A conversation with: Petri Lindroos (Ensiferum)

22 Feb

Ensiferum are one of the leading forces in the folk metal scene. The band have gained world wide success with their intense live shows and songs that could have been used for war cries for vikings in battle. The band are now gearing up for yet another tour of Australia and are set to fill venues with shield carrying, beard stroking, sword bearing fans. Monolith-Sound had the pleasure of chatting with frontman, Petri Lindroos to find out what gear he’s been digging recently and what his opinion on the modern era of guitar gear is.

Hey, Petri, thanks for taking some time to chat, how’s it been?

Hi, Nic. It’s been good! Is about 10 in the morning here and surprisingly I’m awake, haha.

Spoken like a true Fin. What gear are you using right now, man?

Well right now we are playing with Ibanez guitars! For the amps, for me I am using the Peavy 5153 Eddie Van Halen model and Markus is playing with the Mesa Boogie Mark V.

Why do you like the 5153?

First of all I like the sound, the sound is very very good. Also it is very simple to setup. I pretty much have everything on 6 except for the volumes.

Why do you prefer this gear over others?

Our previous guitars we had were from Jackson, but the relationship between us and Jackson guitars was not that good. Ibanez approached us about 4 years ago and they were offering a way better deals, so we went with them.

What was the problem with your relationship with Jackson guitars?

Well contacting the persons was really difficult. To get any kind of response to our emails might have taken up to 4 to 6 months and if their is something wrong with the guitars or if we needed spare parts 4 to 6 months is just way too long to wait.

When on tour, do you prefer a simple approach to your gear or would you prefer to have a big rig?

Hmm…Good question! I actually use a very simple setup. I just have the guitar and the amps. It’s a very simple setup because I find having a pedal board very nightmarish for me.

If the scale of Ensiferum shows was on an arena or stadium level, do you think your rig would change?

I would still prefer going with the same setup. I don’t think having a huge pedal board and a ton of booster pedals would be for me. I like the simple setups.

Do you think that guitarists are able to achieve amazing tone without spending big? Or is how much money you have relative to how good your tone is?

I would say you definitely get you pay for! I have seen guitarists having these huge pedal boards with all these kinds of distortions, overdrives, just real mega boards. I think you’ve seem them too haha. There is just too many things that could go wrong in my opinion. For me just playing with a guitar and amp, there is already too many things that could go wrong with that, hahaha.

If you weren’t both performing vocals and guitar and just performing guitar, do you think your rig would change?

If this were the case, then i mights have a few more pedals I think. Yeah I probably would have a bit of a bigger rig so I could express myself more with just a guitar. At the moment I just have a channel switcher, haha.

Do you think big guitar rigs are appropriate these days?

Yeah why not, man! Although they are getting very good with the digital sounds these days. During festival shows, for us sometimes it would be good to just have a multi-effects with us so we could just use this instead of an amp. With amps sometimes the heads are not so good and can be worn out.

Do you think guitarists these days are leaning more towards a digital rig as apposed to a classic setup?

Yes I think so, however for us, if we have the chance to take amps out on tour with us, then we will. I’ll always be more into the sound of a real amp

What kind of stuff do you like to play on guitar whilst at home and not working on your music?

This is also a very good question! Well lately I haven’t had so much time to just like, jam with myself actually. I pretty much am just focusing on the new Ensiferum material. But what I like to do lately is to jam with 80’s stuff at home. Judas Priest and stuff like that! Keep it simple and have some Rock n’ Roll. That is very much fun.

Awesome, Petri. Thank you very much for taking the time to chat with us and we’ll see you out on the road when you come down to Australia!

Thank you, Nic. Australia is awesome, Can’t wait to get back there! See you, man!