At Wacken Open Air we got the chance to interview the folk metal band Finsterforst. We talked about the festival, women in metal and more!

Benedetta

I’m here with the amazing Finsterforst. How are you doing, guys?

Finsterforst

Great. Yeah, really great. A little bit tired because we drove the whole night yesterday. But I’m feeling right now really great.

Benedetta

You’re playing at the anniversary edition of Wacken Open Air. This is the 35th year of the festival. How does it feel to play this year?

Finsterforst

It’s great. I mean, for me, I was here first time in attendance in 1999. So, yeah, I always wanted to play here. We’ve done it before, to come back is great. It’s just a great festival, great place to play. For me, it’s the same. I didn’t realize that it’s an anniversary edition. But it’s always great to play big festivals, especially that kind of festivals like Wacken. It’s always great to enjoy time here. We have good time with all people we met here. We’re looking forward to our gig.

Benedetta

For sure. Awesome. So, of course, you have a lot of experience with playing live shows, but you also have experience recording music. Do you think that the life of an artist is a lonely life?

Finsterforst

I would say that Finsterforst instrumentalists have a lonely life. Because in our band it’s that way that our other guitarists, Simon, he’s writing all the songs at his home and he’s sending to everybody. Then everybody is learning the songs he wrote. Afterwards, maybe, we’ll meet at some point in the rehearsal room. That will happen maybe once or two times a year. So, if you’re looking at it in that way or that perspective, then it is a lonely life. But, yeah, you know, life has different facets. I think all of us have different things to do in our lives. None of us are really lonely in their private life. I’d love to be more lonely sometimes.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach equality between men and women in the metal world?

Finsterforst

I don’t know. But, honestly, I’m not sure if it’s important. It’s art. We’ve played with Burning Witches. Great band. Love them. Then again, there are some women. It’s more like a gimmick. I don’t like that at all. And I think it hurts the idea of being equal. If you’re a great musician, I don’t care what gender you are. So, yeah, to me it doesn’t really matter. But I think that’s kind of equality, actually. But, yeah, in numbers, could be more, should be more. Definitely. I think that maybe there’s still a mindset, for example, for an instrumentalist. So, if you’re like a girl, thinking that you’re playing drums or something like that, maybe isn’t the right choice. I don’t know. But sometimes I think what I’m feeling, because you notice this sometimes. But otherwise, you saw a lot of girls drumming on YouTube and they are really great. So, I don’t know how much the gap is, really. I think we would love to see more girls and equality in metal music. Because I think metal has to do something with equality, with doing something together. Music has to do something together. It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a boy or something in between. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is to do music together

Benedetta

Guys, thank you so much for being such a good sport and for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Finsterforst

Yeah, we’re bringing out a new album. It’s a little bit different like the last ones, but it’s known for us to have a little bit of evolution and to experiment some new things we want to put into the music. I hope you like it, everybody reading our interview. And I hope to see all of you at some point in our shows and have a great time Let’s get back to Italy. Long time we didn’t visit.