Interview with Mors Principium Est!!

  Interview conducted via email, May 2013.

https://www.facebook.com/MPEofficial
http://www.morsprincipiumest.com/


WULF:  OK guys, it's been 6 long years but finally a new album has emerged!! "...And Death Said Live" is easily one of the strongest melodic death metal album to come out in a long time. While we here at Malicious Intent have really enjoyed listening to it, how has the reception been for the album on your end? Also, how have people reacted to your cover of Backstreet Boys' "The Call"? :p
MPE:  We have had really great reception from the fans, of course you lose a few people because it is not the "original lineup" but the majority of people love the new material, and the fact that we could carry on with the same style, and improve in some areas. Many people thought it wasnt possible for us to write this record, but we proved a lot of people wrong, and came out with a great album. We were really lucky working with Thomas 'Plec' Johansson in Sweden when we recorded, he really captured our vision, and gave us the end result we were looking for. 'The Call' is only on the Asian release, so many people actually haven't heard it!


WULF:  There's tons of stuff going on on the album, including guest guitar solos from Jona Weinhofen (I Killed the Prom Queen, ex-Bleeding Through, ex-Bring Me the Horizon) and Ryan Knight (The Black Dahlia Murder, ex-Arsis)...how did this come about? Are they personal friends of the band?

MPE:  Yes, they are both personal friends of ours, and also fans of MPE, so it was a natural thing for us. We wanted to include a couple of guest artists, and having these guys was great. Ryan is an amazing player, and has been a huge fan of Mors for a long time, so was really excited to play for us, he gave us an incredible solo too!

WULF:  The album art is really cool. One of my favorite types of metal album covers is that medieval-esque woodcut style...I was also surprised to see that it was done by Jan Yrlund! I'm not too familiar with most of his music or artwork, but "Dim Carcosa" by Ancient Rites is one of my favorite metal albums ever!! Why did you decide that he was the right person for the job? Also, I'm not sure if I understand the concept behind it... I felt the album to have a really positive, exciting vibe to it ("...And Death Said Live", i.e. the band has cheated death and is back with a vengeance!) but the cover to be pretty grim, almost a black metal album cover. What was your reason for this?

MPE:  We had an idea in mind with the concept (and yes you're right on that) and we had a style that we liked, but we really let Jan suprise us, and this was the first thing that he sent us after we talked with him and we loved it. It worked out great. It wasn't conciously aiming for 'black metal style' but we had an idea and a style in mind, and this was the result.

WULF:  Obviously there's been a ton of drama regarding MPE and guitar players...how did you finally end up hooking up with Andhe Chandler (from New Zealand!) and Andy Gillion (from the UK)? I know on your website it said that you were looking for people to audition via the internet, but what made you finally decide on these two guys? Have they relocated to Finland, or is MPE now an international band?

MPE:  From the website, Andy joined the band first, then 6 months later Andhe joined. Andhe has been living in Finland for a year now, and Andy is still living in the UK, just flying to Finland for rehearsals before gigs etc. We had over 200 applications for guitarists, but picked the best two that not only could play, but were able to write MPE material.

WULF:  For me at least, one of the best characteristics of MPE's signature sound are the epic, atmospheric keyboards. However, it's my understanding that the band hasn't had an official keyboard player for years...which begs the question, who handled the keyboards on the new album? Are you going to have a keyboard player for future live shows, or are you going to use samples? Also, just out of curiosity, are you looking for a keyboardist or do you feel like nowadays it's no longer necessary?

MPE:  We're using samples for the keyboards live. While sometimes it would be nice to have a keyboard player there, it also brings lots of other "problems" as far as having to take an extra person on tour, and everything becomes more expensive etc. We are playing to click tracks with the keyboard samples, so that our live performance still sounds like the album does. Andy took care of the majority of the keyboard programming on the new album.

WULF:  Really random question, but Mikko Sopola (drums) is one of the founding members and has played on all of the albums except "Liberation=Termination", where the drums were handled by Marko Tommila...why was this?

MPE:  Mikko was going through some personal things here, and didn't have the time to concentrate on this album so he wasn't available then, so Marko filled in to get the record done.

WULF:  For your upcoming Japanese tour, it looks like Andy Gillion won't be able to make it and is instead being temporarily replaced by French guitarist Kevin Verlay. What's the story behind that? Is Verlay going to be a permanent replacement? How did you find him? Will Gillion be able to make it to this upcoming show in Seoul (Asia Metal Fest 2013)? Also, is it a conscious decision to not work with Finnish guitar players since they seem to be such bad luck for the band? :p

MPE:  Andy is the best man at his friends wedding, so cannot make the Japan tour, as the wedding is right in the middle of that. So when looking at getting someone to play for us, we were talking to the guy booking our tour, and his brother had previously played bass for Aborted, and had uploaded a cover of a new MPE song on youtube. So i checked him out, talked to him a bit, and when we get back from Korea he's coming to Finland to rehearse with us before we hit Japan. Gillion will be with us in Korea though! And for the upcoming Finnish gigs also.

WULF:  One of my favorite things to ask bands is for book or movie recommendations. Is there any specific literature or film that has inspired your music or lyrics, or just your life in general?

MPE:  As far as lyrics go, i guess influence comes from everywhere, but we had some sections based on Greek Mythology etc, I'm a big fan of horror / dark films, but I'm not sure if any of that comes in as an infuence as such. The new Evil Dead remake is fantastic, some great scenes that pay homage to the original, but a new take on that classic film.

WULF:  Obviously there's Asia Metal Fest 2013 coming up here in Seoul along with a Japanese tour (congratulations by the way!) later this year. Do you have a huge following in Japan? Also, are you planning on playing any other dates in Korea? It seems like such a long way to travel just for one show!!

MPE:  We just have the one date in Korea, then we are taking a couple of days to explore Seoul. We have a great following in Japan, and we can't wait to get there. Both of our Tokyo shows have sold out already, and we get to see quite a bit of the country for all the other gigs, and playing with Origin and Aeon, it should be a blast!

WULF:  What are you hoping to accomplish with your performance at Asia Metal Fest 2013? Have you played in Korea/East Asia before? What can your fans expect to see at this upcoming show? Also, do you like Korean BBQ?? The food here is killer!!

MPE:  We have heard many things about Korean BBQ!! We are looking forward to trying out the food, and seeing Seoul. Korea is a place none of us thought we would ever get to, so we are very excited. It is also our first time playing in Asia, so lots of new experiences, and actually our first show this year. So it should be a great time. We're playing songs from every album, not just the new material, so we hope everyone enjoys the show.


WULF:  Are there any other tour plans in the works right now? What does the future have in store for the band? Any plans for a DVD, future albums, etc?

MPE:  We have a couple of festivals lined up here in Finland, and a Japanese tour. We had a great European tour lined up but the headlining band wasnt gathering enough interest so that was cancelled unfortunately - our booking agent is looking for some more gigs for us for Autumn, so we hope to be on the road again soon. We have started to look at new material for the next album, so we'll see what happens, no DVD plans yet - but it would be nice to do a music video.

WULF:  Any final words or comments for the fans?

MPE:  We really hope you can make it to the gig, and enjoy our set. This is our first time in Asia to play, and we're really excited, thank you for having us! (Can't wait for this Korean BBQ!)

Interview with Tapio Wilska of Survivors Zero!!

Phone interview conducted on May 6, 2010.

WULF: It's a pleasure to talk to you! Before I heard Survivors Zero, I know you've been in a lot of bands but I'm (a big fan) of your work in Finntroll so anyway it's cool to see that this band is doing really well. In fact, with this new album, is it called "nine-nine-nine" (their new album is "CMXCIX", in Roman numerals, so I was curious as to if I was pronouncing it right when speaking about it)?

TAPIO: Yeah.

WULF: Yeah, I wasn't sure. I had to look that up on the internet. It kicks major ass! I'm a big fan of Finnish metal in general, so needless to say I was really impressed with this record. How has the reception been so far on your end?

TAPIO: I can't complain, man. I want to complain, but I can't.
(laughs)
When you put out a new band and put out a new album, especially without any major labels involved you're always surprised (to get) a really amazing response from all over the world. This album has been heart-warming. So all I can say is that, when we're sitting here doing interviews. What can I say? It's all good man.
(laughs)




WULF: I noticed that you guys are on Cobra Records. I hadn't ever heard of that label before, so I looked it up. Is it a metal label or is it just kind of like more...rock?

TAPIO: Most of their releases so far have been metal. They're a really new label. They're actually a label put on by the biggest independent record store in Finland, and they started out a bit over a year ago with the record label. We were the first band to be signed on the label. The guy who runs the label is an old friend of ours. They just basically put on the record label and signed most of the best bands in Finnish underground metal. We got offers for record deals from bigger companies in Europe and all that, but the deal that Cobra gave us was..."here's an offer you cannot refuse".
(laughs)

WULF: Awesome, man! Well, I really like the whole album but I would probably say my favorite song is, besides "Armageddon Cult" I really like "Reclaim My Heritage". Which song would you say is your personal favorite, or which song do you feel turned out the best?

TAPIO: I really couldn't say. I'm really happy with the album. "Armageddon Cult" for me is great to play live, (there's) so much feeling in it. But let's just say that my favorite song on the album is the first one, "Embrace the Inferno". That was the first song written for this band. We'd just came off a one-month European tour and it's just a raging song to play live, so that for me pretty much sums it up, this thing to play in front of people. So that's a good one.

WULF: Did you have any difficulty during the recording process, and what was it like working with producer Jonas Kjellgren?

TAPIO: Well, first of all, what you have to know and keep in mind is Jonas (he pronounced it Yonas haha) is mad.
(laughs)
So the whole studio process was actually awesome. We had like two weeks to do the album and there's this studio called Seawolf just outside of Helsinki on this old fortress island and just the whole process of recording the album (was awesome), Jonas is an awesome producer. He's also fun to be around in the studio but he's also a slave-driver. It was weird, we had a lot of fun in the studio but also because we wanted this to be like "OK, this is our first (record), time to show what we've really got!" and this is why we hired Jonas, to bring out the best in us. So in the studio when you're playing for the fourth hour and (your) hands are hurting, and you have this tall, bald, Swedish guy in a leather nazi cap yelling in your ear, like "play it better!! What!? You're a metal guy!! Do it better!!" It was great.
(laughs)



WULF: That's awesome. Yeah, I was just kind of wondering about that, I'm always interested in the recording process. So, the music video for "Reclaim My Heritage" is really cool. I like how it's you guys playing in that place, and then there's the old, ancient texts of like the occult or something in there, it's awesome. I was curious, first of all, about where it was filmed.

TAPIO: Well, here comes the big secret. We had a budget for the video, which was zero dollars, but luckily our guitar player Sami (Jämsén) works as a video and media producer, so we basically directed the whole video. It was shot in a very unique place, the underground garage of their company.
(laughs)
But the other footage with the girl and stuff is in the Finnish National Library, in central Helsinki. Those are the two places (since) we really had no money to do the video, but I'm more than happy how it turned out. It's cool.

WULF: It looks really professional. I think it looks great. Anyway, as I understand with the girl, she was a Miss Finland finalist, Minna Nikkila? Is that right?

TAPIO: Yeah. How we got her in the video is that she works in the same company as our guitar player, like two desks over.
(laughs)
During a work day (he asked her), "do you want to do, like, this photo shoot to advertise our t-shirts? You'll get a t-shirt!" Then, (he was like) "would you like to be in a video? We can't pay you."
(laughs)
She's a wonderful girl and she's really cool, so she was like "OK!"

WULF: That's awesome! Does she like metal?

TAPIO: Um...not really, no!
(laughs)
She's a cool person. It's funny, she's been doing modeling for a long time and after our video came out two or three months later she was like, "OK, I'm going to be in the Miss Finland Competition!"



WULF: Yeah, she's really pretty. Well, OK, so I'm sorry to hear the news about you guys not being able to tour in North America, that really sucks. Since you're not going to be going on tour here, do you have any plans for touring anywhere else, like in Europe or anything?

TAPIO: We just came off a European tour we did through February and the start of March supporting Hypocrisy all over Europe, which was really good for us. We were supposed to come to the US right after that tour but then US Homeland Security decided that they didn't want to give us work permits. I've been keeping tabs on our friends Swallow the Sun and Finntroll they're really bummed about this but let's just say that we're hoping we can remedy this in the future. This time (US Homeland Security) thought of us as not commercially viable or whatever in the United States with the first album, so let's hope when we get a little more time and maybe another release under our belts we'll be able to tour there.

WULF: Yeah, because I'd love to see you guys! I'm sorry about that! Our government kind of sucks. Well, OK, so in your experience touring, where would you say is the craziest city to play? Anywhere in the world. Who has the craziest fans?

TAPIO: Well, I've played with several bands all around the world. Let's just say (there are a lot). Russia, Moscow has always been insane, still a lot of metal bands don't go there that often so metal fans there are starved for music and they are insane!
(laughs)
There are places I've played in the old, behind-the-Iron Curtain countries like Slovakia and Slovenia, which have been amazing. For us, on the last tour, really surprisingly France was really good. The guys were really into us and giving us a chance, most of (them did not know) who we were and (had) come to see Hypocrisy, but they were really into us which was good. I remember I did one tour with Finntroll in the United States and Canada, and in Canada Toronto was cool, we did one wild show in Poughkeepsie, New York which was awesome...I don't know, I'm in this whole thing just for playing live. I love it, and let's just say that's my sole reason for playing music. I don't enjoy the studio all that much, 90 percent of it is shit.
(laughs)
Playing live, that's my thing.




WULF: Yeah, I think most musicians would probably agree with you. I'm sure the studio time gets really tedious.
(laughs)
Well then, the follow up to that (question), is what is the craziest band that you've ever toured with? Either a band that you've played in or a band you've been on tour with in addition to your own band, which would you say?

TAPIO: Well, let's just say that the years with Finntroll were really insane, from start to finish. The band that I really enjoyed being on tour with was Napalm Death, they're a bunch of really awesome people. The best people in the whole business that I've ever met. But if you think just in terms of crazy we went on this one tour with Napalm Death, Black Dahlia Murder, and Belphegor. Black Dahlia Murder, who were then on their first European tour, were like the new kids set loose on Europe, and it was so much fun I still bear scars from that one.
(laughs)

WULF: That's awesome man! It's good to hear that an American band can at least kind of hold their own maybe, in Europe.

TAPIO: It was a nice experience for us, maybe not for them. They were these young, 20 year-old American guys stuck in a bus with a bunch of old Finnish guys and old Polish guys, Vader. Let's just say that (The Black Dahlia Murder) were not that used to the (large) amounts of vodka in the bus.
(laughs)

WULF: Well, I know that we're out of time and that you've got another interview after this, so that's all the questions I have. I wish you the best of luck in the future, hopefully we'll be able to get you over here to North America and I can't wait to hear the new Survivors Zero stuff that you've got lined up for us in the future, hopefully.

TAPIO: Yeah, the plan now is to go into the studio in September and release a new album hopefully in the beginning of 2011. We also have a split live DVD out with a friend band, Sotajumala, out of Finland, which, if you can your hands on it, check it out.

WULF: Yeah, I saw that on your metal-archives page! I'm a big fan of metal DVDs so I definitely marked that down for something (I want to get). Well anyway, thank you so much for talking to me, Mr. Wilska. It's been an honor, and I wish you the best of luck in the future.

TAPIO: Thank you man, thanks for having me. Have a good one.