Interview with Crimfall: “There’s something to listen to in a different way than there is with these lovely and beloved party bands of the same genre.” (Musicalypse Archive)

August 22, 2017

They say that good things come to those who wait, but that seldom happens without putting some work into it. The Helsinki-based epic metallers of CRIMFALL put in both the time and the effort to bring forth their third full-length album, “Amain,” and the end result has certainly been worth that wait. On the brink of its release, Lene L. spent one afternoon with Jakke Viitala [guitars], Helena Haaparanta [vocals], and Mikko Häkkinen [vocals], to find out more about what’s happened since their last album, as well as how the next album had shaped up.

It’s almost like going on a field trip when we meet in the harbor next to Kauppatori to take a ferry to the picturesque island sea fortress of Suomenlinna in Helsinki – a lovely and mellow way to spend any given Sunday… provided that it doesn’t rain, that is. We hoped it wouldn’t, as there was a large mass of grey clouds rolling across the distant horizon and we had some photos to take. The potential for rain isn’t much of a concern though, on a trip filled with cheerful chatter about the long-awaited release and everything related, or unrelated, as there is hardly a quiet moment with this bunch, and certainly nothing boring.

A long journey…

The band has come a long way since they released their debut album “As the Path Unfolds…” There have been temporary member changes, they lost their label, and had quite an obstacle course on the way to get the successor for “The Writ of Sword” finished and out to the world. But as the official release date is less than 2 weeks away and is becoming more concrete every day, the trio around the table is visibly excited, and understandably so. The answers get lengthy and all three have something to add to each other’s insights.

It’s been quite a few years since the release of your last album, so how does it feel to be waiting for the new one’s release in just a few days?

Helena: Anticipated stirring, more or less. [laughs]

Jakke: Yeah, we had twisted and turned everything for quite some time, so there’s a little anticipation on what the reception for this one is going to be like.

Helena: But on the other hand [there’s] a hell of a lot of excitement too, like, “No, damn, we’re actually getting it out.”

Mikko: Some songs we’ve been listening to for probably 6 years by now, although many of the songs are partly new, but you just can’t comprehend some of the songs anymore at this point, whether they are actually any good or not. But we’re content with it nonetheless.

Jakke: Yeah, we wouldn’t… if at some point we would have lost our faith [in this], we wouldn’t have gotten it finished. There was this feeling all that time, that this could become a pretty badass disc.

Helena: So it wasn’t like we had to grit our teeth to get it done, even if it took us a long time.

Jakke: We did have to sometimes though. [laughs]

Helena: Well, of course sometimes, but it wasn’t just working with the taste of blood in our mouths until the end, rather than there was – at least I had – this feeling from the first notes, like, “Wow, this is going to be awesome stuff,” even if I did venture away [from this] for a while.

You did work on this for around 6 years, so did the material or concept change much on the way?

Jakke: In principle, on all of our albums, the concept has been formed while we have been working on them, so we don’t really know beforehand.

Helena: Like, deciding that, “Now we’re doing this and that”… not like that.

Jakke: At some point it just clicks. Maybe on this one it took a little longer, well… partially because Helena wasn’t in the band and we just felt like we didn’t have all the pieces in place, so then we just turned all the things over. And also when we had to leave our former label back in the day and were again in the situation of needing to find a new partner, there was this certain pressure to create – that we need to make the kind of music someone could like and catch on to – so that was in a way a bad starting point for making music, thinking about the target audience too much.

Helena: Yeah, it rather should… stem from the innermost ruptures. [laughs] You can’t just think that, now people are listening to this kind of stuff and you should do that, but maybe more along the timeframe you use – because we used so much time, the album was perfected [by that]. Like, it grew little-by-little.

Jakke: And what we had on the first demos, some of that changed quite a bit. We maybe took a wrong turn with them at first, but at some point realized that we should do it like this, and this is how it should sound. Some songs are totally different from where they started.

Helena: Uh-huh, and when I came back, the songs got a taste of my composing as well, on the melody side of things, so… the journey was long, but worth taking.

You kind of touched on this already, but what kind of good and bad aspects do you see in making the album without a label or any other outside affiliate?

Helena: Well at least we weren’t in a rush. There was no-one breathing on your neck like, “In a year from now you’ll be releasing a fucking great album.”

Jakke: Yeah, we were able to hem and haw quite a bit there; that was a good thing. Maybe it would have been good to have some sort of schedule pressure, we could have made some decisions faster, some specific arrangement things so we could move forward-

Mikko: Yeah, on some things you just have to decide, like, pondering on certain things doesn’t necessarily even help the situation, but-

Helena: On the other hand, the end result is what it is now – in a positive sense entirely – it’s damn good that it went like this. So for this album, this was the right way, and in a way it’s pointless to dwell on the “what ifs” – like, if I hadn’t left the band and we had hurried an album out all of a sudden in 2 years for the previous label, what would that have been like?

Jakke: Well yeah, the material for the album was ready 3-4 years ago already, so there’s just been a lot of mixing and recording. So one bad side of when you don’t have a label behind you is that everything costs a lot; we’ve paid for everything ourselves. That’s why we took the approach that – now that there’s no pressure from outside schedules and we don’t have the resources to do anything – we’re doing everything as well as we possibly can by ourselves, and if we can’t, we’ll do it again and do it better.

Helena: And one more note about that “detour” of mine – I did very a different kind of music during that time, pop sort of stuff mainly, so it probably brought something in return to the melodies on this album. So it [played a part]; I think I got a lot better as a melody composer, so it might be that the waiting was beneficial.

Jakke: I would say – considering the outcome – it was good that we didn’t have to make any compromises, that we could toss and turn everything until everything was right and perfect.

Mikko: I think it was also sort of a culmination point, when we realized that we couldn’t do this kind of music if we didn’t use this huge amount of money to finish it. And we didn’t really have that amount of money backing us up when we decided to just put our own money into it so that we’d reach that goal, so it was kind of… well, at that point it would have been nice to have that label behind us, but…

Jakke: Yeah, we just had a band meeting like, “This thing requires these resources, are we doing this or leaving it here?”

Helena: Yeah, and we’re all just ordinary working people, like, none of us are rich here. We’re working on this alongside day jobs and paying for this fun on top of that. [laughs]

Jakke: I’m really happy we decided to do it, anyway.

Helena: And on the other hand, the end result was probably easier to sell – it sounded more ready, so we could get it out through a big label.

Actually, that would have been my next question, whether it was easier to sell this kind of ready package to a label or not.

Jakke: That was actually one of our decisions, that now we’re doing the album, getting it ready – we hadn’t mastered it at that point, we were finishing the mixing – and we’ll make it so good that someone will catch it.

Helena: And if you think of it, that if we would have actively sent the first demos to labels back then, 6-7 years ago, they could have simply not seen the final product from those, the thing we have here now! Of course there was some damn good composing, but now that the product is finished, it’s pompous and it has… like, it’s done, it’s ready.

Jakke: Yeah, it’s good to try and talk at that point like, “Yeah, there’s gonna be real violins, really! Here will be a real choir!” It’s kind of useless to explain it like that.

Helena: Yeah, “We’ll get a real good guy to do the mixing so we’ll get it working, right?”

Jakke: You just try to play with the cards you have at that point and if someone once says no, it means no. Like, forever.

Helena: So it was simply a strategic decision.

Mikko: On the other hand, that would have been an interesting question by the time we were making this, if we wouldn’t have gotten a good enough deal with any label, what would we have done then? Would we have put it out ourselves, like, for free, or just-

Jakke: We were kind of thinking of that, that what if no-one catches this, but we wanted to close out that scenario. It wasn’t an option.

Helena: There was that child-like faith and hopeful glimmer in our eyes, like, “We can do this still!” Because you could sense the potential in that material along the way already, even though it wasn’t finished, like, “Oh fuck this is going to be so great!” So in a way you knew in your heart, in spite of that unconscious “what if” -kind of fear, there was this certainty that if you couldn’t go places with this, you couldn’t go anywhere at all.

Mikko: And then again, the field is changing so quickly that you’ll never know who will end up signed and who won’t.

Helena: Yeeeeaahhh, but if you do something really well…

Mikko: That’s true, though. I still want to believe in that.

Jakke: And when you go all-in, you don’t have to explain yourself. Like, “Well if we would have mixed it properly, we would have gotten a deal from a big label.” Now we just put all our cards on the table, and if it had not been enough, then the music really just isn’t enough.

Mikko: Yeah, no ifs and or buts, so there’s no excuses if it doesn’t work out.

Helena: But it worked!

Jakke: Cheers to that!

“All-in, Amain”

CRIMFALL’s musical formula has been grand and massive from the beginning, painting epic, cinematic landscapes with soundtrack-like elements. As such, calling it mere folk metal just wouldn’t cut it. On “Amain,” all of this has been cranked up as high as it goes, from compositions to arrangements, with Mikko and Helena’s vocal deliveries bordering on chilling for the better part of the album. All visual aspects have naturally followed suit, as this is not a band that does things halfway. Aside from the good-humored banter and fun anecdotes, both singers and guitarist get thoughtful when we reach the subject of inspiration, lyrical themes, and the music itself.

How would you describe “Amain” yourselves, then? Can you compare it to the previous records, music-wise, in any way?

Jakke: I want you guys to answer this first; I’ll answer after that.

Helena: Of course you can compare. I can’t say it’s similar, but there is still that CRIMFALL sound, even though we’ve put some more coins into making the product, more working hours and so on – as we’ve said, all-in, “Amain.” So there’s this certain core, it’s Jakke’s heart in there. [laughter] That’s the thing peeking out of there.

Mikko: I kind of feel like before this album, the production did not do justice to Jakke’s compositions, while on this one it really gets them to fly.

Helena: Yes! Like, really glowing!

Mikko: Like, now when I’m listening to the two previous records, you can hear that heart in there, but it’s still a bit… demo-like, or too bland, the soundscape there. When I put this one spinning, it plays big.

Helena: And everyone’s developed, of course, as instrumentalists, singers, composers – as lyricists, too probably, if I understood Mikko’s ancient English words sometimes! [laughs] No, really, I had to translate one of Mikko’s texts to Finnish for a project – it was really wonderful stuff. I don’t know if you’ve always written that well, but there’s some deep shit in there.

Jakke: Yeah… I can say myself that in a way, what we had on the first album was this energy, whereas the second one is more of a mood album, so we kind of brought our strengths from both of them together on this one. It’s a very energetic album, but it gets more deeply inside you, right to the bone.

Helena: Yeah, the emotion definitely comes through from there.

Jakke: And like these two said, everything we’ve done before, we’ve now done to the power of 10.

Helena: All-in.

Jakke: Yeah, all-in and got it a lot more finished-sounding than the previous ones.

Helena: Can we just answer all of the questions with “all-in”? [laughter]

That might cover most of this for sure! Anyways, you had some rather well-known visitors on “The Writ of Sword,” from MOONSORROW, TURISAS, and so forth, so are there any on “Amain” as well?

Helena: All-in. [laughter]

Indeed, it works!

Jakke: Who did we have there again? Netta Skog–

Helena: Netta Skog, yeah, a lovely lady-

Jakke: And ENSIFERUM’s previous lady, Emmi [Silvennoinen] plays piano… Janne Perttilä…

Helena: In other words MOONSORROW’s live guitarist and vocalist, who also plays in BARREN EARTH and such. A real good Dickinson-type sound, you’ll spot him right away from that song.

Jakke: Who else… Swedish Rob Lundgren.

Helena: Yeah, Rob Lundgren does one real important song.

Jakke: “It’s a Long Road,” a cover from the Rambo soundtrack. Who else did we have? I don’t want to forget anyone…

Helena: At least… not yet that well-known, but she’s toured with SÓLSTAFIR in Europe, in their string quartet, and now launching her own band, SPACE FOREST, an amazing violinist, Lotta Ahlbeck.

Jakke: Cellos were played by Juho Kanervo–

Helena: Well-renowned in Helsinki’s pop-jazz scene.

Mikko: And also plays in Kaija Koo’s live band!

Helena: Really? Awesome! Greetings to Juho.

Jakke: We’re probably forgetting someone here; we’re sorry if we did.

Helena: Amazing people, one after another.

Jakke: So yeah, there’s always a purpose to our visitors, other than name-dropping – all of these musicians come from our friend groups more or less, so it’s easier to ask from there if someone wants to help out.

Helena: Yeah, and for instance, Netta is singing as well as playing accordion. I remember that Jakke was like, “It’d be really nice to have some different lady sound in here – you’ve [Helena] already been heard.” [laughter] Not really, of course, but I think your idea was to have a duet for us there, lady and lady. And two different gals, specifically, because it sounds so generic when you sing your own parts, so it became more of a duet kind of thing. She’s got a lovely, soft jazz voice.

So, if we talk about the lyrics for a bit, is there any common theme or story on “Amain”?

Mikko: Well not really a story per se that would carry on through the whole record, but maybe on this album there’s a certain… or well, the album clearly starts by standing on the last shore, kind of; bridges have been burnt behind us, waiting for a storm to hit with our chins held high, and we’ll see if we can withstand it, whether we’ll burn our insides or rise as some sort of phoenixes through it, so to say. That maybe carries on throughout the album to some extent. It’s perhaps a search for your inner truths, the whole thing, but in some way it’s also a close theme for us, to tell about the sadder sides of wars, what that destruction actually is like. We don’t necessarily sing stories about the heroes, but rather the truths behind all of that, the stories of antiheroes, and maybe a certain kind of…

Helena: Misery.

Jakke: I answered in another interview that usually it’s the winners who write history, but CRIMFALL tells the stories that are usually left unsung.

Helena: Well now there’s the key to it!

Jakke: Pretty well said, wasn’t it?

Mikko: I think that was well put, yeah. And there’s a kind of positivity, in a way – I feel like this is an optimistic album in some sense, a praise for certain freedom, freedom from all religious dogmas or national propaganda, or anything of the like, but essentially freedom to be an individual and grow as an individual. That’s the positive message on this album.

Jakke: That’s kind of anarchist. Should we change the A from our logo to the anarchy-A? [laughter]

Helena: Or a dove of freedom, like, set the bird free from our hands – hey, let’s give Jaska a dove, let’s draw that quick with Paint.

How about inspiration, then? What inspires or influences you when you’re writing music or lyrics?

Jakke: Well, the inspiration for songs stems from pretty much everything one can sense around themselves. It can be a… well, take for example a thunderstorm, how it’s a massive experience physically in your life, so you can take a source like that from nature. Or it can be a certain movie, a certain feeling in it, like, “Here’s a good thing going on. How could we translate that into a song?” That is also the reason why I like to dish out these cinematic elements, so it’s easier to create moods and so on. I don’t believe there’s really sources of inspiration in any bands for us. It’s more these abstract spaces, sounds and colors, photos and pictures…

Helena: Moods and happenings.

Jakke: Yeah.

Helena: At least how I feel about melodies – I’m not really talking about composing, rather than picking up – they just come and then there has to be that life you’ve lived behind it. Yeah, they do come out of nowhere – in a way, they just happen – but on the other hand there has to be some history, some miles behind you so that something to say will come up, whether it’s a melody, or in Mikko’s case, text you’ve read, or [things you’ve] lived or experienced. Do tell your side of this too!

Mikko: Well now that we’ve mentioned how visual the music Jakke has created is, I could actually say that my most important source of inspiration for lyrics is simply Jakke’s music. The story and the images that come into being from the music, that’s usually the starting point from where I begin writing the lyrics. I listen to the song again and again and see what it awakens, what kind of feelings, what sort of landscape, what kind of mood… that’s my process with it.

Jakke: You could say it works the other way around too; this song we have a music video coming out for, “Until Falls the Rain,” it was slightly different before Mikko did the lyrics, and then he told a story about rain, so I got inspired by Mikko’s lyrics and started to change the arrangement a little bit – “I want more rain in the intro” – altered it a bit to have more raindrops with picking the right instruments and such.

Mikko: We feed each other this way.

Helena: And I had the howling there in the end, in the chorus. But now that I’m thinking of the writing process, of course it’s there, in Jakke’s world, where the first places come from… like, dude’s writing a straight-up soundscape, it’s really like a movie score and you just go there, close your eyes, and be in there, so of course it has to affect [the process].

Now that the video for “Until Falls the Rain” was mentioned, would you like to elaborate on that a little? If I remember correctly, it’s your first video so far.

Helena: Yeah!

Jakke: We also have an unofficial video from our last album release show. It’s got more hits [on YouTube] than any other video [Toni] Salminen has ever made.

Helena: There’s also 42 pages of commentary on which one is worse, fat shaming or skinny shaming.

Mikko: This time we clearly focused [on the making of it] – we had a fairly clear vision of how it should look and we wanted to do it well. Strong emotion, especially, and I feel that at least I personally – and I think my buddies too – are happy with how it looks in the end.

Helena: Yeah, we’d gotten it in our hands just a couple of days ago, and the first thing that came through from there was the emotion. It really comes through the screen; the thing that’s most essential in that song, it charges from there and it’s not necessarily out of joy that you’ll get tears in the corner of your eye, but a distressing and shitty feeling. [laughs]

Jakke: Yeah, I called my wife’s sister and showed her the video. She watched it and when the video ended, she was quiet for a few seconds and said, “I got myself really upset [from that].” [laughter]

Helena: No, really, it looks really great, the people – true pros, Olli Häkkinen and his team – did incredibly great work, and so did our Polish collaborators… like, insanely cool stuff. And the song behind is also hit material, of course.

Speaking of the visual side of things, “Amain” also has some gorgeous cover art, as did the previous albums. Who’s the artist behind it?

Jakke: We’ve had a different artist for every album; on the first one we had Belgian Kris Verwimp-

Helena: To whom I messaged after the second album, going like, “My, that was a good-looking cover you did for this second album!” and then he replied “I didn’t do it… but thanks!” [laughs]

Jakke: I met him when we were in Belgium, a wonderful gentleman. The cover for “The Writ of Sword” was made by Olli Häkkinen, the director of our music video, and Mikko’s brother, who’s also taken all of our band photos.

Helena: Keeping it in the family.

Jakke: Yeah. And then this third one, the cover is done by my work buddy, Tuomas Gustafsson, he’s an actual painter and likes to deal with the human body in his art; men and women in different kinds of lighting and situations. Mikko and I were still working in the same place and I showed him [Tuomas’ work], would we have here the artist for the next album cover if we ever get this done, and Mikko instantly said, “Yes, this is the guy.” One of our fans we know is this fitness sort of bloke, so I asked him if he wanted to show some buttocks on our album cover and he went like, “No way, really? How cool is that!” [laughs] So we took a few photos of our model there and we thought of which one would be the one to start the painting from, Tuomas painted it, and Kalle Pyyhtinen did the layout for the booklet from the painting.

Mikko: We specifically wanted to preserve the painting-like quality, brushstrokes and so, but on the other hand, everyone’s probably going to say that it’s photoshopped shit anyway. [laughs]

Jakke: Yeah, especially with the LP version. At the time we were planning the cover, we said that we want it in LP format, so when someone gets it, they’re going to see all the brushstrokes and everything, so we kind of did it thinking about that scenario. A sort of a counter-move to this Spotify era – if you’re paying for the physical copy, you’ll get a little something extra.

Helena: I think it was a really nice choice you did there; I don’t know at what point you thought of that, but on the first album we had this warrior on the cover, fully dressed in armor, very much on his way somewhere – as the path unfolds – like, now we’re going there. And on the next album, from Olli’s pen, is maybe the same warrior in another form, in a way, after experiencing some hardship already, and on this last one getting butt-naked [laughs], like, all-in!

All-in-all, the visual side plays an important role in your shows as well – who designs and makes your stage clothes, for instance?

Helena: Vera Schneider has done the latest ones, and there’s been some talks about an update, so we’ll see if that works out, with what kind of schedule and so on. I just noted that I ended up ruining one simply amazing leather dress while making the music video, so I might have to grease it really well or get a new one. [laughs]

Jakke: Vera is part of our core team as well, doing a great job, and wants to be a part of building this brand for our band.

Mikko: We want to put effort into the visuals in every aspect that we can and not just go on stage wearing T-shirts and jeans. It’s our thing, how we want to do this band thing.

Jakke: It’s also kind of a ritual before a gig, when we put on these garbs and put some make-up on – you get out of the home-dad-zone to the rock world, create a good build-up there… like, we’re gonna hit the stage in a few and win the audience over and have fun.

Helena: To battle! [laughs] No, I’ve had the chance to do one princess gig in Belgium back in the day, at the Metal Female Voices Fest, in this grand, green tulle dream made by Nina Lahtinen. But mainly, we wear Vera’s works – on the first album we had a different person doing our stage clothes.

Jakke: Yeah, on the first album our clothes were made by my wife’s sister, who’s also in the clothing business.

Ninja-witch, symphony orchestras, and the love of the game

After a while, the future ahead looks quite bright in the Crimfall-camp. To conclude our chat, we talked about their upcoming shows, ventured a bit further into the realm of possibilities, and also threw the ball into Crimfall’s fans’ court with one of the questions.

You have a couple of gigs in Finland announced for fall by now – are there plans for more just yet?

Jakke: Well, we have quite a few nets cast in the water, so to speak; we were given permission to say that there’s going to be stuff happening next year.

Mikko: I guess we could have more, but at least it looks like we’ve been somewhat forgotten, so now that we’re getting this album out and… well, we’ll see when the reviews are rolling in.

Helena: Yeah, hopefully the music will speak for itself, that people would want to see us on stage, and it’s been a while since the last tour anyway… or well, we had a few gigs here in Finland [last spring].

Jakke: True. I would think we haven’t been that relevant before the new album is out.

Helena: And on the other hand, it’s not just ‘merry drinking songs’ -kind of music; there’s something to listen to in a different way than there is with these lovely and beloved party bands of the same genre.

Still on the topic of live shows, now that different kinds of special shows have been all the rage – like INSOMIUM performing with a symphony orchestra, AMORPHIS playing in a castle, and so on – what kind of special show would CRIMFALL play, if anything was possible? Would it be the symphony orchestra, or something entirely else?

Jakke: I think that would be one of the elements there, but it probably wouldn’t stay at that alone.

Helena: There’s all those choir parts [on our albums], so yes, some sort of huge, 400-person choir howling in the background would be ideal.

Jakke: I would definitely fancy doing things on as big of a scale as possible, but we have to remember the realities, like, it has to be an occasion where the effort is worth it. If it’s a Wednesday evening in a pizza place in the middle of nowhere, it’s probably not the right occasion to drag a hundred person orchestra out.

Mikko: All kinds of stuff has been envisioned. We’ll see when we can do and what.

I also read from another interview that Jakke, you work with game music in your day job, and on the other hand, CRIMFALL is quite ideal background music when bashing through Skyrim for instance, so have you ever thought about what kind of game you’d place CRIMFALL’s music and world in? Or what kind of game characters the members of CRIMFALL would be – like, who’s the battle mage?

Helena: Well we’ll catch this good question here and throw it to our fans out there. They would be great at telling us that since they probably blast this music more than we do.

Jakke: I suppose the game characters would be pretty much what we are on stage, of course, these kinds of beaten fellas. [laughs]

Mikko: NPCs who’ll get their asses whooped there. [laughter]

Helena: A warrior princess in a leather armor there… no wait, actually, when we were thinking of the non-musical stuff for the new album, I definitely had in mind this ninja-type, maybe slightly witch-like [character], living in her cabin in the woods and cooking up potions – a ninja-witch! So I think the mage’s role would be for me. And brute force could of course be Miska [Sipiläinen, bass], because he’s the prettiest. [laughter]

I can see that! Although, aren’t the prettiest ones usually Elven archers or something?

Jakke: True, that would be exactly Miska.

Helena: Ooh, yes!

Mikko: [laughs] Or a bard or something…

Jakke: Yeah, a bard. But CRIMFALL as game music, I don’t know… As much as I follow the field, I can’t point my finger right away at something it could be placed to. Anyway, when there’s something to do with metal [in a game], it’s going towards some very different kind of games rather than soundtrack games. Or soundtrack-wise, I don’t know if there’s a hybrid where it could fit in.

Mikko: Witcher 4, maybe, whenever that comes.

Jakke: To the end credits, yes. But yeah, some suitable game that wants a little twist in there – many just want to take the safest route, so if [someone] wants a new kind of approach, then our music could fit there.

Fair enough. So, what does the future of CRIMFALL look like after the album release? Have you had the time to think about things that far?

Helena: Well, it’d be good to get the new songs into good live condition in case there will be more gigs dropping our way; there’s a few booked already and some in negotiations, so we kind of have to go to the rehearsal space to work on them. [laughs] And with quite some enthusiasm too because, after all, we’ve played “Wildfire Season” for quite a few years at this point, so it’s pretty cool to get to play new songs.

Jakke: This group of ours does live through the live set anyway, so the 6 years spent in the studio are probably not the most rewarding moments. It could be the 15 or 45 minutes on stage at Nosturi or somewhere. That might be the moment we do this thing for.

Helena: The younger metal audience who don’t know us will more or less wait for the next band, but then everyone hears the music and are into it… that’s a kind of victory that feels really good. Naturally, it’d be nice if someday someone knew something about us too. Weeeeell…

Jakke: Hopefully we can celebrate this album with live shows in the near future. I don’t want to think about the next album just yet.

Mikko: Yeah, this isn’t done for money, but specifically for the sake of getting to bring the music on the road, and hopefully the album gains enough success that doing those tours will be possible.

Helena: That would be grand, yeah.

Jakke: And that it would pay for itself, plus/minus-zero would be nice.

Mikko: That’s also true, now that we’ve thrown way too much money into this latest album.

Helena: An expensive hobby. But yeah, like you said, it’s not because of the money, but for the art.

Jakke: For the love of the game, yeah.