SHAPE OF DESPAIR (Eng.)

– Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. How is everything going right now with SHAPE OF DESPAIR? What are you currently up to?
Natalie: Hello, it´s pleasure to talk to you. Everything is fine in our camp, we just came from Hellfest and gotta tell you it was awesome! Hopefully we are going back someday. Winds of changes are blowing to us, that show in France was the last show with our longtime drummer, Samu Ruotsalainen (Beast Dominator). We are really thankfull for the time what Samu has spend with Shape of Despair and wishing him all the best. Now we are looking for the new drummer and it´s not gonna be easy to replace our Beast. Hopefully we will find our new member soon.

– You are releasing your first album in 11 years, during that period you released just an EP and a compilation album. What have you been up to during these last years?
Natalie: We´ve been working on our other music projects, spending time with families and other stuff… Of course Jarno and Tomi has started working on SOD new songs already many years ago.

 
– And how are you feeling with the release of this new record? Have you felt more pressure?
Natalie: We are really satisfied with our new album. This is what we are right now. Nothing less and nothing more. Of course there is a few things, what we think we could do even better or so.. But I guess it goes always like that, you just never can be 100% satisfied with your work and it`s only a good thing in my opinion. This is what brings the best things out of you. No, we didn´t felt pressure at all. We are creating our music for ourselves mostly. Our feelings, blood and sweat on every album what we made, it is nice when someone else like to listen to our art.

– Throughout this last decade a lot has changed both in the technoligical (social networks, etc.) as well as the music world. Have you noticed this?
Natalie: Yes, things has changed since our last album. I guess you just have to deal with it, everything change and life goes on.
Jarno : Of course, i remember we recorded our first rehearsal tape for Sod with a cassette player. And you know, still nowadays sounds killer. But when speaking of recording the actual albums, i think there’s quite much flaws on new tech as well. Old analog desks works and sounds way too much better than what you’ll record with your computer or whatever. It’s a shame since the economy. Everything is priced high and more budget studios aren’t really keeping up the pace cause people don’t simply have enough money to use their services.

 
– And talking about such, how has SHAPE OF DESPAIR evolved since your previous «Illusion’s Play» came out?
Jarno : A lot. All these years means quite much, growing up mentally mostly and learning new ways in music and of course, everything evolves within this time. Our every album tends to be different from each other and in this album we have moved further on already from the basic layers. We have more heavier, lower and deeper soundscape than ever before i think.. Still keeping the quite typical own sound in this one. New vocalist bringing different tones and words and arrangements are different than what we’ve had before.. maybe this is more of an band oriented album than before.

– Musically your new «Monotony Fields» is your most ambiental album to the date. Was this how you envisioned the album?
Jarno : Have to disagree with you here. I think Illusion’s play is our most ambiental album made. There we have all kind of ambiental parts which differs from the usual arranging style. I thought to push it even further with this new album but time did it’s duties and we went on to compose more of an “playable” album without too much things to astray from.

 
– Anyway it’s still a heavy album full of darkness and despair, but the keyboard melodies somehow manage to add a subtle ray of light to this obscurity, creating a really special atmosphere. What do you want to convey with your ambiences?
Jarno : Simply etherealism. I like the idea of music to dwell in some kind of void of sounds. Heavy and low steady background filled with lots of dwelling reverberated ethereal sounds.. i’ve recently started to think how our first album would’ve sounded today with today’s technology. I mean the rawness must be there but to think what kind of world there would be on it.

 
– In fact «Monotony Fields» is your longest piece to date, both in number of songs and length. Was it necessary in order to fully develop your compositions?
Jarno : We thought about this but agreed on releasing all the songs at once on one album. Since we aren’t that fast on releasing new songs, we thought to make this one longer for all these years sake as well. On this first release, Season of mist wanted to place the bonus song on it too, Written in my scars re-recorded. So when this pressing ends, there will be only those 7 songs. If you want doom, on this album you’ll get quite an dose of it.

– Talking about such, how was the songwriting process like? Is it a team effort?
Natalie: We took a huge step to be what we are today and things are came to us naturally. Jarno and Tomi are still the ones who makes all the music, but the rest of us bringing something personal in SOD music too and all of that  together is what Shape of despair is.

 
– There’s some changes in this release, as for instance this is your first album with Henri after Pasi left. Why did you choose  him and how has he fitted in?
Natalie:  We knew Henri for very long time. Henri told Jarno that if we ever need a new male vocalist he was willing to join us. That time we had Pasi in our band. Few years after that things has changed. A few candidates has contacted us, but we choose Henri, because he suited us better. Everyone has own touch in music and Henri has bring  his own colour to our palette.

 
– And this also your first record with French label Season of Mist. How did you hook up with them? Did you get in touch after you had this album written?
Jarno : When we were recording this album, i chose couple of labels where to send some inquieries if there would be any interest towards us and i remember when contacting Season of mist, Michael responded literally in about couple of hours. There were few labels who didn’t even reply hah, maybe cause of too much work or for their shame of being not what they represent. Hope they deal with their bill-payers better than how they approach others.

– Something that caught my attention was the cover artwork. Somehow you manage your covers to always be recognizable, with a certain abstract feel to it I could say, like paintings. And this one has a special resemblance to the cover for «Illusion’s Play», with similar tones. Is keeping your covers recognizable as SHAPE OF DESPAIR something you want to get on purpose?
Natalie: Sure we want to keep our coverwork recognizable. Our longtime friend Mariuz from Poland been doing all the covers for Shape of despair. Really talented dude indeed. He seems to know exactly what we want.

– This being said, what does the cover for the new album depict?
Natalie: Everyone can make their own conclusions about it. For me, our cover reflect lost and loneless soul, which trying to get out from the cloudy another dimension. Without any hope of course.

– All this about «Monotony Fields» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Natalie: Grief, Loneliness, Passion.

– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Natalie: We have a few show coming up, Romania, Netherlands, Finland and Belgium.

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Natalie: Thank you!

Sergio Fernández
sergio@queensofsteel.com