I think Grain Of Pain is mainly a solo project from you. Is this your first band and when did it start?
My first band was in the nineties, but we did not really make it. We just released a couple of demos and we could play live at that time and after that I just played and composed for twenty years. I wouldn’t say this is just a solo project anymore, because Lars (Eikind – clean vocals – Vera) is now a real member of the band. There are three kind of vocals on the record, this bring more colours to it.

What can you tell about the beginning of Grain Of Pain?
Well, when I was still in Infirmum – the other band – things progressed very slowly. I wanted to compose more. So I asked Juho (Räihä – guitars, recordings – Vera) if he would help with my solo project and record the songs and he said yes. That is how it began.

And then, two years ago, you released the debut album ‘The Moon Lights The Way’ from Grain Of Pain. Did it come up to your expectations qua success?
Yes, I think so. It was a pleasant surprise people found it. There are still a couple of songs I really like on the album, even if it is not so compact as the new album. ‘Behind Us All’ is much more compact, not so much different styles.

Can we call that ‘finding your own sound and style’?
Yes it is.

An evolution. That was one of my questions: how different did you approach this album if you compare it with the debut one?
This time I just sent ideas to Juho. Melody ideas, riff ideas, ideas for different kind of structures, and I had too many of those (chuckles). We went to the studio and began to arrange them, thinking about what we wanted to express, what we wanted to say and how this is relying to the beginning of the song. Ideas were sometimes very different.

You are living in Jyväskylä, a kind of student town I think. I remember it was very famous for its doom/gothic/death metal bands like Swallow The Sun and Ghost Brigade and so on. Is there still such a lively scene these days?
Well, the scene is not dead I should say, but not so many bands anymore. At least, I don’t know so many, but maybe I am just too old and don’t follow the scene anymore so much.

What about the lyrics? Is Lars doing that or do you write them?
I write them myself and Lars then interprets them and put his feelings in them and then expresses himself. All the lyrics are mine.

Are there subjects you are mainly inspired by?
Yeah, well… the struggle of life (sighs). The way the world is going right now is quite depressing. When I was writing those lyrics, I had quite a lot health problems. So I just wanted to free those emotions.

In the song ‘Bless You With Sorrow’, there is a spoken word fragment. What is it about?
It is in Finnish. It is me talking. It is about depression. It is about how a depressed person sees the world, it is about giving up.

When you look at the writing process of the new album, was this a more difficult album to create than the first one?
Yes, it was, usually it is very hard for me to write lyrics. Then I just let it all come through, I try to come into the atmosphere of the song and let my mind free.

How did you get to know the guys from Swallow The Sun, because two of them are helping you?
I have been working with Juho before, on one EP of Infirmum. He played on a couple of songs on Infirmum’s EP and he is the man I asked to arrange that Juuso (Raatikainen – drums) would join Grain Of Pain, because he is really good and a very good person. About four or five years ago I asked Juho to produce an Infirmum album and since then we just kept in contact and exchanging ideas. I really love to work with him. He is a very cool guy and very easy to work with. They know what they can expect from me and I trust their talents, so we don’t need to talk too much while working.

There are guest singers and musicians on the album. Can you tell something more about that?
Yes, I have Teemu Mastovaara playing cello on the album. He arranged cello and I really love how well he fixed the idea, immediately. I wanted cello sound, it must express. This is important for me, people who I work with are good persons and on the same wavelength. It is much easier when I can trust them, so that everything gets done in order of deadlines and so on. It is always about planning things. If one musician is delayed, then things are getting later and later. Until it collapses. Aleksanteri Kuosa is on piano and keyboards. Juho told me about him, that he might be the right person to do some piano and things like this for ‘The House’ and for the first song ‘Shattered Peace’. We gave him like free hands what he wanted to do and he was really good.