"The Hipnothic Symbiosis"

Interview with loQ, keyboardist of the Finnish band Hidria Spacefolk

By Sergio Vilar

Please, count me shortly Hidria Spacefolk's beginnings.
It all started few kilometers away from Helsinki in year 1998 when Teemu K, Mike Acid and Viiru with Sami F (decoration dude) moved in together to this big house by the lake. They left one room for instruments and always when there was a party going on there were some dudes jamming with them. And one day in 1999 to this jams came a one long and thick guy who introdused him as Kimmo D and jammed out so good that the rest of the group knew that there was the long waited bass player. Soon after that  to this jammings came Viiru’s friend from the techno/trance band called Electro Magnetic and this guy found himself a new meaning with playing synths. So loQ was found and the group was formed, but we didn’t knew that at the time. That "news" came little later on our first gig in Gloria (club in Helsinki).

What music type did you make in the principles? Which are the musical differences with Hidria Spacefolk today? 
We just jammed from progressive trancerock to deathmetaldisco and folkmusic. We think there is no difference to todays Hidria, we still play that kind of stuff. Only thing that differences is that we smoke much less nowdays than we use to and with this band it is also a little bit a musical difference.

Why this name? Which is the meaning for you?
The name comes from the house name Hiidenlinna, “Hiisi-Castle”, Hiisi is a Finnish fairytale gnome which lives in dark places, like in rockcaves. And this actual name, Hidria Spacefolk, came from Teemu K’s mouth after a lot of chilums… So the name means nothing, it is just a name.

Which are the biggest influences in the band and of the members in particular? 
There are so many influences, 60–70–80’s rock, 70’s disco, 70’s interesting progressive rock, late 80’s acid house, 90’s goatrance, 2000’s break beats/drum’bass, Finnish folk music from all the times, reggae… there are so many, but in particular all good  vibes from all good tunes are our influences, no matter which genre the music is and ofcourse the bands own style to combine the members own styles is a one big influence (and problem some times) what ever that means. If you ask names, here are couple: Pink Floyd, Gong, Can, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Boney M, The Doors, Bob Marley and some new ones: Orbital, Radiohead, Massive Attack, The Green Nuns of the Revolution, Moloko, Kyuss and other stoner rock bands (for loQ and Mike, writers notice), Air, Underworld, rdttv & lehtisalo, Circle, etc… but we are not trying to copy anybody, we play it in Hidria style.

Do you agree with which it is considered Hidria Spacefolk how a band of progressive rock or are you considered more as an alternative band?
Many people say that we are a progressive rock band and we sound like that or that but we think it differently. Actually we dont like of progressive rock or spacerock as a word (and many times music too sucks) because all it remainds me is that there are a lot of parts in a song and there is no clue at all, only endless guitar solos and weird breaks and then again some kind of a solo. We think this is quit boring style to make music and create feelings because there comes no feeling from this kind of music…
Of course we have solos but we try to consentrade on good melodies and arrangements on the song and a solo is always waited somehow, it seals the song, it is NOT the song. And because of that we dont have a singer, it is much harder to make instument music which sounds like you could hear a singer. I don’t know if people get this but that is our "goal" to make instumental songs. So for this question I would say that we are a really alternative band or like viiru says, "we play spiritual entertaiment music", but like I said earlier we dont like to name genres in music. Good music is good and bad music is bad.

Musically spoken, who does compose? Do all compose together or is there somebody that takes charge of it?
We do songs and compose together but normally the riffs comes from the guitarists. No one takes a charge from the songs because normally it is a long way from a guitar riff to a actual song. So everything is composed and hassled by Hidria Spacefolk. And it is much easier to work when there is no "boss" who says what to do. No Roger Waters on this band :-)

What did you want to transmit through the cover art of the disks?
Probably we try to transmit with to cover art the endless dilemma between man and woman or man with nature; the problem or question why we are here and why everything are in the way they are. Is there any clue in this and are there any answers… We gave free hands to our visual expert Tatu Marttila whose mind production the covers are and we think he made a really good work, in spiritual and in physical way, as he always do. So after all, the covers are trying to visualise our music somehow.

Is your music so surprising and fantastic that it is impossible to predict with which we will be in a future... What can we expect from its next album?
Of course we would like to think that we are always surprising people and we try to do that when we are playing live, little twisting is always good, but what comes to the records I think people who has seen us playing live knows what to expect from the next album… or if being honest normally the people at our gigs are so "waisted" that they dont remember anything about the songs next morning, and that is why we are probably not so predictable band :-)… Ok, there are many people out there who has not seen us playing live so I think the next album is something new. If “Symbiosis” was a kind of goatrance/Gong influenced the next one is more influenced by early 90’s techno, 70’s and 80’s trance rock and this days techno, which means less tracks at the time, more one loop looping in one song and better dynamics and melodies, more hypnotic.

Are you according with the work that you come carrying out to diffuse the disks? What aspects would you like to improve? 
Yes and no, new material is more based on few elements meaning not so many "proge breaks" anymore, more longer climaxes and like I said, more hypnotic stuff. Extacy rock made without extasy.
We would like to improve arrangements in tracks and to do better sounds, in production way thinking and of course to do better songs!

Which are your plans to future?
Our plan is to do the next album and release it before next summer, release the remix album in January 2004 on Exogenic Records (www.exogenic.com) and try to get more gigs outside Finland. Hope everything goes out just fine like it has been going so far.

Thank you to allow us to know them. A final message for the readers of Nucleus?
Symetria, Balansia, Kaos & Hidria!

http://www.hidriaspacefolk.st