Together, they discussed the origins of Laakso's doom metal band Kuolemanlaakso, the inspiration behind the band's sound, working together, and the music industry.
The original air/stream date of the short-format interview was Feb. 26, 2013.
Interview Transcript- Jan 29, 2013, Markus Laakso, V.
Santura
Emina Hodzic, (Radio Sarajevo) Present: [] (from Zillertal, Austria), Dzemal Bijedic, (Radio Sarajevo) Approx. begin at 21:00 (preprep) Berlin time.
Written and transcribed by []
Begins after 37:45
Hello Markus, good to
have you here in the studio. How are you
doing?
Markus: Thank you I’m doing well.
So here we are to
talk about your baby, called Kuolemanlaakso, if I am pronouncing it well.
Yeah, that was perfect.
It’s a pretty new
band out there and you released your debut album called “Uljas uusi maailma”, but before we start talking about that, let’s
go back to your roots. Where did it all
begin for you with respect to music?
Well, it’s pretty hard to say, since I’ve been listening to
music since I was really, really young and I think the first vinyl that I ever
owned was this compilation album called “Axe
Attack II” and it had Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, and bands like
that on it. I pretty much skipped directly from children’s music to heavy metal
when I was about six years old, so it’s been a part of my life forever.
I do have this one recollection when my parents…I was at
this classical concert with my parents and they played Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”
and I remember becoming mesmerized with it, so I guess it all began really,
really early and after that they made me take piano lessons as a kid, which I
absolutely hated. So I guess it’s a
combination of things like that which derive from my early childhood.
Who were the early
bands and artists that made you sit up and take notice of music (besides Iron
Maiden, etc.)?
I think it was KISS…KISS was the band I liked the most and
then you know all the other 80s bands like Twisted Sister, Accept, Hanoi Rocks,
WASP, and bands like that. I think it
was that they looked really, really, different when compared to regular
people. They had ridiculously long hair
and makeup and they were theatrical so it was pretty much the nature of the
music and the way they looked and the way the album covers were made and stuff
like that, so I think it’s basically that all the guys I know listen to the
same bands growing up, so those are probably all the bands I listened to
growing up…and, oh yeah, the Scorpions!
I used to love those guys!
I’ve read that you
were in California
as a youth. How long were you there,
what were you doing there, and did it shape your future life as a
musician? If so, how?
I was there when I was about 11 when we moved to San Diego and we lived
there for about two years because of my father’s work…he’s a scientist, like a
medical scientist. He studies diabetes
and he’s actually quite famous worldwide and he’s won all the prizes there are
with the exception of the Nobel Prize.
So I went to sixth and seventh grade while I was there. I don’t think it had any influence in the
shaping of my future in musical stuff. I
listened to a lot of music while I was there.
For example, Guns N Roses and Poison and all the hair bands were really,
really big and I remember getting into Gangsta Rap like Eazy E and NWA and
bands like that. I didn’t play any
instruments when I lived there. I played
piano before we moved there, then I started playing guitar after we moved back
to Finland.
What was your first
band and what did you play?
Actually, Chaosweaver
is my first band. A lot of people were
asking me to join their bands when I was a teenager, but I didn’t want to join
any bands, just play guitar at home. I
was kind of a shy kid, but when we founded Chaosweaver, it was 2004, I played
keyboards and after that, I switched to bass and I’ve been playing the
keyboards for a few years now, again because I got tired of the bass.
So many great bands
are coming out of Finland
and support for metal and extreme metal seems quite strong there. What is it about Finland that makes this happen?
Oh, that’s a tough question, but I think one of the key
factors is the high musicianship of the Finnish metal people…is…everyone plays
their instruments really, really well, except for me (laughs), and people are trying to be original when they are making
their own albums and not copy off one other.
I guess it has something to do with the long and cold
winters that we have to face every year, which I hate. That’s like six months of the year of
absolute darkness and really cold and shitty weather.
Is that why the
suicide rate is relatively high in Finland? (laughs)
I think so (laughs).
Winter is really, really beautiful, but I don’t even want to
go outside if it’s too cold. Just stay
inside. I work at home, so I don’t have
to go outside, ever, if I don’t want to.
What brought about
Kuolemanlaakso?
When we were making Chaosweaver’s second album, that was a
really, really long process that took about a year and a half and I had some
spare time there at the studio because the other guys were…the drummer of
Chaosweaver owns the studio where we recorded the album, so we didn’t have any
schedules, and there were a lot of relationship breakups in our band…members of
our band broke up with their long-term girlfriends and such…
Always girlfriends. (laughs)
Yeah. (laughs)
…and my wife was pregnant at the time so I had to be in a
condition in order to drive a car. I
couldn’t drink anything and those guys were partying all the time and playing
Xbox and not doing the album. So I had
some spare time in the studio and the Triptykon album came
out during that time and I really, really got into it. I wanted to start making music that was kind
of similar, like heavy, heavy, really dark stuff with lots of extreme
string-bending and that sort of thing. So I just started demoing my own songs in the
studio and I didn’t even tell the other guys.
Just went there, you know, and closed the door and [they] drank and did
whatever they did. Just demoed a few
songs.
Later on, there was a party at the studio and I wasn’t even
there and the people were listening to projects and demos and albums by the
guys that were joining the party, like the guy from Ajattara, for example and
then Kouta who was going to be the guitarist in Kuolemanlaakso, who plays
guitars in Chaosweaver. So he had heard
those demos at that party and he phoned me and said he really, really loved them
and that I really need to make this into a real band and he wanted to be a part
of it. I originally thought I would just
play every instrument myself and do the vocals.
Well, not do the drums, but have someone play the drums on the album.
But that’s how we began.
But that’s how we began.
I noticed you
mentioned Triptykon and “Eparistera Daimones”.
What is it that got your attention?
Well, usually I buy albums on the release date if I’m
interested in them, but this album I bought later. I just read so many reviews that said like
this was a really cool album and like 5/5 stars or something and all my friends
were complimenting it, but I really had high expectations. And when you have really high expectations or
something, it commonly leaves you not being that impressed, but I put the CD on
and said “WOW, this is some really, really heavy and cool shit!” So probably it
was the absolute darkness of the album and the production, which is really
crushing and of course, I heard “Monotheist” by Celtic Frost and thought that
was an excellent album, but I think this album was even better and it took it
one step further, even though it continues the same path. And also not so typical song structures and
the string-bending stuff and the feeling of serenity in the absolute darkness
of the album. That was something else I
was really impressed with.
Was it difficult to
make an album without being a ripoff of an album that inspired it?
Well, the mission was not to copy anyone, but to get a
certain…sort of “tips” and influences and make it something different. In my opinion, Kuolemanlaakso’s album is
really, really Finnish. If you listen to
the melodies, for example, they are really melancholic and typically
Finnish. So the things I wanted to
“snatch” from Triptykon, if you want to call it that, was the quality of the
production and some of the string-bending things and pitch-black atmosphere.
You mentioned that
the other members of the band wanted to be in Kuolemanlaakso. Was it difficult for them to understand right
away what you saw in “Eparistera Daimones” and what your vision was?
Actually, Kouta, the guy I was talking about…I don’t think
he’s even heard the whole Triptykon album yet.
He just heard the songs that I had written and I think Mikko Kotamäki,
the lead singer, I think he’s a big fan of Triptykon.
I think they understood my vision after hearing the demos
really, really fast because the way the other guys joined the band was…I
thought about when it was proposed to make this a full-time band. I thought about it for a few weeks and then I
thought about the guys I thought were brilliant musicians and good friends of
mine and I wanted the guys to be mellow and easy-going and [have] no egos. That was really important.
I wanted them to know that I wanted to make decisions in
this band because Chaosweaver is like a three-guy democracy and it’s really,
really hard to make a song complete with three guys having the same amount of
votes, so to speak. I had a vision about this album and I found those guys who
are old friends of mine and they said they were good songs and wanted to play
them and wanted to do the album.
What was it like
working with V. Santura on production?
How did he end up actually playing on the album?
I think it was really great.
He’s also a really mellow guy and really cool and really nice and
talented. He had a lot of great ideas concerning the songs and concerning the
sounds and he even composed some of the leads on the album, which he, of
course, ended up playing. I don’t
remember which song was the first he played on, but there’s this one song, the
second song on the album called “Kuun lapset”, “Children of the Moon” in
English. We were playing Super Mario
Land while the other guys were recording.
That was the only song that Kouta (guitar) hadn’t rehearsed with the
band and he was like “ahh, I don’t feel like playing that song and rehearsing
it”. I think he asked Victor (Santura)
if he’d be interested in playing the song.
I think on that song, it’s only me and Santura playing on the song. Then there was the intro to “Uljas uusi
maailma”. It’s a really, really shitty
part to play, so he played it and I think he even asked if he could play some
leads on some songs of the album. I
think they, well, me and Kouta can never play lead guitars like that…ever (laughs), because we’re not lead guitar
players and even though I have had to learn the leads on the album because I
have to play them live, which kind of sucks ass. (V. Santura laughs in the background)
I won’t ask further
about production and guest appearances because we have V. Santura (Victor) here
in the studio. Hello Victor, how are you
doing?
Victor: Hello, good evening.
I’m doing very good, actually.
How were you
approached by Markus to produce this album?
V. Santura: I think the first time he approached me was when
Triptykon played the Finnish Metal Expo in Helsinki.
When was that, Markus? Was it in
2011? It was in 2011, I guess?
Markus: February.
Victor: Yes, February 2011, exactly. So we had that show
with Triptykon and…there was some kind of aftershow party and I also knew some
people from Helsinki that I met and then I just basically was running into
Markus and Petteri [Kouta], the other guitar player, or am I supposed to call
him “Petteri” in this interview?
Laakso: You can call him whatever you want. (laughs)
Victor: OK, the motherfucker! (laughs)
Victor: I met those two guys there and we got quite drunk,
of course, because we’re in Finland
(laughs) and there’s no way out of
that. So, basically, we were talking
about the possibility of maybe making an album together. To mix it, actually and a few weeks or months
later, we actually basically really got into e-mail contact and the whole idea
was born that I could co-produce the album and also record it at my place (Woodshed Studio, Landshut, Germany). And that’s how it started.
What were your first
impressions of the demo material when you heard it?
Victor: I quite liked it.
I could really connect with the music, obviously, because it’s some kind
of style of music I understand and I know well and know what it’s about. It’s
also quite interesting to work with a band that is, basically, admitting that
they are influenced by your own band, but I don’t see Kuolemanlaakso as a
copycat of Triptykon. My first
impression was, actually, that they were also influenced by Ajattara, another finnish
band that I really like. The first song
I ever heard from Kuolemanlaakso as a demo was “Mina Elan” and to me that sounds more like Ajattara than
Triptykon.
Not only did you
handle production work, but you played on several songs. How did that develop? Were there any challenges there?
Victor: (laughs) I
remember pretty well on the last day of the recordings, we were still working
on the last track (“Aurinko”) and
that track starts with a very simple bass riff and we knew we wanted to make a
very nice, atmospheric melody over that part and I had some kind of idea. So I wanted to play something and it really
took me…it felt like hours…until I got it on tape and I was really annoyed with
myself. So, that was some kind of
challenge. In the end, I’m really happy
and proud of that melody. For the rest,
I was doing whatever…they were all spontaneous things, actually and, well,
maybe not a “challenge”, because I was just doing what I do. It’s quite as simple as that.
What songs did you play
on?
Victor: (laughs)
That’s a good question. I have to look
in the booklet, actually.
If you can pronounce
those Finnish titles…
Victor: I think I played…I think I had an idea on the first
track, “Mina Elan”, where there was
one kind of cheesy-sounding keyboard…
I actually noticed
that because it sounds so like you.
Victor: Well, that keyboard line, when I heard the demo
track, I thought it actually should be played with a guitar and so I played
that thing on a guitar with a really spacey, kind of clean sound and the guys
really liked it. And then on “Kuun lapset”, the second track, as
Markus already mentioned earlier in the interview, there I played almost the
entire rhythm guitar, as I remember correctly.
And, well, those additional lead guitars on “Aurinko” and the rest, I’m not entirely sure anymore. Markus mentioned that I played the intro of “Uljas uusi maailma”.
Markus: Yeah.
Victor: …but to be honest, I don’t even remember playing
that.
Markus: (laughs) I
have video, dude!
You were too drunk. (laughs)
Victor: (laughs)
No, I’m never drunk when I’m working.
I’m always totally sober, actually, but I thought that beginning melody
of “Uljas uusi maailma”…I remember
that this was different and your bass player Thuomas (Usva) changed it and I
think he recorded it.
Markus: Ummm…no.
Victor: There is that middle section…
Markus: You and Usva, you mean that middle section part,
together…
Victor: Exactly. I
played some guitars, but I don’t remember the intro. Or maybe I did? (laughs).
Markus: …and you also did the intro of “Etsin”
Victor: Yes. That’s
my favorite song, by the way. I LOVE it.
Markus: Cool.
Victor, how much
freedom did you have with those guitar parts?
V. Santura: Basically, the few riffs I played…I, of course,
totally respected the composition and I didn’t go away from that. It was just, for example, the intro of “Etsin”, to me, when I heard it, I
thought it really needs that “rotten”
kind of Hellhammerish approach with the guitars and I thought “if you let me
try, I could probably get that in” because I’m used to playing that kind of
stuff, obviously. So, I just interpreted
it a little bit, but I didn’t change things.
I didn’t ask for freedom because I thought it’s not my job and not my
duty to change their compositions. It’s
only my duty to make their compositions sound as good as possible and that’s
all I tried to do.
What is your opinion
of the final product?
V. Santura: It’s one of the albums that I’m most proud of,
to be honest because I really love the sound and I’m not always happy or
totally satisfied with the final results, but with that album, I think
everything went extremely well and smooth.
It was a big pleasure to work with Kuolemanaakso, so in the end I’m
really satisfied with the album.
So there are no
flaws? I know you producers have
complexes… (laughs)
V. Santura: I actually also do have that…a lot (laughs), sometimes, but with that
album, at least with my part of the work that I had to contribute to the album
I’m quite proud this time.
Markus, what has the
album’s reception been like?
Laakso: Overwhelmingly positive, in my view. I think the worst reviews have been like, if
we were to talk in stars, it’s like 3/5 or 6/10. In Finland, for example, 5/5 or 4/5
and stuff like that, which is really great because I had no expectations.
Is it because of your
native language (the “Uljas uusi maailma”
lyrics are in Finnish) or something else?
Laakso: Actually, we’ve been getting a lot of good reviews
from Germany
and The States and not a lot of people have paid attention to the language of
the lyrics or they haven’t been criticizing them, even though they don’t
understand them. I don’t know, the
reviews have been really, really positive.
I didn’t know what to expect. Honestly.
You always have haters
around.
Laakso: (laughs)
Of course. I knew the production was
really, really good and our singer is quite famous so we would probably get
some attention, but the reviews were something I didn’t expect. They were so overwhelmingly positive.
In the liner notes,
it was mentioned that Svart [Records] restored your faith in the business. Have you previously had bad experiences? What is life like in the music business
today?
Laakso: Well, the contract we made with those guys…well,
it’s basically the best contract I’ve ever seen or even heard of. It’s like really artist-friendly and gives us
a lot of opportunity to do whatever we want and those guys are flexible. My other band (Chaosweaver) is signed to an
Austrian label I won’t mention by name. (laughs)
Victor: (laughs)
Can I mention it?
Markus: Sure! (laughs)
Victor: Napalm Records.
Markus: Yeah, and things haven’t been going that smoothly
with those guys. Well, they have some really good pluses, but also have a few
minuses that are not that cool. The
Svart guys they release a lot of albums and release a lot of good music and
they really believe in every single album that they ever released, which is
great because they’re not in it for the money; they are in it for the
music. It’s been great with those guys
and I have absolutely nothing negative to say about Svart Records. In my opinion, it’s the ultimate label for
this band to be on and I wouldn’t even want to go to a bigger label.
That’s good to
hear. By the way, I noticed the album
cover is really intense. How was it
chosen and what messages are contained within it?
Laakso: First of all, I wanted the cover to have an owl
because I’m kind of fixated on owls and I have been since I saw Twin Peaks in 1991 (laughs).
I saw this picture on Facebook, because I’m in a Facebook
group called “Owls” and somebody had posted a picture of an owl by a Maldivien
guy called Maahy Abdul Muhsin. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so I
instantly wrote him an email asking if he would be interested in painting the
front cover of our album. So he replied
to me in about 20 minutes and said “yes and it would be really cool”. I had explained what the front cover concept
I had in mind and he was really enthusiastic about it. And he’s 18, which is
humungusly weird because he’s such a talented guy. So I sent him a few ideas…I think I sent him
four ideas- four different ideas about the cover I had in mind and he chose one
of them and after a few weeks, he emailed me this really, really cool and genius-looking
evil owl.
I wanted it to represent “Uljas uusi maailma”, which is the “Brave New World”. The title track, the world that we live in first burns, then drowns in the ocean and in “Aurinko“ the last track, the world pretty much starts again from scratch, where everybody is exactly equal. There are no rich people or poor people, or differences of the races or whatever. So that was basically what I had in mind for the album cover and I think it went really, really great. On the front cover, you see this huge owl and you see the world burning and on the back cover it has the sun…the last track on the album is “Aurinko”, which means “The Sun” and the world begins again and would we make the same mistakes again if we had a second opportunity?
I wanted it to represent “Uljas uusi maailma”, which is the “Brave New World”. The title track, the world that we live in first burns, then drowns in the ocean and in “Aurinko“ the last track, the world pretty much starts again from scratch, where everybody is exactly equal. There are no rich people or poor people, or differences of the races or whatever. So that was basically what I had in mind for the album cover and I think it went really, really great. On the front cover, you see this huge owl and you see the world burning and on the back cover it has the sun…the last track on the album is “Aurinko”, which means “The Sun” and the world begins again and would we make the same mistakes again if we had a second opportunity?
That’s pretty much the idea that I had in mind. The art just blew me away because I didn’t
want to send him any sketches because I don’t know how to draw (laughs) at
all. So I just had this idea and he
delivered it like…I expected it to be cool, but it was beyond cool.
While we’re talking
about owls, did you see the movie “The Fourth Kind” with Milla Jovovich?
Laakso: Yes.
You see that owls
aren’t so sweet, actually.
Laakso: (laughs) I
think an owl represents an ancient wisdom.
It’s a nocturnal animal, which is, of course, combined with evil
shit. When I wrote one line from the
bible “I’m a brother to dragons, companion to owls” (Job 30:29) it’s actually a
reference to that.
What does it
personally mean to you?
Laakso: Well, if you read that passage in the bible, the
whole thing, I think it has a lot of references to being thirsty or being in a
really dry, heated place. “Kuolemanlaakso”
means “Death Valley” in English and Death Valley
is one of the lowest, hottest, and driest places on earth. So I wrote down from the bible:
“When I
looked for good, then evil came unto me and when I waited for light, there came
darkness. My bowels boiled and rested
not. The days of affliction prevented
me. I went morning without the sun. I stood up I cried in congregation …my skin is
black upon me and my bones burn with heat my heart has turned to mourning and
my organ into the voice of them that weep.”
I thought that was fucking cool (laughs). So that’s why it
is on the booklet.
So is there a light
at the end of the tunnel? Because a lot
of what you are talking about is darkness.
Laakso: Well, if there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have written
“Auriko” and we wouldn’t have the second album being written as we speak.
The lyrics are, in
part, based on the poems of Eino Leino.
What subject matter did he deal with?
Laakso: Actually, Eino Leino is one of my mother’s favorite
poets. Whatever your father and mother
says is worth checking out…
Is your mother also a
metalhead?
Laakso: (laughs)
Yeah!
…but once I did [check out Eino Leino] I really got into
that stuff…In my opinion, Eino Leino’s poems are similar to the music of
Kuolemanlaakso because they’re so dark and so depressing and so evil. So I have had poem books by Eino Leino for a
long time, but now I really got into them and he has this style…the rhythm of
the language is really musical and it’s kind of hard to get the Finnish
language to sound good on top of music because it’s such a harsh language, kind
of like German (V. Santura laughs)
with the rolling “r” and stuff like that.
The thing is on "Helkavirsiä"
the poem book I was studying while writing the lyrics, it deals with a lot of
the same subjects as my lyrics. I dealt
with some of the same subjects before I read the book and some after that and
some during (laughs). It basically deals with nature…and by nature,
I mean human nature and the shittiness of it and the Finnish forests and the
mystique of the Finnish nature. Those
are the things that I felt.
To the present and
future…What kind of plans do you have for the future of Kuolemanlaakso? Are we to expect similar darkness and
brutality or significantly new directions and pushing extremes?
Laakso: Well, I think we will continue basically with the
same path. The band doesn’t want to do
the same thing twice. So, the stuff I’ve
been writing for the second album has been as dark and as heavy as on the first
album, but there are basically two new things: the catchier stuff is really,
really catchy and there’s also faster passages in the songs. If I were to compare them to another artist,
it would be Emperor on their first two albums.
Fast and evil stuff combined with really, really heavy and depressive
shit plus the catchiness part. So that’s
basically the formula for the songs I’ve been writing now. So I wrote all the songs on the first album,
but now Kouta and Usva have been writing a lot of material, too. So I guess the next album has to be different
because there are probably songs by other dudes besides me and we’ve been doing
live shows and we’ll be playing Tulska this summer and we are in the middle of
arranging a tour of Finland this summer with another cool Finnish band, but that’s
too early to tell because it’s not settled yet.
I really, really hope we get the opportunity to play some shows in Europe and elsewhere, but unfortunately, that’s up to
some people other than the band.
So Victor, when’s the
new Triptykon coming out?
V. Santura: Ohh,
that’s an evil question right here.
That’s going to be a very interesting thing, which album will be out
first. The next Triptykon album or the
next Kuolemanlaakso album. As much as I
like working with Kuolemanlaakso, I hope that Triptykon will be first, but it’s
hard to predict, as always, but we are working on it for sure.
Question for both:
2012 was a strong year for metal. Any
album highlights for 2012?
Markus: Want to go first?
Victor: (laughs)
No, you go first!
Markus: Alright. For
me, the album that I listen to the most is “No Holier Temple” by a Finnish band
called Hexvessel. They have a British guy as a songwriter and
you should definitely check that out.
He’s quite a famous black metal artist, but this album is kind of
“forest folk” and really 70s and 60s influenced stuff. And then I liked the debut album of Jess and the Ancient Ones,
which is occult rock and I know the guys and the girl and they are from the
same city and myself, which is Kuopio,
Finland. The
new Tiamat album was pretty good
and of course I’m a big Swallow
the Sun fan and Barren Earth, and
I’m really happy to say that their singer sings in my band as well
(laughs). The new My Dying Bride album
was kind of a disappointment, but it was still pretty good. So, Victor, your turn?
Victor: (laughs) Can
we skip that, please? I don’t think I
listened to any albums in 2012.
Actually, in 2012, I had a period of weeks where I didn’t
listen to any music at all because it was getting too much. I think in the first half of 2012 I was
working too much with music and when you work everyday 8-10 hours or something
you don’t really want to discover new music.
It’s because you’re listening to music all the time and you’re always
analyzing music and at a certain point I really had enough. I had a few jobs
that I finished and took a few months off in the summer just to do a vacation
and the first 3-4 weeks of it I literally didn’t even put on any music and I
waited as long until I really got the need to listen to music again, which finally
set in and was a really nice feeling again.
I was going through my classical, my favorite albums and I discovered a
few things that weren’t from 2012. So
that question on my favorite albums from 2012 is hard to answer because there
aren’t any for me, but that’s not due to the shitty situation in music, but due
to my shitty situation.
It’s because of your
job…
Victor: That’s what I’m trying to explain- it’s a bit due to
my job that I’m not listening to music so much privately. I’m listening to music all day long for my
job. Then at the end of the day for
relaxing you want to do something different from what you just did for
work. So I would rather go out and do
sports or sit on the sofa and watch TV.
That’s what I prefer doing nowadays or I practice guitar, but that’s
being active with music
Back to work, you
have work to finish with Dark Fortress and Triptykon. (laughs)
Victor: Exactly, I just had another break in December, where
some production work I had scheduled got cancelled, so I didn’t have any work
to do in December, which was a bit shitty in the first place, but then I
thought that I could use the time for something and I really got into
songwriting for Dark Fortress which was extremely good, so we…by the end of
December the other guys in the band met so we got together to check out new
ideas and we accomplished a lot so far.
If you had asked me in November “how is the new DF album going?”, my
sincere answer would have been negative, to be honest, but now it looks
completely different and I’m pretty confident we’ll record a new album in 2013.
Very cool. Both of you: Where will the record industry be in 5-10 years?
Very cool. Both of you: Where will the record industry be in 5-10 years?
Victor: Wow, that’s a very, very difficult and also
interesting question and it’s hard to predict.
We can go back to
tapes again (laughs). Tapes are coming back. The Devil’s Blood existed only until a few
days ago.
Markus: They announced they will not give further interviews
and will exist no more and I have no idea how that happened.
The retro style
seemed only temporary; something not permanent.
Markus: They are a good band. I don’t care about retro or whatever, but
they were a good band. Too bad they
broke up.
Victor: It’s hard to predict and there are negative messages
coming in every few days, from our manager, for instance, who has a very high
position with Century Media records.
She’s telling us things about the business. For example, in France, all Virgin stores have been
closed.
Markus: What the fuck is going on?
Victor: I know, or… Play.com in the UK will stop
their business in March completely and in Italy FNAC will close all the stores in
the country. I used to think that metal
music was still selling, but I think it’s getting more and more difficult to
distribute the actual albums.
I think Amazon is getting more and more important when it
comes to physical sales and MP3s. I
don’t believe that the CD medium will last very long. It’s kind of obsolete and it’s not the best
medium anyways. A CD is, quite honestly,
a piece of shit (laughs). What kind of medium is it when you buy it and
in twenty years you will probably not be able to use it anymore? For example, vinyl lasts much longer. I would love to see a different format
besides MP3 because I don’t like the fact that…I don’t like how they are
encoding and compressed. The quality is
suffering. Most people don’t notice the
difference, but on a good HIFI system, I hear the difference, of course. I hope there will be an alternative solution
to the CD, but I think the music industry…it’s getting more and more difficult
to sell your albums.
Will vinyl help save
metal?
Victor: No, I don’t think vinyl will help save metal. I think vinyl is just a little niche market
for the nerds or the fanatics. The vinyl
sales stay constant, but it’s just a small portion of the sales, so it’s not
going to save anybody from ruin. It’s
just a little extra that’s at least a bit stable.
Markus, what is your
opinion?
Markus: In my opinion, if you download an MP3 album, that’s
not the whole thing. If it’s legal or if
it’s illegal, I don’t care. It doesn’t
have the front cover, the booklet…
Victor: Exactly.
Markus: It doesn’t have the whole thing; just part of the
whole thing. Of course, the music is
there, but that’s not the whole product.
I really don’t know where the situation is taking us. I don’t believe the CD will die as such,
like, for example, like MiniDisc did, but the sales numbers are getting so low
that maybe not all the releases are being released on CD or on vinyl. There will be many more releases that will be
Spotify only or Spotify and iTunes only and particularly that’s a good thing
because I don’t support the chew once and throw away culture at all. And by
that, I mean the single thing.
I think when metal bands are making an album, they’re making the whole thing. They’re not making 8-13 songs and that kind of sucks that the people aren’t buying albums anymore. It’s quite depressing, actually. But I don’t care because I’ll still do the things I do and Victor will still do what he does, despite that fact.
I think when metal bands are making an album, they’re making the whole thing. They’re not making 8-13 songs and that kind of sucks that the people aren’t buying albums anymore. It’s quite depressing, actually. But I don’t care because I’ll still do the things I do and Victor will still do what he does, despite that fact.
Victor: Yeah.
Today’s time has some disadvantages, but if I see the big
picture, I see the advantages it has.
Sometimes I think to myself if I lived in the 80s I could live simply
making my music because I could sell a whole lot more records. On the other hand, if it was the 80s, I
couldn’t run my own recording studio for sure because equipment was so fucking
expensive back then and the investment would have been something I would never
have been able to do. Nowadays, you can get
gear and acquire your knowledge in different ways and this way I found for
myself another niche where I can live off of music. So it’s not definitely worse or better.
Markus: Yeah, basically it’s not about the equipment and it
being cheap. We have the same equipment
as you. Petteri has the same equipment,
but we want to keep making albums with you because it’s about the knowledge you
have.
Victor: Yes, of course.
Nowadays, it’s a lot about the knowledge. In the old days, when you had the big recording
studios in Munich…they
all went bankrupt…maybe I would have had a job at one of those studios back
then, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have had my own studio because I couldn’t afford
the investment. Every time has positive and negative aspects and when you talk about
the music industry situation, nowadays, you tend to get a bit disillusioned or
depressive, but I always try to be fair to my own situation and see the
positive in things.
For me, how it turned out, today’s time has big advantages.
………..
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