Syncfactory - Interview

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Published on Monday, 06 March 2017 00:41

Interview with: Mika, Petri, Janne
Conducted by: Evgeniy
Edited by: T.V.

A young but promising electro industrial project named Syncfactory comes from Finland. This band was formed in 2009, but was not familiar to wide public untill now. Everything started as a one-man-project, when Mika Mikkola wanted to have a vehicle for expressing his musical visions. These hot Finnish guys are ready to present their proper debut full-length work called Panopticon to us, which was released on 16th December through Russian label Insane Records label. Our friend Evgeniy from Insane Records was kind enough and did a very interesting interview with Syncfactory, they talked mostly about the new album, influences, inspirations and who Syncfactory really are. So, let’s begin…

Evgeniy: Hello guys, first of all, I would like to welcome you to our website and know a little about each one of you. Tell us a few words about yourselves.
Mika: Thank you very much and first of all I want to say hello to all in there! I personally compose and program music for Syncfactory and arrange lyrics to songs.
Petri: I mainly write the lyrics and help Mika arranging them into the compositions. I also act as a squash wall for Mika's ideas, and carry out additional tasks like graphic design.
Janne: hello from me also. My job are vocals in studio and live and also being pain in the ass at the studio.
Evgeniy: Syncfactory is trying to bring some interesting sounds to dark electro scene...
Mika: Sure we are trying to bring our points of view and sound to the dark electro scene. We also hope that there are new elements and ideas included in our songs for the listener.
Evgeniy: Syncfactory is a brand new name in the industrial/electro scene and we have very little information about you. Tell us how was your project formed and what is your mission?
Mika: Originally Syncfactory was formed by me in 2009, when he started making music under the Syncfactory project name. I asked for some lyrics from Petri and started to express musical ideas under the Syncfactory moniker. In 2009 Syncfactory self-released Rhymes In Minor album, and in 2014 Janne Vilen joined the group and took a place as the main vocalist. Janne is also known from the Finnish EBM band Oldschool Union. From then on we have worked together and Syncfactory is what it is today! Our main goal has always been to create the kind of music that we enjoy ourselves and we hope that we find also an audience who likes similar music all around the world.
Evgeniy: Your debut long-play Panopticon was just released. What are your hopes and expectations of its release?
Mika: We hope that everyone will find something they like from this release. No matter what. Songs, lyrics, vocals,... We hope this album will entertain you in some way – be it rhythm, melodies, or food for thoughts.

Evgeniy: We found the 2010 edition of the album Rhymes In Minor on the site. Tell us a little about it, please.
Mika: Rhymes In Minor was a release that originally meant to be for our own amusement only, to try out some musical ideas, nothing more. All those 13 songs are from the very beginning of our project and the first songs we ever made. The record was finished without leaving any songs behind – everything we wrote also made it to the record. This album has never been meant for big public audience. Lyrics were written by Petri. It’s funny that some of those lyrics were never written as such originally; they contain different kinds of stories.
Evgeniy: The LP announcement states that this thematic work is not tied to any common theme, on the contrary every track has its own story. Is it true?
Mika: Yes, songs and lyrics on Panopticon are not following any all-consuming theme. But we still tried to collect songs which are quite close to each other to make a coherent whole. Every track is its own story. Partial reason for this is that on this album there are three different lyric writers, two guest writers besides Petri, but we never intended to make this a strict theme album anyway, we simply wanted to include the best songs from the recent years that still would make a coherent whole on this album.
Evgeniy: Panopticon is thoroughly imbued with old school sound of the 90s, so we really can use #oldschooldarkelectro hashtag. Is it your personal musical preferences or an impact of something else?
Mika: Maybe that hashtag is quite a close match for this release and the songs we have made. We make music that we like ourselves, and many influences just come from the past; we have listened to industrial/dark electo/EBM for like 20 years and our sound is a natural result of what we have grown up with.
Evgeniy: We can hear harsh, rigid, but still melodic sound on Panopticon. Can we consider this release a brutal music album?
Mika: We try to keep melodies the main thing in most of our songs, with harsh leads and sounds. We didn’t make this album overly hard and brutal, we would say it is quite an easy-to-approach album with some aggressive edges.
Evgeniy: There are two remixes on the album, and judging by the names, they are by little-known projects, one of which is Finnish. I have noticed recently, there has been a burst of new names on electro industrial scene, I know at least several young Finnish groups. What do you think is the reason?
Mika: In Finland, there are not that many bands in the dark electronic scene. Seems that many old and new groups are ready again to make more new material and new music under new project names and with new people. We also hope that more new projects will step ahead and raise their head. There are talented artists all around who are just waiting to be found!

Evgeniy: What musicians have inspired you to make Syncfactory?
Mika: Originally there were a lot of bands who inspired me from the past, like albums from: Leaether Strip, :Wumpscut:, Fortification 55, Suicide Commando, L'áme Immortelle, Diary Of Dreams and many movie soundtrack composers. These bands have made me what I am today and inspired me into making music.
Janne: My inspirations for this project lay in Front Line Assembly, Suicide Commando, Leaether Strip, Skinny Puppy and many more.
Petri: The lyrics are mainly inspired by other things than musicians, but it could be argued that the overall feeling for many of them has been lovingly adapted from the likes of Front 242, Frontline Assembly, Diary Of Dreams, Leaether Strip, :Wumpscut: and Depeche Mode, to name a few.
Evgeniy: How do you create and record your music, it all begins and ends with what?
Mika: It starts with lead melodies with raw harsh sounds I personally like. All usually starts with a metronome “tic tac” sound and ends with vocal recording and hard mixing. But sometimes things start with the lyrics and some deeper thoughts and the process follows an opposite direction to what I just described.
Evgeniy: I know that some of you have other musical projects, tell us about them. 
Mika: Janne is part of an old school EBM project called Oldschool Union. Oldschool Union was actually the first old school EBM group who sings in the Finnish language with political messages with an attitude.
Evgeniy: Finally I would like to know about your tour plans?
Mika: At the moment we are very busy with our full-time day/night jobs and are not planning any full-scale tours, although we may throw some gigs in the local area. Regular jobs are sometimes bad for the music, but unfortunately need to be done first.
Evgeniy: Thanks for taking your time with the interview!
Mika: Thank you for the interest!

Syncfactory links: Official website, Facebook
Insane Records links: Official website, Facebook, Bandcamp

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