Korpiklaani Interview

The Gauntlet: It's only been a year since your last release, "Voice of Wilderness" what caused you to want to record and release another album so soon?

Jarkko: The reason was quite simple. We had enough good songs. The most of the songs on Tales Along This Road were already written around the time when Voice Of Wilderness came out. It is good to get rid of the already written material and concentrate on the new stuff.
Our idea is to do that in the future as well. We will record a new album when we have enough good songs written. We will not wait until certain time has passed since the previous one.

The Gauntlet: How would you describe Korpiklaani's musical progression from your first album, "Spirit of the Forest," to "Tales Along This Road?"

Jarkko: I think that musically they are all on the same line. There are no big sudden changes in the music. However, I think that Jonne has become more productive and the band has now more choices on what to put on the albums, so the new album is much more coherent, a solid unit with no weak songs. I've spoken with Jonne about this and he said that this is the first album that he is 100% satisfied when it comes to the songs.

The Gauntlet: Why the decision to add Juho as a permanent accordion player after the release of "Voice?"

Jarkko: The band always had a session accordion player on at least some of the songs on the previous albums. After the recordings of the last album Juho offered himself for the band and Jonne decided to take him.
We always had many instruments like flutes on the albums, but it was quite impossible to reproduce them on stage because on the albums they were all played by Hittavainen. Now the band can arrange those parts for Juho which makes the live renditions sounds a bit more like the album versions.

The Gauntlet: It seems like in addition to Juho's accordion presence on each song most of the tracks on Tales are a bit more melodic than some of your older songs. It seems like your new bassist, Jarkko, is playing more to the song's melody and less to the song's rhythm compared to your previous bassist Arto. Is this true, and if so, can you explain his approach to this somewhat unique kind of bass playing?

Jarkko: Juho made indeed a big difference on the album, because now there's accordion on every song. It makes the album sound quite a lot more folk even though at the same time the hard guitar riffing makes it also sound more metal.
I am the new bass player, so I guess I should be an expert on my own playing. I've always thought that my strongest point as a bassist is the tight rhythm I keep. I've never thought about myself as a melodic player, but now I've heard similar comments from at least a few listener. My biggest heroes as bass players are Geddy Lee, Geezer Butler and Pekka Pohjola who in fact are all quite melodic players so maybe I've gotten something from them. Not that I am comparing myself to them!

The Gauntlet: On "Vakirauta," there are some backing grim vocals during the chorus. Which band member (or guest vocalist) is doing these vocals?

Jarkko: That's Juho. If you are interested in that kind of stuff you should check his own band Falchion www.falchion.tk where he handles all the vocals and playes the lead guitar.

The Gauntlet: Ali's absence from this album can really be felt in the percussion department. Any intentions to eventually replace him?

Jarkko: No. He had a big part in the past, but now the songs are rhythmically more simple and more straight rocking which is the way we wanted them.

The Gauntlet: And what about Honka, your former guitar player? Was it your intention to have three guitars at one point, or was Cane recruited to replace him?

Jarkko: The band indeed had three guitarists at one point. When he decided to leave, the band decided not to get a new guitarist. Three guitars were really difficult to mix live, the band was already quite big with 7 members and Jonne and Cane could handle the guitars well enough on their own.

The Gauntlet: Is it true that you and the band dwell in the forest, away from any major civilized areas?

Jarkko: In Finland you are always away from major civilized areas! I got this interview via e-mail so you can judge yourself if I am living in a forest or not.

The Gauntlet: Where does your strong connection to nature and traditional Finnish music come from?

Jarkko: The nature is still a big part of everyday life in Finland. There are forests everywhere and even if you are living in the city centre of for example Helsinki you only have to go like 5 kilometers and you'll be in the middle of the forest that you can walk all the way to Siberia or something.
Every member of the band except Juho were born in the small country villages. Even though everyone is now living in the more or less civilized areas, inside there's still that little country boy from the forests.

The Gauntlet: What are some bands that influenced you as far as the heavy metal aspect of Korpiklaani's music?

Jarkko: Me and Jonne are friends from when we were 9 or 10 and we both had the same interests as a teenagers. The first metal or heavy rock bands we got interested in were probably W.A.S.P. and Kiss. The first W.A.S.P. album still kicks some serious ass!
Later on came of course the mother of all bands Mot�rhead and in the mid or late 80's of course bands like Metallica and many speed and thrash bands.

The Gauntlet: Which of Korpiklaani's drinking anthems is your favorite?

Jarkko: Beer Beer is my personal favourite. Or maybe Wooden Pints. Wooden Pints is perhaps better on the album, but I really like to play Beer Beer live. It has become a live favourite for the band and also for the audience.

The Gauntlet: What about from among the slower, more instrumental or folk influenced songs?

Jarkko: I don't know if it's slower, but at least it's instrumental and maybe also more folk influenced: Pine Woods. The melody is really beautiful and it's fun to play live.

The Gauntlet: Are you currently involved in or working on any other projects at this time?

Jarkko: No, not really. Of course there's always something because I just have to play something, but I don't really have time for any other project as big as Korpiklaani.

The Gauntlet: What are Korpiklaani's short and long term plans for the future?

Jarkko: Short term: We will be leaving to Russia for three concerts tomorrow afternoon. Then later during the summer we will be playing on quite many European festivals including Headbangers Open Air, Masters Of Rock and Wacken Open Air.

Long term: There will probably be another tour around October with some festival dates included. In November we will probably start recording the new album which should be out about a year from now.


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Tags:  Korpiklaani  , Jarkko, interviews

Andrew Sudano    May 07, 2006