Transcript of an interview I recorded with Tuomas Rounakari of KORPIKLAANI - 15/04/19 Full article here. MAL-
On the line once again, I'm speaking with Tuomas Rounakari from KORPIKLAANI to him. And thanks for taking my call. TUOMAS- Excellent. Thank you for calling. Happy to be here chatting with you. MAL- Yes, it's great to have you back on. Now we spoke at length in August last year, right when the Kulkija was about to come out, how has that album gone for you so far? TUOMAS- Well, it's been interesting to see that the press reviews have been most all of them have been very wide apart, like presses either loved the album or really hated it. And for myself, it means that we are doing something right, that we, you know, we are really getting into, into and under people's skins and getting emotions out of people. So I think in this business, the more emotions you invoke, the more loved you become, the more hated you become at the same time. So I think it's better to be smashed and adored, at the same time, rather than just have like the mediocre 3 star reviews, pouring in everywhere, saying that, you know, nice job once again, guys. So, that's exciting. And also, I think, we are clearly seeing a shift in our audience. Here in Europe, we have a lot larger audiences than before. And also the feeling with the audience is now that it's more like our audience, that people people are actually coming to see us and coming for the special energy that we have in our shows. And, and it's it's really like a good moment to be in this band, actually, to see it growing and and see it being noticed and sort of like, what's the right word being acknowledged as what we do, what like, specifically? And so it's, it's great, it's really great. And it's good to see that the responses are so, so different from each other? MAL- How much of the new album are you fitting into the stage show these days? TUOMAS- A lot. I mean, we always do that. We've always played the latest album The most. But this time, what what happened was that, that there was like three years in between these two albums Noita and Kulkija, and a lot of touring so. So as a band, we were really anxious to play the new material and actually started playing already, the new songs before the album was even out so that tells you a little bit of our own enthusiasm towards the latest album and these songs. And so far, we've actually played the whole album, except one song live. I'm not meaning that we play the whole album, in the US tour what we had three songs from this album, and in the European tour, we had some other songs from the album. So this way combined with actually played the whole album Live already. And this, this is unusual. So now for the Live Set, we're going to focus on the Kulkija album, and then play a lot of the classic stuff. So there's, there's always sort of like 60/40 balance, 50/50 balance with the classics, and the latest album. We are still actually playing quite a lot of songs from out of the Noita album too, because they just seem to go really well to people. And also we still like to play those. MAL- How much touring have you done? I mean, the album's been out what that's for nearly eight months now. Have you been on the road the whole time? TUOMAS- We had a US tour that lasted for about five weeks. And then, after that we played in.. Oh, actually, when the album came out, we had a 3 week Russian tour. We were all over Russia. All the way to Vladivostok. Yeah, that was actually quite quite, quite an adventure. MAL- Yeah, I'll bet. TUOMAS- Yeah, you know, with the funky night trains and everything like that. And yeah, and then was the US tour. And then we did a little tour in Finland. I mean, this is a small country. So none of the bands actually do like extensive tours in Finland alone, but we had like three weekends in a row playing in Finland in between. And then we were off to the European tour for another five weeks. That's you know, roughly counting that 70 shows already there. So we've been busy. MAL- So you've got the stage show honed to a fine edge. TUOMAS- Oh, absolutely, beautiful way to put it. Yeah. MAL- Not long now til you start to tour the far edges of the world, you're doing a couple of dates in New Zealand, which will impress my New Zealand friends over there. And then six shows in Australia, you're doing the whole country I'm impressed by that. TUOMAS- Well, we actually really excited about that. The last time we were there we had to fly between all the this destinations and it was quite exhaustive. And still, the feeling in the shows what was really nice being there for the first time was of course special. But also the crowds were were so happy to see us over there. You know, so that was really a special feeling. But we didn't get to see much and and on the way home we will like Oh, I didn't even see one kangaroo I you know, can I even say that I've been to Australia now? Now we are going to have like a tour bus and some of the destinations and distances we'll cover by driving and I'm really excited about that, that I actually get to see the nature a bit more and get to feel the country more than just you know the airport. So I'm really looking forward to witness Australia from another perspective. MAL- Yeah, you probably get to see a few things of the country that a lot of bands don't get to see actually doing it that way. TUOMAS- Yeah, I believe so. And I have no clue what they are but still, I'm really excited. MAL- Massive tour really, 2 dates in New Zealand, six shows all around the country. TUOMAS- We will give a lengthy show anyways, like we've been playing 90 minutes, even hundred and 10 minutes sets lately. So so I'd be surprised for us to play play less than less than 100 minutes up, or, or maybe we'll do even more when we play we like to play so if nobody's telling us to stop because you know, we keep on going. MAL- What happens to the band after Australia? Where do you go? What do you do? TUOMAS- Well, after Australia is the summer festival season starting in Europe, so Metalfest will be right after Australia. And in only a couple of days in between. and then we will be playing all the way up to up to the end of August. On summer festivals in Europe. I don't remember that there would be any outside of Europe this summer. But anyways, the schedule is quite busy for summer. And then we are going back to the US again on September, w ith ELUVEITIE. Yeah, so that's going to be interesting. MAL- Have you toured with them before? TUOMAS- A long time ago. I mean, ELUVEITIE and KORPIKLAANI used to be back in an old days when there were these Pagan Fest and ? Fest in Europe, we used to be co-headlining those are all being sort of like, supporting each other before ELUVEITIE got bigger than us. And now I mean, it's debatable. Again, like which one of us is bigger. I think it depends where you go into the world nowadays, but we have a long history together. And and we've done several tours together. But it's been a long while. I joined the band in 2012. And I think that was the last Pagan Fest that we were together. So after that nothing, so I'm pretty excited to go on tour with them again. MAL- They are here in Australia just a week before you. Did you know that? TUOMAS- Yeah, how sad is that? I mean, it's kind of like, I don't know, maybe it's too good to be true. Or maybe it's sad because they they sort of overlap. And so you know, from my perspective, it would be better to be together. Or to be you know, to not to be that close, I'm sure we both will will have a good crowd in Australia. And people are saying that Folk Metal is getting bigger in Australia. I'm glad to hear this enthusiasm. It's such a strange genre, like for for example, the Folk Metal bands in Finland, FINNTROLL, MOONSORROW, TURISAS and sort of the classic folk metal bands, all of them kind of deny that they are folk metal bands, they are not comfortable with that title. And and of course it is a genre that that sort of been named by other people than the musicians themselves so I think we are like one of the few bands that are actually comfortable with the Folk Metal description like, like Yeah, yeah, that's what we do, you know, we combine metal and folk you know, we are folk metal. But it's kind of like a weird genre in a way that the bands are very far apart from each other. Like if you think about MOONSORROW, or KORPIKLAANI, we're like totally different bands. And yet we love to tour together like there's some kind of some kind of a connection, despite the musical differences and we actually appreciate and like what we do, you know, we are fans of each other even though we are different. Having said that, I think this kind of like confusion about what Folk Metal is you know, between the fans and between the bands. So I'm happy to hear that there's some movement happening down there in Australia about now creating new pages for the folk metal and, and, and keeping the genre alive and well. And at the same time, actually, I'd say that, that in our perspective, we are just seeing more and more people coming to our shows. So like some people say that Folk Metal is declining in the US or in Europe, but we don't see that, we just see more people coming to our shows. So I don't know what what is what the truth is, you know. MAL- Well, how can you argue with more people coming through the door? TUOMAS- Yeah, yeah. But then again, you know, are they Folk Metal fans or are they KORPIKLAANI fans? You know, how do they relate? You know, I wouldn't (know) MAL- Well if they come in through the door to a KORPIKLAANI show, you've done your job. TUOMAS- Yeah, exactly. MAL- All right, Tuomas from KORPIKLAANI, absolutely magnificent talking to you again. And we look forward to KORPIKLAANI coming through Australia in late May. Thanks again for talking to me. TUOMAS- Oh, thank you. So much looking forward to be there and see, see and meet all of you. So so be there. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |