Under normal circumstances, if someone said to you that mixing Black Metal with Polka was a great idea, you'd probably think they were drunk. Well, perhaps the fine Finn's of FINNTROLL were slightly inebriated when the idea came about, but regardless of how the idea came about, the results are shockingly stellar. Who knew that two such drastically different musical genres would work so well together? FINNTROLL, that's who.

First off, how's the tour been so far?

'Yeah, it's going fine. I have to say that we're really surprised how nice the turnout's been and everything is going smoothly so far, no really big problems... yet."

Why did you guys decide to go out on tour by yourselves rather than as part of a package deal?

"That is actually not our choice, it's from the booking agency, the management, I have no idea why." (laughter)

Okay! What's it like being the new member of FINNTROLL on their fourth album?

"It's nice. I'm not complaining - I'd rather do this than work nine to five. I'm really satisfied and it's a nice band, too, touring with them."

What was it like recording with them?

"It was kind of a little bit disorganized, but it was nice. It went smoothly and we're really pleased with the result of it. A little bit chaotic, though, it was." (laughs)

What do you think of the current state of Metal?

"It depends on the country, I'd have to say. The Finnish scene is really... I'm starting to like it, I never really listened to Finnish Metal before, but I think the last years, it's getting better and better all the time and the Scandinavian scene is also better now, I think. But there's so many bands out there, you know, and there's so much crap. Like in Europe, there's hardly any good bands, in my opinion, up there. The amount of bands are increasing all the time and the quality seems little."

What do you think more specifically of the Folk Metal bands, like I know there's a few FINNTROLL imitators out there these days, but what do you think of Folk Metal in general?

"It depends on the band, but usually... I don't listen to that much Folk. I'm really new in the Folk Metal scene... but I don't really like... there's lots of European bands that try to do some folky stuff and usually, I think that most of them don't really get it, but I haven't listened to all of them. There's some nice Folk bands, older stuff..."

Now, I've heard previous members of the band say that they sing in Swedish because it sounds more trollish than Finnish. Explain why Swedish sounds more trollish.

"I think it fits, like, the story telling, 'cause FINNTROLL, the lyrics are like, they're stories, you know, we tell stories and Finnish is harsh - lot's of k's and s's and t's and stuff like that... (strains of EUROPE's 'The Final Countdown' played on a keyboard from the venue above are heard and laughter breaks out) But Swedish is more like a melodic language, it's a little bit more flowing and it fits, too, with those stories. And it's easy to sing, also. It's more melodic than English, I think."

What do you think of the band's newer material compared to the older material?

"The new album is really good, I think. It's different, though. I think the new stuff is going back to the roots of the first album a little bit again. I think the first album was probably the best FINNTROLL album, in my opinion. There in the middle it was... a little more commercial, just a little bit more commercial there for awhile. But the new album is going back to the roots again. And of course there's something new, also there, but the new, like, symphonic sound fits, I think and the more brutal guitar things on this one."

Yeah, I can definitely tell the first song on the album kind of sounded like something out of a Tim Burton movie.

"Yeah. (laughs) I know Trollhorn is a really big fan of Danny Elfman, so I'm not surprised. I can see it myself, it's like 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' or something. (laughs) But it fits FINNTROLL good, because Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, they have the trollish thing. Danny Elfman really does like the trollish sound and I think it fits us, also."

Are there any plans for a live album or a DVD in the works?

"I don't think there's any planning of a live album, but there's a DVD now that we will start working on soon. I hope it's going to be in the next two years it will be released. And there's going to be like, live material and other stuff, like maybe one or two gigs on it. Then probably some extra stuff."

What's your favorite song to sing live?

"I really like the older stuff, for example, from the 'Jaktens Tid' album, 'Kitteldags' is one of my favorites. Usually, the older stuff is more fun and that's also because I'm actually not a big fan of the 'Nattfödd' album - I think that's like, the worst album. (laughs) I'm not going to say worst, but that's the album that I like the least. They are nice to sing also live, but I really like more the older stuff, so 'Midnattens Widunder', but 'Jaktens Tid' is also quite nice."

Tell us a little bit about your other band, CHTHONIAN.

"That's our old band that me and the drummer started in the late nineties. It's been just like once in a while we do stuff. In the beginning, he did drums and I played guitars and bass and did the vocals for it, so it started out as a project, 'cause we all had different bands, but then we decided we will do some music that we really, really want to do. So it was just a and then we, two years ago, recorded a demo and sent it around and we got the deal, so we recorded the album. It's been out and I think it's going quite well, actually, but we're not doing any live shows. Not now, at least. I don't have the time for touring with two bands."

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

"I can't think of anything right now. (laughs) We had such a bad party yesterday... (groans) everybody just woke up." [FIN]