Browsing: Interview

Winter is coming. Frosty air bites your face, even the tiniest drop of humidity is stinging like a needle in your skin yet growing beautiful white crusts at your beards and eyelashes and breathing burns harshly in your throat. You walk on a lonely plane in the bitter cold of an Arctic night. Below the frozen snow is crushing under your feet and above you Northern lights seem to set the sky on fire. … while Hyrde (Antti Hyyrynen) and Pexi (Pekka Olkonen) are shredding the riffs of ‚Viisi Laukausta‘ deep into your guts. Into your guts? You open your…

Meeting Erkka Korhonen  – The voices of Raskasta Joulua „How did you get to all these new singers you’ve taken into the band over the years?“ He frowns. „Earlier we would approach people because we had to. We would like back in 2006, when we started expanding the line up live because we did ten shows. We did the new album. It was six singers at that point. And when we started going into that yearly thing, we would always have to look how is Nightwish gonna tour. How is Sonata Arctica gonna tour? What’s gonna happen? We need at…

Solstafir are cult because they are unique. I would not know of any other band like them. Perhaps their music sounds even weird to many people. They describe their music as Pink Floyd metal. My personal history with Solstafir started when I noticed that some of (my favourite) musicians wore their shirts quite some years back. In the very first moment, I wouldn’t even know, what Solstafir is. And when I finally checked out their repertoire I fell in love with their emotional and stirring tunes, this voice that seems to crawl deep into your soul and the gloomy atmosphere…

Some time before I heard of Raskasta Joulua for the first time, I ran into some amazing 80’s cover songs from a band called the Northern Kings. One thing was for sure: these guys had amazing voices but also great humor. Check out yourself: Northern Kings, ‚I Should Be So Lucky‘ The core – in my perspective – of the  Raskasta Joulua vocal band is a group of singers or even more friends: Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), JP Leppäluoto (Charon, Poisonblack) and Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot). They are the Northern Kings! So speaking with Erkka Korhonen on…

Meeting Erkka Korhonen I had the pleasure of seeing some gigs with Erkka and the last of those had ended in an unexpected meet & greet session after a most memorable Raskasta Joulua concert. Interestingly, I found out during this interview that Erkka still remembers this particular day quite vividly although it is is some years back by now. Raskasta Joulua has become a really big event with more than impressive line-up and this year even some guest vocalists. We met in a café near the Tuska venue. It felt horribly early to me although it was not too far…

Tomorrow Bloodred Hourglass (BRHG) from Mikkeli in Finland will release their third full-length album „Heal“. And as the band is spread all over the country – in terms of space – it did not work out for us to meet in person. I tend to identify ‚new‘ bands by following the tracks of musicians from one of their bands to the next and so I had followed Lauri Silvoinen (bass) whom I met in January while touring with Wolfheart to BRHG. And this music hit a nerve in me. Damn, this ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Castle Ashtray’ or ‘Where Sinners Crawl’ -…

Discussing the superheroes‘ topic with the kings of borgacore could naturally not be limited to the identification with a particularly named superhero. We have the honor of speaking with the punks of punks and that would surely provide a very unique approach to the superhero topic. Batman – the true hero of borgacore? So I can finally come to perhaps the most essential discussion. My loyal readers will know by now that I am fond of the superhero question. But as I am sitting right opposite of a group of let’s say innovative kind of punks, we need to go…

The rumour says, alcohol is very expensive in the North of Europe. And yes it is. As music festivals are considered several days lasting parties – and Nummirock is the most traditional example for this rather than an exception – the supplies as well as the accessibility of alcohol in each situation of the festival is an essential matter to be carefully considered and if possible improved. I frankly admit when asking the band for festival gadgets my first idea was some stage equipment, but that of course, would be quickly discussed and could not provide sufficient space for innovation…

Welcome back to my session with the kings of borgacore. But before getting into the details of the essential questions of life, let’s introduce the band. There is, of course, Mr Aminoff, the passionate vocalist appropriately dressed in a black suit including a tie, of course. I found him to be the networker of the band, as well. Then we have the rather quiet guitarist, Mr Palmén. His statements, however, as quietly spoken as it may, still rarely miss their goal. The green pants and ring pattern socks of Mr Langenskiöld, the bassist, we will see, play a cruicial role…

This is my first chapter in a loose series of questions I discussed with the Finnish “borgacore” band Bob Malmström. We had a great time at Nummirock discussing the essential questions of the borgacore life style and the festival season 2017. Outstanding situation require outstanding measure, it is said and so I choose to present the discussion of each question in a single chapter. So what would you expect meeting the one and only true kings of borgacore? How can you able to prepare appropriately for such an honourable appointment? Is there a way at all to prove worthy of…

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