Juuso Raatikainen: “Juha said that many of the songs were written during the night. That makes sense that they are moonflowers, all the songs, other than that there must be a long list of meanings for Juha, but he doesn’t share many of the things, even with us. I think it is also part of the Finnish culture, how we are as people. We give each other a lot of space and we don’t want to try to dig into other people’s things. I mean, everybody can have their own views what it is going to mean when they listen to the album.”
Nadat we eerder dit jaar konden genieten van de uitstekende live registratie ’20 Years Of Gloom, Beauty And Despair – Live In Helsinki’, heeft Swallow The Sun ons ook één van de beste nieuwe, intense doom/death metal albums van het jaar gegeven met ‘Moonflowers’. De Finnen voelen als geen ander de kunstvorm ‘melancholie’ aan en gitarist Juha Raivio opende zijn hart en ziel in acht meeslepende, aangrijpende nieuwe songs. Hij doet zelf nog steeds geen interviews, dus kozen we drummer Juuso Raatikainen uit om één en ander te weten te komen over ‘Moonflowers’ en de voorbije periode. Ze zullen nu tevreden zijn trouwens, want hun Amerikaanse tournee met Wilderun heeft inmiddels daadwerkelijk plaatsgevonden en zoiets kan je tegenwoordig al een wonder noemen. Maar hier onze weergave van het gesprek met Juuso.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 13 december 2021
How are you doing?
I am pretty okay, thank you. I am a little bit having an autumn cold; the nose is completely blocked and my throat feels a bit weird, but otherwise I am doing fine.
How and when did you get involved in Swallow The Sun in 2014?
I was asked to fill in for Kai to make the ‘The Morning Never Came’ anniversary tour in 2013 actually already. I did those gigs with the guys and then after that it became clear that Kai was going to join Nightwish. Then Swallow The Sun would not have a drummer anymore, so I was the guy to join the band then.
Swallow The Sun has a new album called ‘Moonflowers’ now. I understand that Juha is writing all the material, when were you and the others involved?
Well, usually the process is so that Juha makes the demos. They have usually no vocals at first, they are instrumental, but now Juha had some vocals prepared which was great. The thing with our band is that we don’t really get together for the album practice. Everybody practices their stuff on their own because we live here and there. Juha in Sweden, some of us live in Helsinki and some are in central Finland. So it is a bit difficult to gather everybody for long rehearsals and stuff like that, but anyway… we send some files back and forth. I would play something on my practice base and send it to Juha. Then Juha says it sucks or it doesn’t suck. We go from there and build it up, but nowadays it is a pretty easy process, because everybody already knows what it is going to be, what we need to play and what we not need to play. I think it is pretty convenient at the moment.
It is a very beautiful album, but so sad. Is Juha doing alright?
Oh yeah he is doing better than ever, let us not say ever, but in a long time. He is very excited to go out on the road and we all are kind of looking forward to play some gigs. Playing the new songs will be interesting and exciting as well.
Indeed, it has been a while for all of us…
Yes, we played like three gigs during the summer, three festivals. It was something, but it is a bit different from when you have a long tour and play every night.
And you were so used to it! Wasn’t it very confronting when it fell away?
Of course, I think this time has been challenging for everyone for different reasons, because everybody was forced in lockdowns and forced to be isolated and stuff like that. The fact that you are not able to play gigs or playing music is kind of sad, but I don’t think it is the big thing compared to in general isolations and lockdowns.
Did you fall back on earlier things to fill in this spare time?
I have my teaching job, I do drum teaching for a living pretty much. I had time to put more effort into that, but other than that I was doing my own musical things a little bit and doing quite many session things, like recording for different projects, because I work as a freelance musician as well. There were not any gigs, so everybody was recording something. Everybody wanted to make albums or some sort of recordings. I was doing a bunch of session work.
Good that you kept yourself busy…
I think that is the only way to be. I think it is always coming out when you are music related, whether if you have gigs or not. You can always be working on some kind of music.
How did you come in contact with the guests on the album? The first one is Cammie Gilbert?
We toured with Oceans Of Slumber, which is Cammie’s band. They did a European tour with us and they are a great bunch of people. Dobber and Cammie, the couple, which is leading that band, we became pretty good friends with them and Cammie is obviously really a bad-ass singer, so we were fortunate that she wanted to participate on a Swallow The Sun album. So basically we knew her from touring.
Your drum recordings were done by David Castillo in Ghost Ward Studios. What about this adventure?
Also the previous album was made there, I mean the drums and I love David and the kind of vibe he is creating when we are recording. No stress, but still you are doing the very best you can. You don’t get this kind of good relaxed atmosphere often in a studio. These two recordings have been really enjoyable and also I like to go somewhere else than Finland, to Sweden in this case. It is kind of different than what I am used to. It is much more inspiring if you forget all the normal stuff, because you are not surrounded by all the normal stuff.
Since you were already used to work apart from each other, the lockdown did not have any influence on the making of the album I guess?
Well, it was a little bit of a hustle to get to Sweden. Three of us went to Sweden in different times and everybody had to get corona tests and stuff like that. That was pretty expensive actually. In Spring, when we were recording, it still cost more to do these tests. It was 200 euros every time if you wanted a test. I think that was the only inconvenient thing to stress about, having the narcotic results and so. Other than that everything went pretty smoothly I think.
What is your connection with the second guest on the album, the Stam1na guy Antti Hyyrynen?
The Swallow The Sun guys and especially Mikko, they know Antti from 2006 already, because Hyyrynen’s production company directed and took care of the ‘Don’t Fall Asleep’ music video. That’s how they know each other. It goes way back in time. I don’t personally know him, but Mikko and the other guys do.
Didn’t I hear female vocals in the background in the song ‘Enemy’ as well?
No, the person you might mistake as a female is Jaani Peuhu (laughs) Sometimes he does sound like a girl, no problem. It is a great skill to be able to sing high notes. Not everybody can do that.
Indeed, when I was doing research for this interview, I found out that he was still doing some vocals on this record, but now he takes a step aside from Swallow The Sun, isn’t it?
Yes, he has his own band, Mercury Circle, which is actually a pretty awesome band. It is impossible to be in two bands, especially when Swallow The Sun tours a lot. It just does not work out if you have something else that has priority and I think it is the right thing that happened. Jaani has now his own thing to do.
I remember in the past you also had a session keyboardist…
Ah yes, Aleksi did not exactly play in the band, he just makes the keyboard programming for Swallow The Sun albums. Aleksi was actually a founding member of Swallow The Sun and left the band in 2015 or 2016. He was there for a long time. For now we are going to go without any keyboard players and we have some backing tracks that take care of the few parts.
There comes a very special bonus disc with ‘Moonflowers’. Can you tell something more about this?
This is one of Juha’s ideas. The whole album has a kind of very strong melodic themes, so it kind of made sense to do something that would emphasize that even more. Because a metal album is always metal, but then you have something a little bit different with that metal thing. I think it is really interesting for most STS fans to hear those same melodies but in a different setting, with piano and strings. This was done by Trio NOX and one can find Helena Dumell in that trio. You may know her from her contributions for Sólstafir.
And you have made animated videos for every song!
Yes. The company is called Dronicon and they make really awesome animations. There are still animated videos coming for the electric songs as well. They have a little bit more going on in the videos than these acoustic things, but I like these animated videos more than with real people.
The artwork needs a special approach. I almost feel sorry to ask about it, if I read that Juha made it with his own blood and flowers…
(laughs) Yes, he has the classic heavy metal story, which means that you use your own blood for an artistic product, which is of course always sounding awesome if you can say that, but I see that artwork like a hand crafted thing, I think that was the point, to have something not too fancy, try to keep it more raw this time and not use those fancy graphics.
It goes together with the title ‘Moonflowers’…
One of the explanations – if I remember well – was that Juha said that many of the songs were written and the demos were made in the night, at nighttime. That makes sense that they are moonflowers, all the songs, other than that there must be a long list of meanings for Juha, but he doesn’t share many of the things, even with us. I think it is also part of the Finnish culture, how we are as people. We give each other a lot of space and we don’t want to try to dig into other people’s things. I mean, everybody can have their own views what it is going to mean when they listen to the album.
I had the impression that the album is rather calm, a lot of clean singing by Mikko…
Yes, that is true, but I wouldn’t say calm. I think it is a heavier and more diverse album than the previous one. That was pretty mellow. I think this new one is rawer and even has some heavier elements.
Like the last song indeed, the one called ‘This House Has No Home’…
(laughs) Yeah that is the favourite of everybody. It has the blastbeats. Finally I am not falling asleep, I am staying awake. That is a joke. Everybody has their own preferences, it is good to have diversity anyway. I think slow music has more emotional depth and can concentrate on some inner things better.
Slow music is a solace for this hectic world. People are so fucked up…
I agree. The rhythm of the world is too fast. You have to ignore a lot of stuff. That is also something that people say, that you should not ignore and take it all in. Think of solutions for every possible problem all the time. But people go crazy if they do that. It is impossible.
