Finnish Druid Folk Metal UNSHINE

Interview Conducted on March 22, 2018

By Dan Locke

“UNSHINE has always been a band without the traditional role models. For us, the most important thing in a song is the melody. Sounds and rhytms create the overall atmosphere, but the melody wakes up the whole ancient story in it to life,” tells Harri, UNSHINE guitarist behind the major part of the songs.

“Secondly, it all starts from the nature and it all will end to the nature. This cuts through all aspects of our music. It echoes from those landscapes the modern world has almost totally abandoned and forgotten. The songs try to re-unite the old bonds between the dolmen gods and the digitized mankind. Nature is not our enemy, it’s our physical, but especially our spiritual home. That’s why we call our music druid metal. “

“All five of us in the band, were raised in the middle of forests and fields, in the countryside villages of Western Finland. I highly appreciate the fact that this same band has kept together for over 15 years now. We have also known each other since our adolescence times.

Answering here is Harri (guitar, keyboards):

Tell me about your background? You all were raised in the middle of forests and field of Western Finland. And you formed in 2000. How did you get you start Unshine?  And how has your up bring helped you in developing your musical style?

 Hi, thanks for the chance to speak to your magazine! We all in this band come really from the same, very small rural area of Western Finland. It was just a pure accident that we all moved to Helsinki around the beginning of this millennium. Before that, three of us had played in a rock, not a metal band, which had lyrics in Finnish. 

UNSHINE was born in the beginning of 2000. We had invited Susanna to our band jams to sing on one or two songs, which were left from our previous band. I had changed the original lyrics in to English and I wanted to try how they would sound, when sang by a female singer. Well, as one can guess, Susanna sounded so bloody good that after the song was done, we were just staring at each other mumbling something like ‘well, that’s what it SHOULD sound like, yeah!’ Quite soon after that we recorded few of these older songs in studio with Susanna, but later these did not appear in any of our demos. I have one demo at my home with around 5-6 songs that have never been published or sent to anywhere. Maybe we will put some of those out somewhere in the future… 

We made our 1^st real demo under name UNSHINE quite soon after that. It had three first songs I had ever written especially for us, these songs included “Deadweight”, “Inner Fray” and “Not for Me”. I think these songs already had some of our sound and lyrical trademarks.    

 Any education in music? 

I have taken piano lessons for about one year and Susanna has taken few singing, but also some guitar lessons!

 The band is from Helsinki?

 Three of us live in Helsinki and two of us are from Vantaa, which is a town next to Helsinki, so almost, yeah! But, of course, we rehearse in Helsinki, big arts building called Kaapelitehdas.

 What does Gathering the Kindred Spirits mean?

 If you mean the theme at our FB page, it refers to our song “Gathering of the Kindred Spirits” which is a song from our 3^rdalbum, “the Enigma of Immortals”. The song tells about my invisible nature friends in the garden of my own house. All the living things, also invisible ones, gather there to celebrate life.

 Explain your band modeling or branding?

Unshine

 UNSHINE does not have any role models, we listen to all kinds of music and draw our influences from there. Branding, however, is something that is almost compulsory for any band to think about nowadays. As you try to grow in to a bit bigger international band, there are certain ‘brand’ aspects that you just can’t ignore. We have to send few signals, mostly via band pics or cover art that reflect that we could be an interesting band for example to people who listen to folk metal, but of course one has to very subtle with this kind of messaging as we do want to emphasize our individual character. You are not going to see us wearing fake furs in promo pics!

 Is the band into environment issues?

 Very much, yes, especially our lyrics reflect this. Nature is always there, but I have also tried to incorporate a bit stronger messages, too. In our new album, ASTRALA, we have a song called “Pan the One”. It includes a bit hidden, but still a very strong message for the people who try to pollute our common Earth.

 Who influences you and why?

 Majority of my influences come from nature. What comes to music, we all have our own influences. I love older ambient music, especially the German krautrock artists. When doing this interview, Edgar Froese is playing in the background. My all-time favourite band is Jethro Tull.

 If I think other things created by humankind, I could say that I love, for example, paintings from the Romantic period, which emphasized nature and all these weird spiritual things. Of the book authors, I like especially H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Holdstock. My all-time favourite movie is “the Wicker Man”, 1973 version, of course. All that aforementioned art influences me because they move me to places, that do not necessarily exist anymore, except only via art, which we, as humans, can create. That creative ability could be even the greatest gift of humankind.

 What was Arcana Imperia? 

They are a melodic death/black metal band from Russia. Few years ago, they approached us as they wanted Susanna to sing in one of the tracks of their album. They sent us the song and we recorded the vox in our home studio and sent the track back. It was a nice thing to do, sure. This song is “Through Times” in their album “Better Than Now” (2010). I do not know whether they are still making music.

 Your new release just got release ASTRALA.  Are you getting any radio play or podcast yet? 

I’m happy to say that we are getting lots of airplay via internet radios and podcasts, thanks to our label, Rockshots Records and their press office.

 You have been around since 2000.  How have your music changed?

We started as a quite typical gothic metal band with some pop melody influences, and then, gradually, more and more folk and symphonic metal music ingredients crept in to our music and maybe our style also turned in to a little bit heavier. With this new album, people generally categorize us in to folk or doom metal.

 Any endorsements? 

Unshine

Not yet, we really would like to get endorsement, for example from Koch, which makes great guitar amplifiers and cabinets, which we have used in almost all of our albums.

What type of clubs/places do you like to play in (size)? 

We have played few quite big outdoor places, but mostly our gigs take place in smaller/medium-sized clubs. The most important thing is the atmosphere of the place: In some arenas, the magical connection and chemistry between the audience and the band takes place very easily. We need those good local spirits!

 Any plans to tour the United States? 

Our album was just recently released in North America and we have received very good feedback from there. Quite many Finnish bands play nowadays in the northern America, which constitutes a huge market for Scandinavian metal. So, yes, we would love to play in United States.

 What music fests would you like to play in? 

Those music fests which have also other related activities, like alternative lifestyles or medieval market stuff, they are always cool. But I guess, mostly folk/doom/female metal festivals are our thing, although I have to say that I really hate this female-fronted term, in general.

 Would you like to play Rock on the Range? 

Oh yes, definitely. That would really break new ground for us!

How would you explain your live performance? 

We always aim to create this invisible, magical connection to the audience. When it succeeds, the force of the performance is also spiritually amplified. We choose the songs we play very carefully, they have to feed and bleed in to each other and they have to be in certain order to give that maximal effect.

 If someone was listening to you for the first time, what 3 videos or songs would you tell them to look/listen to and why? 

“Visionary’s Last Breath” (from ASTRALA, 2018) is our first lyrics video from the new album. It catches nicely the spirit of the whole album and the video itself, created by Jan “Örkki” Yrlund from Darkgrove, is visually great. From the new album, I could recommend to check a song called “Suo (Kantaa Ruumiit)”, because we will probably prepare a video on that song as the next thing. Of the older videos, you could check “Gathering of the Kindred Spirits”, a live video from the FemMe 2015 metal festival held in the Netherlands. That can be found from YouTube.

Favorite Quates? 

Unshine

I have many favourite quotes from Lord Summerisle from the movie “the Wicker Man”. Just one example: “I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.” 

On the more lighter side, this one from late Leslie Nielsen, my all-time favourite comedian: “Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.”

 Favorite Reading? 

History books, alternative spiritual literature, biographies, cooking books, and old horror masters.

 Any Hobbies? 

Cookery, nature, music, running, gardening and metal-detecting.

 Favorite Drink?         

Beer. Of the many excellent beers in the world, my all-time favourite is La Chouffe from Belgium.

Favorite thing you like to cook/eat? 

That has to be pasta, it was the first thing I ever cooked in a kitchen. My favourite dishes include fish and vegetables.

Who is your favorite female singer and why? 

This one is easy, and I’m not going to explain why: Susanna Vesilahti. If I choose outside our band, then my favourite female singer would be Shirley Manson from Garbage. She was one of the reasons why I ever wanted to start a band with a female singer.

How do you see yourself in the next 5 years?  

I hope we have made at least two new albums by then. I hope that by then we have seen great festivals and tours around the world. Of course, I would like to see myself happy with the band and of course happy with my family and my life in general, just like I’m today.

Any guilty pleasures your fans would be surprise you listen to? 

I do not feel guilty of anything I listen to. Well, of course, we all have some unexpected guilty pleasures. I have always liked Lauryn Hill, she has one of the greatest voices on this Earth. I also enjoy Appalachian folk music, especially the songs with banjo on them. And of the great Nordic bands that we have in this corner of the world, the Cardigans is fantastic, not just because of Nina Persson’s personal voice, but the band is excellent, too.

What is on your bucket list? 

1.    To visit Stonehenge, 2. to play at Roadburn Festival, 3. to take part in to a Mayday festival somewhere in rural England, 4. to eat surströmming (that is Sweden’s gift to the world of culinarism), 5. to create a druidic theme album, 6. to succeed in growing beetroots, 7. to run a full marathon, 8. to release an album in a vinyl format, 9. to buy more vintage guitars and 10. to live happy and healthy life together with my family.

What is on your phone for music now? 

I pay for Spotify, so basically I should have almost all of the music in the world in my phone now. If I look at my recent playlist, it has these artists: Klaus Schulze, Jordsjö, Jethro Tull, Unshine, Warduna, Comus, Baroness, Kvelertak and Spirogyra.

Anything in closing you would like to say? 

Thanks for the interview, we hope to play in United States as soon as possible!

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