When it comes to Folk Metal, few bands on the face of this good green Earth play this style of music as well as Finland's very own Korpiklaani does. Interlacing epic Heavy Metal with their brand of "Humppa" Polka styled Folk Music, they manage to create a sound that would have you believe they are a group of insane Folk musicians from back when The Black Plague terrorized Europe. Well, that is if they could only find an electrical outlet to plug in their instruments back then! Join me as I talk with the ever busy Jarkko, Korpiklaani's newest member and bassist!

Jarkko: Hello! I am Jarkko Aaltonen, the bass player. I am also doing my share of the interview just to take some load off from the band leader Jonne (guitar, lead vocals). Obviously I can't say much about the bands past so I'll have to rely on Jonne on some of the subjects. The rest of the band are Cane on guitar and vocals, Hittavainen on violin, flutes, jouhikko and basically anything that gives a sound when you blow into it, Matson on drums and Juho, our junior, on accordion and probably on some vocals in the future as well.

Jarkko: We are old friends with Jonne. We've known since 1984 or something like that. We sort of lost track on each other for the whole 90's except for a few occasions like a Black Sabbath concert or a friends wedding. Actually it was at our friends wedding a couple of years ago where we met and talked a lot about music and other stuff like that for the first time in 10 years or so.

Anyway, Korpiklaani's bassist Arto had his military service approaching and they needed a replacement. Jonne remembered me and asked our common friend to ask me if I was interested. I borrowed the Korpiklaani albums for the weekend and next week I said "yes". The original idea was that Arto was going to come back after his military service, but things changed and I am now a permanent member in the band and actually quite happy that things turned out this way!

Jarkko: Well, they were nothing to write home about. Mostly local bands that never went anywhere. I did quite lot of gigging in the early 90's in a cover band that did mostly 60's and 70's classics. Not really my favourite music but at least we had great time together.

Jarkko: The first "real" band I was in was a heavy metal band. And since then I've mostly played metal. My earliest influences were probably Steve Harris and Geezer Butler. Later I found bassists like Geddy Lee, Jeffrey Hammond and Pekka Pohjola and realized that there is much more in bass playing. Those are the musicians that I've admired and tried to learn something from them. When I was asked to join Korpiklaani I was certain that would be able to play the stuff easily. Boy, was I wrong. The songs are quite simple, the bass lines are rather simple, but when you play them as fast as this band does, it is just not that simple anymore. I've really had to learn a different approach to this music, and to be honest, I am still sometimes a bit unsure if my bass lines are what is expected from this kind of music!

Jarkko: That is true. Juho, our accordion player, is the man behind Falchion.

Jarkko: Yes, the recordings will start on November 14th here in Tampere at the same studio (Phantom Studio) as the previous album. The producer will also be the same, Samu Oittinen. The band was extremely happy with him, the studio and the whole atmosphere so there's no point in changing anything.

We rehearsed the new material mostly without Hittavainen and at that time I thought the material was going to be a lot more guitar riff oriented metal, but then we spent a weekend with Hittavainen and it didn't sound like that at all. I guess we'll have to wait for a few weeks and then I'll know exactly what the new album is going to be like.

Jarkko: Yes, it will.

Jarkko: I think you've actually found the one thing that really makes us a bit different. As you said, most of the folk metal bands are just metal bands with some folk elements thrown in. The roots of Korpiklaani lie in the Sami folk duo "Shamaani Duo" that Jonne was in in the early 90's. That developed into Shaman which was still very folky although it had some metal moments. In the following years that developed into what Korpiklaani is today, and I guess the folk roots are still showing.

Jarkko: We haven't talked about that. There will probably be a few videos made but I have no idea if there will be any on the cd. I guess the record company has a word to say as well.

Jarkko: No, we don't. The recordings should be finished by the mid or late December. It'll take a few months until the album will be out so I'd say that the release date is somewhere in March or April.

Jarkko: That is actually a picture of a shaman with a drum and some sort of a war hammer. Similar images have been found in ancient rock carvings around Finland. Jonne saw the original image years ago and thought that it would make a great logo for a band. And it did. However, on the next album our own shaman will get some flesh around his bones and will start a new life as bit different looking fellow.

Jarkko: Yeah, Jonne is the main writer. Actually even the nomination was a total surprise for us, since we didn't really consider those lyrics as battle metal and then it turns out that we actually won! So many thanks to all those who voted for us!

Jarkko: We are ready and willing to play practically anywhere. Although I'd guess that that sort of a one-off concert is pretty much out of the question because it would be too expensive to travel there for just one gig. Ofcourse if someone is willing to pay that we'll definitely be there! To be honest, we've not even discussed about possible concerts outside Europe. We still have a lot of work to do in Europe, but maybe someday we'll be playing in the US as well.

Jarkko: Actually Shaman released only two albums Idja and Sham Despite of what many people seem to think, those albums are still available. You can order them quite easily from Korpiklaani's own website and some record stores still have those available as well. Shaman's albums are now published through Korpiklaani's publishing/merchandise company so practically they will never be out of print because we can always print some more!

Jarkko: Music in one form or another is my main hobby. I play in a local cover band which takes some of my spare time as well. And I spend all my money on old vinyl albums and cds. I have a bad habit of getting extremely interested in different artists and buying all their albums and couple of weeks later it's again the same thing with a different artist. If we forget the music, I really don't do that much. I really enjoy the long walks in good company in the surrounding forests.

Jarkko: No, it's nothing like that. We have saunas IN our houses! We don't have to go outside to go to sauna unless we want to go out to bath in the snow or swim in an icy lake. A great deal of Finns also have summer cabins with saunas. Some companies even have negotiations in sauna. Never underestimate the power of sauna. It is a great place to relax and on the other hand it is a great place to have a few beers with your friends. Maybe we should invite you to have a little beer and sauna session with Korpiklaani. We'll start with 2-3 days at first...

Jarkko: I am also very interested in hearing my first appearance! It's now November 23, we've now finished with the bass and drum tracks. We packed our gear today and they left to Germany by boat. The band will follow them on Friday morning and we'll play the first gig of the tour in the same evening. We'll return to the recording studio in mid-December. The album should be out in March-April. I'd like to thank you for your interest in our band, and hopefully someday you get to see us live. Either we come to the States or you'll have to come to Finland. We can combine that trip with the beer and sauna session...