A Q&A with Segmentia

Finnish pop metal – here’s bassist Matti…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Our latest release is our Alone EP, released in January of 2023. In this context the word “alone” does not refer to loneliness necessarily, but to finding your own path and your inner strength through struggle and hardship. All of the songs on this EP are related to those themes in one way or another.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
For me personally the hardest part was that I joined to the band towards the end of the recording process while I was still living on a different side of Finland, so I had to come up with the bass parts pretty quick and we did not have the opportunity to jam the songs much together. I recorded my parts alone at my home, but luckily the rest of the bandmembers were happy with my work. Other than that, putting this release together went fairly smoothly all things considered!

What do enjoy most about producing your own material?
We produced this EP ourselves almost completely, though we had help with the vocal arrangements from our friend Kimmo Perämäki, who was also the singer of Jere’s previous band Celesty. We enjoy bringing our own vision to life and the best part producing our own material is the point when the pieces start to fall into place so to say. However vocals are something on which we wanted to have an “outside opinion” and Kimmo was the obvious choice for that job!

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
We hope that one can flow and immerse themselves in to a feeling that our music has evoked. That feeling then has an opportunity to become something that we and the listener are truly sharing together and so, in a sense no one is all alone while listening to our music.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Our drummer and band leader Jere does most of the songwriting, though I have also started to bring some song ideas to the table. Typically whoever comes up with an idea for a song will write the structure, main themes or melodies and their own parts before other members get involved. Jere usually has lyrics already written too before he sends the demo version of the song to the rest of the band. From there on we start to jam and fine tune different parts of the song together and the final stress test is to play the new songs live.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Since joining the band the most influental musician to me has been Peter Tägtgren of Pain and Hypocrisy. I saw Pain live not too long ago and was completely blown away by the show! I’m not sure how much Pain has influenced me musically (though I like their music very much), but I picked up a lot of ideas from them on how to create a memorable show!

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Well to be honest, any country! As many countries as possible! If it was all up to our own will, we would be touring all around the world. But on a more serious note we are hoping to do our first tour outside of Finland as soon as possible! As far as venues go, my dream is to play at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado one day! That has to be one of the most unique venues out there.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
If you are going to listen to only one track from us, please check out the title track of our latest EP ‘Alone’. That song has all the elements of our music together and it’s such a blast of energy as a whole that if that does not get you on “our side”, then our music is probably not for you.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We want to become a professional, internationally touring band! We also get to meet a lot of people while playing shows so we hope that we can be a positive example to other people and inspire people to be more kind towards eachother and the nature as well.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Thank you for the interview! Check our latest EP Alone from your preferred streaming platform and see if you like us. Hope to see all of you at our show one day! In the meanwhile, stay (pop) metal!

For more info visit: segmentia.net