Von Hertzen Brothers
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=77284
Printed Date: December 19 2024 at 00:55
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Topic: Von Hertzen Brothers
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Von Hertzen Brothers
Date Posted: April 05 2011 at 15:26
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Von Hertzen Brothers from Finland has really become a big band in Scandinavia during the last years. I learnt that when I started my usual investigations before interviewing them. They are a totally unknown name to me, but their new album Stars Aligned is really something. I got in touch with them and Mikko answered my questions. ############################################################################## Your biography has been covered in
your ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the biography details. But which bands
influenced you and why did you choose that name? The list of the bands
would be a very long and tiring one. I think the most important influences came
from our family home when we were kids and teenagers. Our dad used to travel a
lot due to work and he always brought albums back home with him. There was a lot
of different kind of music playing in our house.. Ranging from our Mom’s
favorites, Abba and the Beatles, to our own, Black Sabbath and Anthrax. I guess
the mutual all time “von Hertzen home favorites” would be Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd,
Status Quo and Dire Straits. The whole family liked those. Pink Floyd could be
mentioned as a huge influence. Not to forget the late seventies rock bands, Deep
Purple, Rainbow and Led Zeppelin. As you can see the influences varied from
straight pop -music to the heavier side. I really loved S.O.D’s “Storm Troopers
of Death” album. Later on, sounds from bands like Yes, Soundgarden, Guns and
Roses, Jeff Buckley filled our family home.
How was the music scene in Finland
when you started up and how is it today?
It’s become much more
professional and international. International success stories of Finnish bands
are popping up like mushrooms on a rainy day. When we started in the late 80’s,
the English singing bands were more of a local phenomenon. With one exception of
course: Hanoi Rocks. Finnish singing bands were, and still are, the mainstream
here, but nowadays even a band like us can get some
recognition.
This is an archive based interview
also intended for the fans you get well after both you and I have passed away so
let's go straight to your albums. Please give us your long or brief views on
your albums, starting with.......  Experience from
2001
The whole idea of
doing ”brothers collaboration” came to me in India in the year 2000. I had moved
there a few years earlier and started writing songs. I had made some rough
recordings of them and sent them by mail to my brothers Kie and Jonne. They met
with each other to discuss the possibility to fly over to India to meet me. A
few months later they flew over to India so that we could go through the songs
together. We spent an intense two weeks with the songs and when they left back
to Finland they took the songs to one of our friends, who owned a record
company. He got interested in making an album. We asked a good friend and my
former band mate Lasse Kurki to produce the album. Experience was truly an
“experiment” to us and at the time, the whole thing remained a project. Not a
real band. The three of us played all the instruments on that album and since we
had to name it somehow, we decided to just call the “band”, i.e. ourselves the
Von Hertzen Brothers, which we are... The songs on “experience” are the first
ones I ever wrote. Some of them we still play live. Especially the two songs
that Kie wrote (Brother and Experience) are frequently on the set list. When the
album was released we decided to play a few gigs to promote the album. Kie was
still playing in a very successful Finnish band called “Don Huonot” at the time
and I had no plans to move back to Finland. So the album remained a project of a
sort. We had no future in mind as a band. The record company that singed us sold
it’s business and name to Sony BMG. And thus our first release became a part of
their catalogue. I think at some point they wanted to get rid of the stock they
had left and were about to trash it, but we heard about it and bought all the
rest of the albums. Looking back, some of the songs I wrote still resonate with
me in very profound way. “Dreamworld” and “Time and You” are still good
compositions, I feel.
 Approach from
2006
Again, after a few
years in India writing songs, we met on a family holiday in Egypt in the year
2004. I took the opportunity to play some of my new songs to my brothers. I
thought the songs were good and during the holiday we found a consensus to make
another album. By that time, Kie had wrapped up his own band and all of us
wanted to get something started. This time we asked some of our friends to
contribute and Jonne’s bandmate, Juha Kuoppala took over the keyboards. I had
played the drums on the first album but since I hadn’t played for years, I asked
a good friend of mine, and an excellent drummer, Sami Kuoppamäki if he could
contribute his talent. He wanted to and that was great news for us. I knew the
songs would end up great with his drumming. We started recording the album by
ourselves in March 2005. This time we didn’t have the financial back up from a
label nor a producer to work with so we ended up doing everything ourselves. Kie
and I spent most of the summer in the studio and Ilkka Herkman mixed the album.
We knew we had strong
songs on that album. “River”, Disciple of the Sun”, Let thy Will Be Done” and
“Kiss a Wish” were carved in India from the same piece of sandalwood and thus
there was a flavor to the album that felt unique. I had been even more
influenced by the Indian scales and rhythms in my song writing and I guess that
was a key factor that finally broke us through in Finland. The album that was
turned down by all the major labels and most of the Finnish Indie labels as
well, was later awarded the “Rock Album of the Year” Grammy. I feel that this
album was the first true milestone in our career.  Love Remains the Same from
2008
“LRTS” was done right
after touring for “Approach”. The demand for the band was huge and we felt that
we needed to get something out as soon as possible. The material was even more
epic than on the previous album. We were thinking big at that time, maybe even
too big. The album is opened by “Bring Out the Sun” a nine-minute song with lots
of different parts. And closed by “The Willing Victim”, another nine-minute
song. The album was received very well and the touring followed. I’m very happy
with all the compositions of that album. Especially “The Willing Victim” is a
song I’m very proud and thankful of. We struggled a bit with the mixing part of
the album. I guess the pre-production and arrangement of the album was not so
well thought of. So the overall sound on the album ended being a little bit too
packed. If I would mix the album now, I would definitely get rid of some of the
tracks.  …... and your brand new album
Stars Aligned
On this album, we
wanted to make a shift in the over all sound. Thus we decided on a producer who
comes from a very different school of thought. We took our time with the
pre-production of the album and made many versions of the songs before hitting
the studio. In pretty much all aspects we felt the need to refresh our doings:
Music wise, lyric wise and instrumentation wise. We have always been a live band
more than a studio band, but now we wanted to pay attention to each individual
sound, -without going to extremes of course. I think we ended up being in the
studio for almost four full months but it was all worth it. I feel that we
really did manage to renew our sound.
How would you describe your
musical developments from Experience to Stars Aligned ?
Like the Beatles put
it: “It’s getting better all the time”.
Just to give those of us who are
unknown with your music a bit of a reference point or two: How would you
describe your music ?
It’s epic Rock Music
painted on a big canvas. Besides of the new album, what is
your current status, your plans for the rest of this year and beyond
?
We just take it as it
comes. “Stars Aligned” was released pretty much in the whole of Europe and the
band is ready and willing to do serious touring. As I write this, the album is
#1 on National Sales charts and we just started touring here in Finland. I’m
currently walking with crutches because I broke my heel bone a few weeks ago. We
are in good spirits, but health wise things could be a little
better.
To wrap up this interview, is
there anything you want to add to this interview ?
Peace
out! Thank you to Mikko for this interview Their PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3993" rel="nofollow - and their homepage's http://www.vonhertzenbrothers.com" rel="nofollow - |
Replies:
Posted By: Conor Fynes
Date Posted: April 05 2011 at 17:59
| Cool interview, will be listening to these guy's latest and spotting a review soon hopefully. |
Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: April 05 2011 at 22:57
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Great interview. I am interested in their music. ------------- Follow me on twitter @memowakeman |
Posted By: Pekka
Date Posted: April 05 2011 at 23:08
 Approach and Love Remains the Same are brilliant albums, and Experience a nice one as well. Very recommended. I have lots of expectations for the new one, and some fear for the changed sound, because I love the older sound especially on Approach. I'll be getting the album soon, then we'll hear.------------- http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=42652" rel="nofollow - It's on PA! 
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