Latest Album: Jylhä
Nuclear Blast
The folk-influenced heavy metal genre is certainly unique and one band that has spearheaded the movement is the six-piece Finnish ensemble Korpiklaani. Their lyrics, sung in their own dialect, delve into a variety of traditional fables, shamanic and animistic stories, alongside light hearted songs celebrating imbibing beverages. Their eleventh album, titled Jylhä, continues to expand and develop Korpiklaani’s established sound which combines metal guitar riffs with traditional folk based melodies. Topics covered range from dark events such as Southern Finland’s Lake Bodom murders and Tulilahti village homicides, to lofty philosophical excursions about the brief experience of life within context of the many billions of years of the vast cosmos. Loud Online recently spoke to cultured violinist, Tuomas Rounakari, about several topics, including the new album and the evolving sound of Korpiklaani.
I’m always amazed with how your music combines melody lines with crushing metal.
Yeah, we have developed, evolved and are getting better and better with every album. I think that this one came out really well. I was a bit sceptical after Kulkija if we can make a better album but we did it again and so I honestly feel that this band is getting better and better after each album.
How much time was spent on the pre-production as I understand that there was quite a lot that went on?
More than usual because all of our shows got cancelled [due to the pandemic]. This album was recorded in May [2020] and we started working from February, more or less collectively. Jonne [Järvelä – vocals, guitars] had done some demos and there were some demos ready even before that but then Sami [Perttula -accordion] and myself met a couple of times and worked on the folk arrangements and Sami did quite a bit of work alone. Then we travelled to Jonne’s place [JonneMusic in Lahti] and worked as the three of us. Then also our new drummer, Samuli Mikkonen, had a new impact to the overall structures of the songs. He spent a lot of time with Jonne re-arranging the final songs. So, there was some new energy in the arranging thanks to Samuli and there was also more time to do the work. I think it does show up in the end.
Certainly, the production [Janne Saksa] is great and you even went to two studios [Sound Supreme Studios in Hämeenlinna and JonneMusic in Lahti]. That amount to effort sounds like a lot of work.
Yeah, making an album is always a lot of work. It just, is a lot about luck, also, how things come up. Like with Kulkija, we really didn’t have much time and somehow it served us well at that time that there were no questions asked and just going on with the first idea. It was a very intuitive process whereas now I think we learned a lot from Kulkija about playing, you know, the balance of folk and metal was very folky on Kulkija so I think playing as a band in a more folkier way actually made us better musicians and to, you know, broaden our scope of playing together. Now we are back, maybe closer to the Noita album with Jylhä, with its energy and sound, but the band plays better than ever before.
That’s almost going back to the pre-metal days in some ways?
Well, it is difficult for me to say because we have searched this balance with folk and metal in every album. I think that the Noita album was the first one where we were happy about the balance between folk and metal, that is was really well balanced. It was not metal with little folk elements or a polka band with rough guitar sounds. So, ah, it has been under development in all these years but now I feel that we have finally found the sound that Korpiklaani was aiming for from the beginning.
How much of that is reliant on the rhythm section?
Well, of course, we are children of two traditions. One is the folk tradition and the other is metal. From the metal one, the most important things are the riff driven metal aspects. So, Black Sabbath and Motörhead – this kind of drive is there in the background of what we do. I would say that most of the songs are actually riff driven in the first place and then we just find a way to bring the folk side in. But then, the slower songs can be very melodic from the beginning and they develop from that side on.
Your previous album Kulkija, was a fairly long recording.
Ha, yes, at fourteen song and reaching seventy one minutes it was definitely the longest album that we have done. It was quite unusual at that time when everybody was releasing shorter and quicker things so it was quite generous. One of the reasons that it is so long is because at the end, when everything was done, we were simply so happy with all of those songs that we couldn’t decide what to leave out. Our label was pushing for markets like Japan to have bonus tracks and we were saying, ‘Come on, there are no bonus tracks, this is a full album,’ and the songs have such a nice flow from the first to the last one that it would have been wrong to close out some of those songs.
I’ve noticed that this time around, on Jylhä, there are more flourishes from your accordion player as well as harmonising parts with your violin parts.
Yeah, you know, Sami, since he joined the band from the Noita album, he has been a big influence to the general sound and arranging. He also plays a different kind of accordion than Juho [Kauppinen – previous accordionist] who played the keyboard version whilst Sami plays the button version so that also makes a bit of a difference. But there is also this different background. All together, the musicians in Korpiklaani listen to a lot of different music. We don’t have the exact same tastes for music within the band and that shows up in the final Korpiklaani sound so that there are a lot of different angles and points of view that meld together. Sami is very important in this as often times, the guitar is the only playing fifths so it the accordion which actually decides if it is a major or minor chord. So, accordion has a big role in deciding in what the harmonies are all about.
Indeed, a similar aspect could apply to bass if instead of playing the root note; it can lead the band in a different area. So, as a violinist, do you restrain yourself to melodies or have a lot of say in how the rhythm section works?
Absolutely. Ah, I am very happy to be a violinist. Ha- ha, I don’t necessarily feel a need to changing anything in the rhythm section. Very rarely would something bug me that I would need to do so. Of course, in Kulkija, there was one of my own songs, the Pellervoinen track which was an instrumental track and for that, I was manipulating the rhythm section quite a bit. Also, actually, there was this kind of a syncopated rhythm that is in the accordion and I wanted that to be on the bass in the beginning but then Jarkko [Aaltonen – bass] didn’t want to be playing those syncopated rhythms and wanted it to be a more of a straightforward bass line. So, then I was like, ‘Okay, if Sami plays this syncopated part, then I’m happy’, but mostly I am just listening to what they do and then finding my way to get involved.
That instrumental, Pellervoinen, on Kulkija must have been a bit of fun for you.
Oh yeah, that is my song and that is something that has been ready for quite a while. We were already thinking to do it for the Noita album already but it didn’t work out then. The melody is something that I’d been playing at the sound checks before shows. So, it was a lot of fun to finally do it properly and release it. Pellervoinen, really goes back to the first album [Spirit of the Forest] with the instrumental track Pellonpekko so I wanted to sort of bring back some of that folky feeling that is in the Pellonpekko track. So, I created this Pellervoinen track which is actually just a synonym to Pellonpekko [the god of grain] and it refers to the same deity in our [Finnish] mythology.
You mentioned a lot of different styles and I can certainly hear it in Mylly which is the fourth track on the album. It goes from a slow heavy, drum feel and then changes. The next track, Tuuleton has impressive harmony lines and the acoustic guitar parts work very well too.
Yeah, Tuuleton is one of those songs where we sat together with Jonne, Sami, myself and Samuli, and listened to it. Jonne had done that high violin part himself and the lower ones were almost there but I felt they weren’t melodically flowing quite the way that I like and so I changed that part. Then, it evolved from there.
As you have six people in the band, is instrumentation a democratic process?
Well, as a band we have a really nice energy. We are all different and we do and like different things. Because we have spent a lot of time together and had so many days travelling, we have learned to allow it and how we are so we have learned what not to do with someone and what is fun to do with someone. So the dynamics that we have a really relaxed so it is like there is no group pressure to something other than what you are and this is something that you can actually hear in our music and also witness in our live shows, just as well. There is an energy of allowing things to be as they are and to just focus on the uplifting sides of life when we are together. We usually work so that the one who does the songs or the composer, sends the demos out to the rest of the group and then it sort of like feels like it is a Korpiklaani song and then we want to do it. We don’t discuss that much on whether we are going to do the song or not, we usually just do them. Then in the studio we sort of feel out what the preferences are and so some songs may drop out and be unfinished or some demos might feel that for an album, as a whole, we should only have certain songs.
Further into the Jylhä album, the eighth track titled Miero very much reminds of Black Sabbath.
Hmm, yeah, I think Black Sabbath is an influence either conscious or unconscious for us and especially for our bass player, Jarkko, he has tattooed that Black Sabbath logo on his arms. So, it is quite obviously there and also, our former drummer, Matti ‘Matson’ Johansson and Jarkko, they both collected vinyl and I think they have nearly all versions of the Black Sabbath vinyls. I think it is all a part of their DNA by now.
That is a pretty substantial amount of pressings from around the world.
It really is, it most certainly is.
I believe that you had the Exodus bass player [Jack Gibson] was a guest banjo player on Pidot?
Oh yeah, that is a funny story. We’ve become really good friends and there has even been dreaming to have a tour together but for some reasons, our management are not agreeing with it. Ha-ha, but we are saying it is not about what happens onstage, it is not about the audience, it is about what happens backstage. That’s why we want to tour together. So, we get along famously nowadays and once we were sitting on our tour bus together and we were listening to some country music and then found out that we were making jokes about Kalle ‘Cane’ Savijärvi, our guitar player, forming a country band and then it comes their guitar player saying, ‘Hey, I have a country band,’ and so that is where it started. Now for this song we asked him to join in and he was thrilled to be part of it – it was a lot of fun.
It’s pretty cool. It is an excellent track. I also like how the very first track on the album [Verikoira] blasts out of the gate, unexpectedly. Was it intentional to make that really heavy?
Yeah, that was like our new drummer Samuli wanted to kind of have an opening track for himself. It was a bit like a drumming way to really kick things off. We also had this idea of beginning our shows in a way that first comes the drummer and then comes the bass and guitar and slowly the folk instruments and then Jonne. So, we’ve had this idea that we need to make a song to open the set so that people would come onstage, one by one, playing. If you are careful listening to that song, that is what really happens in this track so now it really happens in the album version of the song.
That makes sense. It’s also interesting how on the very last track, Juuret, at the tail end of it goes into this rhythmic figure which is totally different and actually heavy metal. It starts off a bit dirge like but then gets very heavy.
Oh yeah, Juuret is a funny one, it is like two different songs put into one. The choruses and the verses are quite far from each other. But that is also something about our style. Already in Kulkija there was a lot of where it starts from somewhere but goes in a very unexpected direction. I think that is very big part of our sound and I often say that Korpiklaani has the logic of an alcoholic. It is not straight forward thinking, it is much more intuitive and random. Ha-ha.
Given you’ve been in the band for half of the duration of it. How do you feel about the entire legacy of the band?
Yes, I’ve been in Korpiklaani for eight years but [for the entire existence of the band], I really haven’t thought about it. The most interesting thing about Korpiklaani and also, the reason that I joined, is that it is a unique band and it is definitely one of those bands that has a recognisable sound that is unlike any other. I think that is a big part of us and of our legacy too, in that to do those things that really feel authentic to you, that really is about creative expression for the expression itself. Not for any other alternative reason, not for the fans or for the people who might like this, you know, and that is the special energy that creates a lot of creative freedom. I guess also the uplifting energy that being your authentic self can be liberating in a way that it uplifts people.
Definitely. I get the sneaking suspicion that Scandinavian audiences are much more accepting of different sub genres or different styles of music within metal.
I really don’t know, I tend to avoid talking music with people. Ha-ha, yeah but it might be. In general we have a surprising amount of people doing creative things and doing music, in the first place from metal bands to orchestral conductors. So there is something about his nation, I think. Maybe it is also because in the rural areas, people tend to have a lot more time just for themselves that they more use to have original ideas.
You can see how Paganini and that sort of legendary violin virtuosity can get into hard rock music creating the neo-classical scene with Yngwie Malmsteen and so on. But things like hurdy-gurdy and accordion, you just wouldn’t imagine it being metal but somehow it is.
Yeah, exactly. For me, it is all about attitude. You can take a cardboard box and make it metal just by having a metal attitude towards it.
What would be your favourite track on this album?
That is a difficult one but Leväluhta, with the reggae thing, is something that just makes me smile every time. There is some magical aspect to it. Also, Mylly, I like the melodies and the overall structure of that song. But, you know, on another day I might give another answer, so that is how I feel today. The music video of Tuuleton impressed me when I saw it and I was so happy with all of these music videos which have been done with the same video director, Markku Kirves and for the first time I am very happy with our music videos and Tuuleton is one the best of them. It is very touching and to the point in the emotions that it creates.
Finally, there were several language versions of the track Beer Beer [Kulkija Tour Edition bonus disc]. What was the thinking behind that idea?
Oh yeah, well, I am glad you asked. We wanted to do something to encourage other bands to use their native tongue more. That is because, well, you know, we have stuck to Finnish and we believe that it is a shame that so many bands take English as a default and if English is not your mother tongue you are not going to be delivering emotionally as much as you would be in your mother tongue as that is our emotional language. I think we wanted to encourage people to use more of their mother tongue in music and to promote the multilingual world in music by doing that.
By the way, how was your last tour to Australia, a couple of years back?
It was interesting, we had a tour bus and all. There were a lot of good memories from that tour. It is so difficult to come over there, I really wish that we could make it more often but it just really hard to make the ends meet, you know, it is like we are at the other edge of this pancake called world here in Finland and you are at the other, we are both kind of like hanging there where the world ends.
Am certain there were a lot of people that appreciate you making the effort to tour here.
Yeah, and the shows were amazing and the feel of just being there was great. I hope we are going to get to do it again.