First of all, as your band is very young and completely unknown to most of our readers (I believe so), introduce it to those who might read this. What does the history behind WITHIN THESE WALLS hide and what is the principal idea behind your project?

- I started this band (project, or whatever you would like to call it) in the spring of 1999, although I had had the idea for this kind of musical entity for a much longer time. The history behind the band doesn't hide anything too interesting I guess.... After I had started the whole thing, I made some tracks which are featured on the first demo, entitled "Gardens Of Twilight", that came out in July 1999. Since that, I have tried to promote the demo and also made some new tracks. The music has been like this (atmospheric, dark-ambient, whatever) since the beginning. The principal idea? Who knows, I just do what I please and that's all. Actually, part of the concept is that WITHIN THESE WALLS is a one-man-band, and therefore I do not have to take into account anybody else's opinions or anything. WITHIN THESE WALLS is my musical playground. I do my best exeperimenting with different sound to create atmosphere, and try to ignore all the so-called "rules" of music-making, although it is not always possible.

"Within These Walls"... Yeah, that's definitely original name - although originality is not the only thing this name may be distinguished by...  I mean, one may devise hundred thousand interpretations - and perhaps none of them is the right one. You're the mastermind behind WITHIN THESE WALLS, you're the creator and the only one who's able to tell us either our constructions are wrong or not. So what about getting me (as well as our readers) enlightened in regards to what the hell of a meaning hides behind this monicker?

- Sorry, I cannot answer your question, as it is based on the false assumption that I would have some kind of "correct" interpretation, the other interpretations being all wrong. That is not the case. As you said, there are loads of different ways to interpret the name, but that's the beauty of it. Everyone is entitled to interpret the name any way he / she wants to, and as far I am concerned none of the interpretations are wrong. I am not the least concerned about how people might interpret it, had it been my wish that the bandname should have only one correct interpretation, I would have chosen another monicker. In art, even in such small thing as the name of the band, should be room for different ways of understanding, and therefore it would be no good if I, even when being the "mastermind" behind WITHIN THESE WALLS, explained the meanings behind the name in a very authoritarive way. They name explains itself just as much as I want it to. Of course, I have myself some interpretations that have more to do with the concept of the band, than the other ways to understand the name. For example, "within these walls" can easily be understood as "within limitations", which I think is overall an interesting subject: what kind of limitations a human being faces during ones life, how one reacts to them and so on.

Don't perceive it as an offend, but minimalistic or even "low-tech" ambient seems to be the best definition for "Gardens Of Twilight"... Why did it come out this way? You see, the title-song (and also the last one on tape) is a way more diverse and thoughtout, better composed and thousand times more exciting to drown yourself into... So why aren't all the tracks sound like this one? I believe, "Gardens Of Twilight" (the song) was created later than others, therefore let me ask if including the older tunes was worth it? Wasn't it better to comprise the demo of the songs of the same quality as "Gardens..."?

- This quite a difficult question to answer to... The making of demo happened very instinctively, I did not think that much the whole thing while doing it. The tracks just "happened", I didn't put that much thought to any of them.  However, I do not share your view about the quality of the tracks; although the titletrack is also my (and many other people's) favourite on the demo, the way I saw it at the time of the release - and still do - was that they are all good enough to be part of the demo. "Gardens Of Twilight" indeed is the latest composition - together with "Wings Of Silence" - but I still think including the older tracks was worth it.  I can agree with your definition of the demo as minimalistic or low-tech, although I don't think it is any more minimalistic than your average ambient stuff, and it definately isn't low-tech on purpose - it was only that I couldn't do better with the equipment I had at the time.

As I already said, "Gardens..." (the tape) is a "low-tech" ambient in my view, consequently I believe that you didn't use anything besides some regular Cakewalk (and a weak sound-card); am I right? What about adding few live instruments in future in order to enrich the sound?

- As for the first part of the question: no, you are not right! I did make the demo with a synthesizer that is connected to a computer running a sequencer program. All the sounds are from the synthesizer, which is by the way a pretty good one, Korg N364 (at least it was pretty expensive!). The bad sound should be blamed for the most part on the actual recording equipment, which really sucked; I really hope I do have better gear next time. Also, for a part the bad sound was caused by my inability to use all parts of the equipment (sequencer program, synthesizer, recording equipment). I don't know about adding live instruments in the future. I am open to the idea, but haven't made any plans concerning it as of yet. Probably some day, but maybe not in the very near future.

Yeah, by the way - this sweet and bitter word, the "future"... What will it bring for WITHIN THESE WALLS? Any kind of huge metamorphosis?

- Hopefully it will bring lots of fame, money, free alcohol and drugs, groupies and so on, although I find it highly unlikely with this kind of music... Anyway, I am making new tracks all the time and at some point I will probably feel it is time for the next release. Right now the band is not on the top of the list of my priorities, as I have some other things in my life that require a lot of attention. Hopefully I will have more time to concentrate on WITHIN THESE WALLS during the spring 2000. I guess it would be way too early to any huge metamorphosis, WITHIN THESE WALLS is not enough well known, so nobody would notice, so nobody wouldn't be annoyed, ha ha. I guess the next release will be pretty much logical continuation for the debut demo, but somewhere in the more distant future I might something completely different under the WITHIN THESE WALLS monicker. I however don't think the word "metamorphosis" would be right one to describe possible (major) changes in the musical style of WITHIN THESE WALLS, as I do not see my releases as definitive "statements" of what the bands "real" style is. In other words, I do not see the band as a representative of any particular genre. I could easily put out  a release that could be described as ambient, after that a drum'n'bass release, after that a release of acoustic piano ballads, and after that maybe ambient again. (I don't mean I am planning such ecletic serie of releases, but in principal it would be possible, if I wanted to.)

Do you have any plans of adding your voice to WITHIN THESE WALLS'
soundscape?

- Yes, that would be very interesting. I like singing, and I think adding vocals would add a new dimension to the band's sound. I also like the idea of WITHIN THESE WALLS-songs having lyrics to them. However, none of the new tracks have - as of yet, being on very basic stage - any vocal lines or lyrics.

What was the response to "Gardens Of Twilight"? Have you received any offers?

- OK response, I'd say. Many people have liked it, I have gotten some pretty favourable reviews as well as some that were not so good, and so on. I could have promoted it a lot more actively though, so it seems WITHIN THESE WALLS is still pretty unkown. Also, almost nobody has bought it yet, save from a couple of my friends who have not been cunning enough to get it for free. As for record labels, I haven't had any concrete offers yet. Some very serious interest though, although most of the labels seem to be too busy to answer in decent time (or at all).

Time passes and this genre, the so-called "dark ambient", gains more and more popularity... Are there any acts (among young ones, of course) that might have chances to become as legendary as f.ex. DEAD CAN DANCE? Can you name me few bands whom you're going to emulate to (again, if there're any)?

- I don't think dark ambient will be getting more and more popularity endlessly. Some of the acts in this genre, especially so-called "easy listening" ones (who have more elements of traditional music, like melody), have of course possibilities of enlargening their audience to people who don't usually listen to this kind of music. I have myself found out, when playing WITHIN THESE WALLS to people who don't know anything about dark ambient, that their response does not differ in general that much from the response of those who know this style. It is really hard to predict whether or not any of today's names will gain such a legendary status as DEAD CAN DANCE. I am afraid I don't know the current scene well enough to say if there is any band as innovative, courageous and unique; if there is, I haven't heard them. And even if there was, it would be very hard for them to become as legendary as DEAD CAN DANCE. The musical scene was radically different 15 years ago when they started. Nowadays the scene is split into dozens of sub-genres, and for a band it is hard to break out from within the walls (heheh) of the particular scene it belongs to. I believe DEAD CAN DANCE achieved their legendary status because they succeeded in getting listeners from various different scenes. Such heteregenous audience would be a lot harder to achieve today.

Do you know anything regarding Russia? What is your attitude to the country of mine as well as it's people? Any Russian bands you've heard lately?

- There are indeed some things I know about Russia, since I live in a neighboring country, although it must be said that 99% of the information about your country, that one can see in the finnish media, is about politics. Every political change in your country is really well-reported, which is of course understandable since we are a small nation bordering a lot bigger one, so everything that happens in Russia might affect also us. I am familiar with some of the works of the classic russian authors, such as Tolstoy and Dostoyevski, and I like them a lot. Unfortunately, I do not know much about the arts and culture - or about life in general - of the present day Russia. This goes for the music as well, so I am afraid I haven't heard any russian bands, at least not consciously. I would be very interested to hear, of course.

I believe I exhausted my imagination too early, nevertheless we have to finish out chat right now. Is there anything you'd like to add?

- Not much. First of all, thank you for this interview, keep up the good work with the magazine. For all the readers, if you are interested in WITHIN THESE WALLS, want to obtain a demo or just some information on the band, or just discuss something, you can reach me at ta61342@uta.fi.