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We have another excellent interview, this time with the people at Velvet Ocean, a band that connects their music with emotions. We had a conversation with Riitu Ronkaine, vocalist and Jake Ronkainen, guitarist. Check it out!
Finland always impress me with a very rich musical scene. Starting our interview, could you tell a bit about the story of VELVET OCEAN? Why did you choose this name for the band?
Jake: Thank you! Velvet Ocean is a 7-piece melodic metal band from Oulu, Northern Finland. The band was originally founded by me and the lead singer Riitu in 2015 when we started to make songs together. The idea was to just try to find out what would come out if we would just put ideas on “paper” and try to compile a full length album out of that. As we soon discovered the co-writing project advanced surprisingly well and we then started to gather musicians first to play in the studio and later in the band. “Velvet Ocean” is from some lyrics I wrote a lot earlier for a then progressive metal band I was singing in. In a song there was a line: “sinking in velvet ocean of time”, which was a metaphor for dying. On the other hand I think the name describes our music rather well. The ocean can sometimes be velvety and calming and at times rougher and intimidating.
Who or what inspired you to make music? Because for me, Velvet Ocean sounds like a very good mix between Evanescence, Lacuna Coil and Paradise Lost, with some pop tunes.
Riitu: This is always a difficult question, because I listen to very different kinds of music and I think that in a way everything I’ve ever heard affects me. Pop influences have certainly come from listening to a lot of pop and Finnish “schlager” music when I was young. I listened to Metallica and Stratovarius as the first metal bands. Later, I found Within Temptation, Evanescence, Muse and Amorphis. Classical music is also interesting, beautiful and dramatic in my opinion. I find our own music melodic, very original metal with influences from several different genres including pop and grunge as well as gothic, symphonic and progressive metal. Our songs are also very honest and emotional. We didn’t want to limit our music to any exact genre but we wanted to make the kind of music that comes to our minds naturally.
Jake: There are of course a bunch of bands we have listened in the past and I wouldn’t necessarily even say that our music tastes within the band are completely similar. The original plan wasn’t to try to mimic any particular band or genre. On the contrary we agreed to consider all possible ideas, even weird ones, and then try to find out what the style of the band will mould into. So I think you could say that in our music you can hear metal in combination with all different bands and styles we have ever listened to or even accidentally heard.
Could you describe us what your creative process is like? Where do you find ideas for melodies, lyrics etc.
Riitu: Ideas usually come to my mind all of a sudden. It might happen any time or place. Sometimes ideas may come in the middle of the night and sometimes when I see something special in the landscape. The lyrics usually come to my mind from some special mood or life experience of the moment. I also have a lively imagination and it helps a lot in making music.
Jake: I think I mainly find ideas for songs and guitar riffs just by experimentation. I just play guitar or even piano, which I’m not very good at, freely and if something interesting comes out, I record the thing in the phone for later use. I think new ideas are not particularly difficult to come up with but it’s much more difficult to recognise the really good ideas and also the best use for those. In lyrics I mainly just use free association. It of course requires the right state of mind but then I might just write down a sentence or a phrase on paper and try to expand from there; kind of continue the thought or say it in another way. I usually don’t write lyrics for a particular song but I then need to later reorganise the random thoughts to fit the song.
What are your main influences? What artists do you admire or inspires you?
Riitu: I am fascinated by singers who are versatile and use their voices in many different ways. It is important that the voice has sensitivity and emotion, but also a lot of dynamics and power when needed. Such singers, I think, are: Anna Eriksson, Laura Voutilainen, Sharon den Adel, Haley Reinhart, Amy Lee, Matthew Bellamy and Freddie Mercury.
Jake: I consider my music taste quite versatile and I have listened to rap, jazz, classical and grunge in addition to many styles of rock and metal. The first two CDs I ever bought were Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and a jazz album “Trio Toykeat – G’Day”. I have listened to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Steve Vai, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Dio, Dream Theater, Protest the Hero, Pearl Jam, Guns ’n’ Roses, David Lee Roth and Skid Row among others.
This year you released a new album, Purposes and Promises. How was the production? What things did you like more?
Riitu: We recorded and produced the record ourselves, but sent it to Sweden for mixing and mastering at the Fascination Streets Studios. Making songs was actually pretty effortless, but arranging, recording and producing them was pretty hard and took some time. However, we were quite pleased with the outcome in the end. For the next single, we’re bringing in an outside producer who will certainly bring a new perspective on things. We look forward to see what we can achieve with him.
Jake: Above all I see the debut album as a kind of a learning and maturing process for the band. In the beginning we didn’t even ourselves have a clear picture what kind of music we are going to be doing and now it’s very interesting to continue making new songs and get our vision even further.
A very uncomfortable question: how does COVID-19 affect you and your life? Do you think the world will change after this pandemic? Personally, I do not think that the people will be more sympathetic each other and the things still the same.
Riitu: This situation is very sad and even scary. Fortunately, we ourselves have remained healthy. It seems that at least for myself, the situation has had an impact. I find that I can be happy about smaller things in life. Every moment health is a gift and I have come to appreciate that even more than before. Somehow you would think the situation would change people, but now you realise how easily everything is just forgotten and continued as if nothing happened. Personally, I try to keep my eyes open and be careful not to get myself and my loved ones ill. Sometimes it feels hard to remember what the situation is. It still feels like it’s just a bad dream.
Jake: I think to radically and permanently change people’s thinking is a very difficult task and will eventually require a bit more than one pandemic. Here I’m with you. However I must say that there is so much injustice, dishonesty, greed and inequality in the world that something needs to be done and there needs to be changes made in the long term. How we will ever be able to accomplish this, is a very difficult question but something being difficult is also a lazy excuse for doing nothing. During the epidemic we have fortunately all stayed healthy but we really hope this thing calms down and doesn’t get any worse anywhere anymore.
Continuing about the last topic, and lives? What is your opinion about musician who present live concerts in Instagram, Facebook, YouTube? Here in Brazil it is a quite common for mainstream artists.
Jake: I think it’s a terrific way to engage your fans while the live gigs are on hold. It’s of course nothing like the real gigs but it does still provide a connection with the audience. We have also attended the “DarkStream Festival” in May but we have also taken some of the extra time to prepare our future release material.
Riitu: Of course, that is great, especially in this situation. If it gets worse again I think we should also think about a new live stream gig. This makes it easier to reach a global audience in social media and anyone interested can attend a gig of their own favourite band. Good thing such things are done.
We are a Brazilian webzine about music and, of course, we always ask about Brazilian bands. Do you know some? What do you like?
Jake: I must admit I could be more aware of the Brazilian music but I do know that your traditional music like Samba and Bossa nova is very strong. I must also mention Sepultura of course as well as Angra and Shaman lead by Andre Matos who unfortunately recently passed away. The guitar player Kiko Loureiro also plays in Megadeth and I believe lives in Finland nowadays.
Riitu: In fact, I don’t really know too much about Brazilian bands. I know Sepultura, but not really others. I’m not much familiar with their music either, but I know they’re very popular. Great achievement from them! I need to check out more Brazilian metal!
Do you live just playing your music or have another job? Here in Brazil is difficult to be a fulltime musician, because the equipment are expensive (and the dollar exchange does not help), the people do not support new bands and prefer to pay for an expensive gig than support a local artist.
Jake: Two of us, the cello player Arto and the keyboardist Jami are professional musicians but most of us also have a daytime job. I think it’s quite a universal problem, when you have your mind set to have a serious music career, that the costs start pretty much immediately but the pay day is often many years in the future. I guess it’s just that you need to have some kind of a game plan, what to do and when to do it and how to finance everything. It’s quite natural for people to get to the “winners” side and therefore you need to work a bit harder and longer than you might expect to get enough visibility and popularity for people to start coming to the gigs. You also need to love making the music so much that you’re just ready to take all the crap and go forward.
Riitu: We do not live by music alone. We don’t have enough name for that, yet. It is very difficult to support oneself by making music alone here as well. We are currently living hand to mouth. I hope that one day we will be able to make just music and somehow get along without other chores. I really love music a lot and want to make it a job. It requires a lot, but we are ready for it.
What local bands do you recommend? I recently discovered some Finnish post-punk bands and I think we do not know how rich is the scene there.
Jake: It’s true there are a bunch of more or less known bands in Finland. I think many people know bands like Nightwish and Amorphis. One former band worth checking out is Kingston Wall. It’ s a progressive rock band that has a sort of a cult status in Finland nowadays. Laika and the Cosmonauts is also a peculiar case. Some less known interesting bands are Dark Sarah, Shadecrown and Dark Flood among many others. I would also recommend Iiro Rantala and Trio Toykeat for jazz friends and Sibelius for classical music.
Thank you for your time and we appreciate so much if you can write some words to our readers. Let’s go!
Riitu: Thank you so much for the interview! Stay healthy, listen to good music and think about positive things! Take care of your loved ones and tell them that you love them. That is important in these times. Together we will survive anywhere!
Jake: Thank you very much for the interview! Go check out or music! It might positively surprise you! Stay healthy everybody!