Chad Bowar: It's been three years since Poisonblack's first album. Since that time you've had some lineup changes.
Ville Laihiala: Yes. We replaced our bass player with Antti Remes and added a guitar player, Janne Markus. They are old friends of mine. They played in numerous bands before they joined us. The main goal was to find good musicians with personalities that we could get along with. I basically went to a local bar and got two musicians from there.
On the first CD J.P. Leppaluoto was the vocalist. When he left the band, did you audition other vocalists, or did you decide to take on the vocal duties right away?
We got a lot of demo tapes because we were searching for someone new. There were a lot of good singers, but their vocal style was more gothic and we were heading toward a more guitar oriented style. We continued rehearsing without a vocalist, and at one point I just started to sing. We made a demo tape and found out my voice fit pretty well with the songs, so we decided to keep it that way.
Did you make a concerted effort to move away from the gothic sound, or is that just how the songs naturally evolved?
A little bit of both. I wanted this album to be a step away from the gothic scene. There were also emotions that needed to be expressed in a dirtier and rougher kind of way. It was a natural change within our music. I think there still some gothic elements there. This band is a mixture of rock, metal and gothic. To label us only as a gothic band would be totally wrong.
You produced this album, as well as the first Poisonblack release. Were you more comfortable in the producer's chair this time?
It was actually a little harder because we wanted to make it better in every way. We also tried to take responsibility for the mixing and mastering, but found we still have something to learn in that area. The whole band felt that we didn't need anyone there to tell us what to do. In the future we may try to work with a producer.
You ended up having Tue Madsen do the mixing and mastering, right?
Yes, because we were after an almost live kind of sound. We stripped almost all the effects off the music and it ended up sounding al most like a demo tape and it didn't really capture the idea we were after. We had to find the right person to mix it. We sent one song to Tue Madsen to do a test mix on. He understood what we were after and I flew down to Denmark for a week and was right there sitting behind him as he did all the work. I wanted to be there throughout the whole process of making the record.
You're doing a tour in Europe with Lacuna Coil. That should be good exposure for your band.
Yes, it should be a great tour. I'm a bit scared because it's so long and I haven't been out on the road for a while. I'm still battling my alcohol problem, but let's hope that things work out and we go a step further.
Do you have any plans or desire to do a U.S. tour?
Yes, of course. I think the plan is to go step by step. It depends on the reaction to the album there and if there's a demand we'll come over and play. It has to be something that makes sense. We don't want to tour the whole country in a minivan playing local bars. We want to play for more than 15 people every night.
You've now produced both Poisonblack albums. Are you interested in producing albums for other bands?
In the future I'm really interested in it. I'm getting comfortable and self confident with it because I've done two albums now. I really hope I get to do that in the future. We'll see if anyone trusts their music in my hands.
It's been over a year now since Sentenced broke up. Do you think there's a chance the band will ever reunite?
No. It's over and done. Even though all of us miss some stuff, it's not enough to pick up the corpse and (screw) it while it's still warm.
Finland has been making news with the metal band Lordi winning the Eurovision contest. What did you think of that?
It's not my cup of tea, but I think it's great they won that competition. I guess it will open doors for harder bands around Europe, at least I hope so. As a band, I think I'm too old for their music.
