1. Hello dear friends, 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.
Ville: Hi! Thanks for having us. We’re doing great here in Finland waiting for the winter to arrive.
2. Let’s start with the boring basics. Care to explain to the unknowing precisely where in the world you emanate such an aura of catching melody from?
Ville: We are from Finland and a lot of our inspiration comes from Finnish nature, weather and landscapes. Right now it’s mostly dark and cold here.
Juha: Yes, my main inspirations as a composer are different nature-related things and the inner feelings that they evoke in me.
3. To become a musician in Finland where almost everybody plays some musical instrument and has three bands at least – it’s a challenge, or is it something you Finns are predisposed to at birth?
Ville: It’s true that there are quite a lot of metal bands here in Finland. Music has come naturally to us and I guess you could say that it’s a calling.
Juha: I don’t know the answer to this, haha! But I definitely feel like playing and creating music was and is a calling for me. I really need to do it to feel happiness. And there are many metal bands and musicians in Finland indeed. Personally I know metal musicians all over Finland and many of my friends are metal musicians and pretty much all my friends listen to some kind of metal at least.
4. What is the scene like in your area Haapavesi? Is it important that there is some sort of local scene for a band to develop or can a band still exist in a vacuum of no scene/no bands?
Juha: The band was originally formed in Haapavesi, which is a very little town in Northern Finland, but I don’t live there anymore and Ville never has. In Finnish towns like Haapavesi, there is not much of a scene but usually there are still some local bands and everybody knows each other. But for example, to do proper gigs you need to go to a bigger city that has some clubs or venues to play.
5. Elysian has been active since 2011, what is the secret of the band’s endurance for being around for such a long time? However you´ve not released any album so far. Why’s that?
Juha: It actually hasn't been active all the time. With the old line up we were active for years from 2011 onwards but back then the recording wasn't as easy or cheap as it is now. Now it is much easier to record at home on your own computer. Back then it required to go to a professional studio to get good drum sound and of course that is not cheap. That's one reason why we didn't release anything back then. We did some rehearsal room demos though and they probably still exist somewhere on my old computer. And after those times there were some silent years before we started doing this with Ville and this is kind of a new beginning for the band.
6. When it comes to Elysian’s origins until today, what is the toughest aspect for the band to conquer, given the current state of metal and the lack of proper major media support?
Juha: I think the toughest thing is to get recognised because of the amount of different bands. There is so much new music coming up all the time, so getting noticed among all of it is difficult.
7. If you could go over your whole career and pin point the events that you are most proud of as musicians, what would they be?
Ville: For me it’s gotta be releasing well received music and top live performances have got to be the gigs that I did in Nummirock.
Juha: Right now I'm proudest of these new singles of ours, especially the "Final Exodus". It took a long time for me to release something with Elysian and I'm very happy with the songs we have released now.
8. You´ve already released 2 singles, which deliver a powerful, massive, and melodic sound. Can you tell us about the inspiration behind these both tracks?
Juha: The first single “Call of the Wilderness” was inspired directly by my own thoughts. It is basically about a person who can only feel like home when he is in nature and not distracted by anything. And that’s how he wants to live his life. It doesn’t mean that he’s alone, but he needs to be surrounded by nature and the peace that comes with it. That was the main idea I had when I started composing this song.
And composing-wise, “Final Exodus” was inspired by an idea of the end of the world, and Ville came up with the actual story for the song.
Ville: For me the inspiration came from Juha’s music.
9. The first thing that caught my attention was that there are a lot of symphonic elements, clean vocals and a lot of melodies also. What can you tell me about the recording process and what kind of sound you were going for?
Juha: At first I compose and record the songs at home and I try to make them as finished as possible at that stage. Then I send them to Ville and he works on the vocals and his solos. And I think the "Final Exodus" captures the sound what we were going for pretty nicely. We like powerful, massive and
melodic sound, as you described it. And the songs have to be filled with atmosphere, evoking different emotions in listeners. That is very important for me as a composer.
Ville: I pretty much just tested out what came naturally to me and went with it. I like to test things out and run them by Juha.
10. What can you tell us about it and how was the response from the underground media and the fans to the couple of tracks you already released?
Ville: The response has been great and I hope that we can share our music with more people!
Juha: We have received great feedback. Some of it is almost overwhelming. And of course we want more listeners to our music but at least some people seem to really understand what our music is all about.
11. As a musician, how mandatory is the process of coming up with new ideas or incorporating new influences as opposed to staying within the style you are known for or that you are most familiar with? What do you feel is the quintessential element of Elysian’ sound?
Ville: I feel like the essence of our sound comes from our various influences and from the fact that we are living in this cold and dark land. For me personally, if the song is interesting I’m more than happy with it.
Juha: I actually try not to incorporate new influences on our music because when I’m creating new material, the most important thing for me is to concentrate on my own feelings and then the music
comes easily. Of course this isn’t possible if you haven’t listened and composed a lot of music before.
But I’ve done this for a long time and that’s the key for me, avoiding anything unnecessary and concentrating on what’s important.
12. In your songs you guys use clean vocals and growl. How do you determine which song will have cleaner vocal and vise versa?
Ville: We discuss it beforehand but in the end it comes to testing out different approaches and just figuring out what kind of feel is best for the song.
Juha: Yeah, that’s about it. And after Ville has recorded the first vocal version, we discuss the possibilities or improvements that could be done, and after that the second version usually sounds almost finished already.
13. I really adore the cover art you used for the singles and the detailed graphics in general. How important is the visual side of the release for you?
Ville: The visual side is important indeed. We put effort in it and try to bring the song into an image.
Juha: Yes, exactly. The visual side is very important.
14. With so many melodic death metal bands coming up these days, how do you manage to keep your material relevant? How challenging is it to come up with newer material?
Ville: There are a lot of bands of course, but we believe in what we are doing and we try not to compare ourselves too much to others. These songs are quite complex so the main challenge is to bring them to life with a high quality that matches our standards.
Juha: Yeah, no comparisons to others. You just have to do your own thing to get the best results out of yourself. At least that’s how it is for me when it comes to composing new music.
15. On an international level, how has your music been received? Do you try to promote your music on a large scale?
Ville: We have received positive feedback from people around the world. Though we have just begun.
Juha: Yes, very positive feedback from around the world. And our intention is to promote it on a larger scale too.
16. Promotion has become vital in these times. With hundreds of bands releasing albums in the same time period, it’s become a struggle to get noticed. How do you see the future of promotion and recording?
Ville: The recording part we have kind of figured out and we are professionals at that so it’s just a matter of resources and time. Promotion is a bit more tricky, but we aim to be more in contact with cool promotional people like you.
Juha: Yes, we need to put more time and effort on the promotion in the future to get more listeners to our music. It is a little difficult to get noticed even if your music is great.
17. It might be too early, seeing as you’re working on it right now, but what can we expect from the forthcoming album?
Juha: I think you can expect it to be an epic journey filled with different emotions and musical landscapes. All of the songs are quite long too, and each one of them is a journey on its own.
Ville: I believe that our upcoming album is going to be amazing. It’s going to have a lot of variety, replayability and high quality in terms of technical and compositional aspects. I think it’s going to be a great package especially for those who like the Finnish sound of metal.
18. Before we wrap up this interview I like to thank you for your time into doing this interview. Is there anything else in particular you’d like to share?
Ville: Thank you for having us! Follow us on Instagram for frequent updates! Have a great time listening to our songs and stay metal!
Juha: Yeah, thanks for having us! And for the readers who haven’t heard our music yet, go listen! Cheers!
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