“It cost us a lot of blood, sweat and tears – but here we are now, showing our new fairytales to the world.” – Interview with Ulli Perhonen of Snow White Blood
We had the pleasure to interview Ulli Perhonen from Snow White Blood and asked her about her band’s new album and her thoughts and opinion on other matters.
Interview
Greetings Ulli! It’s a pleasure to chat with you. How are you and the other members of Snow White Blood doing?
It’s a pleasure for me! (smiles) We’re a mixture of exhausted and very happy that we were finally able to release our album. It cost us a lot of blood, sweat and tears – but here we are now, showing our new fairytales to the world.
We’re going to talk about your new album, ‘Hope Springs Eternal’. But first, for the unfortunate readers who haven’t heard about you yet, how would you introduce Snow White Blood?’
With Snow White Blood, we combine symphonic metal with the magical world of fairytales. In our songs, we take the stories or just aspects of fairytales and show them from our perspective, maybe also with another ending, or we continue a storyline … the inspirations are infinite. This storytelling influences our whole songwriting process which creates a unique sound for each song, fitting to its mood and feeling.
Your album has come out on November 13th. And what a title! ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ at a time we all need hope. I know you’ve been working on the album long before the pandemic and lockdown, but did the recent events related to COVID-19 have any influence on it, production-wise or even lyrics-wise?
Of course the pandemic has influenced the process of our album release. For example, I had to record part of the vocals at home via a remote system. It wasn’t very easy because we had a lot of technical issues like latencies, but Markus Teske (Bazement Studio) led me through all of this with his bland manner. Unfortunately, we were not able to play our release concert, and we still don’t know when we will be able to do so. No one knows – all bands are in the same boat now … but even if it’s very bitter for all music-/art-related activities, health comes first! So please wear your mask, keep your distance and stay at home whenever you can. We can only fight this pandemic when we take care of each other.
The first single you’ve released from the album was Shared Hearts. It has been stuck to my head to the point of starting to sing the chorus out of nowhere! How are you feeling about the reception the single got from the fans?
The reception was very good, we even got some very cool reaction videos on the song and its lyric video. As you know, the song features Lilly Seth (Aeranea & Hereafter) and is about the everlasting affection between the sisters Snow White and Rose Red. As far as I’ve read in the comments, people liked both the story and the music which go together in a catchy rhythm and melody.
I won’t ask you to pick one favourite song from Hope Springs Eternal. I feel it’s like asking a mother which of her sons and daughters is her favourite. But which song from the new album do you relate to most?
As you say, it’s always a tough choice. But if I needed to pick one, it would be “You Belong To Me”. It features our duet partner Danny Meyer (Oversense) and the choir Stimmgewalt, and we’ve also done a nearly eight minute music video for this song. The story of the song begins where most fairytales end: “… and they lived happily ever after.” So the situation is basically that a prince and a princess see each other, decide to marry right away and then everything is supposed to be in perfect bliss. Our story shows how we think that the story could really go on, so we tell a story of power, grief and desperate hope. You can watch the video here:
In order to get to know you better, how about we play one of our nerdy games at FemMetal? This game suites your band well because it’s about fantasy and imagination. I’ll give you a description of an alternate universe, and ask you something about it. Ready?
Yeah, let’s go!
In a universe where you can travel back and forth in time, what era or time would you like to go visit?
I’d either be interested in going to the Victorian period, or I’d like to see the future and what humans have done to the earth by that time…
In a universe where the senses of taste and hearing are mixed up, what would Snow White Blood’s music taste like?
It would taste like a bittersweet candy bar mixed with Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.
In a universe where every time you sing a song a character mentioned in it comes to life and you get to spend an hour with them, which Snow White Blood song would you be singing most?
Probably “Drop A Stitch” because talking with Pechmarie would be an interesting conversation.
In a universe where the currency is the sense of humor, who would be the richest member in Snow White Blood?
At least not me and Chris, our jokes are veeery bad. (laughs)
In a universe where you are the ruler of a country, what is one interesting law you’d make?
A fairer payment for underpaid (medical) professions instead of applauding.
Thank you for playing Ulli! Have you ever been treated with sexism? How would you face sexism and what advice do you give to young people who face discrimination of any kind at school?
I’m very lucky as both my male bandmates and my male musical colleagues meet me on equal terms, be it concerning the vocals or the orchestrations that I do for Snow White Blood. Still, as a woman you always have people around you who live in their world of misconceptions and comment on you or treat you in a sexist way. My advice is: Don’t stay silent! Confront these people with what they do and say. They need to realize that their words and actions are not acceptable at all.
I am starting to include a question from a fan in every interview, and this will be the first time I do that. The question I picked to ask you is from Berni of the ExitEdenMemes page on Instagram; she’s a big fan of yours. She asked: You already were in a song about the story of ‘Snow White and Rose Red’ in the single you featured on with Blackbriar. What’s the difference about the way you visited that same theme in your single Shared Hearts?
Yeah, it’s a funny coincidence that we both did the fairytale of Snow White and Rose Red. When Zora asked me to sing the duet with me, Lilly Seth’s vocals for the SWB duet had already been recorded. Zora and I had to laugh because of the coincidence, but anyway, the fairytale is wonderful and two fairytale songs are better than one! (grins) So Blackbriar’s version is loosely based on the fairytale and is more about the two sisters being torn apart and then finding each other again whereas the SWB version underlines the affection between two sisters who are “alike as day and night, like black and white” but are still intertwined in their sisterly love.
Thank you for the interview Ulli! Good luck for you and Snow White Blood in all your current and future projects.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Snow White Blood are: Ulli Perhonen • vocals & orchestra Christian Weber • guitars Thomas Schmitt • bass guitar Max Rudolph • drums
