Brought to you in collaboration with The Offering Webzine, we present a blazing force in modern metal: Helsinki’s heavy metal heroes Ratbreed, riding high from their debut, return to Evoke the Blaze once again. In proud partnership with the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal Alliance, this is a celebration of raw power, fierce riffs, and the relentless spirit of Finnish heavy metal.
Welcome to Ratbreed
Hey guys, how are you doing?
Mikko T, Mikko K. & Yasmin: We’re doing fine. Pretty okay, yeah, very good. Thank you.
So, Ratbreed, would you mind introducing yourself and giving us some biographical information?
Mikko K.: I’m Mikko, and I play the guitar.
Yasmin: I’m Yasmin. I’m the lead vocalist.
Mikko T.: I’m also Mikko, and I play the drums.
Starting Ratbreed back in 2015
When the band started in 2015, some changes happened. And what can you tell about how the band started and stuff like that?
Mikko T.: It was 2012, and we were jamming together. We had known each other for many years, like from 2000 or something, and we used to have this kind of Gothic dark wave band called Soul Stream years ago, and I guess their previous band split up, and we started jamming this kind of traditional metal songs.
That was the early vision that, like Megadeth, Metallica, Judas Priest, that kind of stuff. And then we had, like, good songs, and we started to think that maybe we should, you know, get a real singer here, and, you know, start to develop this sound. And there were a couple of guys who tried it, but it didn’t work out so well. But then we found Yasmin.
Finding Yasmin
Mikko K.: At the end of 2015, Yasmin joined the band and then, well, not soon after that, we got the second guitarist, Marcus, who’s not in the band anymore, but back then, I think we had most of the first album songs are ready, and then we came up with some more and recorded the first album, “Evoked the Place”, and we’ve been playing some gigs and stuff, and we’re still working on our second album.
The name of the band
Why did you choose the name Ratbreed?
Mikko K.: Who’s responsible for that? Who recalls? [laughs]
Mikko T.: I am taking. I’m to blame. I guess I’m the one. Well, it’s hard to find a good heavy metal band name, as all the good ones are taken. And so basically, I had to choose something quite catchy and you remember it, and it sort of is a bit different from the usual band names. So I thought like, dishonest people, you know, who cheat and steal from their friends and shots, and they are kind of like rats, and then, like, Hmm, rat breed, that kind of people. But it doesn’t refer to us. We don’t cheat. We are nice people, authentic metal.
The debut album of Ratbreed: “Evoke the Place”
Yeah, and you mentioned your debut album, “Evoke the Place”, released back in 2018. What can you tell about that album for its music and lyrics?
Mikko K.: Oh yeah, musically, I think when we started this band, I had three songs from the album ready, and the first songs were “Escaped from the Asylum”, “Mad World”, and “Plays from Below”. Those were the first three songs that were ready.
And then the rest of the songs came out quite quickly, after we got the full lineup and, yeah, lyric-wise, what can I say? It’s mostly like handling your inner demons or something like that. But I think the newer, newer lyrics are more broadly, like about the madness that is surrounding us, or not just in your head,
Mikko T.: For the first album, he wrote most of the songs. Marcos wrote a couple of them, but since Marcos is no longer around, I have been writing some songs now, and I also wrote lyrics, but those are about war, but I guess, I guess our lyrics are a bit dark subjects like war and depression, and demons and such like that.
For the future
Mikko K.: Yeah, light subjects.
Yasmin: Well, I think my song will be lighter, like I’ve finally started to participate in the lyric writing more. And I don’t know what hellhound is about, really, it’s gonna be cool. What do you think? What is it like, and what is the theme? Is it like a Western theme?
Mikko K.: Or kind of, yeah, yeah. But for us all, or at least for me, when I write the songs, the lyrics are always the most difficult part, and the most important part in music in general is always the music itself. Though I don’t pay that much attention to lyrics anyway, as a listener.
Mikko T.: I don’t think that I would like to write happy lyrics. That wouldn’t work.
Mikko K.: You think it doesn’t? Yeah, that’s true. That’s true.
Sharing the duties
Yeah. How does it work in your band when you are writing music? Who is the first one who comes out with the idea to do this song?
Mikko K.: This far, we have mostly done songs that one person, mostly me on the first album, came, did the whole song first, and then introduced it to the band. And of course, the shape changed a bit after we had played it with the whole band and but now we have begun to more like jamming in the rehearsal place.
Teaming Up
Like a team group?
Mikko K.: Now, yeah, maybe you could say so.
Mikko T.: I usually pick up like ideas, and I have ideas on my own, and then I start to, like, develop them, and come up with new riffs. And the hardest part is making a song because I don’t want to just put riffs after riffs. It has to have some reasonable structure. And now we have been writing together like, you know, I give him some riffs, he makes something, then it comes back and I do something. And, you know, this is the new way of writing music.
Mikko K.: Yeah, and the new album is coming slowly and steadily.
Who knows what the future will bring
So you released two singles, but as you say that you are releasing a new album, soonish or at some point, how is it going to be? What are the main differences, if you think about your songs that you are working on, compared to the previous album?
Mikko K.: I don’t know. I’m bad at analyzing stuff, but it still sounds like our Ratbreed sound, of course, Yasmin‘s voice is unique and suits as well.
Yasmin: Yeah, well, I started to think that what is different from the times around them, the first album is that now we have this new Finnish heavy metal alliance with us, and we are more active with the gigs.
The Finnish heavy metal alliance, part 1
And I think the certain circumstances, it is better to do, to be active and to make things happen. So, I think it’s affecting the possibilities we have. But it’s just, is it just me? I don’t know, but I feel like there’s a good energy, more motivation, and, yeah, it’s, it’s even something more than that. We have in the Alliance a huge power. Yeah, what do you think?
Mikko T.: I think the alliance is good.
Mikko K.: Yes, yeah, all for the ally, Alliance.
The Finnish heavy metal alliance, part 2
And let’s talk about the new wave of Finnish Heavy Metal Alliance. So, can you tell us more about this project?
Mikko K.: Yeah, was it? I think it was Larsie, the vocalist of Never Fed, who is playing here tonight. Also, he approached us and asked us to join this kind of alliance. And well, it’s good that it makes it easier to book gigs for bands that are in the same zone.
Yasmin: It’s nice to get to know the other bands that do the same thing. And the main thing is to get the finished traditional heavy metal up and create a synergy together.
Mikko T.: Um, I still think that the alliance is good.
Being on stage
So, talking about live music, what is to be on the stage? What happens in your head when you are in your body, when you are on the stage? Do you realize what you are doing, or is it just a rush or something on the script, indescribable?
Mikko K.: Yeah, of course, you realize that you’re on stage, but I think you go to some different state of mind. And maybe I have noticed that you reach the peak of that different state when the set is almost over, and then, you know, you kind of wish for it to continue, but then it’s all over before you even notice it.
Being on stage, according to Tasmine and Mikko T.
Yasmine: Yeah, well, I feel like, if I’m thinking first about singing, like it’s easier for me to say than talking and speaking, and I’m a bit of a shy kind of person, maybe, but I still enjoy being in the spotlight during the gigs. So I enjoy performing. And it’s really special.
Mikko T.: Well, five minutes before the kick, I feel like anxiety or something. Then when it starts, I’m still a bit nervous. Then, when the first song is done, I’m like, “Okay, I can handle this now”. So that’s normally how it goes on, and then you sort of start to enjoy it, like in the middle or something, and then the time’s up.
The best gig so far for Ratbreed
It goes too fast. Yeah, so far, what was the best gig, or the most memorable one, and why?
Mikko K.: Maybe when we were supporting Waltari at Kulturitaalo, when we played at the Bar Corridor, at least that’s one memorable one.
Yasmin: I had a huge urge; we need to make this happen. And even when we started the sound check, you recall that people were saying, “No, that’s not gonna work. Like, it’s, it’s, there’s too much echo”, but I had a plan. I had landed these molten fabrics, I don’t know, curtains, curtains like this, from a theater like this, really like acoustic, huge quality, thick curtains. And then we, somehow, got it stuck in there. I can’t remember that we had tape, probably with some tape, you gotta explain.
The Estonian gig
Mikko T.: And when the hallway was full of people, then the echo died anyway, so because of fat cells, but enough. And for me, the best gig was the Estonian gig, because I guess I got into the soul tone and just played like, you know, I did it, probably not one mistake, and I think the energy of the audience was also a factor in that.
Mikko K.: Tallinn was good was excellent a couple of weeks ago or a month ago or something
What did you listen to when you were a teenager? Part 1
Let’s talk about music in general, or in a way, about your influences. And I don’t want to ask about the music influences in the band, but the music influences for you as musicians. So what inspires you to do what you do?
Mikko K.: Then you have to go back to your teenage years, or even before that. Well, maybe Elvis Presley was my first rock artist. I remember my friend’s dad had these new things called CDs in the late 80s. So we discovered Elvis Presley from there.
My first hard rock or heavy metal band was AC/DC, “The Razor’s Edge” when it came out. And after that, of course, Metallica and Guns’n’Roses, Nirvana, even. But I didn’t go that deep into the grunge like Nirvana, but, and after that, some more underground metal, there started to be these Finnish bands like Amorphis and Sentenced that were huge for me in the 90s, my teenage years.
What did you listen to when you were a teenager? part 2
Yasmin: Yeah, I don’t know if it’s easiest, but I can show my tattoos because I have some. Is it showing because, of course, I have Iron Maiden, some Black Sabbath. And, but this is the first tattoo, and this is probably the most remarkable Hanoi Rocks. It’s a big story, yeah, a big story about the influence of the band, like it was the reason why I moved from Oulu, as I said to my family that I’m gonna do Hanoi Rocks, and my sister was asking, like, “Oh yeah, you’re gonna start using drugs or something”.
And I still think the same. Of course, now I’m working. I mean, the process, I have a band, and we have the Finnish Alliance. Let’s see what happens. But it’s about the attitude and, like I, they made, like, a huge, huge thing back then. And of course, I like the music.
What did you listen to when you were a teenager? part 3
Mikko T.: I guess I was like eight years old when I heard Guns’n’Roses, “Appetite for Destruction”, and that album hit, and I listened to drums a lot, like, “how is it possible to play like that?” And after that, I discovered more metal music like Anthrax and Metallica.
While I listened to Charlie Benante drumming, I was mesmerized by that, and also Metallica’s “Justice for All”; the drums were like, really great, how they suited the songs. And every little detail got obsessed with that. And later on, like more metal, more extreme metal stuff and but I, I guess Guns’N’Roses was the main motivator.
Future projects
Today you are playing here in Pori. But what’s next on your calendar? Do you have other gigs coming? And what’s on plan for the future?
Yasmin: So, Helsinki is on the 19th of July in Bar Playhouse, and Oulu is on the 30th of August.
Mikko K.: And we will write new material, try to get the songs together so we can go to the studio at some point.
Yasmin: Then we have some cool plans. Of course, it’s not only for our band, but for the Alliance. We have this plan to, like, collaborate with the new wave of the Swedish heavy metal scene, for example. And we have a gig booked. It’s not for our band, but for the others, for next year.
“The new album will come, I promise.”
We are at the end of this interview. Thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure. Would you like to say something to your fans and viewers who are watching this interview?
Mikko K.: Yes, stay tuned for the geeks and our second album that is coming someday, stay metal.
Mikko T.: Come to our shows and the new album will come, I promise. Thank you.