“We don’t plan ahead ever too much what we do. We’re quite a random group of random people doing random things,” laughed Tuomas Rounakari, violinist for Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani, “but these demos were done pretty quickly and Jonne (Jarvela, vocals) wrote most of the songs and then we did the arrangements together. There was no plan or fixed goal but as we worked on the demos it just revealed itself that ‘Kulkija’ – which means wayfarer or wanderer – appears in all of the songs more or less so we didn’t have a concept album in mind but at the end it feels like all of the songs are told from the travellers eyes and witnessed by the travellers eyes. That happened in the studio, all of these realizations, and that’s quite common for us.”
In the full interview Tuomas discusses the latest album in greater detail, including the story behind the ten minute epic ‘Kallon malja’ and how difficult it is to maintain musical intensity in a song of that length, the use of a children’s choir in ‘Sillanrakentaja’, how the band transformed from a folk band into the current metal-laden sound, the possibility of an Australian tour and more.
