"The Inn"

So, enter monday evening, enter 3 hours of ideas, riffs, brainstorming and whatnot. We had fun times, drinking coffee and listening to good and bad riffs and ideas. We also agreed that it would be nice (note: punctuation on the word "nice", as in "would-be", "ideal" and "hopefully") to start recording this year, preferably latest in Dec/12. However, we´re not doing music for the deadlines so if we ain´t ready, we ain´t ready and that´s about it. But let´s keep fingers crossed, I personally hold late 2012 recording very realistic.

Oh, so how went the sessions then? Tundra and Routa both provided some useful stuff and I also made a cool start for a new song. We stormed around and thought about the album intro and what kind of style and sound we´d like to hear overall. For now, we seem to think going a bit more "unpolished" sound and not so "overproduced" as the latest two albums but you might never know. :D I´m generally more into faster stuff and the guys would do rather "stomping" and mid- tempo- ish beats, so I´m sure in the end we will have enough variety and something for everyone. I had an idea for the album intro, which was turned down by the guys at the end, but we agreed at least what kind of intro we are heading for now. Something different, I can tell, as seriously you can´t do grunting trolls and booming percussions forever, haha. It´s always the same thing when we start brainstorming ideas and riffs together- one wants to do this, one that and in the end we all are loosing our sleep thinking how the hell you can actually combine Dead Kennedys with Nightwish with a spice of Emperor, but somehow it always settles down in the end.

Maybe I shouldn´t worry about it now.

On tuesday, Vreth shot an email on me and was excited to hear about the sessions. We also agreed that he´ll talk with Katla (I was talking about the lyrics in November with him, but he somehow "disappeared" and never got back to me after a couple of conversatios :D ) and they start to think about the lyrics. I wish I could get a couple of ones before making all the songs- it would be really cool to try out what kind of stuff I could come up with the lyrics beforehand- maybe some commercial sing- along- choruses and hooks? Money, baby!!!! :D

Some other bandmembers are most likely posting something here in the future too, so keep following this babbling every now and then. ^^

"Busting The Candy Machine"

Studio Diary- Day 0 minus some. Trollhorn´s private diaries, February 2012.

Note to the reader: Despite of the two (!!!) prologue- esque writings, this is how this blog kinda really starts. You probably already read the two other posts so it´s maybe a bit futile to tell you to start from here, but at least better late than never, right? :D

No- one wants to be a has- been. That´s exactly how I thought when I thought about Wacken and the main stage. Can you actually pull it off year after year playing Trollhammaren, NINE YEARS after it´s release? Thought so. While I personally think our albums get better by each (with a semi- exception on Ur Jordens Djup, but that´s another story) release, I also painfully realize that we´re slowly sliding into the category of the band who has made something in the past and somehow manages to still get good slots on festivals on that basis.

Sometimes it´s really hard to play in an semi- known band; On the other hand you kinda know you could probably pull it off by releasing some crap demo material or whatever circus music ( ^^ ) but on the other hand, sometimes you find yourself wondering what will the audience think of this and that, what are they expecting and are you going to make a musical suicide if you do song X or riff Y. While we´ve never though a flying fuck on the fact that "this might cost you your record deal, wife and that car loan you were finally granted with a shit- expensive interest", it sometimes scares me how easily people could be tricked with some "ok- ish" material, putting out an album in 2 years, doing 2 tours, 19 t- shirt- designs and call it a day.

And this is exactly why I feel like doing the complete opposite. It´d be such an easy job to name bands who have wimped out in order to preserve their earned status. You know, to maintain the audience and give them what the want and safe and familiar and HOLY FUCK WHAT IS THIS I DON´T EVEN? GET A FUCKING REAL JOB INSTEAD OF MILKING THE FANS, THANK YOU. With Finntroll, we could probably make an album every second year. Would it be good? No. Would it get us a slot in WoA main stage? Probably, if we agree on playing Trollhammaren and Jaktens Tid. Would that make us sleep better? No. Maybe with a bit more expensive pillow, though. But the thing is that we´re at least not getting any bigger than this, so why not to continue making the music we like instead of pleasing the major audience and earning the WoA main slot 2013?

But here´s the deal- try to do music with this kind of Motley Crew. 90% of the people are touring constantly and when they come home, they have their own lives, families, hobbies and tax- sheets to fill. We´re not exacly 21 anymore. You seriously think that when a 30+ year old guy comes home after spending 6 weeks in a filthy bus drinking heavily, the first thing he thinks at home is that "Wow, I can´t wait to see the guys again and meanwhile I´m gonna do some serious music for my band right away!!!!11" And then the physical part: One guy lives in Germany, one in countryside. Some have kids, some have very consuming day- jobs. Some have other bands while others are dying to get up the stage as soon as they return home. (Yes, there are some, believe it or not!) We are a very different bunch of friends, where each other have their own ambitions and priorities which don´t usually meet something than the others have. For example, my definition of a relaxing weekend is quite different to Vreth´s. And Beast´s 2- hour travelling to work isn´t exactly like Virta´s. You get my point. Everyone has so much to do in order to even maintain their normal lives that actually sitting down and even thinking of writing music is a fucking Guinness World Record- kind of event.
We like each other, see each other "voluntarily" to have beers and stuff like that but most of the time we´re tied into something else than writing music for Finntroll.

Except for now.

Since last November, we´ve carefully started to discuss about the process of a possible new album. With no- one taking the R- word into discussion (yes, recording), we´ve noticed to have more frequent phonecalls on "this one riff I did" and "I might have a small piece of song, would you be interested to hear it quickly if you don´t have anything better to do" and "heyyyyy, well, should we like...uhm, meet some day and do some music?".

DUDE, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I´VE BEEN WANTING TO SAY THE SAME.

Today, in two hours Routa and Tundra are coming to visit and we´re gonna have our first official  "making music- sessions". We always call them "sessions",  you see. I´m fucking thrilled to hear what the guys have done, thought and I want to hear their opinions on my stuff too. I haven´t actually felt this involved in Finntroll since goddamn.....ages? Look mom, I´m playing in a BAND!

Fuck yeah.

"Debut Of The Chron-O-John"

Hey ho, let´s go! This text was originally intended for a forum, as a "first post" on a topic concerning Finntroll´s upcoming album in the future, so it´s somehow edited from the original. Yesterday, I posted a new topic concerning the fact that the rumours of our death are greatly exaggerated. Well, to be honest, no- one actually thought we were actually split- up. Not with this touring at least. But the thing is that we thought people would deserve some kind of an update at least about what we are up to.

So, here it is: I am willing to unveil the curtain here concerning the new album of Finntroll.
First and foremost- we have NOT booked any kind of studio. Secondly, we don´t have a schedule. So, what´s this for you then?

"Hurray, Trollhorn announced news on the new Finntroll- album!"
- Great, when is it coming out and any news about the musical style or anything?
"Well, he said that there is no schedule at all and they don´t have any songs ready"
-Wait, that isn´t news....it´s like....

"But wait, there´s more! In this topic he will actually keep you posted irregularly on the actual songwriting process, news about the stuff, all sorts of miscellaneous bullshit concerning the album writing and also, at some point, some actual DATES. Because you want dates, don´t you. Yes, you do."

"Now that sounds better! So, maybe I actually start to visit this godforsaken Forum a bit more often now?"
- Well, don´t hold your breath. But maybe this will lit some light to your wondering what the hell is happening in the Finntroll- camp.

And finally,

"Introduction & Opening Themes"

There was once a thought in a teenager´s head that his favourite bands just get together in a rehearsal room whenever they wish and magically just create this awesome music. Then this superb music somehow transforms into a silver disc which I can listen to at home and bang my head with it.

I was so goddamn wrong.

This blog is about what actually happens before you are able buy download the album. It´s a really goddamn long trip from the first bad and unused riff into the actual record release, and we´re trying to cover a bit about what´s going to happen while you are eagerly waiting WHY THEY DON´T COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW ALREADY FREAKING LAZY MOFOS I DESERVE NEW MUSIC.

So, what´s this all about then? Finntroll, of course! And the fact that we have started to mold our...umm, seventh...(? )...full- lenght- album.

Finntroll is a Finnish metal band, existing since 1997. We have released...ummm, six albums, I guess and despite of dead members, internal quarrels and constant mischief we still somehow manage to pull it off. Our musical style is a tint of Black and Death metal combined with Scandinavian and European folk music, spiced with a dose of ska, cartoon- esque- circus- music and whatnot. We also boast with occasional Latin music, Psychobilly and Klezmer influences, so it´s kinda hard to explain, really. We are pretty much labelled as "Folk Metal" from the wider perspective, but we´ve never quite felt like belonging there per se.  Basically, we don´t even really care and nor should you.


You might want to check us out by yourself from various sites, such as:

Wikipedia
Official Homepage
Facebook
Myspace
Youtube

We are notoriously being known as somehow lazy band, who takes ages to come up with new material. So, after once again struggling between records, either splitting up completely for good or getting a grip on ourselves once again, we decided to activate musically. You see, we´re not your regular band who makes albums once in while- we´re actually a band who has to be kicked in the groin in order to do something. And this time we thought we could give people something to read about it. Everybody writes or puts studio diaries on Youtube- we are presenting you something else...


A diary about making and inventing  the material you will hear a year later.

This blog is somehow run by this one fat bloke who responses to the stage name "Trollhorn". Occasionally, other bandmembers might write something too, but don´t hold your breath on that. Everything you see is copyrighted except for most of the pictures I kinda ripped off from the net. Don´t be a poop and take than on me, pretty please.  Also, I don´t know shit about layouts nor blogs, so if you don´t like what you see you may go play with a blender for all that I care.