Finnish folk metal legends Ensiferum will be hitting Australia’s East coast at the end of Februrary. Ahead of the tour, we conversed with bassist Sami Hinkka about the band’s plans for the upcoming shows, along with their wide array of influences and their love of the didgeridoo.
Oliver: Sami, how are you doing today?
Sami: I’m doing super thank you. We just finished five weeks [in] North America, Mexico, 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise tour and having a bit of jetlag, but so far so good. Looking forward to coming to Australia in a couple of weeks.
Oliver: Excellent. How was the 70,000 show, because I keep hearing about that. What’s the experience like?
Sami: It’s a fantastic experience. We have been there four times; we’re the first band ever [who’ve] been there four times. It’s like a holiday, well I guess that’s the whole point on a Caribbean cruise ship. Having good music from dusk ‘till dawn and people are in a good mood all the time. Cold drinks, Caribbean sun and metal playing almost 24/7. It’s really cool if you’re into that kind of stuff. As an artist it’s always nice to go there. You get to see a lot of friends from other bands and you have time to see other bands. Sometimes at a festival, like in Europe we have a hectic festival season, it really might be that you just play your own show, you have to pack your stuff and have to start driving to your next destination. That was a really cool thing at 70,000 Tons, we really have a sit down and have a drink and enjoy.
Oliver: It certainly sounds like fun. In terms of the Australian tour, what have you got planned?
Sami: As you know we haven’t been to Australia that many times. We want to come there as keen as possible. The setlists, of course there’s going to be some new songs. We’re still promoting the latest album Two Paths but we have this policy in the band that we want to have songs from every album. We are proud of every album we ever made. So there’s going to be some new, some old, some rare songs we haven’t played for a while. But of course we’re going to take what we played last time in Australia so that there will be some change between the setlists. But on the other hand we don’t play in Australia that often compared to, like, Germany or something in central Europe where we do, like, fifty shows per year. It’s totally different. We’re gonna do a mix, try to make the setlist so that it’s as king as possible.
Oliver: That sounds great. On the Australian tour, are you bringing a keyboardist with you?
Sami: No, at the moment it’s a four piece band. But yeah, earlier last year we had an announcement that we were looking for a person to play keyboards and who can also do very good clean singing. And yeah, sorry I can’t say anything out in public, but let’s say within this year maybe someone else might come.
Oliver: Oh I’m intrigued! With the tour, what gear will you personally be bringing with you?
Sami: We come with just two technicians, unfortunately it’s a hard reality that it’s a financial thing also. Flying to Australia from Finland is very expensive and the more gear you bring it’s extra luggage and extra kilos, it all costs. So we come there with essential technicians; we have a monitor guy and a front [of house] guy, all that we need of course to put up a great show. But of course it’s different when you have a tour where you have a bus, a trailer that you can bring extra lights and stuff like that which we unfortunately now cannot bring. But I still have my hopes up that we are doing this kind of grassroot level work doing gigs. Maybe someday we are all on a next level in Australia, so we can come with a bigger production.
Oliver: Sounds cool. With your shows, what would you say is one of the more interesting things you’ve seen?
Sami: Haha! Now that is a good question because there’s been a lot of crazy stuff happen during uor shows. One of the WOW moments was 2008, sorry it’s so far, but that was just so impressive. We played the first time ever in Wacken [Open Air] main stage. We’d played Wacken before, but that was the first time we played main stage. The show time was I guess noon or maybe one o’clock, it was super early, and we were not sure that people are still having hangovers [so] not everybody will drag themselves to see the gig. And just before the show it started raining really hard. We were like oh fuck, nobody’s gonna come and we’re just going to play an empty stage! And we were like lets go there and kick ass even if there’s one person, let’s have a fucking good party. But literally two minutes before the show the rain ended. We were behind the stage, when we get on stage [and] the intro’s playing, it was full of people. Like fifty, sixty thousand people there. That was like wow! And people sing along and party and mosh pit, crowd surfing, wall of death. That was an interesting moment, especially when you were a couple of minutes earlier like ok, nobody’s gonna come, there’s rain, there’s mud, everybody has a hangover or still drunk in the camping area. You end up having the biggest audience you ever had at that point.
Oliver: Oh wow that does sound amazing and I can imagine the amount of mud that would be involved in a mosh pit right after it’d rained.
Sami: [laughs] Yeah it sure was, it was like a mudpit.
Oliver: Absolutely. Because I’m calling from Australia, I have to admit I’m not quite familiar with Finnish folk traditions. What particular traditions influence the writing of your music?
Sami: For us it’s not just, like, Finnish traditional music. Of course that’s a big part because that’s a part of the culture we grew up with. It’s also Scandinavian and Irish folk music. Markus [Toivonen] the founder of the band, he has…maybe not that much anymore because nobody buys cds anymore, he used to when we went to a new country, he always tried to find the local folk music. He always tried to buy that. Nowadays it’s easier to go to streaming services like Spotify and so on and listen to all kinds of music from around the world. We have very open minds with inspiration, so to say. Of course, when we come from Finland it’s easy to label us as…well some say we’re a Viking band or whatever, but we literally have two songs about that refer to the Viking sagas. But yeah, we have a very open mind to all musical diversity and that’s how we like to write music. We have songs that have Western themes and Western elements in it. On the Unsung Heroes album that starts with didgeridoo playing in the background!
Oliver: Oh really?
Sami: Yeah it was all very experimental, a song called Passion Proof Power. But yeah, we like to keep an open mind with music.
Oliver: Well I guess the next big question is who learnt how to play the didgeridoo? Cause that’s not an easy instrument.
Sami: [laughs] I actually learnt how to do it a long long time ago, but I couldn’t do the breathing. I could get sound out of it, but we had a professional guy to do that! I can make sound out of it but the breathing, I never learnt that one. Which is a pity because it’s a beautiful instrument.
Oliver: Oh absolutely. Your current album was released in 2017, so I was wondering if you’ve got plans for the new one?
Sami: Yes, we already have four, five songs not ready but we have all the parts. Still some arrangements to do, so we’re like half way of writing the new album. After the Australian tour then we have plans to go to Russia to do a short tour there. Then it’s festival season and even though we’ve just finished a North American tour we’re also planning to go there because North America is a continent. There’s many, many cities where you could visit, so we also plan to go there this year. And personally I’m having another band, a power metal slash heavy metal band called Metal de Facto. We’re mixing the first album of this band and also going to tour with that. Somewhere in between all these we’re trying to find time to go to [the] rehearsal room and continue composing the new Ensiferum album. I’d really like within a year [if] we hit the studio, because Ensiferum is very slow writer. Everybody’s involved in the composing process. It would be much faster if, like, some bands have a mastermind who brings all the ideas and they just hit the studio. But that’s part of the beauty of Ensiferum, it’s really a band and we use countless hours in rehearsal, twisting and turning all the ideas. But then everybody can stand behind every song, so it’s very important for us that everybody leaves their mark to the music.
Oliver: I’ve got a slightly interesting question. If you could bring any one food on the Australian tour to sell at the merch desk, what would it be?
Sami: From Finland? I guess I would bring Finnish salmiakki, like a salty liquorice. We have that as a candy but also as an alcohol. I think it’s 38% strong alcohol and it’s like liquid candy. Maybe I would bring that.
Oliver: That sounds tasty. Is it a bit like Sambuca or something like that?
Sami: It’s very unique. Let’s see, I might be able to bring one or bottles, I don’t know the rules at customs [laughs]. I don’t wanna mess with Australian customs.
Oliver: I think you can buy them at the airport on the way for your personal use, but other than that it’s a bit tricky.
Sami: Indeed indeed.
Oliver: When you’re not touring or writing, what do you do to unwind?
Sami: Personally I love to read, I love movies and I also do yoga as much as I can. For a few years I couldn’t really do it but now I’m getting back to it as something that I enjoy a lot. I guess it’s, you know, we’re not getting any younger and you need to take care of your body. It’s the only body we have. Those are pretty much my ways of escapism; a good movie, books. Of course when you’re a touring musician there’s a lot of time where you’re not home, away from your friends and family and close people. So when I’m at home I try to also see them as much as possible because when you don’t see people that often, you really appreciate the time that you actually have with them.
Oliver: Aww that’s great. I think we’re just about out of time, so before we go, is there anything in particular you’d like to say to the people of Australia?
Sami: Well in case you haven’t heard the latest album Two Paths, check it out and pumped to see you all in the mosh pit in a couple of weeks.
Oliver: Thank you very much for taking the time to chat and I hope you have a great day.
Sami: Likewise. All the best, Oliver.
Ensiferum 2018 Australian Tour Dates:
Thursday 28TH February, BRISBANE, The Zoo
Friday 1ST March, SYDNEY, Manning Bar
Saturday 2nd March – MELBOURNE, Max Watts
Tickets From: https://hardlinemedia.net/
