interview with Magenta Harvest

Have any of you played in other bands? Yes. For example ...and Oceans, Havoc Unit, Festerday, Mygrain, Pain Confessor, Finntroll, Chthonian, Dispyt etc.

How is it that you started playing music?

Timo K: Oh that goes way back. I started to play already late 80's. The reason was the music. Heavy metal, speed, thrash, death and black metal. Maybe it helped that my father had a guitar at home so it was easy to start from there...

Mathias: Same for me. Started playing in the end of the 80's as a small kid. My dad was/is a musician and gave me a light push into it. First played some Heavy Metal covers and then went over to Black and Death in the mid 90's.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

Timo Hanhikangas - Guitar 41

Jonas Frilund - Bass 38

Timo Kontio - Guitar 42

Mathias Lillmåns - Vocals 35

Janne Manninen - Drums 43

Have you had other previous members? No. Only two session bass players on a few gigs last year.

Did you make music even when you were young?

Timo K: Yes. From the beginning I and my bands have been making own music. That is most rewarding.

Mathias: I tried to make own songs when I was a small, but they sounded nothing like the stuff I liked so played some covers until finally finding Black and Death in the 90's. Then the songs started to come out as I wanted them.

Where are you from? We are all originally from Pietarsaari, Finland or near by Pietarsaari originally. Nowadays a few of us still live here.

What year did the band form? About 2005.

What's your style of genre? We are often categorized as melodic death metal, but in my opinion that gives a bit too 'soft' description of our band. We are more brutal and also have some black metal influences.

What inspires you?

Timo K: I'm so old that there must be something that inspires me for sure, haha... if there wouldn't be, I would not do this... at first of course all the great bands which were discovered in the late 80's and early 90's. Nowadays maybe just the fact that you want to make good music and get out and do gigs and try get your music heard. There are too many bands nowadays and music business is really different than 20+ years ago so this demands loads of work.

Mathias: Lyrically I write quite different stuff for different bands. When I write for my Black Metal or Crust bands it tends to come from within, more my own thoughts and feelings. When I write for Magenta Harvest I tend to be inspired from the stuff that happens around me, being critical of the world that surrounds us. Does that make any sense?

How often and where do you reherse? A few times a year, haha... with the whole band. Guitarists and bass player rehearse more often. Of course we make new stuff together (guitarists) so...

How have you developed since you started with the music? I think we have found our sound. It's death metal, but with black metal influences. Of course we challenge ourselves with the new music we make all the time. So that will develope us as musicians also.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band?

Timo K: I can speak only for myself here. I have nothing that could label as work. I listen and collect music. I have a family and two kids. So my hands are full.

Mathias: I'm very into sound engineering and tend to focus on that when I'm not out there with other bands.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? We already have a booking agency. Dragon Productions from Germany.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Hmmm. These might be basic questions to all bands. So no background checks of the bands in questions? we have a label... Apostasy Records from Germany.

What made you decide to make this music? There's no other way to do it than metal music.

What are your songs about?

Timo K: Mathias would be better to answer this since he does our lyrics.

Mathias: As I said earlier, I am focusing on what happens around us. The lyrics have sort of revolved around visions of our demise. The end of mankind. Visions of what will happen if you let different things in our present (and past) escalate. Some maybe in a remote future, some may already have happened.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Timo K: Me and other guitarist Timo H make all the riffs. Mathias has made most of the lyrics. Some songs were written by Jan Jämsen, ex-Finntroll vocalist.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Music, always.

What language do you sing in? English.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs?

Maybe 30+ somewhere in Europe on our 2014 European tour. This doesn't mean that the gig was bad, we wouldn't have a great time or that people weren't in to it... sometimes small 'active' crowd is better than big inactive crowd.

In Finland we have had a few 400-500 gigs which of course have been great!

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Hard to say... maybe 20-45.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? we vary a bit. Now we play more new songs, but also some older songs which work nicely live or are our more known songs...

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Our own hometown Pietarsaari maybe twice a year. Not that often, but...

What was your first gig like? It was ok... something that had to be done for this band to get things started.

What was your latest gig? It was in Seinäjoki, Finland.

Have you had to cancel a gig? Yep, we had to cancel our gig London the same day we should have played. Our drummer got some severe back problems and couldn't play.

Where have you played live this year? Maybe I should look at 2017. We played a few in Finland and once in Switzerland... we were waiting for our album to be released in September. Tried to get a bigger tour, but didn't manage to get one so...

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We have plans to tour in central Europe, Scandinavia and Finland.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? At this point we (the band) only have one T-shirt model for sale. Hopefully new merch will be done later this year. Kapanen Productions have some older models still for sale. And we of course always bring our CDs to shows.

Where can people buy your merchandise? Straight from the band itself ([email protected]) or Kapanen Productions (www.kapanen-production-store.de) from Germany.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?

Timo K: That is not so good thing, but what can you do. You have to adapt to this situation somehow. Of course as an artist it's a real challenge to get anything back from your 'investments'.

Mathias: I have always wanted to have the physical release of the albums I like. Not having to buy the albums can have it's benefits, the fact that you reach more people easily, but it also means that there's so much out there that you have to make new music all the time to keep you "fresh" as an artist and people interested.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Changed a lot for sure. Labels are afraid of supporting new comers. They want 'ready' known bands with vast fan base etc. They don't want to 'grow' with the band. They might not have the money and time for that. It's understandable since CD's won't sell etc. but that is really difficult for the bands of course. Also it's not just selling your music, venues at least here in Finland often expect that there's no need to pay to the band for their gigs. Food and a couple of beers should be enough... If bands allow this to happen this becomes the new norm...

What do you think of my work? It's always appreciated when someone has time to makes these interviews and support bands by doing them.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Can't say. Depends of course on how many people read your page/blog.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Older for sure, but every now and then it's interesting to see new mixtures of styles etc. made by new bands.

What have been your biggest obstacles? Time and the distance between band members.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Do what you want to do otherwise it becomes like normal work and it wears you out. Make own music. It's more rewarding and helps your musicality. Copying others and trying to sweep pick as fast as possible won't take you far....

How do you get psyched for a gig? Jägermeister shot just before the gig. Or... nice crowd, great other bands.

Do you have any new material? Our second full length album 'and then came the Dust' was released the 1st of September last year so it's pretty new. We have some new riffs etc. but not that much yet...

What are your web sites? https://www.facebook.com/MagentaHarvest/ https://www.magentaharvest.com/ http://www.dragon-productions.eu/bands/magenta-harvest/

How can people reach you? Several ways to do it. Message on Facebook, email [email protected], message from our web page. Via our label Apostasy Records or our booking agency Dragon Productions.

What are your plans for the future? We have been trying to go on a bigger tour, but haven't succeeded in that yet. Though we are booking quite a few gigs at the moment for the spring. Also abroad, but can't say anything until official. Then some festivals also are planned. Of course we have to think of our next album so new material has to be made along the way.

Do you have something to add? Keep bands on the road, buy their music and official merchandise! And see you all someway out there this spring!

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