Kalmo (cadaver in English) is a Finnish one-man doom metal project. Kalmo’s doom metal is distinguished by its simplicity, brutality and harsh sound. The debut EP Demoni was released May 2019. In addition to the EP, Kalmo has released a couple of music videos. Songs for the next EP are work in progress and hopefully it will be released during the year 2020.
How'd you get started in music?
Music has been my hobby almost all my life. I also listen to different music styles: blues, different genres of metal, classical, rock’n’roll, psychobilly and also some punk, to mention a few. After graduating mid-90s I decided to join a blues band as a bassist.The band played covers and also our own songs. I wrote lyrics in English and our guitarists composed the music. There were also some events where we played live over those years. After moving to another town, I decided to leave the band due to long travels for rehearsals. In the new place, I joined a local blues association (BluesLovers.org) and its board. We organized about 20 blues gigs for national and international blues bands and artists per year. Then I moved again and left BluesLovers. After pondering a moment what to do with music, I decided to boost up the doom metal project I have had in the drawer for some years.
Kalmo’s origins are in a project started around 2008. The first song I wrote for this project was Mustaa. From there on I have written about a dozen songs, for which I have a demo version. Late last year I decided to record my debut EP with 6 of these songs. The song Mustaa was one of them.
Who are your inspirations or influences?
Kalmo’s song lyrics are written in Finnish. They get their inspiration from the world around us, the seen and the unseen world. Kalmo sees the future being pure darkness. Everything will be sucked into the evil vortex of a dark void. Despair will conquer humanity. Songs of Kalmo are about that last path for us to take and the end that awaits.
Kalmo rises skulls to all metal metal bands, no matter the ganre. There are many bands that influence Kalmo and its sound. To give you a complete list would be impossible task. However, I can mention a few. I think the origins are Celtic Frost and Black Sabbath. My interest in doom metal started from Celtic Frost’s music video I saw on Music Television. That moment brought a change to my life. I fell in love immediately. I knew this was my kind of music. In the simplicity of the songs and how they twist and transform the classical blues and rock’n’roll songs, The Cramps has always interested me. I want to bring a similar kind of simplicity and ability to mutate the traditional style like they did.
There are also some other bands I want to mention. From Finland Galvanizer and Vorum I listen to a lot. Then definitely Slayer, Death Breath, Candlemass and Tom G. Warrior’s other bands Hellhammer and Triptykon, Gallhammer and King Diamond. Like mentioned there are many, many more bands I like to listen to but are not mentioned here now.
What advice would offer aspiring performers?
No matter your goals I think it is important to make your vision clear. Draw it. Put it in to words. Tell a story about it. It does not matter how but express it somehow to get it out from your head to some form you are able to communicate it to someone else. Once you are able to do this, you are better able to work for it.
Another thing, keep on pushing no matter what. There will be days when everything seems to be going wrong and nobody cares. Push through those days and keep your vision clear. There will always be people criticizing what you do. They have a right not to like what you do, but you do not need to define yourself or what you do based on what they say. Your ambition, your vision and your art are the only thing that matters.
How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers?
That is a big question. Over the past two years I have learned a lot and I amstill working on Kalmo’s sound and style. Kalmo wants to find a path to something a bit different. The path invites further into the darkness, which is more raw and more inimitable. Kalmo wants to push the boundaries and experiment to see what is behind the next gate on the way to damnation and the ultimate end of this all.
Any new gigs or albums in the future
As Kalmo is one-man project, there will most likely be no gigs in the near or far future. However, I will focus on producing music and music videos. The plan is to work on the next EP and get 5 songs ready for that. The goal is to get it ready and released during the year 2020.
Now to celebrate Khreestmas Kalmo style I have just released a Khreestmas song single. The song is a cover song based on old traditional Khreestmas carol, which Kalmo has deformed into a Kalmo style kind of song.
You can listen the song and watch the video from here:
Music video at Kalmo’s YouTube: https://youtu.be/p8EM1XT2ufI
You can find more about Kalmo from these links:
CD, digital edition of EP Demoni and t-shirts available at Bandcamp - https://doom.kalmo.fi
Homepage: https://kalmo.fi
Twitter - https://twitter.com/KalmoDoom
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
Special thanks to them for doing this interview & I wish them nothing but luck in their careers so until then I'll catch you on the flipside! Stay awesome & rock n roll!
No comments:
Post a Comment