“It’s always hard to predict the mood of the Brothers when we start a new project,” says Mikko von Hertzen. Yet the Von Hertzen Brothers – Kie the eldest, Mikko in the middle and Jonne the youngest – seem to be in a very upbeat mood on their ninth album. The trio’s sound has always spanned a range of influences, but with In Murmuration they’ve blended their prog stylings with a generous shot of sunny power pop.
“The basic root of the band is very much in 70s rock, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin,” says Mikko. But alongside the pantheon of British rock royalty, as teenagers the brothers encountered American power pop and Seattle garage rock through bands like Big Star, The Posies and Dinosaur Jr.
“We were 18 to 21 years old, and we were very much affected by that,” says Mikko. “That lingered in the background and every now and then it pops up in our music. If you look at ’90 to ’94, it was full of great albums, like [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Blood Sugar Sex Magik, everything that came out of Seattle [including] Soundgarden with the two best albums they made. We were sponges, taking everything in from what we heard on MTV.”
With its bouncy riffs, effervescent energy, and a notable lack of extended instrumental sections, In Murmuration feels closest in spirit to 2013’s Nine Lives rather than their prog-heavy recent outings.
“I would say that War Is Over, in 2017, was a really epic prog rock thing,” says Mikko, “whereas in 2022 when Red Alert In The Blue Forest came out, that was very pandemic era – thoughtful, slow, long songs. It was more laid-back, contemplative in a way. With this album, we felt like it would be so fun to have something which is a little happier with riffs, good choruses, shorter songs. It’s like a reaction to what we’ve done just before.”
What’s immediately striking about In Murmuration is the strength of the songwriting, with an abundance of big hooks and anthemic choruses. The Brothers have scored three No.1 albums in their native Finland, so if anyone knows the secret to crafting catchy tunes, it should be Mikko, Kie and Jonne. Turns out the key involves a silent film star.
“I don’t want to sound like I think we know what we’re doing, exactly, but it always boils down to the melody,” says Mikko. “There are certain techniques you can use when you write a melody. You can use major and minor chords next to each other so that you create that Charlie Chaplin effect, like you’re hopeful but then you’re a little bit miserable. It’s melodramatic.”
It’s an aspect of composition that Mikko has studied in some depth, because he teaches songwriting to kids in Finland, and he picks out the chorus from A Good Life, the second song on In Murmuration, as a case study.
“There’s a perfect example of being cheerful and then right afterwards you’re melancholic,” he observes. “You’re playing with the listener’s emotions, throwing these little hooks into them. They get attached and that creates the feeling of a good chorus, something you want to sing. We learned how to write these really good melodies – this sounds very egotistical – that people remember and want to sing along to. It comes with experience and understanding how it’s done.”
Thematically, the album is divided into halves: the first explores environmentalism and conservation, expressed in the title and the image of birds in flight on the cover. It’s no coincidence that the Brothers’ father was an ornithologist and Jonne has a sideline as a nature photographer. Red Alert In The Blue Forest addressed the destruction of woodlands and habitat loss, now In Murmuration continues in that vein.
“We were talking about cutting down the forests and how we are losing so many species because of that,” says Mikko. “I had the idea of starlings in my head because so many times I’ve found myself mesmerised looking at their murmuration because it’s so beautiful, it’s amazing to watch.”
The album’s ornithological side has led to a collaboration with British comic book artist Charlie Adlard, who’s worked on The Walking Dead and 2000AD. The band met Adlard at the Prog Awards in 2013 when they won Anthem Of The Year for Flowers And Rust.
“Charlie came to congratulate us, I talked to him quite a bit, we were already thinking then it would be so fun to do something together,” says Mikko.
Life happened, years flew by until Mikko contacted Adlard to ask if he’d like to hear In Murmuration, and they decided to join forces to raise money for conservation efforts with Adlard creating illustrations based on the music.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure what we’re going to do with all of them,” says Mikko, “but we’re going to have them out there somehow and sell them with handwritten lyrics or something. All the proceeds will go to BirdLife International for protecting the birds. That’s the idea.”
The second half of the record, starting with the song Tightrope Walker, explores the emotional stages of a breakup.
“It deals with a bad relationship turning into separation and longing and acceptance. In psychology when a relationship comes to a close, you go through phases,” says Mikko. “It starts from a bad relationship, in need of The Change, Separation, then Snowstorm, where you feel like you’re lost because something has really changed in your life. Then at the end, Wait For Me is a ballad that has that longing for something else or something beautiful.”
In the album’s press notes, Mikko jokes that In Murmuration sees the Brothers casting off their “prog wizard cloaks”, like some sort of reverse Rick Wakeman effect.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1729078929/articles/W93LBkZUk1729412109466/9997707296.jpg]
“I had Rick on my mind when I wrote that,” he confirms.
Yet he’s lost none of his love and admiration for progressive rock and those influences are still present, even if they’re not foregrounded as fully on this album as they have been in the past. For Mikko, the appeal of the great prog bands is in their ability to throw themselves into the music with total abandon.
“Looking at these great 70s prog rock bands, you can see that they go into a zone, and they are the wizards,” he says. “They create this elixir that people want to drink. We find ou...
“The basic root of the band is very much in 70s rock, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin,” says Mikko. But alongside the pantheon of British rock royalty, as teenagers the brothers encountered American power pop and Seattle garage rock through bands like Big Star, The Posies and Dinosaur Jr.
“We were 18 to 21 years old, and we were very much affected by that,” says Mikko. “That lingered in the background and every now and then it pops up in our music. If you look at ’90 to ’94, it was full of great albums, like [Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Blood Sugar Sex Magik, everything that came out of Seattle [including] Soundgarden with the two best albums they made. We were sponges, taking everything in from what we heard on MTV.”
With its bouncy riffs, effervescent energy, and a notable lack of extended instrumental sections, In Murmuration feels closest in spirit to 2013’s Nine Lives rather than their prog-heavy recent outings.
“I would say that War Is Over, in 2017, was a really epic prog rock thing,” says Mikko, “whereas in 2022 when Red Alert In The Blue Forest came out, that was very pandemic era – thoughtful, slow, long songs. It was more laid-back, contemplative in a way. With this album, we felt like it would be so fun to have something which is a little happier with riffs, good choruses, shorter songs. It’s like a reaction to what we’ve done just before.”
What’s immediately striking about In Murmuration is the strength of the songwriting, with an abundance of big hooks and anthemic choruses. The Brothers have scored three No.1 albums in their native Finland, so if anyone knows the secret to crafting catchy tunes, it should be Mikko, Kie and Jonne. Turns out the key involves a silent film star.
“I don’t want to sound like I think we know what we’re doing, exactly, but it always boils down to the melody,” says Mikko. “There are certain techniques you can use when you write a melody. You can use major and minor chords next to each other so that you create that Charlie Chaplin effect, like you’re hopeful but then you’re a little bit miserable. It’s melodramatic.”
It’s an aspect of composition that Mikko has studied in some depth, because he teaches songwriting to kids in Finland, and he picks out the chorus from A Good Life, the second song on In Murmuration, as a case study.
“There’s a perfect example of being cheerful and then right afterwards you’re melancholic,” he observes. “You’re playing with the listener’s emotions, throwing these little hooks into them. They get attached and that creates the feeling of a good chorus, something you want to sing. We learned how to write these really good melodies – this sounds very egotistical – that people remember and want to sing along to. It comes with experience and understanding how it’s done.”
Thematically, the album is divided into halves: the first explores environmentalism and conservation, expressed in the title and the image of birds in flight on the cover. It’s no coincidence that the Brothers’ father was an ornithologist and Jonne has a sideline as a nature photographer. Red Alert In The Blue Forest addressed the destruction of woodlands and habitat loss, now In Murmuration continues in that vein.
“We were talking about cutting down the forests and how we are losing so many species because of that,” says Mikko. “I had the idea of starlings in my head because so many times I’ve found myself mesmerised looking at their murmuration because it’s so beautiful, it’s amazing to watch.”
The album’s ornithological side has led to a collaboration with British comic book artist Charlie Adlard, who’s worked on The Walking Dead and 2000AD. The band met Adlard at the Prog Awards in 2013 when they won Anthem Of The Year for Flowers And Rust.
“Charlie came to congratulate us, I talked to him quite a bit, we were already thinking then it would be so fun to do something together,” says Mikko.
Life happened, years flew by until Mikko contacted Adlard to ask if he’d like to hear In Murmuration, and they decided to join forces to raise money for conservation efforts with Adlard creating illustrations based on the music.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure what we’re going to do with all of them,” says Mikko, “but we’re going to have them out there somehow and sell them with handwritten lyrics or something. All the proceeds will go to BirdLife International for protecting the birds. That’s the idea.”
The second half of the record, starting with the song Tightrope Walker, explores the emotional stages of a breakup.
“It deals with a bad relationship turning into separation and longing and acceptance. In psychology when a relationship comes to a close, you go through phases,” says Mikko. “It starts from a bad relationship, in need of The Change, Separation, then Snowstorm, where you feel like you’re lost because something has really changed in your life. Then at the end, Wait For Me is a ballad that has that longing for something else or something beautiful.”
In the album’s press notes, Mikko jokes that In Murmuration sees the Brothers casting off their “prog wizard cloaks”, like some sort of reverse Rick Wakeman effect.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1625747790/1729078929/articles/W93LBkZUk1729412109466/9997707296.jpg]
“I had Rick on my mind when I wrote that,” he confirms.
Yet he’s lost none of his love and admiration for progressive rock and those influences are still present, even if they’re not foregrounded as fully on this album as they have been in the past. For Mikko, the appeal of the great prog bands is in their ability to throw themselves into the music with total abandon.
“Looking at these great 70s prog rock bands, you can see that they go into a zone, and they are the wizards,” he says. “They create this elixir that people want to drink. We find ou...
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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 154