Kivimetsän Druidi

interview by - Wouter Roemers

Kivimetsän Druidi were perhaps one of the oddest Century Media Records signings of 2008. Their debut album "Shadowheart" followed soon and received relatively positive critics in the international metal press. While my reaction to them was lukewarm to say the least when hearing them on record, when I was able to catch their set on last year's installment of the Metale Female Voices Fest, Belgium's premier gothic/symphonic metal festival, and being thoroughly impressed with their performance, an interview was the least we could grant this incredibly brutal folk/pagan metal band. Frontman Joni Koskinen (vocals, guitars) was eager to talk about the band's history, their signing with Century Media Records, it's debut and the subsequent European – and North American touring jaunts. In closure, he also reveals some details about their upcoming second record, "Betrayal, Justice, Revenge".

Hi! Thanks for doing this interview with us! A few months ago you returned from the Heathenfest tour across North America alongside Belphegor, Alestorm and Eluveitie. How was that, there weren't too much cancelled dates – how were the reactions from the American audience to this mostly European style?

Hey ya! First of all, I'm very sorry for the delay. We went straight back to studio when we got home from America and somehow forgot this interview of yours, our sincere apologies for that. For the question then, the Heathenfest tour was very much what I like to call awesome. At most of the places audience was wild and many people obviously knew the band. All in all it was fantastic to tour with all these bands and I would certainly love to get back there sooner than later.

The band now known as Kivimetsän Druidi came together around 2002. How did you find each other? Were you already friends or did you know each other from rock clubs or something?

We found the band with my brother and started it more or less as a two-man-project. In 2004 we wanted to gather full live line-up and at that point all the members were our friends. Since then the line-up has changed quite a lot, as only half of the members today are the same that played on the first gig in 2004.

I'll admit right off the bat that I wasn't too fond of "Shadowheart" when I heard it in promo. When I caught you guys at the Metal Female Voices Fest in Wieze, Belgium I was simply astonished. Kivimetsän Druidi really slays live... Straightforward power, finesse and brutality that wouldn't be amiss at a death metal gig. I never stopped headbanging throughout your set.

That's nice to hear. To tell the truth, we weren't that satisfied when we first time heard our mastered debut album. There were lots of stuff that we would have wanted to make differently (and what we have done differently during recording the second), but there just wasn't enough time. We recorded the first album in a terrible hurry and it's been only lately that I've started to accept it. But yeah, live is the thing you should go and see, if you want to know what Kivimetsän Druidi is all about.

As mentioned in the previous question you were one of the bands of the first day of the Metal Female Voices Fest (www.metalfemalevoicesfest.be) at the Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium. Since this was your first time playing with Kivimetsän Druidi at the festival, how did you find the festival and its accommodations? Did you and the rest of the band had the time to taste of our famed Belgian beers?

There's always time to taste a few beers, if you ask me! So, yeah, we had a couple of 'em. When it comes to the festival, it was easily one of the best shows we've had audience-wise. I just hope no one noticed the problems we had on stage or how pissed we were because of that after the show. It was like this until we came to the autograph session and talked with the audience. I can tell that made our day. Clearly it had sounded and looked a tad bit better to the audience than we had believed. So, it would be perfect to play there again in MFVF. I'm really looking forward to our next chance to do so.

Your sound is a combination of heroic and barbaric folk metal with bombastic symphonic metal and duelling gruff male – and angelic female vocals. Exactly how did this idea come about to combine two popular distinctively Scandinavian styles into an explosive whole?

We started the band without female vocalist, but it was already after the first gig we realised something's missing. We found a nice girl to sing in our band and since then there has been no doubt, if we should have both male growls and female vocals or not. For the music itself then, I think we've just done what comes in to our minds and created music that we'd like to listen ourselves. Of course we've had a certain guideline what to do, but basically it's been through a natural development of the band which has modified the sound to be as it is today.

Finland has a good history and pedigree in folk metal with bands like Ensiferum, Finntroll, Korpiklaani and Moonsorrow as most popular exports. With the increasing number of good pagan/folk metal bands in the genre right now, do you ever feel like you're in competition with anyone?

I don't feel like we'd be in competition or would have a rivalry of any kind. Sure, the record sales are getting lower all the time and that could make people to buy only this or that album and not both and whatever, but I just like to enjoy playing the music. If it is the same people that like Ensiferum's music that like our stuff, why should it be called competition in any way? It's just a healthy genre with many good bands.

You released a couple of demos and EPs prior to "Shadowheart". Around what time did Century Media Records contact the band that they were interested in offering Kivimetsän Druidi a contract?

It was after our first European tour when we decided to start co-operating with our European manager Matte. He introduced the band to Century Media and quite soon they showed interest towards us. I think it was like one or two months before we started the recording of our debut album we signed the deal.

Kivimetsän Druidi went through a number of female singers before settling with Leeni-Maria Hovila. What made her the ideal match with the rest of the band and what is she able to offer the sound that her predecessors couldn't?

After we started looking for a third female singer, we were in kind of a hurry… plus we didn't knew any that could fit. Then somehow our manager (not the European one) found out about Leeni-Maria and asked if she was interested to come and pay a visit at our rehearsals. It was a perfect match right away and it was only like three weeks 'til we were supposed to play our next gig. The devotion and work she put in to the band right from the start made us really satisfied. What she's able to offer then? She's a professional singer with a very good voice, she composes her own vocal lines for the songs and has written most of the lyrics on our second album (of which I'm personally very grateful). She's very kind person and she actually has a certain level of authority in the band as well. All in all, she has the characteristics that are required if one wants to travel and sleep a month or two in a same tour bus and retain her/his sanity as well.

"Shadowheart", your debut for Century Media Records, is based upon the fantasy novel Joni Koskinen is writing. The novel tells a story from The Land of the Crystal Mountain and Stone Forest. Which parts or chapters of the novel have been adapted for this album?

It's that most of the lyrics, not all, are based on this novel. Naming the exact chapters or parts is pretty hard as well, 'cause the novel has been sort of in a freezed state for quite some time now. It would be better to say those lyrics gain influence from the world I created for this novel, not from the novel itself.

How does the songwriting process go like? Do Joni and Antti Koskinen write most of the material or does the entire band contribute to the process in the rehearsal room?

On "Shadowheart" it was me and Antti who did most of the job and others more or less played what we said. Now on the second album, it's only Simo who doesn't have his name on the composer list, even though he's the mastermind behind the bass-lines. So nowadays everyone takes part into songwriting and there's two of us writing the lyrics as well. Our sound today is a perfect mix of everyone's input. To summarize a basic songwriting process for a new song of ours, it would be something like this: Person X (or persons X and Y) composes a basic guideline for a song, the whole band listens the song, then tells their opinion and things they'd do differently, then the song gets modified as long as it sounds perfect and then me or Leeni-Maria write some lyrics for it.

Six of the eleven tracks of this record are re-recorded cuts from Kivimetsän Druidi's earlier demos and EPs. Were you under a lot of pressure from the label to deliver an album as quickly as possible or were these simply the best songs from the old catalogue?

Yes, we were in terrible hurry, as I might have already told, but that doesn't change the fact that those songs, at least most of them, would have ended up on our debut album anyway. We wanted to have an album to support on our second European tour. So I think what I'm saying here is that it is yes to both of your questions.

This album was recorded and produced at Noisecamp Studio in Turku. Mixed by Esa Orjatsalo at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki. To be perfectly honest, I never hear of this studio before - how was it recording at Noisecamp Studio?

Recording there was easy solution as we had recorded our two previous EPs/demos there. So we were familiar with the things there and so on. We were also pleased with the result of our latest EP, so we wanted the debut album to sound like that with some minor modifications. Even though we were in a hurry it was quite good to record in that studio.

You also shot a video for the track 'Jaassa Varttunut' ('Grow Upon Within Ice') – the video was quite elaborate and epic. With which director and production company did you work record this video and how long did the shoot last?

We were working with Copper Sky Production company and the name of the director was Timo Puustinen. The shoot lasted only two days and took place in Mountain Pyhä in Finland's Lapland.

There are six people in the band, I take it you all have day jobs on the side to make ends meet. Is it easy getting everybody together for rehearsals and getting days off from work to do these lengthy tours here in Europe as well as the United States?

Actually two of us are working full time at the moment, while four are still completing their studies. Getting everybody to rehearsals is always a complicated thing to do, as some of us live these days 200 km from Kouvola where our rehearsing place is. So far no one doesn't have had any problems to get days of for longer tours, but some two-gig-weekends have caused a slight trouble.

In support "Shadowheart" you did two European tours and the earlier mentioned Heathenfest in North America. Is there any more roadwork scheduled before you'll be holing up in the studio to finalize your all-important second album "Betrayal, Justice, Revenge"?

No, we've kept it low profile after Heathenfest. This has been because of personal reasons and also because the band needs a bit of rest after the studio-tour-studio combo. At the moment we're concentrating on rehearsing and will hopefully start playing gigs in April again, to promote the new album.

You have recently completed working on your second full-length album "Betrayal, Justice, Revenge" after the touring jaunts. Of course "Shadowheart" already gives us an idea of what we can expect, but I'm wondering if you have more secrets and tricks up your sleeve…

You can never know what to expect when you're dealing with us… Oh well… except plenty of good tunes, of course. I promise you the next album will kick ass much more than the debut one. Not to forget the great deal of joy you'll experience listening to it.

Well, I guess that's all from my side. Anything else you might want to add?

Stay tuned for some samples of our second album "Betrayal, Justice, Revenge" in our MySpace page www.myspace.com/kivimetsandruidi and visit also our revamped website at www.kivimetsandruidi.com and hope to see you all who read this on tour!

Info: http://www.centurymedia.de/
Booking: http://www.soundofliberation.com/

Kivimetsän Druidi

interview by - Wouter Roemers

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