Interviews : Shade Empire (Juha Harju) – 08/08/2008

Formed in Kuopio Finland 1999, Shade Empire is fast becoming one of the more creative Metal bands to come out of the country. The band signed with Dynamic Arts Records in 2006 and late 2007 saw Shade Empire join with Dynamic Arts Record and hit the studio for their third studio album “Zero Nexus”. I recently interviewed vocalist Juha Harju about their new album, the writing process and touring….

Metal Obsession: G’day. First of all, a big thanks for taking the time to complete this interview.
Harju: Well G’day to you too sir.

MO: For those that aren’t familiar with Shade Empire, can you give us a bit of an introduction to the band?
H: Shade Empire was formed back in 1999. We did three demo tapes and got a deal from Avantgarde records. Our first full-length album, Sinthetic, came out in 2004. It seemed to get peoples interest and got good reviews around the world. In 2006 we released our second album Intoxicate O.S. It came out trough Dynamic arts records. On the same year we also released a single called Slitwrist ecstasy. Both did good and were on the Finnish charts. Then this year we released Zero Nexus.
The band is a league of six individuals.
Harju: Vokills
Savolainen: Keyboards
Rasane: Battery
Sirkkiä: Strings
Niiranen: Strings
Mantere: Pulse

MO: You’ve recently released the bands third album, “Zero Nexus”, how has the response been so far?

H: The response has been very good. The album was 15th on the Finnish top 40 chart. It is a album that needs listening, but people seem to like it. Lots of questions about the theme, but it is meant to be mysterious. I want people to make their own conclusions and use what they have in their minds. I don’t want to give any ready answers. The new songs work well on live shows as well. Always nice to see a pit taking form…

MO: Only having heard your latest album, how would you compare it to your older material?
H: I think Z.N is our most ambitious album so far. We tried lost of new things this time, and of course tried to go further with all aspects than before. The fact that we have a new drummer now also brings a lot to the music. Rasane is a great drummer and now we can pull off things that we were not able to do before. So compared to previous albums Z.N is the highes form of evolution for Shade Empire at the moment. You need to take a few steps back to imagine how the previous albums sound like. But you should definitely check them out. They are good stuff too.

MO: The album features a big variety of different musical styles and features.
Do you plan these additions (for example: the use of a saxophone, or the range of vocal styles) prior to writing or do the ideas come about as the songs develop?
H: The songs just take their form as we write them. What comes to vocals, they are all pretty much improvised. I have the lyrics ready, of course, but otherwise they are stream of thoughts. It’s just better to let the music take you to places where you cannot go if you think everything ready beforehand. The other stuff that’s on the album got started from these ideas that we came up with. I think it was Sirkkiä or Savolainen who came up with the saxophone thing and we thought “yeah, why the hell not. Saxophone has a cool sound, let’s use the damn thing”

MO: What other bands or musicians have an influence on the bands style? I take it that you aren’t all strictly metal fans?
H: Yeah, you got that right. It’s a weird thing. All six of us listen different music, and that’s why there are a lot of different elements in our music. I’m into Black and Death metal, but I also like ambient music and things that are more or less obscure. Savolainen is really into soundtracks and classical stuff. Niiranen is a Deathpunkgrindcorescumfuck, Sirkkiä and Mantere listen to all kinds of stuff. Don’t really know what they’re into now and Rasane… well I don’t know what does that sick bastard listens to… He’s a god damn international man of mystery. I think he’s into jazz and groove and some shit like that. But of course it all comes back to metal. That’s the music that’s closest to all of our hearts. But it’s good to listen to different thinks as well. That’s were all the weirdest ideas cme from.

MO: Do you have any other particular musical additions you would like to incorporate into future material?
H: We haven’t thought that yet. I’m sure we’ll come up with something, but that will happen once we start to write new material. Like I said, it’s better to let the music take you to different directions. Too much planning beforehand takes all the fun out of it…

MO: “Zero Nexus” is somewhat of a concept album, can you give us an insight into the lyrics and story of the album, and how the artwork ties in with it?
H: Z.N is a story about individuals who have one common objective. They are opening the gateway to Apocalypse. Inside their minds they have found something that is more important to them than human life. One by one they do their part of the task to get closer to their goal. “What is end to others is total victory for some”. That’s the ending line of the album… make your own conclusions. When reading the lyrics let your own mind wander. There are no ready given answers in that text. Many different interpretations can be made, and that’s how it is ment to be.
The cover is the opening of the gateway. If you look it closely and turn it in different angles there are many faces hidden there. Especially the center is quite interesting…
The cover art was made by a good friend of mine called Janus. He is also a tattoo artist. He has done the cover art for some other bands as well, Deathchain for example. The art for the booklet was done by Tuomo Povelainen. The artwork goes along with the music. I gave him some basic features of what the pictures should look like and then we gave him the cd and I said to him just to do what images the music gives you. He did a pretty good job I think.

MO: “Victory” is the longest song you have released, and I personally think it is the strongest on the album. Can you see the band continuing to write longer, more progressive tracks like this?
H: Well, maybe if it comes naturally. We didn’t realise how long the song was until it was ready. It didn’t feel that it was that long while you are playing it. I had my thoughts at first though… but once the vocals were on track it ended up sounding rather good. Victory is also the song that combines the whole story into one so it is a strong song indeed.

MO: When it comes to live shows, do you still include things like female vocals and saxophone into the songs?
H: Yes, on the release show of Zero Nexus we had Petra on stage singing the female vocal parts and Aku playing the saxophone. However that was only for that one show. It’s not possible for them to travel with us all the time. The female vocals, saxophone and all the other stuff come from background tapes, so we can do all the things live that you hear on the album.

MO: You haven’t toured very much out of Finland, does the band perhaps prefer to write music rather than play live, or have you just not had the opportunity for larger tours yet?
H: We would love to tour outside Finland, but unfortunately we haven’t got the chance to do so. We haven’t got anyone who would arrange tours for us outside Finland so that’s the main reason why you haven’t seen us, yet…

MO: Considering as your fan base is growing with every album, can you see the band going on a world tour in the (somewhat) near future? I’d love to see you live in Australia but unfortunately we are a fair distance away from Finland!
H: Hell yeah, I would love that! We are a live band! It would be great to tour around the world, but I don’t see that happening it right now. Let’s hope for the best and see what happens. But doing gigs is the best part in the whole thing. When we are on stage, we bring you HELL!!

MO: What are the bands plans for the near future?
H: I think we’ll do a few more shows here and after that start to write new material. I allready have some ideas ready and I’m really looking forward to start working for the next album. Hopefully we can do some touring outside Finland too…

MO: Thank you for the interview and best of luck for the band
H: Thanx!
Support Metal!

You can read a review of “Zero Nexus” HERE.
Interview by Mean Machine.