Interview

Outside. Fresh air. But we have the honor to meet Mathias « Vreth » Lillmans, FINNTROLL’s voice for a little interview.
Drinking beers during it I say to myself “God… what an hard job”!! Let’s go party trolls!

SBM : Hi! Thank you for your time.

Mathias: You’re welcome.

How’s the tour going?

Very very well! We’re actually at the end of the tour and there are four concerts left and it has been a nice month.

And you’re finally back to France, it’s the second “Blodsvept tour”, as you toured in April. Do you feel more comfortable with the new songs on stage?

Oh yeah I like the new songs! It’s really cool, it’s really refreshing to play the new songs, we have played the last album for many concerts, and it’s nice to have something else. They work very well, the audience like them… (Laugh)

(Samuli “Skrymer” Ponsimaa [guitar] comes out and play with a long piece of plastic)

(Laugh) It looks like a blade…

Are you going to kill someone on stage? (Laugh)

Yeah the guitarist! (Laugh)

The album came out several months ago. Now that time has passed, what do you think about the work you’ve done on the album?

Oh I really like it, although it was the most stressful album I’ve ever done...

Why?

Everything was going wrong all the time, such like big technical problems. We lost a lot of tracks of guitars and it was… technical problems all the time. There are some points where I think we didn’t really finish the album and we actually gonna have to wait and postpone the release and everything.
And in the end, when we got it done, we had something like one and half an hour of studio time left. We had the studio for 27 days 24/24 and we had one and half an hour left when the album was done.

Very short time…

Yeah! (Laugh) And I couldn’t listen to the album for… maybe three months because I heard it so many times, but now I love it and I’m very happy with it.

And this album sounds darker, more complex than the first FINNTROLL albums. Those changes almost occurred when you joined the band after “Nattfodd”. Was it because of your voice?

Actually I don’t think that it’s because of me. Of course I think they had some inspirations because I listen to a lot of black metal and stuff like that myself so maybe they got some vibes from my voice, but it was also time to do something else because after the “Nattfodd” album there were so many bands that started doing this kind of music.

Yeah it’s catchy melodies, easy music in a way.
Yes exactly! It felt like if we do an album like that again, it would sounds like everything else. But the thing is that there were actually four or five songs ready when I joined the band. They were ready, a little bit darker so I could really fit to them.

On the first album you’ve done, there’s also some melodic songs like “Maktens Spira” but globally it’s more complex, hard to get into it…

I think that the new album is also back to these catchy melodies…

Yeah and precisely, we have this song “Mordminnen” which is very jazzy, with trumpets, groovy drum. Is jazz an influence of some members?

You know there’s a lot of different influences and for luck… Jazz is big part of the band and we were thinking about how to combine metal with a swing band, like trumpets, trombones, saxophones and two friends of mine came to play it.

The lineup is quite the same now, stable. Do you think that it gives a new synergy to the band, now that you know each other more?

You know, they’ve been doing the same thing for one time and they changed the lineup little bit and they also took the keyboard player as a full time member in the band and it’s also a way to keep it fresh, it’s like a new band (Laugh).

Totally! It’s sometimes good for a band…
The band always writes lyrics in Swedish, is it hard for you to sing in that language?

No… I was born in Swedish speaking…

Oh sorry I thought you were Finnish like the entire band… (Laugh)

(Laugh)

You write in Swedish because of the first FINNTROLL singer who wrote in that language. Why this choice?

He told that it would fit the music better…

And have you ever think about singing in English?

No… No… I don’t think that would happen, it would be destroying the sound. FINNTROLL’s got to be in Swedish.

As I don’t understand any word, can you explain us a little bit more the story or themes approached in the songs?

For the new album?

Yeah or globally in FINNTROLL?

Usually it’s like a lot of Finnish or Northern legends, rewritten in a FINNTROLL way.

And is it just fantasy or do you want to deliver a message, something like society or stuff like that?

Well in the new album there are a lot of political themes mixed in there…

For example?

It’s like “Häxbrygd”, the video song, it’s about how people worship oil and struggle between them. “Häxbrygd” is the witch brew that everybody wants. So it’s a modern political theme mixed with old Northern legends.

So there is a message…

Yeah there’s always a message behind all the lyrics…

For this album, Samuli did the paintings and drawings. How did you come to it?

Actually he did all the albums, all the T-shirts, all posters, everything.

Did he have the drawings before the album?

Actually this was special for this album. All the drawings are connected to the songs, and it’s also a way to put a little bit of the message in the drawings, it makes it very special.

And now the band approach its 20 years. Have you think about a special event? Special gig or DVD?

Yeah there have been a lot of plans, but yeah 20 years we have to do something.

Because we never had a live DVD or CD…

Actually we have it recorded, it’s almost done, it’s old, and it took us a long time to get it finished, to make it look like very nice.

So maybe one day we’ll have the DVD!

(Laugh) Maybe one day! But it’s from 2008, it was on “Ur Jordens Djup tour”, it’s a little bit old, it’s like three albums! (Laugh)

I’m sure you’ll find something! (Laugh)

(Laugh) Yeah we need to figure it out…

And what are the plans for the rest of the year?

Rest of the year? Touring, touring… We end this tour, we have four hours in Finland and then we fly to our Russian tour. One week in Russia and then one week at home and we fly to the US for six or seven weeks.

That’s quite long…

Yeah… And after it’s Christmas and we have plans for January and February already.

So very busy…

Yes very busy!

Do you have any personal projects? Another band?

Yeah actually we’ll release in January the album of my other band called “Magenta Harvest”, it’s a death metal band.

And I suppose that you’re the singer!

Yeah! We’re going to release a new album.

I’ll try to listen to it because I like the way you grunt and scream!

Actually it’s more brutal than FINNTROLL.

Ok then I’ll give a try!
I guess we’ve reach the end of the interview, so I let you the final words, if you want to conclude or say something to the fans?

Oh France’s been very great, we had five concert that have almost been sold out and I’m sure tonight’s gonna be cool. So thank you for coming to the shows! It’s been great! Thank you!

You’re welcome! Thank you!