Silent Voices are a four-piece consisting of Henrik Klingenberg, Pasi Kauppinen, Timo Kauppinen and Jukka-Pekka Koivisto (and live vocalist Teemu Koskela) who play progressive metal. Gearing up to release their fourth album Reveal The Change, they announced a few UK shows, so I caught up with them before their show at Bogiez to ask them a few questions.
Thank you for agreeing to do this interview! For the readers who might not know about you, would you us a little bit about yourselves? Henrik (keyboard): We play progressive metal and we started back in 1995. We’ve made three albums; the fourth one is ready and should be out in a few months, hopefully! And that’s about it!
Cool! So you’ve been a band for a substantial amount of years now, how did you all meet? Henrik: It was too long ago, I don’t remember! Well…our bassist, guitarist and drummer were all playing together, and then Timo made me join! It was back when we were 16, 17…and now we’re here.
What made you decide to play some shows over here in the UK rather than your home country of Finland first? Henrik: He did! *points at their manager*
Timo (guitar): It’s his fault!
So will you be playing some Finnish shows at a later date? Henrik: Yeah, we’re hoping to play some shows there later in the year.
What would you say the highlight of the band’s career has been so far? Henrik: The new album.
Pasi (bass): We’ve been on a seven year break so it’s like a fresh start.
I must say, I’m really looking forward to hearing how Teemu interprets the songs, as I’m a big fan of Winterborn as well. Was it an easy decision to choose him for the role of live vocalist? Henrik: He was the only singer we know!
*whole band laughs*
I’d like to ask you some questions about the new album. Could you tell me what the album is about? Is there a specific theme running through the whole thing? Henrik: Well we were talking about writing a concept album but the idea sort of…backfired. We started to do it.
Timo: But after two songs we stopped!
What was the songwriting process like? Only I noticed that your ex-vocalist Michael wrote all the lyrics previously, so who took over those duties for this album? Henrik: We played a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who had to do them! Nobody wanted to do them! So I did a couple, Pasi did one or two and Timo did one or two as well, so we parted it up.
What was it like working with guest vocalists instead? Henrik: Well we sent them the stuff and then they sent back vocal mixes.
Pasi: Teemu sang all of the demo tracks for us.
Henrik: Yeah, and we sent those ones away to the vocalists, who then recorded them and sent them back to us.
Could you tell me a little more about the instrumental track? I think that’s one of the ones I’m most excited to hear on the new album. Henrik: Well…let’s see if you’re going to be excited after tonight!
Oh, so you’re playing it tonight then? Henrik: We’re gonna try! We actually started out as an instrumental band, so we wanted to make one song where we could show off, basically.
What’s the story about the artwork? It’s quite intriguing, do all the things on the cover link to themes on the album? Timo: It’s a piece of mine, it was just a few things running through my mind at the time.
And finally – what are your hopes for the future? Henrik: Well we’re hoping that some people are going to show up tonight! And hopefully we will arrive in London tomorrow!
How did you manage to get so delayed? (note: the band arrived just before 8pm – and the doors should have opened at 7:30!) Did you get lost, or…? Henrik: No, no! We were just on the road all day. And had a lot of cigarette stops.
Teemu (live vocals): And burgers!
Well, thank you for doing the interview!
Henrik: Cheers!
