Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
In a new interview with SDTV – Stonedead Festival, Battle Beast founding member and bassist Eero Sipilä alongside new vocalist Marina La Torraca discussed the band’s major lineup shift following the departure of longtime frontwoman Noora Louhimo, as per Blabbermouth. During the conversation, La Torraca shared her perspective on joining the group and putting her own artistic stamp on their material.
It’s a big honor. That’s the first thing I’d like to say. I’m super honored. It’s a mix of feelings, because we’ve been working super hard, playing this whole summer season. And summer season is also — it’s always a bit more demanding than a regular tour. We were just talking about that, ’cause there’s a lot of traveling, there’s a lot of sometimes not sleeping, playing two shows in a row that you didn’t sleep to the other one. And I’m just being thrown in the lion pit from the beginning. First was the Asian tour [in March], and then we had, like, a small break that was not really a break. We were already rehearsing for this and doing other stuff. The boys have had a lot to do as well, because, yeah, everything happened super fast, with Noora’s departing the band, and then me joining. That was just, like, ‘Okay. Go, go, go.’
Sipilä detailed the selection process that ultimately led to bringing La Torraca on board as their new singer.
Well, we really had to think on our feet when, late last summer, Noora announced that she was gonna leave. [We were], like, ‘Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. We need to get a new singer now.’ We even already had shows booked. And, well, I was a bit kind of catatonic. I was, like, ‘Ugh, I don’t know what to do.’ But thankfully, Joona [Björkroth], our lead guitar player, was really Johnny-on-the-spot, and he immediately started… working like clockwork, looking out for new singers. And we did absolutely did not end up with a shortlist of or any kind or different plans. We just were, like, ‘Here’s Marina. She sounds great. She seems great. Let’s ask her. Let’s see what she responds.’ And the rest is history. There was no list. There was no list. We just had Marina. She was the only person we considered asking, the only person we asked. And in hindsight, I’m happy that things went like that because, if we would have had more time to think and consider and rethink, things could have gone a lot worse, if you start questioning yourself, ‘Oh, is she the perfect person after all?’ But we really had to think on our feet.
La Torraca added:
Yeah, because the thing is you never know. You really never know. And then, of course, if you’re putting on paper qualities from a person and another, and it’s, like, what am I gonna…? You know, the singing this and the personality this… And now that I know these guys, I can also understand a little bit more. It’s kind of an intuition group decision that was made, and then you guys were, like, ‘Okay, let’s stick to it.’ It was not a casting, an elaborate casting, because I’ve worked in musical theater, and I know what months of audition is like, and then you’re like next phase, and next phase, and I’ve been there. So I was expecting actually something like that. I was, like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be like an audition process.’ But it wasn’t.
And Sipilä stated:
Yeah, but sometimes you really need to take that leap of faith, and this was that kind of situation for us. There is no other way to do it. We can’t go on a two-year hiatus and then discreetly start looking for people. We just have [to be], like, ‘We need to go now. Let’s go with her.’
Additionally, La Torraca outlined Battle Beast’s upcoming plans for recording and releasing new music featuring her on lead vocals.
To be honest, we’re just doing, like, a big experiment. We’re gonna start right after the summer season is over. Yeah, we’re gonna see what we’re gonna do, because Battle Beast has always written like this, I think, from what I’ve heard. They don’t have a formula. It’s not like… They feel it, and then they write what they want to, what they believe in. Yeah. Like, ‘This is good.’ So we’ll try to get to that. As long as what we’re doing is good, then I’m not even caring much, like, ‘Is this my stamp? Is this my signature?’ It’s not really about that. But it’s more, like, ‘Let’s see what we can create together and make it good.’
