It’s bank holiday Monday here in the UK. For those who don’t know what that means, it’s an extra day tacked on the weekend – and how do we deal with that extra time on our hands? Well we drink of course. We speak to an experienced man of the alcoholic arts Jaarko Aaltonen, who teaches what Korpiklaani choose to drink.

Having written various songs about different kinds of alcoholic beverages, we ask what drinks inspired them and what their favourites would be. With Korpiklaani capturing their folk-infused mega-parties for an upcoming DVD later this year, we need to get a keen understanding on what exactly fuels the fire…

Listen to the interview below and find out how to spend your bank holiday Finnish style!

Jaarko thank you very much for speaking to The Metalist today, really appreciate it! So I guess the first question – how is the tour going so far?

Tour has been quite brilliant actually. We are lucky to have a few sold out shows in France and all that. So it’s been a nice tour all in all!

So the response to the album has been really good?

Yea that too. We have been playing quite a lot of songs from the new album live, and they seem to go down quite nicely.

And all the songs from the new album are in the Finnish language as well. Do you find people are singing along to the album?

You do, or at least making some sounds!

So what we wanted to ask today – we talked about the new album with you guys last year – but what we really want to know is more about the band, Korpiklaani and the touring…we know you guys are considered a party band – everybody comes to your shows, has a few beers, and you’ve written some songs about alcohol!

Yea..one or two…

So the first question is about beer! What is your favourite beer?

[thinks hard] Hmmm…depends on what I’m going to do with it!

So drink it? Bathe in it?

I mean if I’m going to get drunk by drinking beer than I prefer something like…I don’t know…beers like ice cold Budweiser are brilliant for that. It’s like drinking water, but it has alcohol in it. It’s really nice. But if I’m going to go after work and have a pint or something than I prefer a stout.

A good Finnish beer maybe?

Well, it doesn’t have to be Finnish but definitely darker, stronger.

So then we move on of course to vodka. We always thought of Korpiklaani as a beer band, but being from Finland I guess you guys love vodka too?

We are an alcohol band.

So it’s everything?

Yea pretty much.

So do you have a favourite kind of vodka?

I am not a big vodka drinker myself. I usually mix it with stuff like orange juice – I am a screwdriver man.

And then we move on to tequila, which is an interesting one because that is not a Nordic drink at all. It’s a Mexican drink. So what inspired you to write a song about tequila?

That was first trip to Mexico and South America. There are also other things, not just tequila mentioned in the song. It is just a tribute to the first trip and all the people we met.

It must have been an amazing tour if you wrote a song about it.

Yea. Usually when it’s your first time somewhere, doing the thing that we do, it is rather nice.

When you did the tequila in Mexico did you do the worm as well?

That’s not tequila!

Oh…maybe you’re right…

Yea I think it’s that Mezcal thing.

Hmmm…I’m not too familiar with it…

Well neither am I really!

Now that you seem to write a song about a different kind of alcohol at some point, is there another one lined up for the future? Maybe rum or sambuca?

Ah, you never know!

Is there a certain drink that you would like to write about?

Myself and our guitar player Cane are big fans of mojitos. We’ve had several mojito days on tour, like getting completely wasted during the day, and having to wake up and play. But I don’t think we are going to do anything about mojitos.

It’s a bit too out there?

Yea it’s a bit too far-fetched.

So you guys have been touring in support of the album for about a year now, any recent crazy tour moments?

Mmm…well it was last night when we had a ‘brilliant’ idea with the Moonsorrow guys since we had an early morning ferry crossing. We thought we would just drink the whole night. It’s so annoying to wake up when you are in your best sleep and you wake up at the Calais harbour. So we just kept on drinking to stay up and that was a brilliant idea which we are really paying for today.

That’s OK, once you get on stage you can sweat it all out!

Yea!

Thanks so much for speaking to us today!