Interview

Sometimes interviews could be hard. But not this one. First of all because at Hellfest, it's like summer camp. And Sami has a bucket full of French white wine, which means he's in a good mood to talk about Ensiferum and his new band Metal de Facto.

SBM: Hi Sami it's nice to meet you again. So you're here at the Hellfest for the... second time if I'm right ?

Sami Hinkka: The third time actually.

Oh I missed one, sorry about that… So your third time here at Hellfest! So how do you feel?

Very good, I arrived on Thursday at the camp with my friends and it’s a fantastic festival but I already knew that: the first time we came here I took a walk in the area you know, to scent the atmosphere. It was as fantastic as I remember. It’s fantastic to see how everything works, the infrastructure, to have time to enjoy the decorations, all the boutiques. It’s a really good festival.
And as my tour manager says, it’s really rare to have a free weekend. We play on Sunday but I really have the chance to go to the festival early.

It allows you to take a little break from checking out all the applications you’re receiving. How is it going?

I think I’ve checked something like a hundred applications and now Markus, our guitar player, has done six or seven more. And here I’m drunk and I don’t have an internet connection so I’ll start again next week. It’s going well, there’s no rush in it but it’s great, the quality and the quantity are just amazing.
For the rest of the guys, we’ve been together for 13 or 14 years now so we can make it sound like Ensiferum, so the person who will hopefully fit the band will have to bring something more, something we cannot produce. We can arrange keyboards, we can arrange orchestrations so the priority will be the singing.
To be honest, Markus and I are not Marco Hietala from Nightwish, we’re not that good, so that might be the priority thing in our list, we’re not really looking a great keyboard player like DreamTheater or something. Our music is not really done for mental masturbation you know (Laugh).
Well sorry I’m talking to much! (Laugh)

Oh no problem! I like it that’s cool. So with all this checking is the band composing stuff right now or are you too busy? Maybe with new blood the album could sound fresher ?

Yes exactly. But you know we always have some unfinished materials from the previous album so there are a couple more ideas and after the festivals we’ll go to the rehearsal room and check out our new ideas. But finding, if we find it, a new person is something that we need so the band could be fully functional. We talked about it and we agreed that a new person could be good to get our music to a new level. So let’s see!

And I’m looking forward to hear your new sound! With Ensiferum but also about your other band Metal de Facto which is recording it’s album “Imperium Romanum”. How did this project or band start?

First it’s not a project it’s a real band. It all started with our current guitar tech, Esa Orjatsalo who played in a Finnish power metal band called Dreamtale, I don’t know if you’ve heard about them.

Maybe by name…

Last autumn we were sitting in the van and I said that if I could sing like a proper singer, I could even give up on playing bass which is the most important thing in my live. That’s something I’ve always admire. So we talked and said that it would be cool to do something together, and he said “I have some raw songs and rhythm”.
So we talked about that and we had a very strong idea of the band, it will like every album will be a themed album BUT the band has no theme, it’s just us. But on every album we focus on one theme, an era, a mythology, but we’re not binding to it. This will not be like Wikipedia just telling History.

Anyway that’s how we started that. Then he sent me the demos and has an idea about the singer so we meet him and thought “This is our guy”. And yesterday they finished all the drums.

Yeah I’ve seen that on your Facebook page!

Oh great, it’s still a small thing you know. Next week they’ll start recording the guitars, then the vocals and… well the thing is that we don’t have a label so I’ll try with my own, Metal Blade, we’ll show them the demo first in autumn when the album will be ready.
We already have a manager and a booking agency, it’s a kind of crazy situation for the band who haven’t released anything.
In the beginning of next year the album will come out and we will synchronise the touring with Ensiferum.

Which make sense actually ! But you’ll work twice harder!
Why have you chosen the Roman history or mythology for your first record? That’s not the most reached era. Usually you talk more about Vikings! (Laugh)
The only band I know which do this is Ex Deo.

Actually yeah we toured with them recently.

Oh yeah that’s true! Sorry I forgot about it...

No problem! Well to answer your question, it’s a classic historical era. You have Greeks, Romans and so on. Esa actually already had the idea and I said “Fantastic! Let’s go for it” but I didn’t know about Ancient Rome so this is also the beauty of this band, I love that on every album, on a personal level, I get to dig into something I don’t know, to study and read.

Oh my God you’re a very serious man!

Yeah but I like it!

And when will we have the chance to hear so stuff ? Maybe will you release a single in the months to come ?

I think it’ll all comes down to the label depending on when they’ll want to do the promotional things, even though we have the booking agency… It’s crazy!
Now music business is not about music anymore. It sounds really sad but true, I don’t want to be cynical but it’s all about connections and pure luck.
And… sorry what were we talking about ? (Laugh)

Well you lost me… Hum… Oh yeah the single !

Oh yes thank you! Well our booking agency already has a clear idea of when we’ll do the Finnish promo and the Finnish tour. And then the European booking agency, the management and the label. I hope we’ll get it. I don’t want to sound too cocky here but I really hope we’ll get a label but in music business you’ll never know. But Esa and I have some connections, he worked with Korpiklaani for over ten years and he’s a professional sound engineer who recorded albums for many many bands.
So we have a shitload of connections already and that’s an incredible advantage so we’ll see.

There’s no reason for you to fail in there you have all the cards!

Yeah but it’s also luck, so we’ll see.

I’m confident. And as time is running short, I have to ask you some short questions and you have to answer honestly.

Ok…

Don’t worry there’s nothing personal! (Laugh)
So let’s go! What is your favourite Ensiferum album? And don’t say “The last one” it’s too cliché! (Laugh)

Oh if it cannot be the last one… let’s see…

No I was joking you can pick the one you want!

Well of course I’m very proud of the last one but in a way, “Victory Songs” will always have a special place in my heart because it was the first whole album I made in a proper studio with a band and you can hear the young guys enthusiasm in it. So “Victory Songs”.

Ok next one, a tricky one, your favourite song?

In all time in any band?

No just Ensiferum.

Fuck

(Both Laughing)
I said it was tricky!

And that’s tricky.
Huuuuuummmmmm… Once again, one I’m very proud of: “Victory Songs”.

Ok! Damn it we’ll have to cut short so last one: Favourite song to play live.

“Guardians of Fate”! Oh there’s a lot of old stuff!! I don’t like the new album!! (Laugh)

Sure you do he’s great. There’s one I didn’t like, and I tried, it was “Unsung Heroes”.

Yeah that one is really different.

Yeah totally!
So we have to finish. I leave you the final words if you want to say something to the French fans.

Well thank you all, enjoy the Summer, remember to love each other and drink you fantastic wine and eat the best “fromage” (in French without any accent) in the world!