Wintersun

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Biography

Wintersun is an extreme metal band from Helsinki, Finland|Helsinki , Finland .

Wintersun was originally created by guitarist Jari Mäenpää as a side project to folk metal band Ensiferum , for whom he was lead singer and guitarist. In 2003, Mäenpää began culling together songs that he'd been working on since 1995. These songs followed specific themes described by Mäenpää as majestic, "spacy", and melodic. While Mäenpää planned to perform and record each instrument for the first album himself, he still required a drummer. He sent demos to Kai Hahto , former member of Rotten Sound , who agreed to perform the drums.

After obtaining a record deal, Mäenpää scheduled studio time to record the first album. Ensiferum's tour to support their Iron (Ensiferum album)|2004 release was scheduled at the same time, which forced Mäenpää to request time off from the band. The band instead fired him, and Mäenpää was free to go ahead with the production of his self-titled album, Wintersun (album)|Wintersun .

After the release of Wintersun , the band found permanent members to perform shows and promote the album, although a keyboardist would never be found. In 2006, Wintersun began work on their second album, tentatively titled Time (Wintersun album)|Time . Recording began in May of that year, but the album would be the recipient of years-long delays for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was the complexity of each song's mix.

History

2003–2004: Creation and Wintersun

Jari Mäenpää began Wintersun in 2003, "to make songs that make you feel like you are floating in space." Mäenpää chose the name "Wintersun" from a list a friend had produced, later explaining, " Winter reflects the cold and stormy side of the album and also the Finnish melancholy and magic. Sun is related to the 'universe, space and stars'-feel of the album, which is also strongly connected to the lyrics." Although the songs that would appear on Wintersun had collectively been written between 1995 and 2004 (see each track's respective composition dates Wintersun (album)#Track listing|here ), Mäenpää kept his songwriting efforts primarily focused on folk metal band Ensiferum , with whom he'd been playing since 1996.

Mäenpää contacted Rotten Sound drums|drummer Kai Hahto, who, upon hearing demo tape|demos , agreed to work as the Session musician|session drummer for Wintersun . Mäenpää and Hahto recorded demo versions of "Winter Madness," "Beyond the Dark Sun," and "Death and the Healing", which were sent directly to Nuclear Blast . The label offered a contract for several albums stipulating that a three-song demo must be approved before each new album is recorded.
Even after obtaining a record deal, Mäenpää intended on keeping Wintersun as a side project during his tenure as lead vocals|lead singer and lead guitar|guitarist for Ensiferum. Unfortunately, to support the 2004 release of Ensiferum's Iron (Ensiferum album)|Iron , Spinefarm Records scheduled a European tour with dates that conflicted with recording studio|studio time Mäenpää had booked to record Wintersun . After requesting a break from the band, Mäenpää was fired from Ensiferum.
Mäenpää focused his energies on recording Wintersun despite the lack of formal band members. The vocals, guitars, bass, and keyboards on Wintersun were performed solely by Mäenpää, who was already adept at recording multi-instrumental songs, having grown up with 8- and multitrack recording|16-track equipment . Three studios were used in the making of Wintersun : drums were recorded at Tico-Tico Studios, Mäenpää's vocals, synth, and guitarwork were recorded at Sundi Coop Studios, and Nino Laurenne mixed the album at Sonic Pump Studios. Mäenpää recorded additional synth and guitar solos on his 16-track recorder.
Wintersun was released on September 13, 2004. Although Mäenpää enjoys writing his music without limiting it to any genre, the myriad styles in Wintersun have been broadly described as power metal , folk metal , melodic death metal , neo-classical metal , black metal , and Viking metal .

2004–2006: Band formation and Wintersun promotion

Inspired by Wintersun's musical direction, Kai Hahto left Rotten Sound and joined Wintersun as permanent drummer, and Jukka Koskinen , of Norther , would join Wintersun as bass guitar|bassist . Oliver Fokin, former drum kit|drummer for Ensiferum and whom Mäenpää credits as inspiring him to start playing guitar, was hired as electric guitar|guitarist . The search for a keyboardist proved to be ineffectual.

The music video for Beyond the Dark Sun was shot over a period of two days, July 3 and 4, 2004. It was film producer|produced and film director|directed by Maurice Swinkels.
On October 4, 2004, Wintersun announced the departure of Oliver Fokin as guitarist, and a suitable replacement would not be found until December 27, when Teemu Mäntysaari joined. The search for a keyboardist continued, and Wintersun was forced to use backing track|backup tapes for their future performances.

2006 onwards: Time

Recording for the second album, tentatively titled Time , began on May 2, 2006. Wintersun entered Sonic Pump Studios with Thunderstone 's Nino Laurenne as audio engineering|sound engineer . Recording of Hahto's drum tracks began on May 3. Rhythm guitars and bass were also recorded during the session. Mäenpää would record synthesizers and sampler (musical instrument)|sampling , guitar solos, steel-string acoustic guitar|acoustic guitars , vocals, and Mäntysaari's guitarwork at his apartment studio. The album will have seven songs and an intro and outro. The songs' compositions are complex, being composed of 200 to 300 tracks each.
Time would face multiple setbacks, delaying the album's release for years. On October 23, 2006, Wintersun released a statement that, because recording was continually delayed, the dates for the album's mix would be pushed back to May 2007, causing Wintersun's appearance at Ragnarök Festival that same month to be cancelled. A tentative release date for August 2007 was given.
On April 17, 2007, Mäenpää released a statement updating the status on the album, detailing that difficulties with hardware failures caused further delays in the recording process. The mix dates were cancelled, and because Laurenne's schedule at Sonic Pump Studios was full for the remainder of the year, the album's release would be pushed back further. By this time, all guitars, including solos and acoustic, were recorded, and the intro was completed. Mäenpää had begun composing and arranging the synth layers, but stress and frustration had been hindering his creativity.
Hahto issued an update on June 5, 2008, explaining that the album's delay would be indefinite. Difficulties with computer hardware were due to the limited amount of random-access memory|RAM affecting Mäenpää's ability to compose orchestrations in real time. Nuclear Blast purchased Wintersun a new laptop. The band appeared in Metalcamp in July 2008.
While technical difficulties pursued Wintersun into 2009, problems impeding the album's progress would eventually include Mäenpää's actual apartment. The increase in stress caused Mäenpää to have writer's block . Wintersun cancelled all 2009 promotional tours to focus solely on the album's completion.
On November 17, 2010 the Wintersun Official homepage was updated stating that they would again be playing live shows. Three events, , and were announced. The reason stated for these shows was a deal with their label, providing money for new computer hardware in return for playing these shows.

Band members

;Current members

Jari Mäenpää - vocals , Electric guitar|guitar (studio Electronic keyboard|keyboards , Bass guitar|bass on Wintersun )

Teemu Mäntysaari - Electric guitar|guitar

Jukka Koskinen - Bass guitar|bass

Kai Hahto - Drum kit|drums

;Former members

Oliver Fokin - guitar

Discography

;Studio albums

Wintersun (album)|Wintersun (2004), Nuclear Blast

Time (Wintersun album)|Time (TBA), Nuclear Blast

;Demos and compilations

Winter Madness (2004) – demo

Wintersun: Tour Edition (2006), Nuclear Blast – live album

Videography

Beyond the Dark Sun (2004) – music video

Live at Summer Breeze 2005 (2005) – DVD

Notes

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Wintersun


1. Bond 2. The Time 3. 3 Inches Of Blood 4. Empyrium 5. Ensiferum 6. Norther

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