E-mail interview: Maja Trstenjak
Photo: Fore Her Icon

Many of you probably haven’t heard for great “metalcore” band from Pori, Finland. We can definitely call For Her Icon future of Finnish rock. Guys Setä(guitar) and Iiro(drummer) introduced themselves to us.

VENIA: Who founded the band and when?
FHI: The first idea of starting this band came from Mikko(vocals).He asked Iiro (drums) and Niko “setä”(guitar) to join in. After playing together for a while
Sakke (guitar) and our former guitarist Rixa joined to the crew. Rixa’s friend Kimmo (former bassist) joined to the band for a while and after few months he
left to the Finnish army. Nowadays Rixa is not in the band anymore and we are playing with two guitars. And we also have a new bass player, but we won’t tell
his name before we’ve published our new EP.       

VENIA: Why did u start a band?
FHI: We all have musical roots and we’ve been friends for a long time, so it seemed natural to try playing together.

VENIA: Did u always wanted to play that kind of music?
FHI: No. If we would want to play rock or something else, we would do that.   

VENIA: Your music has pretty hard rhythm, what makes you write that kind of music?
FHI: It depends on what kind of a mood we are having at the moment when we start to write the song.                  

VENIA: Who or what are inspirations for songs?
FHI: We listen lots of bands like AS I LAY DYING or LAMB OF GOD, and that’s how we get our inspiration.

VENIA: Where did name For Her Icon came from, and what it means?
FHI: We had the idea of the “praying girl” – logo and we started to think that the name should fit to the logo. Iiro came up with idea “FOR HER ICON”
and introduced it to the other guys and everybody was ok with that.

VENIA: How do you imagine your first album to be like?
FHI: Maybe it would contain lots of different kind of songs. It would be musically colorful and tactical.

VENIA: Since you’re pretty unknown band, what kind of atmosphere is on your gigs? What do u think how do people that see you live for the first time react?
FHI: We are very energic on the stage and on the backstage too for now on our audience has been very energic too, and we hope that in the future aswell.

VENIA: U come from Pori, Finland, what kind of rock scene is there? How would you judge your concurrence? Was it hard to breakthrough?
FHI: In Pori the music field is very small. There are lots of great bands that are still unknown… And our main audience seems to be in the center – Europe
we are not that big name here in Finland… 

VENIA: Did your music change you like a person? If it did can u tell us how?
FHI: No it didn’t. We are still the same youngsters that we were two years ago!      

VENIA: You are pretty young, some of you still go to school…so can u do the band and school at same time? What do your parents think about the band?
FHI: Of course it’s hard to share our time between school, band and family. Sometimes it needs some sacrifices but we are ready to do that! Our friends
and families have been very supportive, and of course they want our best.

VENIA: Do you want that band for you will be something you do in your free time or u want to build a rock star career out of it?
FHI: Of course we want to do this as our job… We don’t need any glamorous life, but it would be great to be known worldwide.

VENIA: What are your future plans?
FHI: It would be great to sign in to a record label and record a full long album someday. But now the main thing is to record a new EP and have as much
gigs as possible.

VENIA: And for the end, what do you want to say to young musicians that want to make great band as yours?
FHI: Don’t always take the easiest way, do lot’s of work and make sure that you get heard!!!

Name: Niko “setä” Tammelin         
Age: 17
Hometown: PORI
Favourite Bands: Lamb of God, As i lay dying, staind….ETC.
Role in band: Lead/rythm guitars
Do you play any other instruments: Saw
Pets: My rabbit OTTO
Best memory with the band: First time in studio..
Best gig: Lapko at Annis, Pori       
How do u spend your free time? Playing my saw and guitar

Name: Iiro Aittokoski
Age: 17
Hometown: Pori
Favourite Bands: Lamb of god, PMMP, Caliban…etc.
Role in band: Banging (Drums and perc.)
Do you play any other instruments: a bit guitar and bass
Pets: Dog Antton and Gecko Esko
Best memory with the band: First gig
Best gig: Killswitch engage at Nosturi, Helsinki
How do u spend your free time: Watching tv and hanging around.

www.forhericon.com