ATMOSPHERE ENTERPRISE Interview

Ensiferum’s Sami Hinnka, and ex-Ensiferum bassist, Jukka-Pekka Miettinen, band members of Atmosphere Enterprise, release their debut album, By Two Ways One May Go To God.

XM: The name you chose for the band Atmosphere Enterprise – seems to suggest a commitment to ‘atmospheric’?
Sami: We had very hard time to find the name for the band. We were still pondering it while we were mixing the album. There were tons of ideas but none of them seemed to fit the music and the mentality inside the band. Our music is meant to create feelings, atmospheres and lead the listener to some other state of mind, I guess you could call it sort of escapism. I can’t remember who came up with the name Atmosphere Enterprise but it felt good for all of us and it reflects our music very well.

XM: What is the story behind the band members?
Sami: The idea of the band started when Tea and I were jamming some ideas and we just thought that we have to form a band. It was clear that this kind of music would need members who have a deeper emotional relationship to music and also open mind for not-so-traditional music styles and arrangements. Jukka-Pekka and Jani were our close friends and fulfilled those criterion so it was clear from the very first minute who should be in this band. After a few rehearsals we noticed that we really needed a drummer. The problem is that all good musicians are involved in hundreds of projects and never have enough time for another band. Luckily Tea remembered his old friend Teemu who had played in many bands but was luckily free at the moment and he was interested to give it a try and Teemu instantly fit the band with his relaxed personality and groovy drumming.
Each member has years of experience from other bands, studio sessions, gigs around the world but Atmosphere Enterprise is something totally new musically for each of us and the composing method is based more on emotion than theory.

XM: Each of the musicians in the band is, or was, a member of another experienced band and collectively there is some serious experience Is there a goal to create ‘new’ music outside of any pre-existing genre?
Sami: We don’t go to the rehearsal room and start thinking about what kind of stuff we should do or what we can or can’t do. Our music just happens, in some mysterious way. Someone has an idea, it might be just few notes and through long jamming sessions and discussions about the mood of the raw idea we continue to arrange it further. Creating music outside any genre might be difficult nowadays. Even though it’s hard to say what genre we represent there are still lots of elements from other genres that are recognizable. We don’t stress about ”inventing the wheel again”, we just let the music flow.

XM: Can you give us a brief snapshot of each of the band members?
Sami: EX- member of Fragile Hollow, Foul Circle, Eavesdrop...
Tea has very strong theory background and she has played piano and keyboards since she was kid and she has played in many different kind of bands.
Teemu has a long history in many bands like Throne of Chaos, Divercia...
Jukka-Pekka played in Ensiferum and he was the main composer for Arthemesia, he has played guitar since he was a teenager and he always has weird projects going on. I think he has some project with Markus from Ensiferum even now and he plays live guitar in Finnish black metal band Algatzanth etc.
Yes, that’s true that I replaced Jukka in Ensiferum when he left. But without that incident, we probably wouldn’t have met and become such close friends.
I have played bass since I was 11 years old. I’ve played all kind of music from pop to funk and from jazzy chill-out to metal. For me it’s always been about playing good music with good people. I played in band called Rapture before I joined Ensiferum and the only reason why I departed from Rapture was that Ensiferum's upcoming tours were at the same time as Rapture's few gigs per year so it was fair to them to get a bass player who can give 100% for the band.
I actually met Markus (the founder of Ensiferum) when he was still working in Spinafarm and he gave me and the drummer a ride to record Rapture's third album. Because I had a free day coming (drums were to be recorded first before basses) I headed to bar in Savonlinna and Markus was too tired to drive all the way back to Helsinki so he joined me for a pint. We got along very well and our music taste had lots of similarities and few months later he called me that there might be a position for a bass player in Ensiferum so would I be interested. And that's how I got into Ensiferum.
Jani has played bass and guitar for decades and he has worked as a professional musician. He played also in Eavesdrop and thats were Tea and me knew him.

XM: What were some of the other instruments/sounds/musical contributions on this album?
I think it was Tea’s idea to add some real strings and choir part to Corral. Tea did those arrangements with her friend Inka Eguzoroh who also plays other violin on the album. We asked friends if they knew anyone who played violin, cello and double bass and that’s how "the orchestra" was found. As an independent band we didn’t have lots of budget but his proves that you don’t need to have "London Session Orchestra" to get good sounding real strings on your album.
Same goes for choir part, we asked some friends who had sang in choirs earlier to join us and that was it.

XM: By Two Ways One May Go To God What is the story behind that title?
Jukka-Pekka: It's a quote from Miquel de Molinos, a Spanish priest who lived in the 17th century. He was part of the Quietist movement and was charged of heresy and immoral misconduct by the Roman Catholic church just because his method was having a personal relationship with God, that goes beyond prayer and priestly inter mediation.
And why we chose the title is that music is a force that goes beyond any reasoning and should be received directly without inter mediation of any kind. It should not be affected by any thoughts of success or monetary wealth or any other thing that would be the goal and music only the the way of achieving it. Music being the entity and we receiving it directly to make it as it was meant to be. That is what we did and will continue making in the future.

XM: What is the vision around this album; what is the concept for the music?
Jukka-Pekka: As mentioned earlier the only vision and concept around the music is to create music in its purest form without any falseness or dishonesty. The lyrics being the way to transmit the true meaning of this world and the universe as we being the receivers and providers of the message which goes beyond reasoning.
Concept therefore being a journey that has started before this band, has started with this band and continues endlessly.

XM: Are each of the tracks connected to the story/the vision and how? The 4 tracks are longer than the standard track lengths.
Jukka-Pekka: It just happened. Like I said we compose more with feelings than reason so traditional pop-structures are just way too narrow for us. We are already working with the next album its going to be a bit different but obviously much better because now we have more studio experience with each other.

XM: The first track opens up with the sound of certain footsteps then what we realize was the sound of a piano opening.
Jukka-Pekka: I suggested an idea that the album would sound like a ”show” or a musical. We get strong visual ideas when we compose and I liked about the idea of having empty stage, audience is waiting, just one spotlight that follows a pianist from curtains to piano and ”show” starts with lonely piano melody. Luckily others liked it also and it ended up on the album.

XM: The lyrics, ‘...keep your eyes closed; you are safe...” what is that story about ?
Tea: The lyrics of Corral were inspired by a dream that I saw. The song encourages you to shut you're eyes, open you're "souls eyes" and stop for a moment to think what you are actually doing and what you would like to do. Trust you're self, listen the voice and you will eventually find the path you wanna follow. The negativeness, fears and resentment are the feelings which usually blocks you're way to see clearly you're true goals. Basically the song is telling about courage, having a dream, trying to achieve it, try to listen, ease of, meditate and be honest to yourself.
The music, the theme is very repeated, like meditative thing. It gives a good chance to ease of, just listen and think.
Jani: Circles is a collection of snapshots. Dysfunctional human beings and their tendency to carry their mental luggage from one relationship to another, blindly repeating their mistakes over and over again.
Jukka-Pekka: Sahara is about finding the pure essence of the soul when every single thought is quieted.
Jani: Monochrome is about self-deception and self-imposed exile from an unwanted reality. It's about the unhealthy lure of daydreams as a substitute for interpersonal relationships.

XM: The album cover. The story about the vision for the artwork and who created it. I understand Tea painted it?
Tea: The visual idea of the cover art came from the idea of two ways one may go to God, but also that in my opinion the mood of the album varies a lot in between different landscapes: sometimes you are traveling in hot Sahara, and sometimes you get very icy, cold images. Also the name By two ways one may go to God gave me a strong sense that I want to do a dualistic painting. It is very visual album - musically I mean, so it was very clear to me that I'm not making anything representational solution for the cover art, let the audience decide what they see. I did not want to offer them anything permanent solution, anything concrete visual image. And because the album landscape varies so much, I wanted to paint like cold and warm side of the album. Originally this art piece is 1m x 1m acrylic painting which is half "warm" red hue and half "cold" bluish hue.

XM: Sami, what is it like to be with a band that is on an aggressive, global tour schedule and then be in this very different place with another band's early development with others who also have serious commitments to other ongoing tours and projects?
Sami: I’ve always played in many different kind of bands but lately Ensiferum has taken all my time. l Iove music and creating something together with good people. None of us is ”black/white”, we all have different sides and I’m very happy that i have possibility to express myself through different kind of bands.

XM: Without a lot of history as a band together , just like any relationship, there are new discoveries about each other and the work together. Can you describe the unexpected experiences or outcomes that happened?
Sami: Obviously our first studio session thought us a lot about bands dynamic and how this band works in studio and in the end everything went very smoothly. We are much wiser now also about how our music should sound and we realized how much silence or just playing few notes per song might be enough. I’m really looking forward to continue working with our new songs because we got so many ideas for the next album already and I’m sure we will take a major step ahead with the new album.

XM: What is this phase of things about for the band?
Sami: We are currently working with new songs and hopefully we can start recording them during this autumn. We are also trying to get some club gigs in Finland because we all want to play live and also improve visual side of our gigs. So we are full of inspiration and enthusiasm and future looks very bright for us.

XM: Is there another vision for another project or is that already underway?
Sami: Atmosphere Enterprise may have started as a project but nowadays it’s very important band for all of us. Some of us have other projects going on also like Jukka-Pekka is working on his first solo album and Tea is helping some bands in studio sessions with keyboard arrangements.

XM: Where/how can people purchase the album?
Sami: There is a link on our home site to Record Shop X where you can get it. We planned to make vinyls also but they turned out to be too expensive. Let’s see, maybe we do them in the future.

XM: What words do you choose to describe or apply to the music of Atmosphere Enterprise?
Jani: It's more or less a cohesive mixture of wildly diverse elements and influences as a result of an unexpected social and musical amalgamation between the band members.

XM: We realize you were not all in the same country or together during your response to this interview. It’s a brilliant overview to your music and the band. Thank you for taking time out to connect with xplosivemetal.com!