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English translation:

Rise from the Dead – Interview with Arched Fire

Already born in the late 1980s, Arched Fire took a “small break” before their first album.

Arched Fire has a relatively long history, but your debut is only now coming out. How has your trip been?

• The band hasn’t even been together for three years, but there was a 30-year break in between, the collective answers.
• Arched Fire operated in Kemijärvi in 1989–90 and was the first gigging band for all of us. At that time there was no talk of making records, because we were 14-15 years old and far away from everything.
• When Arched Fire ended, we moved to different parts of Finland, but everyone continued to play. Much later we met on social media and were inspired to try out what Arched Fire would sound like now. When a singer was finally – we wanted one already back in the day – found, we decided to make a record.

What was the process of creating your album?

• Remote Control is a good name for the album because it had to be done remotely. We live far from each other and then the pandemic hit. Demos were circulated among the band until the songs were ready to be recorded. There was a slightly larger group of us present in the studio, for example when we were recording drums.
• No matter what the situation was, working on the album never felt painful. With the help of modern technology, it was easy to discuss songs and record, even if we didn’t meet face to face that often. It was fun to record guitars at home when it suited you and inspiration struck. Everyone had the same goal and fire to make this record, and the collaboration and playing worked really well.

Are the lyrics just for fun or do the lyrics have a deeper point?

• There is a point in them. The album’s lyrics reflect on man’s relationship with power, and each song approaches the issue from a different perspective. Back on Track is about the power of substance abuse, Remote-Controlled End social media and Crawling Down about the power of passion.
• …And Ride Away, on the other hand, is a song about breaking free from power, A.T.W. about power in numbers, Wormhole about raising children, Escape about subjugation, Futile about taking control of life, and From Dust to Dust about death.

Your music comes clearly from the 1980s speed/thrash department. Are you eager to follow the current trend of the genre or are you stuck on the favorites of your youth?

• The band listens to a variety of music, great songs can be found wherever from gospel to black metal. Among the “newer” bands of the speed/thrash department, i.e. after the turn of the 90s, we’ve listened especially to Mokoma, Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb, Evile and Lost Society.
• Of course, nothing beats old speed/thrash, and we’ve been listening to it again because of Arched Fire. We wanted to make a record with the dynamics of old metal with the sound quality of the new era.

What are your concrete goals for Remote Control?

• In the beginning, we mainly wanted to finish the things that were once left unfinished. Now that the Italian Wormholedeath Records is working on our so distribution and promotion, the goal is to get the album heard by others.
• and since the song From Dust to Dust features professor Esko Valtaoja, the goals are literally high. First we’ll make our breakthrough in the astronomer circles, then we’ll conquer the whole universe!

Published in Inferno 4/2021