Interview with death metal band from Finland - PURTENANCE.
Answered Ville K and PURTENANCE.
Translated by Duzl, thank you!
Ave PURTENANCE! In the summer you totally slaughtered fans at the Obscene Extreme festival in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I could not attend, but my friends told me, that you were excellent. How did you enjoy the show and the whole festival? How did you like the Czech Republic?
- Thank you for the compliments! We enjoyed to our stay at Obscene Extreme and Czech Republic. Everything was just so great, the music, all the people we met, the food and especially the atmosphere! It was most definitely one of the best highlight in our career and it is something to remember when we grow older and grayer.
Recently, you have released the latest novelty "Paradox of Existence". I'm really excited about it. How do you feel about it, how do the fans perceive it and what about music critics? I just wonder why only four songs? I expect full length album.
- When we resigned to Xtreem Music (our record label), we decided that first thing to release would be an EP. It was a good way to introduce our new members and our progression (if you can call it that) to the public. It seems that fans have liked it and critics as well. We are happy of the result by ourselves also and can’t wait to finish writing new material for our next release!
How does PURTENANCE create new songs? What about a process of creating new material? Who is the main author of the music?
- Usually someone brings riffs or even full songs to rehearsals and we arrange them to sound us. Juha is the main composer but now that Simo have joined us, he has written some songs too. He wrote half of the songs on ”Paradox of Existence” and he will deliver some more to releases yet to come. It takes more or less time to write ideas to full songs, we take no pressure to make new stuff and freely change things in rough song motifs to make them sound and feel to what we are looking for.
Who is the author of cover art for album „Paradox of Existence" and what is its meaning? Personally, this cover seems to me fitted more for a "black metal" than a death metal album.
- Artist behind the cover of ”Paradox of Existence” is no other than the legendary Chris Moyen. He has done all art to our covers since 1992 and continues to make them, if it’s up to us. We don’t question his intentions and inspirations behind the art, he has free hands to make what he seems fit. He usually gets the title and work from there. It is true that the cover may seem more fitting to black metal album but hey, he has done lot’s and lot’s of them. So it may influence him to that direction. Personally for us, the newest cover is simple, yet multilayered and can, and hopefully will, inspire people to have their own interpretation for and from it.
Who is the author of lyrics for "Paradox of Existence" album and what are they about? Where do you get inspiration for themes?
- Simo wrote half of the lyrics for the EP and Ville K wrote the rest. This is the first time since 2011 that someone else has written lyrics for Purtenance than Ville K and in Ville K’s mind this is not a bad thing. Things have to evolve and change, it is the constant of our universe and when put in scale it will apply too. It was little harder for Ville K to sing the lyrics, when someone else has done them, but in same time it was also very refreshing. Working with different kind of view to things may have, or may not have, positive tension for accomplish the task in hand, for example different kind of rhythming of words to music is interesting thing to try. What comes to the themes of the lyrics, we only need to look around us, there is so much happening all around the world that basically the lyrics write themselves to paper. We just cover the self-evident to metaphors. We wan’t to leave the possibility for the listeners to make their own interpretations from the lyrics.
I'm just listening to your novel "Paradox of Existence," and I feel like I am locked in a cell with ABHORRENCE, BOLT THROWER, BLASHPHERIAN, IMMOLATION, INCANTATION. The album has a great dark and raw sound. Where did you record the album and how satisfied are you with the result? Did you have a say in the final sound?
- Well thank you very much again. We recorded and mixed everything by ourselves in our own rehearsal place. Only the mastering was done by someone else (Jaakko Viitalahde at Virtalahde Mastering). We could not be more happier of the results. We have actually recorded everything by ourselves since we were awakened from slumber in 2011. Every time we do a new record (or EP) we try to beat the last one and this time we think we took very big leap forward and continue to explore this path in the future too.
I think "Paradox of Existence" would be best to release it on vinyl. Do you think about it? What is your relationship to vinyl and their sound? Are you a collector?
- We would like to have the EP released as a vinyl too, but that is something our record label decides. Their policy just seems to be that it is not with it to release EP’s in vinyl, just full-length albums. Some of us in the band (3/5) collects records in vinyl, there is just something special in vinyl. The art will have more space, the sound has something raw and untamed in it and over all, vinyl needs more dedication to listen to. It simply is not the kind of thing you just put on and forget, you have to take your time with it and focus on listening. No streaming service or even cd’s can offer you that.
You are a veteran who has experienced a lot like a musician. The world and the music industry have been changed a lot. The internet has started and music is being downloaded, CDs are selling less and less, fans generations are aging and they have now other worries than music. Death metal is not long ago "modern". How do all these changes affected PURTENANCE?
- From our point of view and with the reasons we do this, we actually haven’t suffered from the changes that much. On the contrary, we may have had some advantage from the rise of internet. More and more people are capable to find our music and to listen it. It was much harder 25 years ago to find music from a small band like us. We do this for fun and not for profit, we try to aim that this will cost and give us +-0€ and we have mostly been successful in achieving that. We don’t follow trends, we do what we wan’t to do and if someone else likes that, that’s great. If someone does not like what we do or what we play, that is his or hers problem, not ours.
Do you remember when you released "Member of Immortal Damnation" in 1992? This album has become "sacred" for your fans and critics. It's a most acclaimed album from your discography. What do you think, in your opinion? Do you think this is due to the time when the album was released or just because it was just the first one?
- It has to do with the time and the thing that it was our first full-length. So little we knew back then for what status that album would get, but also we didn’t care for what it would became. Still that album will have it’s reflections to everything what we will do, we just don’t wan’t to take any pressure from it.
Remind us what led to the breakdown of PURTENANCE in the early 1990s? How difficult then was to put the band back together after more than a decade?
- The usual put us in hibernation, military service (it’s obligation in Finland for men), work, families, so basically adulthood struck us. When the time was right, getting back together was not that hard. Harri and Juha started Purtenance back in the late 80’ and when they played first time together again in 2011, after more than 15 years, it was just like riding a bicycle. What you have once learned, you just can’t forget it so easily. Of course it had it’s impact and a push forward, when Dave Rotten gave us proposal for a record deal if Purtenance would come active again.
What about the Finnish death metal scene with "young blood"? Is there a lot of bands influenced and devoted to the style of the old 90s such as CORPSESSED, MAVETH, MORDID VOMIT, SHREPNELL STORM, LANTERN, DESOLATE SHRINE, etc ... would you recommend to us some other band that has recently attracted you?
- Just one, that everybody should hear and fear, GALVANIZER! Yesterday they released their first song from their upcoming album and it fucking kills!! Go check them out, you won’t be disappointed.
What about actually Finnish death metal scene? Are the buying a CDs and support bands? What is for example attendance when you are organizing a club event?
Well this depends. Some night there can be hundreds of people listening and some night there can be 5. We have been playing for 4 years now all around Finland and we se same people over and over again in different cities and venues. There are very little people involved in the scene, but they are very dedicated to it.
Are there any albums which get your attention in last time?
- We all have different kind of taste, what comes to music. Yes mainly extreme music is what we listen and breath but it also has so many different kind of forms. Nobody of us can pick a album that have had special attention for it, ’cos there are just so much new music released and there is still so many great releases to be found!
Do you know or are you listening some bands from Czech Republic?
- Simo actually likes Master’s Hammer a lot and he was very happy to finally see them play live for the first time in Finland. And Gutalax gives a chill down to spine every time we hear it!
What about plans for PURTENANCE in the upcoming months?
- Now we are focusing to write material for our next full-length album. There is no release dates agreed yet and we will take our time to make it as good as possible we can. We don’t play any shows until 1. and 2. of june. Then we will play with Convulse and Lubricant in Helsinki and Tampere. That is something to wait for!
Thank you for your interview and I wish you great sales of your records, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of good ideas.
Thank you, always stay true, and always stay brutal!
PURTENANCE
About PURTNENACE on DEADLY STORM:
Recenze/review - PURTENANCE - Paradox of Existence (2017)
About PURTNENACE on DEADLY STORM:
Recenze/review - PURTENANCE - Paradox of Existence (2017)
BAND INFO:
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