Mitja - Moonsorrow

June 20 2009 (Hellfest - Clisson)

It's without my questions sheet (lost before we came to Clisson apparently) that I consequently ask some things by memory to the very kind MOONSORROW's guitarist Mitja Harvilahti after their performance at the HELLFEST. And the Finnish quartet (quintet in live setting) has a lot to offer with their epic-black-pagan music. Their latest release is called "Tulimyrsky" which is an E.P. including a Metallica cover.

Fab: So are you happy to be here at the HELLFEST 2009 ? How is your feeling after you show here?
Mitja Harvilahti: Oh, it was a pleasure to play here because for us, France is always very good. We've been here for a few times, and every time the French audience has been really really good. And we've been waiting to play here in this festival for a long time, so it was really a pleasure. The crowd was very good. Unfortunately (little nervous laughter), I hurt my neck during the third song so I couldn't spin my head anymore at all, because it hurts like hell all the time, but, otherwise, we had a really good time.

Fab: And what do you think about the reaction of the audience?
Mitja Harvilahti: It was really good. I mean, there were lots of people who probably didn't really know us, but I could see they liked what they heard, and they stayed for the whole show. Also, there were a lot of fans, so the reaction was really enthusiastic.

Fab: How do you manage to perform your very epic songs on stage?
Mitja Harvilahti: This summer, we couldn't do the very epic songs. The last tour we had one and half hour. If we have one hour to play, we can play one very long song, and then shorter ones. It's just about to make the songs work. You have to rehearse a certain way so that the guitars might be taken some of the keyboard leads. But I think it works pretty easily after all, even though the songs are very long. We have many kind of different passages and parts in the songs, so, it turns to be very boring (laughter).

Fab: Can we say that your inspiration is still very into Northern Culture?
Mitja Harvilahti: Yeah (hesitating), in a way. Note that it is quite abstract mostly. So we might deal with Nordic mythology matters in our feelings, but they always have this Pagan mood by nature, within the music and the lyrics. We have some songs that are part of our Northern, Finnish historical northern culture in general. But mostly nowadays they are more abstract, more poetic. But the feel of the lyrics is very Finnish. So it's definitely rooted into the Scandinavian region in Finland, even though we don't say anything about it. But always we have metaphors, some of that instinct, it does not especially have something historical, northern or something, it's not so straight.

Fab: Have you planned to release a book about all the stories that are inside your lyrics? The finland history, with drawings, etc…with your music as a soundtrack.
Mitja Harvilahti: Hum, that would be interesting. Our music is very cinematic so, I think, but if you were just to make a short movie, it would suck (laughter), it wouldn't worked the way that it should. Perhaps, actually, lyrics with pictures, photographs, paintings…it would make sense. Also it would make sense to do a DVD, a live DVD with the pictures and the background, the videos. It would be strong, but to start working on it, it will take a long time to put it together, I think. But we have some ideas about that actually. We have to find the right people to do it. Because if you do something mediocre, it's bullshit, you have to do it well.

Fab: So are you going to release a dvd soon?
Mitja Harvilahti: Not right now. We have a lot of material to use as an extra material, but we have to shoot some couple of shows, and we haven't decided how we should do it. Maybe in Finland or maybe somewhere else, but we really need something special. And we have to come up with the idea with the record company and everything. But someday, we will eventually release a DVD within two years I hope.
Because when you make a DVD, you have to tour a lot just before the shoot, it doesn't work often when you have some dates in Helsinki and that we just rehearse in the practice room and then go to do it, because if you're not confident enough to go onstage, then it's not going to work out. So we need to find some time, be on the road for a couple of weeks and eventually shoot a DVD. When you do something especially for a DVD, you don't wanna take any risks, people playing the wrong note, or stupid stuff like that, that's something we don't want, that's why it's taking so long to make a DVD.

Fab: What is your thought one year after the release of the "Tulimyrsky" E.P.?
Mitja Harvilahti: Yeah, it was an E.P. with one new song for half an hour (laughter), and a METALLICA cover (ndlr: For Whom The Bell Tolls) , a MERCILESS cover (ndlr: Back To North), and two old demo songs, "2008" version. The idea we had was from five years back, because we had arranged the METALLICA cover many years before, and we recorded it in 2005. So, we already had some bonus material, but we didn't find any use for it. So, after our last full-length album, which was a very heavy thing for us to do, we needed something refreshing, something for us to break the chains, and just do something that we enjoy all. That's why we had this idea of a very cinematic half-an-hour, epic song and of course the METALLICA cover. And we wanted to do these two demo songs again (ndlr: Taistelu Pohjolasta & Hvergelmir). We haven't really changed them anyway, but just recorded better. And we chose the MERCILESS cover, the second song, because we already played it in 2000.

Fab: How did you change the METALLICA cover song into something almost completely different but recognizable? And with a strong MOONSORROW identity.
Mitja Harvilahti: Well, that's the thing when you make cover songs. If the band is original in some way, if they have their own songs, there's no point to replicate the song. We had played the riffs many years ago in the rehearsal room, and we realized that we could make something special with it, something completely special out of this Metallica song. We changed some of the riffs, the audience will know when (laughter), and we found out that is sounded more MOONSORROW than METALLICA, even if it's a cover. I think it still captures the METALLICA song really well, but it's in our performance. And that's what I think is interesting about covers, playing them almost completely different from the original.

Fab: And did you had any feedback from METALLICA about this cover?
Mitja Harvilahti: No, not that I know of (laughter). I have no idea if they have heard it. Actually, I should have gave the cd to a friend of mine who just met them a week ago. Maybe I will send it to their management.

Fab: Have you started working on the new full-length album?
Mitja Harvilahti: We're just gathering ideas right now, we have one song. Our drummer has made one song but we hadn't really arranged it yet. Henri (Sorvali - Guitar/Keys) who is the main composer, is working on other things right now. He's doing some arrangements, he's finishing with FINNTROLL new album. I can't guarantee when it's gonna come out. This spring, maybe. If it takes more time, then we will have to postponed it to autumn. That would suck because we really want to make it in time for the summer festivals. But it's amusing, when you have people from many bands, like us and fintroll for Henri, how it seems that you always have all release in the same times (laughter).

Fab: Do you usually do the songwriting at home, or on the road?
Mitja Harvilahti: Usually at home, at Henri home studio. He's very quick with what he does. We got to gave him some riffs, he would then add some more riffs. He will make a lot of materiel in one day, so, the whole album would take shape within two months, maybe a couple of weeks. We don't really rehearse at the rehearsal room, we just go down into the studio because we work so much on the final arrangements. It's very different from many other bands. We need tight schedule to really squeeze it hard from us. It's always hard to work that way, but that's the way it works for us.

Fab: You need creative pressure.
Mitja Harvilahti: Exactly. Henri is amazingly fast. When he's doing the demos at his studio, he can programs the drums with one hand, and I can see his eyes, he's already has some keyboards stuff or guitar's riffs. When he's done the drums, he just grabs a guitar or a keyboard, any instrument and he plays a lot of stuff instantly. So it takes shape really quickly. After a couple of weeks, we already have put a lot of things together.

Fab: Did you ever thought about doing a movie soundtrack?
Mitja Harvilahti: Not really. If somebody ask us to, we might do I, itt will depends on the time we had. It would be an honour to do a soundtrack, if it's a good movie (laughter). But we never know. We have some offers from friends, little companies, there were short films and not really interesting. Our music has been used in some movies in finland or television programs, bu we haven't done any official soundtrack. That would be interesting through.