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	<< back KORPIKLAANI (Finland) Korpiklaani is a band that started to be well-known in the viking folk metal movement these days, and as I listened some of their work, I decided to contact them and have a little informative talk. I had a good luck to find 2 of the guys, Jonne and Jarkko, which were so kind and in a good mood for giving us some answers on their band, so enjoy this nice interview. Greetings, Jonne! Welcome to Tempest Music & More! Hope you're fine and ready for this questionnaire, hehe. Hi! This is actually Jarkko, the bassist replying. I'll try to answer these as well as I can and I'll ask Jonne about the rest. Let's start with the beginning of the band under the Shaman moniker. When did it all started and what inspired you to form a band? Was it your first attempt to play in a band or you came with a strong musical background already? Before he started working as Shaman, Jonne had already released one album as “Shamaani Duo” which was a folk duo with acoustic guitar, percussion and yoiking. Jonne and myself are both originally from the same forests and I could tell some stories about the beginning of his musical career, but then again he could tell some stories about mine, so I guess I'd better just shut up. Let's just say that we both started quite young and the music was nothing like the current stuff we're doing. As far as I know, Jonne actually comes from a very musical family background. His father and uncle are both playing in the same band and were actually featured on Korpiklaani's latest album as well. Shaman released 2 albums, in 1999 and 2002. What were the main characteristics of those albums? What feedback did you received for them? I think the first thing that everyone notices on those albums is the language, which is of course Sami. If you compare them to the Korpiklaani albums you'll notice that the music is not even nearly as heavy, there is much more yoiking and even if there happens to be a sort of heavy distorted guitar there usually is also an acoustic guitar, which makes them sound a lot lighter. Generally the feedback was good. It was then a new formula, combining the ethnic characteristics with straight rock elements. Shaman was signed to Natural Born Records. What can you tell us about them and about your collaboration? Why did it ended up? Natural Born Records is Jonne's own small family company that has no means to release or promote albums outside Finland. The band needed to take the next step on its career which meant that we had to find an international publisher for our albums. Nowadays Natural Born Records is Korpiklaani's publishing company which also takes care of our merchandise business. A lot of bands sign record deals in a rush and then don't know how to escape so they change their band's name. That was or wasn't your case also? As you can see from the previous reply, it had nothing to do with that. "Spirit of the Forest" was Korpiklaani's first album. What are the differences between this one and the Shaman's albums? First of all, Spirit Of The Forest was going to be released as Shaman. During the recordings of that album the band was forced to change its name to something else because there was another band with the same name. The differences between the albums were not intentional changes in style or anything like that. Korpiklaani's material is a lot more metal oriented than Shaman was. The songs are based on heavy riffing instead of more acoustic approach that Shaman had. But as I said, Shaman was already going to that direction so the differences are result of a natural progression that every band has. You signed with Napalm Records. Was it hard to convince them? Were you talking about a record deal from back when you were Shaman? Jonne sent hundreds of copies of Wooden Pints demo around the world hoping for some response. He got a few offers and finally went for Napalm Records. They seemed like a suitable sized company for our kind of a band and music. In the old days you used to help other bands qith session-playing. Do you still do the same? With who did you played so far as individual instrumentists? This is a reply from Jonne: I don't have time for that anymore and I am now fully concentrating on my own band. Ofcourse I am ready to help other artists for example in the studio by playing or singing something, but the kind of a commitment I had with Finntroll is out of the question these days. The last such thing I did was when I worked for the Sami artist Niiles-Jouni Aikio's album as a producer, musician and arranger. I fact, also Hittavainen appeared on that same album with his violin. Korpiklaani's music has deep roots in the Finnish folk. Was it hard to find musicians from that field to join the band? It doesn't really depend on the music style. The world is full of gifted musicians who are ready to join any band. The problem with many of them is that they have other commitments which in the end prevent them from working full time for the band. They may have wives and children which both need some attention too. So the problem is not really finding musician, but to keep them. "Spirit..." was the first album promoted with a European tour? How was it to play in such a tour and what countries did you reach? Was it? As far as I know the band hasn't toured outside Finland until last August. The band did a couple of concerts in Sweden and Russia in late 2004 / early 2005, but you can hardly call them a tour. This year you released a new album, "Voice of Wilderness". Could this album symbolize a new begining for the band, as I saw there's a new approach this time? We don't think it as a new beginning. It would mean that something has ended as well. The music may have changed a bit but again it's only natural progression and not really a huge step to a totally new direction. Please tell us some words on each of the tracks featured inthere. This is a reply from Jonne: 1. A traditional fast Korpiklaani folk metal song. Salute to the independence of our country with a warrior theme. 2. A traditional fast Korpiklaani folk metal song. A small story about a journey man. 3. A mid-tempo slightly more acoustic song about the tax collecting journey of Klaus Kurki. 4. A vigorous instrumental. 5. A mid-tempo story about a spirit living in aurora boralis (northern lights). 6. A shitty schlager. A substandard song. A total miss which, now that some time has passed, I can honestly say that I am ashamed of. 7. Uptempo song about hunting. One of the live favorites. 8. Another instrumental. For some reason this has never been done live. 9. A song that was originally on Shaman's “Shamániac” album in Sami language. I wanted to re-record it because Hittavainen had so much to offer to that song with his violin and bagpipe. We kicked some new life to a great song that would have otherwise been buried with the Shaman's remains. 10. A same old story about knights and princesses. 11. The only song in Finnish. Along with Hunting Song the only songs that we made a video for. Excellent fully acoustical ending for the album. Features a guest star Virva Holtiton on kantele. You released it in January. How was the geaction of public and press? How did you promote it? Record company promoted the album mostly with some ads in magazines and in Finland there was a small radio spot on Radio-City. The band's parts in the promotion are the interviews and the concerts. The record was received very well, but it hasn't really sold that much as is the case with our other albums as well. The nice thing is that without exception there are always enough people coming to see us at our concerts. How was this year for Korpiklaani? I saw a huge increase of status for your band in the international metal scene and more and more people listen to your band. This year has been good. At least the part that I've been with the band. I think the album was a lot better than the previous one and the band gained quite a lot of new audience with that. The concert that we played in Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland in August probably helped us a lot too. At least we have booked several concerts since that which I believe show that people really liked what they saw and hear. I guess that in normally quite dark and melancholy heavy metal scene Korpiklaani is a fresh and positive exception. Talking about that, the last years saw a boom of pagan, viking or folk metal bands. Why do you think this happened and where is it going? Maybe the viking culture and Nordic culture in general are so exotic that it draws more attention to the music. The music itself is not going anywhere. The culture behind the music and the bands is so strong that it does not matter if it succeeds or not. At least Korpiklaani will stay true to our music. I've read the president of Finland has your album. How's that possible? At the Faces festival Jonne gave the album to his son and told him to “go and give it to the lady over there”. Of course his son had no idea who she was and probably wouldn't have understood the idea of a president anyway. Jommi did was he was asked and President Halonen ended up with the album. As I see it your music describes the barbarian side of life in the past, and not the romantic, hollywoodian side of it. Why's that? We are from Finland. There is no romantic Hollywood side in Finland. Of course we could watch “Beverly Hills 90210” from TV and write songs about that, but it would not be the true nature of Korpiklaani. Up here the barbarian side of life is still not that far in the past. In fact, when you look at the life in the some parts of Finland it's not even in the past! OK, I'll have to stop now. Please tell us what Korpiklaani is preparing at the moment. Any closing comments for Tempest's readers? At the moment (mid-October) we are rehearsing new songs for the next album. The recordings will start in a month or so. The next concerts will be around November - December. Some of the new songs will get their live premiere at those gigs so we'll have to prepare them for live performance as well. My words for Tempest's readers? Come see us live! Or if it's too far from you then you should contact your local promoter and persuade him/her to book us to play closer to you!

KORPIKLAANI (Finland)

Korpiklaani is a band that started to be well-known in the viking folk metal movement these days, and as I listened some of their work, I decided to contact them and have a little informative talk. I had a good luck to find 2 of the guys, Jonne and Jarkko, which were so kind and in a good mood for giving us some answers on their band, so enjoy this nice interview.

Greetings, Jonne! Welcome to Tempest Music & More! Hope you're fine and ready for this questionnaire, hehe.

Hi! This is actually Jarkko, the bassist replying. I'll try to answer these as well as I can and I'll ask Jonne about the rest.

Let's start with the beginning of the band under the Shaman moniker. When did it all started and what inspired you to form a band? Was it your first attempt to play in a band or you came with a strong musical background already?

Before he started working as Shaman, Jonne had already released one album as “Shamaani Duo” which was a folk duo with acoustic guitar, percussion and yoiking. Jonne and myself are both originally from the same forests and I could tell some stories about the beginning of his musical career, but then again he could tell some stories about mine, so I guess I'd better just shut up. Let's just say that we both started quite young and the music was nothing like the current stuff we're doing.

As far as I know, Jonne actually comes from a very musical family background. His father and uncle are both playing in the same band and were actually featured on Korpiklaani's latest album as well.

Shaman released 2 albums, in 1999 and 2002. What were the main characteristics of those albums? What feedback did you received for them?

I think the first thing that everyone notices on those albums is the language, which is of course Sami. If you compare them to the Korpiklaani albums you'll notice that the music is not even nearly as heavy, there is much more yoiking and even if there happens to be a sort of heavy distorted guitar there usually is also an acoustic guitar, which makes them sound a lot lighter.

Generally the feedback was good. It was then a new formula, combining the ethnic characteristics with straight rock elements.

Shaman was signed to Natural Born Records. What can you tell us about them and about your collaboration? Why did it ended up?

Natural Born Records is Jonne's own small family company that has no means to release or promote albums outside Finland. The band needed to take the next step on its career which meant that we had to find an international publisher for our albums.

Nowadays Natural Born Records is Korpiklaani's publishing company which also takes care of our merchandise business.

A lot of bands sign record deals in a rush and then don't know how to escape so they change their band's name. That was or wasn't your case also?

As you can see from the previous reply, it had nothing to do with that.

"Spirit of the Forest" was Korpiklaani's first album. What are the differences between this one and the Shaman's albums?

First of all, Spirit Of The Forest was going to be released as Shaman. During the recordings of that album the band was forced to change its name to something else because there was another band with the same name. The differences between the albums were not intentional changes in style or anything like that. Korpiklaani's material is a lot more metal oriented than Shaman was. The songs are based on heavy riffing instead of more acoustic approach that Shaman had. But as I said, Shaman was already going to that direction so the differences are result of a natural progression that every band has.

You signed with Napalm Records. Was it hard to convince them? Were you talking about a record deal from back when you were Shaman?

Jonne sent hundreds of copies of Wooden Pints demo around the world hoping for some response. He got a few offers and finally went for Napalm Records. They seemed like a suitable sized company for our kind of a band and music.

In the old days you used to help other bands qith session-playing. Do you still do the same? With who did you played so far as individual instrumentists?

This is a reply from Jonne:

I don't have time for that anymore and I am now fully concentrating on my own band. Ofcourse I am ready to help other artists for example in the studio by playing or singing something, but the kind of a commitment I had with Finntroll is out of the question these days.

The last such thing I did was when I worked for the Sami artist Niiles-Jouni Aikio's album as a producer, musician and arranger. I fact, also Hittavainen appeared on that same album with his violin.

Korpiklaani's music has deep roots in the Finnish folk. Was it hard to find musicians from that field to join the band?

It doesn't really depend on the music style. The world is full of gifted musicians who are ready to join any band. The problem with many of them is that they have other commitments which in the end prevent them from working full time for the band. They may have wives and children which both need some attention too. So the problem is not really finding musician, but to keep them.

"Spirit..." was the first album promoted with a European tour? How was it to play in such a tour and what countries did you reach?

Was it? As far as I know the band hasn't toured outside Finland until last August. The band did a couple of concerts in Sweden and Russia in late 2004 / early 2005, but you can hardly call them a tour.

This year you released a new album, "Voice of Wilderness". Could this album symbolize a new begining for the band, as I saw there's a new approach this time?

We don't think it as a new beginning. It would mean that something has ended as well. The music may have changed a bit but again it's only natural progression and not really a huge step to a totally new direction.

Please tell us some words on each of the tracks featured inthere.

This is a reply from Jonne:

1. A traditional fast Korpiklaani folk metal song. Salute to the independence of our country with a warrior theme.

2. A traditional fast Korpiklaani folk metal song. A small story about a journey man.

3. A mid-tempo slightly more acoustic song about the tax collecting journey of Klaus Kurki.

4. A vigorous instrumental.

5. A mid-tempo story about a spirit living in aurora boralis (northern lights).

6. A shitty schlager. A substandard song. A total miss which, now that some time has passed, I can honestly say that I am ashamed of.

7. Uptempo song about hunting. One of the live favorites.

8. Another instrumental. For some reason this has never been done live.

9. A song that was originally on Shaman's “Shamániac” album in Sami language. I wanted to re-record it because Hittavainen had so much to offer to that song with his violin and bagpipe.

We kicked some new life to a great song that would have otherwise been buried with the Shaman's remains.

10. A same old story about knights and princesses.

11. The only song in Finnish. Along with Hunting Song the only songs that we made a video for. Excellent fully acoustical ending for the album.

Features a guest star Virva Holtiton on kantele.

You released it in January. How was the geaction of public and press? How did you promote it?

Record company promoted the album mostly with some ads in magazines and in Finland there was a small radio spot on Radio-City. The band's parts in the promotion are the interviews and the concerts.

The record was received very well, but it hasn't really sold that much as is the case with our other albums as well. The nice thing is that without exception there are always enough people coming to see us at our concerts.

How was this year for Korpiklaani? I saw a huge increase of status for your band in the international metal scene and more and more people listen to your band.

This year has been good. At least the part that I've been with the band. I think the album was a lot better than the previous one and the band gained quite a lot of new audience with that. The concert that we played in Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland in August probably helped us a lot too. At least we have booked several concerts since that which I believe show that people really liked what they saw and hear. I guess that in normally quite dark and melancholy heavy metal scene Korpiklaani is a fresh and positive exception.

Talking about that, the last years saw a boom of pagan, viking or folk metal bands. Why do you think this happened and where is it going?

Maybe the viking culture and Nordic culture in general are so exotic that it draws more attention to the music. The music itself is not going anywhere. The culture behind the music and the bands is so strong that it does not matter if it succeeds or not. At least Korpiklaani will stay true to our music.

I've read the president of Finland has your album. How's that possible?

At the Faces festival Jonne gave the album to his son and told him to “go and give it to the lady over there”. Of course his son had no idea who she was and probably wouldn't have understood the idea of a president anyway. Jommi did was he was asked and President Halonen ended up with the album.

As I see it your music describes the barbarian side of life in the past, and not the romantic, hollywoodian side of it. Why's that?

We are from Finland. There is no romantic Hollywood side in Finland. Of course we could watch “Beverly Hills 90210” from TV and write songs about that, but it would not be the true nature of Korpiklaani. Up here the barbarian side of life is still not that far in the past. In fact, when you look at the life in the some parts of Finland it's not even in the past!

OK, I'll have to stop now. Please tell us what Korpiklaani is preparing at the moment. Any closing comments for Tempest's readers?

At the moment (mid-October) we are rehearsing new songs for the next album. The recordings will start in a month or so. The next concerts will be around November - December. Some of the new songs will get their live premiere at those gigs so we'll have to prepare them for live performance as well.

My words for Tempest's readers? Come see us live! Or if it's too far from you then you should contact your local promoter and persuade him/her to book us to play closer to you!