SOURCE – Stam1na will be releasing it’s latest studio offering titled SLK on February 2nd. Can you tell us about the album’s lyrical theme? And what subjects the album explores?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – Actually it’s out February 7th as far as I remember. The whole thing is build on a thin story line, not chronological, but in a way that every song has something incommon. The story is about death, electricity, horses, heart and about a weird parade. It’s art in fashion of death metal estetics.
SOURCE – Your last studio offering Nocebo was released in 2012, less than 2 years ago. How has the writing/recording process been for SLK? How doesit differ from its predecessor?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – Stam1na has been always highly active in making albums. We release them on steady bases every second year or so. We are so full of ideas, haha. SLK was not exeptional case, we just started to think about new material after few months after Nocebo. Somehow this time we ended up having lots of more simple and heavy riffs to base the thing on. Not a bad starter.
SOURCE – Punctuation aside, how would you say you’ve progressed as a band?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – We just started to rehearse on our backing vocal lines… This year Emil and Kaikka are all about backing me up when live. So as a musician group we have started on developing the live sound quite a bit more than before. This is a direct effect from having Emil as a keyboardist and a member of the group. He has brought a sense of civilization in our traditional guitar based metal band. It’s nice to learn!
SOURCE – What was the experience like working with Tue Madsen?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – To be honest, I actually do not know. We were in contact only via email. That’s it! We haven’t even met the guy in person. We just operated by mail.
SOURCE – Is there a specific experience you try to create for your audience when you create music?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – Feeling and athmosphere is the key. May it be metal song or a slower am, it’s always important to look at the song in a whole form, not just as a pile of riffs or pieces of songs. And when one expands that idea, it is crusial to understand the consept of full lenght album as a solid piece of art in itself. The artwork, music, whole concept.
SOURCE – As your new material adds to the name Stam1na, what are you most looking forward to achieving in the future?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – A nice carrier as a developing band. Not just to remake the earlier stuff all over again.
SOURCE – Are expectations, and these false rules that people tend to put around certain genres, the biggest negative aspect of being a musician?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – When a band reaches a certain status, let’s say like in our case, peolple and fans expect to hear something new in every turn of our line of work. It is really good thing.
We are almost forced to create new solutions and new material, new look every time. It keeps us in a creative mood. Live shows are the way to bring it all together then. We belong in no specific genre I think. The next album might be a jazz influenced reggae. There are no negative aspects in this work, besides the whole public scene we need to attend to. That sucks sometimes.
SOURCE – Finland has always been known for its top-notch Metal bands in particular as we all know. Whats your opinion on the current local Finnish Metal scene in general? Are there any newcomers you support and would like to recommend?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – The new breed seems to redo some of the old speed metal thing now. Denim vests and all. It is good that the young grip their gear in a sence of training hard with their musician talent. Not just to bash it around like shitty punks. Metal music is proper start to take, it has some needs with the technical requests in it’s musicians. You have to have some knowledge how to play a guitar, not just slap it aroung. It is highly appreciated. I recommend such bands as Madred or Lost Society.
SOURCE – Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
Antti Hyyrynen (Vocals, Guitar) – Check out our music video Panzerfaust. Then tune in with the full lenght. It is all in Finnish but I would not say it is a problem.
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