“Being on stage is the foundation of our band” – Interview with Shereign

There are few bands in the land of a thousand lakes that combine power, heaviness and melody like the Finnish band Shereign. Release after release, they have shown that their melodic alternative metal is unique, not only because of the quality of the songs, but mainly because of the friendship and synergy that the band has on stage (or wherever they are).

On February 28th, Black Halo, the group’s second album, was released. Chaoszine had the pleasure of talking to the whole band before the release show in the capital Helsinki. It was a fun and honest chat about the latest record, playing live and future plans. Check it out!

From the release of the singles to the full album, which was released just a bit more than a week ago, how has the feedback from fans and media been, both on social networks and in person?

Sara Strömmer: The overall feedback of Black Halo has been very positive. We have already received, like, four stars out of five from Desibeli, Inferno, and then Kaaoszine. A lot of musician friends have been complimenting that this is a very solid album.

Jope Salminen: It’s been really positive comments, especially about the sound. That it’s sounding, like, really international. It’s nice to hear that we are starting to reach some kind of bigger heights, so to speak.

Sara: This is actually the first album with Jope, our drummer after Miikki. So he did, actually, a very good job, so I think that is also a big part of why the whole album sounds, like, whole. He really put his effort on it and showed. Of course, I’m proud of you guys, too.

Timo Pönni: Oh, really? (laughs)

You always show behind-the-scenes on social media, but there are many moments of this process that are not recorded in videos or photos. In the future, when you think about Black Halo, what do you think will be the first memory that comes to mind from the production of this work?

Jope: The first thing that Joonas said to me before we started recording was, like, let’s put a lot of blast beats in it. And eventually, we only just had one song with blast in it (laughs). But yeah, we just wanted to make a really solid or heavier sound than the previous one. Well, after he sent me the demos, we started kind of planning more heavier drums than in the previous ones. That’s the first thing that comes to mind.

Timo: And the same goes with the other instruments also.

Sara: Yeah! Everything went heavier. For me, I had this writer’s block before I started doing lyrics for the Black Halo. So I contacted Mikko Herranen, who eventually recorded, and also mixed and mastered our album. He was, like, being a mentor for the songwriting and the lyrics writing. He really helped me to be honest to myself, because I was dealing with my mother’s passing. And then came my friend’s passing. Everything passed. So those are very difficult topics to be writing about. So he helped me a lot. So maybe when I’m thinking about Black Halo, I’m also remembering our moments in the studio with Mikko, because they were very intimate and intensive and everything. How about Joonas? You practically composed these songs.

Joonas Pulkkinen: We played the Ghost Diaries songs live and we all know we missed some kind of new style. Some heaviness. When I went to my studio and started writing, my life was painful and I just put all the worries in the album. I think that’s why it’s heavier, but there is also some soul, really.

I loved the sound quality of this new album. It sounds clear, strong and very organic, different from what many bands do nowadays, with an over-processed sound. How did working with producer Mikko Herranen help Shereign to take the next step as a band?

Sara: Well, for me, it was already from the beginning of processing the lyrics and the vocal melodies. He was always confronting me. Like, why do you want to do this, Sara? Do you really want to do this, this way? Or can you find another way? Always trying to get me to think new opportunities to express myself. That really helped me to improve myself in the vocals and also in lyrics. So it was very fruitful. Then in the recording phase, we took our time just to get everything top-notch and we did not compromise, because Mikko has this golden ear to hear every detail and every missed note. He was always like, “Nah, Sara, you can do better!”, if he heard any mistakes. So finally I can say, with Ghost Diaries, we had less money and time to do those vocals, so you can hear me having some problems with my tone of voice and the pitch. So now I wanted everything to be perfect and with Mikko, I was able to do that.

Joonas: I can say about the instrumental, that we all together wanted the same: Let’s make it perfect!

Reading some of the lyrics of this album, we can see that the themes of dealing with the end and death are recurrent in songs like “One Way Out” and “Deathtrap”. How therapeutic and transformative is this process of writing about themes that you have personally experienced?

Sara: I had the writer’s block, as I mentioned. So after getting it open, I was able to be honest about my feelings and to say things that I would never say out loud to anyone else. For example, “Weak and bitter” is the moment when I doubt everything in my life. There’s the phrase in the second verse: “I hate myself for letting myself down for over that ‘grass is greener on the other side'”. I was totally doing some really deep self-searching and blaming myself for everything. Usually I express myself in bad things to some extent to my band members, but we always try to keep a positive vibe going on in the band. Although we can talk about hard stuff, I could allow myself to say all the bad things in the lyrics. That was also because of the Empress of Darkness. She actually appeared to me, in the spring of 2024. She was like this phenomenon, creature, entity, that I could feel her presence. It was very pressuring because of all of the death and sorrow. So maybe that was my mind’s way of coping with the losses and with all the deaths. So came this weird creature that had power over me and then I reflected on everybody else, because the world is also very sick and people are not always feeling their best. So I started to think more of her influence. Could there be a greater power that influences us all, that makes us feel so bad and miserable in our lives? So the process was interesting.

Shereign’s name is already known here in Finland, but at the same time there is a community of fans around the world who follow and interact with you, who have never seen the band abroad. How has it been to know that your music reaches people everywhere and interacts with them?

Sara: Well, we would first of all like to interact with them more and we are trying to find ways to have shows abroad. But it’s expensive and it takes time to get the right connections. So in the meanwhile we are trying to be active through social media, reaching out and answering all the messages that the fans from abroad send to us.

Jope: At the moment it’s still manageable and it’s still kind of a small band in a sense. You can still interact with everybody, so of course we want to share the memories everybody has on the show. And obviously we want to go abroad and see how people enjoy our music there. Of course it’s always a dream to go somewhere else than Finland. Even though Finland is a cool place. (laughs)

Sara: Nice place to live. (laughs)

Jope: It would be awesome to go to South America or somewhere. Watching a lot of other big bands or other friends who have gone there and toured, it’s just crazy there compared to Finland. I just want to see it for myself.

Joonas: Yeah, we are planning to go touring abroad, we just don’t know when.

Sara: Like Jope said, at this level when we are not that big of a band, we can respond to the fans and that’s a great thing. I’m a little bit afraid of if we get big, then we are not able to respond to everyone. But let’s take it one step at a time.

For those who follow Shereign, you know that the experience of seeing you live is something very special, because the friendship and quality of the band is very nice and fun to watch. How important is being on stage for you?

Timo: Extremely important.

Sara: I think that is the foundation of our band. When Joonas first asked me to be the singer in 2018, he was like highlighting that this is a live band. We are not going to just idle around. We have to go and do live shows. Then when we were searching for the drummer, we also wanted to highlight that we are an active live band. That is our goal.

Jope: I always live by the principle that you go and watch a live show. You can always listen to the album back home, but you always go and enjoy and watch the live show. I admire bands like Dream Theater, but most of the time it’s a little bit dull because most of them just play everything so accurately but none of them even move there. I really like their music, but I’m only going to check them out live once, because now I have seen this band.

Timo: For me this is my dream team. There are not too many bands with the same kind of connection. I think you can see it.

Joonas: Our goal is the same. Go play live and enjoy!

Jope: Also back when I applied to the band a year and a half ago. Before I applied I went to check out some fan footage online, to see if those guys are more like live band portraits…

Sara: Sitting ducks! (laughs)

Jope: Yeah, sitting ducks (laughs). When I saw one of your shows… I think it was at the festival Tuhdimmat Tahdit in Tampere. Sara even said later that she was half dead because she was sick, but everybody else was having fun and going crazy. So, okay, this looks good for me!

Sara: When we actually saw Jope’s application video to be our drummer, he was all over the place, tongue hanging out from his mouth and doing these crazy eye movements. And we were like, yeah. This is where we’re going!

Timo: First we thought, is this too much? No, this is crazy enough.

New album released and the first shows of the year happening, but what else can we expect from Shereign in the coming months? Could you leave a final message?

Everyone: More shows!

Sara: I have been very actively doing collaboration with Ikinä band. We did this Jumalatar song together with me plus 17 metal female singers in Finland. So we are going to have a mutual gig with Ikinä and Cyan Kicks, and we’ll play in Turku at Nirvana with Without Warning. And then comes the summer festival shows. There’s the Nummirock, Metallivuori, Saarihelvetti. Of course our biggest wish is to have lots of shows that we can promote our album and maybe at some point we are going to start thinking about a third album, but one thing at a time. First we go live.

Joonas: I have started…

Timo: But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Shows first!

Joonas: Then back to the studio… but not yet! (laughs)

Words by John Wins
Photos by Andy Johansson

You can listen to Shereign‘s new album “Black Halo” here: