{"id":2169,"date":"2013-04-06T13:02:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T07:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=2169"},"modified":"2013-04-06T18:55:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-06T13:25:22","slug":"ensiferum-bassist-sami-hinkka-discusses-paganfest-new-album-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2013\/04\/06\/ensiferum-bassist-sami-hinkka-discusses-paganfest-new-album-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensiferum Bassist Sami Hinkka Discusses Paganfest, New Album + More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview by Avinash Mittur<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finnish folk metal giants Ensiferum released their fifth studio album ‘Unsung Heroes’ last August via Spinefarm Records, and are now on the road in North America to promote this release. They’re currently headlining Paganfest America Part IV, with support acts Tyr, Heidevolk, Trollfest and Southern California’s very own Helsott. More adventurous and theatrical than any of their previous releases, ‘Unsung Heroes’ presents the band in a new light and showcases their never-ending progress as musicians. Combine that with their fierce on-stage energy, and Paganfest becomes a must-watch show for any metal fan. The tour made a stop at the House of Blues in Hollywood on April 2nd, and our man not only wrote this killer review<\/a><\/strong> of the show, but also sat down with bassist Sami Hinkka for a pleasant conversation. Read it below.<\/p>\n

So this is your second Paganfest, and also your second Paganfest tour with Tyr!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, actually Tyr are very old friends of ours, we have toured with them many times, even before I joined Ensiferum. They were in Russia and I was in a totally different band- I was so wasted and I saw Heri [Joensen, Tyr vocalist\/guitarist<\/em>]. He was taking a leak and I went to go talk with him in Finnish. He was standing there and nodding and at the very end he said \u201cI have absolutely no idea what you\u2019re talking about!\u201d And then we started drinking! [laughs]<\/p>\n

With this Paganfest tour, you\u2019ve had to share the stage with quite a few bands. Have you had to limit your set as a result?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah of course, it\u2019s a festival situation and in some venues you have strict curfews. It\u2019s a different kind of thing to have your own headlining tour as opposed to the festival thing. It\u2019s a nice challenge when somebody tells you that you only have seventy minutes to play. The more albums you have out, the more difficult it gets. It also makes it more interesting, when we do one show in one city we\u2019ll check out what we played there last time or what we played on the last tour. We try to change the set as much as possible because there are always hardcore fans that have seen the band many times, so we\u2019ll play a rare song for them also. We also like to have songs from each album. It makes creating the set very interesting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I know the last time you talked with Metal Assault you were considering doing \u2018Passion, Proof, Power\u2019, the seventeen minute song from Unsung Heroes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that would be something! Actually that would be doable, but we would need the female singer for that one because it\u2019s such an important element of the song. You can\u2019t put that kind of thing to a backing track. Someday- let\u2019s see when it\u2019s time for the twentieth anniversary! [laughs]<\/p>\n

Has that been a challenge, tackling samples or acoustic guitars onstage? For example I know that \u2018Burning Leaves\u2019 from the new record has an acoustic intro.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, we have some backing tracks for some orchestral elements even though we have keyboards. Emmi [Silvennoinen, keyboards<\/em>] only has two hands, so it\u2019s much easier to have big choirs played through the P.A. With the acoustic guitars, it\u2019s a matter of them being overweight on the flight. It\u2019s already really expensive getting the working visas, and the overweight luggage is like twenty euros per kilo. If you have like three, four guitars and an extra then it\u2019s thousands of dollars suddenly. It would be cool to have acoustic guitars so we could do \u2018Tears\u2019 and stuff like that. Maybe someday!<\/p>\n

Well, I guess maybe that kind of thing would be feasible back home where you wouldn\u2019t have to fly the gear out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s true. Having the acoustic guitars would also make the live set more interesting and add more dynamics. Let\u2019s see, let\u2019s see!<\/p>\n

At some shows at home you guys have been known to do an ABBA cover…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hmm, yes we have… That\u2019s another of our drunken ideas! [laughs] Let\u2019s see what we come up with next!<\/p>\n

Are you all genuine fans of ABBA or was it more tongue-in-cheek?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a little bit tongue-in-cheek but of course ABBA have many good songs. I don\u2019t think any of us are real hardcore fans of them though. It\u2019s good pop.<\/p>\n