SKEPTICISM

Who are you and what do you do in your band?

Jani from Skepticism. I play guitar, compose songs and sometimes write also lyrics.

When/where was your band formed?

It was quite some years ago. Band was found in a small Finnish town called Riihimäki in 1991.  That’s the town where we’re still having our trainings, even some of the members are nowadays living somewhere else.

Why did you choose to play Death Metal?

A very simple reason, that was the style of the music that we all listened back then. I mean Metal in general, not only Death Metal. It’s quite different to think of anything else. Of course during the years our musical tastes have been evolving and we have gotten influences from many different sources. Not only from metal music. I think, our first songs can be categorised as slow death metal.

How do you compose your music? Does only one guy do everything or does everyone contribute?

It’s a collective process, I would describe. Typically I’m bringing the riff ideas or song frames to our trainings and we will start working on them together. It’s always a quite long process for us to finish a song. An interesting fact is that I might have a clear idea about a song in my head, but after some iterations with the other members, it typically turns out to be something completely different than I originally thought. Nowadays I’m very used to it and it’s only a good thing. I believe, it increases the versatility of our songs.

Tell us about your lyrics, writing, inspiration etc.

I would say they are quite abstract in a way. However, there is always a clear idea behind them. At least in major of the cases. Our organ player is mainly writing the lyrics. For some exceptions I have created a few. Inspiration can come from anywhere; from life situations, nature or death for example. To give an example a song called “March Incomplete” on our new album tells about a situation where a composer is fully capable to write great music but for some reason nothing comes out to his note paper. I believe the most of the people who use to write music are familiar with such situation when the inspiration is completely lost. It might be an ordeal.

Is there an ideology behind your band?

Yes and no. If you meant some higher social or political ideology then it’s completely out of our scope. I think, the ideology behind our music is mainly about creating atmospheres. That’s at least how I see it.

How do you see the state of Death Metal music these days in your country and in general?

I’m coming from Finland and metal music has been doing very well during the past 30 years. There are currently a great number of metal bands and concerts are organized all the time. Even in smaller towns. Pretty good situation I would describe. Not only in Death Metal, but in all metal genres.

What are your long term plans as a band? What do you want to achieve?

Well, we have been active almost a quarter century. I think, we have achieved quite many things already, keeping in mind that our band is playing pretty extreme form of a metal music. We have released bunch of albums and played a great number of concerts here and there. I would say that I would like to see the next 25 years of active band life. I would also like to visit far east with my band (not done yet). I want to be able to constantly develop our music and release new interesting albums.

Name an other Death Metal band from your country that everyone should hear.

I wouldn’t describe us as a Death Metal band, but anyway… This isn’t really a Death Metal band, but is having a lots of nuances from the genre. I would recommend to check out an old Finnish group called Thromdarr. Maybe I’m having here some “product placement” included in my recommendation as our drummer and vocalist are members of the band but whatsoever, I really appreciate the versatility of the main composer of the band. He is nicely utilising ideas from old metal styles, like Trash, Speed and even Black Metal and so on. I’m not sure when they are going to release something new, but they have released a couple of albums already. Definitely worth of checking.

Free word.

Every Ordeal consists of something dark and something beautiful.

 Black & White photos by Miluță Flueraș
Color photo by Juha Karvonen