December 30, 2003 in Cologne /(Köln) / Germany

Interview with Ville Laihiala of POISONBLACK

POISONBLACK, greeting from Northern Finland, gathers together some musicians which earned (and still do earn!) applause in bands like Charon (vocalist Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto or JP) and Sentenced (Ville Laihiala, who takes care of the guitar-duties here). Nevertheless, this band has a personality of its own, and half of the musicians are not connected to the big names standing behind Poisonblack. Those are drummer Tarmo Kanerva and bassist Janne Kukkonen. I don´t know exactly where to put keyboarder Marco Sneck, for he is currently a tour-musician in Charon aswell.
For the future, JP plans to leave the band, as he likes to focus on Charon only. The new vocalist meanwhile seems to have been found.

Ville: We´re gonna start to record the new album almost immediately when we come back to Finland. It hopefully will be out right after the summer.
Anja Fireangel: So everything is already finished?
Ville: We still got 3 songs that we have to rehearse, but.. almost there.
Anja Fireangel: That´s cool.
You told in many previous interviews, that you put all your feelings and emotions in that album. That way you make yourself also vulnerable. I wonder then, whether it is still better to express your feelings to outside than to keep them in and not be vulnerable to anyone?
Ville: To me, music is not just like a job. It is.. you know, every art should be like self-expressing, so obviously I will do the music in a way that you have to open up yourself. So it is a cleansing experience when you record an album; you get all the emotions out and.. you hear the stuff later on, when it is finished, when you even succeeded to create those feelings, I think that is the best part.
Anja Fireangel: So you get your feelings more concrete, because they are put in a song?
Ville: Yeah, of course, and sometimes when you are writing a song, you have this feeling about the song and you hear it when it´s ready, then it can be totally different than you were actually thinking about. It´s a cool feeling =)

Anja Fireangel: I read somewhere [in Poisonblack-Questions-page] that you said, you are continuously developing as an artist. I think everyone and every artist does. So how does it feel when you have a record released and then you have already new ideas? Is it then always that way: "the best is yet to come" or are all records put together, now in your case also from Sentenced plus Poisonblack, are they all pieces of yourself?
Ville: Yeah of course.
Anja Fireangel: Or that always the next is the best one to come?
Ville: I wouldn´t call it like "the best is still to come", it is just like parts of our lives, making music. And to be honest with you, right after recording you feel like totally empty. No ideas, nothing! Really! =)
And it can take like six months that I don´t write anything but suddenly it just starts. They come from somewhere, I don’t know where, but not right after the recording. You don´t wanna even listen to music right after the recording. [laughter]

Anja Fireangel: I heard that parts of the lyrics of "Escapexstacy" came from a story you wrote..
Ville: Yeah.

Anja Fireangel:...and you made songs out of them.
Ville: Yeah..
Anja Fireangel: Could it then also be that you can read the whole album as a story? Like these [the songs] are chapters of a story? Because, I noticed for example it has two layers [artwork and lyrics]. The artwork is very white in the beginning, and the woman is waiting with the rope, and in the end it is all black. And also you have the content of the songs. It seems to start with something ["The Glow Of The Flames"], then you have the "Exciter"-song [the rope tightens] and in the end death ["With Her I Die", "The Kiss Of Death"]. Is it like this?
Ville: jaaaa.. It is more or less a kind of a little story throughout the album. But it´s not a theme-album. It´s just bits and pieces from the whole story I wrote, and I just took some ideas out of it and made them like song-lyrics. But the way you described the album and the cover-artwork - you got it right! And that is good.
Anja Fireangel: Oh, thank you =)
Could a different role for you in Sentenced and Poisonblack be, that one is a band where five persons make the decisions and the other one is a band where only you decide?
Ville: Yeah, this is more like "my baby" you know. It is more my own thing, but still I feel really comfortable in Sentenced also. But the policy in the band, you know, how we do things and make decisions, is different in Poisonblack, because I make all the important decisions, also the music itself is more my own thing. But still we are a band; I am not like a dictator in the band or anything. Especially when we are in the studio, then I am a total a**hole, but not like for the touring.

Anja Fireangel: About the songwriting I have some questions. What do you think are the positive aspects of the day and the night, and which is the time for you to write the songs?
Ville: Night, of course. And I am really a night-time person. I stay up late and sleep very long. But, you know, it is quiet, is more comfortable. I just like the darkness. It is really hard to explain what it is good about it. It just feels… I don´t like the hassle of people around me. I like to be alone.

Anja Fireangel: You mentioned already that you don´t want to have too many people around. I think about: does an artist need to live in his or her own world a bit, to create new things, or is it more positive to have contact to many things in order to make up thoughts?
Ville: No, because I only write about how I feel about stuff, I don´t usually take stuff from the outside. So there are always more personal things. Now I totally forgot the question, I am sorry;)
Anja Fireangel: Oh, this was in right direction. Many people told me that they don´t want to get too many influences from outside. Like what is happening…
Ville: Yeah! You have to go in thinking in your own world when you start to write, because you don´t really need any disturbances around, you just have to concentrate when writing. But obviously, every person does it differently, so I can only speak for myself.

Anja Fireangel: How do I have to imagine the song-writing process? When you have a riff, do you record it into computer immediately or do you know it so well that you don´t need to note it down?
Ville: I usually played it so much that I don´t really record it. I only record it when I, you know, make some kind of rough demo tape. They are in my head =)
Anja Fireangel: Also the lyrics, don´t you write them down?
Ville: Yeah, I write them down, of course. I mean, with all this technology that is in this planet, I don´t really use it that_much. I am more like…. I am not really good with computers, let´s put it this way [smiles].
Anja Fireangel: Yeah, but I heard that you read the contributions in the forum also? On your homepages?
Ville: Yes.

Anja Fireangel: How long does it then take from an idea to a finished song? Like for Poisonblack you said, you have the story already there. And then later created something else out of it. Is it then some months, that thoughts develop, what to do with your ideas?
Ville: Everytime you do an album, it is almost a year long process, from the first note to the finished album. And some songs could take like three days to be ready and some can take three months; it depends on the song. And I usually want to rehearse them, change them, as much as, you know, I feel they are in the best way they could be.
Anja Fireangel: How do you know then that a song is ready?
Ville: I always feel, even in the studio, like I feel: it misses something, I am never happy. But usually we end up getting them.. we use to form them our way.

Anja Fireangel: You said somewhere [in Sentenced-Question-Page actually] that you like to write lyrics mostly for songs you composed also?
Ville: Yes.
Anja Fireangel: But in Poisonblack you have these three songs where Janne [Kukkonen] wrote the music [and Ville all the lyrics]. Is it then different because JP sings them and not you, or why is that? Or have you just changed your opinion?
Ville: At the moment the only person in this band who is taking care of the lyrics is myself. And with the new singer who´s coming to the band, I´m gonna leave like four songs without lyrics, for him to write. Because I want somebody else to take part in the lyric-writing, also. So that is the reason why I wrote those lyrics;) It is always a bit more difficult to write lyrics on somebody else´s song; because you really have to listen to the song and try to get the feeling what the song is about. It is much easier to write lyrics for your own songs.

Anja Fireangel: Is it then absolutely separate also for your own compositions? That you first have all the music and later think of the lyrics, or does it come alternating?
Ville: It can even be the other way around. Sometimes I just can write something down without even having any music around and then just start to play around, change the lyrics a little bit… You know, there isn´t like one way..
Anja Fireangel:..not one method. Okay =) What brought you into music at all? You said that you started the guitar-playing when you were ten. Can you imagine anything else that you like equally much as being a musician? Or was there never anything to decide between two things?
Ville: No… no =) Because the first album I ever heard was the KISS-album. The "Destroyer". I was gone when I heard it =) So this is always been like a tribute from me...... I´ve been doing this for almost eight years now. And maybe until one more year. But I am not gonna be touring much longer anymore. Maybe go work in the studio or something. But still at least one more year.
Anja Fireangel: I hope some more years, not only one year =)
Ville: We´ll see.

Anja Fireangel: About the recording process, you said already that you will go to the studio soon. I noticed that Poisonblack and Sentenced often work in studios which are not far away from home, for that would be more comfortable. So how do you feel when it starts? Excited? Or only want to have it finished?
Ville: Excited to go to record, because the new Poisonblack-songs, I think they are fu**ing killer! =) They are more in the way like the new song we will play. They are a bit more faster, bit more heavier, and maybe not so gothic anymore. But we´ll see. We are looking forward to it.

Anja Fireangel: How do you make it to get the feeling from the demo to the finished song? How can you transfer that?
Ville: It´s a hard job, but we just have to try. I mean, you just get into the feeling every time when you go into a studio and start to record, so you don´t really get to think about anything else, except the song that you are working at. Then the feeling comes pretty easy.
Anja Fireangel: Because I was thinking that, when you play songs live, they also vary, they are not always exactly the same. Sometimes I heard that people are dissatisfied with their album version, because they think that it is not "raw" enough anymore, it is too produced or something, compared to live-version.
Ville: Actually that is the sound I am looking for, for the next album. Not like overproduced, not like Eighties- keyboards_ this_and_that… more like "closer" music =) So we´ll see what´s gonna happen.

Anja Fireangel: Now it comes from songwriting, over recording to "being on stage". I think that you give a lot of yourself when being on stage and in the music. What do you think you get back from the audience, from the fans, what comes back?
Ville: An incredible amount of energy. Nothing compares to that feeling, except love! But it´s the reason why I am still touring. You can´t really explain it. No money can buy that feeling!
Anja Fireangel: I saw that when you were being at this years’ Tuska-Festival. It was different from "normal" gigs, I saw you back then in Germany also. But that one, you just wanted to have fun, and everything was great, and it felt very much like this also for the audience. It looked like you had really fun =)
Ville: Yeah, I did!

Anja Fireangel: When you think that with Sentenced you have a very dark side of yourself expressed, and with Poisonblack a new side, are there maybe other sides of you that you will maybe put in a third band? Or will the other topics be dealt with in private and not in a band?
Ville: The other sides are something that I`m gonna keep to myself.
Anja Fireangel: Because I found on Century-Media-Page a little interview where you tell that you have something going on with Tarmo [Kanerva], your drummer, called “The Newlydeads”.

Ville: Yeah, but we just play old trash-metal, punk or whatever… It is more like going to rehearsal-place and have fun. We are not gonna get a contract to this band.
Anja Fireangel: So you´ll keep it with two bands, not more coming up?
Ville: Yeah, just these two.

Anja Fireangel: I went to Finland a couple of times and I learned about this characteristic of "silence". Additionally last year I was also in Oulu, in summer, and I was totally struck by how light it is, and the sea [Ville nods], and also the silence in the town. What do you [especially] appreciate about this "being silent" so much?
Ville: I think we as Finnish people are so used to it, that we don´t really kind of even think about it. The only time I actually see that we come from the "silent country" or whatever, is when we are touring. Because we don´t really talk a lot with other people. It doesn´t mean that we are unpolite or anything like that, it is just that we kind of enjoy this quiet space around, you know what I mean. We are not like [demonstrates extremely extraverted behaviour] "heeeeyyy, how are you…?" Except when we are drunk. Then we are so..;D It is hard to explain, I´ve been living in Finland for 30 years and it is..
Anja Fireangel:..normal...
Ville: Yeah, it is normal and so it is hard to explain. It has always been like that.
Anja Fireangel: I just noticed that it can be very nice when there is not so much small-talk all the time.
Ville: Yes.
Anja Fireangel: People say something when they have to say something.
Ville: Yeah! That´s the way!
Anja Fireangel: I like that. Much more easier. =)
Ville: Yeah.
Anja Fireangel: What do you like most at your hometown?
Ville: It is not too big, I know most of the people. I´ve been living there all my life. Quite small town. Nice place.

Anja Fireangel: I found these old lyrics from "Broken" [from the Sentenced-record "Crimson"], because I like that song. They are not from you, they are from Sami [Lopakka].
Ville: Yeah.
Anja Fireangel: "This path that I´ve chosen´s a rocky one" and I wanted to ask you then: are you satisfied with the way your life turned out, despite maybe all the bad things on the side; is it worth fighting for, to go on? The good things?
Ville: Yeah, it is! I guess everyone has some things in their life that they would like to erase or do something different. But still I am totally happy about my life. I just got married, I´m having another child soon, this brings…
Anja Fireangel: Oh, you said everywhere you don´t want to marry? =)
Ville: And this woman just broke my principles! =) [shows his hand with the ring]
Anja Fireangel: Congratulations!!!
Ville: She has broken my every principles! [laughter] So I am happy at the moment.
Anja Fireangel: How old is your son now?
Ville: Two years and six months.
Anja Fireangel: Are you still playing him Poisonblack-songs?;D
Ville: Yeah;D Yeah, he knows the band.
Anja Fireangel: That´s a good way to grow up I think.
Ville:..or not;)

Anja Fireangel: Can you recommend any new fresh bands from the northern scene, also without a record deal? Do you have any names, what others could try out?
Ville: I haven´t really been following the Finnish scene for around a year now, I just been at home. So I can´t really.. I don´t know if there is any new bands at the moment. Because I don´t really go into the clubs, when I am at home. But usually there is always some good kind of harder music bands......The RMS, do you know the band?
Anja Fireangel: Yeah, I do.
Ville: They are a pretty good band.

Anja Fireangel: Okay, now my final question: What is the most important value to you?
Ville: [thinks a moment] To respect people. I don´t know, it is a hard question. Mainly respect people. Do others what you want them to do to you.

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