Janne Warman of Children of Bodom: "I can't wait to get back to Sydney!"

Children of Bodom are a band that have carved their own piece of metal history. They have developed and moulded a sound that is totally unique. Listening to COB I hear older heavy bands such as CORONER, thrash bands like LAAZ ROCKIT and traditional melodic bands such as- and I stand by this- MOTLEY CRUE and ALICE COOPER.

COB will return to Australian shores in November for the third time and their following here has grown from each visit. COB are now sitting in a very comfortable position, however, I feel that this band still has so much to offer and develop within their style of music and they still have room to build their fan base in to something that is far more reaching than it is today, watch this space!

After Alexi coming in late for the initially scheduled interview, Voltage Media had the pleasure of talking to Janne Warman(keyboards) a few days later instead and he was more than keen to answer our questions.

Reflecting back upon the recent release of your latest album Relentless Reckless Forever how is this album, in your opinion, different to the COB back catalogue?

Janne Warman: Well it’s been a few years since our last album and we have had time to relax and write from a fresh angle which is good for us. I feel that it is very different to our older stuff and this is because we always want to evolve, keep our sound but try new things. I guess it was a natural development for us, a relevant release that is COB but still very fresh

“Northpole Throwdown” is a great song, very fast and upbeat, talk me through the inspiration for this one.

Janne: It was actually the last song that we wrote for the album. So for us we could see the end and somehow this energy kind of made its way on to the track. I guess we were all excited as we were getting to the end of the process. I really love this one too

The Reaper depicted on the cover of Restless Relentless Forever is the most menacing COB has ever produced. What was the idea behind this cover?

Janne: Initially it was the photographer’s idea. We used the same photographer from the previous album and in talking with him he came up with a concept and we all loved it! He had the idea of a really scary tree with draping leaves and he wanted to hang people from the tree in all different positions. So the artwork was created and then he took a heap of different photos of people in dead poses and put it together. It was good to have the reaper more active and up front in the artwork more and to us it is a more realistic image that suits COB.

How does COB approach the song writing process? Are whole songs brought to rehearsal or are they worked out as a group?

Janne: Alexi writes most of our material, but he doesn’t always bring full songs to rehearsal. Sometimes it will be half a song, or just a riff and from here we jam and work through the ideas and develop the song. However, Alexi is generally the one who has the vision for the song or where the song is going to. As a band we then work through our arrangements and lay the track down that way.

Does the band consciously look to write big anthemic choruses or is this just something that happens within the COB unit?

Janne: It’s not conscious; we don’t think about it or try to do it in a strict way, the songs happen as they happen. There is a lot of big choruses on this album I suppose, but no: nothing like this is conscious, or a direct goal it is just how they develop either from Alexi or in the studio.

The keyboards play such a prominent role within COB songs. With regard to the melodies that flow through all tracks do you do this after a composition is complete, like guitar solos, or is this something that is built in to the initial song writing process?

Janne: Well it depends, as I said earlier there are sometimes when Alexi has the whole vision and he says what to play but at other times we work that out as a group in a rehearsal room. But obviously the solos are fully improvised and I do my solos later on over the top of the music. But with dueling solo leads we sit down and worked them out note by note. It doesn’t actually take too long for us to do this either, maybe half an hour or so. We have been playing so long together it is like we have it down to a fine art – we know where we are going when we solo as we know each others style so well.

How different is COB now compared to when you first started?

Janne: When we first started we were kids and all we wanted to do really was party. I was actually only seventeen when we recorded our first album you know. Our first three albums had a lot of neo-classical influences on them and we really got bored with this by the third album and this is why we changed. A lot of fans still ask us about this stuff and would love us to go back there but we don’t want to. From this point, this was really when we started to develop our sound and become the band we are today. We also grew up as individuals over the first few albums and became more serious about a career and making sure the COB continues. So I guess we are older now and we have developed our own sound, that is how we are different.

Australia has been a country that you have toured before, how do you find Australian audiences as opposed to other countries and what should we expect from the up and coming Australian tour?

Janne: We have already done two tours in Australia and we have had amazing reactions. This blows us away considering how remote we are from Australia, we are a long way a part. What to expect..., well it will be a totally new set list, different to the recent US and European tours. Australia will actually be the first country to hear it. We have decided to take a fresh approach for this leg of the tour and this is also good for us because it keeps it interesting and this will definitely be reflected in our performance!

Do you have any final message for your Australian fans before we finish off on the eve ?

Janne: The main thing is to just say how excited we are to be coming back to Australia and play. We love coming to places like Australia so far away from home, meeting different people and getting the reactions from fans. And as I said: t will be very fresh for us as it will be a new set list and we are going to be playing some song that we haven’t played for years. We love coming to Australia, everyone makes us feel welcome and I love Sydney! I can’t wait to get back to Sydney again and meet with the people there.

Soundworks Touring are bringing Children Of Bodom out next month, taking local support Voyager on the road with them. Dates and venues are as follows:

Sunday Nov 6th - Capitol, Perth
Monday Nov 7th - HQ, Adelaide
Thursday Nov 10th - The Palace, Melbourne
Saturday Nov 12th - The Big Top, Sydney
Sunday Nov 13th - The Arena, Brisbane

Tickets went on sale in August.

Perth - www.moshtix.com , 78 Records
Adelaide – www.venuetix.com.au
Melbourne – www.ticketmaster.com.au
Sydney – www.bigtopsydney.com/box_office , www.ticketek.com.au
Brisbane – www.oztix.com.au