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BACK
KALMAH
Changes in the music
By Adrian ‘The Energizer’ Bromley
The world of making music is a simple one when you
think about it—even though I have no musical creativity at
all—and those that have a worthwhile interest in it always
seem to follow the same procedures to some degree: Come up with
ideas, work them out with fellow band members and then record them.
Through some trying times, conflicts and agreements, the music is
assembled within a studio and with any luck, the final product conveys
the initial vision. Easy as 1-2-3, right? Not always…
"The last record that we put out [2001’s They Will Return]
was a bit of a struggle for us, let me tell you," says guitarist/spokesman
Antti Kokko of Finnish act Kalmah. "We were going through some
lineup changes, we got delayed in the studio, it took a while to
get the ball rolling, and we had to basically take what we got out
of the chaos from the studio. The album was good, but this one is
much better."
Plus you have a stable lineup now.
"Exactly," he responds. "This lineup [guitarist/vocalist
Pekka Kokko, drummer Janne Kusmin, keyboardist Pasi Hiltula and
bassist Timo Lehtinen] has been intact for a while now and we had
plenty of time to prepare and work on this album—almost half
a year before we went in to work on it. We were really able to grow
as a tight unit and it was like we could do whatever we wanted once
we all felt comfortable together."
The new album in question, Swampsong (on Century Media), continues
where the band left off with the last album: melodic, tight and
lots of fancy guitar work. While still deeply rooted in the vibe
and flow of their debut full-length, 2000’s Swamplord, Swampsong
sees the band enhancing the emotions within their keyboard and guitar
work. Still fast and furious, the music seems to have elevated itself
to a much more mature plane. Recklessness has been replaced with
sturdiness and focus. No doubt this record is a strong representation
of a band that has built itself on experience.
"There has been a lot of buildup to this record and we knew
going in that we had some great music—much stronger than some
of our previous work. I think Swampsong really shows that we are
into what we do. You can just tell we love playing Kalmah’s
music. It felt very easy for us this time around—I guess that
comes with experience."
What was one of the main focus points of recording Swampsong?
He answers, "One of the main points with this recording was
to separate the role of the keyboards and the guitars. We wanted
there to be a lot of dialogue between the two instruments, as in
the past they worked pretty much side by side. That was one initial
change we wanted. We also worked a bit on the vocal patterns and
slowed things down a bit in regards to the rhythm section. I think
overall we wanted to change the flow of things for Kalmah, but at
the same time keep the same vibe coming along. I think we did good."
Any ideas that didn’t work?
"Not really. When we went into Tico-Tico Studios we had already
focused on the nine songs that were going to make up Swampsong.
We worked hard for months perfecting them and reworking ideas. It
seems pointless, at least for us, to have so many songs because
it kind of makes a band lose momentum with so much going on. These
nine songs were going on the record in some form or another."
He continues, "The studio is a great experience for us and
it always has been something we like. Unlike a lot of bands who
use computers to their advantage to redo a solo like 10 times and
fix things up digitally, we are a band that likes to work with the
moment and do everything with one take. I don’t think we are
a perfect band and always get stuff down in one take, but if you
practise and work and rework stuff over several months like we did
in preparing for this album, then when it comes time to record it
should all flow out and you get a good honest vibe coming from the
take. Music is very emotional and when you get it down the first
time it sounds a hell of a lot better than the twentieth take that
has been worked on with a computer."
When Kalmah shot onto the scene a few years back, a lot of people
were excited about their music and their use of folklore ideas.
Some saw them on par with Children of Bodom because of the extensive
and passionate focus on guitar work. People were excited that Kalmah
was bringing a fresh vibe to the music scene. Does Kokko think Kalmah
still delivers the same vibe nowadays, and what does he think of
today’s metal scene?
"I think we are pretty lucky to be where we are. I mean, the
whole music scene is plagued by nu-metal bands, and it sucks, and
it feels good knowing that bands like us are putting out metal albums
that really are metal and not trendy music.
"There is a lot of shit out there right now," he adds.
"To be honest, I don’t really own or buy a lot of today’s
music because I just don’t like any of it. I prefer to stick
with a lot of the older bands, bands from the ’80s. I know
it sounds bad and all and I should support what is going on, but
really there is nothing that grabs my attention. I usually stick
with older bands from the early ’90s that I know and still
continue to write good music, Hypocrisy being one of the bands I
still quite enjoy. Great music."
I don’t know about that. Catch-22 wasn’t that good of
a record for Hypocrisy. Rather boring.
He concludes, "Well, they still do it for me, and I guess that
is all that matters. Their music, like Kalmah’s music, affects
me in many ways."
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