Interview mit Oskari Niemi von Oceanhoarse

Thank you very much for your time to answer my questions, how are you?
Hey, thanks for asking and pleasure to answer these interesting questions!
I’m pumped to finally get this album out and to play a record release show here in Helsinki. Been awhile since we took the stage and we are beyond stoked to get to deliver some metal and raise the glass with fans.

Since „Dead Reckoning“ is your first studio album, please describe your sound and what makes it unique to our readers.
It’s like if Machine Head and Avenged Sevenfold had a bastard child. We like to hammer heavy riffs and suddenly change the vibe to a melodic atmosphere. Uniqueness comes definitely from not using a click track allowing the music to breath more.

What are the most important influences for the band?
Music wise it must be Pantera, Mastodon and Iron Maiden to put it short. 90% of everything we listen to is some sort of metal, but some of the guys might have motown as their guilty pleasure when nobody’s around.

How did you come up with the band name Oceanhoarse and what does it mean?
We wanted something that roams the Oceanfloor and just threw a typo into the mix. Anything that resembles the word `horse` has power to it.

How does the songwriting work for Oceanhoarse, what is the usual process of creating a song like?
Well u know, it’s the old receipt of having riffs and creating cool drum beats to those. Then some vocal melody testing and we might suddenly find something. We do rely a lot on intuition, accidents if you will, by jamming ideas. And something noteworthy is the fact that more and more vocal melody lines are being brought to our studio by the fellas and we go from there.

Can you name a favorite song or favorite part on the album?
My personal favourites are the songs “One With The Gun” and “Reaching Skywards”. They play as a duo that lifts my spirit everytime I hear them from the album.

Your music is very raw and live orientated. Is it important when it comes to songwriting that every song will work live on stage?
Yea, we compose in such a way that the songs will sound big even with our four piece orchestra. Only a tad rawer live. It comes down to having a good sound person and some volume does help.

You avoid keyboards, backing vocals, samples and similar stuff. Can you still imagine using keyboards, an orchestra or something similar?
No. If u mean backing tracks by backing vocals. Our bassist and guitarist do indeed sing and shout to their mics which adds a lot to the soup.

It is very unusual for a band to release a live album before a studio album. How did you come to the decision to make “The Damage Is Done – Live!” your first release?
The vibe on Marko Hietalas eurotour, where we had the privilege to open for him,  was so good and we managed to get some juice to our older songs that we decided to record the shows. As a live oriented band it seemed more than perfect to release a live album first.

You were touring with Marko Hietala in February 2020 before Corona came along. How did that change your plans at that time?
Corona really pushed us to put this studio album together. First we of course released the live album.  But not much after that we dove into our sacred crypt (yes, our studio is under the surface) to compose new material and saw it clever to start producing the studio album. We got to play some live shows in the summer of 2020 but after that we only focused on jamming new metal.

You already confirmed a few upcoming shows in Finland. Are there already further plans to promote the new album on stage in more countries?
As soon as they allow us to tour properly, we are looking to jump into the bus and play the beautiful european cities.

“The Damage”, “Submersed” and “The Intruder” were also part of your 2020 live album “The Damage Is Done”. Why did you choose these three songs to be part of your debut studio album?
The studio album is likely to get so much more recognition that it was reasonable to bring the studio versions of those songs to the people. We love all those bits of music and got no other choice than to include them.

You launched the mini documentary series “Road to Dead Reckoning” on YouTube. What’s the idea behind it and what can we expect to see in future episodes?
There will be studio footage, backstage footage, music video stuff etc. Things you rarely see from the outside.

You are featured on the soundtrack for the game “Wreckfest”. How did it come to this cooperation, and do you play videogames by yourself?
No, I don’t play anything and even avoid movies. But when Wreckfest came out I did spend some quality time crashing cars to our songs! The cooperation happened so that these finnish game developers searched for songs to their crazy game and our manager offered ´Fading Neons´and ´The Oceanhoarse` to the sound producers. We were more than happy to hear they made it to the game!

Besides writing new music and recording “Dead Reckoning” – did you use the concert-free time to get a new „Corona hobby“? What did you do with all the free time that has been created by the loss of shows?
My daily life besides shows never changed much. I listen to music, compose songs with Oceanhoarse, rehearse my own parts and then go to sleep listening to metal again. When I have freetime from Oceanhoarse I usually practice on the kit and come up with new beats. Drumming does drain my energy levels sometimes and then I just slack on the sofa and listen to metal. It has always been the music that fills my days. And the Hoarse boys keep me busy with their crazy plans even when there’s no shows scheduled. So no hobbies besides music really.

Let’s conclude with our traditional brainstorming. What comes to your mind first when you read the following words?
“Dead Reckoning” by Threshold: navigating the seas like we navigate the riffs
Current favorite album: Watery – “Wordbreather” EP. I listen to it weekly. All time favourite is “Siamese Dream” by The Smashing Pumpkins
Old school: ZZ Top
Streaming: some income
Books: Stephen King
Something that makes every bad day better: coffee and some more coffee
Germany: feels like home since I love the language and have spent some time there
Oceanhoarse in 10 years: three or four studio albums released and tens of thousands of showgoers entertained

Thank you once again for your time! The last words are all yours. Is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Always look at the metal side of life and drink coffee

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Publiziert am 11. Oktober 2021 von Stefan Popp