I always appreciated CATAMENIA’s music very much and the new album Winternight Tragedies is one of the best metal CDs I’ve ever listened to. Now I got the possibility to do an interview with O.J (vocals), Riku (guitars) and Veikko (drums) – what a great honour! Here we go:

Leo: Congratulations for the new masterpiece Winternight Tragedies! Where do you get these great ideas from? What influences would you name?
Riku: Thank you, Leo. When I started to write the songs on this new album, I did just like before. I took my guitar and started to play. When I start to create some new songs, one is for sure: I have to be alone in the room where I am playing.

Leo: The cover of the new album shows a wolf once again. Don’t you think the fans get bored of this animal?
O.J.: I believe it’s become some sort of a trademark for CATAMENIA to have wolves on the album covers. If you get bored to the cover, you can throw it away and concentrate to the music.
Veikko: A true Catafan can't get bored to this great animal.
Riku: As O.J. said it's kind of a trademark for CATAMENIA and helps a lot to recognize CATAMENIA albums from others.

Leo: Wouldn’t it be interesting to choose another designer for the next cover artwork instead of Thomas Ewerhard?
Riku: Yes sure of course it would be nice and interesting to see some other's artwork, and how he/she could 'interpret' cover for CATAMENIA. But nevertheless Thomas has done a great job making previous CATAMENIA's covers. Only one slight problem with Eskhata, and maybe everyone knows that. And I'll say it again: Putting that image on Eskhata cover was not our fault. We didn't know about this but already too late.
O.J.: Personally I would like to see cover work done by H.R. Giger or Paul Booth. Maybe they could make us some alien- or zombie wolves for the next album.

Leo: What are your favourite songs of the new album?
Riku: I think they're all great, but to mention few of my faves from the album: The Heart Of Darkness, Verikansa, The Crystal Stream, My Blood Stained Path, Iced Over and The Ancient. Hehehe, well fuck...the whole album could be easily mentioned here, heh.
O.J.: It’s pretty hard to raise one song higher than the others from the new album, I think they all are great in their own way. But if I’d have to choose, it would be Verikansa.
Veikko: The Ancient, but they all feel nice to play.

Leo: Why should metal fans buy Winternight Tragedies?
O.J.: If you like fast, aggressive and melodic metal, this is the album you should buy.
Riku: Cause it simply rocks!

Leo: Can we expect a digipack version of the new album?
Riku: No, I do not think there'll be digipack of this album.

Leo: Could you explain the lyrics of the Finnish song Verikansa?
O.J.: The lyrics of that song are about Finland’s Winter War.
Riku: This song is a tribute for all our veterans and soldiers who fought in the Winter War for keeping our fatherland safe and independent. We honour you! Suomi Finland Perkele!

Leo: Are there any songs existing you never released yet?
Riku: Yes, there are few songs which we haven't recorded or rehearsed yet, and maybe we will never record, heh. But hey, you'll never know.

Leo: How much time do you spend in your rehearsal room?
O.J.: We’ve been rehearsing quite often after the recordings to get ready for the upcoming gigs. Usually, about 2-4 times a week.
Veikko: We really like to rehearse a lot and we should, because playing metal is so hard and we have to maintain our skills high.

Leo: Do you like to “unleash the wolves” on stage?
Veikko: We surely do! CATAMENIA is definitely a live band.
Riku: Yeeeaaahh...unleash the käppyräs, heh. We sure do like to make live shows. It's always so exciting to go on stage. When you're on stage, the feeling you have is awesome. Still excited, but still ready to rock and give a hellish live performance to the crowd.

Leo: A concert in Vienna was listed on the touring section. Today there’s only “t.b.a”… are you playing in Austria?
O.J.: The concert in Vienna is cancelled and we’ll play in Croatia instead of it.
Riku: Yes, unfortunately, the venue at Austria did not respond on the confirmation in time, so we had to make a backup plan. Then one agency contacted us from Croatia. We gave Austria still one week to reply on the confirmation, but nothing we heard of them. So, naturally we had to replace Austria with already confirmed gig in Croatia.

Leo: Are you going to play some festivals in summer, maybe in Austria or Germany?
O.J.: We’ll play in every place we get invited to. I don’t know if there’d been any plans about festivals up there but we’d be glad to come.
Riku: There had been some discussions about a bigger tour around Europe. Maybe it'll be set right after the mini-tour. And if that's going to happen I can almost assure you already, Germany will definitely be in it.

Leo: Do you know anything about Austria or Germany?
O.J.: Germans have baggy leather pants, sausages and greasy beer.
Veikko: Austria has these beautiful sky high Alps. Germans make great cars and have big metal festivals.

Leo: Can you tell me some funny episodes from tour life?
Riku: Our gig in Jyväskylä, Finland was disaster. Almost immediately we started our minivan, we started to drink heavily with Ari. When we arrived to Jyväskylä we were totally wasted. Still there was plenty of time until the gig would start. We went to the downtown to have few beers, I also jumped a bungee jump. It was time to go the gig place and few minutes before our show, others had to look up for me and Ari, because they did not know where we were. Yes, they found us in front of the bar, table full of beer and two totally wasted guys, heh. That was a good lesson for us. After that we haven't been wasted on stage anymore, heh.
O.J.: I haven’t done any gigs with CATAMENIA, but I think there are plenty of stories to come when we go touring. So I’ll tell something on the next interview.

Leo: What are the most important Finnish words metal fans have to know?
O.J.: “Painukaa vittuun tai tulee pataan” means “is this seat taken.” It’s always important be polite towards fellow metalheads.
Veikko: "Käppyrät täriseen!!" means "let's party!!"
Riku: Niin perkele!

Leo: What are your preferred drinks? When did you drink alcohol last time?
Riku: Beer, beer, BEER and Gin & Tonic. I got drunk last night.
O.J.: I’ll drink anything with alcohol on it. Last time I got drunk was two days ago.
Veikko: I think we all love beer except for our bassist who can't handle it. CATAMENIA drinks a lot! And we often get together to drink, usually to play and drink. I got drunk few days ago.

Leo: Imagine you drank too much: is there a recipe for “the day after”?
Riku: It'll go away with the same you drank previous day.
O.J.: Drink some more and it will be gone. Also listening to Topi Sorsakoski has curing effect.
Veikko: Some cold lager beer should do it. Also some greasy and salty food will do the trick.

Leo: Which albums would you take with you to a hip hop fan to convert him?
O.J.: I think that all hope is lost for persons listening to hip hop music.
Veikko: Hmmm..Linking Limp or Bisquit Park :D

Leo: How would you describe your kind of music to my mother?
O.J.: Lots of yelling and banging.
Veikko: Fast melodic music.
Riku: I do not know, but my mom seriously likes CATAMENIA's music.

Leo: Can you explain the meaning of your pseudonyms (for example “Moottorisaha”)?
O.J.: “Moottorisaha” is chainsaw, I have no idea where that one came from. You really don’t want to know the translations for the rest of the pseudonyms on our websites biographies. When Ari has nothing better to do, he writes some weird stuff in there. Our bass player's pseudonym “ripulipakki” is my favourite so far.
Veikko: Moottorisaha, my pseudonym came up to my mind when I was drinking some Daniels by myself one time and I started to think up some funny pseudonyms. I told this to Riku and Ari, they loved it (and laughed at it) and my pseudonym was born.
Riku: K-oz and WarTechs comes from our time, when we had this side project, UNWRAP, going on. No bigger meaning: K-oz -> Chaos and WarTechs -> Vortex. But I like my new pseudonyms Kosmos or Rodriquez 'Rodriques' Rodriquez better, heh.

Leo: Whenever I visit the “Catacombes” in the forum, I get immediate answers from one of the band members. Is it important to keep close contact to your fans?
O.J.: Of course it’s important - they are the reason why we have a chance to do gigs and albums. Without them we would be playing to ourselves in the rehearsal room.
Riku: Yes it's important as O.J. said. We also answer all the guestbook entries, and that's also a least we can do.

Leo: Did you have any outstanding experiences with fans?
Riku: We always have some outstanding experiences with the fans, heh.
Veikko: To get a free beer is pretty outstanding.

Leo: Is there a chance for a DVD in the near future?
O.J.: There’s already some stuff recorded for the DVD and we’re going to take cameras with us to the tour. Hopefully it will be released some day.
Veikko: Hehehe, released if not banned in every country.

Thank you very much for answering my questions, cu on tour in May!!!