Creinium Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Aleksi: Creinium is a six piece metal band that takes its members' favourite metal (and other) influences, and combines it into a strange but somewhat consistent mixture of this and that. Some of those influences are melodic death, black, doom, progressive and dark metal. If you like even one or two of those genres, Creinium might be a way for you to expand your musical taste.

2.So far you have released a demo and an EP, how would you describe the musical sound that is present on both these recordings?

Aleksi: 'Modern World Tyranny' consists of songs, that were at the time of recording the only 4 songs that were ready. Basically we took what we had ready at the time, and made it into a demo. Some of those songs date back to 2008 - the "newest" ones being from 2010 or something - so MWT actually describes a somewhat pre-Creinium sound. Also MWT was recorded DIY-style like a demo, so that's also what it sounds like - in both good and bad.

'Project Utopia' on the other hand was much more carefully planned, and we actually had to choose 4 songs from 5 ready ones. All of the songs are born after the birth of Creinium, so they give quite an accurate hint on where our sound is going.

Antti: Actually when we recorded drums, guitars and keyboards for MWT the only goal was to find missing members to complete Creinium. We didn't plan to make a release of those recordings and this is the main reason for the poor sounds on MWT.

Aleksi: As our bassist-mixer-masterer-wizard Miiro said: "You can make a cupcake out of shit, but you will still smell the shit."

3.Most of the band members where in 'Path Of Annihilation' what was the cause of that band splitting and the decision behind forming this band?

Aleksi: It was a sum of many things. In 2009-2010 we lost half of POA members, and we hadn't managed to find replacements before me and Antti - the driving force of POA - joined the Finnish Army in 2011. Soon after that we just decided to clean the slate and form a new band. After all, POA's music just wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. POA guitarist Juuso Putti agreed to join us, and that was pretty much it.

4.The lyrics cover dystopian themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in that topic?

Sami: The topic just feels so present in today's news and the media. Seems like it something hits the fan almost every day.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Creinium'?

Aleksi: We wanted to have a short one-word name, that would mean nothing but our band. I juggled quite a few existing words and deliberately misspelled them so that they'd lose any meaning. I came up with the word 'Creinium' and when I didn't find a single hit on Google (or the whole internetz) with that, it had to be it.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Antti: I think our two gigs at PRKL Club, Helsinki have been Creinium's best shows so far. Especially the first one in November 2013 with Noumena and Vermivore, which was our debut gig.

Aleksi: Our music requires quite a lot of concentration, so we can't just mosh our way through a gig, or my drumstick might end up in someone's eye. I think our stage performance is mostly about the precise playing and the variety of feelings our music creates for both us and the audience.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

Aleksi: We'll play one gig before the EP release, and after that we'll embark on the gargantuan Project Utopia World Tour, which covers over 3 gigs in over 2 cities. After recovering from the jet lag we'll probably have a nice summer vacation and continue touring in the fall.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?

Aleksi: Most of our fans are still from Finland, but our fanbase seems to be growing in metalheaded countries such as Germany and Japan, but also in the US. The feedback has been most positive from fans of melodic death, melodic black and progressive (death) metal. People that mainly listen to black and/or death tend to find us not black/death enough, probably because of our strong melodic side.

I think our music offers a little bit of something for everyone to like, but also it may offer that one little thing that one doesn't like at all. Sami's vocals seem to be the most controversial issue. But that's exactly what we want vocals to sound like, so if you can't stand them, I guess we just aren't the band for you.

9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Antti: Me and Aleksi are always composing new music, and currently quite a few new songs are starting to take shape. Should we get all the songs written during the summer, we might even start the slow but steady recording process in early 2015. But it all depends on how fast we get the songs ready.

Aleksi: We could make a double album of semi crappy songs that would please 80% of our fans like right now. But our standards are so high nowadays that the writing and the refining takes time. We write music primarily for our own taste, and we just can't cope with songs that we aren't 110% happy with.

Antti: Our first full length will be blacker, darker and more aggressive, and our songs are probably going to be faster in general.

Aleksi: Antti pretty much covered it. All in all our black parts will be blacker, doom parts doomer, prog parts progger and so on. And if I can up my lousy drumming speed, the songs will be faster. Of course we still have a lot of writing to do, so neither of us really knows what kind of crazy shit we might come up with.

10.What are some bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Aleksi: I personally listen to almost all kinds of metal, apart from everything older than myself and all the oldschool non melodic stuff. But I've also taken influences from electronic music, and from music in movies and games, most notably Skyrim and Diablo II. Bands that deserve to get mentioned are Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren, Omnium Gatherum, Opeth (pre-Heritage!!), Wintersun, Finntroll, Dark Fortress, Shade Empire, Shape Of Despair, Darude, Swallow The Sun, Moonsorrow, Crionics, Stam1na and so on...

Antti: I listen to music from side to side but mostly metal. I've taken influences from jazz to extreme black metal and almost everything between them apart from electronic music that I just can't value. Some of the artists and composers I greatly respect are Mike Oldfield, Iiro Rantala, Jordan Rudess, Mikael Åkerfeldt, Juha Raivio, Devin Townsend, Mathias Nygård, Obsidian C. and of course their bands & projects. Few other bands to mention are Von Hertzen Brothers, Uriah Heep, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Periphery, Katatonia, Ghost, Job For a Cowboy and Ghost Brigade.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Aleksi: Not much non musical.. The Xbox, South Park, red wine...?

Antti: Not much here either. Finnish nature and good food & wine.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Everyone, please buy Project Utopia so we can get money for gas. Living in Finland is very expensive, especially for poor students like half of us.

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