Metal Wyrd

A couple of weeks ago, Metal Wyrd’s Bill Murphy caught up with the ever-busy Eluveitie [“El-way-tea”] bassist Rafi Kirder for a lengthy chat about music, life, work, inspirations, movies, and preparing for the Swiss Folk-Metal band’s first tour of the U.S. as part of Pagan Fest USA 2008, a highly anticipated tour that also features Ensiferum, Tyr, and Turisas. Rafi, whose “evil twin brother” Sevan shares the stage with him in Eluveitie and Celtic folk band Red Shamrock, laughed a lot during our interview – as you’ll soon discover.

Eluveitie recently signed a deal with Nuclear Blast and released its third album, Slania, this year.

The interview was conducted via Skype. I called Rafi, who had just recovered from a bad case of the flu. NOTE: All photos, except for album covers, were graciously provided by Rafi.

RK: Hello Bill. Can you hear me? [laughs]

BM: Hi, how are you?

RK: Fine, fine. [laughs] How are you?

BM: Great. Doing well, thank you.

RK: Great.

BM: Are you feeling better now?

RK: Yeah, really. I’m feeling fine now.

BM: Good. I appreciate your time today. It’s great to talk to you.

RK: Yes. No problem.

BM: By the way, your English is great. I don’t know what you were worried about. [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Thanks a lot. I hope it will be good for a whole interview. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Let me ask you a few things about Slania, specifically, and then some things in general about your background.

RK: Yes.

BM: It’s a great album. It really is. It sounds fantastic. What looks like the single, the music video for “Inis Mona” is a lot of fun to watch. Did you guys have fun making it?

RK: [laughs] Well, it’s also a lot of work. Sure, it’s fun but I had neck problems for a whole week after it [laughs]. You have to bang the whole day long and it should always look the same, you know. Sure, it’s fun. We had to get up at four in the morning and made shooting until five pm in the evening. So there’s a lot of time invested in it.

BM: Wow. Yeah. You know what’s interesting is you guys are an eight-piece band.

RK: Right. Yes.

BM: When you play live do you, like, ever trip over each other?

RK: No. We have all our regions on the stage and we appreciate the places the other use and we try not to kick each other. [laughs]. But sometimes it happens. Chrigel [Glanzmann], the singer, he [laughs] he certainly has the problem to not look at other people. [laughs] But it works. It works.

BM: My favorite part of that music video is watching [laughs] watching your brother play the bagpipes –

RK: [laughs]

BM: And he’s got that heavy-metal scowl and he’s just crankin’ away on them. [laughs]

RK: [laughs] He looks really grim, doesn’t he? [laughs]

BM: Yeah. [laughs]

RK: Well, it’s a goat. He made it on his own. It’s not a pipe you can buy this way. It’s a Galician bagpipe. He just put the fur on it and the skull on it his own. It’s custom made.

BM: Let’s start with the cover of Slania. Who’s that little girl with the sword on the cover? [These next couple of questions were asked because at the time of the interview, all I had was a promo CD from Nuclear Blast. The answers to my questions are found in the CD booklet. Sorry!]

RK: I have to be honest I have no idea. Wait, wait, wait. I guess it’s the daughter of a friend or something like that. But I don’t know the name. Sorry.

BM: No problem. Who did the artwork for it? What it Travis Smith?

RK: No. Not at all. The artwork was done by Manuel Vargas Lepiz.

BM: I see.

RK: Yeah. He also shot the picture [on the cover]. But not the booklet pictures. But not the booklet pictures. These pictures were shot by my girlfriend, Astrid [Marquardt].

BM: Oh, really?

RK: Yes, she did. She’s a photographer. She learned it. But now she works something else. In marketing.

BM: Oh, really? In marketing.

RK: [laughs]

BM: What do you remember most about recording Slania? Did it come together pretty easily for you? Were there really difficult tracks?

RK: Yeah, I have to tell you how it works, the recordings for Eluvetie albums. [sighs] We didn’t have much time to learn these songs, particularly, because everybody’s [laughs] thinking, “Oh, they have two years time for writing these songs.” But the most part of the songs were written in maybe the last three months prior to the recordings. So I think about eight songs [laughs] were written in three months. I didn’t even know two songs in the studio. I had to learn them then. So, “Samon” I [laughs] heard it the first time in the studio. And I had to learn it in the studio. “Elembivos,” too. I learned it all in the studio. So it was kind of rushed. I had just two days for my recordings.

BM: Wow.

RK: Yeah. I took a weekend.

BM: Are you saying the entire album you had only two days to record?

RK: No, it’s just me. It’s just my part.

BM: Yeah, your part. You did in two days?

RK: Yeah. Right, right. It’s just bass. It’s not hard. [laughs] But you have to be concentrated, I’ll tell you that. You start in the morning at ten o’clock and you will do five or six songs each day.

BM: So that’s why that guy was yawning in your picture? [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Maybe, yeah. It’s hard. You work until two or four in the morning and the next day you start at ten o’clock or something. [laughs]

BM: Which song was the most difficult to play, then, in that two-day time when you’re really cranking to get them all done? Was there one that gave you a particularly difficult time?

RK: Well, let’s see. I don’t know. I started with the hard ones. The speedy ones. I have to tell you something. Normally I play with my fingers, picking style. [laughs] These songs were so fast for me and [laughs] I really had to learn to play with the plectrum, the pick, prior to the recordings. Normally, I just play with the fingers. But some stuff was really fast and I couldn’t make it in this time. But, hard songs? Hmm. “The Somber Lay” was hard because I didn’t know it exactly. “Bloodstained Ground,” which was a really fast song. But all in all, yeah. It was about the same.

BM: Have you had a chance to play any of these songs live on stage before people yet?

RK: Yes, we did. We had a CD release party two weeks ago. Prior to the influenza. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs] I guess this was the reason I got sick.

BM: [laughs]

RK: Yeah, yeah.

BM: Which songs were the most fun to play live?

RK: Yeah. I dig “Gray Sublime Archon.” This is just a kick-ass song and the people dig it, too. [laughs] You might think it’s “Inis Mona.” That’s a great song. It is. But, to play, it’s really an easy song. And you can’t go down really deep and dig it. Because, well, it’s not that fast and, well, the people dig it. But, to play, it’s not the big son. “Gray Sublime Archon” kicks ass. Really.

BM: I would have thought it was “Inis Mona” because it seems like it’s such a really upbeat, catchy song that the audience would go nuts for that.

RK: They did. They did, yes. [laughs] But, for us on the stage it’s not the best song to play.

BM: I see. That’s cool to know, yeah.

RK: I can send you a YouTube link from the last gig, two weeks ago. Just wait a second. [sound of Rafi typing: http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=uH4zb6jqMzI]

BM: [laughs] Yeah, that would be great.

RK: [laughs] If you want, people are [laughs] singing the song as if they knew from the first day. Just a second. It was great. [more typing sounds] Yeah. You can ask me.

BM: The audiences for Eluveitie seem to be really wild and into it. Are you finding that’s the case, that they’re totally diggin’ you guys?

RK: Well, yeah, they are. [laughs] And the audience always gets younger from concert to concert.

BM: Pretty soon you’ll be playing for a bunch of babies, eh?

RK: [laughs] I don’t think so.

BM: How did you guys land the Nuclear Blast gig? From what I’ve found from reading a lot of posts because some fans are critical of that because they think you’re going to sell out and Nuclear Blast will call the shots.

RK: I think it’s not true. Because Nuclear Blast has really been great to us. I think they’re trying their best and it hasn’t been the same way with Fear Dark. Well, Fear Dark hasn’t been that great. It was our last label. They had done quite a lot. But they didn’t have the money for big tours or big advertising or all that stuff. Everything. Nuclear Blast make everything, you know? [laughs] Advertising here and there and they know every magazine, Internet e-zines and everything.

BM: Yeah, Nuclear Blast is huge. Were you guys surprised when that happened? Did you think, “Wow, I can’t believe they’re interested in us”? Or did you think, “It’s about time”?

RK: Well, not exactly because we had a lot of interest. We had Roadrunner. We had Metal Blade. We had Napalm Records. We had quite a few big labels but we settled down with the best, I guess. Nuclear Blast is the best. [laughs]

BM: They have a good reputation.

RK: Yes, they have. They have. Especially here in Europe. I don’t know how it is in America. But in Europe it’s huge.

BM: Is it because of Nuclear Blast that you hooked up with the Pagan Fest tour? Or did you hook that up before the gig with Nuclear Blast?

RK: No, it’s nothing with Nuclear Blast. It’s with our booker, Rock The Nation. We already had the tour since about summer last year. We haven’t been with Nuclear Blast since summer.

BM: Pagan Fest is a major gig. What do you guys think about it? What are your anticipations for it?

RK: [laughs] Oh, man. I’m looking forward to it. [laughs] I’ve been once in America, it was 1988 [laughs]. I’ve been in New York, Manhattan, and also on the Twin Towers with the uncle of my mother. He lived there, and he had also his office in the building, which was quite interesting. He was an architect.

BM: So you’re looking forward to your tour of the States?

RK: Yes, yes, right. [laughs] I guess people are going nuts in the States.

BM: Yeah, they are.

RK: Also, I don’t know how big the venues are, so I checked out some venues, and I guess, well, they will be great.

BM: Yeah, they’re pretty good size. It looks like they’re anywhere from 500 to perhaps a couple of thousand. Maybe more.

RK: Really? Really? Oh, this will be great.

BM: Yeah.

RK: I think this will be great.

BM: Well, what is your plan, as a band? First, what can audiences expect from your show? And second, are you going to go out there and try to absolutely blow the other bands on the bill away? Is your plan to totally upstage them? [laughs]

RK: [laughs] I don’t want to be cocky or something, but I guess we will. [laughs]

BM: Yeah. [laughs]

RK: We will prove this, because we always did. And we played lots of shows, already, with Ensiferum, or I don’t know if you know Haggard? Or Cruachan? You know Cruachan?

BM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

RK: They’re great. But we kicked their asses.

BM: [laughs]

RK: I guess it will be hard for all the bands to play after us. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: So we are the opener, but the sad part is, we just get a half hour, I guess, every evening.

BM: Yeah.

RK: Which is very sad. It could be more.

BM: Yeah.

RK: I guess we will only play about six songs each evening, which is less. Not much.

BM: Will it be mostly, obviously, from Slania, but will you play a couple favorites from Spirit or Ven, maybe?

RK: Yes, I think it will maybe be just one song from Ven, because we’ll be “Lament.” I guess it will be “Your Gaulish War” [from Spirit]. It will be, maybe, “The Song of Life” [from Spirit]. It will be for sure “Inis Mona” [from Slania], I hope. “Gray Sublime Archon” [from Slania]. “Uis Elveti” [from Spirit]. And, yes, its’ about that, I guess. We’re not sure yet what we’re gonna play. But I think it will be some of these songs I told you now.

BM: Wow, that would be great.

RK: Yeah.

BM: Where did the title come from, by the way? Why call it Slania?

RK: Well, Slania’s the name of the girl, and it was Chrigels’s idea, the singer’s idea, and like that. The idea of the album is the big wheel. And the big wheel is part of the four main times in the year. So it’s spring, fall, summer, and winter. And she leads us through these stages. Kind of.

BM: I see. Yeah, I knew about the four seasons of the Celtic calendar, I did not know about Slania leading you through that.

RK: Yes, she leads us through the red line, through the whole album kind of.

BM: That is cool. According to, I don’t know where I got this information, but you guys have two more CDs coming out, Evocation 1 and Evocation 2. Is that correct?

RK: Right.

BM: They seem to be acoustic.

RK: Well, it’s like that. [laughs] People think we already recorded everything, and that’s not the way. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs] To be honest, we don’t have just one song. We don’t have anything. We just have lots of ideas. I already made a song on my own, a year ago, which will be part of an album. And yes, the first part of this, The Arcane Dominion, will be a full acoustic album.

BM: Wow.

RK: Yeah, completely. [laughs]

BM: But you haven’t recorded it yet?

RK: Nothing, no. No, no. Nothing.

BM: [laughs]

RK: Nothing. And the second part [Visions] will be a mixture of normal Eluveitie stuff with metal and part acoustic, I guess. It’s not clear yet.

BM: Let me back up to something. You said you played with Cruachan. That’s Keith Fay’s band, right? The Irish Celtic group?

RK: Right, yeah.

BM: When did you play that, and did Cruachan think, “Gosh, they blew us away”? [laughs]

RK: Yeah, we did. We did. I just have to check the date we played. [sound of Rafi typing] I can’t remember. It was two years ago or something. Let me check the old page.

BM: I’m supposed to interview him in the next month or two. I won’t mention this to him. [laughs] I won’t say —

RK: No, no, no, don’t say. [laughs]

BM: — Eluveitie said, “We kicked your ass.” [laughs]

RK: [laughs] You can ask him about it. He should know us. He’d say, “Whoa, you guys have been so rad. I don’t know how to go on stage now! Waa-waa-waa.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: I guess they had a hard time. Well, the gig was great, of course, but… [laughs]

BM: Well, you know what I’m interested in? Your passion for this kind of music. When people think of Switzerland, I’m not sure they think of Celtic Irish music. But is it very popular over there?

RK: Well, popular? Hmmm. The people dig it, ok? You know, I’m playing in Red Shamrock too?

BM: Oh yeah. I’m gonna ask you about that.

RK: By the way, by the way, I’m going to send two CDs, I guess it’s better so you have them sooner, ok?

BM: Oh, that would be great.

RK: Would you send me your address through MySpace, ok?

BM: Sure, yeah.

RK: Great, great. Where have I been? Ah yes,. So yeah, the Irish or Celtic folk, how you name it, people like it from all the ages. So if you’re a young kid or an old grandfather or something, everybody’s coming to our gigs. Not Eluveitie, but Red Shamrock, you know? And I guess, people are missing the old folk stuff. Because Swiss folk music was kind of a two-sided sword, you know? There is folk music, and there’s modern folk music, how it was invented maybe 100 years ago, with accordion or something, and people don’t like it. People don’t like the accordion style of music. They say it’s kind of old, and well, just old people listen to this songs, ok?

BM: Yeah, yeah.

RK: But there is Swiss traditional music which is way older, with bagpipes, and strange instruments, well, like the hurdy-gurdy or something else. They are different instruments. Also yodeling.

BM: Yeah, yeah.

RK: Nobody knows this kind of music, you know? But it’s very much, it’s kind of the same like normal Celtic music. And people are missing such music, and I guess that’s the reason, because they do like Celtic music, Celtic folk music. And they come to Celtic or Irish music concerts all the way.

BM: That’s really interesting, because I don’t picture that. When I think of Switzerland, I don’t picture Irish Celtic music being played. Yeah. It’s such a different audience. You mentioned Red Shamrock. Let me ask you about that a second. The music is similar only in that it’s Celtic Irish in its tone, but it’s nothing like Eluveitie. Do you have audiences that don’t go to one concert, but go to another? Are there some who go to both bands? Tell me about the audiences for both bands.

RK: Yes, there are people which do come to both concerts. And there are also people that just come to one or the other concert. It’s like we have some kind of hippies, you know, [laughs] that like to do both. They like both bands. Because it’s really danceable stuff, and they dig it.

BM: Yeah. I like it too. Yeah, my last name is Murphy, so I enjoy Irish music.

RK: [laughs] Great. You know, Anna.

BM: Right, she plays the hurdy gurdy.

RK: Her last name is Murphy. Yes, right. Did you check our electronic press kit on YouTube?

BM: Oh, I saw the EPK, yeah.

RK: Yeah, that’s her.

BM: Yeah, yeah. I watched that video, it was great.

RK: It’s her voice, the English one.

BM: Oh is it?

RK: Right. And the English-speaking male is the father. Mr. Murphy. [laughs]

BM: Oh really? [laughs] That’s great.

RK: Yeah, right. They are from Ireland. [laughs]

BM: Oh yeah, I wondered why they had an Irish accent. I was wondering about that.

RK: Absolutely, yes.

BM: Who’s singing then in Red Shamrock, because somebody who’s singing has an Irish accent.

RK: Yeah, well kind of. It’s Robert [Kreimel, vocalist].

BM: Is it? Ok.

RK: Yeah. He just became a father. [laughs]

BM: Oh really?

RK: Yeah, a week or so ago. And I’m the godfather.

BM: You’re the godfather of Robert’s, is it a son or a daughter?

RK: Yeah, it’s a son, called Marwin.

BM: Marwin. That is cool.

RK: Yeah, right.

BM: So how did you and your brother [Sevan Kirder] get interested in the same kind of music, and appear in the same bands together? You must get along with him really well then, don’t you?

RK: Yes, of course. He’s my twin brother, man. [laughs]

BM: Yeah, I noticed that. [laughs]

RK: Yes, we live together, by the way.

BM: Oh really? Cool.

RK: Yeah. He’s just, he’s in the living room, and playing Nintendo Wii. Or watching TV or something, I don’t know. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: Yeah, yeah, it’s just a game, guy. I don’t play. I hate it. I don’t like it. I did, when I was 16, and I started music with 16, and my brother did to. So we played together in the first band, but it was nothing like metal or folk, it just was pure blues rock or something, or that British invasion stuff like maybe Jethro Tull or something.

BM: Oh yeah.

RK: So that’s why my brother became involved with the flute. So in 1996 he started playing flute just because of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull.

BM: Yeah.

RK: And I started singing and playing blues harp, like I mentioned before.

BM: Yep.

RK: And out of this band from 1996, was called Downstairs. I left the band after two years, maybe, because they wanted to play grunge stuff, and I didn’t like it then. I do like it now but I didn’t like it then, and I did my own stuff then. I played with other bands as a guest musician, and in 1998, Robert, the singer I told you, joined that band. But I wasn’t in that band at this time, ok? But my brother was still in that band. And two years later, they broke up. They split. And they want to make more folky stuff, more Americana or more folk-oriented music. And they offered me to play bass then. Because I just started playing bass guitar, and they asked me to join the band again, and we started Red Shamrock that way in 2000. Yeah, eight years ago now.

BM: Wow.

RK: And this is still the core. It’s Robert, brother, and me. And the other guys came and went. We have six lineups since three years now. So we came together. We rose together this band, and we always made together the music.

BM: Well, tell me, I like both bands, really. Red Shamrock is very more acoustic, there’s nothing metal going on there. Tell me about the difference to you as a musician, being in both bands. What does each one feel like? Is it different, or is it the same?

RK: Well, yes, in a way it is different, because I do play also the double bass, and the bouzouki in Red Shamrock. So I have to be much more concentrated because of it. So I have to take care of all the instruments and have my head together, “Oh, what now? What now? Which instrument comes next?”

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Not that it would be hard or something. You have to get your head a little bit more together. In Eluveitie, it’s like that, I’ve got my bass on, and I can rip the stage, you know. I can play with a wireless, and I can run around, and I can bang, and it’s just plain fun. It’s not like I don’t bang with Red Shamrock, I do, but I have to have my head a little bit more together to play in Red Shamrock. It’s a little more difficult stuff to play, to be honest.

BM: That’s interesting.

RK: Yeah. I guess the same goes for Sevan too.

BM: Yeah. Let’s see here. Tell me about folk metal a second. What do you think is the first folk metal band? And why is folk metal becoming so popular all over the world? Do you have any explanation for that?

RK: [laughs] The first band to play folk metal. Well, I don’t know. I guess it’s been around a long, long time. Cruachan just made a good start of it. It’s been around for a long time. I’m not sure. And I have to be honest, I don’t listen to much other folk metal bands.

BM: Really, that’s interesting.

RK: No, well, to be honest again, I don’t listen to much folk, and metal, I don’t listen to much metal. Not at all.

BM: Ok, here’s my question then, Rafi.

RK: Yes.

BM: You’re playing in all these bands. But you don’t even listen to the kind of music you play? [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Yeah, yeah sure.

BM: What do you listen to — country western music?

RK: I do like it, yes. And bluegrass, man, I dig bluegrass.

BM: Oh yeah.

RK: I also play the mandolin, and the dobro, and I like to sit…[laughs] you really have to believe me, man. [laughs]

BM: I believe you. [laughs]

RK: You have to see my CD collection’s just full of this stuff. Old stuff with Bill Monroe, or new stuff like Blue Highway. Man, dig Blue Highway. Great stuff.

BM: What did you think of the Robert Plant and Allison Krauss CD? Have you heard it?

RK: Not yet. I heard of it. But I haven’t heard it yet.

BM: Yeah.

RK: [ringing] Oh shit, it’s my phone. It might be my brother, just a second.

BM: Ok. [more ringing in the background]

RK: It was my sister, not brother.

BM: That’s interesting that you don’t necessarily listen to folk.

RK: No. I listen also to Motown or old funk stuff from the ‘70s. I really dig the stuff.

BM: Do you really?

RK: Because, you know, it’s really bass-oriented.

BM: Oh yeah, it is. Yeah.

RK: That’s because I do dig those Motown stuff with James Jamison, Bob Babbit, Carol Kaye, and all this old stuff. Or funk stuff like Bootsy Collins, and so on. They have really mastered this instrument, so it’s because of that, you know? If you listen to metal, there is maybe one or two bands you can say, “Well, they have really great bass lines.” Just like Iron Maiden.

BM: Oh yeah.

RK: Steve Harris is truly a god for me, because he really built up the songs just from the bass.

BM: Right.

RK: And, well, he is truly a bass god. But you haven’t got that much in metal. You just have guitars and the bass plays the same like the guitars, and well, I don’t. I don’t. Well, sometimes I have to, but normally I like to play melodic bass lines. And well, there isn’t much place in Eluveitie to play melodic bass lines. I have some melodies. I have a big part in “Slania’s Song” [from Slania], which bass is featured there. And I do love melodic bass lines. And normal metal can’t give me that. [laughs]

BM: Oh yeah, I know. Do you ever listen to Paul McCartney’s bass lines in the Beatles?

RK: Yes.

BM: Yeah, I never knew that. A friend of mine named Ian McDonald who used to be in Foreigner and King Crimson use to tell me, if I really wanted to hear great bass playing, some of the best in the world, I should listen to Paul McCartney.

RK: Yeah.

BM: And then I started to, and I thought, “Holy cow, this guy is brilliant.”

RK: [laughs] Brilliant. Yes he is, yeah.

BM: [laughs]

RK: That’s for sure.

BM: So it’s interesting then, you play this music, but it’s not necessarily your favorite music to listen to. You prefer Motown and funk and bluegrass.

RK: Absolutely, yeah.

BM: Do you get to play any sort of bass solos on stage when you guys do a concert?

RK: No, I don’t like to show off, because it’s not necessary. We’re a unit. Nobody makes any solos in our band. I think it’s not necessary.

BM: Yeah, yeah. In the EPK on YouTube, you were quoted as saying, “We really enjoyed recording our album, Slania.” But you just told me kind of that it was a really intense couple of days for you. [laughs] That it was difficult.

RK: [laughs]

BM: So what is the deal here? [laughs]

RK: [laughs]

BM: Should you have put that in the EPK? Should you have said, “Man, it was a pain in the ass for two days”?

RK: [laughs] Well, it’s always a joy to be in the studio, you know?

BM: Yeah.

RK: You learn so much, and you always see how they work. And in each studio it’s something else, because they have different approaches for different stuff. And it’s fun. Because they have been really funny guys, so Jens [Bogren] or David [Castillo], [laughs] funny stinkers, you know? [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: But nonetheless you have to work too, because time is money and you know we have to pay everything on our own. It’s not cheap, so we have to travel to Sweden, we have to pay to fly, we have to pay the studio time, and you see that we had just two weeks in Sweden. So I think about four days for the drums, about three days Ivo [Henzi] lead guitars, about two days with Sime [Koch], I took two days, and another maybe two days for the vocals of Chrigel.

BM: Wow.

RK: And the other part, the folk part, was recorded in our rehearsal room in Zurich and in a little studio in Liechtenstein, it’s a little country at the border of Switzerland, at the eastern border of Switzerland. It’s a really small country. And the clean vocals had been recorded prior to the mixing, also in Sweden. So Anna [Murphy] and Meri [Tadic], they flew also to Sweden just for the vocals.

BM: Yeah, wow.

RK: Yeah, that’s hard work. It’s hard work. But sure, it’s fun. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: It’s fun too.

BM: Tell me how you first got hooked up with Eluveitie. On the first album, there’s another bass player listed as playing. When it was re-recorded, did you come on then?

RK: No, I am featured on the album, but not on bass, just on background vocals. [lauhs]

BM: Oh, I see, yeah.

RK: Yes. [laughs] I tell you something, it’s been since 2002, maybe. And Chrigel had his marriage, and he was looking for musicians for an Irish session at his marriage. And he just, we didn’t knew each other at this time, and he just sent out mails, and said, “Yeah, come to my marriage, we are in the forest, and we’re gonna play some tunes together.” And there we got to knew Chrigel. Yeah, six years ago. My brother, one year later he asked my brother to record stuff on Ven. And he didn’t ask me for anything, because he did not know that I played bass at this time. He just knew I played bouzouki, and he had another bouzouki player right then. So I wasn’t, unfortunately, in this record, just backing vocals on the remastered stuff.

BM: What is your most vivid memory of that album? What do you remember most about recording?

RK: The re-recording, or Slania?

BM: The re-recording of Ven.

RK: Oh, well it was just the one evening. We just sang something together [laughs]. It took a few hours, nothing more.

BM: Yeah, that’s kind of stuff people wouldn’t normally know though. I’m glad you’re saying that.

RK: Absolutely, yeah.

BM: How about Spirit? A lot of fans still think Spirit is the better album of the three. But I’ve read on some boards or forums, they say, “Well Spirit rocks, and Slania is more commercial or it’s too metalcore.” But tell me about Spirit. What do you remember most about working on that album?

RK: Well, it was practically the same. [laughs] We didn’t have much time for it. It’s always, it’s Eluveitie stuff.

BM: Yeah.

RK: We didn’t have much time. I also had to learn two songs in the studio.

BM: [laughs]

RK: I will send you a picture gallery here. [sounds of typing] You can check it right out so you can see the pictures from the studio there.

BM: Yeah, that’s great. [laughs]

RK: Got it?

BM: Yeah.

RK: First it’s Merlin on the drums, and then you see me on bass. [laughs]

BM: So was that a lot of fun? Did you guys have a good time in the studio with that one, or is it just really hard work?

RK: It was hard work too, of course. [laughs]

BM: Yeah.

RK: You see maybe the sixth picture or something? We are in our flat and are writing stuff together. Because I didn’t know the songs back then. We are working together. Wait a second. [pause]

BM: You’re playing your bass with your John Deere pink shirt on?

RK: Yeah. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: Absolutely.

BM: Yeah.

RK: But I don’t wear glasses anymore. I just made a laser operation two years ago.

BM: Oh, and that worked out really well? What were you, nearsighted or farsighted, or what was it?

RK: It was nearsighted, sorry, farsighted.

BM: Have you toured a lot? Have you played a lot of gigs on the road with Eluveitie?

RK: Yeah, we did.

BM: Do you have a favorite road story? Is there something that happened that you thought was the funniest or the strangest?

RK: Yeah. It was last year, we’re at the concert in Switzerland. Well, we had a lot of great gigs, much of them in Switzerland, but this one was really, oh man, hard. Because we always have to rent a car, or bus. And Melanie, you met her in the forum I guess, she just came from the car rental and during the time from the car rental place to the rehearsal, the car broke down.

BM: [laughs]

RK: Nothing went anymore. And she called and, [speaks in a high voice] “The car is broke, I can’t come, nothing works anymore.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: And we had to make 1000 phone calls just to have another car back.

BM: Yeah.

RK: And she called her father and they drove back to the car rental and they got a new one, and we had to organize the car which pulls the other one from the street, and it was really close, because we thought we would come late to the gig. And we just had 10 minutes, we came in, get our stuff on the stage, and we just were sweating all over the body, and, “Go, play, now, now!”

BM: [laughs]

RK: And we just had to start, and we didn’t tune our instruments. Yeah, but the gig was great, so we have been I guess the second band on this evening, and people liked it, so.

BM: Wow.

RK: But this was a really close second. We called and said, “They have to change the order of the bands.” They were like, “No, this is your problem, we don’t care about it. If you don’t play, you’ll have to pay.” [laughs] And we were like, “Shit, come on!” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: Yeah.

BM: Wow. Are you a full-time musician now, or do you have a so-called day job?

RK: Yeah, so-called. Well, I work 100%.

BM: Yeah?

RK: Yes, because we don’t gain nothing with Eluveitie. Yet, yet.

BM: No income? So what is your full-time job then? What do you do?

RK: I work in an office as an electric engineer.

BM: Oh, I see? An office as an electrical engineer. How long have you been doing that?

RK: Since I had my apprenticeship from 1996 to 2000. And since year 2000, I’m working at the same office.

BM: Wow.

RK: But I think, I think I have to quit the job this year, because now I have to take unpaid for two months for this tour.

BM: Oh yeah.

RK: We’re this month in Europe, and in two months we are in the States, and well, they let me go for this two months, but I don’t think they will pass another [laughs] demand for something. And it will be more. We already got another offer in autumn this year.

BM: Yeah.

RK: It’s not worldwide, but it’s with In Extremo. Maybe you’ve heard about this band?

BM: Yeah. Yep.

RK: It’s [sound of typing] this band.

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

RK: And they’re great. In German-talking regions, they’re big, they’re really big. And this would be a co-headliner gig. We could play about an hour and this would be our breakthrough, I guess.

BM: You think the place where you work isn’t going to go for letting you off for three months?

RK: No, no way, no way. So I have a new boss since last year. My last boss was such a gentleman. He bought all my CDs, he always came to the concerts, and he really dug what I did. And he appreciated it. And he was really a man, a person, much as for work, also on the friend side, you know?

BM: Yeah.

RK: And the new one isn’t that way. I don’t like it anymore. So it’s not a good position for me, because I need to have some steady income. Because living in Switzerland isn’t cheap. It’s quite expensive. And I need to have some income.

BM: Yeah, the taxes are pretty high there?

RK: Yeah, they are. I just received my taxes, it’s about, last income, about $4000. [laughs] I just had to write my taxes for the next year today. [laughs] This evening.

BM: Isn’t it because you guys have a lot of like, government-run healthcare and all that kind of stuff?

RK: Yeah.

BM: Ok.

RK: Yeah, that’s great. In Switzerland, that depends. So like, I saw the film of Michael Moore.

BM: Yeah.

RK: What’s the name again? I forgot it.

BM: Sicko.

RK: Right. Exactly. It was really scary to see such problems in America or someplace else. We really have a paradise when you compare it with the States. I don’t know if it’s true what he showed there.

BM: Yeah, Michael Moore is considered to be a pretty liberal guy who just likes promoting himself, really. He’ll say outrageous things just to get a lot of attention.

RK: Yeah, right. I heard of it. I heard of it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

RK: I had old schoolmates who hated him. [laughs]

BM: Yeah. [laughs] One of the things I like to ask people from these other countries that I speak to is, is there something from your country that I’m hearing in your music? Do you know what I mean? What is unique about the music you play, where I can listen to it and think, “Yeah, that’s Switzerland”? Is there something like that in your music?

RK: No, I think it’s nothing in the Swiss way, because if you wanna play good music, [laughs] it doesn’t have to be Swiss at all. [laughs]

BM: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

RK: [laughs] Sorry, Bill, if I criticize the accent, it would be Swiss/English or something like that. [laughs] You wouldn’t like it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: I know regular bands in Switzerland, and they are so bad, because they have this Jamaican slang in it, but speaking with a Swiss accent, [laughs] and it doesn’t work. It sounds silly.

BM: [laughs]

RK: So [laughs] it would be really bad thing if we had some Switzerlandish stuff in our music. [laughs]

BM: Is there something, like when I talk to Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, it’s not necessarily—he said that Sonata Arctica’s music is kind of bleak or dark because Finland is that way. Is there something about how your music feels?

RK: [laughs] It just sounds great. I think all the Finnish people say that they have to play music because they have darkness all over the winter and it’s depressive music because of it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: And I think this is bullshit. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Now, I don’t know. There’s nothing which is that way. Maybe our music is joyful or something, but it’s just because we are that way, not our culture. That’s what I think.

BM: Yeah. I can hear, you sound like a really happy guy, a really nice, happy guy.

RK: Oh, thank you.

BM: And like a lot of people might not think that if they listen to folk metal. It sounds really aggressive and heavy and dark. Like that face your brother’s making when he’s heavy-metaling on the bagpipes, you know, like everybody’s got to scowl. But that’s not how you are in person, right? That’s not your personality.

RK: Not at all. And also not the way I am on stage. I’m really funny on stage. I’m laughing all the time and grinning and smiling all over the place. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: People are really overwhelmed when they see our shows, because they think the music is much grimmer when they’ve heard our CDs. And when they first saw our concert the first time, they think, “What the fuck is going on? They’re smiling and jumping.” [laughs]

BM: Yeah.

RK: It’s really a joy to see us on stage, I heard. I heard. [laughs]

BM: Yeah.

RK: And just a second, I’ll send you a picture where I’m smiling. I always do or screaming and something else. Yeah. But nothing, it’s never grim or something. It’s always fun on stage. Have you already received Slania, the CD?

BM: No, I downloaded it from Amazon. You can buy the mp3 of it from Amazon. But I haven’t received my physical copy yet.

RK: Ok. Did you received the DVD, there’s also a concert from the last Ragnarock concert, and there are four songs played live. You’ll see how it’s going on on stage.

BM: Is brother like you, too? Are you both really happy kind of people?

RK: Yeah, I would say so, yes.

BM: Yeah.

RK: So I always tell he is my evil twin, but he isn’t. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: I’m also evil.

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs]

BM: You mentioned that Eluveitie is not making money for you guys yet. Does it worry you that you see a lot of illegal downloaders for Slania online? Is that a problem for you?

RK: Yeah, well, I don’t like it if people download the stuff. But, I know that a lot of people download it because they couldn’t buy it.

BM: Yeah. [laughs]

RK: And that’s absolutely ok with me. I don’t have any problems with it. But if you have the chance to buy it, why not? So I never, ever downloaded an album. I never would do it, because it’s not fair against musicians. Sure, there are musicians out there who get millions and something else with music, but they made something.

BM: Yeah.

RK: They made this record and they paid for it, and I think it’s nothing. What, about, I don’t know what a record costs in America, about $20 maybe. What’s that, $20? It’s nothing. Go out, get it, you have a booklet, you have a CD, with a print on it, it’s something to hold in your hand, it’s something to read, you know, there are many background informations in the booklet, also in our booklet there is many things written about all the songs you will see. There are translations from the Gaelic text in our booklet, and I think it’s something to hold, something to see, and I think people should buy an album, not just downloading it for free. That’s my opinion.

BM: How about YouTube, which seems to be really helpful, because like, your record label puts out these official videos and all that. Is it a problem if fans like, videotape your concerts and post clips, or is that ok with you guys? You like that?

RK: No, it’s not a problem at all. We like it. So we always [laughs] take the videos and send it to each others and say, “Hey, look at that what you are doing, it looks silly, stop it.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: And it’s always kind of materials for us to check out how is our acting, are we doing too much or too less, or yeah. No, we encouraged people to record our stuff. I already have written it in the forum. I don’t know how it is in the States, if it’s legal to make it, so I don’t care at all. So they can take their cell phones and record the stuff. Sure, it’s not a problem.

BM: I don’t think it’s illegal, I think a lot of bands don’t allow it or the venues don’t allow it.

RK: I don’t get it why. I don’t have a problem. Because I don’t think people won’t come to a gig because they saw it on YouTube. It’s hilarious.

BM: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned that both of your last couple of albums with Eluveitie was very hurried, very rushed, kind of. You didn’t have a lot of time.

RK: Right.

BM: What would you guys do if you had a lot of time? How would it sound different?

RK: So if we had a lot of time, and we had a lot of studio time, especially.

BM: Yeah.

RK: Oh man. [laughs]

BM: What would you do? Would you go nuts and make double albums or something, or what?

RK: Well, in fact, next time it will be a kind of double album, but it’s sold separately. [laughs] Like System of a Down’s last album, you know? [laughs]

BM: Yeah.

RK: I think they belong together, but they will be sold separately. And I guess they will be a little bit cheaper in price as two, because, well, I mentioned just an acoustic album, the one, and the other is just a mixture of both. I guess they will be a little bit cheaper.

BM: Yeah.

RK: Yeah. They will come short after another. Well, if we had more time, well, I don’t know. It won’t happen. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: Really. [laughs] It won’t happen, because right now we’re rehearsing the stuff for the tour, and we will be on tour for two months, and I guess we won’t have time to write any major stuff on these tours. Maybe we will, but I don’t think so. [laughs] I guess we will be drinking most of the time.

BM: [laughs]

RK: [laughs] Not me, but all the bus, and at six am in the morning. [laughs] Well, and after that we have the summer gigs, summer festivals, and then we should have all the songs for the new albums, you know? [laughs] “Oh fuck, we don’t have any time!” Rush, rush, rush. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: It’s the Eluveitie way. We always do it that way.

BM: Does Eluveitie, or do you personally, like to mix and mingle with the fans after a show or before a show?

RK: Yeah, always. Always. We come out. We don’t bunker in the back of the backstage.

BM: [laughs] Yeah, yeah.

RK: Yeah. So, here’s my brother. Say hi to Bill.

SK: Hello, Bill.

BM: Hi, how are you?

RK: Oh, wait a moment, he can’t hear you. Are you there?

BM: Hi, how are you?

SK: Hello, I’m fine.

BM: Good. That’s your evil twin? [laughs]

RK: [laughs] No, don’t tell on me. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RK: Just wait a moment, he will leave for the rehearsal, yep?

SK: Yeah.

RK: Ok, cheers.

BM: Ok.

RK: So, he’s leaving. [laughs] He couldn’t hear you because I’m wearing headphones.

BM: You sound like a really busy guy. What do you do in your spare time? Do you watch a lot of movies? Do you read books?

RK: [laughs] Yes, I do. When I have time for it. I just read the old biography of Nelson Mandela. It was my last book.

BM: Really?

RK: Yes, actually, I didn’t know much about the apartheid in South Africa. And it was kinda interesting to me. And yeah, it’s a great book. I can recommend it. I like to read biographies.

BM: What is it about them that you like?

RK: Well, about the person in general. So you get a lot of information about the person, how he lived or what was his life about.

BM: What about movies? Do you to watch movies?

RK: Well, when I have the time, I do like to watch movies. And also go to theater or something. And I dig a lot of English movies, the kind of British humor [laughs] I dig this kind of black humor.

BM: [laughs] Oh really? What’s your favorite movie?

RK: [laughs] It’s an old one. It’s Four Weddings and a Funeral.

BM: Oh really? [laughs] Yeah.

RK: Yeah. [laughs] I can watch this movie 1000 times, I don’t think it gets boring. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] If you could collaborate with any musician out there right now, who would it be? If you could be in a band with this person or just work on a project with this person, who would you want to work with?

RK: Let me think about that one. [laughs] Well, I think it wouldn’t be metal.

BM: Really? Yeah.

RK: I told you about this. [laughs]

BM: Yeah, you don’t like metal necessarily. [laughs]

RK: No. I do like, but I guess it would be something more into rockabilly or psychobilly. Maybe I would join a band with Geoff Kresge from Tiger Army. [laughs]

BM: Really?

RK: [laughs] Yes.

BM: Oh, that’s cool.

RK: Yeah, and well, I don’t know. I think it would be rockabilly stuff.

BM: What’s it like growing up in Switzerland? Tell me about that.

RK: Well, I have nothing to compare, so what should I say? It was kind of normal. [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Yeah.

RK: [laughs]

BM: [laughs] Do you get to travel? Have you traveled outside of Switzerland?

RK: Yes, I did. I visited a lot of countries in my youth, so we spent lots of holidays in France or Italy or Spain. Yeah, I was once in the States, this was 20 years ago now.

BM: Well see, you’ve got some things to compare it to.

RK: Yeah, but I didn’t grow up in any other countries.

BM: [laughs] Yeah, that’s true.

RK: [laughs] Yeah.

BM: Switzerland has a lot of languages. Which language do you naturally speak?

RK: It’s German, but a kind of home German called Schwyzerduutsch.

BM: Really?

RK: Which means Swiss German.

BM: Ok.

RK: Schwyzerduutsch.

BM: Schwyzerduutsch?

RK: I’m gonna write it for you, so you have it right. [sound of typing]

BM: Yeah. [laughs]

RK: [typing] [laughs] Got it? [laughs]

BM: Wow, see, I wouldn’t have been able to pronounce that.

RK: Sure. [laughs]

BM: When is your next CD coming out for Red Shamrock?

RK: We were in the studio in January, and after Easter, we’re gonna mix it, and in summer it will be out.

BM: Oh, I see. I’ll just ask you one more thing so you can get back to your life there.

RK: [laughs]

BM: Stuff like YouTube and MySpace and the Eluveitie forum, gives you guys a chance to really interact with fans like never before.

RK: Absolutely.

BM: Does that put more pressure on you, take up more of your time, or do you see that as a really good thing?

RK: Well, I don’t think we’re losing time, because I like it to talk with fans or with people who dig my music. And I like to run a MySpace page, and I don’t think it’s a kind of pressure or something. It’s something that I do in my free time. I like it.

BM: Alright, it’s so much fun to talk to you. Thanks a lot for your time. I appreciate it.

RK: That’s no problem. Appreciate it too, thanks. I hope you didn’t have any problems with my English. [laughs]

BM: You’re actually one of the better English speakers I’ve talked to in the last few years. That’s great.

RK: Ok, thanks a lot.

BM: Very good, take care. Have a good evening.

RK: Ok, bye, Bill.

BM: Bye bye.

NOTE: You can catch Eluveitie on the road this spring with Ensiferum, TYR, and Turisas. See the list of Pagan Fest USA gigs on page one of Metal Wyrd. You can buy Eluveitie’s CDs from one of the sources listed on my Where To Buy page.

Tags: Interviews //