Insania are a band you may not be too familiar with although they have been around for longer than you might think. Since forming in 2002, they have changed their name, undergone several line-up changes and released three albums under No Fashion Records since signing with them in 1998. Now they return on a new record label (Black Lodge) and with their fourth album “Agony – The Gift of Life” having just been released perhaps 2007 should be a good year for Insania.

LH: Greetings. So first of all could you give us a brief introduction to the band for anyone who may not be familiar with Insania.

Insania: Insania is a band that has been active since 1992. The band had a different name back then, but in 1996 it was changed to Insania. We signed our first record deal 1998 and the debut “World of ice” was released 1999. The band was back then Mikko Korsbäck (Drums), Henrik Juhano and Niklas Dahlin (guitar), Patrik Västilä (Keyboard), David Henriksson (Vocals) and Tomas Stolt (Bass). During the years the band has released 2 more albums, Sunrise in Riverland (2001) and Fantasy –a new dimension (2003). The band has lost some members since the debut and is today a five man band, Mikko Korsbäck (Drums), Tomas Stolt (Bass), Ola Halén (Vocals), Peter Östros (Guitar) and Dimitri Keiski (Keyboards and vocals). The band has always had Finnish members and has a strong connection to Finland even though the band is from Stockholm, Sweden.

LH: Your fourth album Agony: Gift of Life is due to be released this month. What are your own thoughts on the album, how happy are you with the finished result and how do you feel it differs from your previous works?

Insania: The fourth album is been released as I write this and personally I am very satisfied with the result. We have had a few rough years and lost some members and that has had an impact on us, which I have seen as good. It is always hard to lose members and wonder what will happen now, but as we all agree it was maybe just this that the band needed to get to a new level. We got in new, hungry and very skilled musicians that brought their own influences to the band. The songs differ a bit from the older songs and we have more members writing the new tunes compared to earlier on. Mikko (Korsbäck, drums) was musically very dominant in the band earlier on and wrote most of the old songs. He has also given us the Insania sound and style which we are known for. This vein is still there, but with new and fresh ideas since more people has had their style and say implemented in the new songs. From the start we were very stuck into a certain style of power metal we wanted to play. There was not so much room for new ideas and we did not experiment with anything really. Now we have released an album where the double bass drums and energy is still there, but we have a new style of guitar playing and use many more sounds on keyboards too. On the new album we have real Hammond organ played which is very unusual or I would say unique in this genre. We have our keyboardist Dimitri (Keiski) singing some parts solo since he is also an amazing singer. We have grown in many ways and feel that this is the strongest piece so far and we hope that the fans of this genre will take it to their hearts.

LH: The lyrics on the album seem to be of quite a personal theme. I was hoping you could elaborate a bit on the lyrical themes on Agony: Gift of Life and the inspiration behind them. I was also wondering if this is a concept album?

Insania: Another thing that differs from the previous albums are the lyrics. Earlier we had many songs based on fantasy based stories which is very common for this genre. We felt we wanted to go away from that style and write more personal songs. In the end when we had the songs done for the album we realised that the album could maybe be called a concept album. Many of the songs tell a story from real life happenings which have had an impact on all of us or a certain member. We honour the memory of many persons that has been most dear to us by writing a song to them. In the booklet of the album you can read more about the reason for the song. The only song that is pure fiction is “Valley of Sunlight” which is an extension to the song “Paradisia” from our first album. It tells the second part of that story. The song “Gift of Life“ is a tribute to Mikkos’ and Olas’ mothers who have passed away recently and this song honours their memory. Other songs tell about family and friends which has affected us in many ways and we tell the story about this in the lyrics. Some are so personal that I feel we leave it secret and let all those who read the lyrics to reflect over them in a personal way.

LH: It mentions on your blog that you had a few delays with the mastering process and problems with a few people messing you about. Is this partly the reason why it took so long to release the album from when it was recorded in late 2005?

Insania: It was a troublesome process the whole time after the initial recording session in late 2005. The guy handling the recording struggled to send the files in a proper way to Finnvox studios in Helsinki, Finland. Finnvox studios are known for many great productions and most known are Stratovarius and Avantasia. Mikko Karmila at Finnvox studios had recorded our 2 last albums and also mixed them so we wanted to get him to mix this album also. He is a very busy person and we had to wait quite long before we could book him to mix the album. When he got the files from the recording studio he saw that many files were missing or even corrupt. So we had the files resent and also had to move the mixing session to a later date. The guy from the recording studio needed 7(!) tries to get the files correctly sent to Finnvox, so you can imagine this took a while before we got the album mixed. After this all went pretty smooth and we had the record ready in the early parts of this year. Then we needed to advertise for it and so on, but finally in the end it is released.

LH: Your previous record label No Fashion Records are known for putting out albums on the more extreme end of the metal scale. Did this ever cause any problems or conflicts, with you making music that is so melodic? Also how did you gain the interest of Black Lodge records and what kind of deal do you have with them?

Insania: To make a long story short, the first deal we signed was with House of Kicks under the label No fashion. House of Kicks was then bought by MNW and when this had happened, many from the staff of House of kicks left the company. We saw many of the persons we knew leave and being replaced by others. When MNW started to get financial difficulties we chose to leave them. We were shortly after contacted by the guys from our old record company House of kicks. They had started again under the name Soundpollution. So we had a talk with them and signed a 2 record deal with the label Black Lodge. Many have wondered why we are signed to a label which promotes more extreme metal than we play. It was the fact that when we signed the first deal, the company was looking for a melodic band to have a wider selection of bands. They were not ready to create a new label purely for us and it may have happened if the company would have still existed. It is the same way with the new deal. Many bands are more extreme than we are, but if you look at all bands on Black Lodge there are a quite wide variety of sounds. We have never really had any problems with having these labels. The old No Fashion compilation albums were a bit funny for us since in the middle of the harder tunes we suddenly appeared with a melodic piece which angered some fans of the label. But otherwise there have been no problems. We know some of the harder bands and we just support each other.

LH: Helloween appear to be a massive influence to you, are there any bands that inspire you that maybe aren’t as obvious from listening to your music?

Insania: Well, all of us listen to many other bands and styles too. Mikko as an example enjoys the Finnish popular music which influences him in the creation of the songs. Dimitri is a gypsy and his people have a certain style of music too which brings him many ideas in the musical creation. He is also a big fan of 70´s hardrock; bands like Dio, Rainbow and Deep Purple have had a great impact on his musical evolvement. Peter is a skilled classical music guitarist and he is a big fan of the old melodic guitarists which has influenced him greatly from young age. Ola is huge fan of Michael Kiske and all kinds melodic metal. But he likes to listen to a bit more progressive bands also which you can hear in his songs. I on the other hand like to listen to a bit more heavy tunes also. Bands like Disturbed and Linkin Park are favourites. I am also a sucker for female fronted bands like Within Temptation, Nightwish and Evanescence. I do also play in such a band called Disdained. Other more obvious bands that inspire us are Stratovarius, Gamma ray and Yngwie J Malmsteen.

LH: Looking at your website you don’t seem to play many gigs outside of Stockholm. What is the reason for this and do you have any plans to play outside of Stockholm in the near future?

Insania: After the release of the last album “Fantasy” we lost 3 members and many thought that the band had quit after that. So when we did bring in new members there was a big uncertainty about how the band sounds today. We have had a tough time the last few years to find good gigs and tour opportunities due to this fact. We realised we need to release a new album with the new guys and show that we are alive and kicking. So we have just waited for this day that we have a new album out there so we can show that we are back, we are strong and we are the guys to believe in. The gigs and tours will come for us in the future.

LH: For anyone who gets the chance to see Insania live, what should they expect? I’ve heard that you used to throw one or two covers into the set, do you still play those?

Insania: You can expect a very powerful show from us. We have a good tempo and energy when we play. Many that have seen us say that they can see that we really enjoy what we do and that inspires the audience also. In the past we used to play covers too to please the crowd, but today we feel that we have so many songs to choose among and have also gained so much reputation that we can play our own songs. But it is not in any way impossible that we will play covers live some day again. We used to play, not so surprisingly, Helloween covers.

LH: There seems to be a bit of confusion on your name. You started out as Insania, and then changed your name to Insania Stockholm because of the other bands of the same name. At what point did you change your name, and did you ever consider changing your name completely?

Insania: It is actually the way that when we signed the first record deal, we knew already then that there were more bands called Insania. We talked to the record company about this and they asked if we could change the name. We were not keen on doing that so something had to be done. We chose to do like the some bands already have done. We added a suffix to the band name. So from the start we have been officially named “Insania – Stockholm”, but we are usually called just Insania.

LH: Finally I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about Ola’s other band Shadows Past. What were Ola’s reasons for joining Shadows Past, and how does the music differ from Insania?

Insania: It is actually the way that Ola has never joined Shadows past. The reason is that he is Shadows past. He had played in some bands before Insania, but has long had the solo project Shadows past. The song “Illusions” on our last album is from Shadows Past. His style is not so far from Insania, but still his own influences are heard in his music. The music is very melodic and the lyrics are very personal, but you can find many progressive sections in the songs. From the start it was just a one man band, but he has gathered a full band so he can play live with them also.

LH: Thanks for doing this interview. Do you have any final message for anyone reading this?

Insania: As I have chosen to end my latest interviews, I will use the same words here: Insania is back!

Agony: Gift of Life is available now via Black Lodge records. Visit Insania Stockholm online at www.insania.se or on MySpace at www.myspace.com/insaniametal

Interviewed by Luci Herbert
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