Conversation with Troll Bends Fir
Move over Korpiklaani, there is a new Beer Metal Band from out of Town. Enter, Troll Bends Fir (Troll Gnet El) from Russia. This awesome Band is able to entwine Metal with a Folk approach which easily awakens the Beer Dancer in any listener! The music is catchy, invigorating and growing a large fan base across all social networks. My suggestion is Troll Bends Fir is best served loud with a six pack to friends!
Air Guitar recently did an E-mail interview with Troll Bends Fir:
1) If Troll Bends Fir had to create an Alcoholic Beverage; what would your ingredients be?
Never thought of it before, but it may be beer with a coniferous taste…
2) Troll Bends Fir has been a very hard-working band, long before the name change from Russian to English. How did this reflect in your work?
Actually, nothing has changed for Russia; we still use our Russian name here. However when we decided heading to Europe, we realised that it doesn’t sound cool written with Latin letters so we just translated it into English. Besides I think English name is easier for non-Russian speakers to remember.
3) Troll Bends Fir have played over 300 festivals as well as sharing the stage with other famous Metal bands. What were the highlights and low-lights of the European Festivals that you have played at? Which are the favourite?
Well, we’ve already played over 400 shows but mostly they were solo gigs and festivals in Russia. As I said before, we are at the beginning of conquering Europe and we’re satisfied with all gigs we had there.
4) Troll Bends Fir is going to play at the Seven Festival in Poland and MJR in Lithuania and Germany’s big Medieval Festival. What are your expectations for the upcoming festival? What should the fans expect on this festival?
We’re very glad to have an opportunity to play for a big amount of new people and in new places. It may sound too self-confidently but we know how people react to our music, so I hope that everything would go as always – from the second song at the latest the audience would dance and enjoy themselves.
5) Troll Bends Fir are compared to bands like Korpiklaani because the songs are folk/beer metal. How does this make you feel?
Have you ever tried to count the number of performers who sing about love? So are they all similar? We founded our band in 1999, started to play gigs in 2001 and even then we called our style “beer folk”, the main themes of our lyrics were also beer and alcohol parties. That’s why I don’t have any negative emotions when we’re compared to someone else. Moreover, it’s inevitable to be compared to the more famous band but I don’t care.
6) The Hoplnir EP is awesome! Can we expect an album soon?
We’re planning to release a full-length album in this September under a name “Brothers In Drinks”. It will consist of remastered EP “Hoplnir”, remastered EP “Octoberfest” and a bonus track – mutual song with Jonne Jarvela (Korpiklaani) “Humppa Is My Neighbour”, which is, as I believe, going to be a real blast haha).
7) What is Troll bends Fir take on the Russian Metal music scene? How has it progressed over the years and how significant is it towards Troll Bends Fir success?
It’s hard to say how Russian metal scene affected us because when all of us were teenagers we certainly listened to Russian metal music but much more to foreign music. After all those 12 years our band has existed, we became here in Russia a kind of classic band of the style and there’re young bands influenced by our music.
Talking about Russian metal scene, I can say that it was secluded till the recent time and people outside Russia could judge it only by few recordings and rare shows of few bands invited to festivals to bring some “exotic” sound. Fortunately, the situation is changing nowadays and we feel increasing interest to Russian bands, to which contributed such bands as Arkona.
8) Troll bends Fir sings primarily in Russian yet the Band is well received by the non-Russian speaking people. Did Troll Bends Fir expect that?
To be honest, we never thought about that, maybe it’s just a contemporary fashion for bands singing in their native language, because it’s a well-known thing that when you use your mother language you can put more emotions into your music.
9) Any Last words?
Listen to our songs, start to love them and wait for meeting us as we’re looking forward to meet you!
For some true Beer Metal visit Troll Bends Fir at:
Published on Air Guitar Blog
