1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hello - we are all doing fine, thanks for having us. Autumn is at its best and days are getting shorter. Autumn colors are thriving and it is time to light up some candles – or churches, if you prefer.
2. First of all, your three songs sound very fresh and strong, though your musical influences are obvious; how did you work over this demo? What did you plan to put into it?
In fact, our musical influences are broader than it seems at first glance. All of us are heavy-users of music listening to a wide variety of genres but we share a common ground of loving the older-era thrash (and black) metal and we wanted to pay homage to that sound. This is why we recorded our demo to magnetic tape and fully analog - no editing, no drum samples and definitely no autotune or other digital gimmicks.
Fresh is a good word because we don't want to sound like we came from the past. Another very essential element of our music is that it is totally free of compromises. The music is our vision of down-to-earth thrash metal not aimed to please anyone else. So the plan was to make fresh music, but honour roots.
3. How long did it take you all to create the entire demo from start to finish? What is the process Hirsipuutarha takes when writing music? How do you all feed off each other’s ideas?
Because it is our first release, I would say that we have been making this demo for all the time that Hirsipuutarha has existed. In reality, the demo was made during two studio sessions which were a year apart, so we could say that it took us a year. But now as we have found our way of working, future releases will be coming much quicker - we have a lot to say.
There is no single process of songwriting for us, usually, songs start to form around some riff or idea that carries a certain atmosphere. Lyrically there is usually an overall theme while the song starts to form but the final lyrics are the last step of our songwriting. While most of our music is written outside the practice sessions the songs do not catch the definitive Hirsipuutarha sound until they are played together and when everyone gets to bring their own layer into the music.
4. If you look back at the band from the time you started to where you are at now how would you like to describe that journey?
Somehow, the feeling inside the band has always been the same. Right from the start we have had a clear perspective of what we are and what we want to sound like. The music tends to evolve to a more extreme direction as we mature as musicians, but it’s been very natural rather than a planned direction of evolution.
I think that this is one of our strengths, we know where we are and where we are going. Hopefully, we are now better musicians than when we started.
5. What would you say are the important components of Hirsipuutarha’ music and lyrics?
Artistically the main driver of sound and songwriting has always been frustration over the current state of things in the world. The overall approach may seem aggressive but there’s a little silver lining of hope somewhere between the lines. We try to keep our expression very straightforward on purpose to maintain the harshness and edginess of traditional riff-oriented thrash metal. One of the key points is to keep the music as real as possible.
”The End of things” - in a way or another - has been the common theme in our lyrics so far. Like climate change in "Sanomattoman katkera pakko" (Unspeakably Bitter Compulsion) or the rise/role of AI in "Viimeiset inhimilliset ajatukset" (The Last Humane Thoughts) for example. We are not too serious but still looking for lyrics to have deeper meanings. It is also important for us to keep the music free of isms – we do not promote any idea or try to preach - rather than that our lyrical themes are more observations of the surrounding world.
Hirsipuutarha's sound of vocals is harsh, but not too much because it is important to us that the lyrics are understandable. Lyrics are as important element as any other, they are not just words in a line.
6. How do you conceive of a song: do you start with a riff, an abstract idea, an emotion, or a structure?
All of those, practically. Or it may start only with a sentence that we found in the newspaper. Ideas are all around and we combine and refine them. It would be hard to point out just the main way because it depends on the song. Sometimes it is a riff, sometimes it could be only a little part of melody combined with an emotion.
7. Are you and the rest of the band friends and how do you all get along with one another? How difficult is it being in the band and having a life outside the band?
We weren't even acquaintances before - this band's members have come together through many different coincidences. Our guitarists met while selling a malfunctioning Marshall amp in an online marketplace and for example, we found our bass artist via web ad on musicians forum. But looking back, everything still happened quite fluently.
We all are very like-minded and spend some time together also outside practices. We don't have any issues within the band - the only difficulties come from scheduling band time with work life and family, but that of course is the same for all non-professonal bands.
8. Take us briefly through your life’s musical journey. Were either of you classically trained as a child? Musically, what were some of your early favorites? What music did you enjoy early on, but later grew out of?
There aren't any classically trained individuals in our band. But some of us have music-oriented schooling and music has always been a big part of our lives. In Finland, heavy metal was quite mainstream music even when we were kids, so there isn't any music that we have grown out of. As teenagers, we started with metal (with somewhat "softer" bands) and we are still on that road...
9. How much time and effort do you spend on the band to get everything to look and sound the right way?
As said before, it all has been very natural. The look is not a focal point for us but we tend to lean towards traditional thrash/death metal aesthetics. We are proud to include the strong DIY spirit also to our visuals and cover arts – all designed and produced by the band.
We have found our sound and our goal is to keep this sound. Of course, there is always room for development and fine-tuning. You are never even near ready - that is what keeps everything interesting.
10. What era of the thrash metal age do you feel has been the greatest?
Well, it is hard to argue that it is some other than the time when the Big Four was in its prime. So we have to go with mid-80s. But there are great albums from every era, we are not stuck in the past - at least not entirely.
11. What in your opinion is the difference between old school thrash (first & second wave), “old school”thrash (the revival) and modern thrash (the rest)?
I think one can find the answer to that by looking at how we are approaching thrash in our music. We love the roughness, edginess and rawness of the older trash. It is not only about technology (analog vs. digital), it is about overall feeling. In our opinion, modern trash spends too much time polishing the sound and output and losing something very organic in the process. But again - there are still some unbelievably great modern thrash bands out there as well!
12. I believe the Finnish metal scene, right now, is quite possibly the strongest, why is this so? How are you different than other fellow bands in your areas and what do you think your band adds to the scene?
It would be a safe guess to say that the introverted characteristics of the Finns match the essential aesthetics of metal music, especially death and black metal. In the Finnish metal scene, it is a prominent tendency to include Nordic nature in the music in one way or another – and this is also a perfect fit since nature is very beautiful but in a very gloomy and murky way.
This, of course, is the case also in Sweden and Norway which also have been holding the scepter of the most influential metal scenes. I guess it took us Finns a little bit longer to find our own voice in metal music than our fellow Scandinavians but once it was found it resonated with the Finnish identity extremely well.
I think our "old school" attitude is the thing that separates us from other bands in the scene and that is what we bring to the table: gimmick-free trash with Finnish lyrics.
13. What do you do other than the band, for fun/work and do you like being in Finland?
Unfortunately, we all have jobs that disturb our band life. Freetime consists of music and sports. In addition to music, we all share a deep passion for sports – may it be cycling or martial arts or even extreme sports such as BMX riding or whitewater canoeing. Finland is a great place to live – as you said, we have a very strong metal scene and our four seasons give us opportunities for all kinds of sports activities.
14. What’s your view on the value of music today? In what way does the abundance of music change our perception of it?
That is a very good question! I wish I had an answer or even a good opinion. There always will be a great value to music and appreciation towards it will remain.
I think we are living just now in some kind of transition time. Do we find the gems from all of this plentyness? Does music reach its right audience? Will music become more homogenous? Only the future will tell - or not...
15. With the easy access to the internet you can spread your music across the globe just sitting in front of your computer. How much effort to you put into promoting the band worldwide?
This is something that is definitely our Achilles heel. And I assume for many other bands as well. We have the whole world at our fingertips, but promotion is not our thing. We love to make music, but to take time to promote ourselves - it is not our cup of beer. So, we acknowledge that promoting is important, but more or less obligatory evil. Music is also our way to escape from sitting in front of a computer.
16. It might be too early, seeing as you’re working on it right now, but what can we expect from the forthcoming album?
Our demo reflects the overall sound that we are going for. There will be more of this old-school trash, driven with some blackish elements. But of course, there will be some surprises - maybe even to ourselves.
17. Many thanks again for your valuable time and your effort! I wish you only the best! The last words to our readers are of course yours!
Thanks again for having us, it has been a pleasure. Expect to hear more from us in the near future!
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