MALADY
Finnish quintet turn the 70s prog up to 11.
Jonni Tanskanen is a proud city man, born and raised in Helsinki. He even jokes that whenever he spends too much time outside of the city, “All this empty space with just cows, fields and not much more just drives me nuts!”
Despite this, the music of Malady will transport you instantly to the bucolic Finnish countryside, even if you haven’t yet felt the serenity of watching the sun go down on one of the many beautiful Finnish lakes.
The quintet have now returned two years after their self-titled debut with Toinen Toista, an even more grandiose work, thanks to the presence of both a 23-minute epic (Nurja Puoli) that swallows the entire B side of the album, and a glorious, vintage M400 Mellotron, recently bought by their keyboard player Ville Rohiola.
“He got it in the US, for a fair price, too,” says Tanskanen. “Actually, there’s an article on the Finnish version of Wikipedia and it says there are fewer than 20 of them in the country, so we’re pretty stoked to have one. Our only concern is how expensive it can be to keep it in shape: we recently had to change a single knob, a damn knob, and it cost something like €150!”
The new album also sees the band using more of a collaborative approach. “We were a trio for the first couple of years and that’s when we created the bulk of the songs that made it on our debut,” Tanskanen explains. “But this time around, it’s much more of a group effort from all five of us. Maybe it will scare some of the prog diehards because there is some poppy stuff on there. Then again,” he laughs, “there’s also some of the most epic stuff we’ve done, so I don’t know…
“I think the longest track on the previous album was 10 minutes and we were joking around about how we could do better than that. I was also listening a lot to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and those in the know will probably be able to spot a few licks here and there, even if our drummer Juuso [Jylhänlehto] had a more Close To The Edge sound in mind…
“Our first album was mainly compared to many 70s bands, and rightfully so as it was truly a homage to that period. But I believe that on the new one, while retaining that vintage sound, we’ve found a new and more personal sound.”
In true Neil Peart style, their drummer is also their chief lyricist, and the lyrics are all in their native language. Tanskanen attempts to explain the concept and ideas.
“There’s a lot of symbolism so it’s easy to get lost, I’m afraid, so bear with me,” he begins. “The album’s title can be roughly translated to ‘The album was released on February 2 in Finland,’ although it equally references the fact that it’s our second album, or a relationship between two people. It’s deliberately ambiguous: it’s up to the listeners to decide for themselves what the song is about.” oZB
“I WAS LISTENING A LOT TO ELP, AND THOSE IN THE KNOW WILL PROBABLY BE ABLE TO SPOT A FEW LICKS HERE AND THERE.”