Exclusive! Unbelievable! Well, friends of the Aristocracy! We talk about our newsroom again where we will start in all its spectacular emotions an exclusive interview with the Finnish band A Lie Nation that will only release their debut album entitled Sociopathology on July 1st. Let's go to their performance! Miikka Pyykkönen on vocals, Jussi Tuomisto and Joni Moisanen on guitars, Joonas Kokkoniemi as Bassist and Markus Leinonen as Drummer. Jussi answered our questions in record time. Let's go to the album's single before this exclusive chat. : It wasn't in our initial schedule to put this interview, we did it because we really didn't imagine the response would be so quick.
A1:How band mix the Melodic Death Metal with Black Metal?
Jussi Tuomisto:Listening to our first EP, and some of the songs on the new album, the melodic death metal influence is pretty obvious in the sound. Then our second EP Begin Hate mixes things up serving a more black metallic sound. The album is a mixture of both. Sound-wise I've never been a fan of squeaky clean, there has to be grit. Also lyrics-wise we have a combination of both worlds, black metal philosophies as well as straight forward stories of violence, that are more characteristic to death metal.
A2:Talking about the composition work in The Sociopathology?
Jussi:Compositions of the album stretch a long way, even the most recently written song is three or four years old. With me as a songwriter, the composition work is always inspiration based. I could never just sit down and start working on a song, but the motivation has to come from somewhere, usually from feelings of depression, anxiety or anger. Most of the songs on the album are composed by me. The process usually goes in the way that ninety percent of the song gets finished in a few days, then it can sit for months, sometimes even years, and then I come back to it and do the remaining ten percent. After that I share them with the band and we start playing them and produce the final song on the album.This is how it went with the stuff on the album.
A3:The Eternal Sea is politics.Today, can this sea turn into a tsunami or did it turn and we don't touch?
Jussi:It depends on the point of view. If you take it seriously it can be a tsunami for you. This is nothing new, it has always happened throughout history, only now these things can spread much quicker thanks to technology. I think we as humans have changed very little since the origins of homo sapiens.
A4:A late singer in my country called Tim Maia said that Demagoguery is worse than lies. Can we agree with the trustee that was your nickname or is it a very opposite reality for you?
Jussi:Isn't demagoguery often based on lies or at least a very narrow point of view?
A5:Did the idiots win by quantity?
Jussi:Once again these things depend on point of view, I myself am undoubtedly an idiot and I think everyone is depending where you look at. If I'd say yes to this question it would imply that I do not consider myself an idiot, which would also make me an idiot. Maybe we should be able to define winning before we can answer this question?
A6-Some literature or film inspire the band?
Jussi:Indirectly I'm sure there are many influences, but there's no direct theme or reference to any one book or film. I do read quite a lot, why not watch movies too, but less these days.
A7:How is A Lie Nation different from your previous bands?
Jussi:This is my second band and the first one happened over twenty years ago, so it was just stupidity back then. We've been a band since 2009 with A Lie Nation with zero line up changes, so we're really a tight group. But how is it different, well, this one has a direction and a motivation to exist.
A8:Has Technocracy made us lie more than our parents and grandparents?
Jussi:No, I don't think so. It has just given the common liars a bigger and better platform to perform.
A9:If the world were true all the time would we have this interview?
Jussi:We would have to find one truth for everyone first, which I think is impossible. Lying for your own benefit is one thing, but believing in something that might not be true from some point of view is another. But let's say the truth is somewhere in the middle, and in this case my answer is yes.
A10:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Jussi:Funny thing, we had a whole different artwork at first, but needed to make some changes and we couldn't reach the original artist. He ghosted us, and we had to come up with what you see now pretty quickly. Anyway, the final artwork says what I want it to say, and I like it more than the original. I know some will hate me when I say this, but I genuinely think it is better to leave the artwork up for interpretation rather than explain it.
A11:How the band arrive to Inverse Records?
Jussi:After our first EP, I think they had heard it somewhere and approached us asking if we were interested to maybe re-release the first EP or release some new stuff with them. I know we didn't go for the re-release, but then before releasing the second EP, Begin Hate, I think we got into talks again and we ended up releasing it with Inverse. Originally I think we were going to release Begin Hate independently, but I'm glad we didn't. With the album it was an easy choice to make.
A12:Everyone in your style has honest brutality. What is A Lie Nation's brutal honesty?
Jussi:Anything we do means absolutely nothing, and is ultimately for nothing. Any little success you might have will mean nothing. Your opinion does not matter and your values do not matter.
A13:This album is conceptual?yes or no and why?
Jussi:Yes and no, but I think in the traditional sense, it's more of a no.We continue our study of anti-social and anti-human themes with the album, like on the EP's.
A14:Literally Speaking:Is the world ridiculous?
Jussi:The closer you look, the more ridiculous it is. The further away you look, the more structured it gets. I do think that existence is ridiculous, but of course this is probably due to my limited human perspective. We're all just biological machines fulfilling some purpose of nature we do not comprehend.
A15:In their professional lives, does sociology enter or is it just the inspiration?
Jussi:For us, it is just an inspiration, we're not professionals. We focus on the negative aspects of human social behaviour, and of course we have all had our taste of it. We all had our share of violence, deceit, manipulation and even death. When things get violent there's usually one of these three things involved: substance abuse problems, a strong ideology or mental health problems. I find these things fascinating.
A16:Is a men an animal that carries the corpse on his back all the time?
Jussi:Well, yes I suppose so. Some more than others, but everyone to some extent.
A17:Is it better to think of the human being as agony than an animal for health?
Jussi:Probably many truths to this question, but to me it is to be a human is to be in pain.
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