Hails!!
Here is a new interview done with the great Finnish band Desolate Shrine.The band is getting ready to release their 3rd cd and I believe LP through the mighty Dark Descent Rec. so if you have heard this band you know what I am talking about and if you are new to them and enjoy Dark death metal with some very well played music defintly check this band out today.
Metal regards
Patrick
fiendformetal@live.com
Interview with L.L all instruments for Desolate Shrine done by Patrick
1.Metal hails L.L how is 2015 starting out for you? When did you first become interested in playing music?
I think I´ve always been interested in playing and composing music. At pre-school age I took a bunch of piano lessons for some years but never really “felt it” that much. It never grew into a passion. With the newer technology - midi, trackers etc - I found a way to do full songs with all the necessary instruments no matter how awful they sounded. It still did remind me of so called real music enough. Then I got a guitar, played with it for awhile and got bored. At some point I did realise that drums are the instrument that I most want to play as it felt so physical. Hitting things made me feel good. At that point I was bad to okay with almost any basic band instrument so I could swap roles between them. I never liked practising techniques and that´s why I never became a technical player. In hindsight it does not matter as I can do whatever I want at the level I´m ok with. This fact have also shaped my musical preferences: passion can and must be audible - mistakes belong to music that are crafted by human beings. Being perfect makes everything utterly boring and soulless.
2.What were the first instruments you learned to play? Are their any instruments you don't know how to play but hope to learn someday soon?
I´ve always liked woodwinds, violins and other classical instruments. “Jethro Tull” flute would be great addition too but at least now it feels that it would require too much effort and time to really learn the instrument properly. We´ve been talking with few friends about hauling as many weird and ethnic instruments as possible and start jamming and see what comes out. This, of course, would have nothing to do with metal and would not interfere our current bands. Everything has it´s place but not necessarily everywhere. Anyway, it´s good to have curiosity about different things and think outside the box thus keeping things interesting for yourself.
I hate harpsichord and pan flute from the bottom of my heart though
3.Who are some of your influences/favorite Musicians? If you had the chance to work with any Musicians {past or present} who would you like to work with?
For me the main influences are mostly from 90´s. Quite obviously the swedish death metal scene (Entombed, Dismember, Grave etc.) and norwegian black metal (Darkthrone, Emperor and all the basic stuff) made the biggest impression while I was younger. These were not the first metal bands for me but the most influential. I did grow up with all the classic 80´s thrash, thanks to my older brother, but none of that did not make as lasting impression as aforementioned 90´s bands. I still adore many bands from that era (and before) but I found my own musical identity somewhere between ´90 to ´95.
Nowadays I draw a LOT of inspiration from soundtracks, ambient, classical music and non-metal music in general. When I listen to metal I tend to get really uninspired about, well, composing and playing metal. There are thousands of metalheads at the rehearsal place mimicking every other metal band in existence. Why the fuck should I do it too ? This is, of course, a fruitless way of thinking but I can´t seem to escape it. Therefore I´ve found other sources of inspiration to keep me going.
Hard to come up with someone I´d really like to work with, to be honest. LG Petrov could drop some guest vocals. I´d be okey with that. I´d be Honored to work with most of my idols but maybe not that much in DS context. If, for example Fenriz or King Diamond would ask me to participate in whatever project I would say “yes” in an instant
4.When did you first get the idea to form Desolate Shrine? What is the current line-up?
It was somewhere around 2008 or 2009 when I started working with this idea of “mid-tempo death metal with HM2 -guitars and doomier parts”. I was absolutely sick of technical death metal, metalcore and stuff like that at the time and wanted to do something else. For me it felt like bands were competing about how many notes you can play in one song - everything seemed to be more athletics than music. Every band had started to sound the same as the production (especially drums) started to have certain unhealthy standards. Drums were mostly samples and everything had to be on grid. Desolate Shrine was, in a way, born out of this idea that I had to do something differently - to counter this annoying trend somehow. Of course there were a lot of amazing bands doing that already at the time but almost all that caught my attention were way overproduced, boring and soulless.
Current line-up is the same as it has always been and probably will be as long as we do this under a banner of Desolate Shrine.
5.Desolate Shrine's newest cd "The Heart Of The Netherworld" will be released in early 2015 by the great label Dark Descent Rec. how did you come in contact with the label?
R.S. knew Matt who asked us if we were interested in releasing the upcoming (The Sanctum) through DDR. The label fit as really well so no problems there.
6.How long did it take you to write the music for the new songs? Where do you usually draw inspiration for the lyrics?
The whole writing process took about two years. Usually the songs come in 2 to 3 at the time and then there´s a longer break. At that time we´ll see where the material is taking us and where we should be heading. It´s important, for me, to let inspiration come naturally and therefore there has to be time for inspiration to build up so it can burts again with maximum force. That´s how music comes together naturally and never forced.
Most of the time I have some kind of idean about the “feel” of the song. The structure and/or main idea what I will then follow more or less. Sometimes, during the writing process, the big picture may distort and twist into something completely different but it does not matter. The longer songs (We dawn anew, desolate shrine, the heart of the netherworld) all had a clear structural “guidelines”: how the song starts, how it ends, what happens in the middle, what and how the dynamics alter etc. The vision never changed but the riffs might have. It´s all about a mood I´m trying to create as I see songs as stories instead of collection of riffs. This is why every single note (or absence of it) has it´s place and meaning.
We are all about albums as a whole. Songs have to be good too, of course, but DS albums are meant to be listened from start to finish. I am aware that most people don´t like this approach and never really concentrate on what´s going on and therefore sadly miss the point but that´s their loss. Even in extreme metal people wants to have songs that are “bite sized”, easy to bang your head with. We are not that band they are searching for in that case.
For "The Heart of the Netherworld" album the lyrics are based on M.L´s personal life occultic workings, studies and findings.
7.Does Desolate Shrine ever play live very often or is this a studio only band? Are their any tours or shows planned for 2015? Who will be some places you all will play?
We have played one gig so far at Steelfest 2014, Finland. We had help with session members who are also our friends and currently active at Finnish metal scene. It went well - way better than expected as we did not have too many rehearsals and I had to revisit older songs that I had no clue anymore how they were played. It was a lot´s of work over a short time period. Overall it was a good experience and now that we know it (live) can work, I see no reasons why not do it again some time. But right now it´s not something I´m thinking about. We will see what the future holds.
8.LL. are you or any of the members of Desolate Shrine currently working with other bands?
R.S. is active with Lie in Ruins, Perditions Winds and an yet unnamed (as far as I know) project. M.L. is with The Crescent, Lord of Pagathorn and Famulus ab Satanas. I´m currently working with a doom project which still has no name. All the songs are pretty much written but there is lot´s of work ahead. It´s really, really slow and heavy with, unsurprisingly, very long songs. I don´t want DS to turn into a doom band so I have to purge some of these… impulses somehow.
9.Desolate Shrine comes out of the mighty Finnish metal scene what is your opinion on the scene in Finland?
The Finnish scene is, as far as I know, quite healthy at the moment. I don´t follow it too much though. Most of the “buzz” is about the mainstream stuff and the same bands are at the limelight year after year. The thing is: we have really, really strong underground scene which I feel is very underrated. It´s not surprise though as the metal scene is so over saturated here. Most of the better bands don´t get the attention they need. I mostly follow what my friends bands are doing nowadays.
10.Well we have reached the end of the interview thank you for taking the time to fill this out.Do you have any final words for the fans?
Thank you for support and the interview! I hope some people will buy the physical version(s) as the artwork is a big part of the band and album.
To Order the new Desolate Shrine please check out the Dark Descent web-shop here
http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/
Desolate Shrine Contact info
https://www.facebook.com/desolateshrine
http://desolateshrine.bandcamp.com/
