Rockoon: Hello Ville – lovely to see you. Are you excited about presenting the new album to the press?

Ville: Let’s put it this way: I am nervous. But not because of the new album, cause this time I’m totally satisfied with it. You just put loads of time in it. Therefore it is really lovely that it is finally done. I feel absolutely agitated and enthusiastic about the album, now that the baby has finally been born.

Rockoon: How where the reactions to it so far?

Ville: Really good. But the reactions of the journalists aren’t as important as those of our fans who will hopefully like it. It is always a game and you never know the outcome.

Rockoon: In fact, I do think that especially your female fans will love it as it isn’t as doomy and bulky as Venus Doom.

Ville: Of course it isn’t as doomy as Venus Doom, but that just happens automatically. Back then we have listened to a lot of My Dying Bride, Cathedral, Anathema or Paradise Lost as well. And those bands have influenced us on Venus Doom a lot. But when we went on tour with those songs, we realized that it’s totally different to play overlong songs live. So we wanted to write shorter songs again, songs that come to the point quicker and are more melodic.

Rockoon: Which song is going to be the first single?

Ville: I think it will be Heartkiller. Basically I usually don’t care which song is going to be the first single as I believe in the album as a whole. But it is also important that a song combines all the aspects of the album in itself and is radio friendly at the same time.

I personally look at Heartkiller as a good accommodation to give the fans a first taste of the whole new album. It has, like all the songs on the album, alternative guitars and a huge melodic chorus. We could have taken a whole lot of other songs as the new single as well, it is the same for the other songs. So there is no mystic stuff behind our choice.

Rockoon: What kind of attitude do you (the band) have when your recording a new album?

Ville: We usually have the motivation that it will be our last album. Screamworks was simply supposed to be a rock album with 80s synths and direct choruses to sing along. It was supposed to be more than doomy and sad. We didn’t want a Venus Doom II. When I started to write the songs, the guitars were going into the direction of rock´n`roll and metal on their own. We probably got inspired by Rage against the Machine and the Stone Temple Pilots in that matter, but also by classic metal bands like Megadeath and Type O Negative.

Rockoon: I personally was surprised that some songs sound happier. What happened during the last year?

Ville (laughs): That is funny. I think it depends on how you are feeling in life at the moment. Maybe you are happy at that moment in life and therefore experience the songs as happy. Cause basically it is about the understanding that life is fucked – and to celebrate this. That it is absolutely okay to make mistakes and that you don’t have to hide them but to stick by them, to learn from your mistakes and to just go on… simply “fuck off”. That’s probably the punk attitude of the album. Honestly I have to tell you that there were emotionally much harder albums for me. Those have been dark, really dark. A friend told me that Screamworks sounds like a different kind of darkness. (laughs)

Rockoon: The happy side of darkness.

Ville: Not necessarily happy. It is more as if you were wandering over the waters of the ocean of melancholy, but not really diving in. Lyrically it is sad, but you just can’t stop jiggling your butt and having a good time. Therefore I wouldn’t call it a “happy” album.

More of the translation can be found here



Credit for the translation goes to wato_food on LiveJournal