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| Manitou |
| with Markus Vanhala on Aug 12, 2004 |
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After years of making demo tapes the Finnish melodic heavy metal band Manitou have finally released their debut The Mad Moon Rising. While the band remains basically unknown, mostly due to problems with their now ex-label Rage Of Achilles, Kerrang! has rated the debut with a 5 out of 5. And the rave reviews don’t end there; more than enough reason to have a chat with guitar player Markus Vanhala from this new promising band. | |||
| Manitou has been around for quite some time and has made already several demos. Can you tell us briefly about the history of the band? The band was formed somewhere in 1998 with a different lineup, I was the last piece and joined the mob in 2000. Manitou have made about five demos during the years 1998 and 2002 before we signed a deal with Rage Of Achilles Records. The last demo “Valley Of Evergreen” was in fact the first one that was ever sent to any label… I admit that we have maybe been one of the laziest and reversed bands in the field. Our main goal is to make traditional heavy metal with some proggy spices here and there and we don’t care much about the commercial stuff etc. Now it seems that our work will start to produce some success at last. | |||
| I know Manitou has something to do with Indians but what does it exactly mean and do you think that the name of the band fits the style of music you play? I guess it’s some kind of an Indian god and something like that. We aren’t calling our music Indian heavy so it’s just the name of the band; not any way of life or belief of ours… We do not have a totem or teepee on the stage and we aren’t smoking the peace pipe… albeit we have a few lyrics that deal with Indian themes. | |||
| Recently you guys released your debut album, The Mad Moon Rising, how have the reactions to the album been so far? Unfortunately, promotion of the album has been at a minimal on behalf of our label, since Rage Of Achilles Records have serious business problems at the moment. However those few reviews the album has gotten, have been very positive overall; the first review that appeared was a 5/5 review in Kerrang! magazine; that was cool indeed! On the whole the reactions and feedback on “The Mad Moon Rising” have been very good and we have played a few very successful gigs since the release of the album. There clearly seems to be some request for basic heavy metal stuff after all that power metal crap… | |||
The sold-out Tuska gig was a fucking great experience. | The Mad Moon Rising is different from the style that Manitou originally played; why did you decide to change from power metal to more eighties melodic heavy metal? Actually, Manitou have never played anything that could be compared to power metal. Originally Manitou played progressive metal, which we are still accused of playing… But, somewhere on the path we found out that it’s more fun to play straighter basic heavy stuff than progressive metal. The other reason is that if you REALLY want to make respected progressive metal, you have to be a big virtuoso like the Dream Theater or the Symhony X dudes… And to be honest we aren’t such a virtuoso’s band. Besides, the true eighties traditional heavy approaching style is ballsier stuff! | ||
| When I listened to the first ten seconds of the album for the very first time I’d almost have sworn that I heard Queensr˙che playing. Would you like to comment on that, and do you see that as a compliment? Indeed we see that as a compliment! Queensr˙che is a big idol for the whole band and Operation: Mindcrime and Empire are awesome albums, we like those a lot! They have combined their metal the same way as we, with little bits of progressive spices mixed with traditional heavy metal. | |||
| People seem to associate The Mad Moon Rising with progressive metal, which I think is not truly the case. How do feel about being labeled progressive and how would you describe Manitou’s music in your own words? As I said in the last answer this is something like traditional heavy metal mixed with progressive touches; the eighties way! Progressive metal is also a quite large scale genre, like basically every other genre… Of course we are more progressive than Stratovarius or Primal Fear but less technical than Dream Theater or Cynic; in a way if you have more than four to five different parts in a song, it sort of slips into the progressive stuff in the opinion of some people. My own opinion? The true prototype of a progressive metal record is Dream Theater’s Images And Words and we are far from that! | |||
| The album has been recorded in Nino’s studio. What made you decide to choose his studio and are you satisfied with the sound of the album? Quite satisfied yeah, and considering the recording budget the label gave us, we should be VERY satisfied! Of course there are always some things to complain about on your own record but what the hell, it sounds still very good! In fact our vocalist Markku Pihlaja recorded the album himself and Nino Laurenne mixed the package. Nino did a very good job in a short time. We knew Nino from the past recording sessions with my other band Omnium Gatherum, so it was easy to record the album in a familiar place. | |||
| Considering that Nino plays in Thunderstone, a band that has definitely some comparisons to Manitou, what is his opinion of The Mad Moon Rising? Nino was also very satisfied with the album himself and he also liked the musical side of the record. There’s maybe same 80’s metal edge to both bands when you compare Thunderstone and Manitou. It was also funny when I played the album to a label’s representative and he asked me if the vocalist of Thunderstone was singing on the Manitou record… | |||
| Some of you guys play in different bands and especially your guitarist Markus Vanhala seems to be a busy man. How do you coordinate song writing? We don’t panic or stress about songwriting. When there’s good vibe going on, the songs are coming easily… The band things are often going in cycles so there’s enough time for every project. In my situation Omnium Gatherum and Manitou make such different kind of stuff that I haven’t got any problems making the songs for both of these bands. Teenage death metal or mature hubby heavy, there’s a strict line between them! | |||
| Who’s responsible for the lyrics and where do you get your inspiration? Markku mainly writes that poetry stuff. I don’t know (…and maybe don’t ever want to know..) where he gets his kicks and perversions… | |||
| How did your label Rage of Achilles discover you? We sent our latest demo to several record companies and none replied to us with offers for a deal. At that time Manitou was going down hill since nobody in the band was do anything towards the band. We decided to quit Manitou at that time and after that I just sent the demo to Rage Of Achilles, where I had a deal with my other band, Omnium Gatherum, just to fuck up the other band members. Then Rage Of Achilles offered us a deal and it was nice to ask the rest of the dudes if there was any interest to gather the band again and make a record. …And they were interested. So, we have done that famous reunion thing already before our debut album, that’s cool! | |||
The biggest problem is that the album hasn’t been promoted and advertised in Finland at all! | Unfortunately, upon release there seemed to be some troubles with the availability of The Mad Moon Rising here in Finland. What was the reason for this? Rage Of Achilles started to have some big financial problems at the time the album was released and every problem since, is the result of that… The biggest problem is that the album hasn’t been promoted and advertised in Finland at all! | ||
| How do the financial problems of Rage of Achilles affect Manitou and are you guys already looking for a new label? Oh yes, things have now gone in such a way that we are rapidly seeking a new label to re-release “The Mad Moon Rising” and we now own the rights to that album ourselves. Rages Of Achilles aren’t pressing any more copies at all and we wouldn’t want this album to be forgotten right at release. The album has barely been promoted and it is very hard to find it anywhere as the distribution isn’t working right now… Hopefully these problems will be solved soon and The Mad Moon Rising will be widely available. Labels, feel free to contact us and offer us a deal! | |||
| A few weeks ago I saw you guys play live here in Kotka and despite the poor sound the gig was pretty impressive. You also played during the after party of Tuska Festival in Helsinki. How have the reactions of the crowds been? We have played our best gigs so far after the album release, so the road is heading strongly upwards at the moment, especially the sold-out Tuska gig was a fucking great experience. The hometown gig in Kotka was also great, although the concert place was an awful concrete cave where it is impossible to attain a good quality sound. It also has been amazing to notice that people know how to sing our songs and lyrics during gigs now! | |||
| Since, Rage of Achilles can’t organize any tours for you nor handle promotion, how do you promote the album right now? On a grass root level so to speak, I guess, or something. It’s summer here and who wants to waste summer grieving over band promotion stuff! hehe. Beer, sausage and beach life, that’s the summer pre-promotion conference period! Next thing in line will be finding a new proper label and hopefully re-release the Mad Moon! Furthermore, playing live is now the first priority to promote the band. | |||
| I wish you guys the best of luck with Manitou and The Mad Moon Rising! Is there anything you would like to add to the interview? Firstly, remember that we are Manitou from Finland! We have some challengers with the same name in the field… Then, when you are sure about this REAL Manitou stuff, buy our damn record! After that, enjoy the album with good beer, tasting flesh and in good company! Cheers! Thanks to Frank and Rockezine also! | |||
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(Frank van de Voorde) |
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