Interview with the Midjungards group
Midjungards were formed a long time ago, for the fact that they only have one album out, their first album. We will talk about what caused this in this interview. We will ask, even if they are Finns, why Spain and especially the Góths influenced them. Pagan góthic death metal with other admixtures of the metal subgenre.
Alan – Hello Midjungards. Readers can find the biography of the band on your website www....
Just in speed. Beginnings, breakups, more breakups, breakups again, until you settled down.
Toni - Hi Alan. Nice to meet you and thanks a lot for making us this interview. The band started on 6th November 2006 after another band was broken. After starting to compose for Midjungards. We did a concert with 4 members (Toni, Nanda, Panollo and Pascual) in October 2011. After that the band continues to exist just for compositions and does not makes any concert until 2022, when From Scandza is finally recorded, and later the members Israel, Tatu and Timmo joins the band.
Alan – Is Helsinki home to the whole group? And the From Scandza album was pre-recorded for the band? Or did you re-record the album in a new line-up?
Toni - Yes, Helsinki is home to the whole group and we do rehersals every week in Korso. From Scandza was completely recorded by me with exceptions of the drums that were recorded by Paco Muñoz, after that the other 3 members joined, and we are ready for live concerts.
Alan – Filming and songwriting is 2022, release April 2023. You had quite a bit of trouble there, with the band members. Did you record the whole album yourself? Or did you find musicians who recorded with you in the studio?
Toni - Yes, was difficult to find the first members. The song written has been done slowly during more than ten years, after that the recording was done by myself for all instruments with exception of drums.
Alan – Another quite difficult job was to record the album and at the same time look for a new grouping of the band. Who was in charge, who helped you with it?
Toni - Before recording the album I started to look for members and I had 3 members, that let the band 3 months before the first concert. Fortunately, I met one friends 2 months before and with his help we were able to find the rest of the members, learn the songs and play our first gig without any problem.
Alan – How hard is Gothic? And creating compositions of stories to the time of the Goths, and still creating Gothic texts.
Toni - Gothic language is very difficult. Is the oldest germanic language about which we have a lot of information, and trying to learn is very chalenging. But learning to say small phrases is quite easy. Initially we wanted to make lyrics in Gothic, but after a lot of reflexion we arrived to the conclusion that is better to write lyrics in english, because people can undertand easily what are the lyrics about. Creating composition about the time of the Goths is very easy an inspirating. The history of the Goths is so fascinating that is easy to find something about what to compose. Also the felling that this subject brings on stage feels really good. Not sure why there are no more band that do this.
Alan – Are all the songs, lyrics based on Gothic stories? And are they all in Góthic?
Toni - All the songs are based in Gothic stories, or about how the storie of the goths can be similar to our every day life. They are in Englih not in Gothic. But initially we wanted to write in Gothic.
Alan - Album From Scandza - how was it received by the metal crew?
Toni – Until now all the reviews that we have received are good. We are very happy the reviewers. It seems that most of the people liked the album. We did not have many of them, but the ones we have are good so far.
Alan – How did you get involved with Dark Rails Publishing?
Toni - Dark Rails Records is in fact a label that I created to release my first band (Hell-Train) and 4 more band of extreme metal. After Hell-Train dissapeared, I continue releasing some bands. And now I releasing again my new band: Midjungards.
Alan – Jsk we already wrote about the band and the musicians was quite a problem at the beginning, are you settled now? Who plays what? And what band did he come to Midjungards from?
Toni - Yes, at the beginning geting the band was very difficult. But right now I see the current composition of the band very stable.
Alan – Have you already presented the From Scandza album in concert in Finland? And where.
Toni - Well, we had a concert of presentation of the band with Thyrfing, Verikalpa y Pahan Ikoni 17-18.2.2023. There we played few songs of from Scandza. But the official presentation concerts are starting on first September in Tampere.
Alan - From Scandza outside Finland. Concerts and festivals? Have you been to – Spain, France?
Toni - Outside Finland for the moment we have confirmed 4 dates in Spain. 24th June in Rock Imperium with bands like Kiss, Deep Purple and Helloween. And 3 dates in Madrid, Barcelona and Vitoria for the days 6th, 7th and 8th October 2023. We are also looking for making concert in other european countries, but we have nothing to anounce yet.
Alan – What do you expect next with this album? Trips to the USA, Australia, Turkey .... ?
Toni - We would like to go next to USA. We are trying hard to get that. Hopefully we can get something for From Scandza. If not, for any of the upcomming albums.
Alan – Good luck, and the band will come out of the circle, and have a stable performance, as well as the basis for the next album for Goth creation.
Toni - Thanks a lot Alan. We are working hard in this project many hours all the days. Hopefully we can see the result at some point. Thanks for the interview and good luck with Metal Heart. Kind Regards!
https://www.midjungards.com
https://www.darkrailsrecords.com
