BATTLELORE – Interview with Jyri

Right after the Atlantis-Lovelorn-Tour, Jyri and me decided to talk a bit about what is going on in the Battlelore camp right now… There are some interesting things for you. So, here is the full interview…

Hello Jyri! Thanks for your time. There are a lot of news in the Battlelore camp at the moment. Let´s talk first about the tour. You were on tour with Sirenia, Trail of Tears, Edenbridge and Saltatio Mortis last year. And now the tour with Elis, Darkwell respectively, Leaves´ Eyes and Atrocity has just finished. If you compare those two tours, where are the differences? Which progress could you see?

The main differences was in arrangements, and booking agency. Everything was much better organized and arranged that on our last tour. Now we had really professional crew with us and all the conditions were just great. We were also very lucky with the other bands because there were no assholes in any band and we get along relly well with all the others.

There are some line-up changes at the moment. Tomi Mykkänen, the singer of Evemaster, replaced former singer Patrik Mennander on tour. What happened?

We had a long talk with Patrik and we saw that he has no time to be a member of Battlelore anymore. We all wanted him to stay and also he was eager to continue with Battlelore, but he has two tattoo firms, family and loads of bills to pay so he can't join on our tours and even in studio, it has been quite rough with his time. It was just impossible for him to leave his job even for a few days and we just had a tour of 32 gigs. It is a pity that this happened but Battlelore must go on.

How have the fans reacted because of that?

Of course it has been a shock for the fans but I'm sure that they'll understand this situation.

Is there any chance to see Tomi Mykkänen as a firm/full Battlelore member?

Yes, there is a chance. We are going to do some demo recordings in December/January and we'll see how Tomi's voice works on tape. He is great on stage and a really nice guy, so I hope that everything goes well and he could be a full member of B'lore.

What about Timo Honkanen: He replaced Miika Kokkola on bass on tour. Why didn´t Miika join the tour? Is he still a member of Battlelore? Will he appear on the next album?

Miika couldn't join on this tour because of his work situation. I saw Miika few times before we made the tour and he was like drowning in his work projects. Sometimes you just have to choose between your normal everyday life and your band. Miika has also a family to feed up so it is not that easy to left home and your job for two months especially when the payment on these tours aren't so good. At the moment Miika is still a member of the band, but it seems like that he won't be able to perform on our third album.

Back to the tour: Is there a special concert of the last tour which has influenced you or which was very worthy of remembering it?

Well, most of the gigs were awesome, but in Portugal we had a great time on stage. There was a full house and the people were acting like maniacs. And then there was this gig in Goteburg which was at the same time with Slayer and Slipknot and with national football match. That was a real fuck up from the booking agency. There was something like 30 people watching our show! Anyway we played it with full power and it was kind of a fun.

How did you go together with the other bands? Didn´t you argue some time? And do you still have contact to all of the bands you went on tour with?

As I already mentioned, we had great time with other bands and they all are really nice people and we have been mailing with some of the guys/girls.

Would you say that this has been the most successful tour for Battlelore so far?

Absolutely!

There was not much promotion for Battlelore in former times and there still is not much now. Although you have a big crowd of underground fans, you haven´t made the big deal yet. How would you explain that? Why is that?

As a support band, you do not get that much of attention than a headliners and in some venue's there were nothing about the support acts in posters or advertisements. First we have to make a some kind of small breal through before we will get headliner tours or even more promotion. I don't know why we haven't made it big yet, probably we just have to make better albums 😉 and get a bigger promotion. Hopefully we can reach that point with our next album.

What is the band doing at the moment? Is it planned to record another album in the near future? Do you already write songs?

At the moment we are demoing our new songs and we will enter the studio for the third album in 15th of March 2005. Almost all the new songs are written but now we just have to but all the necessary elements together and finish those songs as well as possible.

There is this fabulous new song called “Ghan of the woods”. Will the whole upcoming album be aggressive like that song?

Not the whole album. I think that the third album will be heavier than Sword's Song but there's a lot of melodies and moody parts also.

About the songwriting: How are you working? I mean, do you write the songs all together or is someone the main songwriter?

I write about 50% of the songs and all the lyrics. Jussi does the half. Then everyone else has their free hands to add their ideas on those “skeletons” of the songs. Then there is a lot of discussions and experiments about what kind of ideas works best. It is always like a huge puzzle.

Why should somebody prefer to buy your album than any other release of our days?

Our style is quite versatile and we use three different kind of vocals on our songs and of course there is this Tolkien's fantasy theme.

How would you describe your music style?

This is a hard one… I would probably call it Fantasy Metal, but we have heard many descriptions about our music and I think that it is in the listener how he want to call our music.

What is next due to gigs and/or festivals? Is there already any (bigger) tour planned for next year after the new album?

We haven't planned anything but it would be very natural to do an European tour after our third album is released.

Battlelore also released a DVD, which I think, is a dreamworld for fans…

Yes, we released “Journey” DVD and it was a bit weird that Napalm Rec. wanted to release a DVD from us in such an early time because we are still a very young band. But the feedback from the DVD has been amazingly good.

Have you ever thought of recording a live album?

It haven't cross my mind yet, but maybe someday…

With which bands would you like to go

touring next time?

Of course it would be nice to tour with the bands we

already know but it is also nice to meet new people.

If I could choose from any band I would choose

Blind Guardian and The Gathering.

Do you rather play open air shows or hall concerts?

I like more halls because of the atmosphere. It doesn't look good in our case to play under the sunlight… orcs are afraid of sunlight.

What do you guys do when you are not on tour or in the studio?

I write songs or play roleplaying/video games with my friends. I guess I should do some “real” working also but I haven´t had time so far. The other guys are working or studying.

Just a simple question: What is the band name Battlelore standing for? What does it mean?

It is just a stupid name. Band names are always quite stupid and without any bigger meanings. Actually it comes from the word Folklore we just changed to Battle in it.

What wishes do you have for the future?

To make break through and earn my livings from the music.

And a further question: What do you think about your fanclub? 😉

It is still very young but I think that it will grow in near future.

Jyri, thank you very, very much!!!