Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Kivimetsän Druidi is a folk metal band from Kouvola (Finland). ‘Kivimetsän Druidi’ is Finnish for “druid of the stone forest”. Each band member has their own personal influences. After releasing numerous demos and EPs, Kivimetsän Druidi finally signed a record deal with Century Media in 2008. In April 2010 the band has released their 2nd album ”Betrayal, Justice, revenge”. Kivimetsän Druidi are: Leeni-Maria Hovila (Female vocals), Joni Koskinen (Male vocals, lead guitar), Antti Koskinen (keyboards), Antti Rinkinen (guitar), Simo Lehtonen (bass guitar), Atte Marttinen (drums).

The other day, Metal Shock Finland’s Nelli Perkkiö had a chat with Leeni-Maria Hovila.

1.Hey Leeni-Maria, let’s start off with a fairly simple basic question. How was your Holidays?

I’ve had the most shitty holiday stress.

2. How did you end up singing in Kivimetsän Druidi?

They called me after the band and Jenni (Onishko, the previous singer before me) parted ways. I was at that time singing with Exsecratus and the Druidi manager knew me as he had reviewed our debut album so, as I said, they just plain and called me. At my work.

3. How do you find it, being the only woman in the group of guys?

As one might think. I am a somewhat strange case for a lady, particularly, I keep much to myself and nothing really bothers me. Ever. At least not enough to make a scene of it – usually. There have been exceptions. Hell, I don’t know why it works. Probably because whenever anything or anyone gets on my nerves I just shut down and fall into my very own imaginary world. La-la-land. And mostly, the guys are really fun. And mostly everyone treats me really nice.

4. What is your job, your role in the song creating process?

It didn’t used to be very much – not with the first album, the songs of which were almost all written before I joined. Since then I first initiated with making my own vocal melodies, though there is no way I could call it composing – the guys write the whole of the songs, and the base they make is so dominating there is really no liberty in writing the vocal lines, I just have to follow the guys. But I these days have a much greater part in lyrics writing process than I ever even thought I would. As it turned out, I made almost all of the lyrics for our second album and this will probably continue. Joni used to write all of them, but then he asked for my help if I would be so kind as to make some and… well…

5.Your album, Betrayal, Justice, revenge, came out on 26th of April 2010. Have you started to plan your next album yet? When can we start waiting for it?

New material is coming up but right now we will concentrate on the coming year’s live challenges. This is entirely a not-even-so-educated guess, but I myself wouldn’t start expecting it until early 2012. That’s because the Spring and Summer of 2011 seems to be very busy with tours and festivals.

6. How long have you sang and what pushed you to Metal music rather than to classical side?

But I do classic singing all the time, too. I study it full-time in Lahti. I consider myself a cross-over. My primary job is to be a fantasy metal singer, however. The combination probably is the consequence of being raised by a church organ-playing, strictly classic genre father but having a personal liking of heavy rock, later gothic and power- as well as doom metal. I’m trying to get the best of both worlds.

7. Who do you see as your idol? as your inspiration?

First ever was probably Sarah Brightman in The Phantom of The Opera. I know that musical from beginning to end. It’s no exaggeration that if you asked I could probably speak and sing the whole thing, themes, lines and songs from memory on spot. Then there’s Peter Steele. From classic side, Dawn Upshaw and Kathleen Battle rule. As for metal, Floor Jansen of After Forever made a huge impact although I only listened one album for a brief time just to enjoy her voice. Floor now has of course ReVamp.

8. What are the main differences between making this album and the one before?

Much more relaxed. Much more confident. Much easier and cozier. The studio was practically next door to Antti Koskinen The Keyboardist of ours. My guys knew the studio guys. We had better and more up-to-date material.

9.Do you, as a band have a routine or formed habits while in studio?

I wish there was more – much more – opportunities to make such routines happen. Not really, there are these larger scale similarities. Guys drinking beer and making poor conversation at the next door. every so often someone coming to the control room, well… to control things. Atte getting mad with the orchestrations. Simo having strict opinions about things and being right about them, the SOB.

10. How do you find the album  Betrayal, Justice, Revenge being different from earlier material, albums?

Ah, there was only one before this. |:-) and several EP’s and demos. Oh, I think I answered this one practically already, therefore: I refer above, at questions 4. and 8.  There’s really not much to add there. Except that we are much happier with this one than before. And that the material is getting harsher, more controversy, more extreme, heavier and contrasted as we go along. Pure fantasy metal is being mated with thrash and extreme elements ever more often, godforbid.

11. You’ve toured abroad a lot. What are the differences between Finnish and foreign audience?

The undeniable truth is that Finnish audience is very critical. Finns very rarely let go and just party with the band: quite often a Finnish audience observes a performer coolly, not cruelly, but with certain expectations, wanting to get a good performance, feeling disappointed if there isn’t one. This is not necessarily a bad thing: Finnish audience simply knows what it wants and silently, shyly appreciates it when received. Often abroad, again, the audiences are sincerely thankful of any and all performances, throw themselves in and shamelessly party with any band playing whether they know it or want it or not and enjoy the ride. There is something wild and primal about that, being able to “fall” into the music of any band with no special expectations.

12. And which one you prefer more?

Well, in addition to all that I said above there is also the undeniable fact that music of this genre has much wider demand elsewhere in Europe, anywhere south of Germany, actually. Russia also appreciates. So I have to say that foreign shows are more rewarding for us. There’s just always more people and they are more excited.

13.How has the feedback been for the album Betrayal, Justice, Revenge?

Shadowheart – our debut – mostly received mediocre reviews- you know, 3/5, 7/10, much room for improvement, much good criticism, but also some very good reviews, too. We feel that BJR turned out much better and the audience seems to concur: we got better reviews, better welcoming altogether, points such as 4/5, 8-9/10, people just generally thinking we’ve made a huge advancement. And we concur as well.

14.What can we wait from Kivimetsän Druidi in the future?

The next album is going to be even better. Maybe 9/10 reviews this time – it has to be! Or we will get mighty depressed.  We will be seen live quite often. We are going to Paganfest 2011 tour in March. Our Italy show shall be in Bologna 24.3. (Estragon is the place, hmm… Bologna, isn’t that where spaghetti bolognese is from? Maybe I ought to try it there.) We will also do Metalfest Open Air festivals in May 2011 as well as Metal Female Voices Fest in Wieze, Belgium in October 2011.

15. And last but not least, what do you have to say to your fans across the world?

Never make an elf angry, especially at Christmas time. Rock n’ Troll!

Thanks Leeni-Maria for this interview! Have a great 2011!

Interviewed by Nelli Perkkiö

To read our review of ”Betrayal, Justice, revenge”, please click here.