since you came the first time?

Sami: Well, the previous gigs in Russia were perfect. And Russian fans were always openhearted and crazy, one of the best in the world. We always like to come back here. Last time when we were here it was 2006, and it’s nearly three years. We have done a new album called “Victory Songs” and a lot of tours. This year we had two tours in North America, and this time was really busy. But it makes no excuse that we haven’t been here so long.

What’s wrong with Petri Lindroos? Why did you stay home? Was it difficult to find a replacement in such a short period of time?

Sami: Petri returns to the band in two weeks or something. And we hope that he is now much better, but there was really no chance for him to join us in this mini-tour. We got this news three days ago, and we were very lost, like “What are we going to do?”. But we still decided not to cancel our coming to Russia. And it was rather easy to find the replacement…

Markus: We asked our ex-member Jukka-Pekka Mettinen, who played with the band on two of our albums. At first he was like “Oh no!” But after all he agreed, because otherwise we had to cancel the gig. However there was no time to practice the new material, so unfortunately, this time there won’t be many songs from the “Victory Songs” album. Jukka-Pekka was learning them all the way to Russia. (laughs)

Sami: There will be quite many songs from the first two albums. And on the other hand we are going to play the songs which we haven’t played for a while. We have chosen some special songs this time.  

In general, does Petri’s involvement in Norther create any problems for Ensiferum? How do you manage to balance the schedules of two bands?

Sami: Well, it’s pretty easy. When we settle the gigs we know that Petri will be free and be with us. And we are also very good friends with the Norther guys. For tours we know the dates long ahead, it’s like six months ahead. And we just say to each other when we have a tour, other free time Petri can do what he likes, and we see what we can do if there is some problem.  

Markus: Sometimes it’s too much job for Petri…

Sami: Yes, it’s like this spring. We were playing at Paganfest for one month in Europe and after that went straight to North America, and before that Petri was on tour with Norther for a month. After all these months on the road he was little bit tired. But on the other hand that was our first real American tour, so Petri and we all were very excited about it.

Your next gig after Russia will take place in India. How did you manage to get this gig? Do you have many fans there? (everybody laughs)

Sami: I think you need to ask Juha, our manager. He just called everyone, saying: “I have just settled the gig in India!” So we hope that we have many fans there.

Markus: It will be some kind a student party. And it will be a very unusual gig for 15,000 people, it’s gonna be very interesting.

Do you compose any new songs when you’re on tour? In general, how does the songwriting process in the band go? What are your sources of inspiration?

Sami: We did our last tour a few weeks ago, we were playing in North America with Amon Amarth. That time we tried to compose as much as possible, so we made quite many parts, and one song is nearly ready. Possibly next year we can present something new to our fans. That would be cool!  But the process is rather slow… Markus is here, possible he can add something… (laughs) It’s a good moment that he is very strict to every song and every part of it. If we decide to do something this or that way, we sit down and think over this moment. And only after that maybe, we can make a change and analyze it.

Markus: Nearly the whole new material is written by me and Sami. At the beginning we just have some melody. When we complete a song, we introduce it to everyone, and all members of the band are free to add something new to the song.

For writing lyrics, do you read any specific books, like old Finnish folklore? And by the way, where did you learn to play such instruments as kantele or nyckelharpa?

Sami: I just started reading “Kalevala” a few days before this thing happened with Petri. By the way, all lyrics are ready for the next album, we just need to fit them into the songs and maybe change them a bit. Of course, I haven’t read all legends, but three or four books for sure.

Markus: Unfortunately, we can’t play these instruments, but on every album we have some guests, who play these very old traditional instruments. And I can only guess how they do it. And this instrument is very difficult, it has very thick strings.

Sami: I have no idea how it works, and this instrument, nyckelharpa, looks like a violin but the sound is much different, it sounds like a mix of a pipe and violin. The sound is very weird, and when we were recording it on “Victory Song”, we even decided to abandon electric guitars, because nyckelharpa fit so good to the material. But we have some guitars there anyway.

English is the primary language of your lyrics. Have you considered writing more songs in Finnish? We see such bands as Korpiklaani get a lot of recognition in Europe, even though they sing a lot in their native language…

Sami: Well it depends, I won’t say that we are not going to write in Finnish, but such songs should have some good reason, these lyrics should be so good that you don’t want to translate them. Very often we start writing in Finnish and when we translate it into English we find some better rhymes, moreover, people can understand our songs in English. Maybe some day we will do it, but the next album will be nearly sung in English.

Speaking about native languages and native cultures, what was your reaction when Moonsorrow’s gig in Berlin in April this year was nearly cancelled because the band was accused of supporting Nazism? I know that you have good relations with Moonsorrow…

Sami: That’s very ridiculous…Moonsorrow guys and tour guys were accused of supporting these ideas, but they had nothing to do with Nazism, and their lyrics are not supporting it in any way. We are not some political bands, and here someone comes and accuses you…it’s just ridiculous! They even had to make an address to the audience and comment on the situation.

Markus, I heard that you work with Spinefarm Records. Then why are Ensiferum not yet as popular as Nightwish or Children of Bodom?

Markus: Well, they just don’t listen to me. I don’t know, we need to play some more years and do some more tours, albums and so on.

Sami: I think Nightwish is much more mainstream, we can’t compete with them. And they play only in ice-halls, so… Hopefully, we can kick their ass some day… (everybody laughs)
 
How is the life of a metal musician in Finland nowadays? On the one head, it is the only country in the world where metal is ho high in the charts. On the other hand, I heard that even the people whose songs are in Top 5 in Finland still have to do dayjobs…

Markus: Yes, we have to do some dayjobs, but I do only few days a week, and of course when I am touring I don’t work.

Sami: Even if you are number one in Finland it means not much, you still need to work.

How did the video for “Ahti” contribute to the band’s success? In general, does making video nowadays give anything in terms of promotion, or is it more like a gift to the fans?

Markus: This video is mostly for promotion, and I really don’t have any idea if it helped or not. It was on TV and I saw it. And many people watch it on the Internet.

What is the idea behind this video, by the way? You don’t see the band playing at all, there is only the concept, and a pretty dark one…

Markus: The idea came from the director; the whole idea belongs to him.

Sami: He just said that he got this idea. But it eventually changed pretty much from the original idea. Actually there were me, Markus and Jonne, and we were that dead people on the ground. (everybody laughs) We were on the iced ground for like 6 or 7 hours, and in the video it was like a second (laughs)…Oh, come on! All day on the ground, and this second on the screen! We were all frozen and had terrible hangover after all.  

Have you seen the video for “Into Battle” that some of your fans made with footage from the Lord of the Rings movie? It is posted on YouTube, and a lot of people love it…

Sami: Oh yes, I have seen it and I think there is also a video for “Wanderer”, also using the Lord of the Rings footage. They made a very good job, these parts fit the video very well.  

Don’t you think that Ensiferum music fits greatly to fantasy or battle movies? If you had an opportunity to put an Ensiferum song in a movie, what movie would you like it to be?

Markus: “The Naked Gun” (everybody laughs)

Sami: Yes, possible…why not! But we can try to fit the music in any movie by changing it somehow.

What was your reaction when your Russian fan-club named a star in your honor? What does the band get from ownership of such an unusual object?

Markus: It was the best gift so far!

Sami: We are still wondering what we can do with it…it still feels like …

Markus: a miracle!  

Sami: Yes, right you are. Thank you so much!

You now have a new keyboard player in the band, Emmi Silvennoinen. How did you get to know her? Is she a permanent or a session member now?

Markus: One friend of mine recommended Emmi to me and said that we should ask her if we needed a keyboard player or replacement. And Emmi knew our music and liked it. We asked her and she agreed. So far she is a session member of the band. We don’t know yet about the future, how it is going to be, but maybe she will join us in the future and be a member of the band.

Your cover version of “Lady In Black” by Uriah Heep came second in the Metal Storm Awards last year. How did you get the idea to record this song? Are you Uriah Heep fans?

Sami: I didn’t know about these Awards…

Markus: The song is good, but as to the band and style it’s not for me.

Sami: We saw them live a few years ago in Helsinki. It was very impressive, these old guys did a very good show.

Markus: The idea to record this cover with such instruments as kantele and nyckelharpa came firstly from my friend’s father, and he told us about it many years ago, like eight years or something. He offered: “Could you, guys, do a cover of Uriah Heep for me?”  Many years after that I was thinking that maybe we can do the cover of a Uriah Heep song, and then the idea came to my head to use these instruments. By the way, this man really liked the cover of the song.

In general, what music did you grow up with? What were the bands that made you want to become musicians?

Markus: I like folk music and of cause many melodic metal bands and heavy rock bands. There are so many bands that I can’t even remember.

Your early demos were re-released on a CD a few years ago, but the edition was very limited and sold out very quickly. Why didn’t you make it available for more people?

Markus: This release was for real old fans. It’s very hard to get the permission from the record company, and they agreed to re-release the material only with a very small circulation, 1,000 pieces if I am not mistaken.
 
Is there any achievement in the history of Ensiferum that you are particularly proud of? Do you regret anything you’ve done with the band?

Sami: You need to ask the father of the band.

Markus: It’s really very difficult to remember. It was so long ago when the band was founded. Possibly moment when we got the first record deal, this moment was really great for us, or our first shows outside Finland. This year was really big for us, we were at Wacken Open Air, and it was great to play on a big stage and see 40,000 or 50,000 people in the audience.

When can we expect a new studio album from Ensiferum? Do you plan any changes in the sound or style?

Markus: Hopefully, next autumn. Something will be different and we will use some new instruments. We will try something new, but we are not going to change the style.

Sami: We don’t want the same album, we want to push our limits up as composers. We will go to the studio in April.  

Ensiferum on the Internet: http://www.ensiferum.com

Special thanks to Vera Dmitrieva (Spika Concert Agency) for arranging this interview

Interview by Viktoria “Ewigkeit” Bagautdinova, Dmitry “Ward” Kulikov
Questions also provided by Roman “Maniac” Patrashov
November 15, 2008
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