Battlelore

( Giugno 2007 )

Hey there! I’m great and as far as I know, so is everyone else. The whole Battlelore consists of:

Tomi Mykkänen – male clean vocals and growls
Kaisa Jouhki – female vocals
Jyri Vahvanen – guitars
Jussi Rautio – guitars
Maria – keyboards, flute
Timo Honkanen – bass
and Henri Vahvanen – drums

At the moment Jyri is in India for six months, and we have a session guitarist doing some gigs on Jyri’s behalf. Jyri will be back in June, so he’s already been there for almost four months. The session guitarist is an old friend of ours called Tommi Lintunen, who’s also known for playing in e.g. Evemaster

I think that Evernight is our strongest and darkest album so far. It’s filled with melancholy, sadness and furious rage alongside a hint of hope and beauty. It’s lyrically based on some of the darker tales of Mr. Tolkien, so there’s a darker and more furious atmosphere throughout the album than on our previous works. We’re not mentioning any details or names of Tolkien’s world this time around, so the lyrics are more universal and the listeners can think for themselves, what the stories are about. It gives everyone a chance to let the imagination fly freely and get away from the normal, daily routines. When it comes to song writing, Evernight is more progressive and complicated than the earlier Battlelore albums and it takes a while until you can hear all the details and melodies we’ve planted in the songs. I think that it’s an album filled with great, strong songs and beautiful melodies.

Well, to make a new album you need loads of new songs and inspiration... Usually our song writing process goes like this: Jyri, Jussi or someone else in the band makes the skeleton of the song, usually with the guitar. Then the rest of us get the songs on demo or at rehearsals and we compose our own parts on all the songs. Lyrics are done by Jyri; on “Evernight” Jussi and Tomi had some say with a few songs, but Jyri always makes the basis of all lyrics. That’s mainly it. On “Evernight” there are songs by Jyri, one song by Tomi, songs by Jussi, and an instrumental bonus track by me.
After we’ve done all the songs ready or quite ready, we choose the songs that we want to use for the album. Then it’s just to book a studio and lots of work, work and work. But with these people, working is fun, hehe. But yeah, song writing is the most important part before even planning a new album. And with us, we’re really lucky since everyone’s so into making new music. I guess with time, we’ve all become comfortable to take more part in composing and that’s because of the good atmosphere within the band. Everyone has a say in the song writing process and everyone has a chance to make their own songs to be used for Battlelore. And to be honest, I think it’s a great thing and brings almost limitless possibilities and loads of variation for us.

How did come real the idea to found a band who was inspired by the works of Tolkien?

I think this question should be answered by Jyri, since the original idea to form a band and make music based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels is his and his alone. But I’ll try to answer that. Jyri, as well as the rest of us, has been reading Tolkien’s tales from quite a young age. Tolkien’s books have been the first ones to influence us, awaken our imagination and let us go to a completely different world from our own. Jyri has always been interested in all kinds of fantasy books and things related to fantasy and he’s been involved with music for a long time too, so he wanted to bring those two important interests of his together. He had been planning on making lyrics and music based on the fantasy world for a long time, and when he finally had the time (from his other band projects) to create his own band in 1999, he wanted the band to tell the tales of Tolkien.

Playing music inspired to Tolkien’s works it’s like a way to make live again a great writer, in a different way from cinema....

That is something that I think we are all aiming at; making the stories to life once again and in our own way continuing J. R. R. Tolkien’s legacy. We want people to get away from their daily lives, routines and expectations and just go to a fantasy world to fight battles as the heroes, look at the beautiful landscapes of Middle-earth and feel the music as well as hear it. To enjoy themselves, feel different emotions and let the imagination do all the work.

Besides Tolkien, what authors do you like to read?

I know that the guys read loads of fantasy stuff, and I read some also. E.g. Robert Holdstock; R. A. Salvatore; Ursula LeGuin and authors like that. I personally like all kinds of books – I read like a maniac to be honest, hehe. One of my favourite book (series) for the time being is “the Dark Tower” series by Stephen King, it’s extremely inspiring and interesting. Also Christian Jacq’s novels are great. But I truly like a lot of books.

Well, not so much a change as just different tales behind the lyrics... We’ve had loads of joyous and happy tales before, and this time around the songs are based on more sorrowful tales. We also wanted to make the lyrics more universal by not mentioning any names or details from Middle-earth. That way listeners can think of their own stories behind the songs – more brain work for the Tolkien fans, hehe. Also the people who don’t know their Tolkien can now enjoy the songs in a different way than before.
When we started making this album we thought about a concept album based on Akallabeth (the fall of Numenor) but in the end we extended the story to 4 songs. And the other bonus track, instrumental called “The Tale of the Downfall”, weaves the 4 songs together and tells the whole story in one. The other tales in this album are also about death, grief, longing and deceit, so it truly is a dark album that way too.

Your music, your dresses, create a sort of theatre, a fascinating epic scenary...

The clothes we wear on gigs and promotional shots are a vital part of Battlelore, just as the Tolkien themes themselves. Wearing Tolkien-related outfits is something we’ve always done and I think will always do in the future. It would feel strange to play music about elves and trolls with just jeans and t-shirts, and it wouldn’t be Battlelore. Our stage look has developed over the years and even the changing into gig clothes gives a special feeling for going on stage. Every time it puts us all in the mood for playing the best show ever! And yes, I think it gives the audience a lot too. They can truly get in the atmosphere and imagine themselves in Middle-earth with us. The visual side to Battlelore is really important, and I hope we’ll get to develop it even more in the future.

Well I do think that there are great bands from all the countries, but yeah, Scandinavia has many good groups and loads of metal fans too. I guess it’s our dark and cold winters, hehe. People think differently and metal just gives you the very much needed energy on a dark winter’s night. I don’t know whether it’s because of my or our personal histories, the country or stuff like that, but we all have been metalheads from very early on…We all love metal music. It’s in our blood.

Will you play in some gigs?

Actually we’re going on tour in two weeks. Our first gig will be on April 27th in Berlin and the last one on May 12th in Lübeck. We’ll be visiting Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary and Switzerland. We’re also planning on doing some festival gigs over the summer and some are confirmed for the autumn as well, so loads of playing live! And it suits us perfectly, we love playing live.

By Bloody Marha.