Rockezine.com interview with Entwine on Jun 05, 2001

with Aki Hanttu on Jun 05, 2001

The first date I had with Entwine went wrong, so my curiosity had to be stalled for another week. One week later, only now at the right time, I was talking to Entwine`s drummer Aki Hanttu. He tried very hard to answer my questions in a good way, but his rather poor English got in the way sometimes. Anyway, as you can read in the review I liked their new album "Gone" quite a lot. So it`s time to learn more about these Finnish guys (and of course; one girl)!
		Congratulations with your album "Gone". I personally liked it a lot! Yeah, thanks!
		I guess you`re probably tired. You`ve probably got a tight schedule with all these interviews? Yeah!
		Entwine dates back to 1995. Could you tell those people out there that don`t know you guys a little more about the band and it`s members? In March 95 me, Tom Mikkola and T. Taipale, bass player at the time, started playing together. The music style was different. Back then we played Death Metal. Step by step we started to get bored with that kind of music and our music became lighter and more melodic. Our progress from Death Metal happened inch by inch and finally about 97, we found our style. P. Willman, our new vocalist, joined the band in the autumn of 97 and in December we made our first recording by the name Entwine.
		In February 98 Riita Heikonnen came to the keyboards. In September 99 our debut album "The Treasures within Hearts" was released. P. Willman left the band in April 2000 and at the same time we decided to change the bass player to a new one. The new singer, Mika Tauriainen and the new bassist, Joni Miettinen, joined the band a month later. After 90 days of rehearsal we went in the studio and recorded the new album "Gone".
		Do you pronounce the band`s name like the verb Entwine or like the Tolkien-related Ent-wine? (Ents are a kind of Tree-people - AM) I`ve heard about Tolkien and "The Lord of the Rings", but our name doesn`t come from his books.
		Who`s responsible for the lyrics/music and what are some of the songs on the album about? Our guitarist Mikkola mostly does our music and he also wrote a couple of lyrics on the album "Gone". Our singer Tauriainen did the lyrics for five songs. Former singer Willman also wrote the lyrics for one of the songs on this new album. A song like "Snow white suicide" deals with feelings of self-hate.
		Your latest album was released April 23rd. Are you pleased with the result? And what are your expectations of the album? We don`t know what kind of feedback we`re going to have from the album. We are very satisfied about the album and the sales look very good in Europe and everywhere.
		I read that the single "New Dawn" was a success in Finland. How about the entire album? The album was in the charts too! In the top 18, so that was quite fine. The album was in the top 40 for five weeks. So that was very good.
		How did you like working with Anssi Kippo (Children of Bodom, Sinergy) and Mika Jussila (Stratovarius, Nightwish)? They both are very great personalities. Working at the Asti-A Studio was great. It has a very good atmosphere and Anssi Kippo is a very professional producer. He can really motivate us to do our best. When he wants something, he`ll record as many takes as needed to achieve a good result, although we already felt it was good.
		Of course there were some bad times, but then he just supported us. It was very fantastic to work with him and Mika Jussila, of course!
		"Gone", your new album, is often compared with the band HIM? Personally, it reminded me a little bit of Sentenced too. Do you agree with this comparison? Comparing is okay, because we and HIM share the same music style. But we really don`t like it when people say we copy them, because we don`t try to do that. We try to create our own style.
		What bands do you like to listen to? We all listen to very different music. Sentenced of course, Nightwish, The Gathering. The Gathering is a great band and we like it very much. Other bands are Paradise Lost and Depeche Mode. Another big hit is Rammstein. We all like their new album very much.
		The band`s current line-up exists for only a year. How are the `new` members fitting in the band? Mika and Joni are truly a part of the band. Both of them are very good musicians. And working with them is great!
		What can we expect next from Entwine? Are you going on tour? We don`t know anything about a European tour. Everybody asks, and of course I understand that. We want to go on a European tour very much, but we don`t know nothing about that. There are some touring plans for this year, but they`re still not sure. But we hope very much everything will happen.
		Any plans for a next album? No, the next album may be released perhaps some time next year.
		I noticed you don`t have an internet-site. What`s your opinion on the Internet and it`s possibilities? Oh, but we do have an internet-site: www.entwine.cjb.net. The Internet is very important. Many friends can contact us and maybe talk with us by chatting. It`s a very important thing.
		Any last comments? What would you like to say to our readers? Try our last album! Listen to it and of course we hope that you`re going to buy it. We hope you like it!
(Antoine Mahler)