Petri Lindroos (Ensiferum)
March 2007
There's been no studio album from Ensiferum in 2006 but the band remained very active releasing a mini CD and a live DVD. Can you tell me about these releases?
Our schedule was too tight to do a proper full-length album at that point. We didn't have time to write new material, so we decided to do a mini CD that was called "Dragonheads". We put only one new song - the title track - that we wrote especially for this mini CD. And we also recorded two songs from our demo CD, which was also released some time ago. And we also added a few cover songs to the package.
How did you end up choosing the Amorphis cover?
Well, we are all big Amorphis fans. We've been into this band since the early days and they are one of the main influence behind Ensiferum. We always thought that if we want to make an Amorphis cover that should be taken from the "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" album. And we all agreed that "Into Hiding" is one of the best songs on this album, so we definitely wanted to do that one.
Is that your favourite Amorphis album too?
Well, if I'd have to say just one then it was definitely be " Tales from the Thousand Lakes", but I do like their newer albums too where Pasi is still singing. And their latest album is very good too with their new singer.
Have you seen them playing live with the new singer?
Yeah, I've seen them two or three times last year. They played very good shows and their new singer was great. I am very happy for them that they found a good singer.
This is not the first time Ensiferum comes out with a cover song. Do you enjoy covering songs?
Well, it's fun to play them live, so yes. But we haven't really been concentrating on doing any kind of big cover songs. We haven't been rehearsing any cover songs lately, we are concentrating on our own material.
What is the cover tune that you're enjoying the most playing live?
I'd say it is "Into Hiding" because that's a very simple song, very easy to say and I don't have to sing so much in it. We still play that at Ensiferum gigs sometimes.
Can you also tell me about the recording of the live DVD?
We recorded that show in 2005 on New Year's Eve here in Helsinki's Nosturi Club. It was the 10th Anniversary of the band, so it was a special concert for both the band and the fans.
Did you feel any pressure on stage due to the presence of the cameras?
No, not really. I didn't feel that those cameras were bothering me or anything like that. It was just like a normal show for me except for the fact that it was a little more than two hours long. It was a very long show.
How was the crowd? How many people were there?
It was around 7-800 people. The place was almost sold out, so it was pretty crowded. And the audience was really into the show that you can see on the DVD release. By the way, the last time we played in Nosturi a few months ago, it was sold out now. That was a very good show too.
Is there any bonus footage on the DVD?
No, it's just the concert this time. But we have all sorts of other footage recorded that we wanna release soon.
What kind of footage?
Well, what kind of footage you can expect from a heavy metal band? (Laughs) There's a lot of "behind the scenes" footage, people messing around totally drunk and that kind of stuff. That is gonna be on our next DVD.
Prior to the new album you released a single. How come?
Well, it's always nice for the fans to have a taste of the upcoming album. We all agreed that "One More Magic Potion" would be the best song for the single and the record label also liked the idea, so we went for it.
Is there any other unreleased song on the single?
Yeah, we recorded another cover song. This time it was a Uriah Heep song "Lady in Black".
Does a heavy metal band of your style have any potential to get their singles played in radios?
We have only one or two radio shows here that plays heavy metal music on air, so there are not too many chances. But actually I think it was already on the radio a few times by now, which is a pretty big thing actually.
What Ensiferum song got the most airplays so far?
That must be "Tale of Revenge" from the "Iron" album. That was played quite so many times back then.
Did you shoot a video for any of the songs?
Yes, we actually did that last Saturday. We did it for the song called "Ahti". It's not gonna be a performance video, so we're not playing on it. It's more like a storyline video clip. The shooting went really well. It lasted for about half a day. The rest of the guys will do the rest of the video on this coming weekend in Northern Finland. Hopefully it'll be ready when the album is coming out in Europe.
Will this be on the album as a multimedia part?
No, it won't make it, because the album is already printed and just waiting to get in the shops and the video isn't even finished yet. We'll see what we can do with it. Maybe we'll put this on our next DVD release or any future single releases as a bonus. We'll see what happens.
Let's see this album then. When did you start writing for it?
We started writing new material right after we finished with the "Dragonheads" EP. It was a very slow process because we stopped from time to time. We did this Wacken Roadshow Tour in between and a lot of summer festivals all over Europe and these were slowing us down a little bit. But in the end we managed to do everything in time.
Was it Markus coming up with most of the song ideas again this time?
Yes, Markus is the main songwriter in Ensiferum, so he makes all the riffs and melodies and stuff. He does this mainly back at home and then brings them to the rehearsal place and we all check them out and do the final arrangements and composing some things together. We just start working with the guitar riffs and see what more we can add.
And how about the lyrics? Is it you doing that?
I only wrote lyrics for one song "The New Dawn". Meiju also wrote lyrics to one song "Raised by the Sword" but the rest of the lyrics were done by Sami, our bass player.
What is your own song about?
It's pretty much about going to the war, winning the war and going back home very very victorious and bloody. (Laughs) In a nutshell.
Do you write your songs in Finnish language first or straight in English?
When it comes to my songs, I write them straight in English. Sami likes to do a Finnish version of the text and translating it into English.
Do you have a favourite song on the album? Yours own song doesn't count. (Laughs)
Okay. (Laughs) I really like "One More Magic Potion". Somehow it just hits me very well and also I like "Victory Song". Those are definitely the two best songs on the album in my opinion.
And what could work the best in a live situation?
I don't really know that yet, because we didn't have a chance to play too many of the new songs live so far. I hope that people will enjoy the whole album so we won't have to choose hardly of what we'r e gonna play live. Actually we are just talking about the setlist for the upcoming tour these days. I think we won't play more than 5-6 songs from the new album because the tour is starting before the album is coming out.
Btw, how do you usually put a setlist together?
Well, we always have the regular songs that we need to play at every gigs, so we add them first to the setlist. Then we check of what new songs would fit the best in between the old ones. Every band member has their own opinion about it, so in the end we just compromise about the setlist.
After the Wacken Roadshow Tour last year you're gonna do yet another headlining tour, which is very unusual from such a young band. Did you ever expect that?
No, not really. We were growing bigger and bigger every year obviously, but we didn't think about this success. But we definitely like it a lot. We don't mind actually. (Laughs) We are so excited about this tour. It's gonna be about 25-27 shows in Europe within 4 weeks. We'll see what happens.
What do you think about the support bands?
I think I've never heard Suidakra before. But I'm waiting patiently to check the band out when they are joining us on this tour. As for the other band, we know the Naildown guys, because they are also from Finland and they are also on the same record label Spinefarm.
I've heard that Meiju took a break from the band. What happened?
Well, I could say that she's taking a little vacation right now. During this coming spring and summer she's just concentrating on finishing her studies and also working a little bit on the side. She's gonna take care of her school, so she won't have to worry about it anymore after this summer. And then of course she'll come back.
And who's going to play the keyboards on the upcoming tour?
We're gonna borrow a female keyboard player from this band Exsecratus. They are a band that we are friends with for a long time. And she's already been replacing Meiju on all the gigs we did this year. Her name is Emmi Silvennoinen and she's a great keyboarder and a nice person.
Are you doing this band full time or you have jobs besides that?
I don't go actually to work right now. I'm just hanging around. Markus has a day job and our bass player is also working from time to time. Our drummer is unemployed right now.
You are also involved in another band. What's up with Norther?
We just released our new EP called "No way back" and it went straight number one on the charts here in Finland. Currently we are negotiating record deals with a few European record labels and hopefully we'll have some news to release about that soon. We're gonna go to the studio later this year to record a new album, which will come out in early 2008.
You are not the only member in Ensiferum that has a side project or another band. Is it easy to coordinate being in more than one band?
Well, it's not so hard right now and I hope that we won't get any kind of bigger problems because of that. We are trying to avoid these problems by booking studio time and tours for different times of the year and stuff like that.