Translated from German by www.Swallowthesunfans.com

Nando Rohner: Let us first talk about your motivation, why you play Doom. What fascinates you in this musical direction?

Juha: I think that Doom provides a lot of emotions on account of its many slow and also quicker parts. Doom owns in my opinion more power than it is the case, e.g., with the normal Heavy Metal, or also Thrash Metal. In addition, I feel this music is very pleasant to play as well as  listen to.

And Doom is not necessarily a style suited to the masses, and one can not sell vast amounts of CDs with this music?

Absolutely not. If one liked to earn money with the music, one should play something else other than Doom *laugh*

Finland is known for quite a lot of great Doom bands,  for example Reverend Bizarre, Shape of Despair, My Shameful, Timo Rautiainen and Trio Niskalaukaus, and of course also Swallow the Sun. Would you say that Finland with its long winters and the endless nights is the ideal land for the creation of Doom?

I already think that if we lived in a sunnier land and lay the whole day on the beach and surf in the sea, then we would play also quite different music. Hey, maybe I would play such a kind of Doom / Death / Surf-Metal! Nevertheless, this would be *laugh*. But now quite seriously. I do not know really how much influence this cold and hopeless land on our Songwriting has and I could well imagine that the influence is bigger than I would like to admit.

Indeed, on your new album "Hope"  dominates the sombre sounds, still there also are over and over again the bright moments in which gentle keyboard sounds and clear vocals provide something like hope. One could say that the basic mood on "Hope" oscillates between hope and hopelessness, to and fro.

I have always had the opinion that some light and color are indispensable, because they form better listening in the music. Since if one plays only sombre music and gives no different highlights, nevertheless, it will become very long on a continuing basis. And,  thanks to these nice and hopeful moments our music is much more sombre in the final effect.

Your singer Mikko Kotamäki has on the new album even more of his clear song vocal sound than was the case in the past. On this occasion was that pre-planned?

It wasn't planned, but rather a natural advancement. We never had the concrete vision that it would have to have these clear songs on the album as it is now the case.

Then it could happen sometime that you renounce growling and have only clean vocals on the songs? 

Growling is such an important component of our music that I can't see that happening, though one never knows what the future brings. As long as the music is sincere, there is a possibility of everything.

Why you have just got the song „ Don't case Asleep (horror Pt. 2) ” as a single? Are you of the opinion that this song represents your new album best of all?

„ Don't case Asleep (horror Pt. 2) ” is absolutely not the catchiest and easiest song of the album, but it provides a good impression of the strengths of the album. Also the song has the basic mood which also distinguishes us as a band. And we want to provide this basic mood for the people, this is why we have selected this song.

With the song it concerns the continuation of the piece „ Swallow (horror Pt.1) ” which one could hear on your debut work. Can you briefly give our readers the story behind " Swallow (horror Pt.1) ” and „ Don't case Asleep (horror Pt. 2) ” ?

In both songs it is about a space in an old desolate house. This space has a painful and cruel past which revives after sundown over and over again from new one.

With Tomi Joutsen and Jonas Renkse where two great guest's singers. How did you  come to this collaboration?

We played at the same festival like Katatonia and our singer simply asked Jonas Renkse whether he would like to sing on one of our songs. Jonas said yes, and the rest is, so to speak, history *laugh*. With Tomi, I asked because I considered who would probably fit best of all to the cover version of " These Low Lands ”.  I called him and he immediately promised without hesitation.

Is there  one more singer whom you would greet with pleasure perhaps as a guest on one of your albums?

If Peter Steele sang on one of our albums sometime that would be perfect for me. "October Rust" is for me one of the best albums in the world.

As you already mentioned, on the album is a cover version. The song „ These Low Lands” which is the original of Timo Rautiainen and Trio Niskalaukaus. Why this cover version?

I am a big fan of this band, this is why absolutely wanted to cover them at some point. Also our albums are influenced a little by the music of Timo Rautiainen and Trio Niskalaukaus. And this is why we gave a tribute in this cover version to this great band.

I would like to say nothing against Tomi Joutsen, because he delivers a superb job on " These Low Lands” . However, why did you  not try Timo Rautiainen as a guest's singer for the cover version?

Timo said in the past that he would never sing on English. And we wanted somebody who sings in English. I said after the publication of the cover song with Timo a few times and he has said to me that he likes the version very much and is also very impressed with it. This makes me very proud! *laugh*

Timo Rautiainen and Trio Niskalaukaus have published two German-speaking albums, „ in frosty valleys “ and „ hard land “. Have you ever owned one of these albums?

I own both these both albums, however, they were easy to understand for me. This could have also been due to the fact maybe that I have also owned in the past the Finnish versions of these songs.

Would be it conceivable to you that there might be a Swallow the Sun song in German?

It would not worry me if our lyrics were in German, French or even in Finnish.  But nothing is planned for this.

You will go this year on a vast European tour together with Moonsorrow. Their new album has only two songs which are in length approx. 30 minutes. Would be that also conceivable for you that you make at some point an album with only two, or also three very long songs?

I played in the past in a progressive band. With this band I had some songs with excessive length, as well as a draft album with only three long songs done.  I would like to do something similar also with Swallow the Sun, but up to now it has not worked.

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