When one thinks of folk metal these days, it really is impossible for Ensiferum not to cross your mind. The Finnish quintet have spent over a decade establishing themselves at the forefront of the genre, firing up crowds and igniting the pagan party spirit along the way. We speak to bassist Sami Hinkka about Ensiferum’s place in folk metal, and the bigger picture of the genre.
The current ‘One Man Army‘ tour has taken the band to some unusual places in terms of metal – India, South Africa, and China to name a few – and it sparks the curiosities of how a subgenre such as folk metal manages to find audiences when metal in genre is not particularly a big thing in these parts of the world. Sami gives us an insight into his experiences, and why folk metal burns strong throughout the world.
Listen to the interview here or read the entire transcript below:
Sami, thank you so much for speaking to The Metalist today, really appreciate it!
No worries!
So, how’s the tour going? It must be nearing the last shows now…
Yes, tonight [in London] is the last show, and expectations are high like always. But the tour has been going really well. It’s really cool to share a bus with Metsatoll and really nice to see the guys on stage everyday. They are an excellent band. It’s so awesome that we finally get to play some cities that we’ve never played before in the UK, it’s nice to actually have a territorial tour.
Usually when we have a tour…well we’re still a small band…we don’t have much say in where we tour…just management and booking agencies presenting ‘OK, here’s your tour!’. And we say, ‘OK, we go!’. Usually it’s just London – so it was so awesome to see some of the [British] countryside! [laughs]
I mean the UK can be a bit of a hard market, did you get a little bit excited when you saw the tour sheet and saw some more UK cities?
Yes! Even though we have toured for the last 11…12 years something like that? We haven’t actually played in the UK so much. So that was also one of the reasons why we want to do this…[a full UK tour]…so…I don’t know the expression in English…
Plant the seeds?
That’s it! Plant the seeds for the next tour! So hopefully next time we will have more shows in the UK!
It’s nice to get more shows, it seems the word is spreading!
Yes indeed!
So what we wanted to ask you is a couple questions about the broader picture of folk metal. Nowadays when you say folk metal you think Ensiferum – you guys are pretty much at the top of the tree now. Why we ask is that you’ve toured countries like Japan, Australia…I think you even went to China at one point...
A couple of times! And India, South Africa…
You see, this is why we ask! Folk metal is definitely not the first thing anyone thinks of when we think of metal [as a genre]. What’s your opinion on why folk metal is getting so popular in these different parts of the world?
Well…I think there might be many reasons. One might be – at least for Ensiferum – that we have this really strong heroic theme. We’ve all seen Conan the Barbarian and everybody has their inner hero, it’s easy to relate to that kind of stuff. What really unites our fans around the world, is that they come to our show to have a good time. That’s something that really appeals to metalheads. That they can have a really big party, and that they’re not really that serious, even though they might like black metal or whatever.
That’s what’s really awesome about our shows, is that they can have really aggressive mosh pits, and that kind of thing, but everyone is still in a really good mood. Lots of singalong, lots of beer…that might be the thing. Many people who hear our music come to the show for that, but many people who haven’t show up come to our show and are like, ‘What the fuck…I’ve never had so much fun at a metal show!’. I think that’s also spreading the word…it’s what we love to do…and well…here we are!
It’s really a privilege to be here! You know in the end, we’re just a bunch of hippies from Finland playing music. It’s so cool that other people like it also!
So you think everyone is coming to the Ensiferum shows for the party?
I guess so…
Do you guys write music now and think of how it’s going to come out live?
No. It’s two different worlds. We compose music for the album, we do it as well as we can, and when it comes to sorting it out for the live situation we just figure how it will work then. But for ‘One Man Army’, it was really easy. The whole idea of the album was to finally capture the energy, because the last few studio albums…they sound like studio albums! In a raw way.
When we met the studio producer Ansi Kippo, we told him that we wanted ‘One Man Army’ to sound like a really tight live album. It has to sound like all the musicians are actually playing. No drum triggers, most of the time just two guitars, left and right, bass…
Just a very raw sound…
Yes! Just like the band is actually playing. He completely understood it, and we ended up using analog [recording devices], and we ended up recording whole songs in one take, not like 5 seconds…’oh do it again…now again’. Nowadays it’s easy to do that in the studio, because you have all the possibilities [recording technology]…but we wanted to do it that way, and the result was really good! I think there’s a new kind of energy on the album that the previous albums had been lacking in.
Wait sorry I totally forgot the question! [laughs]
Well that was so interesting I totally forgot the question myself! [laughs] It was about how you were writing albums and if it was [intentionally] catered for the live show…but you sort of explained there that it’s never done, but that raw sound sort of helps it come out very well live.
Yes, that’s it!
On the subject of albums, I guess the tour is wrapping up it’s cycle. So are we going to starting hearing some signs of a new Ensiferum album soon?
Yes. After this tour, we’ll be home in less than a week…then we do a festival in Sweden and then we do a European tour with Fleshgod Apocalypse. This is because on the previous tour, there were so many cities and countries that we didn’t get a chance to visit, so we can wrap it up here, at least for Europe.
But yes, we’ve already been working on some new songs…maybe we have 6 or 7 raw songs already…I have ideas for the lyrics in my head also. So after the summer festivals we have some plans…can’t tell you yet though!
Didn’t expect it!
On the way we will be working on some new songs, and we hope to hit the studio maybe February, March [2017] or something like that. Depends so much on the songs, we never go to the studio before the songs are ready. We want everything to be ready so that we can just go in and focus to get it out. That brings the best result, rather than say, ‘Hmmm, we’re missing a bridge somewhere…let’s come up with something’.
I guess that can cause studio problems too…
Yes exactly. This is not the way we work.
You want to have everything ready and just bang it out. So it sounds like for the rest of the year you are just going to finish touring for ‘One Man Army’…and then maybe take a little bit of a break?
Well…there’s no break! [laughs]
No rest for the rock stars, eh?
Nope, no actual break. There are just small gaps between tours. In between shows we are always working on new songs…of course in summertime we have to enjoy…get some barbecues going and all that…
So my last question is directed to you and your [bass] playing [style]…is it a 7-string bass you’re using?
6-string! I have a 7-string bass…but in live situations the high strings are actually pretty useless. They are really cool to use when I compose, it’s really nice to do like melodies…but so far a 6-string makes me feel like I’m home! [laughs]
Your playing is insane. Every time I’ve seen you guys live it’s been like, ‘whoa’. Where did you learn to play? Did you learn jazz bass or something like that?
No. It was actually my brother who was a guitar player, he taught me the basics, and I just self-learned from there. One thing I always say to young bass players who say they always want to play with fingers – I played along Iron Maiden’s ‘Live After Death’ every day after school…the whole show…a two-hour show. That really gave me stamina and precision.
Did you do the whole Steve Harris movements along with the record too?
Of course! Come on! [laughs] I can give hint that when I was young I played 4-string bass, but I always went to music stores and saw this really beautiful 6-string bass. I had never played that kind of bass before, and when I tried it I was like ‘This is so awesome!’. I went back home and I just had to get it. Took me a few days [to save up], went there again, my dad helped me to get the bass – the problem was that same night I had a show and I jumped right into the 6-string bass. Then I thought ‘What the fuck am I doing?!’. [laughs]
That would have been interesting…trying to avoid the 2 strings on the top!
It was terrible. Don’t make that mistake! [laughs]
All aspiring bassists listen.
Yes!
Sami thank you so much for speaking to us today!
Cheers!
