Pic courtesy of: Batlelore "I just wanted to put up a band, which plays heavy metal in the vein of Tolkien’s Middle-earth theme. It was all about the love for metal and fantasy"

CR: Why don’t we begin by telling our readers about the music proposal of Battlelore, and why did you decided to make music based on the histories of J.R.R. Tolkien?
Jyri Vahvanen: First of all I was a huge Tolkien fan long time before I started to play guitar or taking metal music this seriously. Tolkien has always been in my heart and I noticed in very early point as a musician that someday I’ll be playing something related to Tolkien’s written poetry. Years went by and when the timing was right, it all happened very naturally. I just wanted to put up a band, which plays heavy metal in the vein of Tolkien’s Middle-earth theme. It was all about the love for metal and fantasy.

CR: New album “Third age of the sun”, how is it doing in record sales and concert demands?
Jyri Vahvanen: I don’t have a clue about the sales, but it has surely sold much more than our previous albums. With concert demands, it has also been great to see that people really want to see us live and our first headlining tour is about to happen. Everything has risen to a new level which is really good for the band.

CR: This new album was recorded in a different studio and produced by a different person, why?
Jyri Vahvanen: We had some major changes in our line up and also the songs for this new album were made a bit differently than before, so it was like a new beginning with some new band members for Battlelore so it was only natural to do all the things differently and we also wanted to chance our sound a little bit. That’s why we choose to go to France’s Sound Suite Studio.

CR: I can hear that in “Third age of the sun” the melodies that distinguished the band are still there, but the power and speed have slow down a bit, and it also has more of a folk attitude to it than the past ones was that intentional?
Jyri Vahvanen: As I mentioned, we wanted to chance our sound and to do things in a different way. This was all intentional, but in future there will be more those speed and power but also we will keep that folk spirit in our songs.

CR: The first track, the intro track to your new album is spoken in elvish… (Sorry I don’t know how to spell that), what does it mean, where did you found someone that spoke it?
Jyri Vahvanen: Actually you are not the only one who made a mistake with the intro’s language. It is not Elvish, it is pure Finnish, but I have to admit that there are a lot of similarities between those languages’ because Tolkien’s Elvish language is based on Finnish.
Here’s a rough translation from it:

Misty Rhûn

Under the surface
In the shades of Rhûn
Down below in the sand
Covered by the dark waters
Dwell the might of heroes

In the shimmer of the new dawn
The haze evades
In its hiding place

The sword rises from the depths
It is Third Age of the Sun

CR: I read in your web site that you guys made a concert to present the new album, how was it, and what about the one in Hämmeenlinna?
Jyri Vahvanen: The gig was great, it was open air and there were a lot of people. The bad thing was that the power went off in the middle of the gig, but our drummer covered it up with some ‘acoustic’ drum solo and the people went wild. It was awesome gig. The gig in Hämmeenlinna will be at 4.10. (This interview was send to the band at the end of October) And after that we play few gigs with Green Carnation (Norway) and we are really looking forward to it because we know the guys from the band and they are such a nice people.

	Pic courtesy of: Batlelore "Well, we didn’t had any certain goal with that album, we just wanted to make extreme metal and it was a great experience for us to work again with Miitri Aaltonen (the producer), because he is a great guy and very talented producer"

CR: Why don’t we go back to and amazing album “Swords Song”, can you tell us about the process of making this album that for many was the record that really put you in the spotlight of metal? The nice things about the recording, and what did you guys wanted to achieve with that record?
Jyri Vahvanen: Well, we didn’t had any certain goal with that album, we just wanted to make extreme metal and it was a great experience for us to work again with Miitri Aaltonen (the producer), because he is a great guy and very talented producer. The recording was a very long and hard process, but we learned a lot of new working methods and studio ‘tricks’ during those sessions.

CR: In “Swords Song” you singer then Patrik Mennander was clear but he never lost that aggressiveness, and also his participation in every song seem bigger to me than your new singer Tomi Mykkänen in “Third age of the sun”, is there a clear reason for this?
Jyri Vahvanen: Tomi jumped in this new album in the middle of making it and almost all of his parts were already arranged by me or Jussi so there wasn’t that much where he would have a chance to affect in that point, so his effort for the future albums will be much bigger that on Third Age…

CR: There are moments in “Sword Song” where Battlelore reminds me of Bal-Sagoth, can you tell me what kind of music was influencing the band while you guys where recording the album?
Jyri Vahvanen: It is very hard to say because we all listen to very different kinds of music styles from blues to black metal. Personally I like Bal-Sagoth a lot and also bands like Runemagick, Bolt Thrower, Dissection and Rammstein have affected in me a lot.

CR: Are all the songs always going to be based in J.R.R. Tolkien written work, or can you see a time where that could end?
Jyri Vahvanen: With Battlelore, we will always be 100% Tolkien influenced and if there is going to be some songs from other topics, those songs will be published by some side projects etc.

CR: You guys have been qualified as Power/Folk/Gothic/doom metal, is your idea of the band boxed inside any of this concepts or genres?
Jyri Vahvanen: For me it doesn’t really matter how people describes our music because everyone have their own opinions about different music styles. For some people some gothic metal bands could be black metal and vise versa. We have called our music as Fantasy Metal but if someone doesn’t agree, it is fine with me. Those are only words, let the music speak for it self.

CR: At the beginning the band lost a couple of members, then recently you lost another couple of them, do you think this line-up is a keeper or there will be other changes in the future? Exactly what do bands mean when they said “he had to leave for personal reasons” is that code for “I hate him” or “Is none of your business”?
Jyri Vahvanen: This new line up seems very stable and I’m sure that it will last. Usually bands don’t have that much urge to explain the ‘deep’ reasons why some member left the band, because in most of cases there are very personal reasons behind it after all.

CR: Your first record got pretty good reviews, how far has the band grown since that cd?
Jyri Vahvanen: We have grown a lot as musicians and also this band has shaped our persons a lot. Nowadays we do know how rotten this whole music business is and in the end of the day the great songs doesn’t mean as much as the right timing and promoting. It is sad but it is so true.

	Pic courtesy of: M. Hirose "I just wanted to put up a band, which plays heavy metal in the vein of Tolkien’s Middle-earth theme. It was all about the love for metal and fantasy"

CR: I can see you guys have recorded a couple of videos, how was that experience? Can you give us the details of those two video clips posted on you web site? Like who directed them and how long did you worked on them?
Jyri Vahvanen: It’s always a huge process to shoot a video but it’s also great fun. In our case we didn’t wanted a regular “performance” video, we wanted to add some kind of story or plot in it. The first video “Journey to Undying Lands” was made by our friends Tuomas Petsalo and Antti Hyyrynen, they have a company which makes videos, adds etc. We had about 30 people crew and it was an awesome experience. Everything just worked out really well and afterwards I had this feeling that it was like a once in a lifetime experience.
The second video “Storm of the Blades” was made by Markku Kirves who is studying video shooting and we didn’t know him before we worked with him. Those shootings were a bit chaotic because we had a really short preparing time for the video and Markku was the only one who really knew what was going on and how the final result will look like. It all ended up well and we all were really satisfied to it.

CR: You have a DVD called “The Journey”; it was recorded after just two albums. Do you think this will help the band get new fans and create credibility because they can see you perform? Don’t you guys feel it was just a little soon to be recording and releasing a DVD?
Jyri Vahvanen: Of course the DVD will help your promoting and it is a good advertisement for the people. It was actually our record label’s idea that we should shoot a DVD. I know that it was a bit early for us, but when you got a chance for that, why not?

CR: What can you tell us about the album covers, is there any interesting process to pick one?
Jyri Vahvanen: The two first covers were made by Ted Nasmith, the famous Canadian Tolkien artist (www.tednasmith.com). We wrote to him and asked a permission to use those pics and he said yes, he was very excited about it. His son is now a fan of Battlelore.
The third cover was made by our friend Ville Pellikka and it was customized for this album. We wanted him to paint elven smiths with the ring and he really captured the right kind of ‘mysterious’ atmosphere in that painting.

CR: In live gigs you guys always present costumes and atmospheres to the crow (because of the pictures I have seen) do you guys plan very carefully your image to resemble characters from J.R.R. Tolkien?
Jyri Vahvanen: Yes, it is very important for us to have the right kind of costumes and stage props to create the atmosphere. We are playing fantasy metal and that’s how we should also look like on stage.

CR: Do you think that some of your songs could have been use as a soundtrack in any of the Lord of the Rings movies?
Jyri Vahvanen: I don’t see how our songs would fit into those movies because for those kinds of movies the classical orchestra music is much better than extreme metal.

CR: Next year to Germany and Holland, any plans further those, any tour with another band?
Jyri Vahvanen: There will be more gigs on that same time and it is actually going to be tour which takes about two weeks in the middle and southern Europe, but so far we don’t have any plans to play with any other groups.

CR: Do you have any comments or a clear position on mp3 sharing software or in trading music via mp3 format with people in a non profit kind of way?
Jyri Vahvanen: It is like a double edged sword. It is a good promotion, but the artist loses his profits because of it. I haven’t made any strong opinion about it.

CR: Would you guys ever consider playing in Costa Rica? Have you heard something about our country?
Jyri Vahvanen: Actually we have a coffee label in Finland by the name of Costa Rica. We haven’t heard that much about your country, but of course it would be great to visit there.

CR: Thank you again for your time, and if you would like to add something more, please do.
Jyri Vahvanen: Thank you! Thanks for the intie it was a pleasure. Stay Metal!