Korpiklaani (en)

I had a chance to interview one of the greatest folk metal bands, Korpiklaani, in august about their new album Manala. The accordionist of Korpiklaani Juho Kauppinen has answered to my questions. I hope you like it.

interview KorpiklaaniSo, you're releasing the new album called "Manala" on 3rd of august. If I wanted you to describe the album in 3 words, what would your answer be?

Gloomier, heavier, multi-dimensional.



Does the new album "Manala" have the classical Korpiklaani sound that fans got used to, or are we gonna hear any kind of difference as sound in this album?
Korpiklaani's albums always have something familiar from the previous albums, but we are constantly working on our own sound which we formed in the past. Having an own sound is a good starting point, but we don't settle for that. On the album Manala there are a lot of solutions that are not so predictable and expected from Korpiklaani and we certainly want to keep it that way. Jonne has been asked whether he will form a solo project of his own and he says he sees no reason for anything like that, because he can definitely actualize himself in Korpiklaani, writing any kind of material, regardless of whether it even sounds like Korpiklaani or not. Eventually all kinds of material will end up sounding more or less Korpiklaani anyway.



How were the summer festivals that you've done this summer so far?
They were all excellent. It is a great pleasure to be able to play such a number of concerts each summer. Each concert was a sort of different experience. It is nice to play both small festival concerts and rather big festival concerts in contrast. We're yet to play the very last summer concert in Hämeenlinna, Finland, before heading for our next North American tour.



You've already made a videoclip for the song “Rauta (and the steel)”, are you planning to make more videoclips from the new album Manala?
I am not sure about that. Probably not, because we have usually filmed only video an album.
interview Korpiklaani

You're what people would call "workaholics" for sure. Isn't it hard to make an album in such a short time while you already are having many concerts around the world? Are you getting tired sometimes?
I couldn't tell you how many times we've been asked this question and there is a very simple answer to it. We love to play and write songs and we would get very frustrated if we couldn't record the material we write. It is relatively easy for us to write good songs and we see no reason to leave those unrecorded. Playing in Korpiklaani is our job and we want to be able to be as productive as possible and write as many songs worth being recorded as we can. Our recording pace is actually not very fast, because the majority of our songs are rather simple and don't demand 10,000 hours of practising.



How is everything going with the new violinist Tuomas Rounakari?
He fits in the group perfectly and has not only taken on his new challenge better than well, but added a lot of good to our live performances, because he is not only a splendid musician, but also a very good entertainer with prior experience. In the studio he showed he is capable of coming up with own ideas and arranging songs for his violin in an interesting way.



You’re gonna tour North America soon with the bands Moonsorrow. Tyr and Metsatöll. This is such a strong lineup that fans from Europe and even fans worldwide are for sure a bit jealous. Are there any chances for the same lineup to tour together again in Europe and/or other countries?
I sincerely hope this bunch of folk metal bands could tour a lot in the future. We have toured with Týr and Moonsorrow in Europe too.



Are you planning to release a dvd that's gonna contain live performance(s) in the near future?
At the moment not. We have had
interview Korpiklaanimany plans to release a DVD, but they have always fallen through, for instance for technical problems.



Some epic bands like Ensiferum and Wintersun from Finland are releasing a new album very soon. With the new Korpiklaani album it's gonna be a great “trilogy” for the Finnish metal fans. Do you find spare time to follow what other bands are doing?
It's unavoidable to run into some news or articles about other Finnish folk metal bands, for example on the Net or when flicking through the pages of a Finnish metal magazine. It seems the our pace of recording albums is rather quick compared to other bands. Ensiferum has released a new album about every three years, whereas Wintersun released their first album in 2004 and only this year will there be a second album by them.



Do you still have the same excitement that you had while starting to make music? Are you feeling younger day after day?
I would say it is at least as enjoyable to record albums and play concerts as it was in 2005 when I played my first Korpiklaani show. This job can only get more and more interesting, because it is nice to see how the band develops over the years.



You like putting cover songs to your albums, but would you release a separate cover album in the future?
It is possible, but unlikely, because we have never run out of our own material, so I would say it is a lot wiser to record an albumful of own songs rather than an album of cover songs.



Are you still in touch with Jaakko "Hittavainen" Lemmetty?

To some extent, yes.



You have English versions of the new songs in the album. When you're having a concert, which version are you planning to sing?
Only the Finnish versions are going to be sung live.


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Interview done by Sentenced

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Deesse_de_la_nuit - 21 Sierpień 2012: Great interview!!!!
DownfieldCrown - 28 Sierpień 2012: Just saw them here in Mexico. What a great show.
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