Joviac, the progressive metal powerhouse from Tampere, Finland, combines intricate melodies with emotional depth. Their latest single, Burn, and album Autofiction Pt. 1 - Shards explore deeply personal, introspective themes.
1. Congratulations
on your new single "Burn"! Could you share the creative and emotional
journey behind this track and what it means to you personally?
Thank you!
It feels like such a relief to finally have this song out! Apologies for copy
pasting the answer to this question straight from our press release. I was
trying to think of a different way to answer, but I feel like this says it
best: Burn is an intensely personal song for me, and heavily inspired by my
personal experiences of dealing with the mental illness of a loved one. When
faced with a reality altering mental illness, one often feels like running into
a brick wall. No two days are the same, and the words that seemed to get
through yesterday aren’t connecting today. It leads to frustration, anger and
resentment among a plethora of other feelings. Together combined the feelings
become a storm that blows through, leaving inner destruction in its wake. This
song is about all of the above, knowing that going against the storm
is futile, but still demanding at least something for all the uninvited
suffering you’ve gone through. It’s about being at the end of one’s tether
and reaching the point of no return, about having to make incredibly
difficult decisions even if it means collateral damage.
2. The
album title, Autofiction Pt. 1 - Shards, suggests a deeply personal
and fragmented narrative. What inspired this concept, and how does it unfold
throughout the album?
I've been
hearing the term "autofiction" a lot in Finnish literary circles
recently. In simple terms, it means that a story is autobiographical, but with
varying degrees of fiction as well. When I first heard the term it just made me
think "hey that's pretty much descriptive of how I write music!" I
just hadn't heard of the term in relation to music before, only literature. So
as with previous albums, there are songs on it that are deeply personal and
fully autobiographical, and songs are lyrically completely removed from my own
life. The parts that are autobiographical are mostly about my history,
especially in regards to growing up with a mentally ill parent. Home was not
always a place where I felt safe. I was trying to think of a title that would
encompass all of that anxiety, and I remember that it was perilous to walk
barefoot in our house because every now and then there were glass shards
on the floor, so you could get cut. So "Shards" was the perfect title
for the topic.
3. "Burn"
deals with the challenges of coping with a loved one’s mental illness. How do
you channel such intense and personal emotions into your music while
maintaining creative objectivity?
Good
question! Music is (among other things) a form of therapy for me. I certainly
wouldn't be here without it. I need to be moved by the material somehow,
otherwise I don't feel connected to it and it goes into the trash. Probably why
I wouldn't be able to sustain a career as a songwriter for other people, ha!
In terms of creative objectivity? I don't know if such a thing exists for me. Especially since I write the songs, the lyrics, I arrange (together with the other band members), produce and mix (at least this album). I have my hands in all parts of the album except mastering, so I'm not sure if it's possible to be 100% objective at any point. Then again I'm not really trying to objectively write "the best song" or album or anything like that. I'm just trying to better express myself through the medium of music, so making music at the very core of the experience is mostly a subjective thing for me. Some older stuff I'm not as proud of than other stuff that I've written, but that's usually because I feel like it's lacking in expression, performance or eloquence, that the point or message isn't coming across as it should, be it instrumentally or lyrically.
4. Finland
has given the world so many iconic metal bands. What do you think sets Joviac
apart within this rich tradition, especially as a progressive metal band?
That's
true! Most of our musical exports have been in the genre of metal. However, for
some reason we've never really had a progressive metal breakthrough. Sure there
are bands that have had plenty of progressive songs and dabbled with the genre
like Waltari, Amorphis, Stam1na, etc, but their roots lie elsewhere. Actually
no idea where Waltari's roots lie, they're such an oddball band.
I think
what sets us apart from our bigger metal bands is that our roots lie in
progressive metal, and that we just simply don't have another Joviac out there.
This has also been a challenge for us. There are plenty of amazing grass roots
level progressive bands even in our city of Tampere (like External, Everwave,
Somehow Jo (they're perhaps more rock), Indistinct, Time Primer just to name a
few), but there is no "scene" to speak of. It's true that metal is
mainstream here in Finland, but at the end of the day the scope of bands that
play on the biggest metal radio channel for example is very narrow, and some
Finnish bands have to find success abroad before they see any at home. So
compared to the Finnish metal scene, we're definitely different, and it shows
because many forward steps are uphill battles.
Meanwhile
the international prog metal bands like Leprous, Haken, Caligula's Horse, Vola,
Symphony X, Tesseract, etc. sell out big club size venues, or play multiple
gigs in Finland on their tours. Then there are the even bigger bands like Dream
Theater or Opeth that play in ice halls and arenas. So there definitely
are fans here, our challenge is merely reaching those people when it's very
difficult to find Finnish media support due to the lack of that
"scene" that I was talking about.
5. Your
music blends progressive intricacies with memorable hooks. How do you approach
the songwriting process to ensure this balance?
I don't
give myself any prerequisites or criteria when I'm writing a song. I learned
the hard way that I just have to let my creative river flow freely. Every time
I give myself some kind of box or standards that I have to fill before hand, it
stifles my creative process, it chokes me out. So everything that happens in a
song is more or less accidental. That's not to say that I don't spend hours,
days, weeks or even months agonising about some verse, chorus, or other part
that I'm unsure about, but the answer is never to try and sound like someone or
something else, even if I wear my influences on my sleeve. Sometimes things
click quickly, and sometimes it takes forever.
A while
back I was going through a more introspective period as an artist. I was
analysing myself and trying to figure out my core motivations as an artist and
songwriter. It was then when I was going through old songs that I started to
notice some of my own patterns. Things that I had done subconsciously before,
but things that I do consciously now. One of those things was the marriage of
poppy elements and proggy elements. I want my songs to be memorable and to grab
the listener quickly. These are aspects that I associate more with pop music. I
also want my songs to have interesting elements and nuances that I associate
more with progressive music.
6. This
is your third studio album, and the first part of what seems to be a larger
story. Can you give us a glimpse of what’s planned for the "Pt. 2"
and how it will connect to Shards?
I named the
album "Pt. 1" purely for symbolic reasons. As I wrote before, it
deals with a lot of heavy, personal stuff. Some stuff that happened half my
lifetime ago that still affects me as a 35-year old. However I don't want that
heavy stuff to define who I am, and I don't want to stay stuck in some kind of
loop of "what if I had done this or that differently". So naming the
album Pt. 1 was a symbolic choice to convey that it was just one chapter of my
life, and that others have come since and that hopefully more are yet to come.
I'd
definitely like to do a second part, or perhaps even a third! I've just had to
learn the hard way not to give myself too many demands beforehand, that's a
surefire way to stifle my creativity for a few months.
What's most
likely to happen is that I'll be in the process of finishing a future album and
realize "Oh! Wait a minute! This is the sequel to Autofiction Pt.1!"
because I never know exactly how an album is going to turn out beforehand. That's
part of the adventure.
7. The
singles "Burn" and "Shine" both showcase unique facets of
the album. How do these tracks represent the sonic and thematic diversity
of Autofiction Pt. 1 - Shards?
I think
they're a very indicative snapshot of the bigger whole yet to come. Shine is
definitely a more poppy, traditional "radio single", and Burn is
perhaps a less obvious single since it's almost 9min30sec long. There are more
examples of both directions on the album! There are shorter, poppier songs and
another even longer and proggier song that wraps up the whole album. Even
though they're different, and may sound like songs from different albums when
taken out of context, they're still 100% true Joviac, and I can't wait for
everyone to hear them!
8. Joviac
has always been known as a strong live act. What role do live performances play
in your creative vision, and are there any upcoming tour plans we should look
forward to?
I love
playing live, but there's also a part of me that fears the stage. I'm a very
nervous and anxious person, and those combined with stage fright means that I
don't always have the best time on stage. Yet some of my most memorable moments
in life have been from the stage. It's a complex relationship. Unfortunately
we're still a very small, local band in terms of exposure, so we haven't had
the chance to bring much of our own personality to the live experience. Usually
we just go to the venue, we put on our stage clothes, set up the backdrop and
go play. My dream is for Joviac to one day be a touring entity both in Finland
and outside of Finland, and when that day comes we're definitely going to think
of ways to better incorporate our own personality and "us" into our
shows. We'll make it an actual "show" instead of just showing up to a
bar and playing.
We have
some gigs lined up for late spring/early summer here in Finland! We'll announce
those soon enough, and you can find all of our upcoming gigs on our
website: www.joviac.com
9. Viljami,
you produced and mixed the album yourself, with drum engineering and mixing by
Rudy Fabritius. How did this collaborative dynamic shape the final sound of the
record?
It played
such a huge part on the album's final sound!
Early on in
the process I decided that I wanted to try my hand at mixing again. I had mixed
most of our stuff before, but with our previous album, Here And Now, I was
going through such a stressful period that I decided to ask our good friend
(and Ex-Joviac live guitarist) Janne Korpela to mix the album. With this album
I was in a better place and wanted another chance to prove myself so I decided
to take on the challenge. However Rudy is an amazing music production
professional in his own right, and was building a drum recording setup of his
own at the time so we decided to combine forces. I had 100% faith in his mixing
ability, so I decided to let him mix the drums first (after a small sound
planning session) and then I mixed the rest of the album around his drums.
Initially there were a couple of hiccups completely due to my own incompetence,
but after we got rolling, we were off! So it ended up that Rudy recorded the
drums for each song in his own studio, sent the files to me, and if I had
something I wanted to change, he would send me new tracks. It worked great, but
at the same time we were kind of drifting apart, and after the drums were
completed we decided to go our separate ways. We're still friends
though, and I can't thank him enough for everything he did for the band.
That's just how life goes sometimes.
10. The
tracklist includes titles like "Level 1," "B.O.M.B.," and
"Open Eyes And Mind." Could you walk us through how these tracks
contribute to the overarching narrative or mood of the album?
Well in the
case of B.O.M.B. you're just going to have to wait and see! That's the next
single we're releasing and it will arrive February 27th!
The album
contains a few instrumentals as well, Level 1 and Level 7 being two examples.
"Open Eyes And Mind" is a kind of an intro to the closing track of
the album, "Once". It's a choir song with just a bit of background
synth for some extra thickness.
11. As a
band pushing progressive metal to new audiences, what do you hope listeners
take away from Autofiction Pt. 1 - Shards? And what’s next for
Joviac after this release?
I just hope
people give us a fighting chance, that they listen to a song or maybe two. If
it's not their thing then that's totally fine and fair enough, but I'm
eternally grateful to anyone who gave us a shot. To those who actually stayed
for the whole album: I hope it gave them something, some kind of emotion, that
it enriched their lives somehow. If that's the case, then we'd love to hear
from them! Heck, we'd love to hear from the haters too!
Our future plans remain the same as ever: more of the same! Except with one BIG exception: that you're definitely not going to have to wait another five years for the next album. We're definitely getting right back to work.
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