Progressive metal act VOLA opened Tuska Festival‘s main stage on Saturday. After their show, we chatted with bass player Nicolai Mogensen and drummer Adam Janzi about their festival summer, their latest single, “Break My Lying Tongue,” and the new album, “Friend of a Phantom.” Watch our interview here or read the complete transcript below…
Thanks so much for taking the time today! How are you guys doing?
Nicolai: Good, it’s been a good few days in Finland.
Adam: Yeah, always happy to be here.
The last time you played at this festival, you were playing on a smaller stage. How does it feel to open up the main stage on Saturday?
Nicolai: On that show, we didn’t have our gear, it didn’t arrive. We had some problems on that show, it still turned out to be just fine, but this was a little bit more relaxed on the big stage with, again, a great crowd – it was also a great crowd last time. But nice to play on our own instruments this time and not borrowed instruments from all over the place. It was a great feeling.
Adam: Yeah, really really great feeling. Special feeling opening the main stage, besides actually playing on the main stage, also opening it. It feels like welcoming people to the festival and them welcoming us in return.
Do you play a different kind of show when you have to warm up an audience?
Nicolai: I think we’re still so inexperienced that we haven’t… it’s not something we know how to handle a situation like that. I don’t remember having opened up a festival or having played the first on a day. We didn’t open the festival, we opened today, right?
Adam: Yeah, right, the day!
Nicolai: It’s not something we thought about at all.
I saw you at Graspop Metal Meeting last week, I presume that you also had some other festival appearances. How has the summer been for you?
Nicolai: Graspop was really cool. I also went to Copenhell just as a fan and had a good time. It’s always a good time to go out and listen to music and at festivals, it’s a great opportunity to listen to stuff that I don’t know already, so, looking forward to chilling for today, just going outside, and listening to different stuff and not being like the guy out there, which is amazing, but it’s also nice now after having done my job today, I can relax.
Party time! [laughter]
Nicolai: Not so much party, but just relax.
Did you see any cool bands at Copenhell?
Nicolai: I saw my friends in the band called THE SCRATCH, from Ireland, which was really cool, it’s like Irish folk mixed with metal. So, I spent a lot of time with them as well, so I didn’t see much more than that because we were heading to Graspop the next day. We had a flight very early so I was leaving very early from Copenhell. So I was just there for the day. Didn’t see enough, maybe. It’s also about trying the food at festivals, so I had some of the food, seeing and trying different stalls.
What was Copenhell’s food highlight?
Nicolai: I had an amazing vegetarian or vegan miso burger, it was called. Fucking good, you would have liked it. It was so good, I had it twice!
Adam: Oh! [laughs]
Are you guys vegan?
Adam: I am.
Nicolai: Adam is.
Not that that matters, but maybe just a little fun fact!
Nicolai: It matters!
Correct me if I’m wrong, Graspop was also the first time you played your new single, “Break My Lying Tongue.” What was it like for you to play it live for the first time?
Nicolai: It’s always scary to play a new song live. But I think people have been reacting well to it. People are already clapping in the middle of it, it’s a song that invited interaction, which is something you never realize when writing it, and then when you play it live, it’s cool that people just do stuff in certain passages of songs, that’s always a good sign when people are doing something, whatever it is: booing… No. [laughter] Just that people are actually… Apparently, that song invites to certain behavior in a part, but a lot of songs don’t, they’re just great when you listen to them, but it’s nice when the song where… because we’re not a band that asks their audience to do much, we don’t ask them to do a pit or whatever people just do what they want in our set, so it’s pretty much up to them, so it’s very special when they apparently because it happened also at Graspop where people started clapping at the same places, that’s just apparently something that just happens, that’s cool.
Adam: Yeah, it’s a nice feeling. People seem energized by the song also.
I have to ask about “Break My Lying Tongue” because the ending felt like it is leading up to something bigger, as it ends abruptly. What does it lead into on the album? Something heavier?
Adam: We have some, I would say maybe heavier, but mainly darker in the mood and in the theme, it’s not that the song “Break My Lying Tongue,” leads into a heavier song, it’s more just that that’s the natural ending of the song, but there are other songs on the album that go in some darker places than that one, for sure.
Nicolai: But it’s also just an interesting effect to play with people’s expectations on how long a thing is and it’s way better than a part being too long. It’s a good way of navigating the people to listen to the song again, not that that was the case, but I think it was like the whole song was there and then that part happened was the last written as well, so I think it’s very cool that people want to hear more of it. I love that people are discussing if…
Yeah, I read a lot of comments about that!
Nicolai: It’s the same thing about the keyboard sound in the intro. People are also like, “Ah, is it too much or something?” but what’s so cool about that sound is that that sound was the one that broke the whole song. It started with that piano sound and that was what made all of the things happen afterward that inspired everything else. So that sound had to be there, it’s just an evolution of the song, it felt very natural, and the same with the outro. We didn’t debate about it being longer, we talked about maybe live it would be fun to try it longer, we’ll see, but it’s also nice to play with… something we don’t much is unexpected transitions, this is one of the more unexpected ones, so that was interesting to try. I think our fans are maybe not used to us doing unexpected things in a song.
The next song on the album is called, “We Will Not Disband.” Tell me more…
Nicolai: Asger is the lyrical mastermind behind it and he is not… he doesn’t have a theme in mind when he starts writing the lyrics. When we have a part written instrumentally, like guitar and drums, then he starts mumbling some lyrics, usually, those are the ones that end up being there. So, it’s very intuitive for him. “We Will Not Disband” was just one of the lines in that song that felt the strongest. So it’s not that he set out to make a song about disbanding. He writes lyrics, then afterward, he looks at them and tells the fans this is what it is to me. But he never thinks about it when writing the song.
Adam: I remember him mentioning that it kind of dives into childhood nostalgia a bit, also just this strong relationship where you feel like you won’t disband, you feel the strength of it…
Nicolai: That’s the meaning for us now as a band. As a band member, not having written the lyrics, it can feel like yeah, it can be about us in a way, but that’s not the intention of the song while writing it.
“Witness” was an album that was very well received by fans and media and put you even more on the map. Does that create pressure when writing something new?
Adam: There is always pressure with the next album, looking back on your previous stuff. At least for me, I try to close myself off from that and just see that in a vacuum. Of course, it’s not possible, but…
Nicolai: Even if we made an album that didn’t have that success, there would be a lot of pressure on getting success or breakthrough, so no matter what when you have made one album, there’s a little bit… it’s a little different than making the first album, there’s also pressure there, but when you make one album, then the people who had heard that one, might have expectations about number two. No matter how little I think about it or how much I think about it, it might influence you in a way that you are not aware of. That’s something we… I didn’t feel more pressure than with the other albums. It was harder to write but that was because we did more tours. There was less time to be focused and get into it. We need to figure out how to write music more in segments and not just in one go.
Adam: I think the biggest pressure has been the deadline pressures. That’s definitely something that we feel… [laughs]
Nicolai: They have to be there.
Adam: They have to be there, it’s necessary.
Would you release anything without those deadlines? I guess there are bands out there who really need them.
Nicolai: It would take longer than it has to. Sometimes you get a good idea by getting that pressure. Some songs that happened right at the end where things really needed to happen were some of the best. On the other hand, it can be something that destroys you if there’s too much pressure. It can go both ways. I think it was perfect, the amount of pressure, there were a few deadlines we pushed back, we push and we get pushed back, so it’s a healthy mix of us knowing that it’s just some dates on a piece of paper.
There’s a European tour coming up in the Fall, there are two “To Be Announced Dates.” Are they Finnish dates?
Adam: Yes! Helsinki and Tampere.
Nicolai: I’m really excited about it. I enjoy just thinking about the tour, I try to do that from time to time, just thinking through. I love looking forward to stuff. Sometimes, it’s even better than the actual thing, just thinking about it, I love it. So, it’s going to be nice.
Adam: It’s going to be really nice!
Nicolai: Hopefully, new heights for us.
Looking forward to that! Anyway, that’s it for our time. Before we wrap this up, do you have any last thoughts you want to share with your fans?
Nicolai: Thank you for the support. We are very honored that you are listening to us if you are, and if you’re not, that’s also cool.
Adam: That’s also fine. Thank you so much. Hopefully, we’ll see you in Finland in November.
Nicolai: In Finland or other countries.
Interview by Laureline Tilkin
