AMORPHIS Guitarist: 'This Band Has Stayed Together Because It's Fun And We Enjoy Making Music'

Tom Valcanis of FrantikMag.com recently conducted an interview with Tomi Koivusaari, founding guitarist of the Finnish metal band AMORPHIS. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

FrantikMag.com: Let's talk about your new record, "Skyforger". It sounds much more psychedelic and spaced out than your previous records in recent years. How did you make it sound so, well, "out there?"

Koivusaari: Well, I'll have to have a think about it. I guess it's because of the mixing and the mastering. It doesn't sound as compressed. So there's more dynamics and space. You can just hear those small things a little better.

And there might just be a bit more delay guitar maybe. I don't know. Maybe it's just delay guitar. The sounds are just more, like, dynamic. Spacey in a way. We didn't do any more psychedelic stuff on purpose though.

FrantikMag.com: It sounds damn heavy as well alongside all the lighter progressive touches, what made you guys decide to follow that route?

Koivusaari: Well, we've been doing gigs at the same time as writing albums ever since Tomi (Joutsen),our singer, joined the band. I think doing so many gigs and festivals have affected our way to play on stage and in the studio as well. All the progress we've had has been natural; we never decided to use more growling or heavier guitars or that sort of thing. I'm glad to hear that you think it's heavy, because most other people have said that this album is kind of lighter, which is something I don't agree with.

FrantikMag.com: Hey, the heavier metal, the better, right? Anyway, you guys can't seem to break yourself away from writing lyrics about the (epic Finnish folk tale) "Kalevala". Why did you turn to it yet again in your lyrics; do you guys fashion yourselves as the modern storytellers of "Kalevala"?

Koivusaari: I think they're interesting stories and philosophies, but they aren't the thing we use to write our music with. I think they fit with our music very well because they're timeless and there's a lot of emotional stuff [behind it]. But I wouldn't say that [AMORPHIS] are the "storytellers." It's a very old tale but it gives you a good perspective on today's life [and culture.]

FrantikMag.com: Writing for so long on the same subject, how has the band fared over these 20 years? Surely you've had all sorts of insane rock n' roll experiences.

Koivusaari: We've had a pretty good time over our years, but we have had our bad moments. Especially when our former [singer] Pasi [Koskinen] lost his motivation. It was a very depressing time for us. We were so relieved when he left and found a new singer because we thought we might have to go and record an instrumental album or something. But this band has stayed together because it's fun and we enjoy making music. That's why we can say it's been easy and that we still enjoy it all the time.

Read the entire interview at FrantikMag.com.