Korpiklaani – מסיבה של פולק מטאל

Korpiklaani may be a difficult name to pronounce, but very few metalheads today haven't heard it. This Finnish band has been in existence for some time, and releases a regular stream of album – spreading its Folk Metal to the masses. The band's latest release called "Karkelo", or "Party", and come to think of it – you can say that's exactly what the band brings to any venue in which its songs are played, be it a live show in a club, or just as background music in a local pub.

Soon we shall have the chance for seeing this bunch over here, in an evening that promises a real fest of drinks and music. Before that happens, we checked up with Korpiklaani's bassist – if he's mentally prepared for the Israeli crowed and how connected is he to everything else going on around him, such as the bands with which he tours (just before he left for "Pagenfest"), or even about his own band. Some answers were a bit over the place, but what can you expect when you're dealing with drunken Finns…

Hey Jarkko, you know last time I waited 10 months to get an email interview from you guys, so hopefully now it won't take too long to get some answers…

I guess it was someone else's fault, not mine [Laughs]…

I understand you just about to leave for the Paganfest tour, which you're headlining. How excited are you about this? Is it like every other tour for you?

Well basically it is just another tour, but it's going to be a good tour anyway, we have guests, and some bands we know already from previous tours, so it's going to be like a family reunion.

What do you think of your comrades in battle on this tour – Veteran bands like Unleashed & Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, and the young ones Alestorm & Swashbuckle?

Unleashed is a band I'm not really familiar with, they're [coming] with Ex Deo, but Die Apokalyptischen Reiter we have met many times, they're good bunch of people and an interesting live band as well. With Swashbuckle we toured already in the USA, last spring, like 6 months ago, so we know these guys. We also met Alestorm before… And actually, I'm not sure if you know that, but when they were still using the previous name [Battleheart], they made a cover to one of our song. So yeah, I'm sure its going to be bunch of good people on tour.

Speaking of Alestorm & Swashbuckle… What is your opinion regarding this whole pirate theme they resurrecting?

I don't care what they do… I know that with Swashbuckle, they have good time, and that's the main idea – same as with us. I think there's a similarity between them and us in that sense – they are taking their music seriously but they don't take themselves seriously. I think that's quite important.

I saw you also participating in a new documentary called "Promised Land of Heavy Metal". What can you tell us about this film and your involvement in it?

I haven't seen the film, but as far as I know our involvement was only a few interviews there, and I wasn't even in those interviews, so I can't say much about that. I know the man behind the film founded the first Finnish metal band [Sarcofagus] 30 years ago, so he has that kind of background, although he keeps bringing that band up all the time, which is a bit annoying, since they were not that good [Laughs]…

Korpiklaani just released its second album with Nuclear Blast, how is it different to work with such a big label in compare to your previous one?

It's been good, I mean, the surprising thing is when we were coming from a smaller label [Napalm Records], we were one of the bigger bands over there, and then we moved to a big label where we would be a smaller band. We were afraid that we wont get any attention from the label, but it turned out be the other way around, since we never – practically never – met any people from the previous label, they never came to our shows, they were just faceless people, but now with the big label, those are the people that we meet all the time! Basically, it's a cliché to say, but it feels more like a family, because we know who we're dealing with now.

When you first started with Korpiklaani most of your songs were in English, but over the years you chose to sing mainly in Finnish. Was your success a factor on you feeling more comfortable speaking in your mother's tongue or was it something else?

The reason why we did the first songs in English was because we felt uncomfortable with our own language. If we were writing Finnish lyrics, we were not happy with them at all, since when you're writing in your own language you become much more critical towards your own work, and nothing really seems to sound good. But then you think about some of the rock classics in English, where they sing "Bi-Ba-Balola, She's my baby" and it says nothing… so it was easier to write in English. But now we have an outside friend of ours, who's not in the band, which writes the Finnish lyrics for us. He has been writing for a few years now, and those are brilliant texts. So now that we got good texts, we started to use them. I think we would have used Finnish text in the beginning, if we had any good lyrics, but we didn’t.

One thing you haven't left on every album is a good "Drinking Song"… Don't you think that you should get sponsored by some drinking company?

Yes, we do think! That's a good thing you noticed… I hope that all the alcohol companies notice that as well!

Will it be dangerous for them and you since you'll get some more free drinks?

Well… it will be dangerous for everybody anyway, but its good for a rock band – we should be danger to society, destroy the youth and annoy people.

On the subject of drinks, if Korpiklaani were a type of alcoholic beverage, what would it be like? How will it taste?

Hmm… I think we would be a Finnish "Pontikka", the moonshine / illegal alcohol that's been done deep in the woods. It's like 67% alcohol, it burns your throat on its way down and in the morning on its way up – like eating chilly but with alcohol.

I happen to see you every summer on almost every festival, while in between you do a lot of touring as well… and my question is how do you manage to release an album almost every year while constantly performing?

I don't know… I guess we just been surprisingly productive in the past few years. It's no secret, we just keep doing…

Do you come up with songs while touring?

We don't write anything on tours, we like to do it when we're at home. Of course it depends on the writer, and the person who's writing the music, but usually the songs are written in quite short period of time.

Now you're about to have a show in Israel, is this your first visit to the Middle East? What are your expectations regarding this visit and the Israeli crowd?

It is our first time… Basically we heard good stuff from the promoter that it's going to be a good party, going to be lots of people, even sold out, so we expect a good show and good audience. We don't have other expectations; it's just one of those situations when we have no idea what to think. Israeli is practically unknown to us in many ways, especially its music scene…

Even though you'll arrive on a colder month… I wonder how Finnish people feel about hot places – do you have any fears from it?

It depends on the people, but I for example love warm and hot places. I would gladly move to a country like Italy or Spain or whatever. I know that some people – some of us even – like the Finnish winter time, but I hate it, I just hate freezing, so I'm going to enjoy my time there [In Israel].

Do you plan to do any sight seeing when you're here? Check our culture?

I have no idea. If the promoter organizes something then its different thing, but I really don't know, I don't even know how long we're going to stay…

Have you got the chance to listen to some Middle-Eastern folk bands like Melechesh or Orphaned Land? What do you think of this type of folk?

I don't know… I really don't know these bands… I don't listen to this type of music…

Do you plan anything special for your upcoming show here in Israel?

I don't know, I think we'll been doing a slightly longer set…

Lastly, do you have any last words for your fans in Israel before you'll land on our shores?

Hmm… No, I really don't have much more to say…

That's it? You don't want anyone to show up for your concert?

Come on! I don't have to say that anyway since it will be sold out already HA HA [Harsh Laugh]… but really, I don't have anything to say.