Transcript of an interview I recorded with RIINA RINKINEN of SILENTIUM - 20200821. Full article here. MAL-
Talking to Riina from SILENTIUM, Riina, thanks for joining me. RIINA- Thank you so much for having me. MAL- It's great to have you on now tell me what's in the water over in Finland because I was thinking about this the other day and I could rattle 10 bands off the top of my head without even having to put too much thought into it, ten bands that I love from Finland from a population of five million. What's in the water over there? RIINA- I think it's what's in the air or like more like what isn't in the air and that's sun most of the year. So like, you know, we need some sort of outlet for all these feelings of depression, anxiety and other dark things that lurk in our souls and I think metal music is easily the best outlet for that stuff. So yeah, but yeah, this is like we have a strong music culture obviously not as many big bands as our neighbors Sweden for instance, which is like weird how they keep on producing like top-notch bands on every single genre that there is basically but yeah, I think it just has to do with the lifestyle we have here and the circumstances and environment that we live in. MAL- But you're doing pretty well. Here in Australia we would call that punching well above your weight. So you've done very well. Tell us about how you got started musically. RIINA- Me personally? Well, yeah, I have gotten started at a very very early age. I have loved music for as long as I can remember and singing in particular, so I actually did my first gig at like a bar when I was 13 years old. I was in this band School kind of thing not like an actual school but a hobby thing and they had like a gig there and so on but it's been clear since the beginning that this is a this is what I want to do and I've been putting in all my effort to make it happen since. MAL- And how did it kind of come about that you joined the band? Were you aware of them before that? RIINA- Yes. Absolutely. Jämsänkoski is this tiny little town here in central Finland and I was in another band in that town that also featured a couple of members of SILENTIUM because there was like this running joke of like eight bands from Jämsänkoski go do a gig in another town, all they need is two cars, you know, because it's basically just the same people. So absolutely I was aware of them and they were aware of me and when Tiina Lehvonen then left the band and Sami contacted me and asked whether I would like to join and I was of course over the moon of him just asking because I had loved the music and having like a proper band, obviously I've been in bands but they were already a recording band, a band that had a label, like a proper band and you know, that was like a big dream of mine. So I got to sort of like fast track into something that had already been built and didn't have to start from scratch. It was super great and and it just all just clicked very quickly when I joined the band and before me obviously they had had like a bunch of female singers sort of come and go but they're totally stuck with me. MAL- No recordings though for quite a number of years, What's been the story there? RIINA- Well, I could say that life just kind of happened, there was delays that weren't something that we could in any way affect and then you know, there was just other stuff like, you know, we had kids. I don't think any of us can support ourselves completely with music so you would need to have like jobs and stuff like that has that has taken time and we had some changes in the lineup that also caused delays and stuff like that, and you know in general we are kind of slow but the goal is not to take a decade with the next one. MAL- Right, so tell us about this latest album. RIINA- Well, it's really great, it's been a monster of a project definitely as it's taken so much time but like I think you can hear it on the album, you know that we've had the time and the space to sort of perfect the songs, get to the sound that we wanted to achieve, and just like make no compromises with either the compositions or the actual production stage, which is nice. You're going to hear the most like the best sounding most robust like deep and heavy album that we've done so far, the song material is extremely strong and it just has a lot of emotion, a lot of like really really good melodies and really really good songs in it, and there's a lot of feelings, a lot of soul in it, I would say. MAL- I would agree with you. It does sound like there's some very interesting stories behind some of the songs. Tell me about 'Vow'. RIINA- Thank you for asking. That lyric I wrote for my son. So that is like an extremely personal, all of them are personal but this is like one of the songs that is going to be hardest to play live. It is such an emotional story. It's about the promise that we make our children when we bring them in this world that is flawed in so many ways and even you know, dangerous, unfair, unjust, life is not easy, being human is not easy. So we make this promise of standing by them no matter what happens. So that's what that song is about and it's like playing that live because I really do put my heart and soul into these and when I tell the stories by singing them I am in that moment and in that feeling and that song just makes me cry. So it's hard to do it on stage. MAL- That is the the standout track to me. That's the one that sort of reached out and grabbed me the most. What about 'Safer-Easier'? Tell me about that one. RIINA- Yeah, that one is also interesting. That is a fictional story that in my head actually plays as a full movie and even though there's like kind of few lyrical lines in my head, that's a huge story of like these childhood friends that end up being not the best people and doing bad things to other people and the other one is sort of the boss and the other one is the right hand, and the right-hand one then has like starts to have issues with their conscience, starts to have problems accepting all the things that have happened and it sort of tries to reflect on the fact that I don't think any kid like at 4 or 5 years old is like, 'yeah. I hope I grew up on hurt a lot of people', you know, but that somehow ends up happening with some people. So that's what that is about a fictional story of someone who has to evaluate their choices and can't really deal with them and then come to a radical decision to deal with the situation. MAL- Hmm. That's an interesting one. One more track I'm going to ask you about and that is 'Shame'. Tell us about that one. RIINA- That one is a breakup song. That one is about having to deal with the responsibility that you have to carry yourself when you've been in a relationship that is bad for you for a long time, when there hasn't been sort of like, you know a threat of violence or some sort of financial obstacles of getting out of it, you know, which are real reasons that keep people in situations that are not good for them, but it's about trying to deal with your responsibilities and shame that is linked to having if not Wasted Years of your life, then just not having the strength and the backbone to make choices and actions that would have been in place and should have happened years before. MAL- Is it like a 'what if?' RIINA- Maybe not like a what if it's not it's more like, you know, just very heavy emotions of when it's finally over and you look back and you look at everything without sort of the rose red goggles that you might have or like self-deception that you have when you're in the relationship and your mind 'it's going to get better' and it's 'but this time it's different', you know, all of those things that are never true but you somehow made yourself believe nonetheless and you have to carry the weight of those. MAL- One thing I noticed on the album that you probably, as a band, use subtlety in the songs better than any other band in the genre. What are your comments on that? RIINA- Thank you. That is a very very lovely thing to say, and I know the guys are going to be thrilled to hear that because that is definitely something that we aim for you know. We do want there to be distinct dynamics between the songs and within the songs, you know, and subtlety is an extremely important tool in achieving that so thank you very much for saying that and it's definitely deliberate. MAL- Okay. I'll tell you when I've wrote that question down. It was during the beginning of 'Vortex'. RIINA- That's a monster of a song, it's the one song on the album that still has lyrics by our ex bassist and male vocalist Matti Aikio who left the band when he moved to Germany and we are now down to only female vocals, at least at this point in tend to like carry on like that and 'Vortex' yes, it does. It's quite the journey like as 'Tied' the other ten minute monster that is on the album and and it does go from huge to tiny and from tiny to massive. MAL- Tell us who is in the lineup now. RIINA- Yeah, Ville Koskinen is our new bass player. He can be heard, in for instance EVERLORE and PSYCHEWORK, are two bands that he also plays in. I know he has a ton of other projects but I can't remember at this point. He plays in a lot of stuff and is super talented and we're extremely lucky to have him. He's like claimed his seat better than any of us probably could have hoped for he's super reliable and has a very distinct way of playing and I love what he's brought into the band. MAL- Right, so when is this new album coming out and tell us the name of it. That way I'll leave it to you to pronounce it. RIINA- So the new album 'Motiva' comes out 28th of August, which is next Friday. So not a lot a long way to go, just a week left. MAL- How have you gone recording, mixing, getting all this together with the current situation in the world? How have you managed? RIINA- Well, the album has been ready for like a year, s covid didn't really affect the recording. It's had more of an effect on producing the videos for the singles, you know, 'Truth', the second single that we did, the first one was a lyric video, so it's not like we had to, you know, pull any stunts to get that done. But the 'Truth' video was supposed to be full band video and then covid happened and this capital area where I live and where the shoot was went into complete lockdown. We weren't allowed to come here from the other cities in Finland. So the guys couldn't get here, the last minute had to come up with a completely different concept and now I look like a horrible narcissist because like there was the video for 'Empty' that also only featured me because of schedule and budget reasons and this was supposed to be a full band video and now there's another one with just me and I look like probably like,'yeah the guys don't exist. Everybody eyes on me, please'. That's not true, it was dictated by the situation. So yeah, that's it. And yeah, and the 'Shame' also is going to come out as a single with the album next Friday and there's a video coming for that too. And with that, covid it actually like, I had casted this female actor for the lead role and then she started having like flu-like symptoms and had to just cut her a day before the shoot because the director was like strongly in the risk group. So even if it was just the normal flu we couldn't risk it so we had to like come up with a replacement actress a day before and it actually worked out perfectly wait until you see the video and you see what ...... does in the lead role. She's just magical. MAL- Excellent. Looking forward to that one. RIINA- Yeah, I wrote it. It's like a little Horror Story. MAL- Hey, Riina from SILENTIUM. Thanks so much for chatting tonight. Good luck with your new album, 'Motiva', coming out August 28. Great talking to you and hope to hear from you again soon. RIINA- Thank you, Mal, this was such a lovely chat and I really do hope that we get to do this again soon. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |