Insomnium by: Jeff Ficklin 04.2010

Hello and thanks for taking your time for this interview with Realms of Metal! So how goes things in the Insomnium camp?

Ville Friman: No problem and things are going well at the moment, thanks for asking. We are currently taking few months off from gigging before the summer festivals and European tours with Ghost Brigade in May and with Dark Tranquillity in September. I have started wrapping up some new tunes already and hopefully we can hit studio 2011. That’s about it.

Insomnium seems to be one of those bands that, for the people who do know of the bands existence, are very highly regarded and very critically acclaimed. With every album the band has released receiving so much positive feedback, does the band ever feel any pressure in living up the last album when writing new music?

Ville Friman: Well at times yeah of course. However, you can’t take the criticism that heavily whether it is good or bad. In my opinion criticism is always good for you when it’s justified. It gives you outside opinion that you lose yourself when you dig deep into your own doings. I see it as an avenue to become better in making music.

Across the Dark features Insomnium’s first use of clean vocals. Do you like how they turned out and do you perhaps foresee more use of them in future work?

Ville Friman: Yes, we are pleased with the vocals (in courtesy of Jules Näveri from Finnish band Profane Omen). I did some demo vocals and Jules came down to the studio to nail them down with his own style and additional vocal harmonies. I’m pretty sure we will use some clean vocals on the next album as well, but the Niilo’s growls are and will always be the main vocal element in Insomnium’s music.

Are their any specific themes you all have expressed with Across the Dark?

Ville Friman: Maybe the lyrical themes can be boiled down to the fact that we are getting older and starting the see life in different way. So there’s lot of things related to luopuminen and also the aspect of valuing all the things you have in your life. Those things and people are not here forever.

To me, each new Insomnium album seems to be getting more of a doomy atmosphere to it. Is that intentional or am I just off on that?

Ville Friman: I think you are right with that. However, I would say that it is more of natural development. We just seem to like more of the epic sound nowadays I guess. It might even be the path we will follow even further in the future. 

I hear people say Insomnium take a lot of inspiration from this band or that band and most commonly Amorphis comes up. Where does the inspiration for writing the music Insomnium creates come from?

Ville Friman: For me it comes most often from playing the guitar itself. Of course you have your musical backbone build up into your head because you have listened metal music for decades. So basically you probably subconciusly find the same patterns with your guitar that appeal to you in your favourite bands’ music. I mean the intention is not to rip off anybody. It’s just that you probably end up reminding something someone else has done before when you start to come up with your own tunes. For me the music is something that just develops from one idea to another. Your song is mere your own expression of music you hear around you. In that sense, we are still quite close to folklore and for example the subgenres of metal music could be loosely compared with traditional tunes. I mean you use certain chord progression to get that “evil” sound in black metal and different bands could be viewed just expressing their own variation of that chord progression. Basically we are using most of the time only few chords and only add some variation into it in order to get something new out of it.

A friend from the country of Libya wanted me to ask this question. Melodic death metal has seen much change for bands over the years. Bands like Soilwork and In Flames who were some of its founders have drastically changed their style to a much more accessible and mainstream sound, boosting them to new heights and legions of new fans who really don’t know much about the music while alienating most of their old fan base of fans who have been their since the beginning. But you have a band like Dark Tranquillity who has stuck it out, keeping to their sound and continuously release high-praised albums but are still far from the success of the before mentioned. What are your thoughts on this?

Ville Friman: I think we are not commercial enough to grab that wider attention that fast. However, for me it is more important to stay true to yourself instead of incorporating the business side of thinking to your music. I think for us the music we make is more of an art in a way that it is a channel for your self-expression. We also want to keep it that way instead of doing as commercial music as possible. I think Opeth and Mastodon have shown quite well that also the un-commercial music can succeed. Besides, we have our daily jobs and careers, so we don’t have that pressure to get living out of this band. Still, we believe in what we are doing and want to keep on going till the bitter end. 

Swallow the Sun are the most fun drunks I’ve ever been around. I recall Pasi, the now ex-drummer, went from signing an autograph to signing foreheads, to signing his band mates to signing himself. Do you concur?

Ville Friman: Yeah, I agree totally. They are a bunch of hilarious dudes even sober J Great guys and a great band!

Despite how damn good Insomnium is, I doubt it brings in the money to live off of. So I’m assuming with such epic music, you all must have some epic day jobs? Right?

Ville Friman: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I mean even though things are constantly developing to better direction you really cannot live out of this. Not even close, hah. I’m currently doctor in the evolutionary ecology and working in the University, Ville Vänni is a medical doctor and is currently specializing to become a surgeon, Niilo has done his masters in cultural history and works at the library and Markus will soon become an engineer in environmental sciences. Might sound quite academic but in reality we are quite far from it, at least in the gig bus J

What are your opinions on internet downloading? Do you feel it has possibly affected Insomnium at all?

Ville Friman: Well I hope it have had some positive effects for us in getting the word out. At least we have lots of views in youtube for our music videos and I think that’s good promotion. I mean, I can admit that I download music from the internet but I also buy lots of albums. It’s a good way to get sneak preview of the material. It’s easier to justify downloading to yourself, when you are cool with other people downloading your own music as well. Of course my situation is different from people that make music for their living. But what can you do it really? Close down the internet?

Any bands you listen to lately that made you absolutely cringe?

Ville Friman: I’m not sure if cringe means good or bad as I don’t have any dictionary nearby? Anyway, there’s lots of shit music I just keep neglecting and don’t even take it in. So no hate relationship there, I just try to concentrate on good bands and good music.

Can you tell us a random hilarious memory while touring?

Ville Friman: Well, there’s quite many of those and you can find most of them from our tour diaries. I think in general the best thing in touring is when everything goes smoothly and you’re just having bloody good time with your friends. Just playing good shows and drinking the night away. Lot’s of hilarious things can happen then…

If Insomnium had to close down it’s doors today for some reason or another and you got to put on one final gig, what would you personally want to play as the final song and why?

Ville Friman: I think I would choose the Last Statement. The name says it all.

Where is perhaps the biggest fanbase for Insomnium?

Ville Friman: Well, it’s really hard to tell. But at least we sell quite a lot records here in Finland.

What do you believe as the proudest musical achievement you have reached with Insomnium thus far?

Ville Friman: I think the fact that we have been able to produce good albums for the whole duration of our career and have never given up. I mean, the success does not come that easy and you have to be willing to work hard and strongly believe into yourself and your vision.

Does it ever get confusing with two Ville’s in the band? I’m assuming there must be some nicknames?

Ville Friman: Yes, we have some secret pseudonyms for all of us. However, I’m not going to reveal them to you here, hah ;)

What is in store for the future of Insomniun? More specifically, when are you gonna get back to the states and rock our asses off again here in North America?

Ville Friman: We will start touring until the October here in Europe and see where it takes us. We are currently in the middle of record deal negotiations so there are lots of things happening. Hopefully we get to North America again at some point as well!

Thanks for taking your time and answering these questions for us! Any closing words for all those potentially new US fans?

Ville Friman: Thanks for the interview and if all of you people who like good quality metal, check out INSOMNIUM @ insomnium.net