INTERVIEW: Noora Virtanen (Autumn’s Grief)

It’s always interesting to get to know artists beyond the music they make because it can be a great occasion to discover something new. And that’s exactly what happened with my guest, Noora, from the Finnish band Autumn’s Grief.

Hello Noora! How are you doing at the moment?

Hello! I’m doing very well, thank you. It has been a wonderful autumn with all of these new single releases that Autumn’s Grief has released.

Your latest single, “Dead by the Dawn“, is spectacular, and I can’t wait for your full-length album! What can we expect to hear in it?

Thank you! It’s a pleasure to hear that you’ve liked our new song. We released our first album a little over a year ago, and with this second album, “Dead by the Dawn“, we are taking things a bit further. As we tend to toy with different styles in our songs, I believe you will find a few surprises in the album.

I am rarely impressed by the artwork or cover, but the one for your last single is absolutely brilliant. What’s the inspiration behind it?

The cover is drawn by Kris Olson (krisolsonart.com), and the edit for the cover is done by Mikko Virtanen, the singer of Dead End Finland. We found Kris and his beautiful drawings when we searched for an artist to do the cover for our first album, and after that, we continued working with him. He is an extremely talented artist. We usually have some sort of idea of what we want to be included in the picture (a skull, a bird etc.), and we tell these wishes to Kris, but we also give him a lot of artistic freedom with the covers. With the making of this “Dead by the Dawn” single cover, we asked Kris to draw an ancient battlefield and include a shield in the picture. Mikko added the colours and our band logo to the cover picture. It’s quite a mystic cover.

What was the role of music in the early years of your life?

Music has always given me very strong emotional experiences. I took piano lessons as a kid and even tried to play the drums as a teenager. I was maybe one of the worst drummers on this planet because I hardly bothered to practise my playing. I still pity my drum teacher. I started to take singing lessons when I was 16, and I studied music theory and singing on a professional level a very long time ago. However, nowadays, I just try to forget everything I have ever learned and do the vocals and backing vocal melodies simply by thinking about what sounds good to my own ears.

Is there a record that you consider the closest to perfection?

This is a thing that probably changes all the time according to what I just happen to listen to at that moment in my life, but I started to listen to metal music when I was 14, and it has always had a very special place in my heart. Lately, I’ve been strongly fascinated by melodic death metal, doom metal and black metal elements, so maybe I have to mention these albums from the Finnish metal bands that have been extremely important to me during these past few years: Kaunis Kuolematon’s “Syttyköön Toinen Aurinko”, Marianas Rest’s “Fata Morgana and Horror Vacui”, Insomnium’s “Heart Like a Grave and One for Sorrow”, Shadecrown’s “Solitarian”, Dead End Finland’s “Inter Vivos and Season of Withering”.

What is your greatest strength?

When it comes to making music, I think my greatest strength is inventing melodies and stories for the vocals. Some people have also said that I am good at expressing emotions with my singing. As a human being, I think my greatest strength is the fact that I’m not giving up too easily.

Being the only woman in the band can sometimes be funny. Can you share a funny moment that happened during the recording of your upcoming album?

Actually, I have never felt having any troubles with being the only woman in a band. I have two other bands where I also happen to be the only woman in the band. Besides, I have always had men as very close and good friends throughout my life. Maybe my sense of humour is terrible enough to work well with most men.

It’s sad that even nowadays, women are being mistreated and discriminated against. Have you ever experienced any harassment or violence during your life?

Luckily, I have never experienced any physical violence. Unfortunately, when it comes to harassment, I believe almost every woman has had some sort of experience about it in their life. I am no exception to that. In the music industry, I can easily say that 99 % of men musicians are wonderful, caring guys who would never intentionally cross any lines without the given permission, let alone want to hurt a woman. But then there are some assholes in this world who simply don’t have any respect towards others. I have also had a few negative encounters with some male musicians in the past, and because of that, I tend to be a bit more careful with whom I work with these days. It’s sad that women still have to pay attention to these things.

Let’s play a little game: if you could turn the ocean into a liquid other than water, which one would you pick?

…..And kill all the lovely creatures living in the sea? No way!

Thank you very much, Noora, for taking the time to do this interview! Is there anything else you’d like to add to FemMetal’s readers?

Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. May your life be filled with love.