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Peter - First of all I think that despite the great
reviews that Incendium has received so far, many people still
don't know the band and the history of Incendium. So could you
give us a short wrap-up of Incendium so far?
Antti: Incendium’s roots are in a
band called Black Shrine who published one demo in 1998. But, as
Incendium our first demo came out ‘99. That demo got quite good
reviews, but unfortunately we had some line-up changes and we lost
our rehearsal place, so we were forced to take a little break.
That break took longer than we thought, but finally in 2003 our
second demo “After Silence” was released. And now we finally
had a steady line-up. Our third release “When Daylight is Gone”
was released last year and the feedback has been mainly positive
for this promo.
About music, the first demo was
melodic metal, but after those silent years between first and
second demo we wanted to experience the other sides of the band.
So from there we have travelled to more calmer and mellow
side of metal. In “After Silence” there are still obvious
death-influences especially on guitars, but in “When Daylight is
Gone” we dropped those elements even more. We did leave some to
keep it more interesting.
Peter - How did you get your name Incendium?
Antti: We wanted to change the old
name and we have couple of choices. Incendium was Mika’s idea
and the whole band thought it was the best choice for the name.
Peter - How would you categorize the style of the band?
And did you ever consider or try playing other styles of music
than the one(s) you are playing now?
Antti: Hmm, melancholic and melodic
metal would be quite close to what we are today. We don’t
consider so much the style of our music. Of course we sometimes
talk about what kind of songs we should have, but basically we let
the songs come as they are. Right now it seems like the new songs
are a bit harder than songs on “When Daylight is Gone”. There
are again more those death-elements.
Peter - If your music was an emotion, which one would
it be?
Aki: Hmm, it is quite hard to say on
one word what emotion our music presents, but if I have to find
one word, I guess it would be the hate. I've been born under a
very angry sun, so all this melancholia draws the lines of hate in
to all of our songs. Of course, I cannot tell what Antti, Mika or
anyone else feels when they create the songs, but I know that we
all understand the point in the end.
Peter - Which bands from then and from nowadays have
their influence on Incendium?
Antti: In early days it was bands
like Dark Tranquillity and In Flames who had a big influence to us.
But today I would say we all have our own influences, which we
bring with us on to rehearsals.
Peter - What influences you when writing songs and in
what way are songs made within Incendium?
Antti: The influences can come
anywhere, from nature, reading a good book and of course the music
I listen influences more or less to me. I walk quite a lot and
while walking I often get nice ideas. The songs are usually quite
ready when they come to rehearsals. In the rehearsals we try some
ideas what comes when playing the songs. Sometimes the song may
sound quite different after playing it few times, but sometimes we
don’t make any big changes. We don’t have just one songwriter;
all members can bring new material to rehearsals and tell their
ideas to new songs.
Peter - If you should suggest one single song to
understand the full Incendium music potential, which title would
you choose and why?
Aki: New songs called ”Stim of
Misery” have been around my mind often. The song tells about
humans who create all, and then destroy all they have been created.
Then they start again. Human is a machine, but there is always a
chance to get addicted. Some of us do dope, some of us just loves
the pain.
Peter - The
internet is a very important source for many metal fans - how do
you use the internet and how important is it for you and other
bands?
Aki: I think internet has opened many
doors for the musicians and it has huge meaning in the music
business too. We have uploaded all of our songs to our website, we
like to seed the music for free. We also transfer the songs via
messenger, a bit easier way to train songs (especially for me,
I’m living 420 kms away from the other members). Example here in
Finland
the Mikseri.net is a very important website for the beginning
bands. All mp3's are free to listen and there is a rate system too.
Too bad, most of the bands whom been found from the Mikseri and
have reached the record deal are mostly some techno/dance/rap/crap.
The web is very interesting place to seed your music and thoughts,
you might found very unique bands and you can order some CD's that
no one else never been even heard of.
I usually use the internet for emailing only and some
random surfing. Today the internet is so and so full of crap. For
example, I tried to find an English Finnish translator and I wrote
the address wrong, so I found myself surfing around a fucking
hardcore porn site:) That’s the oddness of the internet. Free
porn, very odd.
Peter - How do you feel about the metal scene in
general at the moment?
Aki: Up and running. Hard to say
anything about the scenes away from Finland, but we have some fresh blood, and the youth have totally started
to understand the metal. Generally I think that metal is breathing
very well at the moment (thank god for the good lungs) and
hopefully the interest stays up. Too bad that the format called
"Idols" have lurked up and is poisoning the trueness of
music. I hope that Idols could keep its fingers away from metal
scene. I don't wanna hear Robbie William’s look-a-like singing
some dark patriotic tunes in my radio station :). By the way,
sorry all the preaching, I’ve been sleeping only 3hrs at nights..
=)
Antti: It’s weird to see
Finnish top-40 album list today. Few years ago there were no
chances to see bands like Swallow The Sun or Rotten Sound on that
list. So, something weird has happened at least to Finnish people.
Maybe they have learned to listen a good music… Or maybe and
more likely it’s just a “thing” which masses want to follow
and in a few years there’s a new “thing” for them. After
that the bands and fans that are truly there will stay and the
rest continue to whatever they want to follow. In a mean time,
it’s time to enjoy; last summer there were a lot of good
metal-festivals in Finland. And I’m quite sure this summer we have the same thing here.
Peter - Do you have any touring plans?
Antti: Right now we are
concentrating to new songs. We are going to record some new stuff
somewhere around February-March. So we don’t have any big
touring plans, but hopefully few gigs in
Finland
would take place next spring.
Peter - Which music do you listen to at home?
Antti: While answering these
questions I’m listening Hypocrisy’s "Virus", great
album by the way. Hmm, bands I’ve listened lately: Katatonia,
Swallow the Sun, Throes of Dawn, Anathema to mention few.
Aki: Tool, A Perfect Circle,
System of a Down, Ill Niño,
Queens
of the Stone Age, Mr. Bungle...
Antti: About the releases
of 2006 I have high hopes to Katatonia’s new album and also
Novembre is finally releasing their new album.
Peter - What do you like to spend your time with
besides music?
Aki: Umm, is there another way too?
Well, seriously I have a dog here at home and it keeps me in rush
and away of the evil plans against humanity.
Peter - I wish you all the best in the future. Thank
you for your time and I really think that your music is great...-I
have one last question - do you have any famous last words for our
readers?
Antti: Thank you, Peter. Hmm, famous
last words, don’t know if I have one, but go to see our website,
there’s all songs from the new promo to download as well as some
older tunes. Also new songs are coming there before the summer.
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