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| Finnish Funeral Doom legends Skepticism have been out on tour and working towards their first album release in six years. It seemed like the ideal time for Doom-metal.com to catch up with guitarist Jani Kekarainen and put some in-depth questions to him. |
 1. Please give your own definition of Funeral Doom. [Jani] Difficult start for an interview I must say. I’m not very good in categorizing music . Funeral Doom term was connected to our music many many years ago, but I can’t remember by whom it was done. I think, it is connected to slow-tempo and extremely heavy music including organs and providing sorrowful ambience. 2. Your web presence has always been very discreet. Do you ever feel that you’d like to interact more with your fanbase, or do you think the music speaks for you? (That being said, this very interview is a proof that you’re still open to a direct exchange…!) [Jani] Keeping noise in discussion forums and chatting in Facebook is not really our piece of cake. We are not doing it on purpose and we are not trying to be assholes. .. We really appreciate the people who can understand our music. It is quite empowering when a fan tells how our music has affected to him/her. Probably we should be more open with our communication. The music is the most important thing for us, but the world has changed. Maybe we have gotten stuck in the age before the Internet and social media. 3. Do you feel connected to the Doom scene and the Metal scene in general? And how much? Your music has an atmosphere to it which is very different from most other (Funeral) Doom band. It's almost as though you only employed the stylistic trademarks of Doom but actually came from a completely different background…. [Jani] Yes and no. I’m not very familiar with the scene and I don’t really know what is happening out there. However, once in a while we are playing in metal (doom) events with other bands of the same genre. We also have quite wide network (we have been doing this so long) and we have got to know many great people and bands over there. We used to be quite connected with the metal scene but that happened in early 90’s. That time we were much more active in the underground. 4. The time span between each of your releases is quite important, even for a Doom band! Up to five years between two releases. How do you tackle the composition work for each new up-coming album? You have already explained that it is a continuous work over the period… But practically, how do you deal with that and how do you share the job between you (feel free to enter into details as I know there’re fans out there eager to get the most precise idea possible of your compositional process!)? [Jani] We are trying to have trainings every week, but typically it‘s more like once or twice a month. It is difficult to make fast progress with such a slow training frequency. Also, it is difficult for us to create new music if we are concentrating on upcoming concerts. That’s one reason for our slow process. Other thing is that we are having rather “careful” song creation process, e.g. we are carefully considering all the riffs or changes between the riffs. We are mostly trying dozens of variations for a riff before we are happy with the result. Typically I will bring most of the new ideas to our trainings. I will show/play them to other guys and we will start working on them after that. A funny thing is that the final result is always something completely different than I thought it will be in the beginning. For example, my original idea for “The Arrival” was to create a guitar based song, but what happened… all the melodies are played by organs and guitar is only background (if you could say so when you are speaking about our music). It’s kind of a team play. Every member put their own spices to the soup, which is great. Sometimes the other guys surprise me with strange but great sounding ideas. Typically a song will be 80-100% complete before we will start with the vocal arrangements. Of course there are also exceptions. Also, when we are ready with the vocals then the actual composition might be changed here and there. A song got its’ final form only when it’s recorded in a studio. That’s probably pretty much the same with the most of the bands, though... Nowadays we use to record temporary ideas/songs in our training and share them via email. That makes it easier to continue working with the old ideas when there are delays between the trainings. 5. How do you feel about being considered legendary, and part of the founding of an entire genre? Side-question: what do you honestly think of the double-cd tribute that was released a few years ago? [Jani] My personal view is that feels quite good as it probably means that we've been able to create something more or less unique. On the other hand, creating unique music has never been our target. I think, we are getting influences from many different sources, not only from the metal music. Maybe that makes our musical approach a little bit different when comparing us to some other metal groups. For me the tribute was an honour. At the same time it feels rather strange or even uncomfortable when unknown people are re-creating the songs where I have put significant amount of emotional effort. I don’t own a copy of the album (nobody ever sent one to us), but I have listened to the songs from Youtube. My personal favourite was The Gallant Crow done by Nest. Traditional Finnish zither is a very nice sounding instrument. We have also used it once in one of our songs. 6. Is Trad. Doom Doom to you? How do you consider the whole Doom scene? Can you see what ties all those bands together? And, side-question: what Doom bands – whatever the style- do you consider major? [Jani] Well, as mentioned, I’m not very good in categorizing music or defining any scenes… Traditional doom is quite different style comparing to what we are expressing. In the early days we were going to that direction, but then we started using organs and it really was a major change for us. It’s difficult to say what the glue is between these bands. Maybe slow and heavy touch and people who a willing to listen such stuff. Maybe the major bands are the ones who started this; Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Candlemass and so on. So called “funeral doom” is then quite a different thing. There the musical influences can be coming from quite different sources; progressive rock, classical music (like Sibelius or Arvo Pärt for example) or even from movie soundtracks. One of my old time favourites is a soundtrack song by Sigur Ros - Death Announcements and Funerals, which is very close to the progressive rock style: YouTube. 7. You’ve already discussed in an older interview with a Russian mag the opportunity of releasing what you calIed Skepticism’s “Church Release”, if I am not mistaken. This would have been a collection of your best songs… replayed in a church, is that it? Please enlighten us, because I’m maybe all wrong here! [Jani] It might be that I have mentioned this. It’s more like our organ player’s dream to re-record some of the songs by using the real organs. We haven’t discussed about that idea for years, but it’s really something worth of considering. However, we don’t have any clear plans for doing this. 8. Matti also sings in the Black Metal band Thromdarr. Can you compare your singing experience in two such different bands? Is the emotional commitment very different? [Jani] I would need to send this one to Matti. I also played guitar on their previous album. Thromdarr is like a rock band. The power of their music is coming from the energy and tight playing. Lasse has played drums in Thromdarr even longer than in Skepticism. [Matti] Thromdarr´s music is indeed very different and it´s a good thing for me. Cause of that I’m able to perform and create more intense vocals with wider range than before. Of course the emotions are different and naturally in Skepticism´s music emotions are stronger and more personal. Thromdarr has also powerful emotions and feelings in the songs and I capture them in different ways in my vocals. 9. Do you consider music to be a way of expressing your thoughts and ideas as a channel of communication, or do you think that music is more of a piece of art irrelevant of subjective input? In this respect how can Skepticism's music be defined? [Jani] For me Skepticism is a way of expressing my thoughts and ideas, but maybe not an external channel of communication, more like a channel for myself to deal with my own thoughts and experiences. It is also method for gaining energy and forgetting the daily routines. All our songs contain a personal emotional charge. Some songs have had a huge emotional meaning in the very beginning when a song was created, some songs have developed during the years and the personal meaning has grown while the years have passed. I hope we have been able to transfer some of these feelings to listeners, especially when performing live. Skepticism music is all about atmospheres, emotions and dynamics. Each one of our song is a journey. Some of them are like a walking in a sunny Sunday, but some of them are more like wandering in a dark forest. Moreover, you can get lost also in a sunny day walk but sometimes it might be good for you. 10. How the hell do you get such a rich and perfect tone on most of your albums? They just sound so crushing yet beautiful. Top notch production that fits the music really well. [Jani] Tone is always a compromise. With a clear production (like on Alloy) it is possible to emphasize on the melodies and show all the nuances in the music but at the same time you will lose the etheric atmosphere (like we had on some previous albums). I think, we have learnt what to search and do in a studio. What we should learn more is to make thinner sound walls but play in heavier way. That would be something to look for. 11. Is Doom energizing? [Jani] Absolutely. 12. I am sure you've met lots of your fans around the world. Nevertheless, could you try to describe an ideal Skepticism listener? What does he/she listen to, what books does he/she read, perhaps, what philosophy could be typical for him/her? How do you see the one who loves and understands your music? [Jani] I would like to think that our music needs concentration from a listener, on that sense, an ideal listener is willing to take a journey and will concentrate on the songs. It feels always good when a fan has found a personal viewpoint for a song or tells a piece of personal history connected by one of our songs. It is also interesting when someone completely outside of metal genres is into our music. 13. Skepticism are planning a short tour in May 2014: there's Russia and Denmark in your list, where else will you play? And what kind of show are you setting up for that tour? [Jani] Those concerts have been now played while I’m answering this interview. We visited Heavy Days in Doom Town Festival in Copenhagen and Moscow Doom Festival. Both were great experiences. We played songs from pretty much all of our albums in both festivals. Our current plan is to finish the material for the new album and not to play concerts before that’s done. Next shows will be probably performed in late 2014 or early 2015. Nothing has been agreed so far. 14. It’s very interesting how the rhythms in some of your songs have some sort of a tribal feel to them, like some sort of a weird shamanistic ritual… Do you feel inspired by primitive music, whatever it can be? [Jani] I’m not sure, at least I’m not listening to any primitive drumming music etc., ok, maybe some ambient music or classical compositions close to the ambient music but I’m not doing that very often. Some of our songs are almost like trips to me while we are playing them, if the playing mood is correct. It’s difficult to describe; you get lost into a song while playing it and after it‘s finished you will feel emotionally exhausted yet still empowered. 15. How do you feel about (and are you at all close to/in contact with) your Finnish Doom contemporaries like Shape of Despair, Dolorian, Colosseum, My Shameful and others? Have any of your fellow countrymen in the Doom community had any impact on what you in turn bring to the music table when it comes to making an album? And is there a 'Finnish touch' in the first place? [Jani] Not really and there is no specific reason for it. I knew some of the guys from Colosseum as they are coming from the same town as we are. I have changed some messages with one guy from Unholy years ago and discussed about some musical topics, but that’s pretty much it. For some reason we have not played many concerts with local (meaning Finnish) groups and maybe that’s the reason why we’re not that closely connected with them. I do not admit it, but I probably got some influences from Unholy’s and Thergothon’s music in our early days. However, no one from these bands has ever been involved in our composition work or recording sessions. There might be a Finnish touch as Finns love melancholic music and nature. My experiences are no different. It’s a part of our culture and like it or not, it will affect to you when you’re creating music. 16. Have you ever been contacted by a higher level label in the metal community (like Nuclear Blast, Earache, Century Media, Roadrunner or the likes) who was interested in releasing your music, or is that not at all something you'd want to be a part of? [Jani] At least not very seriously. Some messages might be exchanged, but that ‘s pretty much it. Probably it is easier for us to co-operate with smaller labels, but on the other hand, we do not have anything against the bigger labels. For us it is important that there won’t be any pressure for the tight release schedules and so on. We would also like to do the sound production by ourself when recording an album. Well, probably such a freedom can be agreed as well with the big as smaller labels. 17. Looking back through your entire catalog at this period of time, from 'Towards the End' until what you're working on now, how do you feel about the legacy you're leaving music-wise? High points, low points, things you would've done differently, things that turned out better than originally planned? [Jani] I wouldn’t change or touch the releases or songs that we have created. It has been very interesting process so far… Let me give a few examples: In the beginning we thought that we should not include too many mournful riffs into our songs, we thought they will make songs weak and some power might be lost. Somewhere around the “Lead and Aether “ years we avoided live stages for seven years, because we thought our music is not suitable for playing at live (too heavy, too dismal to be listened etc.). In the early albums we thought that heavy sounds are produced by using low-tones only (e.g. thick strings tuned a couple of steps down and as much distortion as possible ← probably more suitable for sludge). These have been completely changed: mournful riffs are good for the songs as well as are the evil and major scales, in my opinion we are more live band than a studio band (however, we're not playing live very often), heaviness is not reached by tuning down the instruments and so on. Probably I’m today doing things that I will do completely differently in the future. It is also amazing that I have been able to play in the band with the same line-up over 20 years and still there are more years to come I believe (Devil willing...). If I would change something it would be to do more. Sometimes we have been too inactive and even lost a couple of momentums. Legacy… it’s very difficult to comment as the journey is still ongoing. The fact is we are creating marginal music which won’t be main stream. Our legacy affects only to small amount of people. We have had luxury to do this already quite long with the same guys and I hope we will not get stuck and be unable to develop our music. Instead, I hope we will be able to learn from our experiences and always re-find the inspiration and create something little bit different than has been ever created by anyone. 18. What can we expect with the up-coming album? Have you tried new approaches to music, have you experimented in any way (I hope you’ll give doom-metal.com the opportunity to premiere one of your new songs!)? [Jani] We have used some new methods such as Garage Band multi-track demo files recorded at home and delivered to guys for comments, I have used a digital piano for composition work and so on. We have had serious discussions what should be a look-and-feel for a new song (well, probably that has always been the same). Skepticism can be easily recognised from the end-result. That much I can promise already now. 80% of music is more or less ready for the album at the moment. The will be heart-breaking parts and emotional shocks in the new songs. The whole process has been like an “ordeal”. It has already taken six years and there have been some challenging times; but hopefully we have been able utilize the energy from these experiences and been able create something powerful. Thanks a lot for this interview!  Click HERE to discuss this interview on the doom-metal forum. Visit the Skepticism bandpage. |
