Originally printed in Buzz Magazine, May 2009.
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“I’m chilling at home.”
Wait, I’m sorry, what did Tomi Koivusaari, founding guitarist of progressive doom legends Amorphis and huge rock star say?
“I’m just at home in Finland taking a break before we start on all the summer festivals.”
Yep, the lackadaisical tone in his voice definitely sounded like he wasn’t writing or touring, but this reporter had to remain skeptical. Nevertheless, I forged ahead with my barrage of inquiry into what exactly makes this Finnish powerhouse tick and seemingly, go boom.
Their latest album, Skyforger sounds like an explosion of tender and swirling melodies plucked from the heyday of the 60s and 70s progressive and psychedelic era; touches of mellotrons sweep across soundscapes built on thick, bulging guitars and pulsing, fanciful synths, even more so than their previous efforts. How did they make the album sound so lush and organic?
“Well, I’ll have to have a think about it,” Tomi says, while a deep Finnish hum rumbles around my phone as he ponders. “I guess it’s because of the mixing and the mastering. It doesn’t sound as compressed. So there’s more dynamics and space. You can just hear those small things a little better.
“And there might just be a bit more delay guitar maybe. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just delay guitar. The sounds are just more, like, dynamic. Spacey in a way. We didn’t do any more psychedelic stuff on purpose though.”
And fittingly, the band’s obsession with the Finnish folk tale epic Kalevala isn’t something they set out to re-tell via their music and lyrics, as the music again just evolves naturally.
“I think they’re interesting stories and philosophies, but they aren’t the thing we use to write music with. I think they fit with our music very well because they’re timeless and there’s a lot of emotional stuff [behind it]. But I wouldn’t say that [Amorphis] are the ‘storytellers.’ It’s a very old tale but it gives you a good perspective on today’s life [and culture.]”
Koivusaari, like an concerned parent-to-be, doesn’t enjoy waiting for their new album, Skyforger to be released (which was three weeks away at the time of the interview) because, well, it might just get annoying listening to it.
“I feel very anxious waiting for it to come out. There are a few things we can do before hand like the artwork and promotion but that’s about it really. I wouldn’t say I feel nervous because we are very satisfied with the album. I listened to it about a hundred times during the mastering but I haven’t listened to it since because to your own ear, it might sound like shit.
“Once you get a bit of distance from the recording session you can almost listen to it like an outsider.”
The band have been taken in out of the cold by the mainstream in Finland, with their last two albums, Eclipse and Silent Waters charting rather well, achieving gold status – something that they would never have expected, even in the normally metal-crazed Northern Most Land.
“It’s good; and we can respect that happening in a different way than from say, when we were twenty years old. It feels good, but it wasn’t our goal or anything like that. Its funny because ten years ago things were a little bit different with us in Finland.”
How does he figure?
“Well,” he continues, “after [our current singer,] Tomi [Joutsen] joined it’s given us so much more energy and [a bigger] audience in Finland as well.”
I ask if it was due to the surge of popularity of Lordi after they won the Eurovision Song Contest; but in Finland, heavy metal is the pop music over there, outstripping sales of rock and other genres by a significant degree.
“It’s always been like that. It’s unbelievable how big it is in Finland. Lordi went to Eurovision because metal was already big in Finland. But them [winning] has nothing to do with it, actually.
But as for bands like [symphonic metal band] Nightwish, their sales have been amazing. They sold something like 100,000 albums which is in the top five biggest selling albums in Finland.
“It’s amazing, knowing that little kids and grandmothers are listening to it. People were ashamed that Lordi was making fun of the Finnish people, but after they won [Eurovision] everyone was like ‘Yeah, Lordi!”
And of course, here’s the fun part of the interview where all Amorphis’ Australian fans get the news they’ve all been waiting for:
“We’re coming down at the end of the year,” he proudly tells me. But is it a sure thing, amidst swine flu, GFC and other terrors?
“Yes, of course. There should be two shows in Australia. It should be good to be there.”
