L’équipe de Thorium a attrapé le bassiste Sami Hinkka, du groupe Ensiferum, avant sa performance au Pagan Fest North America le 18 avril dernier. Il avait encore le décapsuleur à la main droite, et une bouteille de cidre fraîchement ouverte à la gauche. Nous avons profité de l’occasion pour lui poser quelques questions!

Thorium: So, I see you’re well equipped. Do you always carry that bottle opener with you?

Sami: I never leave home without it. Especially on tour!

T: Do you have any other tour accessories that you couldn’t live without?

S: There’s this biker thing called a buff, a kind of microfiber headgear. Bandana, scarf, face mask, it does everything. On tour, sometimes you have to sleep in really weird places and it’s really comfortable.

T: We’re on the last legs of the fourth edition of the Pagan Fest North America. Has the road been kind so far?

S: It’s been a really good tour, even though we had big problems! In the beginning, the airline lost all of our gear, so we had to play the first shows without our own instruments, we borrowed some from the other bands. We didn’t have our backing tracks, so we had to change the whole setlist a few hours before we had to go up on stage. Of course, when we were in the next city, the airline sent our stuff to the previous city and we had to chase it down. We had everything for the third show, but apart from that it was really good.

T: So you had to play cat and mouse with your amps and gear for a while?

S: Luckily, we had amps for the tour, it was only our guitars and stuff like that. A big thank you to the other bands for being so kind!

T: Is that your craziest story for this tour?

S: (laughs) Kinda. It’s been a really mellow tour. We share a bus with Tyr, who are old friends, and crewmembers, and that’s something that we asked for. The other bus, Heidevolk, Trollfest and Helsott, they actually labeled our bus as the Granny Bus! After the show, we go over there, have a few drinks and still have a good time.

T: I saw the prank they did on your door!

S: Well, at least this time it wasn’t Penisferum!

T: They try to keep you on your toes then? Do you have any friendly competition?

S: They always come up with something new. It’s actually only the second time. The tour is ending so maybe now they have the courage, and know that we don’t bite!

T: You’ve been going for almost 20 years. Did you notice any big transition from the ’90’s to now?

S: Of course. It’s even been different since our first visit here in 2004. The growth of this genre has been tremendous and it kind of keeps growing, especially in North America. A lot of new bands are popping up all the time, and it really feels weird to have kids coming up to the shows and say ” Oh, you’re the reason we started our band! We love your stuff!” It makes me feel very humble. Dude, it’s just… us! We’re just a few peeps from Helsinki!

T: How old does it make you feel?

S: Very old. But I manage! I go out there and have fun anyways. Touring is hard, ir involves a lot of sitting around in buses, airports, and being away from family and friends. But when you come on stage and see the reaction of the crowd, it’s “Fuck yeah! This is worth it!”

Was there any adaptation when you came over to North America for your first tour?

S: Of course, the distance between cities are much larger here, and the traveling is longer than in Europe, in average. Crowd wise, there’s no difference. We played countries like South Africa, China, India, Australia and the crowds are always crazy and in a good mood. That’s something I love from our music.

That’s a staple of the genre. People are always happy at a folk metal show and it’s one of the few places where you’ll see people dancing instead of ramming into each other in the mosh pit.

S: It’s great! Everybody sings along, and each time somebody falls down, everybody hekps him up. I reallyu like the mentality.

T: For the bagan fest in itself, did you notice a big difference between the first edition and now?

S: The venues and crowds are bigger. We have more exposure. Everything is smoother now, but it was already a really good tour back in 2008.

T: Does your music, based on scandinavian tales and folklore, have a better reception in Europe or North America? Do you notice a big difference, if any?

S: For us, the scandinavian mythology is just one source of inspiration.It’s just pure fantasy, even though when I write the lyrics, they are inspired from real life. There are big challenges to make the themes fit, but people around the world tend to be attracted to them, because they’re just… heroic.

T: So, you don’t have any cultural approach in your music? You take the folk and the epic and work with that?

S: Yeah, well, when you look in folk tales from around the world, there are always similar themes and characters. It makes it easy to relate to our stuff. Some people have told us that, because of our music and that we have a love for our cultural heritage, they have found a love of their own culture.

T: Did you have any particular inspirations for your last record?

S: All the lyrics are inspired by real life, things that happened to me or someone close to me. That’s pretty much it. It’s not a theme album. It’s funny, because when we were mixing the album, I was reading the lyrics and I noticed that all the lyrics talk about change and the absence of status quo, at every level. Because everything is changing, you have to respect the current moment. If you’re having a good moment, with good moment, appreciate it and tell each other, because you never know. Tomorrow is always a new day.

T: How did the crowd react to the new stuff?

S: Overall, it’s been incredibly positive. Of course, some people are like “Oh, this is much slower than the old stuff” but every album reflects a certain period of time, and Unsung Heroes represents what we felt like at that moment. The next album will reflect the time between Unsung Heroes and itself, and it’s gonna be totally different again.

T: You’ve released albums as far a three years apart. Is there any particular reason for this length of time?

S: We’re really slow composers. We use a lot of time to arrange every small detail, and we like to twist and turn every chorus and every melody so we can be absolutely sure it’s the best we can come with now. Of course, in the future we’re gonna be different musicians and composers, but at this moment? We want to be able to stand behind and be proud of each note. We tour a lot, a lot of shows, around a hundred per year, with the traveling days and all that, not counting time with family and friends. We need some time to compose, and that too takes time. The three years period seems to be what is natural for us.

T: You told us the composing process is long. Is the recording as long and tedious?

S: No, actually. When we hit the studios, we’re done in two months. Of course, that’s long for some bands, but we have so much stuff: The basic instruments, tons of folk instruments, orchestrations and huge choirs -one or two hundred tracks of vocals sometimes – it all takes time. We also like to try  a little stuff in the studio. Of course, when we arrive in the studio, everything is ready, the parts are all written, but we like to have some time to rework some of the harmonies.

T: Do you have any particular influences as a musician yourself?

S: As a bass player, my all time heroes are Steve Harris and Flea. Those gentlemen were the reason why I continued playing, but the world is full of good music. The drummer from Finntroll introduced me recently to choral singing, just human voices, it’s so beautiful – I’m not a religious person, I don’t give a fuck because it’s just so beautiful. I try to keep my horizons as wide as possible.

T: Is there an album you keep coming back to? Something really unexpected perhaps?

S: Oh, there are many. That’s a tough one. I’ve been listening to some psychobilly lately, even bought an upright bass and I wish I had more time to practice with it. I’m gonna be pretty lame though and say Seventh Son of a Seventh Son from Iron Maiden. It does the trick every time.

T: Do you have any expectations for the next few years before you release the next album?

S: I just wish we can keep touring as much as possible. I don’t know, let’s see!  I feel privileged to be able to have this as a job.Everything looks good for us and we have lots of plans, and the next few years will be busy even though we don’t have a set schedule.

Vous pouvez consulter notre couverture complète de la soirée du 4e Pagan Fest North America ici.

Auteur: Phil Mandeville

Photographe: Paul Blondé