L-R: Mikko Pietinen (drums, percussion), Olli-Pekka Laine (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Peter Salonen (guitars) – photo by Päivi Leino
(Below you will find Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Finnish musician Olli-Pekka Laine, with a focus on his band Octoploid‘s July 2024 debut album Beyond the Aeons, but touching upon other topics as well, incuding Amorphis and Barren Earth.)
Olli-Pekka Laine is a multitalented musician. He’s well-known, as he composed half of Amorphis’ legendary albums Tales from The Thousand Lakes (1994) and Elegy (1996), and later he practiced his progressive vision in the “dream-team” band Barren Earth.
The last one tended toward progressive and melodic death-doom metal too, a kind of direction which Olli always choses instinctively. But since Barren Earth is inactive, and Olli writes not too much for Amorphis, he naturally collected a good number of interesting ideas which ended in this solo-project, Octoploid.
Well, we say “solo”, but Octoploid’s lineup includes Olli’s buddy from Mannhai, Mikko Pietinen (drums), Kim Rantala (keyboards), who did an enormous input in Elegy, and young talent Peter Salonen (guitars).
And let’s not forget those honorable guests who took part in the recording of Octoploid’s debut Beyond the Aeons, released by Reigning Phoenix Music in July 2024. A few of Amorphis’ men can be found on this album, as well as Hamferð’s frontman Jón Aldará, Mikko Kotamäki from Swallow the Sun, Mannhai’s Ilkka Laaksomaa, and more. So if you’re ready for “70’s death metal”, let’s not waste any time before getting into this interview.
Hi Olli! Accept my belated congratulations with the release of Octoploid’s debut Beyond the Aeons. It was a kind of really pleasant surprise among the new releases. But what’s your occupation nowadays? Are you focused on Octoploid or does the release of Amorphis’ Tales from the Thousand Lakes – Live at Tavastia demand more of your attention?
Hi and thank you. Currently we are focused on the last gigs of the festival period and then we’re hitting the road in North America. Both Octoploid and the live album have generated some work, but in a moderate level.
It seems from aside that you put a lot of your ideas into Barren Earth, but there has been no news from the band since 2018. Am I right to suppose that Octoploid is your main outlet of creativity now, as now there are two main composers in Amorphis and you aren’t one of them?
Yes, you could say so. It was hard to stay active with Barren Earth, since all the other members have their own activities. Therefore it was an easy decision to form a solo band and let the creativity flow full blast.
Is Barren Earth’s future blurred or is the project rather buried?
We have been talking of doing something now and then, but people seems to get busy at the critical moment. So it has not been buried, but it’s a bit hard to execute any projects together currently.
How did you come up with the idea of creating Octoploid? Somehow it’s obvious the kind of sound you had on your mind, as there’s Kim Rantala in the crew, there are those Kingston Wall’s vibes in the songs, a corner-stone of early Amorphis. So from aside it looks like you returned back in time and started your journey with Octoploid right where Elegy ended — “70’s death metal” – just as the promo sheet says. But what made you to start the project?
I didn’t try to make any specific kind of songs or album in general. I just did what felt the most natural and the result was Beyond the Aeons. My roots are in ’90s death metal and ’70s prog, so I didn’t return anywhere, but turned entirely authentic with this album. I am primarily a songwriter, so there was a need for an outlet for my music. Now I have it and probably there’ll be more albums to come.
Prog was always a specific genre, even an intellectual one so to say, but you managed to take from it some “friendly” elements without making your music overcomplicated, or so it seems. Do you have a kind of “prog” line which you wouldn’t like to cross in Octoploid? Would you like to make something more complicated than Beyond the Aeons in the future?
Hard to say, but if it gets more complicated, I don’t mind about it. I am not a big friend of extremely complicated music, though. Mahavishnu Orchestra is the limit I’d say, ha ha! Anything that happens naturally is fine with me. It would be nice to do something simpler in the future too. Time shall tell!
Photo credit: Päivi Leino
Some of your songs, “Coast of the Drowned Sailors” for example, remind me a lot of Elegy times, and the voice of Tomi Koivusaari only strengthen this impression. Was this vibe left as a kind of an easter egg consciously, or was it more of a natural growth of Octoploid?
That song was maybe the only purposeful nod to the Elegy album. Everything else comes just from my influences and songwriting. And my preferences production-wise too. So this is 100% authentic and natural.
Was it Tomi’s choice to sing this song? Did you grant him other options?
No, it was my wish to have him on this one. Due to the Elegy-esqueness, I thought that only he can do the justice to “The Coast”.
RPM just released Amorphis’ Tales from the Thousand Lakes – Live at Tavastia, and it was a risky move, as there are people who will fight for the righteous original album and there will be those who are okay with revisited and “alived” versions of the old songs. How relevant is this release for you personally?
Since we wanted to celebrate our breakthrough album, it was just necessary to come up with some kind of release in the anniversary. In that sense it is a relevant release. I understand the other side too, since I am a bit of a purist myself too.
It’s a common thing, when artists have to perform a lot of their back catalogues for their fans, and sometimes people just don’t want to hear new stuff from their favorite bands because of that. Did you ever feel yourself a hostage of such situation?
Not at all. We are playing material from all eras of the band and people enjoy it too. There are lots of friends of Tomi Joutsen albums, but many of them are digging the old stuff too. And vice versa. But still, it is very important to always include some old material on the set as well.
Back in the ’90s the things you did mixing extreme metal and progressive rock were something refreshing and quite revolutionary. This artistic burst made your reputation, and you were responsible for the lion’s share of those new ideas. Do you think how this music can communicate with a new generation of listeners? With those who don’t know your background? Does it count at all?
Hard to say to be honest. I think the album has been received pretty well and the streams have been really good as well, so it seems like there is a demand for this kind of music. I also see lots of young people at the Amorphis shows, so it still resonates. Naturally it is heartwarming that the new generation is digging real music too.
Photo credit: Päivi Leino
Octoploid is your solo-project, but there are at least three more musicians included in “the main lineup”. Did you allow them to throw in their own ideas or did you rule the process with the iron hand? 🙂
Mainly the latter. The songs were 95% done when we entered the studio, so there was not much to improve any longer. Naturally I told Mikko to play many fills and to play as loose as possible, and gave free hands to Peter with the solos, but otherwise the arrangements were ready and done. Same goes with the vocalists and keyboardists.
Olli, you produced the album, and it’s Petri Majuri who recorded and mixed the songs. I know that you worked with him previously, so how spontaneous was the current collaboration? Did you intervene in his job?
I just asked for an offer from him first and it was so good that I had to go for it. He is really easy to work with and we did a lot of collaboration. Very natural as well. It would be interesting to work with other producers in the future too.
Kim Rantala is a well-known figure in the Finnish scene (in a wider sense of the word), amd we heard Mikko Pietinen drumming in Mannhai, even though there weren’t any releases from this side for years. So the question is regarding the guitarist Peter Salonen: how and why did you recruit him? I guess that his band Death Mex isn’t a well-known name yet.
I spotted Peter from the video he had uploaded to YouTube. He was actually playing Kingston Wall, but also a Death song on his channel. That was exactly what I was looking for: a rock guitarist playing also death metal. He is a great guy and one of the best guitarists in Finland currently. Death Mex has just released their first album, so I guess they will do shows and more material in the future.
It seems that we can discuss Octoploid’s lineup and your guests endlessly, because, for example, guest keyboards were performed by Kasper Mårtenson, another well-known name for Amorphis’ fans. But besides that, there are six vocalists who contributed their parts for your songs. Did you search for a “constant” vocalist in Octoploid or was that not one of your priorities?
For starters I thought that it would be the most practical thing to have a permanent vocalist on the album. Yet I didn’t find anyone suitable. Anyhow, the idea of having all the vocalists from my career was a second option. Cause there wasn’t a constant person available, I began asking the friends to help me out. Fortunately, they agreed!
Did you compose some of your songs with a specific vocalist on your mind? What was the most of unexpected collaboration during your work over Beyond the Aeons?
Every song was composed as instrumentals first, then I just did the vocal arrangements and wrote the lyrics. In that order. Then I started to think, which song would suit for different vocalists and asked if they’d join. I would say that Pete Eskelinen did magnificent job with his songs. I never worked with him before and was not aware of his skills.
How did you learn about Pete? Because of Rapture or because of his ugly current band Feastem?
It was all about Rapture. I really liked his work on that band in the ’90s, so it has been in my mind for some time already. Great guy and a great growler.
Didn’t you try to get in touch with Pasi Koskinen?
Yes, we talked about one song, but he lives in the countryside and I didn’t have time to go there to record it. Anyway, hope there’ll be another chance!
You wrote all the lyrics for the album, so which themes unite all of your songs? Do you have a concept behind Beyond the Aeons?
The lyrics are very personal, but there are a couple of songs about animal rights included too. I like the old Slayer and Morbid Angel lyrics, so my influences are there when it comes to the metal music. Otherwise, for example, Pablo Neruda, HP Lovecraft, Nietzsche, and William Blake have been inspiring me as a lyricist.
That’s why you chose “Human Amoral” for the official video? Because you wanted to do a statement?
We just thought that it would be a good song to start with. All the folk, prog, death, and psych-influences you see? I actually wanted the video to be more radical and take more of a stand, but Pete had another vision. It is great in my opinion though!
The album’s title comes from “octopus” and you mentioned Lovecraftian influences, so what is the connection between the project and H.P.’s legacy?
I have been reading HP and used his works as an influence too, so his legacy has a role indeed. Also Nietzsche, Locra, Finnish folklore, and William Blake are my faves.
I read the Amorphis biography by Markus Laakso, and it demonstrated (among other things) how hard it was for European bands to conquer the US back in the ’90s (same story with Moonspell and Paradise Lost). Beyond the Aeons was released by the American label Reigning Phoenix Music, who works with Amorphis as well. Can such collaboration help you to promote Octoploid in the US really more efficiently? Does it play the role now?
It is hard to tell, but I truly hope so. The US-market has always been a bit hard for bands like us, since Americans tend to dig more of the fast and aggressive metal. But anyway, Amorphis has a pretty good following there, so why not with Octoploid too? RPM has done a great job PR-wise; hope it works with the distribution too. At least in the EU it does!
Did you think about playing a few shows with Octoploid during an autumnal tour in the States? Are you interested in performing Beyond the Aeons alive?
We played one show in Helsinki in early August and that was great. We have plans of touring at some point and we’ll probably play some shows in Finland next year. This is a new thing and it takes time to build it up, but we will hopefully play in the US someday too.
How do you see Octoploid’s prospects? What are your further plans?
Let’s see how the album goes first, but personally I want to do more music and tour with Octoploid. It is easy to mobilize and therefore we could activate with short notice. So who knows, but let’s aim high!
Thanks for the interview, Olli! It’s much appreciated! I wish you all the best with promoting Octoploid, a real gem among many of nowadays’ releases and I wish you all the best in the forthcoming tour with Amorphis. Any final words for our readers?
Thank you for the interview and thanks to those who read it too. Listen to the album and buy it if you dig it. Push your local promoters to book Octoploid, and see you on tour!
https://www.facebook.com/octoploidmusic
https://reigningphoenixmusic.com/
https://octoploid.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-aeons