DJ Jason: Wild Roses of Winter was formed in November of last year, and your first release came out last month (January 21st). Being a very new band is both exciting and challenging. Are you having fun? …and are your efforts being received well?
Suzi Sabotage: It’s been thrilling to have a brand new project, and our first three songs were received extremely well, people seem to be very much into our music.
Jacques: It’s the first time for me that I ever release this type of music, without lots of guitars and bass. It’s a whole new experience that I enjoy very much.
DJ Jason: Is this your first band, or have Wild Roses of Winter’s members been involved in other acts previously? Tell us about your experience in the music world.
Suzi: We’re currently involved in three other bands – Virgin in Veil, Masquerade (both I and Jacques), and Secular Plague (Jacques only). With them we’ve been touring around the world and releasing numerous albums and EPs.
Jacques: Those three bands have been quite active lately, Virgin in Veil released its third album last spring, and Secular Plague released a five-song tape in December. As for experiences, both Suzi and I have been making music for years and been involved with many bands and projects, often very different from each other.
DJ Jason: When one thinks of Helsinki and Goth, one typically thinks of The 69 Eyes and Two Witches. Your music has taken a very different route. I am reminded more of the vocal stylings of The Breath of Life and the sounds of Ghosting than the straightforward Goth Rock of the aforementioned Finnish bands. There is also an Experimental aspect to the songs. What path led you to your “Darkwave / Neoclassical / Ethereal Wave” sound?
Suzi: Personally, I have always adored film scores, which, in the films of my youth (in the 90’s and early 2000’s), were for the most part orchestral, so I’m very fond of violins, cellos, and brass. I listen to classical radio quite a lot, as well as dark electro, and (percussive) world music – Wild Roses Of Winter’s songs are like a polygamous marriage of those three.
Jacques: For me, it’s definitely the love of songwriting that drew me to the genre. While I do listen to some darkwave, I wouldn’t call it my number one genre. On the other hand I’ve always loved synths and strings sounds that you can find in most projects I’ve performed with since the early 2000s.
DJ Jason: The vocals are sung with a lot of emotion. What is your second song, Aradia, about? …and more broadly, what motivates your lyrical content when writing?
Suzi: Aradia is about paganism, Wicca in particular, and their worship of Diana, the Moon goddess.
DJ Jason: Please tell us about the instruments that you use to make your music.
Suzi: We create our music in a very 21st Century way – by programming. It would be wonderful to have instruments like violins, cellos, and percussion played by a real orchestra and drummers, but for the time being we make them with computers.
Jacques: We don’t really have any kind of boundaries like “we don’t use this type of sounds” etc. We’re trying to keep our minds open about new sounds, new ideas, everything that could serve our music and make it sound the way we want it to.
DJ Jason: What is the goth scene like in Finland?
Suzi: Finland has always had a prominent punk scene, but unfortunately goths aren’t as numerous here. We have one goth club that is always well attended, though, and that’s Club Anvil. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Helsinki!
Jacques: I’ve only lived in Finland for 5 years, but I think that the goth scene is much smaller than it used to be 15 years ago, like everywhere else basically. But I’m not a scene person. I love to listen to music at home, so I don’t really feel the need to mingle with others.
Suzi: Same, I would like there to be more goth clubs and live events, but personally scenes as a whole are not for me.
DJ Jason: Bands with only 2 members are becoming more and more common. Do you intend on adding more members, or is the band in its final form already? Also, are 2 piece bands accepted well by the music venues in Finland, or do you see some prejudice for not being more traditional?
Suzi: While we don’t plan to bring any additional core members in our band, ideally I’d like to have an ensemble of musicians playing strings and percussion with us on stage and on our records.
Jacques: Being a duo has many advantages, and the fact that we live together also makes the songwriting process easy and fast. We made our very own little home studio in our apartment, so we can work on ideas whenever they pop up. Just turn on the gear, record, experiment…
DJ Jason: Do you have any upcoming live shows? If so, do you have anything special planned for them?
Suzi: So far, we have two confirmed shows which are to be announced soon, one is at a festival here in Finland, and the other one abroad.
DJ Jason: Will the direction of the new full length album be similar to what you have on Bandcamp? When do you expect it to be finished?
Suzi: It will be more diverse than the EP, bringing more instruments and moods (and languages!), but still staying in the dark/ethereal framework. Nearly all of the songs are already composed, so soon we will start recording the vocals, and then mixing it.
Jacques: I’m very excited about our new material. I think we’re taking our ideas further with it; it’s gonna be very enjoyable to record it, and see those new songs come to life.
DJ Jason: Will the new album be a printed release, such as a vinyl record or compact disc, or will it be digital only?
Suzi: What comes to the album, we don’t know yet for certain in which formats it’ll be released, but if everything goes according to our plans, we’ll release the EP on cassette this spring.
DJ Jason: What are your goals for Wild Roses of Winter?
Suzi: We’re currently filming a music video for Incineration, and plan to tour as much as possible, as well as keep writing songs.
Jacques: Writing songs – that’s really my thing. I like to play gigs, but my main joy in making music is definitely the songwriting. I find it fascinating. The whole process of turning thoughts and feelings into songs is something that I truly enjoy.
