Harvest Webzine, Summer 2007

I. Firstly, introduce the band, please!! Where and when did you find the idea to make a band? What was your plans at the first times and how they've changed with the years?

The band consists of vocalist Vladimir Lumi, guitarist Antti Salo, base player Pasi Kärkkäinen and myself as keyplayer. Lumi and I formed Aberrant back in 2003 after we had met in a local bar. At first Lumi invited me to his other project, but as it collapsed we decided to do something anyway and thus ended up founding AV. Our aim at the very beginning was to create something new and unique and it hasn't changed a bit since.

II. You call your music 'operatic avantgard metal'. What does it feel like? Where do you find your influences and which bands take effects on your music?

As you have to describe band somehow anyway, "operatic avantgarde metal" is pretty much the most optimal sentence you can compress this kind of multi-style in. Of course it's impossible to include all the various elements in just a few words, but that style description is the closest one and has been used from the start.

Influences are mostly under the surface. We can spot the certain atmosphere and try to include it to a song or the lightbulb flashes and somebody realizes that we need this and this kind of part in some song. The band consists of four totally different persons and we don't have that much in common when it comes to musical taste outside Aberrant wich is a good thing as it helps to avoid making homogenous music. We don't really idolize any bands within the playing nor consider any as a role model of AV.

III. What do you want to reach with your music? What are your dreams, plans in your musical career? (I mean together)

Aberrant is mainly just a hobby, allthough a serious one, and nobody is aiming to get any incomes from the band though rest of the line-up is, or is trying to become, somehow semi-professional in other districts. When the future of AV is in consideration, we'll be aiming to simply release long plays and play as many gigs as possible. We'll try to make Aberrant bigger and more well known band allthough there's a certain limit with this kind of weird material.

IV. Who writes the songs? How does a whole song birth?

After collecting a good warehouse of ideas and having some sort of picture what the next song will be like, I start by making a skeleton with keys. Then I'll add drums, samples and create final sounds used on synth and throw the result to the boys. Lumi makes all the lyrics and vocal melodies while Pasi & Antti construct base and guitars. Finally we gather to try the song out and finalize the piece by trying out different ideas and checking out arrangements. We also make pre-production recordings of the songs to get more distance and objectivity to observing the quality.

We don't leave any songs unused, if some ideas suck donkey balls we'll throw them out before they ruin the whole song. Making one piece takes weeks so there's plenty of time to see wich things work and wich don't and result only proper songs. I haven't personally never seen any point in making 40 songs and picking 8 to the album, that's only redundant work.

V. Which languages do you use for the lyrics? What do they tell for the listeners? Do you work with whole conceptions, or each song is a different 'story'? I can't find the lyrics on the web nor on your homepage, why?

The used languages this far have been english, latin, japanese, french, russia and greek nouns. Using several languages is like using several elements alltogether, it adds the diversity in the music and they'll be used in the future as well. Songs have had both independent themes and common ones, for example Actaeon's loose theme was to regognize certain limits to avoid personal (Fabula) or global (Ekpyrosis) destruction as Pelopia is hosting a sadistic thematology. According to Lumi, who is responsible for all the lyrics, people can come to their own conclusions and let the texts reveal their personal visions, 'though certain overall themes are present. Lumi's writings have some poetic characteristics and they replenish the conception the song excretes.

The lyrics have not been published because the rules of our secret ninja cult denie it. The absence of lyrics is a result of simple lazyness, we'll try to include them with translations within the autumn.

VI. You released 3 demos with quite good sounding. Have you got any reflections from the listeners or reviews? How much is the claim for this kind of experimental music in these days?

It doesn't depend on time when it comes to marginal weird music. Allthough metal music in general has gained a lot of popularity during last ten years or something, it's mostly same pop song structures with metal sounds and doesn't require much from the listener. This kind of stuff wich doesn't include any regularity and contains plenty of different elements will doubtly never become something as wide-spread as Lumi's thighs. Of course we'd like to see Aberrant as a more popular band, but if that would've been the aim, we wouldn't have started this kind of a band in the first place.

I've been suprised to notice how little bad feedback we've gained, but as I said before in another interview, usually those bothering to give feedback are those liking the band while dislikers won't even bother to visit the homepage. This goes to other forms of entertainment as well, for example, take a look at the IMdB, almost every user review is somewhat a praise no matter how shitty the movie is.

When it comes to reviews, we've been glad to notice that good reviews come from the right place. I mean by this that if something-for-everyone-music mag doesn't consider our releases as a highlights of mankind, that doesn't come as a suprise but if avantgarde-consentrated release is interested, it's a good sign. That's actually a good way to overcome bad reviews, if the points aren't good, it means the media is for some mainstream faggots, haha.

I'd like to combine the next two questions, as the answer fits both. VII. When will you release the first full-time album? What are your plans about the songs and the sounding? X. What's with the labels? Have you found any that manage Aberrant Vascular the best?

During spring and summer '06 we recorded our first long play almost completely, but the current label went down during the recordings and we also had to change the line-up on fall. As it would've been difficult to use unfinished album as a lure for labels and having a new crew on board, we decided not to release the particular album but to record Pelopia and seek for a new deal. Luckily the recordings didn't cause any financial trouble, if we'd had several thousands of dept from recordings and having a label backing out, we would've been in the world of shit, but fortunately that didn't happen.

We're currently looking for a company interested in Aberrant and it's about time 'cause we've had enough material ready for a long time. The possible forhtcoming longplay shall include probably most of the demo songs as they're not so wide spread thus still worth releasing. That's also a good way to fasten the releasing schedule, in other words give excuse to just get lazy on the couch.

VIII. Have you planned any gigs in the foreign countries? Have you got chances and invitations for it?

We played one gig in Stockholm couple of years back and that's it, there hasn't been any summonings wich is understandable 'cause it's expensive to transport even four people thousands of kilometres just for one or few gigs as material is so unpopular as avantgarde. The neightbouring countries like Sweden, Estonia and western Russia would be more easily and economically reachable, but I think playing abroad isn't a matter at least in a few years.

If someone reading this is interested in arranging some gigs, feel free to contact us via e-mail aberrantvascular at netikka dot fi and let's see what can be done. We'll always tend to arrange things as cheap as possible.

IX. Experimental music with experimental show? Do you use special (visual) affects on the concerts or there's just the pure music?

Midget groupies, moose carcasses and David Hasselhoff -cardboard stands are always present. Nah, we'll dress up properly, usually including some sort of androgyn style and use twisted make-up, that's mainly it. We think that priority in the gigs is watch the band 'cause if you want perfect listening experience, you can have it at home with the recordings. Of course I don't mean we would fuck up the songs up live, but personally when I go see a gig it's always a big dissapointment to see the band in jeans and t-shirts having not allocated any time to visual appearence even if the music itself kicks ass. When live we don't use any speaks between the songs 'cause they mostly suck and you just feel embarrassed for the band.

It would be great to use more stuff, for example video cannon wich could result really strange efforts, but as long as we have to do everything ourselves with no money and travel to gigs with public transportation, it's clear that the resources are quite limited.

XI. What's the scene like in Finland? Do you contact any of the Finnish bands?

The whole metal thing is in quite good course in Finland and there's lots of bands, metal bars, clubs, gigs and festivals, but at least I'm not so fond of many bands as they're too basic stuff. Well played and quality stuff but not weird enough, haha, though then there's few really great ones. We don't have much contact with the other bands, not that we're snobs or anything, we just don't know so many people within the scene, or at least I don't. Maybe the boys know all the big names but haven't told me anything. I'm an outcast. *shedding tears*

After all this I'd like to advertise our homepage at aberrantvascular.com where you can download all the songs for free and get familiar with the band via interviews, reviews and any other necessary stuff and order shirts to improve your possibilities recieving more carnal action. Check out also Aberrant Vascular in myspace.

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