– Hello, thanks for answering to our questions. What’s currently keeping SWALLOW THE SUN busy?

Juha: We just started Finnish tour and are playing february and march in Finland. Of course lots of promotion for the new album is keeping us busy and planning the tours and festivals for the rest of the year.

Aleksi: We have been playing our Finnish tour, and couple of acoustic shows in between. It’s been awesome!

– You have just unleashed your new “Emerald Forest and the Blackbird”, what are your feelings on the final output? After the highly acclaimed “New Moon”, has it fulfilled your expectations?

Juha: Im really happy how the new songs have been taken within the fan base and lots of new people have been finding out of Swallow the Sun also with this album. New album just went straight into number 2 in Finnish album charts and that is something that is almost impossible to achive with this kind of music, but in Finland everything is possible, haha. I couldn’t be more happier how the new album turned out because it’s a good follow up to our old albums. I think we got pretty strong history now with all of our albums, hope more people would find out about them also.

Aleksi: We’re pretty happy with it. We love how the album itself, the production, the songs and everything turned out and the artwork turned out just the way we wanted it to. People seem to like it and the attendance to our shows has been good. And the chart positions actually exceeded our expectations!

 

– The title track is a really tough song (lyric-wise), why did you choose that title for the album as well? Does it describe de dark sound of the band?

Juha: I wanted this album name to be like a childs tale book and came up with this name. In the title track a father is reading this tale to hes dying child, so its pretty sad and gloomy name and tale. I think there is something “dreamy” in this album atmosphere and the whole album is about a journey through the night and trying to reach the first ray of light of the morning. Many of us still choose to turn back to the night, but the choice is in our hands at the end anyway and that’s is what this album is about.
Aleksi: Our songs have always been like stories, and so this kind of a fairy tale approach has always suited us well. We wanted it to have that ring to it, and it was Juha’s vision from the beginning for this album.

 

– Anyway I’d dare say this album has more light than your previous effort, why did it end up like this? Does your daily life affect STS’ creations in any way?

Juha: Yes after the total blackness of New Moon this album has a small glimpse of hope again. Maybe my life has been a bit easier last couple of years and you can see it in the album also, I surely hope so!! But as I said that even that small light on the album is still something you have to reach for and hold on to it, but many times its much easier just to give up and and turn back to the night. I guess this album is about fighting your way back into the light, or at least try. We just need to forgive our self to start the process.

Aleksi: There might be just a bit more “light” on this album, agreed, but it has always been there to create contrast. The depressive and dark bits have way more effect when there is adequate contrast to support them. But why did it end up like this? Hard to say, because everything we have done so far is just how it turns out when we make music, we aim to make it so that it’s true to ourselves. This time it turned out this way.

 

– You have proven once more you are always refreshing your own sound and expanding Death/Doom boundaries adding new influences to your sound and developing your songwriting and structures. How necessary is evolution for you (both as artists and individuals)?

Juha: I seriously dont think that we would need to change our sound or evolve. I just write and what comes out naturally, then that is what we release. All the small changes we have made with every album are totally natural progression and havent been planned in any way. You just got to be honest to your self and the writing is easy after that. If you start to think what people expect from you, then that is the moment you start to write bad music.

Aleksi: It’s very important. I think we’ve found a good balance between evolving and still sounding recognizably ourselves, all the evolution has happened naturally. We’ve always introduced something new into our music, and then taken it a bit further, but not too much to make us sound completely new. I think it keeps music interesting for us and the listener. Obviously it also means that we’re probably not going to sound like our old albums anymore, but you always have those.

 

– Though this album is not easy-listening at all and, as I said, you have once more gone a step forward developing well-cared structures and general songwriting, we can also find more accessible and straight-forward songs as “Silent Towers” or “Hate Lead the Way!”. Was this you consciously wanted to do?

Juha: No, as I said those songs just came up and that was it. Im happy that we can make songs that last 4 minutes or 35 minutes, it’s a big strength of the band. When I strated to write these songs for the new album I knew pretty fast that this is not gonna be easy-listening album and it will take a lot from us too to be able to play this album, but we never have been very easy-listening band anyway for sure!

Aleksi: I think we’ve always been somewhat accessible, because we’ve always had this kind of an attitude that even if song is doomy, slow and long, it doesn’t have to be hard to get into. There’s always been a couple of more accessible tracks, even on the first album, but now as there’s clean singing I think they might a bit more noticeable.

 

 

– All tracks on this effort, despite their different elements, have a common atmosphere and seem to have a certain storytelling feeling to it. I think it could have worked pretty good as a conceptual album. Did you ever consider so?

Juha: There is a concept behind this album even there isnt any continuing tale. But there is lots of spoken parts on the songs to keep the atmosphere and theme in one piece through the whole album. In lyrics there is also lots of connecting themes and words throught the album.

Aleksi: Well it has this framework in which all the lyrics are, it’s basically a journey through a night where you contemplate your past, actions and lost and loved ones, and the journey is set forth by the events in the first song. So, in theory, it is a conceptual album, but a loose one as such. More like a common theme within the songs, even though it’s not straight forward story or anything.

 

– It could be hard to say this about such a desolate album, but I think this is an effort full of contrasts, not just between electric guitars and acoustic guitars, or harsh and clean vocals, but it also has a really charming and warm feeling within a really cold and pessimistic atmosphere. Contrasts are also present in terms of emotions and ambients. Due to this I would like to know how was this time around the songwriting, if it’s a spotaneous effort and if you, Juha, use your music to channel your own feelings.

Juha: Music is all about channel your feelings and bleed the notes and words from your heart and soul. Nothing else matters in music than the feeling. Everyone can learn to play fast and million notes in a second, but being able to have soul in music isnt that easy. Its quite painful road to go to write and even play this kind of music, but the purifying element is so important that its actually worth it. We wanted this album sound warm and natural, but same time dark and cold when needed. About the song writing I cant say more than the songs came fast and easy. I have always said that having different colours is really important in music, because if its only black then it gets boring really fast. So contrast are really important for me.

Aleksi: Juha wrote all the song structures and music, then us others added our own thing to it. I myself work so, that whatever feelings the music Juha sends us evokes in me, I try to accentuate and bring out with the keyboard arrangements. And I have to say that I personally think that Hiili, the guy who mixed the album, has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the album. Without his production it wouldn’t sound anywhere near as it sounds now. We gave him free hands to do anything, and he performed phenomenally.

 

– This time we can also find Aleah Stanbridge as guest vocalist; why did you think you needed her again?

Juha: Aleah has so beautiful l and eerie voice that it suits us perfect. She sounds like a ghost! That’s why me and she put up band called Trees of Eternity because we just couldn’t limit this thing on few Swallow the Sun songs, it works so well.

Aleksi: We have always wanted some female vocal parts on our albums and as Aleah is so close to the band it’s very easy to go to her. And her voice is just beautiful, it really brings a lot to the music.

 

– And we can also find Anette Olzon, which provides a nice contrast with Mikko’s voice, this certainly gives a new depth to the tune. I would like you to tell us a bit about this cooperation.

Juha: I was looking for someone to do Cathedral Walls chorus and heard Anettes solo song called “Invincible” and I couldn’t belive how beautiful and wonderful this song was. She sounded like an angel and that’s what we needed for Cathedral Walls. Tuomas from Nightwish send the demo to Anette and she replied right away that she loves the song and wants to do it, so it was that easy. She was totally wonderful and helpful with doing this song and she did amazing job with it.

Aleksi: We were looking for someone to work with on the album, and Juha stumbled upon some of Anette’s solo works where she used that kind of tone, and Juha basically immediately contacted her and she loved the track and said yes. So, she recorded her parts in Sweden – actually before we had recorded anything except the demos – and we were really happy how they turned out.

 

– For production this time you worked for first time (if I’m not mistaken) with Mikko Karmila. How did everything go?

Juha: It was totally relaxed studio session and Im really happy it turned out to be so relaxed because we only had 3 days rehersals with the half of the band before going to the studio.. So, it was pretty nerve breaking to go to studio because I knew this in not gonna be easy album to record. But the relaxed atmopshere that Mikko create and the Drumforest studios create was most important for this album. Mikko is a legendary sound engineer so we knew that this album is gonna sound fantastic anyway, so couldn’t be more happier to choose to work with him.

Aleksi: I have to say I didn’t visit the studio they recorded at all, but obviously the guy knows exactly what he’s doing.

 

– On the other hand, Rami Mursula once more crafted the album’s artwork. What makes Rami so good for STS? And how did you work on the artwork and what does it represent?

Juha: He did so good job with New Moon and understood the idea behind this bands music and art that we wanted to work with him again. There is something very similar on hes way of creating the atmopshere with the art as us with the music, so we work great together. I came up with this idea of a painting of an eye of the bird with green forest reflecting from it. Blackbird is a death in the lyrics, so I guess its death on the cover looking straight into you.

Aleksi: Rami is really easy to work with and an excellent artist. We loved working with him on New Moon, so he was the first and only one we contacted on this album. We wanted the graphics to be dreamlike, abstract and incorporate green, and he certainly delivered.

 

– You will really soon embark on a Finnish tour with THE MAN-EATING TREE; what are your expectations?

Juha: We have done two first gigs now when doing this interview and both were absolutely amazing shows! Im so happy how well the new songs work live and how good they seem to go into the audience. People are already singing the lyrics on the gigs and getting into the mood of the songs and the gig from the first note. With New Moon album we toured about 10 gigs in Finland and 140 in other countries, so im really happy to be back playing more in Finland for our fans this time, I have missed it.

Aleksi: We didn’t really know what to expect from the Finnish shows (except the obvious drunken madness), because it’s been a while since we’ve played here. We weren’t sure if that would work for or against us, but now that I’m writing this we’ve already played a couple of shows and the turnout has been good and the reception enthusiastic. So, it’s been good. And The Man-Eating Tree guys are awesome and fun to hang with.

 

– And haven’t you had any offers to tour other European countries or do you plan doing so to support the new album on stage?

Juha: We have been getting lots of offers for tours, but we have to choose wisely what we are gonna do with this album. We have confirmed one tour already for later part of this year, but cant say anything about it yet. I hope we are gonna tour in North America soon also, but the album isnt out there yet. We might tour one month with this album or 2 years, time will tell.

Aleksi: We’re planning on this, just wait; we promise to inform you about this.

 

– That has been everything from my side, thank you once more for your time. If you now want to add some final words, last lines are all yours

Juha: Thank you so much for the interview and hoping to see you on summer festivals or on tour soon.

Aleksi: Thank you for the interview, and see you at shows!!

 

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com

 

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