With:	Kristian Ranta [guitars]
Conducted by:	Unknown user
Published:	02.10.2003
Band profile:	Norther

- What do you think about the Finnish Metal scene? Why are there so many bands? Which are your favorites?

Heavy metal is quite popular in Finland, maybe that is the reason why there are so many bands in Finland. On the other hand I think that there must be at least as many in Sweden. The scene here is really good, a lot of gigs, almost every week and so. There are many good bands, I like the following quite a lot: Stratovarius, Children of Bodom, Waltari, Throne of Chaos, Ensiferum... and so on.

- Which bands do you enjoy listening to? Have they influenced your music in Norther?

There are so many bands that I listen to, surely they have influenced also my music writing. I listen to bands like Soilwork, In Flames, Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, Megadeth, Slayer, Racer X, Symphony X, Amorphis... so many good ones.

- Which is the relationship between Norther & Children of Bodom? What do you think about them? [musically/personally]

We have been really good friends with Bodom guys for already many years. We share a same rehearsal room in this old harbour warehouse called Nosturi. We respect them as good players and composers as much as great friends. I think that musically we are going to a bit different directions, a natural development.

- What can you tell me about the beginning of the band? Was it hard?

Well the band was already formed back in 1996, I wasn't in the band at that time. The guys played a bit more brutal death metal at that time. Our music has then evolved to what it is today. I don't think that being Finnish helped us... or at least I don't know why it should have helped us... We have always rehearsed a lot, and we still do so, I can't say that it would be hard because playing music is what we all love to do.

- Which are the main differences between your two albums?

We have gone a lot further on the second album, I mean that we have developed a lot as songwriters and musicians. The music on the second album is also a lot more versatile, slow songs, fast songs, fast riffs, slow riffs...

- Was it hard recording your albums? Or did you enjoy doing it?

It's always challenging but maybe not that hard, we had a good recorder this time, Mr Anssi Kippo, he did a hell of a job. At least so far we have liked a lot being in studio. A lot of beer, movies and music.

- Your albums' covers are really great, whose is the idea of the paintings?

Thanks, The designer for Mirror of Madness was this guy called Miikka Tikka and the artwork on the first album is made by Janne Pitkänen.

- Are you planning touring all over Europe? [I´m Spanish, I know that there are many Norther fans here] With what band you would like to tour?

We have some plans for the autumn, but nothing is certain yet. It would be nice to tour with bands like Bodom, In Flames or Dimmu Borgir because their music is not that far away from our music... I think it would be funny to tour with bands like The Gathering or Lacuna Coil, their music is good but I think we need to tour with a bit heavier band.

- Are you happy with your label?

Yes, very happy, they do things for us really well and they are really nice people also.

- Are you happy with the number of albums sold? Where do you have sold more albums?

Well, we could sell some more... I don't think that we have sold all that many albums in Europe... In japan we sold some 10,000 albums but I think that we could do a lot better, hopefully in the future.

- Do you like Finland? Do you think that the weather can influence your music, or at least your behavior?

I love Finland and the weather definitely influences our music, snow storms in the winter, I just love them, the feeling is awesome and also inspiring.

- What do you do in your free time?

Playing guitar and sometimes piano. I also go to a computer related school as a hobby

- Feel free to say whatever you want to your fans? [I'm included there, I'm listening Norther from the beginning, when your demo album was only featured on Audiogalaxy.com, but not in the stores..., later I could buy it. ]

Thanks for your interest in our band, hopefully we could be able to come to Spain and play some gigs there in the future.

Greetings to all our fans out there, Stay Heavy!!!