CHILDREN OF BODOM Keyboardist Says There Was 'A Lot Of Sauna Action' During Making Of New Album

Bella Qvist of Sweden's CriticalMass.se online magazine recently conducted an interview with keyboardist Janne Wirman of Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On recording the new album, "Relentless Reckless Forever", in the deep dark woods of Finland:

Janne: "Yeah, it's freaky 'cos in Finland we don't have tornados or storms that big but it was crazy, the storm hit the studio and we lost power for three days and we were in the middle of nowhere. The trees cut down the power lines and the trees cut down the roads so we were stuck in the countryside in the middle of nowhere for a couple of days. . . [But] actually we had fun. We played the grand piano in candlelight and sang Britney Spears to ourselves and it was not that big of a problem, you know."

On the importance of "sauna bathing" during the production of the new album:

Janne: "Well, especially at this studio, they have a great sauna and there's another one by the lake and when we were recording in the summer time so it was great. [Our] American producer hadn't been in a Finnish wood-burning sauna before and he absolutely loved it. Every morning he woke up, heated up the sauna and had a sauna and he would work in the studio the full studio day and then in the end of the night he would heat up the sauna again. Actually this time there was a lot of sauna action during sessions."

On their reputation as a "party-hard band:

Janne: "I think the whole bunch of us just happen to be... all of us like to party and drink and have fun and then the five us got together as a band and then there was a huge party. Although now we are over thirty, we try to... I mean, we've grown old so we can't party like we did ten years ago because that was just too much and crazy. But, you know, we still party."

On whether CHILDREN OF BODOM is all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll:

Janne: "No, to be honest, no. It might have been something like that ten years ago but, like I said, all of us have grown up a little bit in the last couple of years and trying to keep things in moderation. We still party and we still have fun, but we try to do things not too stupid all the time."

On the best thing about being a rock star:

Janne: "I guess the best thing, seriously, is that you get to do what you love to do. You get to tour around the world with your friends and, you know, all that stuff, and then when you go home you don't have to go to McDonald's and flip burgers. The best part is that you get to do what you love to do and you get a living out of it."

On what the most fake thing in the industry is:

Janne: "Well, you know, there is a lot of faking going on in the music industry. I mean, the whole music industry is kind of fucked right now, it's pretty fake, the whole thing. I hope somehow there would be a solution so that artists and record labels could still keep doing what they are doing so that it would be somewhat financially, you know, reasonable for everybody, but I don't know."

On whether the cold and dark affects a "rock star":

Janne: "Yeah, I'm not much of a winter person myself anymore. I absolutely hate it, I hate the snow and the coldness and if I was rock-star enough, I wouldn't live here during the winters, I would simply live here in the summers, it's too fucking cold. I have a house and I have this driveway and [there was] so much snow this year, you have to like twice a day shovel the snow to be able to drive and get out of your house."

Read the entire interview at CriticalMass.se.