GRIFFEN
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 25th March 2010.
Griffen - Kristian Huotari on drums, Tomi Peltonen and Stefan Törnblom on guitars, Jörgen Söderberg on vocals, and Harri Tuovila on bass - is a Swedish hard rock act with a new album Life - A Way To Die coming out in April.
We caught up with the guys to find out more...
Hi, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Griffen: Thanks Jon! We’re terrific! Right now we're right in the middle of all that’s happening around the new album.
How did Griffen originally get together?
Griffen: Well, we started Griffen in 2006 and the reason why we got together was that we all had an urge to play our own music. We’ve all played covers in different bands and it is not as satisfying as creating your own music. We really had no expectations about the project but we all knew that the other guys were great musicians.
Do all the band members have similar musical likes, or are tastes varied?
Griffen: I would say that we all have a great love for 80’s hard rock and metal and that love reflects in our own music. Although we don’t see us as a concept band that will only do the 80’s thing. We flirt with more contemporary music too. Our personal influence varies from death metal to AOR and all in between.
Who or what would you list as the band’s main inspirations?
Griffen: To name an artist or a band that we all look up to for inspiration is hard. We could probably say that we, the guys in the band, influence each other the most. We listen to each other and get the ideas from there.
Was the sound of Griffen a deliberate decision or has it developed naturally into where it is today?
Griffen: In the very beginning we tried to keep it in an 80’s fashion but that sound developed in to a richer soup. Suppose we had to kill our darlings. But I am pretty sure that we will stick to some of our origins. We still love that 80’s sound.
Did you start off playing covers, or were you an originals band right from the start?
Griffen: We started out with the intention of creating and playing our own music, as we had gotten a little tired of playing covers in other bands. But after a while Griffen was invited to different tribute gigs to play covers from Kiss, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy etc, so we can’t really say that we didn’t play covers, but that was not the idea from the beginning.
You’re about to release your debut album, “Life – A Way To Die”... When did you start work on it?
Griffen: This album has been our main target since we started the band in 2006. Some of the songs are in fact from that period. The actual studio work started in 2009.
Has it been an enjoyable experience creating the new material, or hard work?
Griffen: Mostly it’s been an enjoyable experience and the creative process gave a lot of energy and hope for how the songs would sound together on an album. We have had some setbacks too. But they had nothing to do with the creative process.
How does it compare in terms of sound and quality to your demo releases?
Griffen: It’s a richer sound with each and every component carefully considered. We mixed our promos ourselves, but we brought in Pelle Saehter from Underground Studios (Västerås, Sweden) to mix the album. It´s mastered by Göran Finnberg who has worked with such acts as Arch Enemy, In Flames and Hammerfall.
Is there a concept behind the lyrics, or are the songs all standalone entities?
Griffen: You could say that there is a concept behind the lyrics and titles of the album because they all deal with the enigma of life and death in some way. The paradox is fuel for the lyrical content in a sort of existential way of looking at the meaning of it all.
Is there one member who does the song writing, or is the creation process more of a band effort?
Griffen: All the lyrics and the idea behind the thread of the album are the workings our singer Jörgen Söderberg.
How do you create your songs? What comes first, the music, the words, or do you not have a set method?
Griffen: There is no given formula but it usually starts of with a good fat guitar riff. And from there everybody contributes with a response to the feeling that this creates. Our singer finds a strophe or a melody or some words that works and then we move on from there. After this it’s completely open for what will follow. Everybody has an opinion about the groove, the feel, the melody etc. When the song or the idea connects, we all go screaming like “Yeah!!! Let´s try it once more!
Do you get all the songs finished before hitting the studio, or do you like to jam as you record too?
Griffen: We have done some alterations in the end but the songs were pretty pre produced by us during rehearsal so we knew what we were aiming at. We don’t really have the budget for playing around in the studio…yet!
Have you tried anything different this time round, as in new instruments or recording/mixing techniques?
Griffen: Well, the new thing would probably be Pelle Saehter who mixed the album. He is into similar music and knew exactly what we wanted. He is a really professional guy with tons of experience and, like us, with a love for 80’s hard rock and metal. During the recording we tested out a lot of amps and different settings to get the right guitar sound and our recording engineer, Elias Lindman at Sensus Studios in Eskilstuna, had a lot of patience with us. We’re eternally grateful to him.
Are there any tracks on the new record you are especially proud of?
Griffen: We’re proud of them all but of course there are personal favourites.
How would you describe the Griffen sound to somebody who hadn’t heard you before?
Griffen: We play melodic hard rocking metal the 2010 way inspired by the 80’s.
How did the deal with Steelheart records come about?
Griffen: We came in touch with Steelheart records through Nicky Baldrian at TSM Promotions. From there we presented our two promos and the deal with Steelheart was a fact.
Have they had much of a say in what you’ve been putting together, or were you allowed to do your own thing?
Griffen: They had confidence in that we would put a good album together so they did not interfere with the process at all. We just kept them posted with the progress.
Are you going to be supporting the release with plenty of live shows?
Griffen: We have booked two release shows in our two separate home towns Eskilstuna and Västerås for starters. We have also made connections with different agencies to be ready for more gig bookings and if one thing leads to another we’re hopefully playing the amount of gigs that we want to in the near future.
Any chance we’ll see you in the UK?
Griffen: We would love to play the UK.
Any question you love being asked that I’ve missed? If so, what’s the answer?
Griffen: "Why have you named the band Griffen?" It’s because one of the guys in the band had an note book that he had saved from when he was about 15 years old where he had written down cool band names (as he thought then back in the 80’s) and Griffen was one of the names. We thought that it was cool and 80’s sounding (you could even picture how the album cover would look like) so we named the band Griffen in spite of all the other things associated with the name.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Griffen: We’re wondering how our back drop that just arrived in a package looks like. We are going to hang it in the rehearsal studio to get a better look… can’t wait!
Anything else you would like to mention?
Griffen: We would like to take the opportunity to thank all the people and our families that’s been involved, and supported us in the making of the album.
Thanks again to the guys for their time. You'll be able to check out the Rock Realms review of Griffen's new album once we get our hands on it...
http://www.myspace.com/griffentheband
