Heippa, Jarkko! How is it going in Korpiklaani´s camp? Living up to "Karkelo´s" name"?

Terve! The camp´s doing alright. We´re currently on out first North American tour and I am actually writing this in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The tour´s been a bit of a Karkelo at least. Well ok, quite a bit. We´re headlining so we can´t really party as much as we would if we were a support act who have the whole evening to party after their own set. They even get all the chicks!

Six albums in six years is a quite remarkable achievement. Do you have some kind of treasure chest of ideas hidden under the bed or are you truly hyperactive folk trolls who can´t do anything about who they are :)?

I guess it´s about being hyperactive more than anything else. Jonne, the main writer, has become more and more productive during the years and besides him we have three other composing members in the band so there´s not really any kind of lack of material.

I haven´t yet managed to get my ear laid on your new album. Can you describe what does it sound like? What is different compared to for example your previous album "Korven Kuningas"? Any significant changes?

Soundwise the new album is probably more guitar driven than it´s predecessors. The guitars are dominating and they sound really good. Musically the album is in my opinion more varied and more interesting in the long run. It has has those drinking songs that people have learned to expect from us but it also has the slowest and heaviest songs in Korpiklaani history, so it´s an interesting package all in all. And with variety of songs I believe it will hold peoples interest longer as well.

How do you compose your songs? I have always wondered, have you ever built your songs up on the basis of some real old folk song or using fragments of it?

All material is our original except the one and only traditional cover song "Juokse sinä humma". The new album will have our second ever cover from the Finnish mainstream pop artist Hector called "Juodaan viinaa".

As said we have four different composers and the working methods are of course individual. I think most of us write while playing guitar but for example probably does a lot with violin and other instruments as well.

Is it true that you recorded most of the new album in a farm studio of some sort and some dog barking and tractor engines can be actually heard on the album? Where did you find such a place and how was it a like to record there?

Not exactly true. We did the drums at Petrax studios in Hollola near Lahti and that studio is really located in a working farm in a middle of nowhere. We got the catering at the farms main building etc. So it was quite a nice environment. At least it would have been if it wasn´t the fucking freezing winter!
We used Petrax for drums just because they have a really big recording room where you can get ambience mikes metres away from the drums. We couldn´t really afford to finish the album there so instead we did that at Grooveland studio in lahti.

The first track of the new album is called "Vodka", so it is not very hard to guess what is your main inspiration source for lyrics. Is it? Or is it rather Demon Alcohol like Ozzy sang? What are your favorite drinks anyway?

Well, if the lyrics include lines like "drinking is good for you" I´d say that it´s nowhere even near Demon Alcohol. That is a sort of a tribute to that nice, clear alcohol that removes fears and makes everyone look beautiful. As the Russians say: "There are no ugly women, just not enough vodka."

We used to drink quite a lot of Jägermeister but that stuff is coming out of our ears already so I guess it´s safe to say that our favourite is vodka. Except for Juho whose favourite is diet Coke. Lots of it.



Folk metal nowadays is a quite wide term, including bands often very different from each other. What do you think what makes Korpiklaani so recognizable and popular? What sets you apart from others?

I guess the main difference to most of the others is that we come from the traditional folk background and the metal part was added later when most of the other bands are basically metal bands with some folk elements thrown in. Our songs are usually quite simple and rely heavily on strong melodies and I think that all people all around the world respect that, a good melody.

Have you managed to keep your eye on some other folk bands you would strongly recommend? Who are the strongest acts today beside Korpiklaani?

Of course we follow some bands quite closely since we are basically friends with all the Finnish bands of the same genre and we´re always on tour with them or meet them several times a year at different festivals around the world. We are good friends with bands like Eluveitie or Metsatöll as well and actually I could recommend Eluveitie´s new album since it´s a quite a bit different and most just pure traditional folk.

And for example Markus from Moonsorrow is sitting two metres away from me right now so it indeed is pretty easy to follow for example Moonsorrow!

In Estonia you have performed twice, once at an outdoor festival and once in an inside venue with Metsatöll. Do you remember anything from those gigs? In general, do you prefer performing in- or outside and why?

I remember everything! Of course. What kind of person you think I am? Honestly, I remember the places easily, not he gigs so well. I for example remember really well how nice it was at Rabarock since we played early in the day and then had nothing but time and were able to just sit at the lawn, drink cold beer form tha backstage, enjoy the bands and meet nice Estonian people. Hello, Liisa!

Outdoor and indoor shows have both have their good sides and bad sides. I like the intimacy and the closeness of the club shows but then again I like the big stages and productions at the festivals as well.

I am sure many people not so familiar with Korpiklaani have wondered who the hell is that horned old guy, who tirelessly visits your album covers. Who is he and why does he do that?

The band used to be called Shaman and already during those days the band was using as logo this old symbol of a shaman. That symbol has been found in ancient rock carvings all around Lapland and Koala peninsula. It is still used as a symbol of good luck when babies are born among the Sami people.

A couple of years ago we thought that the symbol had lived it´s life and decided make it more alive, give some flesh around it´s bones. The idea was presented to cover artist Jan Yrlund and the result is the man you see now on our covers.

And this would be the end of our small interview. Thanks for your time! We´ll be waiting for you to visit Estonia again in the nearest future! The last words are yours!

I actually don´t want these to be my last words but anyway: we´ve always had excellent time in Estonia and we sure want to come again. I personally enjoyed Rabarock so much that I wouldn´t mind doing that every year!