battlelore jussi rautio

Interview by: Lynn Wyeth

Date: 15 August 2009

Venue: Bloodstock Open Air, Derby, UK

Photos by: Battlelore

© Battlelore MusicXtra caught up with Finnish battle metallers Battlelore after their performance on the main stage at this year’s Bloodstock festival. Guitarist Jussi kindly answered some of our questions.

Hi, welcome to the UK. You’ve just got here from Germany?

Yes, yesterday we were playing there at Summerbreeze festival. It was very huge, ten thousand people to see us. We’ve been drinking a long time so we’ve been sleeping only three hours, and a huge crowd and we were nervous! But it was one of the best gigs ever. It has been very intense, Germany then here. Now it’s time for a little bit of relaxation as we have played and the weather is nice and the people are nice and we can understand what they are saying!

You didn’t speak German then?

Nicht!

You’ve also played quite a bit of Europe now… where have you been most successful, whether for gigs or record sales, outside of Finland?

German speaking countries are our main market area. We have played gigs there and a lot of people buy records there. Also South Europe, Portugal and Spain… they are on fire! And Praha, in Czech, was very nice people there. And Russia was also great. Security can be quite bad there, so you always end up having a bodyguard.

Where haven’t you played yet that you really want to go to?

My ultimate goal in my career is a tour in Japan. I have heard good stories about there. Also South America, because I have been in all the continents except there, and I know people there and it will be like Spain and Portugal.

You’ve been to the UK a couple of times before and you’re back to the UK for a short six-date tour with fellow Finns Finntroll in September. We’ve also got Swallow the Sun, Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum out together in the Autumn in the UK too. Do you think it’s a good idea to let so many Finns go off on tour together? Isn’t it asking for alcohol-fuelled trouble?!

*Pretends to think* Yes! *Laughs* We have been touring with Finnish band Korpiklaani before…

Enough said!

*laughs* They say they are not alcoholics… they are ‘alcohol professionals’! Our band doesn’t get too drunk really. But when we are drunk there are more mishaps. People are lost. Things are missing. Then, it’s more exciting to tour with Finnish bands!

Ok, back to the music. Obviously you’re massively inspired by Lord of the Rings…

Tolkein…

Ok, Tolkein, basing your musical tales on stories of Middle Earth. How did this originally come about and why?

Plenty of reasons. I think Tolkein has created very inspiring things himself, things about life. Some of us are intrigued by fantasy and different types of literature. Tolkein was also inspired by the national Finnish poem, Kalevala. We tried to bring that into our music too. If you see the Kalevala though, it’s written as a poem, it’s the same kind of feeling.

Yeah, the look of everything was very good like I would imagine. I thought no-one would ever make the movies as it is a hard subject. I once saw a cartoon… but I think he did a good job. I maybe would have left some things out and added other things in.

Which Tolkein character would you most like to be?

Radagast. Saruman was originally the white one, then the grey one. Radagast was like the brown one. That dude existed, to do with nature. He left the human world, he was like an oracle.

Blind Guardian are another band here today that are influenced by Tolkein’s work…will you be going along to see them later today?

I know of them and have heard some songs. I heard it was just a power metal band, but then some I heard were quite good. Another band also inspired by Tolkein is Summoning, they’re very inspiring too.

You re-signed to Napalm for the release of your last album so you must be quite happy with their support for you so far?

What can I say? Um, yeah they’re great! They’re fantastic! No, seriously, they’re doing a good job with good promotion. The new album deal was better from them than other labels.

Better the devil you know?!

Haha, yes, maybe! No, really, it was better, they knew us, and already got five records when talking about us.

Have you managed to hold onto your merchandise rights still?

Oh, *looks slightly embarrassed* we should have good merchandise… we are doing two festivals this weekend, Summerbreeze and here, and we brought ten girly t-shirts!

Only ten girlies?!

Yes… and all small!

Haha, have you sold them yet?

I don’t know! They are maybe are in a plastic bag somewhere! If a tour is coming we will get a merchandise guy and make some more and try and make some money! For big bands that’s where the money can be to help pay the rent.

Do Kaisa and Maria get fed up of being asked about what it’s like to be a girl in a metal band?

It’s better to have girls in the band… it doesn’t get so homosexual! It is good to have more ying and yang. If it is all boys, we are drunk all the time! The women keep it more civilised. We have played so long together, ten years now, so we do not think about boys and girls… we’re just all evil!

Your singer Tomi sometimes has a sword on stage… Have you ever had any accidents?

Yes! He hit the guy on the head with the sword when they were head banging! There were stars in his eyes for a time! And another time… but he only hit my guitar.

Are any of you into role-play games? And have any of you played the Battlelore game?

We don’t play it but we have heard of it, it should be a good game. A few years ago we thought we should get a deal with them. Nothing happened though, so if the owner is reading this… contact us to make a deal!

Can you teach us any Elvish?

I know Finnish and one of the Elven languages is all taken from Finnish, so I can do Finnish! In future we are going to do some songs in Finnish, we’ve done some parts. Next album will have more Finnish.

Ok, give us a Finnish phrase for everyone at Bloodstock to learn…

Yksi karhu, kiitos!

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