ISVIND (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with ISVIND?
Hi, thanks seeing us. Well, these days we are in to the more administrative part of music it seems. There are a lot of work that is not related to the musical parts of being in a band. It feels like grown-up stuff, and I do not concur! This is actually probably the busiest time we have ever seen as a band.
– First off, for all those who may haven’t heard about you yet; could you please make some history of the band? In fact though you’ve been around for two decades now, you have only released 3 full-length albums. What’s the main reason behind this?
Well, we were quite productive in the past, and had produced some 3 demos, a 7” and a full length during our first 5 years in existence, which is pretty good. After we released “Dark Waters Stir” and did that European tour in 1997, we felt it was time to take a short break before making another album. Due to many circumstances, that hiatus turned out to be more or less 15 years long. We both made music and played other projects during that time, but nothing of significance in regards to Isvind. After moving around in the world for a couple of years, we suddenly found ourselves in a position where we could meet and rehearse again, and then there suddenly were two more albums.
– As I said, you were formed 20 years ago, so that makes me think your influences back then may be others. Due to this I would like to know what bands do you listen to, classical or newer ones? And also which are the ones that have always been more influential for ISVIND.
I’ve never been especially influenced by other bands when writing music, more inspired by nature and the world inside ones mind. But since you are digging into my personal taste in music here I feel I owe you an answer: To be honest that has not changed much in 20 years, it has just gotten broader I think, I listen to more of the same music I did back then.
– Your new album is entitled «Daumyra», which will be released soon. How are the first reactions being? Has it fulfilled your expectations?
Yet again, the receiving end of the album has surprised and served us good reviews.
– Getting deeper into this new effort; what’s the cover artwork’s meaning?
I would say the artwork speaks for itself… Juha Vuorma did a great job capturing visually what we are trying to speak musically. I would think that looking on that cover, you would think that that place would not be a place you would like to stay. It’s dark, desperate and desolate. The trained eye will notice a few details on the cover which I will not reveal here, or ever. Another thing is that this is our first cover with cover art, and I personally think it turned out pretty fucking great!
– And what are some of the lyrical concepts covered on «Daumyra»? Where do you take inspiration to create them, as well as those powerful atmospheres?
There is a strong nautical theme throughout this album, and that is something you will surely find in the lyrics. I spend 2 weeks on a boat while writing on some lyrics for “Daumyra”, and that brought great inspiration to me, as well as good help from the captain and his men. I would call the theme here for Nautical Nihilism
– Compared to your previous «Intet Lever», this record has slightly more light to it, which helps creating some contrast. Was this what you were looking for or do you just let things flow naturally?
We are all about being a passanger and letting the music guide us as opposed to other bands that seem to try and guide the music into various shapes and forms wich in my ears sound pretty weak. We can not make Isvind in any other way than we do now it seems. Each time both of us try to make music, it automatically comes out sounding the way it does. There is one interesting thing that happened during “Intet Lever”, and that was us trying to sound like each other, that made some quite interesting turns an themes that wouldn’t happened otherwise, and actually some riffs came from this. I think “Daumyra” is a bit more tame than “Intet Lever”, but it sits comfortably as a part of our lineage in a respectful way in my opnion. Isvind song-making is a slow process, and will still be.
– In general it also has a less accessible sound but in songwriting terms I could say is more straight-forward. Has been easy to create a good equilibrium between, apparently opposite, elements?
The sound is what we worked on the most for this album. It is more or less not post-processed at all, and all you hear on that album is 100% natural sound, done the Isvind-way. You are correct in noticing that the songs are better made, and sound more like hand craft on “Intet Lever” rather than “Daumyra”, but all this is part of our process and forever onwards progress towards making a album good anough for us to really like.
– And, what could you say are the main differences between the ISVIND that released its debut album, «Dark Waters Stir», and the current ISVIND?
We have full beards now.
– All this about «Daumyra» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Souless Wandering Onwards
– 20 years is quite a lot for a band nowadays so, what could you say have been both the best and worst moments for the band thus far?
The pinnacle of our carreer so far must be the early-mid 90’s where we seemed to be stuck in a forever state of “in the zone”. The absolute low must have been 2003-2005 where we did some horrendeous gigs, a poor promo and 7”. I think we are close to the early 90’s state again, but we have day-jobs and other responsibility that makes some obstacles ofcourse.
– And finally; what are your near-future plans?
We are planning some tours, and when that is done, we will return to our hole to do a new record.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thank you again, see you at the Bar!
