In this episode of The Rock Metal Podcast, we're chatting with Niilo Sevänen of the band Insomnium about their new album ‘Anno 1696’ out now via Century Media Records.
During our chat we touch on a lot of great tips for musicians, such as living a life of passion through your artistic endeavours; be it music, story writing, or artwork.
'Anno 1696' was mixed by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Orgone Studios) and mastered by Tony Lindgren (Fascination Street Studios)
For fans of Omnium Gatherum, Dark Tranquility, Amorphis, Paradise Lost, Moonspell.
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Guest Resource
Insomnium.net - Connect with Insomnium!
Guest Music Video
3 Heavy Hitters
1. Think about how the themes and stories of the music meet the sound of the music
2. Write stories, lyrics, and themes based on your own interests and passions
3. Even with a billion dollars in your pocket, do what fills your life with passion for a career
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Show Notes // Transcript
Jon Harris: Niilo, thank you so much for coming on today. Go ahead and say hello to all of our beautiful
listeners.
Niilo Sevänen: Hello. This is my pleasure.
Jon Harris: Absolutely an incredible pleasure to have you on. Now, Niilo this album, Anno 1696, what was the greatest moment for you producing this record?
Niilo Sevänen: Probably when it was finished, and finally, because the process was long, we recorded eleven songs, 75 minutes of music. The mixing process, well, it took a while mastering on top of that, so it took something like, I don't know, three to four months that we very intensely, intensively worked for the album. So when it was finally ready, of course, the feeling was good. We were satisfied with everything, how it sounds, how it came together. Now the feedback is starting to come in. People have heard the songs. Some of you guys have heard the whole album and read the story, and people seem to be enthusiastic. So, looking good at the moment.
Jon Harris: Abso-freaking-lutely. And we're going to get back to that story in a little bit. The greatest moment for you producing the record was finally finishing it. It was a long process, 75 minutes of music. You mentioned that the mixing process took a while. What was the intention, if that makes sense, what was the intention with the mix?
Niilo Sevänen: It makes sense because we had a vision there. The story required music that is very cold, dark, kind of harsh, even blackened, at least on our standards, some black metal-ish influences. And compared to the production of what we had with Heart Like A Grave, we wanted it to be a bit more raw, organic, maybe a bit more 90s. So we found this guy, Jaime Gomez Arellano. He's from Colombia, but he's been living in UK for a long time and. He has done albums for Paradise Lost, Moonspell and many more. And we really like those albums. And the sound he has been doing, it's not a modern metal sound that would be kind of too compressed and too Pro Tools and polished. It's more organic and it sounds more real and that's what we wanted to achieve. And that's what we thought will fit this album now, that's why we chose that guy.
Jon Harris: Yeah. And by that guy, Jaime Gomez Arellano has worked with Paradise Lost and Moonspell. You like those albums and you felt, we don't need any more Pro Tools, we don't need any more compression. We want a more organic, more real sound, which I appreciate totally 100%. And the story itself, Anno 1696, required music – and it does, I read the short story – it requires music that is cold, dark, harsh and blackened, as you said, by Insomnium standards. Now, you mentioned that it was a long process to work on the album. What was the biggest challenge for you on this record, Niilo?
Niilo Sevänen: Well, since it's a concept album and I was in charge of the lyrics and of course, the story is mine. So it's a bit more trickier than your standard album where you just have a collection of songs and stories, but if you have a bigger story that spans the whole album, you really have to think carefully how all the arc goes and the song order and how do you so you have to build it differently. It's a more delicate process and you have to, pretty early kind of lock that, this song is going to be number one now and this is going to be the last one, because the story has to start and end in the right way. It is more complex to build a concept album, but if you do it well, I believe it's very rewarding for the listener because I like concept albums and I think all in this band, we like concept albums and that.
Jon Harris: Yeah, well, I mean, you mentioned the story a couple of times and in that response, you mentioned Nillo having to or getting to rather write the story and then write the lyrics and build the concept album with the story arc. And part of me wants to say, well, that sounds so easy. You know the story, you know how it's supposed to go, but it obviously isn't that easy. And reading the story and reading the lyrics, I just want to say you're a genius. How did you do that? And it's not every day that I get handed a short story to talk about an album. So let's maybe take a couple of minutes and talk about this story. What was the inspiration to go this direction?
Niilo Sevänen: We've done this before, that we have a short story with the album, we did this with Winter's Gate and I think with that we kind of bought our artistic freedom so we can do what we want and we don't have to be afraid, we can try things. And now I had this idea already in 2019 about this story set in 17th century Europe. I thought it with the guys back then, but then COVID started messed up all the plans. We ended up doing this EP first, but already at that point we had the idea that this concept album is next and it's going to be quite the EP was kind of soft, mellow collection of ballads, so to say. But we knew the next album is going to be more brutal and dark again. And I finished the story quite early then, and the guys read it, they liked it and we agreed, okay, let's make the album from this story now. And then we really started composing music that would fit this story. So it really became a soundtrack for this specific story. It's not just a collection of songs or a collection of random ideas, but like, most of the music is composed after the story was finished. And I think you can hear it and we have four composers in the band. But the story helped us kind of get into the same mood and mindset when making music. So it all came together then after that, quite easily. That all the songs that all the guys were bringing to the table, they already sounded like, okay, this will fit the story. There were only like a couple of demos that we kind of left out, okay, let's see with the next album. Maybe this fits better there. But originally, this idea where it came from. I've been a fan of 17th century history for some time. It's a really interesting period. Kind of between eras, kind of there are a lot of conflicts there. There are wars, religion and science are fighting, the witch hunts are there. And then there happens to be this very cold period as well. Like, it's one of the coldest centuries of what we know and what actually caused this great famine in the north, this great hunger in 1696, 97 was there were some volcanoes erupting, at least in Iceland that we know which caused that climate was in the north, was well fucked up for a couple of years. It was really cold, all the harvest was gone, people had nothing to eat. It was a total disaster. So very dark times. Proper material for dramatic story. So I think that's how. How it started in my mind.
Jon Harris: Yeah, good material for a nice, proper Insomnium record, you could say.
Niilo Sevänen: Yes.
Jon Harris: Hahaha, man, volcanoes in Iceland going off. I remember reading something about that in the story, and then I read that a lot of the stuff that we're reading in the story, so we know or is told, actually happened, which is crazy to think about.
Niilo Sevänen: Yeah. Although these incidents and facts that are mentioned and these persons, they are real, real stuff from history. And I did quite a lot of research to get the facts right. And it was funny thing. Yesterday we had an interview here in Finland. There was a journalist and then there was a historian from the university who had read the story and she said, actually the lyrics are so good that she will use them and show them to her students because they represent the 17th century world so well. And I was like, wow, well, this is the best compliment ever and thank you. I have a stamp of approval now on my short story. It's good stuff.
Jon Harris: Hahaha, okay, well, there you go. That's the best compliment I think anybody could receive.
Niilo Sevänen: Yes, it is. I'm really happy about that.
Jon Harris: Going back to the more organic sound, the more 90s-esque sound. We talked a little bit about the mixing, but I was actually curious, thinking as we were chatting, did any kind of equipment in the studio change? Like when you guys were recording or writing the record at the source get more of a 90s sound?
Niilo Sevänen: Well with the drums, for example, Jaime Gomez Arellano, he doesn't use samples at all. So they are real drum sounds and that's kind of rare nowadays. And the same thing with guitars. It's the signal we recorded ourselves in the studio, so they are not reamped guitars. And that is also starts to be rare nowadays. Like usually all these star producers, they have their own kind of standard drum and guitar sound and then all the albums they make, they sound a bit the same because of that. But now, already in the studio, we spend a lot of time to have the best possible drum sound and the best possible guitar sound. And it wasn't changed afterwards to something else, which has happened many times, but now we knew what it's going to be.
Jon Harris: And it's amazing how much this has become not the norm in metal. You don't have any drum samples on your record. They're real drums and even the guitar takes are as they were, out of the microphone and into the preamp. It's super cool to have a vision like that, to say, hey, let's kind of go back to the 90s a bit. Something more raw, something more organic.
Jon Harris: How would you define success at this stage of your career?
Niilo Sevänen: That I'm I can do what I really love for living. It's how I spend my days. That is how I define success. Because if I would be a multi-billionaire, I would still do the same thing. I would write stories and I would make music, because this is my passion. I'm very fortunate. I know it. And for a band to get this far, you need luck. There are many good bands that for many different reasons, they just don't get anywhere or they end up quitting or whatever. But we've been here 26 years and still I feel we have a lot to give where we're going. I feel we're going forward. And there are still places where we can go, like South America. We haven't been there. And it's something of course, I still want to experience. And there are still people out there who haven't heard of Insomnium. So there is something we can still conquer. But yeah, success is how you spend your days. It doesn't matter how rich you are, but if you have to do the kind of work that you don't like, you have to spend all your waking hours doing something you don't actually like. What do you do with all that money, this kind of freedom, and you can do what you really love. I think that's the most important thing.
Jon Harris: Yeah. And I think that's why they end up spending all that money on silly frivolous things that get them into trouble.
Niilo Sevänen: Yes. And like kind of trying to fill some void inside that's of course not going to solve real problems.
Jon Harris: No, no, haha. 26 years, man. Okay, you're making me feel old now, Niilo.
Niilo Sevänen: Sorry.
Jon Harris: I remember seeing The Elder on Yahoo music videos or something. So back in the day, before YouTube, really, I used to watch music videos on rotation on Yahoo.
Niilo Sevänen: Yep.
Jon Harris: And I remember The Elder came up and I was like, frozen. I was like, this is what I've always, ever wanted to hear. What is happening here? And then I went to Amazon because you bought CDs back then. I went to Amazon, bought the CD, and it's kind of like the rest is history, right? But from The Elder to Lillian, 26 years, getting the chance to do what you want to do, what's that like? What kind of advice maybe would you give your younger self who is recording The Elder? Is it kind of even impressive to you? Like the guy who was sitting there recording The Elder is now able to do this for a living 26 years later?
Niilo Sevänen: Yeah, I don't know if the younger Niilo would believe that, haha, because back then I didn't even have this idea in my mind that I could do this for a living. It was so far away. We were just a young band. We were students, basically, and of course the idea was to study and get a normal, decent job and go on and have this band hobby there. But at some point when things progressed, we realized, okay, we can actually make a living with this. So it seems. So the tours got bigger and bigger and we got more fans and it all happens slowly, but message to younger Niilo, I don't know. Try not to stress too much about everything, probably.
Jon Harris: Yeah, pace yourself.
Niilo Sevänen: Yes.
Jon Harris: Kind of like you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of bands that just for whatever reason don't make it or they quit or whatever and then here you are 26 years later. So just do what you love and pace yourself.
Niilo Sevänen: That is very important. Do what you love and be really honest and true to yourself. Always. When doing the music, that is the key. If you try to calculate, if you try to please people or do radio friendly or if you think about that too much, people will sense it and it doesn't feel so real. So be true to yourself and really do what kind of music you want to do. Of course, that applies to everything in life. Like life is so goddamn short, do what you want. And that's it really. Because you're not going to get a second chance.
Jon Harris: Nope, absolutely not, life is so goddamn short. Do what you want, have passion and yeah, like you mentioned 26 years ago, just a student studying to get a normal, decent job. Things progressed, tours got bigger and bigger. You made more money. You started to take advantage of that opportunity.
Niilo Sevänen: Yep.
Jon Harris: Very cool. What's the number one thing that you would like people listening in to do is that head over to a particular website, watch the music videos, read the short story. What would you like? What's the number one thing you want people to do? It could even be a soulful message, like be happy.
Niilo Sevänen: Well, that's my message to everyone. Like Bill Murray said that life is so goddamn short. Do what you want. But if somebody doesn't know Insomnium, I think it's easy way to start is to go check out some of our music videos from YouTube and see if you like them or not. And that's a good place to start. Of course, nowadays, of course, Spotify and other streaming platforms, it's easy to find our stuff there and check them out. Lyrics are also listed in the internet in many places. So you can read it easily there. So it's easier nowadays than in the find new music and all that cool stuff.
Jon Harris: Don't have to wait out for MTV to come around with the music video anymore.
Niilo Sevänen: Yeah, then you have the record already. They're going to be some cool video and I'm going to record it now. And it was so different.
Jon Harris: Absolutely. I'll be honest with you. I even miss it a little bit myself.
Niilo Sevänen: Yeah, me too.
Jon Harris: But yeah, go ahead and head over to TheRockMetalPodcast.ca for today's show notes. There you'll be able to see music videos, links, transcript, all the extra goodies from today's episode to make sure you can go ahead and stay in touch with everything Insomnium. And if you've never heard of Insomnium before, then go listen to the freaking record. All right. Well, Niilo, thank you so much for coming on today to The Rock Metal Podcast.
Niilo Sevänen: Thank you. It must be my pleasure.
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