An important period of your life ended on 5th January, 2017. Amoral split up after 20 years. What did you think when you said goodbye to the fans at Tavastia?
It was a very weird day for me all around, for sure. I can't remember exactly what was going through my head at the very end of the show, but I'm pretty sure it was a mixture of melancholy, relief and joy as well. Leaving something as important as Amoral behind after 20 years was not an easy decision, but at the same time, it was such a joy to see all those people coming to support us from all over the world for that one final show, and to share the stage with the guys one last time. But it was definitely the right decision, as it was time for something new.
In 2014, you founded a project called Alcyona Sky. The band's album was released in April, 2017. Can it be heard only on Spotify?
Yeah, unfortunately a physical release did not make any sense for a one-off, self-released project, so it's only available on digital platforms. But I'm still very proud of that album, it has some great songs on it and I had a blast rehearsing and recording it with Jyri, Micko and Rale.
According to the news, this project was one-off. Is it true?
That's the idea, yeah. But who knows, we might do something in the future under that name again. I do keep writing Alcyona-like material every now and then, meaning grungy and acoustic stuff, but for now I have no problem putting these songs to the side to wait for the right time.
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| Photo: Sari Katainen |
At first, people could hear about Oceanhoarse in 2018. When did you start thinking of creating a new, serious band?
It was in the end of December 2015, right after Christmas. I finally came to the conclusion that Amoral was done, and that I'd need to start a new band right away. I called Jyri that same day. Two days later we had a meeting with the Amoral guys to talk it out, and we decided to put one more year into it, to release and promote ”In Sequence” properly and give the band the ending it deserves.
So yeah, the blueprints for Oceanhoarse were drawn up the same day I knew Amoral was done. I had a very clear vision of what kind of a band I wanted to be in, what kind of music it would play and what kind of guys should be in it.
How did you come up with the name and the octopus-like skull as the symbol of the band?
We knew we wanted a memorable name and not too ”cool” or serious, like many new band names seem to be. We also knew we wanted to have a mascot of sorts, so we were throwing ideas around. The logo actually came first, when I messed around with a horse skull and tentacles. That turned out to be cool, and it also led to the name.
By the way, skull. It seems to me, you are attracted to skulls, since Amoral's logo was it, too :).
Well sure, who isn't! I've always been into the classic heavy metal and rock imagery, and skulls are a big part of that. We wanted to give Vic Rattlehead, Scary Guy, Snaggletooth and The Deathbat a worthy adversary!
How did you pick up your bandmates?
Easy: I went for the best! Honestly, the number one criteria for picking the dudes was drive, dedication and work ethic. I was done waiting around until other people had time in their schedules to focus on the band. Finding great musicians is easy: finding great musicians who are also great people, want to dedicate their lives to one band and are willing to rehearse about five times a week... not so easy. The only guy I knew for sure who was like that was Jyri Helko, and that's why he was the one I called right away. And together we began scanning for other likeminded people to join us. And to say we've been lucky in this department would be an understatement. To get hold of a drummer like Oskari Niemi, who had just moved to Helsinki and wasn't already in 25 different bands (like most drummers seem to be) was crazy. And to get Tommy to sing, and now Joonas... I'm not sure how we managed to get so lucky, but I'm not complaining!
How much does it help the band that you are well-known from Amoral?
Well, ”well-known” might be a bit of a stretch... Sure, it helps a bit in the beginning that some of us had a past in the business. We know some people who we can ask for help, and it's easier to spread the work about a new band, and get people to give it a listen. But still, you're pretty much starting from the bottom again, and need to build up a following one person at a time.
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| Photo: Sari Katainen |
Watching live videos, it seems you enjoy playing music more than in the last years of Amoral. Where does this new energy come from?
It's true, I haven't had this much fun onstage in ages. A lot of it has to do with the band: To have guys like Oskari, Jyri and Joonas next to me performing, it would be impossible not to feed off their energy and get inspired by their top-notch musicianship. We've also rehearsed so damn much that we're super confident onstage, we know we got this, and we can just focus on having a good time and giving people a show.
Another part of it is the material. As much as I loved the songs and the style of music we did with Amoral during the past few albums, those super long proggressive songs we not as much fun to perform live as the shorter, faster stuff. The energy levels are something else completely when you're fucking crushing it onstage and not getting lost in a 4-minute acoustic instrumental middle part. Right now, I feel I'd rather listen to music like that from a record at home, and focus on destroying audiences with my bandmates with our catchy, unapologetic heavy metal.
Do you write the songs, or the others also bring their own ideas?
Oceanhoarse is the most collaborative band I've ever been a part of. I bring a lot of the raw material from which we start working on songs, but they only become actual songs once we start jamming on them at our practice room together, trying riffs a million different ways, changing tempos, erasing parts... It's so damn inspiring, and a big reason on why we actually WANT to get together five times a week to play. I don't bother with any kind of home demos either anymore. Say I come up with a song idea one night, I'll just show it to the guys the next day, and within a few hours we'll have a band recording of the first draft of a song, and we'll be able to hear if the idea is worth it's salt or not. And it's not just my ideas either, but everyone's bringing in riffs, lyrics and melodies. This method is so much more inspiring, not to mention faster, than sitting alone in my basement programming MIDI drums on the computer...
The songs by Oceanhoarse are "simpler" and lack of progessive elements which featured the songs on the last Amoral albums. Why did you decide to go to another direction musically?
Like I said, I really started to miss the energy onstage with the last few years of Amoral. And doing those ”old school Amoral” shows with Niko at the end really brought it home for me how much I've missed playing faster, shorter stuff that get both the band and the crowd going. So it came very naturally. We wanted to be the kind of band we ourselves like to go see the most, being high energy,with catchy yet heavy songs, topped of with additional show elements. That's been the idea from day one.
After some important gigs and festivals, what reactions did you get?
We felt really confident by the time we had those first shows with Beast in Black, but even still, we were blown away by the reactions of the crowds and the rave reviews written of these shows. It's been so cool to see people embrace this band, and getting what we're trying to do here. I'm especially humbled by how much I get folks coming over to talk to me, and pretty much all of them know about Oceanhoarse already, which is pretty crazy, as we haven't been ”out in the public” for even a year yet.
But Tommy had to leave the band due to hearing loss in August. Luckily, you could find a new vocalist quickly and your first gig with Joonas Kosonen was in November. What feedback did you receive after the show?
Oh man... we were devastated when we got the news about Tommy. Just when things were going so good, the band was on a roll... but what can you do. Of course we understood that health comes first. Still, we were terrified of the idea of having to find someone worthy of his spot. Honestly, I was adjusting my mindset for a loong search, I thought it might easily take us more than a year until we find the perfect new person. We knew we were not going to compromise, we most definitely were not willing to down-grade after Tommy, who's a fucking phenomenal singer. An then Joonas comes along... I'm telling you, you should've seen our faces when Joonas started to sing ”Fading Neons” for the first time at our rehearsal room. We just started laughing, he just totally floored us. We offered him the gig right there and then.
Three weeks after Joonas joined the band, we're onstage opening for Freak Kitchen. Talk about trial by fire! But he fucking nailed it, with ease. His stage presence is quite something, and talking to people after the show, we had lots of folks coming over to congratulate us on our find. ”Where the hell do you keep finding these guys?!” was one quote, if I remember correctly.
Since, you had to start almost everything again, what are your plans?
We're actually just a bout to release a short recap video from that first show with Joonas, just so people can hear and see what the new dude looks and sounds like. We're hard at work on new songs, which we have a bunch. We're now in the process of finishing some of them to see which one would be the best choice to release as the next single. This should be out by the first quarter of 2019, along with a video. Meanwhile, we'll keep playing shows whenever we can get them. See our Facebook page for an updated list of gigs.
The last question: CD, hmm :)? (We mean, when will the first Oceanhoarse album be released?)
We're in no hurry when it comes to a full album. We'll keep putting songs out one at a time for now, to keep having news stuf out all the time. But there will be a debut album sooner or later, you can be sure of that!
Thank you for your time!
Oceanhoarse: https://www.facebook.com/oceanhoarse
sw, H.Kriszti
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