Never stop the madness!!!

Abstrakt hail from the capital of Finland, Helsinki. Their craft is dark alloy of black and death metal. Since their inception they have done three demo recordings, and the debut album 'Obsidian' was a collection of some songs from the demos. Now, the band have new line-up, and they are working on new music. It's like the second coming for Abstrakt, I presume! AM reviewed the album, and contacted the band with some questions. Vesa, Henrik and Michaiah provided the answers.

AM: You are working on new album, that's how much I practically know... How is it going at Abstrakt camp during this midwinter?

Vesa: We finally have full working line-up, so I'd say fucking fine. We all have our other responsibilities, so things with Abstrakt don't work very fast. Two songs are pretty much ready.

Henrik: The basic ideas for all the songs on the second album are already written, some songs have also been demoed pretty extensively. There's still quite a bit of fine-tuning to do with the production aspect of it, but as Vesa said, we're getting there.

Michaiah: Things are moving forward, slowly but surely. Wouldn't mind having a few more hours in the day though.

AM: I wouldn't say your music is pure black metal, but more like dark metal (a term which at least I find a working one in many cases). Symphonic and soundtrack-ish elements play big parts in it, right? Also echoes of melodic death metal and folk music here and there... I would like you to depict your music, because I really do believe that "black metal" or "gothic metal" would be false, or at least too simple way to put it.

V: We have decided not to depict our music. Everything you write is quite correct, so why even try to depict with words something which can't be depicted? We don't have answers any more correct than yours.

M: Personally I settled for dark metal, and left the deeper analyzing of the genre to someone who has the time and energy for it, even though I know some people would definitely argue over the dark metal moniker not being suitable either. I agree that black metal would be simply wrong, but gothic metal is just ridiculous.

AM: Abstrakt started as a two-man project back in 2008. If I'm correct, there were three demos put out, but did they come out as physical versions?

V: First one came, we made about 100 or so copies of that. That demo was recorded in February 2011. Our first demo included songs 'Paradox' and 'Invocation'. The second one, which we made about a year later, included 'Synthesis' and 'My Eyes Unveiled'. We made some physical copies of that one, but I don't think we sent many of them anywhere. The third demo was purely for production of Obsidian, and didn't exist physically.

AM: During the first years, the band used the services from studio musicians. How come? How about in future, or are you trying to find members to join you?

V: At the moment, we have full line-up. Synth player would of course be nice, but not necessarily. When we made our demos, there was just Jimi and I, and when we wanted to record something, we had no other choice besides using studio musicians. Every studio musician except the drummer in the first two demos was friend of ours, so it was easy to ask them.

H: I don't want to exclude the possibility of using studio musicians from the coming albums, but I don't think there's that much demand with a full lineup. I'd love to have an accordion or harp solo somewhere but yeah, not too likely to happen.

AM: In 2014, it was time for the debut full-length album. 'Obsidian' was unleashed. It contains both older and new songs, and has a professional production job. How you see it now, and how was it received?

V: When I listen to 'Obsidian', I feel contradicted. I'd like to make half of my vocals again, and I hear loads of things that could have been done better. On the other hand, I stand before that album 100%. That is awesome, and I'm proud of it. 'Obsidian' was not received fine, Serpent from Imperiumi gave 4½/10 and Kaaoszine 6/10. Inferno liked it.

H: Yeah, it was definitely a learning experience. A lot of knowledge was gained, so even with some shortcomings I see Obsidian as a mainly good record. Mind you, I hadn't been in the band for that long when the recording started so of course I feel like the sophomore album is way more "me", you know?

M: I wasn't involved in that process at all, but I was really positively surprised when I first heard it. Then I was surprised again that the few reviews it got were so negative. Even if the critics were unimpressed, the people who heard it did seem to like it, as I've only heard praises myself.

AM: Now you have put out two new songs. How do you see the evolution of Abstrakt's music from 2008 up to this day?

H: As I glossed over before, I'm pretty biased to comment on stuff before 2013 or so. However I'd call the newer stuff the fastest and angriest Abstrakt yet.

M: Not only is the new material faster and angrier, there's also more variety and everything is tighter than on 'Obsidian'.

AM: What can be expected from the sophomore album, all in all?

V: Better songs, better production, better lyrics, better music in all senses.

H: Pretty much what Vesa said. It's gonna be fast, angry and filled to the brim with small hooks and surprises.

M: Heh, I'm gonna have to just keep on agreeing with the others. It's going to be better. I hope we can release the third, and final, sample song soon enough. So far the feedback has been positive with the other two.

AM: Can you shed some light on your lyrical themes and the possible philosophy? By the way, you got one song in Finnish, too. Will we heard more of that in future?

V: I don't know about using Finnish. Idea of making 'Hän joka varjoissa kulkee' in Finnish came as I wanted to express things which were better to express in Finnish than English. The whole idea I was expressing was dropped, but language didn't change. If similar case comes again, I think I'll use Finnish again. There might be one Finnish song in the next album, but that's very uncertain. There will be one lyric written by Michaiah. I don't want to open my lyrics and meanings of them, besides there is really meaning to me.

M: I asked Vesa for one song lyric duty, since I used to write lyrics in few previous bands I was in and it just feels like something I wanted to do. The topics in my lyrics have varied so much over the years, and I don't like to say that my lyrics are specifically of this and or that. I share the feeling on not wanting to explain my lyrics to anyone, but instead I want the listener to think and find the meaning for themselves. Best not to expect Finnish lyrics from me, it just feels like something I'm not interested in doing, at least at the moment.

AM : Do you have any live activity coming up? How does Abstrakt work as live? Any cool memories from the road?

Vesa: No plans, but we are pretty much ready to play live.

M: I am looking forward to live gigs, we've rehearsed quite a bit and hopefully something would come up soon enough. I have zero experience on playing live so the first gig is going to be a milestone in my life.

AM: Do you guys have any other band/music projects going on? Are you self-learned musicians, or not? How much does Abstrakt take your time?

H: I have a few small projects on the side, but nothing too intensive. I use different projects to learn about different aspects of music and production stuff. Lately I've been fucking around with FL Studio and stuff like that.
As for playing guitar, I used to get private lessons when I first started playing, but for the most part I'm self-taught. I practice quite a bit on my own, not necessarily all for Abstrakt, but getting your chops up on your instrument certainly makes it easier to fulfill the artistic vision truthfully.

M: I have one side-project that's on hold at the moment, and possibly something else will be conjured in the future, but it's too early to say anything for certain yet.
I started playing pretty late, when you think that most people pick up their instruments when they're teenagers, and I started when I was nearing thirty. At the time, I just realized that I had a ton of friends who played guitar and next thing I know, I'm learning to play 'Breaking the Law'. Then at one point I bought a bass because I've always loved the sound, and then I'm suddenly in my first band. I took some private lessons but mostly I've just done things my way. The upcoming album is my primary focus in music at the moment, and I'm concentrating solely on it.

AM: Would you like to list some of your favourites and influencing things (what makes you do this; music, possibly other arts etc.)?

V: I study mathematics, and that has blown my mind.

H: I try to find inspiration in the nature, films and life but most of it comes from other people's music. There's way too many bands to list, but I generally like stuff that goes over genre boundaries. I seem to have a tendency (or just naïvete?) to find the more technical stuff interesting.

M: There's just so many sources for inspiration out there, but I think it's safe to say that I get a lot of inspiration from music, nature, art, sexuality, occultism, lovecraftian horror etc. The list goes on and on.

AM: Nightwish, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica and such are doing great here and outside Finland. How do you see the darker metal music doing in Finland?

V: Scene is strong, but all kind of hip-hop / rap / electro-shit is taking kids with them.

H: I'm pretty bummed with a lot of the smaller venues going belly-up. In any case, there's lots of new great bands with a really thought-out show and concept.

M: I can't really say I'm following much how metal music is doing in Finland. I haven't been very interested in the scene in ages but I follow some news and try to be on the look for any interesting acts that pop up. I don't go to gigs very often these days either. To me, it looks like metal simply isn't so popular any more.

AM: We have reached to end of this interview. Do you have something to say, that haven't been said thus far?

Abstrakt: NEVER STOP THE MADNESS!

Interviewed by Lane.

03/15/2017 18:23