interview with Coraxo
What´s the name of your band? Coraxo. It is a word in enochian, meaning “spirits of wrath and judgement”, which we felt to fit to describe the alien antagonists in our scifi story.
How was the band formed? In the summer 2013 Tomi started writing music for a solo project that would incorporate ambient electro in old school death metal. Once Ville and Tomi got together for recording the drums for the songs they realised the songs were so good they had to make a real band out of the project.
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?
Tomi – Guitars, Vocals, Programming
Ville K – Bass
Ville V – Drums
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? To play metal music that feels right for us, have fun and do some gigs.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Mid 90's melodic death metal mixed with ambient electro music, like Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, to make a metal scifi soundtrack. We also take some influence from industrial/EBM bands like Die Krupps.
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? Tomi writes most of the music and lyrics, but gives a lot of freedom for arranging the bass drums. It's better to let a real bassist and drummer to do the compositions for those.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? Spacemetal genre. Electro death metal. Industrial. All of the above.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Ville V: I like to play this kind of music, it’s suitably heavy and technical. Tomi: The songs have their own imaginary Universe, which tells the tale of Starlit Flame, a conscious nanomachine race that arrives on Earth in the 25th Century. The nanomachines can influence the host they've contaminated, resulting in a civil war between the diseased and the still healthy ones. It is a tale full of old 60's and 70's scifi Cold War themes that were prevalent in the writings of Philip K Dick for example.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write our own material. Recording covers is a bit of a pain for an independent artist anyway because of the lisencing fees and permits etc.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We have made two EPs of our planned trilogy, Starlit Flame and Starlit Flame II. They were both released in 2014, first part in January and the second on Oct 10. Third part is yet to come, but already in the works.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Yes, we have. Our channel is at youtube.com/coraxoband.
How old are you?/What got you started in music? We're all in our 30's.
Tomi: I think it was when I was in high school when I first really started listening to the heavier side of metal, bands like Dissection and At the Gates. Also a few of my friends and class mates played guitar so I got the spark from them. We had “band practices” at our each others homes, playing black metal with a metal zone pedal straight through the home stereo! That was some horrible sounding noise.
Ville V: My brother had drums, so with them I got my first touch.
But when I was on upper grades at school I heard Slayer album Divine Intervention, after that was when I really got into playing metal music. First time I started playing I was about 7 years old, but more serious about 12-13 years old.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Ville V: I was 21. Tomi: I think I was 21 or 22 years old.
What places will you be playing in the immediate future? The next planned gig is at Varjobaari, Tampere Finland in January.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? I think we'll rehearse and start to play gigs after the New Year.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? Just warming up and relaxing and not taking it too seriously. Have a few beers, joke around backstage.
What are your goals with your music? To improve and get to play gigs in new places and countries.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Ville V: I would say my inspiration comes more from older bands. There’s so much new music and bands that you can’t keep up with them. Sometimes, usually by accident you find some good new band. Tomi: Pretty much the same for me, most of the inspiration for Coraxo stems from the 90's era death metal.
What are your sources of inspiration? Science fiction, writers like Philip K Dick, Robert A Wilson, Harry Harrison, Jeff Long, Dan Simmons. Also from the more serious side of literature, Miltons Paradise Lost is a big influence. Also sounds from scifi TV series and video games, especially the older ones like Doctor Who, that used completely analog equipment to make the sound effects in the early days.
What's the first step when making a new song? Tomi: Come up with a story and theme, then build the music to support those. I almost never write the music before I have an idea of what kind of emotions the story needs to convey.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums?
Nowadays when streaming has come more available, I think that almost everyone have enough money to pay for listening music. Nowadays I would think it’s more a habit than a lack of money thing to download albums.
Many people still want to have a concrete disc in their hands.
What would be your dreams for the band?
To make good albums which satisfy ourselves and maybe others too.
Also playing some gigs with bands which we like would be nice.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to?
Ville V: Arch Enemy, The Haunted, Paradise Lost, to name a few lately listened bands. And some black metal. There are too many to mention.
Tomi: Paradise Lost is a big influence for me as well. Lately I've been listeing to the latest albums from Celtic Frost, Kvelertak, and Die Krupps. Also the Portishead live album.
What do you hold most dear? Ville V: Health and keeping the environment clean.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Ville V: Don’t know, electrical shock. (laughs) Tomi: Maybe that I run out of beer before the gig ends?
Have you been part of any other projects?
Ville V: Many hobby bands and projects with friends through the years, but my first real band would be Coldrush. In that band I met Ville, our bass player in Coraxo. After Coldrush I joined Destination:Destruction and I met Tomi in that band. And when Destination:Destruction broke-up, I joined Coraxo which Tomi founded.
Tomi: Ville pretty much summed it. I was in a band called Coma of Loss for a decade before D:D. Unfortunately that band never really went anywhere.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Ville V: I’m a mechanic. Tomi: I'm a mechanical engineer. So I guess we're inclined towards industrial even at work. (laugh)
How important are your fans? The most important thing. It is a great feeling when you see and hear someone enjoy the work that you've spent so much time in making.
How often do you rehearse? Once a week with whole band. Everyone makes their own practices also of course.
Where do you rehearse? In Coraxo Squad Training Facility.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Just right now Lanterns and Bastion.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? The Haunted and Kreator are great live bands. Finnish band Diablo also has a great live sound.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? First of all, we do not get a living from our music. Without any qualified knowledge about living on music, I think there are good and bad things about it. Like when you are getting your living elsewhere, you can make your music in your own way and not compromise anything. And you don’t have to squeeze so hard knowing that this must succeed or I won't get food on the table.
But on the other hand, it would be nice to get a living from this thing. (laughs)
Do you have any webpages?
coraxo-official.com
coraxo.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/coraxoband
twitter.com/coraxoband
youtube.com/coraxoband
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Kind of cliché, but keep believing your own thing. This is not a competition, have fun with stuff you like to do.
Music and photo to interview
Coraxo – Lanterns (Ofiicial Lyric Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU-QCC1xuzY
Coraxo – The Bastion https://soundcloud.com/coraxoband/coraxo-the-bastion-new-ep-oct-2014
Picture: http://coraxoofficial.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_0369-tint2.jpg
Logo: http://coraxoofficial.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/cropped-twitter-banner.jpg
