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 FORLORN WAVES AND DESERT MORROWS ‘’…With a wealth of experience from internationally renowned acts, from former members of Finnish metallers Amorphis, to current members of Swallow the Sun, Moonsorrow, and Kreator, Barren Earth presents progressive and folk textured death/doom metal of the highest order on their hotly anticipated debut album on Peaceville Records. Titled ‘Curse of the Red River’, the album combines the best elements of metal, prog, and more obscure psychedelic rock – from Opeth to Pink Floyd, and Paradise Lost to Jethro Tull…’’ (taken from Barren Earth’s myspace page)
Hello! Congratulation for your debut album – it is a great record, indeed! How are you doing? Hello, and thank you very much! Right now I'm sitting at a cold backstage in Toronto, Canada thinking about a hot cup of coffee that I unfortunately don't have in front of me. Otherwise I'm fine! ''Curse of the Red River'' is your first full-length. So, please can you tell us something about the recording and writing process? Where it was recorded and mixed and who was or were main composers? We started out in late 2007 banging out some tunes that Olli-Pekka "Oppu" Laine had written, which eventually became an initial blueprint for the band's musical development, which in turn inspired other players in the band to contribute in the songwriting as well. Of the songs we have recorded, Oppu is responsible for majority, and Kasper, Marko and myself have written the rest. Mikko has contributed to the vocal lines and lyrics, and Sami has been an absolute genious when it comes to arrangements and generally finishing and polishing crude ideas to finished songs. We recorded the album during the summer of 2009 in our good friend Jukka Varmo's (who also produced the album) Jive Studios in Helsinki. Mixing was done by Dan Swanö in his Unisound Studios in Örebro, Sweden, altough none of the band members was around physically in that session. We just communicated through email, but everything worked out really smoothly and we are really happy with the result!  Many journalists claim that Barren Earth has continued where Amorphis has stopped after legendary ''Elegy'' album. Do you share their opinion? And although that ''Curse of the Red River'' has some obvious fresh elements to offer there are some details which were characteristics of ''good, old'' Amorphis. The Amorphis comparisons come up quite a bit in reviews and interviews, in my opinion a bit too much considering the proportion of the similarities in music. Granted, we do have two ex-members of that band which were a major part of creating the characteristic sound of that band long time ago. But that's only a minor (altough recognizable) part of all the songwriters, influences and styles that make up the sound of Barren Earth. The whole picture is more complicated than that, but it's natural that people grasp in to the elements which are most similar to something already existing when trying to describe music. I wonder would the comparisons be different if we didn't have any former or current members of this or that in the lineup! I like the new Amorphis too very much, I've always liked the band ever since the "good old" days. I don't think they stopped evolving after "Elegy" - I respect them a great deal because of that, and I'm sure we won't stop developing Barren Earth music and pushing it forward (or sometimes backwards) either! Please, can you write something about your members of the band? It clearly seems that Barren earth is some kind of an all-star band coming from Finland. Is it hard to run a band with some many prominent members in? Having people involved with significant other bands has it's disadvantages certainly, but so far we've managed to make everything work. But being realistic, we know that there are going to be some limitations because usually people simply can't be in two places at the same time. When Oppu, Marko and myself started trying out the first tunes the first time, starting out the band and figuring out who to ask to play with us, we sort of just thought of good friends and good people to hang out with. Finland is such a small country (even with the zillion metal bands around) so everybody sort of knows everyone in the "scene" if there is a such thing. It was only later that we realized the obvious all-star band labels we might be getting. We have tried to do what we can to downplay the fact that certain people play in certain bands, but of course we can affect those things to a very limited extent. People seem to want to make a big deal out of those relations to other bands, for various reasons. I can understand that. Well, at least some of that. I must give you my compliment for the songs on your new album. I mean, each track is different from another and each track is having its own vibe. For example ''Our Twilight'' is very different from ''Forlorn Waves'' or ''The Leer''. was it hard job to compose such a different songs? Thank you! We're fans of traditional way of making records, where the focus is entirely in songwriting, not like trying to think of a genre, brand, style or guideline and then generate filler within those parameters, approaching music as making a product. "Oh yeah, let's do a technical death metal album" or "let's write an emotional record". We feel that substance is the important thing. Substance should define the form, not the other way around. At least I can't force the substance, I just get ideas and follow them to where they most naturally take me - if that makes any sense to you. In terms of songwriting, I can't say enough how proud I am of how good this band has turned out, from starting out in the rehearsal place jamming on few crude song ideas to the moment when we heard the final album mix. There's a lot of songwriting potential in the members of the band, which will undoubtedly flourish even more in the years to come. I have a strong feeling that this is just the beginning.. Travis Smith has done a cover artwork for both of your records; for EP ''Our Twilight'' and the full-length ''Curse of the Red River''. To be honest, there's a kind of huge difference between those two cover artworks. It seems that cover for ''Curse of the Red River'' is more following the music and the atmosphere. Actually the EP cover was not made by Travis, it's by an artist from Sweden called Niklas Sundin. To be honest, the idea of putting out an EP last year didn't happen until after the album was recorded, and then we were suddenly pressed with time to come up with artwork quickly in order to have it out still in 2009. What can you tell us now about the lyrical side of the album? Your lyrics are deeply emotional and there's some kind of sorrowful vibe, if I am not so wrong, which bound whole record. The lyrics are written by various members of the band, and there's also a contribution by one outside writer, Jussi K. Niemelä. We've tried to come up with lyrics to fit the atmosphere and mood of the songs. Gloom and darkness for sure, but perhaps also a glimmer of hope somewhere instead of complete negativity. All of the lyrics fit well together, but there's not a common recurring theme throughout the lyrics, each of the song is a different entity in that sense. Altough a theme album might possibly be an interesting thing to try out in the future. How do you look at Amorphis and their musical style right now since they have changed so much since first few records? Do you follow their development? Oh goody, another Amorphis question! :) Well, I've enjoyed very much the records they've made throughout their career, they're a good example of a band developing and growing musically without prejudice or the need to force to contain themselves within certain limits. The new ones are simply great rock records, Tomi Joutsen is an amazing vocalist and there's a lot of songwriting muscle in that band! All around cool guys and good friends too. Barren Earth has started as a kind of studio project but you're now more focusing to have some shows. I have noticed already few live-clips on youtube. So, can we expect a proper tour sometime in the near future? Do you have already an idea with which band you would like to tour with? Any band from Peaceville Records? Hah, we never thought of Barren Earth as a "project", even less a "studio project". As a "rock band" it's been our intention from the beginning to start doing shows when the time is right, despite all the scheduling challenges the other bands may present. Since this is just our first album and it just came out, it hasn't been yet possible to seriously look for any potential tours to try to get on/bands to tour with until now. For a band that's just starting out, it's not that easy to get booked on a good tour despite of how professional you are. Nobody will know if you're going to help sell tickets or not! Many people don't know this, but support band slots in tour often cost a lot of money! But we're working on it and it will surely happen, hopefully soon. How did you end on Peaceville? I mean, have you got any other offers aside of Peaceville, from Spinefarm for example? Also, do you like some other bands from your current label? We sent our first demo we recorded in 2008 to a bunch of different labels, can't remember how many exactly. We got an actual offer from three or four labels, out of which we chose Peaceville because overall it seemed like the best alternative. In the end, the choice was clear! We had met some of their people and were really impressed by the fact that they seemed to be genuine music enthusiasts, as opposed of wanna-be-businessmen with more spreadsheets in their heads than actual interest in the records they're putting out. We've also been fans of their catalogue for ages, starting from the days of early Paradise Lost and Autopsy, both of which are important influences for Barren Earth. It's an honour to be part of that catalogue. How did Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow The Sun) join the band? His vocal abilities are perfectly suitable for Barren earth's music. Me and Marko play in Moonsorrow also, which toured with STS in 2007. Actually we're on tour with them right now! So based on that experience, besides having an impressive voice, we knew that Mikko is an super nice guy to hang out with, which is at least as important when thinking of people you want to be in a band with! How would you label the music of Barren Earth? As a matter of fact, your style has many different influences, from death to doom metal and also there are various progressive pieces and parts, by the way, there's a kind of 70s vibe, too. Are any bands around that have directly influences you when it comes to creating the music? Ouch, I've never been good in labeling music, you're asking the wrong person! I think the closest label would be Death Metal, but it obviously doesn't cover the whole picture. Progressive Death Metal without the need to impress by technical wizardry? Not very catchy title for a genre though.. There's a lot of bands that have had more or less direct influence on some aspects of the music. 70's bands like King Crimson and Pink Floyd obviously. Death metal such as Morbid Angel, Entombed, Paradise Lost and Autopsy come to mind too. And Beatles, of course. Well, I would like to thank you for your time, answers and great music! Would you like to leave the comment for the closure? I hope that I will see your somewhere on the tour:) In your words, I hope that I will see us somewhere on tour myself too. Thanks for the interview! If you like our music, spread the word! Answers by Janne Perttilä |
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