Interview:
Fractured Spine as a band name takes your mind to a Death Grind kind of band. Who came up with the name and how accurate (still) is for the band nowadays?
Antti: This is probably the most common question we get in interviews and as always, Timo can answer as he originally came up with it.
Timo: It is as accurate as ever. It is just easily misunderstood by many, it seems, and I guess I can understand why.
Unlike some physical spine it refers to the mental ”spine” all of us have. Your self-esteem, character and mental health. All of these can be broken when things go really badly down the drain.
You started a real quest of releasing 4 new EPs in 2017 and 2018, please tell us what's that about and if possible present us a bit the four EPs. Why 4 EPs and not an album and an EP (as one of them is made of only covers)?
Antti: The short answer is that they're concept EPs, each very different both musically and thematically.
The long answer is that we started to have quite a bit of material we wanted to release, but there was simply too much diversity for it to work as a single release. Granted, we mix different genres within our album releases, but the EPs go way beyond that.
"The Price of Retribution" started as Timo's lyrical concept and is musically closest to our albums. Timo took care of all the vocals as well. However, clean vocals are nearly absent and more jazz influences incorporated. This was quite a huge project for a small band like us to compose, structure, practise, record and produce. Our mixer, Jeffro Lackscheide, will probably agree that it was not an easy task to mix, either. But he really did a great job.
"Failed Pieces" is the complete opposite: excluding the 2nd track "Tru", the songs on this release are not metal. In fact they're very minimalistic and don't even utilize drums. The lyrical concept narrates four stories of failing our lives in different ways, with the name of the EP referring to its songwriting. All songs were written years ago, treated as ultimately failed compositions and nearly deleted before we finally decided to publish them. "Tru" was "rescued" from the digital bin twice and I was always quite unsure as to what to do with the song. I sang the vocals myself on this release.
"Stolen Pieces" is a homage to some of the artists and bands that have greatly influenced our songwriting. The idea was to choose songs that we could interpret in our own way. There are songs from the atmospheric rock band ShamRain, the singer-songwriter-pianist Vienna Teng and the gothic metal band To/Die/For. This is another non-metal release and also the last one to feature my (lead) vocals.
"Remains" will be the last of these concept releases, going musically back to 2008 and our first demo "Frost", for the anniversary. Essentially, this means simpler, melodic songs with clean vocals that Timo will be taking care of. The lyrical concept revolves around of what remains to remember us by, after what we've done.
Timo: Yeah, had these EPs been compiled as an album, it would've been very inconsistent. Four very different concepts.
It seems that after the collaboration with Inverse Records for your two albums, you've decided to go independent. How come? Will you continue this way, or still search for a suitable label?
Antti: Well noticed! It's probably worth clarifying on how the "Failed Pieces" EP is distributed. I wanted to make this particular release a small "fan-only" thing, meaning it won't be uploaded to YouTube, streaming services like Spotify/Deezer, digital marketplaces like iTunes/Amazon or even (I hope) to torrent networks, heh. Inverse has handled our previous releases well and we'll be continuing with them with the upcoming ones.
Timo: In fact we worked with Inverse with "The Price of Retribution", too. Only "Failed Pieces" was released differently.
Beside the obvious Gothic, Doom and Death influences, you have also mentioned you've been inspired by genres outside of the Metal spectre, can you please detail? How would you describe your music to someone who haven't heard of Fractured Spine, how would you sell your music?
Antti: My daily playlist consists of smooth jazz & easy listening, modern blues, classical, celtic music (both traditional & modern) + other folk, shoegazing, progressive rock, indie rock and dozens of singer-songwriters (mainly pianists & cellists). Some of such influences tend to creep into the music you're writing. I tune it down by limiting this to the timing and rhythm of our songs, with the more audible role of the Yamaha Silent Cello, Ibanez semiacoustic jazz guitar and Danelectro baritone guitar. Some backing synths may be influenced by a particular classical piece or even electronic music, but are rarely loud enough in the final mix to draw attention.
As for selling and describing music, now that's the part I've always hated. We've often defined our genre as "atmospheric death/doom metal", but we've never targeted a specific audience or given thought to what kind of music would sell. If anything, I generally try to break up traditional song structures and surprise the listener with constantly changing, multi-part songs. I'm a fan of underground and indie music, so targeting an audience just for money is simply a big no-no.
Timo: On the other hand, I am an extreme metal fanatic. I love to bring death/doom to the music with an occasional black metal vibes mostly influenced by newer Swallow the Sun, for example. I am also a fan of ambient and atmospheric music. Categorization sucks big time but if you really must then I guess it would be atmospheric or gothic death/doom. We have a recognizable sound, I think. There is just no other word for it other than FS.
The band is a duo for a long time now. Do you plan on remaining a duo, or to add more musicians and eventually to play live, too?
Antti: Unlikely, but you never know. There is a certain amount of musical freedom with a smaller line-up.
Timo: Things tend to get more complicated when more people, their schedules and artistic visions get added to the mix. And even more so when the live element comes along. With this current setting you can do whatever the hell you want, whenever. On our own terms. There were plans to bring a friend of ours to play the guitar in the band during the recording process of "Memoirs of a Shattered Mind", even some talks about starting a live band, but those plans kind of withered away for some reason. There was all kinds of hell raising at the time.
By the way, how important do you think is the live activity for a band? How have you managed to draw such a big following (at least on Facebook)? Is feedback important for you? Are you influenced by the feedback you get from the audience?
Antti: If you're trying to make money out of it, you have to play live. That's the way it is these days. It's really quite hard to tell how "popular" or "known" your band is. For some reason, our first demos "Frost" and "Eerie Messages" already generated quite some interest, gaining us a lot of followers on social media. However, it's important to remember a Facebook "like" doesn't necessarily mean a thing. We focus in music, not social media. Receiving e-mails from our listeners is awesome, though!
Feedback is always interesting and in many ways important, but you can't let it influence the genre and style of music you're writing. Trying to please everyone simply won't work. As one might expect, writing eclectic releases essentially creates two types of feedback: first you'll get positive feedback from your mixing & mastering engineers, for the sole reason of the release not being "another monotonous and repetitive album". Then you can only hope your fans will like it as well.
Occasionally you'll stumble upon the second type of feedback: someone happened to like one (usually the simplest) track on the album, stating how the band should only stick to this specific style. This kind of feedback is quickly discarded, because in such a case it's obvious the band's and listener's musical tastes differ greatly.
Timo: For some bands live act is what counts the most and why music is written in the first place. But then there are numerous one or two man bands that make music only for the record and have no interest in entertaining people per se. Of course you would have to tour like a maniac if you wanted to do this for living. Live concerts and merchandise is what matters most during these times when album sales keep declining. Only the vinyl format still sells nicely. About the importance of feedback. When you hear that somebody loves what you do, it feels awesome of course and feels like you're doing far more important work than just expressing yourself. But as Antti mentioned, trying your hardest to create something that everybody likes is selling out in its truest form. I think an artist should never make compromises when it comes to art. Some will like it and others won't.
November 2017
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www.fracturedspine.net
www.youtube.com/user/fracturedspine 
